Housemarque released Saros' free Zenith update on Monday (October 19). According to the PlayStation Blog, the package aims to give players who have finished the game a reason to replay it and to make the adventure more accessible to newcomers. Video Games Chronicle confirmed the release and highlighted the New Game+ and the boss rush mode.

What the update brings

The official post was written by Abebe Tinari, Saros: Zenith design lead, and splits the news into blocks. The most anticipated is New Game+, called Eclipse Layers. It unlocks after you clear the game, through new nodes in the Armor Matrix at Passage. Each layer changes the rules of the campaign, and before starting, players build a loadout of Carcosan Modifiers that must reach a required threshold.

During Eclipse Layers, protagonist Arjun wears a Crown and his armor turns gold. The Crown grows as the player takes on more Trials and raises their Modifier Balance. There are also Visions, 12 collectibles scattered across Carcosa, in the form of murals and messages carved by an ancient king. Some extra text can only be read at higher Crown levels.

Modifiers and Overlord Rush

Modifiers come in two families. Protection Modifiers are 10 options that make the game easier; one example is Corruption Melee Enhancement, which converts built-up Corruption into extra damage on a successful melee strike. Trial Modifiers are another 10 that raise the difficulty; with Hostile Regeneration, larger enemies can be stunned by weapon fire but regenerate quickly and need a melee strike to be finished off. In total, the game now has 25 Trials.

Overlord Rush is the mode VGC calls a boss rush. It is accessed through the Primary Unit at Passage, and players race to defeat the campaign's Overlords while competing on a global leaderboard that can be filtered by main weapon. The Incursion and Ascension sets have three Overlords each and take about 10 minutes. The Totality set puts all eight Overlords in one continuous gauntlet. The feature requires an internet connection and a PlayStation account.

Accessibility

  • Slow Game Speed: slows the game to give players more time to react to attacks and projectiles, without changing enemy attacks. Players set how much the game slows and whether it activates automatically in combat or manually.
  • Auto-fire: the weapon fires automatically when aiming at a hostile target; reloading remains manual. Tinari said the feature helps players who find it hard to hold a button for long periods and frees up attention for dodging.
  • Motion sensor aiming: a new aiming option, alongside the existing button remapping.

What we still don't know

The summary on the official page mentions trophies, but the text does not describe any. There is no price to discuss either: the update is free for those who own the game. VGC notes that Zenith was announced in September, and that its own review gave Saros five stars, calling it one of the PS5's most memorable first-party games.