The Front Patch 1.0.17 Breakdown: New Bosses, Medical Bed, and the Pack Reclaimer

Samar Studio launched The Front into Early Access on October 11, 2023, and the team has kept the update cadence aggressive ever since. The next drop, Patch 1.0.17, is almost here and brings a healthy mix of new toys, balance changes, and a few quality-of-life fixes that survivors have been asking about.

Below is a clear rundown of what is landing, when it lands, and what the official patch notes actually say.

Release Window and Maintenance

Patch 1.0.17 goes live on December 6, 2023. Official servers will be offline between 7 and 8 AM UTC that morning for maintenance, so plan your raid schedule around that hour. Once the patch is live, update your client and you are good to load back in.

Headline Additions

The most useful new arrival is the Medical Bed. Lie down on it and your character will regenerate health over time, plus shake off certain status conditions. The catch is that you stay vulnerable while healing, so do not park one in the middle of an open field unless you enjoy being a target.

The Pack Reclaimer is the other major item. Unlocked at level 15, it lets you spend 100 Ether Shards to recover a lost loot bag. The retrieval takes 30 seconds, and if the bag despawns or gets snatched before then, the attempt fails. A 30 minute cooldown keeps it from becoming a free safety net.

Finally, the Ramp acts like a wider, friendlier set of stairs. Its main job is helping vehicles climb terrain that would otherwise get them stuck.

Two New Boss Vehicles

Imperial bases now host two new Level 60 threats:

• Night Owl: a Gunship that punishes anyone underestimating the air lane.
• Rhino: a Main Battle Tank built to grind through fortified positions.

Both are tuned for endgame groups, so going solo against either is a creative way to test your respawn timer.

Configuration and Display Options

Patch 1.0.17 also opens up a few graphics settings that PC players have been waiting on:

• DirectX 11 or DirectX 12 selection
• Vsync toggle
• FSR, DLSS, and XeSS upscaling options now properly surfaced in the settings menu

Optimizations

• Scroll bars added to the squad interface, so larger squads can actually be managed.
• Stair geometry across the map has been cleaned up.
• Interactions on constructions and vehicles got a polish pass. For example, right-clicking now adds wood to the furnace and ammo to vehicles.
• Crop plots can now be placed on the Warhammer, which previously refused them.

Bug Fixes

• Various electrical circuit connection problems resolved.
• Parallel battery connections no longer trigger electrical errors.
• DLSS no longer causes a black screen on certain setups.
• Several crash-causing edge cases on servers patched.
• Wrong protection timer info inside the binoculars corrected.
• Helicopter pilot HUD shows accurate values again.
• Characters in a near-death state can now be revived properly.
• Releasing F before the revive countdown ends no longer revives the player anyway.
• NPC HP regeneration rates fixed where they were off.
• Bad collision boxes on Warhammer constructions cleaned up.
• PCs paired with VR equipment can now enter the game.
• The 'craft food' task now correctly registers spicy fish as completion.

Known Issues

Dedicated Servers

• The Warhammer occasionally refuses to move.
• Server restarts can misplace Warhammer constructions. The workaround is to repack the Warhammer and set it back down to reset placement.

Solo and Hosted Games

• Squads disband on server restart.
• The Ares Main Battle Tank has an incorrect view angle at the gunner seat.
• Removing a bottom support construction can leave the workbench floating. Anything built before this update keeps the floating bug.

For the official source, the full patch notes are posted on Steam.