Once Human: Isles of Abyss Expansion Launches on PS5, PC Today

Once Human's ocean has arrived. Starry Studio's free-to-play survival game launched the Isles of Abyss expansion today, October 21, pushing the Stardust-corrupted world of Nalcott out past the coastline and into open water for the first time. The update is free for everyone and goes live simultaneously on PC, mobile, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, with full cross-play and cross-progression between them.

01What Isles of Abyss Adds to Once Human

Isles of Abyss is Starry Studio's largest content drop since Once Human's July 2024 launch, and it reframes the game's core survival loop around the sea instead of land. Characters entering the new scenario start at max level, with Tech rather than the usual Cradle system driving progression, so the expansion plays as a self-contained arc layered on top of the base game. According to Once Human's official site, each server runs twelve parallel worlds through a roughly 21-day cycle: an opening phase of five to ten days that shortens as server purification rises, an eleven-day second phase that unlocks the expansion's endgame fight, and a rest stage after each. A permanent, non-cyclical server is expected to open November 12.

02Five Sea Regions and the Sunken Lord

The expansion spreads across five named regions — Fragrant Cape, the starting area, plus Reefshadow Bay, Misty Marsh, Spring Valley and Falling Ember — each tied to a different environmental hazard, from suffocating fog and black tides to temporal fire rain. Per the official PlayStation Blog post, the ocean itself is written as a conscious antagonist called the Sunken Lord, guarded by regional bosses anchored in towering structures called the Calamity Towers before a final confrontation once a server's purification reaches 100%. Two navigator characters, Malla and Ran, anchor the story thread running through the new zones.

03Build and Command a Mobile Sea Fortress

Shipbuilding is the headline new system. Players design and save their own vessels, starting with simple rafts and scaling up to a fully modular Mobile Sea Fortress that doubles as a base, crafting workshop and weapons platform; fleets of players can crew one together. Ships mount a growing arsenal of cannons — Javelin, Harpoon, Long, Rapid-fire, Repeating Long, Shotgun Turret, Frost and Corrosion at launch, with Rocket Launcher, Oil Drum Launcher, Repeating Shotgun Turret and Freezing Cannon arriving once a server reaches its second phase. Resources now flow in both directions: island materials upgrade naval gear, while diving and deep-sea runs unlock parts needed for land-side base progression.

Underwater exploration gets its own toolkit, too — Basic and Shark Diving Suits, an Oxygen Tank, Inflatable Float and Spear Gun support beachcombing, sunken-ruin treasure hunts and abyssal fishing for new marine life including sharks, giant squid and anglerfish. On PS5, Starry Studio says DualSense adaptive triggers respond differently on naval cannons and grappling lines, with haptic feedback tuned for combat at sea.

“We've taken the strange worlds survival you know and love, and plunged it into uncharted waters.”Vincent Tao, Lead Game Designer, Once Human

04Isles of Abyss: RaidZone and Launch Rewards

Alongside the PvE scenario, Once Human is also launching Isles of Abyss: RaidZone, a PvP naval mode on a shared, resource-scarce map where ships sink once their hit points hit zero — though saved blueprints let a defeated crew resummon their vessel and rejoin the fight. It's accessed by switching modes from the character sign-in screen, separate from the main PvE server cycle.

Starry Studio is pairing the launch with sign-in rewards that include legendary and gear blueprints, a free launch-commemorative weapon skin and a double rebate on a player's first purchase in the scenario. A Halloween-themed event is running at the same time, so returning players will see seasonal decorations layered over the new ocean content.

05How to Play Isles of Abyss Today

No separate download or purchase is required — Isles of Abyss rolls out as part of Once Human's regular live update, after scheduled maintenance that the official dev blog pinned to October 21 at 4:00 p.m. PT. Existing characters can jump into the new scenario immediately from the character-select screen; because progression in Isles of Abyss runs on Tech rather than character level, newcomers to the game can join the ocean content without first grinding through the base survival campaign. Full patch specifics, including final numbers for some rewards, were still being finalized as of the dev blog post, so treat secondary reward values as unconfirmed until they appear in-game.