SnowRunner Phase 6: Everything you need to know

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SnowRunner Phase 6 ‘Haul & Hustle’ is now on the Public Test Server. Here is what you need to know about the new and substantial DLC update, including details of the new maps, trucks, upgrades and modes.

If you are curious about SnowRunner Phase 6, or Season 6 as it is officially known, then keep your eyes glued to the screen. Yes, both of them. For today update 16 is on PTS (AKA the Public Test Server), bringing with it some ‘Haul & Hustle’ action. The follow-up to Phase 5 ‘Build & Dispatch’.

First question: Where is SnowRunner Phase 6 located? Maine in the US of A. The challenge, according to the dev spiel, is to build a base from the ground up. It is a winter map (so pack those thermal underpants) yet you should expect both snow and mud. Rather like the other wintery locations.

Just to mix things up, in SnowRunner Phase 6 Maine you start out with key garage functions missing – including the ability to repair. Fortunately, the devs have not been entirely cruel. Not like Imandra or Amur cruel. You have access to, quote, “an agile forestry vehicle and a powerful six-wheeler”.

SnowRunner next-gen

Jumping away from Phase 6 for a second, Saber Interactive and Focus Home also touched upon a big subject many of us are interested in. I’m talking about the next-gen update. The official word on the, erm, muddy trail is:

“As we revealed a few months ago, we’re actively working on porting the game to next-gen consoles. Things are evolving in the right direction, but it’s still too soon to share more concrete information with you. We thank you for your patience and understanding on this matter.”

Now as those of you lucky enough to have a powerful PC comprised gold dust graphics cards and CPUs, maybe even that fancy Corsair LCD cooler I keep seeing on Reddit, will know, SnowRunner is not exactly efficient.

So to make the game look good, perform well and happily run on the slightly less powerful Xbox Series S as well as the Series X and PS5 is probably taking a lot of effort. Hopefully not so much effort though that it gets pushed back to the SnowRunner sequel, Milton-Keynes-Runner.

SnowRunner Phase 6 new things

Okay back to Phase 6. The first new Maine map is called The Lowland and the second is Yellowrock National Forest.

Also new to SnowRunner update 16 are 10 new stickers, because who does not like stickers? Also new scout trailers, which might make scouts more tempting to use. I do still have a lot of love for the Yar 87 and Loady McLoadFace.

Big news for logging and big news for me because one of the most popular questions I get concerns medium logs not fitting on the logging addon. I think I have responded about 100 times saying it is weird, will probably get fixed and so on.

Ten years later, okay so a few months or so, that is happening. Kind of. A medium logging addon will be available for the (long truck list time): Azov 5319, Azov 73210, CAT 680 CAT 681, Freightliner 114SD, GMC 9500, International HX 520, International Paystar 5070, Pacific P12W, Pacific P512, Paystar 5600TS, Royal BM17, Step 310E, Voron AE4380, Voron D53233, Western Star 49X and White Western Star 4964.

Now before you wipe away that excitement dribble off your chin, there’s more good news. The ANK MK38, a speedy and highly tippy but great fun truck that could do basically nothing, will be available in a form with a customisable frame. So it will be able to do things other than haul and hustle.

What about the Photo Mode?

What about the SnowRunner Photo Mode I mentioned in my recent news video? Well, that has been officially confirmed. So get your photographic hat on as it’s time to get snappy. I would have used the expression ‘Kodak moment’, but no one on my Discord knew what that meant. I feel so old.

I also need to inform you about those upgrades I also mentioned. The upgradeable winches for the gigantic 770G, the fine-tune gearbox for the Freightliner M916A1, active suspension for the DAN 96320, high suspension so you can fit bigger wheels on the International Transtar 4070A and a new engine for the Derry Longhorn 4520.

Said engine boasts a file value of 230,000 units of torque, compared with the current 192,000. In other words, it is noticeably more powerful. Feel like I might start using it again.

