Days Gone DLC begins now with free Survival Mode update

Days Gone DLC is rolling out now and it just made the Farewell Wilderness even more inhospitable. The first new feature for the open-world apocalypse is Survival Mode, which makes enemies tougher and your own user interface far less accomodating. Coming up later in June is the first of 12 weekly challenges, giving players an infinite horde to survive against and some handy rewards they can take back into the main game. Meanwhile, all remains quiet on the Days Gone story DLC front, but that doesn't mean it's out of the question. 

Survival Mode gives you more challenge and rewards

If you finished the Days Gone story and were left pounding your chest as you howled for "MORE CHALLENGE," welcome to Survival Mode. The new option for campaign play means tougher enemies, no fast travel, and a disabled HUD by default. You can get your minimap and on-screen status bars back temporarily by activating survival vision, but even then it won't outline enemies or show you their current awareness. Your Survival Mode travails will turn into triumphs when you earn exclusive new bike skins and Trophies by playing and finishing the mode.

Weekly Challenges let you earn boosts for the main game

Some folks like playing Challenge stages for the thrill of chasing high scores, other folks can't be bothered. You'll want to pay attention to Days Gone's upcoming Weekly Challenges even if you're in the latter camp for at least one reason: vest patches. Completing challenges will earn you patches for Deacon's vest that come with mechanical perks like increased health, better melee weapon durability, and faster stamina regen, and they even work in both challenges and Story mode. You'll also be able to earn rings that provide bigger boosts and character skins that let you look like Boozer, Rikki, or Deacon but without a shirt, though they can only be used in challenges.

The first of 12 weekly challenges will go live in late June, and it's of the horde survival persuasion: titled Surrounded, it drops you into Sherman's Camp and surrounds you with an endless horde of freakers. Your objective is to survive as long as you can, but you can't just camp somewhere safe - a timer's ticking down and the only way to fill it back up is by taking out freakers in skillful way.

Days Gone story DLC could still happen

There hasn't yet been any word about Days Gone story DLC, which could expand the narrative and world like Horizon: Zero Dawn's Frozen Wilds DLC. There's still plenty of time for Sony and Bend Studio to announce it, if there will be any. The vanilla game hasn't even been out for two months as of this writing.

Read about how Days Gone's apocalyptic accuracy rates with the Zombie Research Society, or check out our 60 second review of the game.

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.