007 First Light’s Free Extended Operations Update Adds New Game Plus, 00 Difficulty, Photo Mode and More Right Now

Key Takeaways

• 007 First Light’s Extended Operations DLC is free and available today — no purchase required.
• New Game Plus unlocks after beating the campaign on any difficulty, and brings the new punishing 00 difficulty mode with it.
• 00 difficulty features two-hit kills, faster enemy reactions, tighter parry timing, and gadget restrictions in guard line of sight.
• Two new TacSim missions are included — one brings back the Aston Martin Valhalla on Slovakia’s mountainside, the other returns Bond to Vietnam’s Pearl resort.
• Photo mode is finally in the game, letting you freeze the action, adjust character poses, tweak lighting, and apply filters.
• Game adjustments include improved weapon handling fidelity and enemies that can now throw Bond off ledges.
• 007 First Light released in May 2026 and has already passed 4 million copies sold in under three months.

If you’ve already run through 007 First Light’s campaign and been sitting around wondering what’s next, today’s your day. IO Interactive has dropped the Extended Operations update as a completely free DLC, and it’s a meaty one — New Game Plus, a proper hard difficulty, photo mode, and a couple of new TacSim missions are all live right now. This is the kind of update that gives a game serious replay legs, and if you’ve been holding off on a second run, this is the excuse you needed.

New Game Plus and the 00 Difficulty Mode

New Game Plus is the headline feature here. Once you’ve finished the campaign on any difficulty, it unlocks — and it brings the game’s brand new 00 difficulty along with it. According to IO Interactive, 00 is described as “considerably harder,” and the changes go well beyond just bumping up enemy health bars.

Here’s what actually changes in 00 difficulty: enemies react faster to bodies and disturbances, certain guard archetypes are swapped out for tougher variants, using gadgets becomes restricted if you’re inside a guard’s line of sight, and combat gets genuinely brutal. We’re talking two-hit kills for Bond, tighter timing windows on parries and sidesteps, and reduced agency gained during fights. That last one matters because the agency meter powers a lot of Bond’s slicker combat moves, so running low on it consistently makes engagements feel much more constrained.

Stealth and social encounters are sharpened too, not just combat. So if you were coasting through the game’s infiltration sequences or smooth-talking your way through social confrontations with relative ease, 00 difficulty is going to force you to actually think about what you’re doing. It’s a proper challenge mode, not just a damage multiplier.

Game director Dominic Vega said in a trailer accompanying the announcement that the DLC is “a thank you to all the players who’ve been with us since the game’s release,” adding: “So start the game and go earn the number.” — a pretty clear nod to Bond earning his 00 status, and a solid bit of framing for what the difficulty represents in the story context.

007 First Light Featured

Two New TacSim Missions

TacSim — the Tactical Simulation mode that’s been getting expanded since launch — gets two more entries in this update, and both of them look like they’ll keep series fans busy for a while.

The first brings back the Aston Martin Valhalla. You’re sent tearing across a Slovakian mountainside in it, facing timed challenges at varying times of day. The catch — or really the bonus — is that the Valhalla can be equipped with rocket launchers for this. So it’s not just a straight driving challenge, there’s a combat-oriented edge to it that should give it more replayability than a basic time trial.

The second TacSim mission takes Bond back to the Pearl resort in Vietnam. This one’s a more traditional spy operation — you need to retrieve classified documents from a safe and then escape to the rooftop. The entire villa is apparently in play this time, and IO Interactive has redesigned the villa’s interior specifically for this mission to open up more stealth opportunities. If you liked the original Pearl sequences in the main campaign, this sounds like it expands on exactly what made that location interesting.

Photo Mode Is Finally Here

This one’s been on the wishlist since launch. Photo mode is now in the game and it sounds like a full-featured implementation, not a basic screenshot tool. You can freeze the action at any moment — yes, including mid-fight — and then adjust character poses, tweak lighting, change lens settings, and apply processing filters. For a game that already has great cinematic moments and some genuinely stylish action, having full control over capturing them properly is a nice addition. Expect the community photo mode screenshots to be very good.

Gameplay Adjustments Worth Knowing About

Two gameplay changes came alongside the content drops. The first is improved weapon handling “fidelity” — IO Interactive says this gives more precision to Bond’s movement and weapon behaviour. It’s the kind of tweak that’s easier to feel than explain, but the intent is clearly to make combat feel more deliberate and responsive.

The second adjustment is a bigger deal in terms of moment-to-moment gameplay: enemies can now throw Bond off ledges. Previously that was a move only players could pull off. Adding it to the enemy AI kit changes how you approach ledge-adjacent combat — it’s not just an offensive tool anymore, it’s a threat you need to account for. Expect your first time getting hurled off a railing to be a memorable one.

Why This Update Matters for a Game Already Doing Well

007 First Light came out in May 2026 and made a real impression quickly. In a gaming landscape full of heavily anticipated releases, the Bond game cut through by nailing what matters — excellent hand-to-hand combat and a story with actual charm to it. IO Interactive, the Danish studio behind the Hitman: World of Assassination trilogy, self-published this one without a major publisher behind it, which makes the numbers even more impressive.

The game sold 4 million copies in under three months, hitting 1.5 million in its first 24 hours and 2.7 million in the first week. That made it the second best-selling game in the US year-to-date, behind only Resident Evil Requiem. A sequel hasn’t been officially confirmed, but Amazon’s gaming arm — which now owns the James Bond IP — has made positive noises about the franchise’s future, and those sales figures make the case for continued investment.

Extended Operations is part of IO Interactive’s Year One content plan, which was revealed back in June alongside the first sales figures. The roadmap also includes a Bawma story mission featuring Lenny Kravitz reprising his role, a path tracing graphics update, and the G2 smart glasses gadget from Even Realities. The free update cadence and the breadth of what’s being added suggest IO Interactive is investing seriously in keeping the player base engaged while presumably working on whatever comes next.

How to Access the Extended Operations Content

The update is live now and completely free for all 007 First Light owners across PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store. To access New Game Plus and the new 00 difficulty, you need to have beaten the campaign at least once on any difficulty setting — the difficulty unlocks alongside NG+, not separately. The TacSim missions and photo mode are available immediately without that requirement.

IO Interactive’s official site has the full patch notes and details on what’s included in the Extended Operations update. If you want to check out the game before diving into NG+, other recent game patches and updates are worth checking out too. And if you’ve been following the latest gaming news, there’s plenty more worth keeping tabs on this October.

Bottom line — if 007 First Light is already in your library and you’ve cleared the campaign, load it up today. The 00 difficulty alone is reason enough for a second run.