Hello Responders!

It’s been two weeks since Genesis launched, and we’ve taken that time to dig deep into some of the feedback we got around the melee combat changes. We appreciate all the responses we received and wanted to take this opportunity to communicate our process, both in development and addressing feedback.

We are still in Early Access, and we expect updates to be rougher in nature as we develop alongside the community, with the goal of building foundations to iterate upon. In the update notes for Genesis, we call out that the melee system rework is a standardization pass prior to additional work as well as knowing there would be animation issues. However, we could’ve been clearer about the intent of this new system and clearer in our future goals.

With that in mind, we’ve worked to bring the rest of our melee changes sooner than originally planned with a hotfix containing a balance update Tuesday, February 24th. These changes weren’t originally ideated well enough to be in Genesis, but through community feedback our designers were inspired and confident in that vision to craft these adjustments. Balance updates are something the team would like to do post-1.0, but in this special case we’re doing one in Early Access to gather data and get our intended vision out sooner. To make this happen, the team rallied around accelerating their plans, and we want to give special thanks to our Community Testers who assisted us in iterating faster with feedback.

Here are the main topics we heard that we are looking to address through this update:

1. Melee combat, and specifically one-handed weapons, feels slow and ineffective now.

2. Melee weapons overall lack a distinct feel and purpose from each other, especially those of the same rating.

3. The combo system sometimes is restrictive or has unintuitive moments that inhibit smooth gameplay.

We’ll be making pretty substantial changes to the weapon archetypes, individual weapons ratings and statistics, as well as the systems that interact with melee so we’ll be taking players from the most macro lens downward to understand the intent. Let’s dive right in!

Currently in NMRIH 2, there is little difference between Blunt and Slashing weapons when it comes to the situations players want to utilize them in. Our goal moving forward is to offer a clear choice when picking up either type that allows for playstyle expression through unique strengths. For Blunt weapons, this already exists through their aptitude at stability damage, which we plan to fully lean these weapons into through enhancing their ability to control a crowd while slightly lowering their base damage. Blunt weapons now will be the choice for those who want a safer damage option that knocks zombies around and opens up opportunities to exploit a downed state.

Slashing weapons, by comparison, will be trading away their stability damage (outside Heavy attacks) for enhanced base damage and limb severing potential. Zombies who lose limbs will also be interrupted, giving this identity a focus around quick dismemberment and brutal follow-ups to vulnerable foes. (and for those concerned about a certain leg-focused strategy, legs will be a bit more durable and Crawlers more lethal as a part of this balance update!)

The expectation for this archetype refinement is to create moments of deliberation for players when a certain type of zombie approaches, to search for the right weapon for each moment to maximize their potential. This may manifest as sticking with a buddy who has a weapon that compliments yours in group fights, or potentially carrying a suite of options on your responder to be ready for any threat.

For individual weapons, we’ve made focused statistical changes to all of them, both in conjunction with our goals listed above as well as defining personalities for each. The Small Knife, as a starting weapon, offers very fast swing speeds with slightly better base damage than even a Tier 2 One-Handed Blunt, but is very dangerous to use as it’s not as fast at severing limbs as Slashing upgrades.

When you get up to the two Tier 3 Slashing One-Handed, the Hatchet and Machete are clear upgrades statistically to any weapons below them but also differ in feel and purpose. The Hatchet is faster at heavy swings, maximizing damage per swing to dismember limbs while the Machete excels at quick swings that hack limbs with more combo-oriented gameplay.

This is just one example of the type of identities these weapons now have, allowing for deeper connection with each as players discover which feels best for their playstyle and builds. Speaking of which, we’ve removed the changes in weapon damage across difficulties, with the intent of allowing muscle memory to stay consistent and letting the more novel modifiers add complexity to Nightmare runs. All these adjustments, alongside various fixes to issues like combo input queueing, come together to make this iteration of melee combat our most robust.

Tiers have not been quite as important between similar weapons or across options as they should be, so when we look a level deeper at the weapons within these archetypes, changes were made to refine the experience of upgrading mid-run. Overall, weapons that share a handling & type (e.g. Two-Handed Blunts) will now have obvious increases in effectiveness as you trade upwards while still offering differentiation in their own rating band. 

As an example, both the Baseball Bat and Sledgehammer will offer best-in-archetype stability damage but differ in base damage, reach, and swing speed. (being the fastest and slowest swinging Two-Handed options respectively). This not only helps each time you find a higher-tier option feel meaningful, but also encourages upgrading across archetypes when you stumble upon a new choice. In conjunction with the changes to Blunt & Slashing, this makes ground looting more relevant even for Responders who enter with strong base gear as they will want to find more tools to answer all combat styles.

