Icarus 2025-2026 Updates: Great Hunts, Dangerous Horizons, and the Kepler Update

Icarus Continues to Grow

RocketWerkz has been aggressively expanding Icarus throughout 2025 and into early 2026. From endgame boss encounters to an entirely new hostile map region, the survival crafting game has evolved well beyond its original launch scope. Here is a complete rundown of every major update.

Great Hunts Campaigns DLC (July 2025)

Released on July 17, 2025, the Great Hunts Campaigns DLC is Icarus’s answer to endgame content. Priced at $24.99, it adds structured boss-hunting campaigns across three existing maps: Olympus, Styx, and Prometheus.

Three Full Campaigns

Great Hunts introduces 34 new missions spread across three campaigns, each culminating in a dedicated boss encounter. The three bosses at launch are Quarrite, Gargantuan, and Rimetusk. Each campaign features branching mission paths where player choices affect the game world and can degrade the boss’s abilities before the final confrontation.

Boss Arenas

Boss fights take place in instanced, bespoke arenas separate from the open world. These are cinematic, multi-phase battles designed to be the most intense combat encounters in Icarus to date. They require preparation, proper gear, and knowledge of the boss mechanics to survive.

Legendary Weapons and Gear

Defeating bosses rewards players with unique legendary weapons. Each legendary has four upgrade slots with three options per slot, creating up to 81 possible upgrade combinations per weapon. The DLC also adds five new armor sets with distinct bonuses and visual styles, new creatures, and boss-specific weapons including guns, javelins, and grenades.

World Outcomes

Great Hunts missions are the first in Icarus to introduce permanent lasting effects in the open world. Choices made during campaigns alter the environment and available resources, giving missions real weight beyond just the loot rewards.

Console Edition Announcement (October 2025)

In October 2025, RocketWerkz announced that Icarus: Console Edition would launch on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in early 2026. The console version bundles the base game with the New Frontiers expansion. This marks Icarus’s first appearance on console platforms and is expected to significantly expand the player base.

Dangerous Horizons Expansion (March 2026)

Released on March 5, 2026, Dangerous Horizons is the third major chapter expansion for Icarus and the most ambitious content drop yet.

Elysium: A New Map

The expansion introduces Elysium, a massive 8x8 kilometer extreme-difficulty zone featuring four major terrain types: Desert, Tundra, Volcanic, and Swamp, all wrapped around a central geothermal corridor. There is no safe starting biome. Radiation zones cover large portions of the map, and hostile military forces actively patrol the landscape.

Hostile Humanoid NPCs

For the first time in Icarus, players encounter hostile human NPCs. The People’s Syndicate (TPS) is a military faction with soldiers, transport drones, and fortified outposts scattered across Elysium. These function as dynamic hostile spawn points that can be located and cleared for valuable resource rewards. Soldiers actively defend their positions and require tactical combat to defeat.

New Creatures and Mounts

Over 45 new creatures and variations populate Elysium, ranging from passive wildlife to terrifying enemies like the Yeti. Four new mounts are available, including lethal raptors, each with their own talent trees and abilities. Three additional creatures can be tamed as companions.

Story Campaign

Dangerous Horizons features six chained narrative missions that guide players through discovering Eden, surviving Elysium’s threats, and confronting the People’s Syndicate. The story provides structure for what is otherwise a brutally open environment.

Free Kepler Update (March 2026)

Alongside Dangerous Horizons, RocketWerkz released the free Kepler Update available to all Icarus owners regardless of DLC ownership. This is one of the most significant free updates the game has received.

Tech Tier 5

Kepler introduces the fifth and highest technology tier in Icarus, centered on oil drilling and refining. Crude oil is extracted from geysers available on every map (Olympus, Styx, Prometheus, and Elysium), piped to a refiner, and converted into Refined Oil. This fuel powers industrial tools, vehicles, and polymer manufacturing.

NPC Traders

Twelve new Operations were added across Olympus, Styx, and Prometheus that unlock permanent NPC traders when completed. Dedicated traders are available for Fish, Crops, and Animal Vestiges, adding a new economic layer to the open world.

What This Means for Server Hosts

Every major Icarus update brings players back to the game. Great Hunts added endgame replayability, Dangerous Horizons expanded the map significantly, and the Kepler update gave every player new tech to pursue. Server owners who stay current with updates and offer dedicated, always-on worlds benefit the most from these population surges.

At Reactor, we host Icarus dedicated servers with the performance to handle the game’s demanding UE4 engine. Our servers stay updated automatically so your community always has access to the latest content.

Start your Icarus server on Reactor and explore everything the game has to offer.