Picture this: you're deep in the GATE facility, your tamed Peccary is leveling up beside you, you've just coated your melee weapon with a freshly brewed acid concoction, and your base is spotless thanks to a mop named the MOP 9000. That's the energy of Abiotic Factor's latest major update.
Version 1.3.0, titled the Cosmic Companions Update, dropped on May 4, 2026 across Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. The developers describe it as getting "a little carried away" , and the patch notes back that up. Over 100 new items. A brand new portal world. An entirely rebuilt pet system. A chemistry system built from scratch. And yes, a craftable mop.
Pets 2.0: your companions got a serious upgrade
The original pet system was charming but limited. The overhaul in 1.3.0 turns pets into genuine field companions with stats, leveling, and mutation paths that reward experimentation.
A new Companion Pet Slot now sits in your equipment screen. Pets placed there get a companion collar that keeps them in a "downed" state instead of dying outright when they take lethal damage. That's a meaningful quality-of-life change for anyone who's watched a beloved creature get one-shot by a stray enemy.
The bigger addition is Peccary taming. These large creatures can now fight alongside you, and certain variants produce harvestable resources on a timer. Feed any pet enough of the right foods and it gains EXP, growing in health, damage, and even physical size. Push further with anomalous foods and base-variant pets will Mutate into entirely new forms, including variants the patch notes describe as "never before seen by GATE xenobiologists."
New pet variants confirmed in the update include:
- IS-0178-C, IS-0178-G (Peccary mutations)
- IS-0178-D (craftable via a new recipe)
- IS-0173-D, IS-0173-E, IS-0173-F, IS-0173-H, IS-0173-L (Pest mutations)
- IS-0128-B (IS-0128-A mutation)
- Peccary Sow (tameable, milkable)
- Mushroom, Snow, and Alpha Peccary variants (all now tameable)
All pets can now be picked up and carried in a free hotbar slot. You can throw Pests directly into combat from there. If your companion slot is empty, the thrown Pest auto-equips into it mid-flight. The patch notes describe this as "spin violently towards your foes," which is exactly the kind of energy this game runs on.
Companion pet slot added
The chemistry system is a full progression branch
This isn't a crafting tweak. Chemistry in 1.3.0 is a multi-stage system that starts once you reach Cascade Labs and unlock two new benches.
The Distillation Bench processes anomalous materials gathered during expeditions into one of 15 Distillations (or occasionally a "vial of useless slop," per the patch notes). From there, the Chemistry Bench combines those Distillations into three categories of concoctions:
The key here is that weapon coatings open up build variety that wasn't possible before. Applying a coating mid-run to shift your damage type or add utility effects is the kind of flexible play that the game's combat has been missing.
The GATEPal journal has been updated with a Distillation submenu and a Chemistry submenu to track discovered recipes. New Theory Compendium entries explain both systems in full.
The MOP 9000, the Power Chair, and 100+ other things
The developers buried the lead slightly by listing the MOP 9000 under item changes, but it deserves more attention. Officially named the Mess Obliterating Paraphernalia 9000, it's a craftable mop you fill with water to clean bloodstains, scattered papers, and other environmental messes throughout the facility. Most existing bloodstains have been updated to be moppable. Base cleanliness is now a thing you can actually achieve.
The Power Chair is the other standout item: a compact one-seater vehicle that can reach areas other vehicles cannot, and crucially, cannot tip over. Anyone who's lost a vehicle run to physics jank will appreciate that design decision.
Beyond those, the update adds four new craftable Wristwatches with active effects (stealth, decoy hologram, increased carry weight, and a cosmetic anomalous Pocket Watch), four new craftable weapons (Endothermic Hammer, Plasma Flail, Acid Mace, Hardlight Sledge), and a new portal world called Dunkeltaler Forest via a Voices of the Void crossover.
What else changed
Dedicated servers can now support more than 16 players and will properly respect the configured max player count. The Charging Crate recharges battery items significantly faster. Cubicle recipes are cheaper, now requiring only 1 Box of Screws and Wood Planks instead of Metal Scrap.
On the enemy side, military AI now avoids friendly fire more consistently and won't stack in the same cover spot. The Defense Robot no longer fires mortars backwards. The infinite Thorns loop that was insta-killing scientists against IS-0173-B has been fixed.
For players just getting into the game, our Abiotic Factor beginner tips guide covers job selection and early survival strategies that are worth revisiting given how much the pet and chemistry systems change early progression priorities.
The full breadth of what 1.3.0 adds is substantial enough that our Abiotic Factor guides collection will likely need significant updates to cover the new chemistry crafting paths and pet mutation trees. Keep an eye on those resources as the community maps out the full mutation chains and optimal Distillation combinations over the coming weeks.