This process, from the level of iteration that has occurred to the testing required to make sure these changes land well, is part of why Genesis was delivered with only the foundations of this plan as opposed to the whole vision at once. As we look towards the future, we have other areas that we know need this level of work and care into envisioning them at their best for 1.0 and onward. We hope these insights help convey the team’s vision when it comes to large-scale changes and our development process, especially while still in Early Access.

As always, stay safe out there!

The NMRIH2 Dev Team

Hello Responders!

Our first update of 2026, Genesis (0.8.0), is focused on improving gameplay, from the flow of combat within a match to how players progress their Responders. Whether it’s as fundamental as our improvements to Melee combat or our adjustments to Responder perks, Genesis aims to freshen up the No More Room in Hell 2 experience!

As we mentioned in our Welcome to 2026 post, most of our major new content will be released as part of our 1.0 launch! However, that doesn’t mean Genesis comes lacking as the iconic Molotov Cocktail joins our expanding arsenal & Responders can now be customized to allow players to connect with them further before they meet an inevitable fate.

For a full rundown of everything that is LIVE in-game today, here are the patch notes:

A classic tool in any zombie slayer’s arsenal, the Molotov Cocktail offers one of the best options to cut a horde off at open entryways or protect a wider area long enough to form a quick plan. Responders are able to navigate the flames without taking damage, allowing it to also aid in a rescue! Find them across all maps, as well as for use in Responder loadouts starting at Account Level 16.

Those flames won’t hold everything back though, as Runner can now spawn as Primes, gaining increased health and dealing more damage as they rush down whomever they target!

Curate the exact look of each of your Responders anytime with the ability to adjust the character’s preset head, skin tone, hair style, hair color, eye color, and voice!

We've heard feedback around the positives as well as issues with Hospital, so we're planning for a series of updates and adjustments starting with Genesis. This pass, we've improved the final holdout in the Morgue with the addition of Bioscanners and more zombies pressuring the objective, adding some much needed action and difficulty near the end of runs.

Melee is at the core of No More Room in Hell 2’s combat, whether that be when fighting to protect yourself or working together to push through objectives. Based on past feedback, we knew we needed to make close quarters fights feel more impactful and worthwhile, while also encouraging players to more often consider to cut or run. While small on paper, these improvements are quite noticeable compared to how melee felt prior!

• Adjusted weapon reach per weapon to better convey and ensure attack hit registration.

• Tuned blunt & sharp melee animations to help differentiate between attack types.

• Windup times have been standardized to 0.67s from varying values across weapons

• Removed slowdown of attacks while stamina starved

• Attacks no longer combo while stamina starved

• Release times have been standardized to be 1 second from varying values

Developer Note: This is a standardization pass for melee weapons before improving weapon uniqueness per weapon in a future update.

• Reintroduced camera shake on melee swings.

  • Defaulted to 50%, can be adjusted in Settings under Gameplay as “Melee Camera Strength”

• Initial Target hit will not incur any Damage reductions, Secondary hit will reduce all damage output by a percentage based on weapon type. All subsequent hits will incur a further reduction of damage based on weapon type, but will not be reduced any further for hits beyond the third.

• Blunt weapons will primarily reduce damage each hit

• Bladed weapons will primarily reduce stability damage each hit

Developer Note: This change was introduced to reduce player effectiveness at killing large crowds of zombies on their own without much resistance. Player engagements with one to two zombies should remain unchanged. Groups three or larger should pose a larger danger to a single player.

As we shared in the 0.7.1 notes, perks overall were providing a bit too strong of a benefit and discouraging players from engaging with aspects of the game. This pass is meant to compliment the larger changes we are making to combat and progression this update to still allow high-level Responders to feel powerful while also ensuring that all gameplay mechanics remain relevant even for fully-kitted characters.

We’ll continue to read all the feedback players have provided as well as look forward to hearing how these feel in conjunction with the sandbox changes to inform our future adjustments to perks!

With the above Perk changes lowering their power, we’re updating Responder progression to allow even more investment into them for a character’s build as well as importance to preserving their lives. Responder levels are now uncapped with two new perk slots added at levels 75 & 100 to bring the total amount of perks a Responder can have to 10.

Responder levels should now feel a bit more meaningful especially as they rise to meet the challenges of Hard & Nightmare difficulty, with the right balance of power being brought in while still having tension throughout a match until extraction.

