Mycelium: The Silent Contract

About Mycelium: The Silent Contract

Mycelium: The Silent Contract is the work of Po Kolu, a solo developer from Ukraine, published by the Polish publisher Proteus Interactive. A free demo came out in October 2025 and the game entered Early Access on Steam in April 2026. It is voiced in English, with text in Ukrainian, French, German, Spanish and Italian too, and you can play it alone or online with up to three friends.

The premise is a contract with fine print. In life you signed it in exchange for success. Now that your life is over, there is no rest, only work: a company called Mycelium sends you into a hauntingly liminal forest to gather the mycelium that will one day free your soul. Your handler wants results. Nothing is quite what it seems, and the maker invites fans of the Backrooms, SCP and Alan Wake to feel right at home.

Each mission drops you into a dark, motionless forest that is generated anew, with dynamic weather and spatial sound, so you have to find your bearings every time. Silence is your best friend. You look for mycelium, pick up valuables that buy more time on later missions, and spend what you earn on the company's equipment, from scanners to teleporters. Then you use the mycelium you gathered to extract. The longer you stay, the more dangerous the forest becomes, because something always wants your mycelium more than you do. The maker promises dozens of locations with their own mysteries and puzzles, and more than ten monsters, from a pale clawed figure to a towering antlered thing.

Before a run you hang around a shared lobby. You claim a room, pick a male or female contractor and buy upgrades on a tablet: more health, stamina and pack space, or tools like a compass, a flare gun, teleporters and a radar that beeps faster near mushrooms. There's a safe zone in the lobby where you can try a tool before you pay for it. Out in the woods there's no minimap, and the quiet whistle you use to find each other can bring the monsters too. Solo players get a smaller mushroom quota than a full team of four.

Technetbook played it in May 2026 and gave it 5/10. Its reviewer liked the gear and the tension but found the knife fights stiff and the co-op economy built around the host, since players who join a friend's game earn nothing for themselves. Steam players have been kinder, and many of them mention the sound design and the creepy mood. Early Access builds change, so some of that may be fixed by now.

In Early Access there is one big map, about ten pieces of equipment and over twenty locations, with a story that starts to unfold; the maker plans more maps, enemies, lore and several story endings for the full release. It suits groups who like Lethal Company-style runs but want more quiet dread in the dark, and solo players who like wandering lost in a forest.

How to play Mycelium: The Silent Contract

1. Buy the game on Steam and start a mission solo or host one for friends.
2. Arrive in the forest, get your bearings and stay quiet.
3. Search the forest and its locations for mycelium and valuables, scanning with your equipment.
4. Keep an eye on the time: the longer you stay, the more dangerous the forest becomes.
5. Use the mycelium you gathered to extract, then spend your earnings on better equipment for the next contract.

Tips

• Stay together and talk: the game is built around voice chat and other ways to coordinate.
• Valuables buy you more time on later missions; pick them up when it is safe.
• Learn landmarks fast; the forest is different every time and getting lost is how runs end.
• Leave before you feel you have to; staying long draws out more of the forest's dangers.
• Try new tools in the lobby's safe zone before you spend your points on them.
• Whistle sparingly. It helps a lost teammate find you, but the monsters hear it as well.

Questions