Verified against v0.4.6 Open Beta (July 8, 2026). Values, item names, and patch numbers change as TVGS pushes new builds — if a section here doesn’t match what you see in-game, you’re probably on a different branch (stable vs. Open Beta) than the one that content shipped on.
If you last checked the Schedule I beginner’s guide or a roadmap piece before this winter, you’re working from outdated information. A lot of gaming coverage still frames Shrooms as “coming soon” — it shipped in December 2025. Five patches have landed since. Here’s what actually changed, patch by patch, and what’s still sitting on the roadmap.
Quick Answer: What’s Shipped Since Shrooms
Six updates have gone out since the Shrooms content drop, and the pace between them isn’t constant — that matters if you’re deciding whether to jump back in now or wait for the next one.
| Version | Name | Date | Headline Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| v0.4.2 | Shrooms Update | Dec 2025 | 4th drug added, new cultivation equipment |
| v0.4.3 | Storage Closets | Feb 2, 2026 | Metallic storage units, redesigned dealer app |
| v0.4.4 | Weather Update | Mar 18, 2026 | Dynamic weather, rainy-deal cash bonus |
| v0.4.5 | Anniversary Update | Mar 29, 2026 | New weapon, seeded mixing, combat tweaks |
| v0.4.5f2 | Hotfix | mid-Apr 2026 | Vote panel + Big Sprinkler at Oscar’s |
| v0.4.6 | Open Beta | Jul 8, 2026 | Controller support, UI overhaul |
[1][2]
Your in-game version number sits in the bottom corner of the main menu — check it before you go troubleshooting a “bug” that might just be a feature from a patch you haven’t installed yet, or before you follow a guide (including this one) written for a different build.
No, Shrooms Isn’t “Coming Soon” — It’s Been Live Since December
This needs saying because so much roadmap coverage still hasn’t caught up: Shrooms won a community vote back in September 2025 with roughly 270,000 of 490,000 votes cast, beating out Drivers (~139,000) and Fishing (~85,000) [6]. The developer wouldn’t commit to a firm date at the time — he’d been burned by over-promising before — but the update shipped as v0.4.2 before the end of 2025, slotting Shrooms in as a mid-to-late-game drug that unlocks between your meth and cocaine operations [1].
If you’re a new player starting fresh in mid-2026, this means Shrooms isn’t a future unlock to plan around — it’s already part of the standard progression, alongside weed, meth, and cocaine. If you’re a returning player who quit before winter, this is the single biggest gap in your mental model of the game: you missed an entire drug type and its production chain, which changes the production and mixing math you may still be using.
v0.4.3: Storage Closets (February 2, 2026)
The first update of the year focused on inventory sprawl. Metallic storage closets became purchasable at the hardware store in four sizes once you hit Bagman I on the rank ladder, giving you dedicated overflow space instead of stacking product in your lab or car trunk. TVGS paired it with a redesigned dealer management app and new graffiti-based side activities (“Benzies”), plus an undo function for graffiti with adjustable stroke sizes [1][2]. The dealer management app redesign is easy to miss in the patch summary but changes how you reassign customers between dealers — worth a look if you’ve been avoiding the dealer system because the old interface was clunky.
The practical impact is bigger than it sounds if you’re running automated production: closets separate raw ingredient overflow from finished product, which cuts the number of times your NPC workers path through the wrong storage container looking for the wrong item.
v0.4.4: Weather Update (March 18, 2026)
This is the patch most players actually noticed. Six weather states — clear, overcast, foggy, light rain, heavy rain, and lightning — now cycle semi-randomly, replacing the static clear-sky default. TVGS rebuilt the day/night cycle underneath it and revamped the settings menu at the same time [2][3].
Two mechanical changes matter more than the visuals: a “rainy bonus” pays extra cash on deals closed during rain, and police now alternate between two sentry positions instead of one fixed spot, and no longer taser players who are already within arrest distance [3]. Despite adding a full weather-simulation layer, TVGS reported FPS running 5-10% higher than the previous build thanks to rendering optimizations shipped alongside it — worth knowing if you’d been avoiding this patch on a lower-end rig. Check current numbers against our best PC settings guide if you’re still on integrated graphics.
v0.4.5: Anniversary Update (March 29, 2026)
Schedule I turned one year old in early access, and TVGS marked it with a content patch rather than just a blog post — by March 30, the community had collectively logged over 17.8 billion minutes of playtime [2]. The update added a Golden M1911, the Big Sprinkler, a reorder button on the delivery app, a headshot damage multiplier, and a “seeded mixing” option that locks mixing RNG to a fixed seed — useful if you’re trying to reproduce a specific recipe result instead of re-rolling outcomes [4].
TVGS also quietly rebalanced how long drug effects last on NPC customers: weed and meth effects run 9 hours, cocaine 6 hours, and shrooms 12 hours [4] — a detail worth knowing if your wanted-level management depends on timing repeat sales around when a customer’s high wears off. A follow-up hotfix, v0.4.5f2, landed in mid-April adding descriptions to the community vote panel and moving the Big Sprinkler to Oscar’s store [1].
v0.4.6 Open Beta: Controller Support (July 8, 2026)
The most recent build, live now as an Open Beta branch, is a systems patch rather than a content patch. The headline feature is full controller/gamepad support with Xbox and PlayStation-specific button prompts, backed by a new UI “state system” for menus, a platform-integrated fullscreen fade, and a virtual cursor for controller navigation. TVGS also shipped light-source culling and shadow-optimization passes aimed at squeezing more performance out of the engine [2].
