SAND: Raiders of Sophie Update #5 Overhauls Artifacts and Fixes Terrain

Update #5 for SAND: Raiders of Sophie arrived on 24 July 2026, described by publisher tinyBuild as a response to common player feedback and bug reports accumulated over the past several weeks.

What changed

Artifacts have been substantially reworked:

• Sphere shield is now impenetrable from both sides, with HP raised from 15,000 to 25,000
• Activated artifacts can be destroyed by dealing direct damage to them — they carry 900 HP and accept Infantry and Siege damage
• Activated artifacts are instantly destroyed by an EMP Wave
• WOK Bomb cannot be destroyed by Infantry or Siege damage, but can be destroyed by EMP
• Artifacts now trigger small VFX and SFX on destruction

Performance and rendering:

• BattlEye anti-cheat improvements
• Optimized rendering and streaming of terrain; loading is now described as smoother

Bug fixes include:

• Smoke no longer attaches to the trampler
• Item duplication exploit with boxes resolved
• Trampler can no longer clip under terrain after destruction
• One cause of "suspicious activity" kicks addressed
• Character transparency bug in Spectator mode fixed
• Softlock on extraction for teams of two or more corrected
• Various UI fixes

The patch ships alongside a candid list of known issues — including shotgun damage drop-off at close range, Ironclad trigger exploits, and client-server desync on Upior positioning — flagged for resolution in upcoming updates.

For players who found artifact encounters unpredictable or the sphere shield underwhelming, the rebalance meaningfully shifts how engagements around activated artifacts play out.