January 7 p2

• Fixed Night Watch only healing group.

  [/*]

• Fixed weak cloud response to wind.

  [/*]

• Included threat increase on Order of Tribune Alchemy 2 enrage.

  [/*]

• Reduced max volume on low and medium wind audio tracks.

  [/*]

• Add recenter target and recenter speed sliders to control options tab.

  [/*]

January 7

Happy New Year! Character have been copied from Live as of January 7th at 10am Central. We are currently looking into splitting Highland Hills into a North & South zone so that we can expand and improve each.

Fixes:

• Fixed death animations replaying when you enter a scene.

  [/*]

• Fixed an issue where auto run would not disable when looting or interacting via keybind.

  [/*]

• Fixed discovered pets not being linkable in chat.

  [/*]

• Fixed animation culling line of sight checks to be to the overhead position of the mob.

  [/*]

• Fixed an issue with the /inspect chat command.

  [/*]

• Fixed typo on Raven calls for help.

  [/*]

• Fixed typo in Banton\'s quest text.

  [/*]

• Fixed issue where multiple levels of Rejuvenating Hymn could stack.

  [/*]

• Fixed an issue where some quest items were not included in loot rolls. This impacts Notes/Pages which previously were not rolled as well as the Unsettling Staff.

  [/*]

Updates:

• Mobs that have intro animations (Emberflies, Ants, etc) should no longer get stuck (i.e. in the sky) if they played those intro animations when you weren\'t looking at them.

  [/*]

• Renamed options tab \"Input\" to \"Controls\".

  [/*]

• Moved all camera options to the Controls tab.

  [/*]

• Reduced mail & auction house costs for stacked items by a factor of 10.

  [/*]

• Expanded Type dropdown menu size on the Auction House.

  [/*]

• Added \"(click to accept task)\" text to bulletin board envelopes.

  [/*]

• Added a tooltip to components in the crafting window.

  [/*]

• Added level 40 Elk Tea.

  [/*]

• Added level 40 Mandrake Tea.

  [/*]

• Added Dense Skinning nodes to Northern Highland Hills.

  [/*]

• Added Dense Skinning nodes to Southern Highland Hills.

  [/*]

• Added the remaining pieces of the Timeworn Set to loot tables.

  [/*]

• Added a Woodsman spawn in Northreach where quests say one should be.

  [/*]

• Returned the more menacing icons for some bears.

  [/*]

• Clarify in tooltips that Lingering Strikes deals Chemical damage.

  [/*]

• Increased damage of non-mace Ibaxian Supporter/Defender Hatchets, Swords and Curved Swords.

  [/*]

• Reduced amount and difficulty of the random spawning Basilisks in Basilisks Run. These frequently would get interpreted as rooms respawning too quickly, but now should be more of a nuisance as intended rather than halting groups in their tracks.

  [/*]

• Reduced amount, difficulty and respawn rate of roaming Redmanes in Grimstone Canyon. These mobs were often unavoidable in the narrow canyons and made leveling in the area harder than desired.

  [/*]

New Stuff:

• Added new camera recenter options for the horizontal and vertical axis as dropdowns in the Controls tab. These settings dictate how the camera responds to being rotated away from center with left mouse drag. The three available modes are:

  [list]

• None: no recentering occurs. up until now this has been the default behavior.

  [/*]

• When Moving: when your character begins to move, the camera starts to recenter. This is now the default behavior to more closely align with player expectations from other MMOs.

  [/*]

• Always: As soon as you release your left mouse camera drag the camera will begin recentering.

  [/*]

Balance Changes:

Based on recent feedback we\'ve made changes to at least one ability for each class to improve its usability and improve game balance. All of these are subject to change before hitting live!

Sentinel:

• Feedback around the triggered heal mechanic of Night Watch is that it is too inconsistent to reliably be used as a group heal. The trigger system has various restrictions that makes accounting for all incoming damage types problematic. As such the ability has been reworked to better suit the Sentinel\'s ability to heal in groups (and raids) while maintaining the role of being a multi-target heal that is distinct from the ones available to the other Supporters. Feedback on QA is requested and further adjustments and balance to the ability may be made before these changes go live.