Should you opt in now? If you’re a controller player who’s been waiting to play Schedule I on a couch setup or Steam Deck, yes — opt into the beta branch via Steam > Properties > Betas. If you’re mid-multiplayer co-op run with friends, hold off until it merges to the stable branch; open betas on this game have historically carried save-compatibility and host/client mismatch risks that TVGS irons out before full release. Solo, keyboard-and-mouse players have the least reason to switch early — nothing in v0.4.6 changes core economy or production mechanics.
Patch Velocity: Why the Gap Before v0.4.6 Was So Much Longer
Lay the confirmed dates side by side and a pattern shows up that no other coverage of this update has pointed out: the time between major patches roughly tripled right when it should have shrunk.
| Gap | Days Between |
|---|---|
| v0.4.3 → v0.4.4 | 44 days |
| v0.4.4 → v0.4.5 | 11 days |
| v0.4.5 → v0.4.6 | 101 days |
That 101-day gap lines up with something TVGS announced in early January: developer Tyler converted his solo project into an actual studio, opened an office in Sydney, hired a second developer named Rob, and started recruiting a 3D/technical artist — with a stated near-term priority of “positioning the game in a strong position for future development,” widely read as groundwork for official mod support [5]. Rebuilding core systems (the new UI state system in v0.4.6 is part of that) takes longer than shipping new drug content, which is the most likely reason the anniversary-to-beta gap ran 2-9x longer than the gaps before it. If that pattern holds, expect the next major content patch — not just a systems update — to take a similar amount of time rather than the 11-44 day cadence from earlier this year.
What This Means By Player Type
| Player Type | Priority |
|---|---|
| New player | Ignore old “Shrooms is coming” guides — it’s a normal drug now. Start on stable branch, not Open Beta. |
| Casual player | Grab the weather patch’s rainy-deal bonus and the storage closets; skip chasing seeded-mixing RNG manipulation. |
| Hardcore/optimizer | Use seeded mixing (v0.4.5) to lock in your best recipe roll, then min-max around the 6/9/12-hour NPC effect windows. |
| Completionist | Opt into v0.4.6 Open Beta now for full controller UI coverage; track the mod-support groundwork since it’s the clearest signal for what ships next. |
What’s Actually Next: MDMA, Heroin, and the Rest of the Roadmap
MDMA and Heroin have been on TVGS’s public roadmap since before Shrooms shipped, alongside speculative additions like a fishing minigame, hireable drivers, and two map expansions (a southwest area and a northeast gated community) [7]. None of the six patches covered above added any of them — as of v0.4.6, they remain unconfirmed Trello-board ideas, not scheduled content.
The Shrooms precedent gives a rough, non-binding benchmark: it went from winning a community vote (September 2025) to shipping (December 2025) in about three and a half months, and that was with a one-person dev team. With TVGS now staffing up and mid-2026 spent on foundational systems work rather than content, there’s no solid basis for guessing a date for MDMA or Heroin — treat any specific month you see elsewhere as speculation, not a confirmed release window.
FAQ
Do I need to start a new save after these updates?
No — TVGS has kept save compatibility across all six patches covered here, including the Shrooms content drop. The exception is if you’re switching between the stable branch and the v0.4.6 Open Beta branch, where cross-branch save issues have shown up historically on this game; back up your save file before swapping branches.
Is the Weather Update actually free, or is dynamic weather a paid DLC?
Free. Schedule I hasn’t shipped any paid DLC — every update covered in this guide, including weather, Shrooms, and controller support, is part of the base early access build.
Why did the anniversary update disable the feedback system?
TVGS took the in-game feedback tool offline temporarily during the v0.4.5 rollout while migrating its backend infrastructure [4]. That’s a maintenance move tied to the studio’s broader infrastructure work in early 2026, not a removal of the feature.
Will the v0.4.6 Open Beta branch break my multiplayer save?
Not by design, but treat it as a risk rather than a guarantee. TVGS ships Open Beta branches specifically to catch save and host/client issues before merging to stable, which means by definition some will exist. If you and your co-op group aren’t all on the same branch, you likely can’t join each other’s sessions until everyone updates — coordinate with your group and back up your save before switching.
Key Takeaways
The single biggest thing to correct if you’re catching up: Shrooms is old news, not upcoming content. Since it shipped, TVGS moved through storage, weather, and combat updates on an 11-44 day cadence, then slowed down for a 101-day systems overhaul that shipped as the v0.4.6 controller update on July 8, 2026 — most likely because the studio is rebuilding foundational systems ahead of official mod support. MDMA and Heroin remain unscheduled. If you want the deepest current build, that’s the Open Beta branch; if you want stability for a co-op run, stay on the default branch until v0.4.6 goes fully live.
Sources
- Patchbot — Schedule I Patch Notes: https://patchbot.io/games/schedule-i
- Steam Community — Schedule I Official News: https://steamcommunity.com/app/3164500/allnews/
- ScreenRant — Schedule 1 March 2026 Weather Update: https://screenrant.com/schedule-1-free-weather-update-march-2026/
- The Game Haus — Schedule 1 Anniversary Update Patch Notes: https://thegamehaus.com/gaming/schedule-1-anniversary-update-full-patch-notes/2026/03/31/
- Dexerto — Schedule 1 Dev Announces New Game Studio: https://www.dexerto.com/gaming/schedule-1-dev-announces-new-game-studio-reveals-2026-update-3300888/
- GameRant — Schedule 1 Teases the Next Big Update: https://gamerant.com/schedule-1-shrooms-update-community-vote/
- PCGamesN — Schedule 1 Roadmap: https://www.pcgamesn.com/schedule-1/roadmap
I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.