# BIG UPDATE - Type: Meet the Companions - Date: 2026-10-01 (Oct 1) - Game: [DEAD AHEAD: ROADSIDE](https://deadahead.zone/games/roadside) - Canonical page: https://deadahead.zone/news/news-post-13 Happy, b-day, Roadside! Roadsiders! The devs have been working hard to bring this Update to you! It’s packed with not only new content, but also quality-of-life features, improvements based on your suggestions, and much more. Let’s see what we’ve got. # Companions Everyone needs a helping hand, especially in times like these. The first companion you’ll meet on your adventure is Maria, an escaped prisoner. Beware, cutscenes have been added to the game, and they could be heartbreaking for sensitive people!! Goddamn Marauders were involved again…😤 Let’s focus on Maria to give you a quick look at this new companion feature, but don’t worry, we’ll keep it interesting and won’t tell you about everything right away. So, you’ve met Maria! Congrats, mate! She’s one of 8 companions added to the game, and there will be more, trust me, the devs are already cooking. Maria is a Common companion, but companions can also be Uncommon, Epic, Legendary, and Mythic. The rarer the companion, the harder they are to find. Signal Rockets help you find copies of companions you’ve already unlocked and increase your Search Level. You can get Rockets from several sources, including AFK Rewards, Login Calendar rewards, Military Boxes, the shop, and more. The most reliable source of Signal Rockets is the Paramedic in the Lairs: go check him out, he used to save lives… New companions are unlocked through Adventures, so get out there and explore🏃 Each companion helps you in adventures in their own way. For example, Maria fires like crazy from both hands, with her attack damage scaling with the Hero’s Attack. That’s her Battle Skill - Double Tap. Hero bonuses from companion upgrades apply at all times, even when the companion is not in your party. You can also upgrade your companion’s Build to improve your stats🧬 Roll to get the stats you need, and if you like what you rolled, you can lock it in. The other stats can then be changed, giving you the freedom to tailor every companion to your Hero’s playstyle. Unlike Battle Skill upgrade bonuses, Build’s passive stats are only active when the companion is in your party. 💊Pills are used to evolve your companion’s passive stats. For now, you can get them from AFK Rewards, and a new game mode coming soon will offer another way to earn them. Also, you may run into companions you already have, and that déjà vu can work in your favor! Use those clones to upgrade your companions and make them unstoppable. The Companions button can be found in the Inventory tab once you have a companion. Want to learn more? Tap the blue “?”🔵 buttons whenever you see them: they’ll show you the rules, chances, and companion bonuses depending on where you tap them. # New Features - Zombiepedia is here: hunt down every type of enemy to unlock their dossiers and field notes, then claim your rewards. You can find it under Skills → Journal → Zombiepedia. - Achievements are here too: flex and earn rewards. Achievements count the progress you already have. - New Adventure Skills: meet Combo Attack, Ice Charge, and Stun Charge. Frozen enemies can shatter when they die, damaging nearby enemies. Shatter works on regular enemies, while bosses and elites are safe from it. 🎁 Tester Skin for everyone who downloaded the game before October 1st, 2026: thank you, Crash Testers! # Balance and Combat - More Hero upgrade levels + reworked level-up rewards. - Gold economy reworked: level-up costs now grow much slower. 😴 AFK Rewards: the base Gold rate has been raised from 3 to 10 per minute. Gold now grows more slowly as you progress through Chapters, while Hero level-up costs are much cheaper. - Dismantling Gear or Companions won’t give back more resources than you invested. - Attack Speed now works a little differently: it only makes Heroes attack faster and no longer increases their Attack stat. The SMG and Road Atlas both got a nice Attack Speed boost. The bonuses now stack with rarity, making the Mythic versions especially speedy. - Revives are now much more reliable, triggering instantly when a unit takes lethal damage. They now also work when the lethal damage comes from Damage over Time or reflected damage. The amount of health restored is based on the revived unit’s own skill damage. - Devs also cleaned up a few mechanics around healing and damage. Healing over time is no longer reduced by damage-over-time resistance. - Block, Dodge, damage reduction, and DoT resistance now have clear limits, while low-health healing and Dodge triggers are also capped to prevent them from activating too early. And there are a few things you may notice when moving to the new version: some progression rewards and currencies are recalculated for the new economy, the Login Calendar starts over, and Gear can now be upgraded to a higher maximum level. # Enemies and Lairs In the Events tab, hit Challenges and Lairs and make a big noise - and get rich with valuable resources. Challenges currently include Office Tower, while Lairs include Boss Lair, Paramedic Lair, and Marauder’s Base: -Boss Lair unlocks after Chapter Two -Paramedic Lair awaits you after Chapter Three -And the ruthless Marauder’s Base will be ready to welcome its guests after Chapter Seven. - Bosses and Elites now resist Stun and Freeze, reducing how long these effects last. Repeated control also becomes less effective, and after being stunned they get a short window where another Stun won’t work. - The Boss’s rage attack now splashes, hitting everyone near its target and making them bleed. - Riflemen run out of ammo after two bursts and switch to melee: don’t come any closer! - Lairs now go all the way up to Level 200 (previously 100). # Quality-of-Life Improvements Small changes for smoother adventures! 🎮 Gamepad support: navigate every menu with your controller, with on-screen button hints, shoulder buttons and triggers for flipping through tabs and pages, and a right-stick cursor. - “Claim All”: collect every unlocked Chapter Chest at once with a single switch. - Get a push notification reminding you to come back for new weekly missions. - The Skins window now opens right where the new skins are. - Season-end and reward popups now wait until you’re back in the menu, with rewards shown before any last-chance offer. # Tech Support A bunch of bugs have been caught in a jar fixed. - Devs have also made the game feel faster from the moment you launch it. The game and main menu now load quicker and the startup screens fade in more smoothly. - No internet at launch? The game keeps retrying and continues as soon as you’re back online. 🎉 DEAD AHEAD: Roadside is now available on the App Store and Google Play Store worldwide, so you can start your Roadside adventure right now: accept this Big Update, and let your spirit soar! -- P.S. No worries if you can’t find the game in your store right now. It will take a little time for the update to roll out to all countries.