  [/*]

• Night Watch is now a longer execution-time targeted aoe heal. It heals your defensive target and all targets nearby that target. One of the unique qualities of this ability is that it is not limited to your own group for its effectiveness and heals all friendly targets.

  [/*]

• Alchemy 1 version of Night Watch now includes a Heal over Time portion to the effect and makes it unable to be interrupted.

  [/*]

• Alchemy 2 version of Night Watch allows the effect to persist through unconsciousness (the heal over time will revive unconscious players on the next tick of the heal)

  [/*]

Duelist:

• Triage was overperforming as a topping off heal, and has been adjusted to be more effective on targets with lower health, but less effective on targets with higher health. Ideally the usage does not change much, but adds a bit more nuance to the usage of the ability to favor low health recovery than topping targets off.

  [/*]

• Alchemy 2 version of Triage previously had this scaling health effect component and now the effect is greatly increased (x5) compared to the base execution.

  [/*]

• Serration, Combined Strike and Alchemy Hemorrhaging Strike

  [list]

• These damage over time effects now scale with the Duelist\'s Physical +DMG stat. The highest type of physical +dmg that the duelist has will be the value used for determining the % increase to damage. The +dmg value at the application time of the dot is used for the calculation of the entirety of the effect.

  [/*]

Warlord:

• Open Wound no longer has a trigger count and the effect will trigger an unlimited amount of times for its duration. Triggered damage has been increased to match higher values at higher levels. Alchemy versions have been updated to increase the duration rather than increasing the trigger count. We hope these changes work to keep the identity of Open Wound while making its usage worthwhile into higher levels and raid situations. Open Wound still only allows a single application to be present on a mob at one time.

  [/*]

Brigand:

• With various abilities that didn\'t scale well with weapon damage Mark would often quickly fall out of favor with Brigands. The general idea of Mark should remain the same that its a preparation of damage that can be done while targets are stunned or while targets in incoming.

  [/*]

• Mark is now \"Premeditate\" and instead of it being applied to a target to deal instances of extra damage it is now a buff on the Brigand themselves. Ability attacks from the Brigand will trigger additional weapon damage plus a static bonus for a set count of attacks.

  [/*]

• Alchemy 1 version of Premeditate deals extra damage.

  [/*]

• Alchemy 2 version of Premeditate removes the trigger count and allows the additional damage on Ability Attacks to continue for the full duration.

  [/*]

Berserker:

• Eye of the Storm\'s original intent was to provide an alternative to Wind Up in terms of usability. However, Wind Up still remained universally better due to the haste reductions on Eye of the Storm. The approach here is changing to be an alternative to Fury rather than Wind Up offering a different sacrifice to obtain the damage and haste from the buff.

  [/*]

• Eye of the Storm has been refactored to fully reduce the players movement, but offer the same benefits of Fury without the daze effect. Fury and Eye of the Storm effects will no longer stack (but Windup and Eye of the Storm will now stack).

  [/*]

Warden:

• Removed the trigger count from the Quillback Spines, it will always last its full duration. Additionally increased the damage values at higher levels.

  [/*]

Knight:

• Enrage as a mechanic is a bit unique in the MMO space and is something we think might be a bit too confusing as new players are learning the game. Enrage forces a mob to attack the player who applies the effect, however it does not change threat values at all. We think this has caused some confusing usage of the ability and the demotion of Knights to being nothing more than off-tanks as their primary ability can only temporarily maintain threat, making it looks like they always \"lose threat\" because Enrage was only ever a temporary target change. We are hoping to change the way these abilities work to be more consistent with player expectations of what a forced change of target means.

  [/*]

• Enrage and Duel now move the Knight to the top of threat list along with the temporary forced duration of Enrage.

  [/*]

• Defensive Cooldowns

  [list]

• Recent feedback has been provided related to the imbalance between the Defender classes and their defensive cooldowns. We want to maintain a healthy split between the classes and make sure each feels unique but also generally balanced in their own way.

  [/*]

• Bulwark now gives 100% block chance and additionally increases Physical Damage Resists and Physical Status Resists by 35%

  [/*]

• Alchemy 1 Version of Bulwark adds resist to all damage types

  [/*]

• Alchemy 2 Version of Bulwark still shares the effect with your group.

