SAND: Raiders of Sophie Updates

Update Timeline

1. July 12, 2026
   Steam Community Announcement

   Hotfix Update Notes - 12/07

   Open source

   What Changed

   • Players are temporarily unable to capture Tramplers.
   • The official note frames this as a forced temporary anti-cheat mitigation while reliable protection against no-clip and teleportation is implemented.
   • The July 12 post said protection against the most prevalent cheats was planned by the end of the following week and apologized; this page does not present that plan as already delivered or as a current evergreen deadline.

   What To Retest

   • Do not first attribute a missing Trampler capture action to a local input, UI, save, or install problem.
   • Retest older capture advice and any Trampler acquisition guidance before reusing it.
   • Do not infer that full anti-cheat protection has shipped from this hotfix.
2. July 10, 2026
   Steam News

   Update #3 is out now!

   Open source

   What Changed

   • Added the Halbmond island POI.
   • Added the Crow's Nest Trampler compartment.
   • Fixed issues and improved melee and shooting hit registration at close distances.
   • Movement is slower while holding weapons, grenades, artifacts, or tools; strafing and backward movement are slower; consecutive jumps now incur a movement penalty.
   • The announcement records that DLSS being unavailable on NVIDIA GPUs was fixed and notes that this was omitted from previous patch notes.
   • Fixed lootboxes being lootable more than once and fixed a Connecting-screen softlock when trying to connect to an unavailable server.

   Known Issues

   • Spectator transparency and inability to crouch while carrying a Repair Kit.
   • Invite or tutorial expedition entry failure.
   • Items appearing inside or floating around characters.
   • Melee invulnerability while interacting with turrets or the steering wheel.
   • Bullets passing through characters on a speed-boosted Trampler, Upior position mismatch, and other player models appearing idle.

   What To Retest

   • Recheck controls and movement habits after held-item, strafe, backward movement, and consecutive-jump penalties.
   • Recheck close-range weapons and melee notes for hit-registration wording.
   • Recheck loot and loot-route pages for Halbmond, lootbox repeat-looting, and extraction value assumptions.
   • Recheck Trampler pages for the Crow's Nest compartment and movement/combat pressure.
   • Recheck black-screen and server-status pages for DLSS boundary wording and unavailable-server Connecting behavior.
3. July 3, 2026
   Steam Community Announcement

   Update #2 Out Now

   Open source

   What Changed

   • Connection failures that left players on the connecting screen were addressed after the rollback window.
   • BattlEye handling was adjusted to reduce false-positive ban cases.
   • Character movement, parkour, difficult-terrain sticking, hit registration, Trampler collision behavior, and compartment occlusion all received fixes or improvements.
   • Several expedition flow problems were fixed, including teammate-alive expedition endings, repaired doors displaying incorrectly, crew compartment respawn placement, matchmaking preference saving, and incorrect crew-size loading screens.
   • Balance changed for 80mm cannons, 40mm ammo range, regular 70mm ammo projectile count and siege damage, Triple Barrel shotgun fire rate, projectile amplifier radius, turret loading wording, pneumatic part spawns, sell prices, crate slots, and high-tier resource stack size.

   What To Retest

   • Login and matchmaking before changing local network settings.
   • Trampler stability, collisions, compartment visibility, and repaired door behavior.
   • Weapon and ammo assumptions in build notes, especially cannon, shotgun, and turret loading habits.
   • Sell-value advice for energy rods, MedKits, canned Sea Deer XL, small valuables, and valuables.
4. July 3, 2026
   Steam Community Announcement

   Server maintenance before Update #2 redeploy

   Open source

   What Changed

   • Maintenance was announced shortly before Update #2 was made live again.
   • Players were told to exit the game and download the update after maintenance concluded.
   • The maintenance note repeated the Update #2 changelist so players could separate downtime from local connection trouble.

   What To Retest

   • Server status before applying black-screen, login, or queue fixes.
   • Whether a failed session happened during maintenance or after the patch went live.
5. July 2, 2026
   Steam Community Announcement

   Update #2 rollback

   Open source

   What Changed

   • The July 2 update was rolled back after connection problems affected a significant number of players.
   • The rollback required a short maintenance window.
   • The team said the queuing issues introduced by that update should be resolved once servers returned.

   What To Retest

   • Advice written during the rollback window, especially server status and update impact notes.
   • Any route or build claim that depended on the reverted version.
6. July 1, 2026
   Steam Community Announcement

   Mission Update: Update #2 targets and matchmaking notes

   Open source

   What Changed

   • The team previewed fixes for duplication, server stability, movement and terrain sticking, invisible doors or railings after repair, balance, and UI quality of life.
   • Solo players being placed with teams remained complicated and could slip to a later update or hotfix.
   • The matchmaking explanation clarified that Trampler configuration and carried gear both contribute to backend power-level matching, but regular players should still share the main pool most of the time.

   What To Retest

   • Solo queue expectations and group-size guidance.
   • Beginner Trampler recommendations after backend matching changes.
   • Repair, movement, and invisible-part symptoms after Update #2.
7. June 26, 2026
   Steam Community Announcement

   Update #1 and roadmap

   Open source

   What Changed

   • The first major post-launch update focused on character controller improvements, moving-Trampler shooting, lighting, onboarding notifications, invisible railing or collider problems, menu anti-aliasing/upscaler behavior, T-pose death cases, hidden explosive objects, terrain fall-through, respawn messaging, and workbench soft-locks.
   • The same post kept server stability and DDOS protection as active work and named solo players matched into larger crews as an unresolved high-priority issue.
   • The roadmap section framed future Early Access work as subject to player feedback and development changes.

   What To Retest

   • Beginner onboarding steps and movement advice.
   • Trampler combat notes involving shooting while moving.
   • Server and solo matchmaking language before promising a fixed state.
8. June 24, 2026
   Steam Community Announcement

   Mission Update: Voyage crash warning

   Open source

   What Changed

   • The team said DDOS pressure was being held, but Voyage was experiencing a memory crash tied to servers staying alive too long.
   • The symptom could look like a network disconnect followed by reconnecting to a dead server.
   • Players were advised to avoid Voyage until the fix deployed.

   What To Retest

   • Voyage vs Storm Dive recommendations if a current server warning reappears.
   • Connection-fix advice before blaming a player machine.
9. June 23, 2026
   Steam Community Announcement

   Hotfix #1

   Open source

   What Changed

   • A server-side hotfix added DDOS protections and addressed solo matchmaking against teams.
   • The "Waiting for rival expeditions" blocker was tied to servers not closing properly.
   • Disconnects, loot loss on extract, visual issues, wider server issues, optimization, performance, and crash reports remained active priorities.

   What To Retest

   • Extraction troubleshooting when loot loss or disconnect reports spike.
   • Server-status wording for queue and matchmaking symptoms.
10. June 22, 2026
    Steam Community Announcement

    Early Access launch notes

    Open source

    What Changed

    • SAND launched into Early Access on Steam.
    • Changes from Server Slams included visual and performance work, longer large-artifact activation timing, persistent long interaction tooltips, several UI and party desync fixes, compartment occlusion fixes, ladder-stuck fixes, autocannon fire-rate bypass fixes, and Outlaw Control Mode recoil behavior.
    • The launch note asked players to keep sending feedback while roadmap details were being prepared.

    What To Retest

    • Artifact timing, tooltip behavior, and old server-slam advice.
    • Autocannon and Outlaw Control assumptions in controls or combat notes.