Patch notes · Neon Kabuki 2089

16–18 October 2026

The Kanemori Sanctuary

The map grew east, up a mountain. Also new: cars drawn in proper perspective, a new homepage and steam vents you can hack.

The full map: Kabukicho, Okubo and Nishi-Shinjuku, with the new Kanemori Sanctuary strip on the east edge, its checkpoint, courtyard, monastery and winding mountain road — The map grew east to the Kanemori Sanctuary.

The Sanctuary

A temple courtyard at night: the main hall with a pink paper lantern, stone lanterns and a raked-gravel garden — The Sanctuary courtyard, under Kanemori guard.

The map is wider: a mountain district east of Okubo, reached by a road off the Okubo avenue and past a Kanemori checkpoint. Police pursuit stops at the checkpoint (your heat still counts).
A temple estate: gravel courtyards, a main hall, lanterns everywhere, a tall temple wall with a gatehouse, and a ridge gate to the ruined monastery behind it.
Shingan, Abbot of the Sanctuary, waits in his lair. He only fights if you start it and never gives you heat. Naginata sweeps, blinks and hologram doubles. Cut the power or use an EMP and the doubles go out. Bring friends.
Kanemori guards and cameras watch the courtyards, so crimes on camera still count.

A runner mid-fight in the monastery courtyard: Shingan and two hologram doubles, each with a name tag, and the yellow arc of a naginata sweep — Shingan and his two hologram doubles. Which one is real?

The countryside

A winding mountain road, a sakura road, a walkable forest (cars and bikes can drive on the grass too), a strolling garden with a koi pond and red bridge, a tea field, terraced paddies, a stream, a bamboo grove, a fox shrine and a rest stop.
Deer, tanuki, crows, herons, koi, butterflies and fireflies. They run from you.
A hot spring onsen heals you, same rules as the clinic pad: on foot, not wanted, not just hurt.
Trees stop cars, and so does water. The rail line now ends at a buffer stop at the old east edge.
No traffic or pedestrians up here. Just you, the guards and the mountain.

A round hot spring in a wooden bathhouse deck, with bamboo, stone lanterns and sakura trees beside a winding road — The mountain onsen.

Cars

Every vehicle is redrawn in three-quarter perspective at 32 headings, so cars finally match the city's angle.
Each type has its own model and its own wreck damage.
Cars and people are layered correctly, so you walk in front of or behind a car the way you'd expect.

Homepage & map

New homepage: pick one of four full-body runners, then name and Play. The top six runners show without paging.
The minimap shows about 1.9x more city across in the same box.

The start page: four runners in a row, Oni selected, with a name field and a PLAY button over the Kabukicho backdrop — Choose your runner first.

Hacking & fixes

Steam vents: Remote Override opens a vent, and its cloud blocks police, drone, camera, gang and guard sight through it. It never adds or removes heat.
The Tower terminal is captured with one press, then you defend it.
Buildings whose back faces a roof or the rail line now draw a back wall instead of a shopfront door that opened onto nothing.

10–16 October 2026

A whole new city

The whole city has new art, characters got a full detail pass, and Benikage picked up a sword.

The city

Every building on the map has new art: all 82 in Kabukichō, plus Okubo and Nishi-Shinjuku.
The Kanemori Twin Towers in Nishi-Shinjuku are now huge. Walk behind them and they fade so you never lose yourself.
The koban moved to the corner; the koban and Hachi's stall are now solid.
Parked and slow cars are solid, so no more walking through them.
Traffic no longer jams itself. Jams only happen when you get in the way (or wreck something).
Calmer look by default: new Neon intensity setting (Full / Soft / Low).

A rainy Kabukicho street at night with a clinic, a love hotel with pink neon and a glowing fixer kiosk — Kabukichō by the clinic, in the new art.

The Kanemori Twin Towers seen from above: a rooftop helipad over rows of lit office windows — The Kanemori Twin Towers, helipad on top.

Characters & art

Runners are smaller with a matching hitbox, and redrawn at real size with much more detail.
Every faction has its own outfit: slate-blue police, Kaminari-gumi black leathers with pink trim, Oni-Gumi, Kumadori suits.
You now see the gun each person is holding, including your fitted parts (optic, suppressor, mag).
Vehicles got liveries and sharper detail (beaters are back to plain junkers).
Boss fights hit harder: screen shake, shockwaves, cracks and debris.

Two runners on a sidewalk holding their guns, one teammate downed beside them — You can see what everyone is holding.

A sheet of top-down cars, taxis, police cars, vans, trucks and bikes in many colors and liveries — New vehicle liveries.

Three frames of the kaiju boss's stomp: a yellow shockwave ring, cracks and debris spreading across the ground — NeonG's stomp now lands with a shockwave, cracks and debris.

Combat & loot

Benikage now fights up close with his katana. He's quick and hits hard, and his guards still shoot. Bring friends.
Benikage is tougher (560 HP).
Epic and Legendary guns only drop from Boss Hunts and Benikage. Regular enemies drop cash and ammo.
Each faction carries its own gun: Oni-Gumi shotguns, Kaminari-gumi K-5s, Kumadori guards Smart SMGs.
Shooting now exits hack mode, so your gun never seems "broken".