  [/*]

Marshal

• Similar to the Knight Section, Draw Fire now sets the Marshal to the top of the threat list immediately as well as forcing mob targeting for its duration.

  [/*]

• Similar to the Knight Section, Parry now it balanced against other defensive cooldowns:

  [/*]

• Parry now gives 100% parry chance, 35% damage resists and additionally grants the Marshal Advantage for its duration

  [/*]

• Alchemy 1 Version of Parry adds resist to all damage types and regenerates stamina.

  [/*]

• Alchemy 2 Version of Parry adds 100% Riposte and faster stamina regeneration.

  [/*]

Juggernaut:

• Similar to the Duelist, Perforate and Rip now scale their over time damage components with the juggernaut\'s +DMG. The highest +dmg value of the Juggernaut will be used to determine the extra over time damage of the effect at the time the effect is applied. Note that Alchemy versions of Perforate will not increase the amount healed with +dmg, only the damage dealt will be increased.

  [/*]

This update introduces Vanity Pets and a full Cosmetic Equipment Layer, expanding customization options alongside a number of fixes, improvements, and optimizations.

As we close out 2025, we want to sincerely thank our players for their continued support and enthusiasm throughout the year. We are grateful to be building this experience alongside such a wonderful community and are excited to share these new features with you. We wish you a happy and safe holiday season and look forward to creating even more content for you in 2026!

At the bottom of these patch notes, you will find a look back at many of our accomplishments from the past year.

Updates

• Makeup is now rendered on top of face paint for female characters.

  [/*]

• If you have a text filter field active and hit escape, it will now be cleared & deselected rather than closing the window (Auction House & Merchant).

  [/*]

• Increased the border size of upper right icons to reduce rendering artifacts.

  [/*]

• Reduced size of upper right icons slightly.

  [/*]

• Reduced emission levels of Snare VFX.

  [/*]

• Added a number of color variants for NPC avatars.

  [/*]

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45320885/6870d706494c967918ce1b827f95bd7ff5d9def0.png\"][/img]

(Makeup rendering over face paint and complexion)

Fixes

• Fixed some lingering issues with equipment layer visuals.

  [/*]

• Fixed issues with complexion, paint, and makeup for darker skin tones.

  [/*]

• Fixed Spelling on Vicious Bite.

  [/*]

• Fixed a number of spelling mistakes in lore documents and quests.

  [/*]

• Fixed issues with missing rock collisions.

  [/*]

• Fixed Shifting Strike Alchemy 2 to properly give effect to group.

  [/*]

• Fixed various effects not properly triggering Night Watch. There remains some cases where Night Watch doesn\'t properly trigger such as against Damage Shields and we will be looking at reworking Night Watch to make it more consistent in all combat scenarios.

  [/*]

• Fixed gathering nodes being embedded in rocks. Some resource nodes may no longer make contact with the ground - if that happens please report your position so we can investigate!

  [/*]

• Fixed missing avatars for some NPCs.

  [/*]

• Fixed two level up messages showing in chat on level up.

  [/*]

• Fixed stuck spots in Newhaven Valley, Newhaven City, Northreach, Meadowlands, Dryfoot, Dryfoot Stronghold, Redshore, Redshore Ridge, Grimstone Canyon, Grizzled Peaks, and Ibaxus.

  [/*]

Optimizations

• Further reduced the number of textures loaded into memory at any given time for humanoid characters. This should free additional VRAM. Note that the \"Humanoid Textures\" setting will now only impact gear worn by humanoids; it will have no impact on skin texture resolution.

  [/*]

• Shadow culling now occurs relative to the camera. This improves shadow stability when far from the world origin.

  [/*]

• Set Eye of Ibax\'s light source to static shadow casting. This should reduce some CPU overhead when the sun is below the horizon.

  [/*]

• Reduced the max shadow distance from 300 to 200 meters. This reduces the overall CPU overhead of shadow rendering and improves distant shadow quality.

  [/*]

• Reduced the number of shadow cascades at high qualities from 4 -> 3 to reduce CPU overhead.

