We recently released Isles of Abyss – the largest free expansion in Once Human history – on XBOX Series X|S. Now that players have had taken some time to chart these dangerous waters, we wanted to take this opportunity to pull back the curtain on how this major expansion came together and how we managed to take our signature “New Weird” and strange worlds survival into the open ocean by completely rethinking our world design. We didn’t want the sea to be an empty transit space connecting dry land. We wanted the ocean itself to actively hunt you.
It All Started With a Lighthouse
When our team began brainstorming this expansion, we didn’t start with endless waves, reefs, or nautical maps. It all started with a single, jarring image: a lighthouse standing where it had no right to be.
Drawing inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”, we wanted to subvert a familiar symbol of human safety. On land, a lighthouse guides travelers to harbor; in the distorted reality of Once Human, an anomalous light piercing the dark felt invasive and watchful.
From that single wrong-feeling image, the ocean began to grow outward. That solitary lighthouse became an eye. An eye needed a body. And that body became the sea itself—a colossal, living organism known as The Sunken Lord.
We anchored the expansion’s entire atmosphere around a single guiding feeling: sinking into oblivion. Out on these waters, drifting ghost ships like Sworn Never to Port and No Return Voyage act as displaced organs that have forgotten how to make landfall, while anomalous lighthouses serve as glaring eyes tracking your every move.
Building Horror Through Contradiction and Loss
Survival horror hits hardest when familiar conventions are subverted. Out on these waters, every comfort you rely on is inverted:
- Horror Through Familiarity: Lighthouses mean safety on land; here, they are the ones watching. Ships mean voyage; here, they are the ones that forgot how to arrive. In Isles of Abyss, the ghost ships you encounter are tragic relics that lost their purpose—monuments to what the ocean swallows and traps in perpetual drift.
- Horror Through Loss: Navigating the five marine sectors isn’t just about taking damage; the environment systematically strips away your survival pillars: your vision, sanity, sense of direction, prized gear, or even stable ground. Every sector forces a radical shift in your survival protocol.
- Horror Through Scale: The climax of the expansion challenges squads to confront The Sunken Lord. Rather than bombarding a leviathan from afar, your squad breaches its outer perimeter, fighting through writhing tentacles and alien visceral chambers before plunging directly into the leviathan’s heart.
Surviving the Abyss: High-Freedom Naval Crafting and the Land-Sea-Deep Loop
To conquer an ocean this hostile, your ship is far more than transportation. It is your mobile sanctuary, workshop, diving platform, and primary artillery battery.
We brought Once Human’s modular building system onto the water, giving you complete architectural freedom. How you engineer your vessel is your personal answer to the sea’s threats. Some players build stripped-down, lightning-fast skiffs designed to dodge whirlpools and outrun anomalies; others construct multi-deck floating fortresses lined with heavy naval cannons, crafting benches, and deep-sea diving rigs to blast through anything in their path.
This crafting freedom ties directly into our expanded endgame loop. True mastery requires orchestrating survival across three interconnected layers: navigating treacherous open waters, exploring the uncharted islands, and diving into the abyssal seabed for rare components and resources.
Claim Your Game Pass Perks and Set Sail
To mark the launch, XBOX Game Pass Ultimate members can still claim the exclusive Once Human launch bundle through the Game Pass Perks gallery until November 18, 2026. If you haven’t yet weighed anchor on XBOX Series X|S or XBOX on PC, your crew is waiting.
The expansion is completely free to play. Assemble your hive, draft your ship blueprints, and find out what lies beneath the gaze of the lighthouse.
Once Human — Ocean Expansion: Isles of Abyss Bundle
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About Isles of Abyss
Isles of Abyss is the largest free update in Once Human’s history, expanding the world into a vast, hostile, living ocean of five distinct regions — each with its own environmental crisis that doubles as its own resource. Build and customize your vessel from wooden skiffs to steel-plated mobile fortresses. Destroy the Towers of Calamity to unlock new tech and push deeper into uncharted waters. Board Ghost Ships for rare loot. Rally with players server-wide to trigger the ultimate 4-player co-op raid against The Sunken Lord.
Available as a free expansion on Xbox Series X|S. Full cross-play supported.
This Bundle Includes:
Once Human (Base Game)The free-to-play strange worlds survival game. Explore a Stardust-polluted open world, build bases, tame Deviations, and survive with friends.
Isles of Abyss Bonus PackYour ocean survival starter kit:
Choose 1 of 7 Exclusive Morphed Deviations:
Shattered Maiden — Sailor Suit / Director Fox — Vacation / Gingerbread House — Oceanic Cottage / Whalepup — Don’t Get Wet / Space Turner — Water Cube / Snow Globe — Shipwreck Treasure / Employee No. H37 — Submarine Attitude
Ocean Survival Supply Bag:
Purified Water ×10, Compact Water Filter ×1, Basic Diving Suit ×1, Antibiotic ×5
Starchrom ×2,000 — Redeem Legendary Gear Blueprints
One claim per account across all platforms — first claim only.
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Xbox 礼包页介绍
Once Human — Ocean Expansion: Isles of Abyss Bonus Pack
Claim your free bonus pack now — items will be available in-game when Isles of Abyss launches on October 21 (PT).
What’s Inside:
Choose Your Morphed DeviationSelect 1 of 7 exclusive Isles of Abyss Morphed Deviations:
Shattered Maiden — Sailor Suit
Director Fox — Vacation
Gingerbread House — Oceanic Cottage
Whalepup — Don’t Get Wet
Space Turner — Water Cube
Snow Globe — Shipwreck Treasure
Employee No. H37 — Submarine Attitude
Ocean Survival Supply BagPurified Water ×10, Compact Water Filter ×1, Basic Diving Suit ×1, Antibiotic ×5. The Compact Water Filter is your key to surviving at sea.
Starchrom ×2,000Redeem Legendary Gear Blueprints to fight the ocean’s deadliest Deviants.
One claim per account across all platforms — first claim only.
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