Hologryph pushed SAND: Raiders of Sophie into its next phase with Update #7, finally giving raiders a proper ping system. The seventh major patch since the game's late-June Early Access launch also ships more than 20 fixes, even as the extraction shooter's Steam reviews keep swinging between goodwill and frustration.

Finally pinging: what's new in Update #7

Raiders can now ping using the middle mouse button, closing a gap the community has been asking about for a while. Back in the mid-July Q&A, the devs ruled out any radio or CB-style comms between Tramplers and pointed players toward proximity chat and the Flare Gun instead. The new ping system fills at least part of that hole, on foot and aboard the Trampler alike.

Alongside pinging, Hologryph reworked the death and respawn flow. Killed characters now show up in the correct position, and a bug that spawned players outside their own Trampler is fixed. Tampering with a captured Trampler's ownership device also gets a new sound cue now, a small but welcome bit of feedback during boarding fights.

The key bug fixes at a glance

On top of the two headline features, Update #7 clears out a long list of familiar issues:

Trampler & movement

  • The Trampler keeps moving as long as at least one player is still aboard
  • Characters can no longer clip through terrain or obstacles while interacting with ladders
  • Damaged hatches no longer display as if they were undamaged
  • Parts of the environment used to be visible through destroyed compartments; that's fixed now

Combat & gear

  • Closed an exploit that let the auto-cannon fire faster than intended
  • Turret ammo from a player's inventory wouldn't load if the turret already held a different ammo type; also fixed
  • Multiple players could mount the same turret at once; no longer possible

Everything else

  • Crafting on islands now works correctly, a known issue for several updates
  • Zooming in on the map now shows a pulse animation to help you find your position
  • Marked items in the Loot Division screen used to lose their marking after a disconnect; fixed
  • The tutorial no longer restarts unintentionally after relaunching the game
  • Fixed an anti-cheat false positive triggered by respawning on a moving Trampler

The patch notes also mention “additional fixes on the backend” without further detail.

Known issues remain

Despite the long fix list, Hologryph is upfront that some problems are still open. Bullets can still pass through characters on speed-boosted Tramplers, shotguns can miss damage at close range, and there's a bug involving the Orbital Strike animation on the Smuggler control scheme. One particularly odd case is still unresolved too: standing on top of an enemy character's head and staying there can get you banned, a side effect of the ongoing anti-cheat work.

Where does the community currently stand on SAND: Raiders of Sophie?

On Steam, SAND: Raiders of Sophie currently sits at “Mixed.” 52% of the 7,387 English-language reviews are positive, dropping to 44% of 3,527 reviews over the last 30 days. German-language reviews, 706 in total, land at “Mixed” as well, while the 583 Simplified Chinese reviews sit noticeably lower, rated “Mostly Negative.”

Positive reviews mostly point to the pace: seven major patches since the June 22 Early Access launch is a lot for a game this size, alongside direct developer communication in the lengthy mid-July community Q&A and the return of Trampler capture after weeks of being disabled. Critical reviews, on the other hand, call out the ongoing cheating problem, most visibly a large BattlEye ban wave in late July, the months-long back-and-forth around Trampler capture, and the notably worse sentiment in the Chinese-speaking region, where cheating caused frustration early and hard.

FAQ: Update #7

How do I use the new ping system?

By default, ping is bound to the middle mouse button, both on foot and aboard a Trampler.

Is Trampler capture still active after Update #7?

Yes. It was already reactivated with Update #6, and Update #7 adds a fix for an anti-cheat false positive tied to respawning on a moving Trampler.

How is SAND: Raiders of Sophie currently rated on Steam?

Overall “Mixed,” with 52% positive reviews among English-language ratings and a noticeable regional gap, most visibly in the Chinese-speaking community.

Seven updates in seven weeks is a pace few Early Access titles manage to keep up. Whether it's enough to turn the review curve back around ultimately comes down to whether Hologryph finally gets the cheating problem under control.