  [/*]

• Reconfigured shadow settings for the different quality settings to be more consistent with one another. Adjusting your quality setting will also adjust your shadow qualities.

  [/*]

• NPCs will now disable their animators when beyond 30m when you have no line of sight. In regions like Freehold these were causing significant CPU usage due to the complexity of humanoid animators when compared with non-humanoids. There are still performance problems in this region we are investigating, but this should help.

  [/*]

• Corrected some building components to be marked as static shadow casters.

  [/*]

Note that with the above shadow changes differences in regions with & without shadow may become much more apparent. We are actively looking into ways to reduce this visual discontinuity and improve things in general. In other words: expect more tweaks in the coming patches.

Vanity Pets

Vanity Pets are charming companions that follow you on your adventures throughout the world. Currently, ten pets can be purchased from various merchants, with an additional thirty available as drops, and more will be added in future updates. When danger arises, your pet will step aside and vanish until you summon it again. Subscribers are able to use pet emotes and enjoy shorter summon times when interacting with their companions.

The Vanity Pet UI can be accessed via the button in the upper right control panel or via the default keybind (P).

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45320885/367244d436282166f573bbbe33e96a8734479eee.png\"][/img]

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45320885/707ad33a84f0db10e9fe239aa8e80ed8f8c82a53.png\"][/img]

Within this UI a pet can be selected, summoned, or dismissed. Summoning your pet takes 5s for subscribers and 10s for non-subscribers. To swap to a different pet, simply hit the select button on your desired pet. There are three chat commands that can be used in chat window or macro bar:

• Summon your selected pet:

  [list]

• /pet summon

  [/*]

• /ps

  [/*]

A few additional notes:

• Your pet has a right click context menu with options for dismiss & individual emotes.

  [/*]

• Other\'s pets have tooltips that display the pet\'s name.

  [/*]

• If your pet gets too far from you it will teleport to your side.

  [/*]

• Pets cannot be damaged or targeted.

  [/*]

• On entering combat pets are automatically dismissed.

  [/*]

• Remote players will see your pet, but may not agree on their exact position due to the way we are synchronizing data across the network.

  [/*]

• Remote players will see your pet disappear when you are beyond a certain distance from them. They will automatically re-appear for those players when you get closer.

  [/*]

• Pets have nameplates! Two toggles have also been added to the interface options:

  [list]

• Show Pet Names for Your Pet

  [/*]

• Show Pet Names for Other\'s Pets

  [/*]

We fully expect the dropped vanity pets take a while to both discover and acquire.

Cosmetic Equipment Layer (Subscribers only)

We have heard your cries and now bestow the gift of a full cosmetic layer! This new layer is available to all active subscribers.

For non-subscribers, the layer will not be visible on your character and items cannot be placed into these slots; however, any existing items may still be removed (similar to the previous cosmetic slot).

Like other adornment layers, these visuals can be toggled on or off all at once by right-clicking the Cosmetic tab and selecting the appropriate option.

Visual priority of items is determined by the reverse order of layers: Cosmetic -> Ibaxian -> Base

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45320885/53bdc46692c39ac45fa415de10d4a766ddec569b.png\"][/img]

In addition, we have added a new collection of equipment to the event merchant in Newhaven City (Marta). \"Valtane\'s Vain Collection\" is a collection of Valtane\'s favorite pieces, all of which have visuals which match Valtane\'s Vanity... in that they remove the visuals! These new pieces are ideal for slotting into your cosmetic layer to remove the visuals of that slot. All visible slots except for pants & shirt are available. Note that Valtane\'s Vanity still comes from the original source and is not replaced by any items on Marta.

Note that the old cosmetic slot has been deprecated and will be removed in a future update.

A Look Back at 2025

As 2025 comes to a close let\'s take a look back at some of what we\'ve accomplished:

• Content:

  [list]

• New world boss in Dryfoot

  [/*]

• Crafting V2

  [/*]

• New VFX:

  [list]

• NPC execution

  [/*]

• Player teleport

  [/*]

• Others\' disappear

  [/*]

Our data center\'s internet service provider is currently experiencing issues preventing players from connecting to the game server. We are aware of the situation and are actively working on it.

