Eco's latest patch, Hotfix 14.0.3, is live now with a wide cleanup pass: crushed-rock costs shift across several recipes, dumpster storage gets a boost, and a bonus-stacking bug that could push module and talent bonuses near or past 100% is fixed. The update also addresses a waterwheel exploit that could destroy bedrock and crash servers.

• Asphalt and Concrete recipes now cost 10 Crushed Mixed Rock instead of 5.
• The Bloomery recipe now costs 10 Crushed Mixed Rock instead of 20, with 10 Clay added.
• Salvage Materials for base rock now yield 0.25 Crushed Mixed Rock instead of 1, cutting down on the large amount of stones generated.
• Tailing reprocessing inputs are now static, and their Crushed Mixed Rock yield drops from 4 to 2.
• Modern dumpsters now hold 24 items per stack instead of 12.
• Aggregated module and talent bonuses now stack multiplicatively instead of additively, preventing bonuses from nearing or exceeding 100%.
• Gather Research Paper Advanced now has the proper research tag.
• Bloomery Salvage Materials no longer contain iron, which previously allowed creating iron out of thin air.
• Sulfur Concrete now includes the missing Crushed Rock ingredient.
• Crushed Mortared Stone recipes that should have been removed earlier are now gone.

• Appliances can no longer get stuck displaying 0 electricity supply when power is present.
• Cancelling or deleting a blueprint-required work order now refunds the blueprint.
• The Biowaste Sorter's occupancy is corrected, stopping roofs from clipping through its top block; its tooltip was adjusted.
• Garbage Pickup Bounties now allow partial pickups when destination storage lacks space or weight capacity.
• The player avatar no longer randomly gets stuck on flat ground, can climb small steep bumps more reliably, and movement speed is consistent regardless of movement direction or camera facing.
• Rubble mined by another player no longer remains visible without collision until leaving the area or reconnecting.
• Waterwheels can no longer be placed at bedrock, which previously destroyed the bedrock and crashed the server if water flowed through the hole.
• Digging the dirt block under a sapling no longer leaves an invisible entity blocking interaction.

• Tutorial progress is no longer lost or stuck when disconnecting mid-chapter.
• Furniture placed before a tutorial room finishes or updates is now correctly recognized.
• Some seeds now count toward the "Collect seeds" and "Plant seeds" steps of the "Start a Garden" tutorial.
• Workbench tooltips no longer show benefits from disabled modules.
• Minimap "Display Object" checkboxes now show the correct category names instead of "Show Objects."
• The "Vehicles" minimap toggle now visibly hides vehicle icons when off.
• Chinese, Korean, and Japanese text now displays correctly in missing UI areas.
• The voice chat overlay now uses in-game player names instead of missing or wrong names.
• Alligators, crabs, and otters no longer drown in water two blocks deep or deeper.
• The singleplayer setting is now selectable and the default when the target player count is 1.
• The "Cultural Phenomenon" achievement is now obtainable, and dinner party achievements no longer miscount attendance, especially for guests.
• The recycler has its animations back, and migrated Update 13 truck flatbeds display their contents properly.
• A server crash when migrating worlds from Update 12 or earlier to Update 13 or later is fixed.
• Crafting tables and Currency Exchanges now let players select which bank account pays fees or conducts exchanges.
• Empty Primitive Bins now look visually empty.
• The "Drop or Pickup Garbage" trigger has a new selector for choosing which item was dropped or picked up.

Eco Hotfix 14.0.2 is out now, released on August 7, 2026. The patch raises several crafting yields, fixes a durability-related refund bug, and clears up a range of UI, gameplay, and server issues.

Crafting yields increased:

• Composite Lumber, Flat Steel, and Framed Glass: +2 yield.
• Ashlar Stone: +1 yield.

Some tables that incorrectly required a Smelting Basic Upgrade now require the correct Smelting Upgrade, and upgrade modules now have weight.

The patch also fixes:

• Cancelling a craft order that used durability-200 items from talents no longer turns refunded items stacked into a stockpile into "broken" state.
• Deeds owned by a title can now be edited by title holders without a server restart.
• Picked-up objects no longer keep the previous owner's bank account settings when placed by another player.

• Workstation recipes are clickable again when the list is filtered by search.
• Currency, Settlement, and Store links in the Economy Viewer work after the window is resized.
• Skill UI star costs now match between the left list and the selected specialty.
• Purchased items in the carry slot no longer show "Unknown" as the location notification.
• Leftover test data for modules was removed, so modules no longer show misleading info such as having their own power requirement.
• Decontaminants can be linked in chat again.
• Linked-storage windows now show "Loading nearby storages..." instead of a false "no nearby storage" message while loading, and large storage lists load significantly faster.
• Civic check tooltips are formatted more clearly, including negated checks.

