Once Human Isles of Abyss Launches October 22: Ships, PvE Servers and Naval PvP

Once Human is heading out to sea on October 22, 2026, with Isles of Abyss, a free ocean-focused expansion built around exploration, customizable ships and cooperative survival. Starry Studio has now detailed the scenario’s server rules, progression system and separate naval PvP experience ahead of its release.

The developer says the update will go live after maintenance on October 21 (Pacific Time), while the worldwide launch is advertised for October 22. Players on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and mobile will be able to explore the new waters with cross-platform play and cross-progression, as outlined in the official NetEase release announcement.

Build your own ship — and turn it into a mobile base

The biggest addition is the ship-building system. Ships are not simply vehicles: they function as movable water territories, allowing crews to design hulls, decks, defensive structures and onboard facilities. Designs can be saved as blueprints, making it easier to rebuild or relocate a vessel as a group progresses.

Players can work their way from manual and sail-powered propulsion to fuel and electric systems. Route markers and Auto Cruise will help with long journeys, while onboard respawning and ship-return options are designed to make extended expeditions more manageable. As technology advances, crews can equip harpoon cannons, long cannons, rapid-fire weapons and other specialized naval defenses.

For multiplayer groups, that turns a ship into a shared long-term project: one player might manage resources, another navigation, and others the guns or repairs. Naval battles against hostile Voyager ships add boarding actions and valuable loot to the mix.

Explore an ocean of islands, anomalies and underwater ruins

Isles of Abyss replaces familiar overland routes with an archipelago stretching from tropical shores to icy waters and polluted swamps. Different regions feature Haywire Zones where weather and supernatural effects can reduce visibility, change temperatures, affect sanity or increase resource consumption. Exploration therefore depends on preparation as much as firepower.

Beneath the waves are shipwrecks, laboratories, lost treasure and dangerous wildlife. Players can develop diving gear, oxygen supplies and underwater weapons before venturing into deeper, more contaminated areas. Sharks and giant squids are among the threats, while some marine creatures offer useful interactions during underwater travel.

The new environment also changes the survival economy: fishing, gathering coastal resources, salvaging materials, building production facilities and upgrading a ship all feed into progression. Major encounters include the Calamity Tower, hostile Voyager fleets and the final confrontation with the Sunken Lord.

How the new PvE servers and 21-day progression work

The October 16 official development blog gives players a much clearer picture of the scenario structure. Isles of Abyss is designed as a roughly 21-day PvE experience, with two active phases followed by a rest stage. The duration is influenced by collective server progress rather than being a fixed countdown in every phase.

• Phase I — approximately 5–10 days: the duration shortens as the server advances its purification progress.
• Phase II — 11 days: more demanding encounters appear, and the Sunken Lord challenge becomes available as purification advances.
• 12 worlds per server: the newly announced world structure applies to the Isles of Abyss PvE scenario.
• Permanent server: planned to open on November 12, 2026 (Pacific Time), before the first scenario servers close so players can move across.
• Vision support: no Vision Tag at launch; a dedicated Vision World is planned for a later Season 5 Vision release.

All characters entering this scenario start at maximum level, but that does not remove the progression loop. Technology unlocks control the gear players can craft, the ship facilities they can build and how many mod attributes become active. Existing blueprints and mods can be brought into the scenario, while the Cradle system is disabled.

For groups returning to Once Human, the important planning point is that major objectives develop across the server’s phases. A crew starting late should check the phase and purification progress before committing to a long build or arranging a group event.

RaidZone adds naval PvP with real consequences

Although the main scenario is PvE, Isles of Abyss: RaidZone provides a separate competitive experience. Its Naval Core Contest places players in shared waters with tighter resources and more frequent confrontations. Unlike the PvE setup, RaidZone does not divide players between multiple worlds.

Ships have a total HP pool and can sink when it reaches zero. A saved ship blueprint allows players to summon a replacement, but supplies carried aboard a sunken vessel are not refunded. That creates a different kind of naval risk, especially for organized groups moving valuable resources through contested waters.

To enter, players must switch to RaidZone mode on the character sign-in screen and select an Isles of Abyss: RaidZone server. This is a separate choice from joining the standard PvE scenario.

Crossplay and joining Isles of Abyss with friends

The expansion is announced for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and mobile, with crossplay and cross-progression. That makes the new ocean scenario especially relevant to groups whose members do not all play on the same device. Crossplay does not, however, guarantee that every server type or optional mode will have identical hosting rules.

New players must complete character creation and the introductory experience before signing up from the scenario selection screen. Existing players in another scenario can register through the usual scenario sign-up interface. Coordinating which scenario and mode each member chooses is the simplest way to avoid splitting a group between PvE and RaidZone.

What about Once Human Custom Servers?

This is the important open question for community administrators. Once Human already has a Custom Servers ecosystem, but the October 16 Isles of Abyss announcement describes scenario entry, worlds and phases without confirming day-one deployment through Custom Servers. The 12-world figure and November permanent-server schedule should therefore not be presented as configurable features of privately hosted servers.

VeryGames has a dedicated Once Human hosting information page, currently showing the service as coming soon. Communities interested in running their own server should watch for confirmation of the hosting release and a specific compatibility announcement before assuming Isles of Abyss can be installed on a private instance.

A major new direction for Once Human multiplayer

Isles of Abyss puts teamwork at the centre of Once Human in a new way. A customizable ship, resource logistics, underwater expeditions and coordinated naval combat give groups shared goals beyond building a fixed base on land. The 21-day progression cycle and separate PvP mode also create two distinct ways to organize a community.

The update is scheduled for October 21 in Pacific Time, promoted worldwide for October 22. Because the developer describes the October 16 information as a pre-launch preview, some gameplay values and rewards may still change when the full release arrives.