These have been resolved by our ISP!

This month\'s patch includes a number of fixes, updates, and an optimization pass. We have some fun things cooking for next month so stay tuned!

Updates

• Updated Snare VFX.

  [/*]

• Increased rapier damage.

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• Added new loading screen lore captions.

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• Improved consistency of spawn rate for Essence Gorgers .

  [/*]

• Bulletin Board Task \"Club Scouts\" added location hint to description.

  [/*]

• Supporters now have 1 additional health!

  [/*]

• Resilience functionality has been revamped for players. It continues to grant the player a chance at a death save. However, each successive death save puts a stacking debuff on the player reducing their resilience by 5 for a few minutes.

  [/*]

• Juggernaut\'s No Time to Die has been updated to grant increasing amounts of resilience for each rank. It starts at +175 and increases up to +230. With the -5 per stack debuff on each save NTTD will start having a chance to fail after 15-26 consecutive saves depending on its rank, but more saves are possible with more +resilience gear.

  [/*]

• Added recipes for Imbued Silver and Iron Hauberks.

  [/*]

• Updated Crafted Hauberk stats, it was found that these were not on par with other imbued crafted items.

  [/*]

• Added more auto follow cancel types that show on the tooltip. If your auto follow is cancelling hover over the \"You are no longer following anyone\" chat message for an indicator as to why. Currently those abbreviated reasons are:

  [list]

• CameraMovement: happens if you move the camera in while in first person perspective while auto following.

  [/*]

• AutoRun: happens if you engage auto run while following.

  [/*]

• Executing: happens if you execute an ability while following.

  [/*]

• Movement: happens if you hit a movement key while auto following.

  [/*]

• MovementMouse (new): happens if you are attempting to move by holding the left+right mouse buttons while auto following.

  [/*]

• Confused (new): happens if your character becomes confused while auto following.

  [/*]

• TooFar: happens if your auto follow target gets too far.

  [/*]

• NotMemberOfGroup: happens if your auto follow target is no longer a member of your group.

  [/*]

Fixes

• Fixed incorrect stat amount on \"Essence Guardian Ring Adornment\".

  [/*]

• Fixed incorrect text emote from Essence Grub AoE Root.

  [/*]

• Fixed an issue where Emberflys would not be visible if they spawned outside of the camera frustum.

  [/*]

• Lower level Quillbacks no longer count for Stinging Quillbacks Bulletin Board Task.

  [/*]

• Reduced the size of some non-collision rocks in Redshore.

  [/*]

• Nav mesh cleanup in Dryfoot Stronghold.

  [/*]

Ibaxus

• New Ibaxian Recipes available from Archibald \"Ibaxian Reclamation\". These recipes allow you to get that tier\'s artifact back from a shaped adornment.

  [/*]

• Fixed issue where Inner Armor Ibaxian Adornments would lose their Role requirement after being shaped.

  [/*]

• New Ibaxian Runes added for +Chemical Damage

  [/*]

• Striker set bonus now includes additional +Chemical Damage

  [/*]

• Parry/Block cap values have been increased to 100%

  [/*]

Continued Optimization Efforts

Most of the obvious big wins in client optimization have already been addressed. This leaves smaller, incremental improvements that we will be progressing through over the next few months.

Before migrating to Steam, we had to be very mindful of our client size. We paid for bandwidth, and our old launcher wasnt great at delivering efficient deltas, so we compressed most textures using a lossy format to keep the download size down at the cost of visual quality.

Now that we\'re on Steam, those bandwidth constraints are largely gone. With this patch, weve begun moving our textures to a higher-quality compression format. This increases disk usage, but improves texture quality across the board. We are still in the process of migrating all of our textures so expect the client to grow a little in the next few updates. Also note that this patch will be a bit chunkier because of these changes.

We have also started the process of optimizing memory consumption (both RAM and VRAM) throughout the game. This has led to a number of changes:

• Disabled some HDRP features that were allocating VRAM.

  [/*]

• Reduced texture resolutions on a number of items. We tried to only do this in instances where there was no substantial visual difference. If something looks a bit off let us know.

  [/*]

• Reduced the size of a number of UI icons.

