Baba Is You Is Back With A Big 2026 Update
Baba Is You is one of those puzzle games that sticks in your brain long after you stop playing. It launched to huge praise on PC, with many players binging through its brain twisting levels and then stepping away until they could forget all the solutions.
Now in 2026 the game is getting a surprising new update, and it is a pretty major one. It does not completely reinvent Baba Is You, but it adds fresh tools, words and objects that give both players and modders new ways to bend the game’s rules.
The developer describes this as probably the final large update for Baba Is You. That makes it feel like a kind of farewell gift to the community instead of just a small maintenance patch.
New Words And Objects To Play With
The heart of Baba Is You is its rule system. Every level is built from small word blocks that define how the world works. By pushing these words around you literally rewrite the rules: you can make walls passable, turn lava into safe ground, or even change which object you control.
This update adds five new words that can be used in custom levels:
- become
- facedby
- hold
- happy
- angry
Each of these gives designers and modders new ways to build strange interactions. For example, a rule like Baba is Happy hints that your character could gain some new state that affects how puzzles play out. Baba is Angry could do the opposite. Become suggests transformations between objects, while hold and facedby open the door to rules that react to what you carry or what direction you are looking at something from.
On top of new words, the update also brings in more sprites and objects. The list includes things like a fox, a bean, a hot dog, a cactus and several others. These might sound simple but in Baba Is You every single object can be wired into the rule system. That means a basic hot dog sprite can become the key to a highly complex puzzle once it is tied to the right set of sentences.
Even if the update is not packed with official new levels, these fresh pieces give the community a lot to experiment with.
Level Editor And Modding Upgrades
If you have not touched Baba Is You since shortly after launch, you might have missed one of its biggest free additions: the full level editor. Released back in 2021, it doubled the size of the game and came with a cross platform system that lets players share and browse custom levels.
The new 2026 update leans hard into that side of the game. The extra words, sprites and tweaks are all designed to slot into the existing editor so creators can build even more elaborate puzzles. From the main menu you can already jump into a featured section that highlights some of the best community creations. With this new tool set that featured area is likely to get even more wild over time.
Beyond the editor itself there is also support for deeper modding. The latest patch notes are full of technical details that experienced modders will appreciate. While those specifics mainly matter to people digging into scripts and custom behavior, they come bundled with many bug fixes and adjustments that help polish the overall experience for everyone.
Even players who only download other peoples work instead of building their own levels will benefit. More stable tools and fewer bugs mean creators can push the engine harder without breaking everything, which usually leads to better and more inventive level packs for everyone else to enjoy.
Why This Update Matters Years Later
What makes this update so interesting is the timing. Baba Is You has been around for more than half a decade, yet it is still getting meaningful new features instead of just minor fixes.
For puzzle fans it is a reason to reinstall the game and dive into the community tab. There are already countless custom levels built over the years, many of them featured in the game itself. With the new words and sprites, level designers can craft puzzles that would have been impossible at launch, whether that means emotional states for characters, conditional rules based on direction, or wild chains of transformations.
For modders this update is even more significant. Better tools, more objects and a more polished engine extend the life of the game far beyond the original campaign. Since Baba Is You is built around its own quirky logic language, every extra word is like adding new syntax to a programming language. That keeps the meta game of discovery alive for the most dedicated players.
It is also worth noting that this update is free. Previous free updates have added full sets of new levels, while this one focuses more on systems and creation tools. Instead of handing you another linear sequence of puzzles, it hands the community more building blocks and says here, see what you can make.
Years after release there is still nothing quite like Baba Is You on PC. Its hardest puzzles can absolutely fry your brain, but when a level finally clicks it feels fantastic. This final big update is a fitting way to keep that feeling going into 2026 and beyond, giving both returning players and new ones a fresh excuse to mess with words and break all the rules again.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/puzzle/baba-is-news-one-of-the-best-puzzle-games-of-the-last-decade-just-got-a-major-update-seven-years-after-release/
