Barotrauma’s Home & Harbor Expansion launches on December 2, 2026, FakeFish and Undertow Games announced on Steam on Monday. It is paid DLC for the base game on Steam for PC, Mac and Linux, published by Daedalic Entertainment, and no price is listed yet. A free Companion Update for everyone comes first, on Thursday, November 26.
For anyone new, Barotrauma is a 2D co-op survival horror game about running a submarine under the ice of Europa. Up to 16 players share one sub, and bots fill any empty stations. Someone steers, someone keeps the reactor alive, someone patches the hull, and someone forgets to close a door. It left early access on March 13, 2023, after almost four years, and it lists at $34.99.
What changes when the crew owns the outpost
Until now, outposts were places you docked, traded and left. Home & Harbor lets the crew take one over, either by acquiring it or by seizing it by force, the store page says. From there you add modules, manage the people who live there, and build workshops to set up industry. A research tree unlocks new technology. You also decide how it looks, anywhere from a cozy, tuned habitat to a rundown dwelling, which describes every base our crew has ever built.
The announcement says you will have to defend what you own. The rest of the map keeps moving without you. Roaming submarines feed the economies of NPC outposts, and NPC factions trade, gain or lose territory and deal with each other whether you are watching or not. You can trade with allies, fight enemies, or send gifts.
The second half is story. A new faction called the Descendants arrives, technocrats who modify their own bodies and use alien technology. The announcement calls them “high-tech, high-minded people” who shed light on Europa’s secrets and need your help against a threat. High-minded is a brave thing to be in a game where the usual plan is to weld the problem shut.
For our group, the open question is what an outpost means between sessions. Neither the store page nor the announcement says how outpost progress saves in a hosted campaign, or whether every player needs the DLC to dock at one. Crossplay changed this week, too. Patch 1.13.5.0 turned off crossplay through Epic Online Services, because Barotrauma has been removed from the Epic Games Store.
If your crew already owns Barotrauma, the November 26 update costs nothing, so take it first. Then wishlist Home & Harbor on Steam while the price is still blank.
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