  [/*]

• Added icons to a number of sprite atlases (reduces draw calls).

  [/*]

• Adjusted import settings on a number of meshes to reduce memory consumption. Let us know if there are issues with collisions or non-collisions with objects.

  [/*]

• Adjusted audio compression settings for a number of audio clips.

  [/*]

• Humanoids:

  [list]

• New tech to cap specific texture channel resolutions. This allows us to maintain detail while reducing VRAM overhead.

  [/*]

• New tech added that allows different humanoids to share textures. Previous to this patch all humanoids generated unique merged textures at runtime. This caused VRAM usage to skyrocket when a large number of humanoids were present (Newhaven City, Freehold).

  [/*]

• To allow humanoids to share skin textures we unfortunately had to remove the \"Muscle Tone\" slider from character creation / editing. Each body type will now show as if the muscle tone slider was in the middle.

  [/*]

• New skin shader to accommodate texture sharing.

  [/*]

• New eye shader to resolve some visual issues and accommodate texture sharing.

  [/*]

Depending on your system settings and your character\'s location these changes could have a significant positive impact on performance, especially for those who have struggled with zoning into Newhaven City.

November 21

• Dungeon skylights no longer render Ember Drift decals.

  [/*]

• Rewrote the cobweb shader to be a bit more dynamic and responsive to the wind (will be more visible when weather comes).

  [/*]

• Updated Eyeball shader to play nicer with particle systems.

  [/*]

• Resized a number of icons to reduce memory footprint in prep for more texture atlases.

  [/*]

• Numerous texture quality settings updates.

  [/*]

• Lower level quillbacks no longer count for Stinging Quillbacks Bulletin Board Task.

  [/*]

• Increased rapier damage.

  [/*]

• Added additional auto follow cancelled types (mouse, confusion).

  [/*]

• Added hunting log for grubs.

  [/*]

November 18

Characters have been migrated from Live as of Nov 18, 2025 at 1pm Central.

Fixes:

• Fixed incorrect stat amount on \"Essence Guardian Ring Adornment\".

  [/*]

• Fixed incorrect emote text from Essence Grub AoE root.

  [/*]

• Fixed issues with Emberfly spawning animation not playing if they were out of the camera fustrum.

  [/*]

Updates:

• New Snare VFX

  [/*]

• Improved consistency of spawn rate for Essence Gorgers.

  [/*]

• Improved location description for \"Club Scouts\" Bulletin Board Task.

  [/*]

• Supporters now have 1 additional health!

  [/*]

• Resilience functionality has been revamped for players. It continues to grant the player a chance at a death save. However, each successive death save puts a stacking debuff on the player reducing their resilience by 5 for a few minutes.

  [/*]

• Juggernaut\'s No Time To Die hs been updated to grant increasing amounts of Resilience for each rank. It starts at +200 and increases to +250. With the -5 per stack debuff on each save NTTD will start having a chance to fail after 20-30 consecutive saves depending on its rank. More saves are possible with +Resilience gear. These value are subject to balance changes.

  [/*]

Ibaxus:

• Fixed an issue where inner armor Adornments would lose their role requirements after being shaped.

  [/*]

• New Ibaxian recipes available for Archibald for \"Ibaxian Reclamation\". These recipes allow you to get that tier\'s artifact back from a shaped adornment.

  [/*]

• New Ibaxian Runes are now available for +Chemical Damage.

  [/*]

• Striker\'s Ibaxian set bonus now includes +Chemical Damage.

  [/*]

• Parry/Block cap values have been increased to 100% in Ibaxus.

  [/*]

New Stuff:

• Marshal\'s have a new ability Concussive Strike that unlocks at level 3; existing Marshals will need to talk to their trainer in Newhaven City to obtain it. This ability is a short daze that interrupts NPC executions. Alchemy versions turn it into a longer lasting AoE Daze with the Alchemy 2 version being unresistable.

  [/*]

• Warden abilities Venom Shock, Lingering Strikes, and Viperid Toxins now all scale with +Chemical Damage. The majority of the game is not currently itemized for +Chemical Damage, this is currently mainly going to impact Ibaxus where Warden ability damage has fallen behind.

