Against the Storm Brineworks Update 1.9 Adds New Farm and Challenging Events

The roguelike city builder that took Steam by storm continues evolving with substantial free content. Eremite Games dropped the Brineworks Update 1.9 on November 20, 2025, bringing a brand new farm building, three challenging glade events, enhanced Stormforged Cornerstone variants, and a massive list of balance changes and quality of life improvements. For a game that already sold over one million copies and maintains a rare 95 percent Overwhelmingly Positive rating on Steam, this update demonstrates the developer’s commitment to long-term support and community engagement.

The Star of the Show: Brineworks Farm

The headline addition is the Brineworks, a specialized farm that produces two unusual resources: Salt and Insects. This fills a specific production niche that previously required multiple different buildings or reliance on trader goods. Salt serves as an important ingredient in various recipes throughout the game, while Insects function as both a food source for certain species and a crafting component.

The Brineworks joins the existing roster of farms including the Small Farm, Homestead, Plantation, and Herb Garden. Each farm specializes in different crop types, forcing strategic decisions about which buildings to construct based on available blueprints, species needs, and order requirements. Adding another farm option increases build variety and gives players more flexibility when adapting to the randomly generated challenges each settlement presents.

What makes the Brineworks particularly interesting is how it interacts with the game’s species-specific preferences. Lizards have dietary requirements that make Insects valuable, while Salt appears in comfort recipes for multiple species. Having a dedicated building that produces both simultaneously creates efficient production chains that weren’t possible before.

Three New Glade Events Add Danger

Glade events represent one of Against the Storm’s most engaging systems. As players explore the fog-covered wilderness surrounding their settlement, they discover glades containing resources, treasures, and dangers. Some glades offer straightforward rewards, while others present events requiring careful decision-making about risk versus reward.

Update 1.9 introduces three new events with varying danger levels. The Lurker and Petrified Gargoyle arrive as dangerous glade events, meaning they present significant threats that could harm your settlement if handled poorly. The exact mechanics remain intentionally mysterious in the patch notes, encouraging players to discover the lore and optimal strategies through experimentation.

The third addition, Small Stormforge, comes classified as a forbidden glade event. Forbidden events typically offer extremely powerful rewards balanced by severe risks or difficult requirements. These events create memorable decision points where players must weigh whether the potential payoff justifies the danger, especially in higher difficulty settlements where failure carries greater consequences.

The patch notes tease that these events offer unique rewards not available elsewhere, giving players strong incentives to engage with them despite the risks. This aligns with Against the Storm’s design philosophy of creating tension between the safe, conservative strategy and the aggressive approach that gambles on high-risk, high-reward scenarios.

Stormforged Cornerstones Get Expanded

Cornerstones function as powerful modifiers that fundamentally alter how settlements operate. Players select from randomly offered Cornerstones throughout each run, creating unique synergies and build strategies. Stormforged Cornerstones represent enhanced versions of existing ones, available through specific game modes or progression systems.

Update 1.9 adds nine new Stormforged variants of existing Cornerstones. One example highlighted in the patch notes is Royal Guard Training Stormforged, which grants an additional plus 10 Resolve when fulfilling the Brawling need on top of its normal benefits. Another is Crystal Cathode Stormforged, which dramatically increases production bonuses in Rain Engines to plus 100 percent production speed and plus 50 percent double yield chance.

These enhanced versions don’t replace the originals but exist as separate, more powerful alternatives that appear under specific conditions. The additions expand the pool of potential Cornerstone combinations, increasing replayability by creating new synergies for players to discover across multiple runs.

The update also introduces one completely new Legendary Cornerstone that reduces Hostility added by Beaver villagers to zero. This addresses a specific strategic consideration where Beavers, despite their useful specializations, generate Hostility that can become problematic in certain settlement configurations or difficulty levels.

Trader Special Offers and New Perks

The trading system received meaningful additions. Traders now occasionally offer special deals on blueprints, Cornerstones, and other valuable items. Two new rare perks appeared in trader inventories: one that grants the ability to remove hunger stacks from villagers, and another that reveals the location of a nearby Abandoned Cache on the map.

The hunger stack removal perk addresses one of the game’s more punishing mechanics. When villagers go too long without food, they accumulate hunger stacks that reduce their effectiveness and generate negative Resolve. Previously, once hunger stacks accumulated, you had to wait for them to naturally decay or accept the performance penalty. The new perk provides a tactical tool for recovering from food shortages more quickly.

The Abandoned Cache reveal perk offers pure exploration value. These caches contain valuable resources, blueprints, or Cornerstones, but finding them requires either luck or systematic map exploration. Being able to reveal their location eliminates guesswork and helps optimize expansion patterns.

Extensive Balance Changes

Beyond new content, Update 1.9 implements significant rebalancing across multiple systems. Several weaker Cornerstones received buffs to make them competitive with stronger alternatives. Overzealous Architects now requires only three fully upgraded houses instead of five. Improvised Tools gives fewer tools per glade but remains useful for early-game expansion.

Two Cornerstones, Work Safety Guide and Farsight, dropped from Legendary to Epic rarity. This change makes them appear more frequently while acknowledging they don’t provide the game-warping power expected from Legendary tier. Borrowed Time received a complete mechanical overhaul, though specific details weren’t included in the public patch notes.