• Update 14 migration now removes all modules from all tables as intended.
• The new singleplayer setting now correctly grants character experience when specialty experience is gained, and sets the cost of all specialties to a single star.
• Painted blocks no longer show misplaced colors.
• Changing the server language after a player has joined no longer grants supporter bundles a second time.
• A race condition that could lead to a server crash was fixed.
• Shelf life multiplier changes in the server UI now take effect immediately.

Strange Loop Games has shipped Eco Update 14, adding a full garbage and recycling pipeline, a harsher four-type ground pollution system, and a streamlined module system. The update went live on August 6, 2026; Update 13 worlds will load, with existing modules removed from tables, converted to their new versions, and placed in void storage for reapplication at the configured star cost.

Nearly all crafting recipes now output byproducts—"garbages"—as mixed garbage blocks. The amount is based on a configurable percentage of the item's salvage materials (8% by default), meaning what you'd get back from scrapping it in the new Recycler. The Recycler replaces the old placeholder "destroy item" recipes: feed in anything useless and it produces mixed garbage containing the relevant salvage materials.

A garbage sorter splits mixed garbage into fractions, and specialized sorters extract Copper, Cellulose Fiber, Glass, Gold, Fabric, Iron, Plastic, and Steel. Decontaminants, crafted with the Fertilizers specialty, are applied like fertilizer to remove pollution over time. Contamination state is visible through map layers and the soil sampler.

Ground pollution is now four types: Acid Rain, Chemical Pollution, Soil Pollution, and Heavy Mineral Pollution. Soil pollution recovers if the source is removed; chemical and heavy mineral pollution have long-term impact and need manual sanitizing. Acid rain is air pollution washing out in rainy areas. Ground pollution spreads wider based on total pollutants at the source, and much farther if it seeps into water, diluting with distance. Liquid sewage also comes in different types.

Pollution now hurts the world visibly: rooms in polluted areas lose house value, fish regeneration is reduced or inhibited, and sick animals yield no carcass. New containers—from primitive bins and dumps to dumpsters—help contain waste, with the Dumpster reaching 90% emitted pollution reduction. A garbage pickup bounty system lets players set prices per garbage type for others to haul away. Burying pollutants no longer works; tailings and similar waste must be stored in suitable containers, ideally far from homes. Fresh pollutants only begin affecting the environment after a 24-hour grace period.

The old numbered tiers are gone. Modules now come in exactly four types—Basic Upgrade, Modern Upgrade, Advanced Upgrade, and Specialty Upgrades—with variants. The first three provide general work order bonuses; Specialty Upgrades focus on recipes for a specialty. Basic, Modern, and Advanced upgrades cost one star by default, while Specialty Upgrades are free (configurable). Most tables have one slot per type, modules cannot be removed, bonuses stack additively, and some upgrades add room tier or mechanical/electrical power requirements.

• Fishing is no longer infinite: all methods now affect fish populations, which were significantly increased; trawler catch rate is up, crab can be trawled, and cod/bass can be trapped.
• Pipes can be placed directly into blocks with a new overlay, but no longer have a room tier; rooms made of pipes need building blocks to be valid again.
• Backpacks grant extra inventory slots and carry bonuses with tradeoffs; the work backpack adds a second carry slot.
• A dedicated singleplayer difficulty grants character experience from specialty XP for faster progression.
• Stores get live search, a MAX buy button, and clearer Economy Viewer status; storage access ranges were increased.
• Building block shapes can be changed with one click; painting has no cooldown; hex colors work in the picker.
• Research has a more structured tiered progression; many recipes got cost cuts and yield increases. New items include Carbon Filter, Electrostatic Filter, Insulated Copper Wiring, Magnet, Paraffin, Sulfuric Acid, and Waxed Paper.
• Explosions can now destroy blocks and world objects by default.
• Steam Truck and Truck are now modular vehicles with a flat bed and garbage module; vehicle module weight is 8 kg.

Ocean-fed machines will stop working until a desalinator is installed, because ocean water is now salt water. Stored pollutants leak into the surrounding area, so old underground dumping grounds will hurt nearby housing. Mods and overrides need to be adjusted or removed: servers may fail to boot, and compiled mods touching recipes or modules may need recompiling. New configs cover garbage ratios, module star costs, pollution decay ceilings, and explosion destruction; optional performance toggles can cause issues with multiple server instances on one machine.

Feedback can be left on the feedback tracker. The next update will bring Animal Husbandry.