  [/*]

• Warden\'s Viperid Toxins now give the Warden a small amount of threat based on damage dealt.

  [/*]

• Brigand ability Mark now deals physical damage and scales with the Brigand\'s +Damage stats. The bonus amount is an average of all your +Damage stats.

  [/*]

• Added new skylight shader for dungeons. You can now see clouds and stars through them!

  [/*]

Continued Optimization Efforts:

Now that we are on Steam our previous bandwidth limitations have eased a bit. This has allowed us to start digging into our texture compression formats and favor higher quality at the expense of higher bandwidth & disk space. Expect the next few patches to be slightly heftier in size due to these changes.

In addition, we have started make our way into the weeds when it comes to further optimizing the client. We\'re at a point where all of the \"obvious big wins\" have already been taken care of and all that is left is the little things. For the next few patches expect continued incremental improvements that while are not much on their own, hopefully will add up to significant gains.

• Disabled some HDRP features that were eating up VRAM but were not used in the game.

  [/*]

• Adjusted texture settings used for the skydome to free up VRAM.

  [/*]

• Adjusted import settings and sizes on a number of UI element textures. (ongoing)

  [/*]

• Adjusted a number of UI image atlases to further reduce draw calls. (ongoing)

  [/*]

• Adjusted import settings on a number of meshes throughout the game. (ongoing)

  [/*]

• Adjusted compression and memory state settings on a number of audio files. (ongoing)

  [/*]

• Humanoids

  [list]

• Currently, all Humanoid textures (skin/hair/equipment/etc) have been updated to higher quality texture compression. It will take some time, but we will eventually extend this to all other textures in the game.

  [/*]

• Shaders for Eyes and Skin have been rewritten and optimized.

  [/*]

• Reduced max resolution of mask textures.

  [/*]

• Capped max resolution of hair material.

  [/*]

• Implemented a render texture caching system that allows humanoid characters to \"share\" textures for skin and hair.

  [/*]

To properly implement the texture caching system mentioned above we unfortunately had to remove the muscle slider from character creation. In our test case (Newhaven City) the above measures saved upwards of 600MB of VRAM. On the surface this may not seem like much, but for lower end cards with limited resources this could make a huge difference.

• Fixed a visual issue with show/hide helm toggle.

  [/*]

• Fixed missing 2H mace visual for Ore Crusher.

  [/*]

• Fixed an issue with MacOS builds having some incorrect internal data.

  [/*]

• Updated corrupted data files message to direct the player to validate integrity of game files through Steam (removed references to the old launcher).

  [/*]

• Removed 2^ rat spawn from Aquifer solo loop

  [/*]

• Changed Defender themed EV Ring Adornment to include ranged damage to be equal to the other damage option.

  [/*]

• Todee has been feeling a bit under the weather as of late. He\'s now feeling much healthier!

  [/*]

A few small fixes!

• Fixed misaligned Essence Well dungeon room in Crawling Burrows.

  [/*]

• Fixed lower level mobs spawning in Blightroot Grove.

  [/*]

• Fixed Alchemy Blinding Strike base damage.

  [/*]

• Fixed stuck spot in Derelict Sanctuary.

  [/*]

• Fixed hole in the wall in Derelict Sanctuary.

  [/*]

• Fixed some swimmers in dungeon rooms.

  [/*]

• Increased Blinding Strike base damage.

  [/*]

• Removed Rat spawn near respawn point in Grimstone Canyon.

  [/*]

• Basilisks in the Ember Veins now count for Dryfoot Bulletin Board Tasks.

  [/*]

• Minimum level of the first Patch reagents now have a required level equal to that of when Duelists get Patch.

  [/*]

• Added set bonus for Blackened Iron armor pieces.

  [/*]

• Crab meat recipe now requires appropriate level spices.

  [/*]

• Adornments:

  [list]

• Removed role requirements on Ember Vein Adornments.

  [/*]

• Are no longer created damaged. If you have any damaged Adornments equipped you will have to repair them individually as the \"repair equipped\" button will not repair them.

  [/*]

This month\'s patch includes a number of fixes, updates, and new Ember Vein content. We have some fun things cooking for November/December so stay tuned!