The Nightwatchers DLC content also received adjustments. The Fluffbeak’s starting wellbeing changed from 50 percent to 49 percent, preventing its positive effect from displaying briefly at the start before immediately disappearing. Various Forest Mysteries that scale with Hostility got updated descriptions clarifying exactly how their effects calculate.

Quality of Life Improvements

The in-game encyclopedia received major expansions. The Species section now explains how Dedication works and provides hints about Cooperation specializations, helping newer players understand these somewhat opaque mechanics. Buildings, Events, and Cornerstones sections all gained category filters for easier navigation through the extensive content library.

Building entries now include upgrade previews, letting players see exactly what improvements unlocking an upgrade provides before committing resources. This transparency helps strategic planning and prevents wasted investments in upgrades that don’t align with current settlement goals.

Numerous tooltips and descriptions received clarity improvements. Orders that count objectives retroactively now explicitly state this. Fuel production perks clearly list which goods they affect. Forest Mystery descriptions explain calculation formulas. These small text changes collectively reduce confusion and flatten the learning curve.

The difficulty dropdown on the embarkation screen now greys out unavailable options instead of displaying them normally, preventing accidental selection of locked difficulties. Auto-pause alerts no longer appear when loading Forsaken Towns, eliminating an annoying false alarm. The Tree Grazer modifier icon now properly displays on the HUD during affected settlements.

Bug Fixes and Technical Polish

Update 1.9 squashed numerous bugs that affected gameplay fairness and quality. A significant fix addressed Cornerstones in the Cornerstone Forge that provided extra Resolve for Religion or Treatment needs not applying correctly when those needs were fulfilled in the Commons building. This bug prevented certain synergies from working as intended.

The Bankruptcy Deed no longer incorrectly carries progress between separate games, preventing exploitation. Overlapping difficulty settings for specific orders got resolved. Blueprint options no longer disappear inappropriately after rerolls when playing with certain modifiers. The Lumbermill now mirrors correctly without rotating 180 degrees.

These technical improvements, while individually small, collectively contribute to a more polished experience where mechanics work consistently and predictably.

Console Release on the Horizon

While Update 1.9 launched on PC via Steam on November 20, console players won’t wait long for the content. The Nightwatchers DLC, which released on PC in July 2025, arrives on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch on December 4, 2025. The base game launched on these platforms back in June 2025, and the upcoming DLC release will bring console versions closer to feature parity with PC.

Against the Storm is also available through Xbox Game Pass, exposing the game to millions of subscription service users who might not have discovered it otherwise. The Game Pass inclusion combined with the strong console port has expanded the player base significantly beyond the PC-focused early access period.

The Bigger Picture

Against the Storm represents one of the most successful indie games published by Hooded Horse, the publisher also behind Manor Lords, Cataclismo, and other strategy titles. The game spent over two years in early access before its December 2023 full release, with the developers using that time to iterate based on community feedback.

The roguelike city builder hybrid genre isn’t crowded, giving Against the Storm relatively little direct competition. Traditional city builders like Cities Skylines focus on long-term sandbox construction, while Against the Storm emphasizes shorter runs with randomly generated challenges and meta-progression between attempts. This unique positioning appeals to players who enjoy strategic depth but don’t want to commit dozens of hours to single cities.

The game’s 95 percent positive rating from over 28,000 Steam reviews reflects exceptional quality and word-of-mouth appeal. Crossing one million sales in March 2024, just four months after the full release, demonstrated commercial viability that justifies continued development support through free updates and paid DLC.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did Against the Storm Brineworks Update 1.9 release?

The Brineworks Update 1.9 launched on November 20, 2025, for PC via Steam. The update is completely free for all owners of the base game.

What does the Brineworks farm produce?

The Brineworks is a new farm building that produces Salt and Insects. Both resources serve as food sources for certain species and ingredients in various crafting recipes throughout the game.

What are the new glade events in Update 1.9?

Update 1.9 adds three new glade events: Lurker and Petrified Gargoyle as dangerous events, and Small Stormforge as a forbidden event. Each offers unique rewards balanced by significant risks or challenges.

Is Against the Storm available on consoles?

Yes, Against the Storm launched on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch on June 26, 2025. The Nightwatchers DLC arrives on these platforms December 4, 2025.

How much does Against the Storm cost?

The base game costs 29.99 USD on Steam and consoles. The Nightwatchers DLC is priced separately, while the Keepers of the Stone DLC released earlier in 2024. Free content updates like Brineworks 1.9 don’t require any DLC purchase.

Is Against the Storm on Xbox Game Pass?

Yes, Against the Storm is available through Xbox Game Pass, allowing subscribers to play the full game at no additional cost beyond their subscription.

What makes Against the Storm different from other city builders?

Against the Storm combines city building with roguelike elements, featuring shorter runs with random challenges, meta-progression between attempts, and multiple fantasy species with unique needs. Unlike traditional city builders focused on single sandbox cities, it emphasizes replayability through varied scenarios.

Conclusion

The Brineworks Update 1.9 exemplifies how post-launch support should work. Eremite Games delivered meaningful new content including the Brineworks farm and three glade events while simultaneously addressing balance issues, expanding quality of life features, and squashing bugs. For a game that already achieved critical and commercial success, continuing to expand and refine the experience at no additional cost builds tremendous goodwill with the community. Whether you’re a veteran vicroy with hundreds of hours logged or a curious newcomer considering your first expedition into the wilderness, Against the Storm keeps getting better with each update. The Scorched Queen demands tribute, and Update 1.9 gives you fresh tools to meet her impossible orders.