Saros just got harder and easier at the same time. Housemarque's Zenith update went live on October 19 for every Saros owner on PS5, at no additional charge, and it pulls in two directions at once: a boss rush and a tougher New Game+ for players who've already beaten the game, and a set of accessibility options for anyone who bounced off it.
According to Push Square, the download is about 3.5 GB and takes the game to version 2.0. Everything else here comes from Housemarque's own PlayStation Blog post, written by Zenith design lead Abebe Tinari.
For veterans: Overlord Rush and Eclipse Layers
Overlord Rush is the headline. It's a training mode reached from the Primary Unit in Passage, and it comes in three flavors. Incursion and Ascension each line up three Overlords and take about ten minutes, while Totality throws all eight at you in one continuous gauntlet. There's an integrated leaderboard you can filter by main weapon, so you can see how your favorite gun stacks up against everyone else's. Housemarque notes that the leaderboards need an internet connection and a PlayStation account.
The bigger structural change is Eclipse Layers, Saros' take on New Game+. Once you've cleared the game, new nodes appear in the Armor Matrix at Passage. Each Eclipse Layer is a harder version of the game with altered rules, and before you start one you have to equip Carcosan Modifiers that meet a set threshold. In practice that means taking on several Trials.
Zenith adds 10 new Protection Modifiers, which make things easier, and 10 new Trial Modifiers, which make them harder. Housemarque gives one example of each. Corruption Melee Enhancement turns built-up Corruption into extra melee damage. Hostile Regeneration lets larger enemies recover from stun, so they can only be finished with melee. The post says there are now 25 Trials to choose from in total.
There's a reward for showing off, too. In Eclipse Layers, Arjun wears a Crown and his armor glows gold, and the Crown grows as your Modifier Balance climbs. It ties into 12 Visions, collectible murals and messages, and some of their text can only be read at higher Crown levels. Housemarque also mentions new trophies, but its post doesn't list them.
For newcomers: slowing the game down
Housemarque's post pitches Zenith at "newcomers and veterans alike," and the accessibility options make the newcomer half of that pitch concrete. If Saros felt too fast the first time, this is the part of the update to look at.
- Slow Game Speed slows everything down to give you more time to react. You choose how much, and whether it switches on automatically in combat or you toggle it yourself.
- Auto-fire shoots automatically while you're aiming at a hostile. Reloading still needs a timed button press, so you're not entirely off the hook.
- Motion Sensor Aiming adds gyro-style aiming for players who prefer it to sticks.
These sit alongside button remapping, which the game already had.
Why it matters
Zenith isn't a new campaign, and it doesn't pretend to be. What it does is widen the game at both ends. Eclipse Layers and the leaderboards give experienced players a reason to keep running Saros long after the credits, and the slowdown and auto-fire options lower the bar for people who wanted to see Housemarque's world without its reflex test. Arriving as a free update for existing owners, it makes this a good week to reinstall.
Housemarque's post doesn't say what comes after Zenith, and no further update is confirmed. For now, if you own Saros on PS5, the update is out, and Overlord Rush is the quickest way to find out how much the game has changed.
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