Saros Zenith Guide: Beat Overlord Rush and Start Eclipse Layers

01What Changed in Saros's Zenith Update

The Zenith update landed for every Saros owner on PlayStation 5 on October 19, free of charge. The headline additions are Overlord Rush, a standalone boss-rush mode built around the game's eight Overlords, and Eclipse Layers, a New Game+ track that unlocks once you've finished a full run of Carcosa. Housemarque paired both with a deeper Carcosan Modifier system, a cosmetic Crown that tracks how hard you're pushing yourself, and three new accessibility options. None of it gates story progress behind a paywall, so if you already own Saros, everything below is sitting in your game right now.

02How to Unlock and Access Overlord Rush

Overlord Rush lives at the Primary Unit back in Passage, Arjun's hub between expeditions. Interact with it and you'll choose between three Sets, each a different slice of the Overlord roster. Incursion and Ascension each line up three Overlords and run about 10 minutes start to finish, which makes either one a quick way to test a build without committing to a full session. Totality is the escalation: all eight Overlords from across Carcosa, back to back, in one continuous gauntlet. There's no difficulty toggle within a Set; the challenge comes from how cleanly you can chain kills without burning your Shield or running out of Power Weapon charge between fights.

03Overlord Rush Strategy: Core Combat Tools

Because Overlord Rush strips a boss fight down to its essentials, the tools that keep you alive in the main campaign matter even more here. Your L1 Dash still negates most incoming damage when timed on the telegraph, and it costs nothing to spam between openings, so default to dashing rather than tanking a hit you don't need to take. Holding R1 raises your Shield, which absorbs the blue projectiles Overlords throw out in volume and converts that absorbed energy into charge for your Power Weapon, fired with a full L2 pull; against a Set's third or eighth Overlord, a banked Power Weapon shot is often the fastest way to end a phase early. Melee is also doing more work than new players expect, since it bursts enemy shields outright rather than chipping them down with bullets, and Parrying — unlocked through the Armor Matrix — can send a high-powered projectile straight back at the Overlord that fired it.

04Reading the Leaderboard and Choosing a Main Weapon

Every Overlord Rush run posts to an integrated global leaderboard, and Housemarque built in a filter specifically so you're not just measured against players running the single best weapon in the game. Before you queue a Set, open the leaderboard and filter by Main Weapon; chasing the top score for your Hand Cannon, Rifle or Shotgun is a realistic goal in a way that chasing the unfiltered top spot usually isn't. The mode requires a PlayStation Network connection to post and compare scores, so if you're playing offline you can still clear a Set, you just won't see where it ranks until you're back online.

Your First Overlord Rush and Eclipse Layer, Step by Step

1. 1Launch Saros after the October 19 patch finishes downloading, then head back to Passage, Arjun's hub between expeditions — Zenith's new systems only show up there, not mid-run.2 min
2. 2Interact with the Primary Unit inside Passage to open Overlord Rush, the new boss-gauntlet mode built around Carcosa's eight Overlords.1 min
3. 3Incursion and Ascension each throw three Overlords at you and run about 10 minutes; Totality strings all eight together into one continuous gauntlet for a full test of your build.10-25 min
4. 4Before you queue a Set, open the global leaderboard and filter by your Main Weapon so you're chasing a realistic target instead of the unfiltered top score.1 min
5. 5Eclipse Layers only unlock after you've beaten Saros once. If you haven't finished a full campaign run yet, that's the prerequisite before anything below applies to you.Varies
6. 6After the credits roll, new nodes appear on the Armor Matrix back at Passage. Interacting with them opens the gate into the first Eclipse Layer.2 min
7. 7Before stepping through, build a loadout of Carcosan Modifiers. The game requires a minimum number of Trial Modifiers in that loadout before it lets you begin.5 min
8. 8Enter the Eclipse Layer. Arjun's Armor turns gold under a growing Crown, and keep an eye out for the 12 new Visions hidden across Carcosa as you play.Ongoing

05Unlocking Eclipse Layers (New Game+)

Eclipse Layers is gated behind finishing Saros once. After the credits roll, new nodes appear on the Armor Matrix back at Passage, and those nodes are the key that opens the gate to the first Layer. Each Eclipse Layer is a harder version of the same world with altered rules layered on top, and before you step through the gate you have to build a loadout of Carcosan Modifiers. That loadout isn't free-form: the game sets a minimum threshold of Trial Modifiers you have to meet before it lets you in, so you can't coast through an Eclipse Layer on Protection Modifiers alone. Which specific Trials you stack is entirely up to you, and some combinations deliberately synergize into something nastier than either Modifier is on its own.

06The New Carcosan Modifiers: Protection vs. Trial

Zenith roughly doubles the Carcosan Modifier pool, adding 10 new Protection Modifiers and 10 new Trial Modifiers on top of the existing set, for 25 Trials to pick from in total. Protection Modifiers make a run easier or more forgiving; one of the new additions, Corruption Melee Enhancement, flips Corruption — the mechanic that normally eats into your max Integrity when certain projectiles hit your Armor — into a resource, letting a connected melee strike consume your built-up Corruption and convert it into one large burst of extra damage. Trial Modifiers push the other way. Hostile Regeneration is the one worth knowing before you pick it: it lets your weapon fire stun larger hostiles, but they regenerate fast, so only a follow-up melee strike actually finishes them.

“The risk from Corruption still exists, but I hope this new way of dealing with it will encourage players to overcome their fear and get up close and personal in combat.”Abebe Tinari, Saros: Zenith Design Lead, Housemarque

07The Crown, Visions and New Accessibility Options

Inside an Eclipse Layer, Arjun wears a Crown and his Armor glows gold, and the Crown physically grows the more Trial Modifiers you're running and the higher your Modifier Balance climbs — it's a visible flex for anyone pushing a harder loadout. The Crown also gates a new collectible: 12 Visions, murals and messages left behind by an ancient king, are scattered across Carcosa, and some of their story text only becomes readable once your Crown has reached a higher level. Alongside all of that, Zenith adds three accessibility settings worth turning on even outside Eclipse Layers. Slow Game Speed gives you more time to read an attack telegraph without changing what the attack actually does, Auto-fire fires your weapon automatically while you're aimed at a hostile (reloading still needs a manual, timed press), and Motion Sensor Aiming adds a new way to fine-tune aim alongside the existing button remapping.

Official Zenith launch trailer, published by PlayStation on October 19, 2026.