diff --git a/tools/publish-bin.ps1 b/tools/publish-bin.ps1
index 6348826e..d1df1889 100644
--- a/tools/publish-bin.ps1
+++ b/tools/publish-bin.ps1
@@ -109,6 +109,23 @@ function Invoke-Publish {
     if ($LASTEXITCODE) { throw "publish failed: $Project ($Rid)" }
 }
 
+function Remove-DebugSymbols {
+    param([Parameter(Mandatory)][string]$Directory)
+
+    # Players never load these, and the native ones are enormous: a stock
+    # Avalonia publish ships libSkiaSharp.pdb (80 MB) and
+    # libHarfBuzzSharp.pdb (20 MB), which alone were 100 MB of a 278 MB
+    # launcher payload (measured 2026-08-18). MSBuild's DebugType switches
+    # only govern OUR managed symbols, not the native .pdb files that arrive
+    # as package runtime assets, so drop them from the payload directly.
+    $symbols = @(Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $Directory -Recurse -File -Filter *.pdb)
+    if ($symbols.Count -eq 0) { return }
+    $freed = ($symbols | Measure-Object -Property Length -Sum).Sum
+    $symbols | Remove-Item -Force
+    '    stripped {0} debug symbol file(s), {1:N1} MB' -f $symbols.Count, ($freed / 1MB) |
+        Write-Host -ForegroundColor DarkGray
+}
+
 function New-PayloadZip {
     param(
         [Parameter(Mandatory)][string]$SourceDirectory,
@@ -116,6 +133,8 @@ function New-PayloadZip {
         [Parameter(Mandatory)][string[]]$RequiredFiles
     )
 
+    Remove-DebugSymbols $SourceDirectory
+
     foreach ($required in $RequiredFiles) {
         if (-not (Test-Path -LiteralPath (Join-Path $SourceDirectory $required))) {
             throw "Payload '$SourceDirectory' is missing required file '$required'."
@@ -208,8 +227,9 @@ foreach ($file in (Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $BinRoot -File | Sort-Object Name)
 # about the source changed. Report it rather than silently reverting: the files
 # are the developer's, and a real dependency change must not be swallowed here.
 $dirtyLocks = @(
-    & git -C $RepoRoot status --porcelain -- '*packages.*.lock.json' 2>$null
-) | Where-Object { $_ }
+    @(& git -C $RepoRoot status --porcelain -- '*packages.*.lock.json' 2>$null) |
+        Where-Object { $_ }
+)
 if ($dirtyLocks.Count -gt 0) {
     Write-Host ''
     Write-Host 'Note: the RID restore modified these lock files:' -ForegroundColor Yellow