Inside Kumadori Club: a crowded LED dance floor and Benikage in the VIP area with his suited guards — Benikage holds court in Kumadori Club.

Jobs, kiosks & map

Five fixer kiosks sell jobs and ammo/throwables. On the map and minimap they're a pink K.
The map shows gang turf (Oni Turf in red).
New goal card plus a NEXT · line on the HUD that tells you what to do next.
Tail Job fix: the job only counts down while the target car is actually driving.

The full city map with Kabukicho, Okubo and Nishi-Shinjuku, pink K diamonds for kiosks and Oni Turf outlined in red — The full map (M): kiosks are the pink K.

Menus

Menus fit the screen with no scrolling.
One-screen inventory: your runner, your slots and your guns.
Real weapon art in the menus.
New Lore tab.
Controls page grouped by activity, with keyboard and gamepad tabs.
Menu panels have a new circuit-trace texture.
Attributes are renamed Grit, Snap, Wrench, Wire, Ice. The perk tree is now Night Trade with new perk names. Same perks, our own names. The Street Kid/Corpo/Nomad background is gone.

The new inventory screen: the runner in the middle with weapon slots and the katana around them, owned guns listed on the right — The one-screen inventory.

Other

The start screen pans over the real city and plays title music.
Effects have their own volume and no longer drown out the music.
Report a Bug form in the game. Please use it!
Fixed: the world could freeze after resizing the window.
Phone: touch buttons now have word labels, and the left stick points where you want to drive.

5 October 2026

New places

Kumadori Club (Nishi-Shinjuku): a walk-in nightclub with an LED dance floor, DJ stage, bars and a VIP lounge. Sometimes Benikage holds court there with four guards. He only fights if you start it and never gives you heat.
Shin-Okubo Car Park: drive up the walled ramp to a fenced roof deck with a garage counter.
More fixers (Golden Gai Bar, Robot Restaurant), a Back-Alley Clinic in Okubo, the West Exit Taxi Rank, respray yards in Okubo and Nishi-Shinjuku, and the Hangul Street Gunsmith.
Hanabi Shrine: press USE there once a day for +2 street cred.
West Exit Koban: pay your bribe here, but reinforcements leave from it.
Hideouts: the Okubo karaoke den alley and the Hotel Corner sign make searches run out faster, on foot only.
Data Broker: $250 shows police cameras on your maps for 4 minutes.
Kanemori Helipad, where the top-tier boss lands.
New job: Tower Lobby Hack. Hold the Twin Towers lobby terminal for 40 seconds against waves of security.

Changed

Jobs start only at a fixer kiosk. You can still join or leave a crewmate's job from anywhere.
Street cred unlocks the harder jobs: Tail 10, Billboard 20, Repo 30, Getaway 40, Tower Lobby Hack 50. Boss Hunt tiers need 50, 75 and 100.

4 October 2026

Perks, waves and blades

A real perk tree: five branches of four perks; pick one of two at tier 2. Extra points at 25, 60 and 120 street cred. Doc Neko respecs you for a fee, and your newest point can be undone for free for 5 minutes.
New jobs that unlock with street cred: Tail Job, Billboard Hijack, Repo Run and Getaway Driver (crew).
Two new vehicles: the Kei Hauler open-bed pickup and the Kanemori AutoCab taxi.
Police come in waves, with drones from the first star, a roadblock at 3 stars and flanking elites at 5. Alleys are hide spots. Bribe the cops at the chop shop.
The whole city redrawn at twice the detail, new boss art, and a new full map (M).
A katana instead of fists, and ninja stars on G.
Four new cyberware implants: Kizuna Link, Koban Scrambler, Ryujin Overclock and Yurei Dash, plus the Kagemusha Hologram Decoy.
Neon tanto, smoke pellets and EMP kunai; press T to switch throwables. Chat moved from T to Y.
Crew masks are worn on the face, and landmarks show on the full map.

Changed

Remote Override drives the hacked car to where you aim.
Dying while wanted costs 15% of your cash; respray prices climb with each star.
Respawning solo clears the police.
Fixed: on slow devices you no longer move in slow motion.

3 October 2026

The city is three times bigger

Okubo to the east and Nishi-Shinjuku to the south, past a new railway line, sit beside Kabukichō.
Boss Hunts: pick a tier and a boss shows up somewhere in the city. Pay is split by damage, and everyone gets their own gun drops. Boss fights never raise your wanted level.
Crewmate arrows at the screen edge, three new 9 mm guns, and you can choose your crew mask.
Sell cars at the chop shop and guns or parts to Hachi.
A recovery pad by the clinic heals you slowly. Keys 1–3 switch weapon slots. New start page with one big PLAY button.

Changed

Cops are easier to escape at 1 and 2 stars.

2 October 2026

A rebuilt Kabukichō

A rebuilt city: every building in Kabukichō hand-drawn again, with lit shop fronts and signs painted on the buildings.
Gunsmith at Hachi's: the V-47 Medved rifle and the VS-12 Kaban shotgun, with 49 parts to fit.
Handbrake drifting: hold Shift while driving.
Damage numbers, a short tutorial for new players, new exploration music and a top runners board.

Fixed

Traffic jams now sort themselves out.
USE at a shop counter opens the shop even when a car is stopped next to you.