Now fear not, I will not repeat “fixed a bug” over and over again until your ears bleed and you crave sharing a bath with the toaster. I will now let you, at your leisure, go and check out the changes listed in the patch notes on ATribeCalledCars.com. Link in the description.

But I will mention the fact you will get special notifications relating to your truck being in a building zone related to an objective and that you can see what trucks can fit the evacuator, seismic vibrator lol and metal detector in the truck store. Neat, huh?

SnowRunner Phase 6 update 16 and onwards also adds a switch to jump between hard and normal difficulty modes in the custom scenarios menu, an in-game DLC browser and unpurchased DLC trucks and map previews will be available.

SnowRunner update 16 changes

Co-op

• Fixed a bug where unpacked cargo could fly away or get stuck in truck carriage body after entering into it in the created co-op session.
• Fixed a bug where some players were unable to see other players’ icons at the party HUD during the crossplay session.
• Fixed a bug where the wrong message was displayed when a player tried to join a game with the player’s limit capped.

Logging:

• Fixed a bug where logs could be loaded into the Log Carrier addon of the ‘Caterpillar 745C’ truck using autoloading function on top of already loaded unpacked logs in the addon.
• Fixed a bug where ‘Long Logs’ cargo could be outside of the ‘Log Carrier Rear’ trailer after transitioning through a gateway if the trailer was placed at an angle to the truck before transition.
• Fixed a bug where the camera was twitching near the Log Trailer.

Trucks

• Fixed unnatural twitching of suspension for Western Star 49X and Caterpillar CT681.
• Fixed a bug where the jerrycans of the ‘Trunk Repair Supplies’ addon equipped on the ‘Tatra Force T815-7’ did not disappear when became empty.
• Fixed a bug where the decal on the top of the cab of ‘Royal BM17’ appeared to be mirrored.
• Improved interior glass texture for Tatra FORCE T815-7.
• Added additional winch attachment points for Jeep Renegade
• Fixed a bug where Sunvisor upgrade for Azov 5319 did not match the truck color when the Burning Bright Vinyl Wrap was equipped.
• Fixed a bug where the ‘Dreamcatcher’ accessory clipped into the dashboard while driving on the ‘Jeep CJ7 Renegade’.
• Fixed a bug where some accessories of the ‘Jeep CJ7 Renegade’ truck overlapped the stickers of the ‘Slot 2’ in the ‘Customize’ menu.
• Tweaked weight set up for ANK MK38.

Wheels

• Fixed a bug where players were unable to restore wheel presets to default.

Mods & Modding

• Added hard reset button to the mod browser that allows removing all mod content at once.
• Added an option for the mod creators to reload the modded truck directly in the garage.
• Supported mod dependencies on mod.io. For example, if a mod map requires certain mod trucks, the mod creator could set those as dependencies so the game client would subscribe and download all required content.
• Map creators are now able to set up custom prices for fuel and repair zones to be used in hard mode.
• Supported custom employers icons and names

Hard Mode

• Fixed a bug where defeat conditions and rewards were not displayed in the contest pop-up window when passing the last attempt in hard mode.

General Fixes

• Fixed a bug where while towing an empty vehicle, the engine On/Off button did not appear if another player-driven vehicle was standing nearby.
• Fixed a bug where a message about an available new task on the Black River level appeared constantly after turning off the HUD during the tutorial.
• Fixed a bug where the “Activate radar” function made the winch sockets visible during area scan.

What about new trucks?

What about SnowRunner Phase 6 new trucks? Well, it appears one will be a log forwarder similar to what existed in SnowRunner’s predecessor, MudRunner. This is likely to be a DLC truck. The other is speculated to be a new Boar truck called the PAC or Pac. Not Pac-Man.

As for the free truck, it appears that will be the aforementioned ANK MK38 civilian version. Currently it is only playable on the Proving Grounds part of the Public Test Server, but hopefully I can find a way to make it work in the campaign for testing purposes.