How do you meaningfully add to a game that’s been in players’ hands for five years? In the case of State of Decay 2, you throw a curveball. Although this is the 34th update for State of Decay 2, Curveball represents a significant overhaul. This new update, coming to players for free on September 18, is a landmark moment for the game – not just offering a swathe of new content for the game’s most dedicated players and newcomers alike, but marking a new era in State of Decay 2’s development through the work of Wushu Studios.

Wushu, from Liverpool, England, will continue providing support to State of Decay 2 as much of original studio Undead Labs transitions to work on the next entry in the series – but where you might expect that support to be incremental, Wushu is making a very big splash. Curveball is a major update, touching almost every element of the game, and designed to consistently offer brand new challenges, even to those who have been playing State of Decay 2 since release.

Available after the fifth in-game day, curveballs can change the world around your settlement in some very interesting ways. Housed in a new menu, curveballs will periodically appear – each with their own narrative attached – offering new objectives, rewards, enemy types and much more. Curveballs can be positive (like finding increased loot) or negative (like buffing regular zombies in multiple ways); they can be timed or objective based; they can affect enemies, your survivors, or other NPCs. Effectively, any element of the game you may have gotten comfortable with can, and often will, change.