The Below and Beyond DLC for Surviving Mars launched today on Steam. The DLC allows players to explore and expand their colony in the caves and lava tubes of the Martian surface. Surviving Mars is a sci-fi builder about colonizing Mars and surviving the process. Mining resources and building structures are some of the many things players will need to do to ensure the survival and improvement of the colony.
With the DLC, players will be able to go below the surface and mine resources, construct special rocket-powered buildings, and find exotic minerals and data samples. Along with new areas, players will now be able to unlock additional buildings, vehicles, upgrades, and locations. They will also be able to unlock asteroid mining and tunnel colonization.
Get ready to descend below the Red Planet's surface into subterranean caves and fly beyond its skies to explore short-lived asteroids. Surviving Mars: Below & Beyond is available now! ?? pic.twitter.com/d0PmGj6y27
— Survival Games (@Surviving_PDX) September 7, 2022
Surviving Mars Below & Beyond DLC Patch Notes
Underground
- A new area to explore just below your settlement. By discovering what the Martian underground has been hiding from us, we may even find something that rivals our wonders.
- Grow your colony underground, taking shelter from surface dangers and getting closer to richer deposits.
- Be careful, as there may be earthquakes underground which can lead to dangerous cave-ins.
asteroids
- Venture to the asteroids as they fly past Mars, giving you a limited window to visit them.
- Set up temporary mining outposts to extract as many rewards as possible from each asteroid.
- Bring back exotic minerals, a new resource exclusive to asteroids, to improve your colony on the Martian surface and underground.
- Some asteroids may not be as they appear and have a mystery to solve while you're there.
Expansion technology
- Unlock multiple specialized buildings, rockets, and upgrades underground and on asteroids.
- Gain benefits and upgrades for your entire colony.
Free update
New building
- Amphitheater – a new building to comfort your settlers and increase tourist satisfaction.
UI improvements
- Building Beaches – You can now hold CTRL (Y on Xbox and Triangle on Playstation) to see dust beaches of other buildings and other relevant beaches.
- Rearrange Technology Queue – You can now easily adjust the order of technologies in your research queue.
- Leak Icons – Cable and pipe leaks now display icons above them so you can easily locate them.
- Cycle Networks – You can now cycle through different Power Networks and Survival Networks by clicking on Power or Oxygen and Water in the top bar.
- Expanded Resource Information – We've extended the Top UI tooltips with more information per resource.
More colony control
- Custom colony name – Edit your colony name to best match your colony.
- Dome Birth Limit – In addition to allowing and disallowing births, you can now also allow births while the dome still has living space available.
- Must Include Filter – Settler filters now have the option to include all Settlers with a certain trait or specialization, even if they have unwanted traits.
Balance Changes
- Rebalanced the Gate to Summer event.
- School Arrow; reduces the chance of the genie trait being given.
- Smart apartments; reduced resident slots and increased maintenance costs.
- Medical station; reduced number of settlers who can use it per shift and increased service comfort.
Known issues
asteroids
- Drones "busy" carrying resources are not added to a lander rocket's cargo when the asteroid moves out of range. This can sometimes cause a crash.
- After retrieving an asteroid lander, its contents are dumped on the landing pad. Drones and RCs that are part of the cargo cannot be used.
- The Pin menu does not display incoming Asteroid Landers from Asteroids.
- There is no warning about unloaded cargo when launching a rocket to Earth.
- Drones sometimes attempt to travel to the inaccessible area of asteroids to collect resources.
- The camera is off the map if the player clicks the stargazer pin while in orbit (Dying Wish mystery).
Underground
- Even after clearing the debris, the area is uneven and unbuildable.
- Some sinkholes are inaccessible and therefore cannot be cleaned, preventing further exploration.
- Shuttles can fly "too high" vertically in the subway.
Platform specific
- MAC: Many UI images do not appear in the Mac version.
- Black squares are displayed instead of B&B content icons on the Epic (Mac) version.
The Surviving Mars Below & Beyond DLC brought free updates to players, improving the UI, balancing some mechanics, etc., so that players have a better overall experience. If you want to read the full patch notes, you can go to the game's official website. There you will find all the information you need.
Survive Mars is available now on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
– This article was last updated on September 7, 2022