• Player walk/sprint speed reduced by 15%.

• Walker speed reduced by 20%

• Runner speed reduced by 10%

Developer Note: These changes are meant to allow for more deliberate pacing, reducing twitchy gameplay, and put a bigger focus on proactive, strategic decisions.

• Zombies will be stunned for slightly longer when interrupted during an attack.

• Adjusted the Hospital morgue to include more loot in place of bodies.

• Made it possible to sprint while holding C4.

• Improved transition times on weapon actions to sprint state

• More classic unused music from ThoughT has been added at some lower intensity levels to expand on the melancholic hopeless atmosphere

• Fixed an issue where zombies use an improper walking animation when running.

• Fixed an issue where Prime zombies could look like normal Walkers.

• Improved some animations with the Gruber 922.

• Improved some animations with the DB12 when shooting during reload.

• Fixed an animation with the M9A3 where the flashlight would disappear.

• Responders should no longer stay in the carrying animation after dropping an air filter.

• Overall polish on zombie walk animations.

• Adjustments and fixes to cases where zombies could sound too quiet and sneak up on players, contributing to the feeling of zombies spawning right behind you.

• Fixed an issue where responders could lose the ability to use VO after using their tagline.

• Reduced reverb intensity in some locations

• Improved runner alert sound to be more consistent at distances

• Fixed an issue where responder VO would not match.

• Adjust the volume on some ammo check callouts with certain responder VOs.

• Added more infection hallucination audio.

• Adjusted glass shattering sound effects.

• Various fixes due to the broad reworks to the melee combat system including animation and queueing issues. Please let us know if you encounter any problems, and we will continue to address them!

• Made it easier to queue a shove after a kick input with some weapons.

• Holding the Unload input should properly allow you to unload a firearm on the ground while holding another firearm.

• Army Runners take damage from attacks to their arms, and now take reduced damage on the waist and torso, as intended due to their body armour.

• Attacks should no longer be delayed after opening doors.

• Significantly reduced frequency of zombies using lunge attacks

• Textures for maps, signs, and screens with lots of details should load in much faster, preventing blurry textures.

• Blocked off an area where responders were getting stuck near the Fountain spawn point, and another nearby the Ranger Station, and another nearby the HQ building in Power Plant.

• Loot placed on sliding morgue drawers should move with them.

• Fixed an issue in Broadway where zombies could block sewer ladders unintentionally.

• Fixed lighting artifacts around the Cooling Tower in Power Plant.

• Fixed loot clipping in Hospital.

• Fixed some floating assets in Lewiston.

• Fixed some loot which could not be picked up in Hospital.

• Fixed some floating loot inside a house in Pottsville.

• Fixed floating foliage in Broadway.

• Fixed some floating loot near a spawn point in Power Plant.

• Fixed an issue where some random objectives in Lewiston would never be selected.

• More adjustments to spawning to avoid issues where zombies spawn too close to players.

• Fixed an issue where responders could not sprint after reconnecting to a match.

• Fixed spawners in Hospital so that more types of loot spawn.

• Fuel Puddles should ignite faster. Look out!

• Optimized character rendering

• Optimized shadowing in levels

• Improved level streaming

• Fixed a bunch of hitches in Beaulieu Hospital map

• Other general performance optimizations

• Fixed an objective log entry which was showing the incorrect objective in Power Plant.

• Customization colour options should be consistent during mouse hover.

• Improved the appearance of glass materials while infection overlays appear on screen.

• Fixed an issue where players who reconnect into a private match consistently see the Group Up UI.

• Fixed a clipping issue with the skills on the pause screen in Nightmare Mode.

• Applied tentative fixes to prevent further cases where players would be disconnected from servers with a ‘Lost Connection to Host’ warning. Please let us know if you continue to encounter this issue!

• Fixed some rare crashes.

• Applied more optimizations to character materials and gore, to improve performance overall.

• It’s possible to lose the ability to attack with melee weapons, when picking up a fuse then dropping a melee weapon. We’re working on a fix.

  • If this occurs, a potential workaround is picking the weapon back up and equipping it to resolve the invalid state.

• Accepting a squad invite more than once will have you join then leave the party in quick succession. Accepting only once works as expected.

• After our overhaul, we expect some animation quirks with the melee system. Please let us know about these as we iron out combat.

No More Room in Hell 2 is still in Early Access, and your feedback is shaping every step forward. Help out by reporting bugs in-game, on Discord[discord.gg], or at https://nmrih2.com/support!

Stay safe out there,

The NMRIH2 Dev Team