SQUAD will run an open playtest in its Public Testing app from November 6 through November 9 to preview work planned for Update 10.7. The build combines the new Oskil River map with World Partition performance testing and an unfinished overhaul of friendly-player identification. Because this is a separate Steam application rather than a live-client patch, compatibility needs to be considered accordingly.
A separate test build, not the 10.7 rollout
Players do not need to select a special branch. The test is distributed through Squad — Public Testing, which may only become visible after hidden applications are enabled in the Steam library. A community host will provide the server infrastructure, with individual servers opening or closing as the population changes.
The session begins at 11 AM PT (UTC−7) on November 6 and ends at the same time on November 9. It offers an early look at selected 10.7 changes, but the features and tuning in this build should not be treated as final.
What World Partition is being tested on
Oskil River is an Eastern European battlefield built around several distinct combat spaces. Damaged settlements and urban sections sit alongside open ground and trench networks, providing room for both infantry and armored engagements. More detailed environmental dressing is also being used to reinforce the war-torn setting, although some textures and prop placement remain unfinished.
Oskil already runs on World Partition. During the playtest, hosts are also expected to rotate World Partition layers for:
- Gorodok;
- Yehorivka;
- Narva;
- Mutaha.
The goal is to put ongoing optimization work under a broader mix of hardware configurations and live server conditions. No specific frame-rate improvement is promised in the announcement, so this should be viewed as data gathering rather than evidence that SQUAD’s performance issues have already been resolved.
Friendly identification gets less name clutter
The experimental Identify Friend from Foe system changes how teammate information appears at different distances. At close range and outside ADS, names can appear automatically within the player’s field of view. At medium range, those names become simpler overhead icons. Marker opacity responds to distance and proximity to the center of the screen, while fully obscured teammates should lose their indicators.
Aiming down sights immediately displays a friendly icon when an eligible teammate enters the sight picture. Names are removed in this mode, magnified optics adjust the available identification range, and the icon disappears when the player leaves the relevant area. The intended result is faster target confirmation without filling long-range views with names. If no icon appears in the crosshairs, the player can only assume that the target is highly likely to be an enemy.
It is still a work in progress. A friendly icon may fail when the player’s hip is blocked by a wall, remain visible too long after the teammate reaches cover, or appear on an incapacitated player. Other known test problems include occasional rubber-banding, a missing mouse cursor after a map change, and trench edges that can be difficult to vault.
What this means for players using software
Do not assume that a build made for live SQUAD will also support Public Testing. A separate client can use different offsets, signatures, or data layouts even when the announcement does not mention an anti-cheat change. Unless the provider explicitly lists the test application as supported, the sensible approach is to treat it as an unsupported build and avoid loading the same configuration automatically.
Check the software update status page before joining, and confirm the supported client version for anything listed in the SQUAD software catalog. Nothing in this announcement indicates a new anti-cheat component or additional HWID checks, so the playtest alone is not a reason to add or replace an HWID spoofer. The redesigned friendly markers may also overlap with team indicators in ESP overlays; reducing duplicate labels can keep the screen readable, but the built-in system’s current occlusion bugs make it unreliable as the sole way to classify a target.
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