Bloober Team has released a new four-minute gameplay showcase for Cronos: Lazarus, the upcoming story expansion for Cronos: The New Dawn. Titled “Fight Like the Pathfinder,” the presentation focuses on the DLC’s more aggressive combat style and gives players another look at the abilities that distinguish the Warden from the base game’s protagonist. Cronos: Lazarus remains scheduled for release in fall 2026.
The expansion puts players in control of the Warden, exploring an earlier period in his life when he was still a Pathfinder working for the Collective. Rather than simply repeating the slower, resource-conscious combat of Cronos: The New Dawn, Bloober Team has designed Lazarus around faster movement and a more direct approach to encounters. The studio describes the Warden as an elite operative capable of moving quickly, striking hard and surviving under sustained pressure.
Several of the abilities highlighted in the latest footage were previously introduced through Bloober Team’s developer diaries. The Pathfinder can teleport during combat, creating new opportunities to reposition quickly or close distance on enemies. He can also deploy a decoy and temporarily conceal himself from enemies, giving players additional options for controlling encounters rather than relying purely on firearms and careful positioning.
Lazarus also introduces the Gladius, a melee weapon that gives close-range combat a substantially larger role than it had in the original game. Cronos: The New Dawn generally encouraged players to conserve resources, choose engagements carefully and maintain distance from its creatures. The expansion retains the same underlying horror setting but gives the Warden a toolset built for more frequent and aggressive confrontations.
Bloober Team is also introducing a new pursuer created specifically to hunt the Pathfinder. The enemy is described as relentless and highly adaptive, with the strength to challenge a protagonist who is otherwise considerably more capable than the Traveler from the base game. The studio says encounters with this threat will develop into larger-scale battles intended to test the Warden’s expanded movement and combat abilities.
The story centers on the Warden after he becomes isolated in the Terminal and separated from the Collective. He is attempting to awaken a lost Essence while dealing with the consequences of defying the organization he once served. Bloober Team has positioned the expansion as an important piece of the character’s history rather than a detached side story, with Lazarus intended to explain parts of his transformation into the figure encountered in Cronos: The New Dawn.
That shift in perspective also changes how players interact with the familiar world of New Dawn. The Warden has access to technology and abilities associated with the Pathfinder role, while his enhanced mobility allows encounters to unfold at a much quicker pace. Bloober Team has said the expansion is designed to build on the mechanics players already know while showing what combat looks like from the perspective of one of the Collective’s more capable agents.
Cronos: The New Dawn originally centered on the Traveler, who navigates a ruined future while moving through time to extract important people before the catastrophe known as the Change. Its combat revolves around enemies called Orphans, which can merge with fallen bodies if players fail to destroy the remains quickly enough. Lazarus retains the same universe and body-horror foundation while shifting the emphasis toward more action-driven encounters.
The latest gameplay showcase is the clearest concentrated look yet at how that change in pace translates into moment-to-moment play. Rather than replacing the survival-horror framework entirely, the expansion adds new traversal, melee and deception tools that allow players to approach familiar threats in different ways.
Cronos: Lazarus is due to launch in fall 2026 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC. Bloober Team has not yet announced a specific release date.