Updates

• Updated our internal input module to the latest version.

  [/*]

• Updated PvP buff tooltip to indicate that it applies to resists.

  [/*]

• Updated the background color on the Ibaxian Adornment equipment page.

  [/*]

• Updated the Macro Bar to no longer consider the +/rotate buttons to be part of the window. This means that they can once again be off screen.

  [/*]

• Added context menu items for \"Add\" and \"Rotate\" to the macro bar and macro buttons.

  [/*]

• NPCs no longer use Bleeding Strike. They now use abilities introduced in the recent NPE.

  [/*]

• Added tooltips to Adornments when worn and either no base item is present, or you are in a zone where the item is not active.

  [/*]

• Adjusted verbiage on Adornment set bonuses to say \"Active\" rather than \"Equipped\".

  [/*]

• Disabled seasonal scenes and associated quests.

  [/*]

• Disabled NPC turnip heads.

  [/*]

• Updated cursor on equipment tab hover.

  [/*]

• Improved tooltips on equipment tabs if you can toggle visibility (Ibaxian Adornments).

  [/*]

• Disabled old Specialization quests. These should no longer show in your quest log.

  [/*]

• Disabled Gathering & Crafting \"Coming Soon\" area of the Bulletin Board UI. These will return at a later date.

  [/*]

• Auto follow cancel chat messages now have a tooltip with a reasoning for the cancellation. The verbiage is short as this tooltip is mainly to help us debug.

  [/*]

• Reduced eye material smoothness value slightly.

  [/*]

• Added a loading tip indicating that Alchemy enhanced abilities deal Ember damage.

  [/*]

Ibaxus

• Fixed Defender armor not allowing runes to add more of the armor\'s base stat.

  [/*]

• Reworked the Jailer/Morte fights to reduce Drolsc strength, make the fight mechanic more visual, and have it be present immediately in the fights.

  [/*]

• Reduced \"Kindle\" debuff.

  [/*]

• Reduced likelihood of getting adds during boss encounters.

  [/*]

• Reduced proc chance of Lashing Vines.

  [/*]

• Increased the number of recipes from recipe chests.

  [/*]

Fixes

• Fixed an issue that was preventing subscription purchases from going through.

  [/*]

• Fixed an issue where your Ember Stone would be hidden after zoning.

  [/*]

• Fixed invalid default Anti-Aliasing selection. SMAA is now enabled by default.

  [/*]

• Fixed tooltips for subscription perks not showing on the activate subscription dialog.

  [/*]

• Fixed tooltips for Adornment set bonuses showing incorrect active values if the base item was not equipped.

  [/*]

• Fixed mailbox not updating cost when adding items to a stack.

  [/*]

• Fixed chat links for some recipes not showing correctly.

  [/*]

• Fixed stuck spots in Ibaxus, and Highland Hills.

  [/*]

• Fixed more ladders in Grimstone Canyon.

  [/*]

• Fixed missing stats on class tooltip.

  [/*]

• Fixed an issue where batch crafting would continue after reopening the crafting UI.

  [/*]

• Fixed an issue preventing NPCs not removing combat effects while resetting.

  [/*]

• Fixed an issue causing NPCs to regenerate health & armor too slowly while resetting.

  [/*]

• Fixed timing issue with Alchemist Ember Impact ability VFX.

  [/*]

Essence Wells & Adornments

The ever growing instability within Ember Veins has cumulated in the appearance of several Essence Wells. These represent a potent, concentrated source of Ember energy, drawing both opportunity and danger.

New Encounters

New Ember Vein Adornments

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45320885/e91930082eb576efbf8f3819db59106cad064f54.png\"][/img]

October 22

Characters have been restored from Live as of October 22nd at 9am CST.

Misc:

• Reverted No Time To Die haste clamping. We are investigating other methods of resolving this issue in a future patch (not October\'s).

  [/*]

EV Adornments:

• Consolidated shared stat EV adornment pieces.

  [/*]

• Group Essence well Adornments are a higher tier than the solo loop adornments.

  [/*]

• Fixed \"Invalid Zone\" tooltip on adornments.

  [/*]

• Added more info to set bonuses for adornments indicating that the base item needs to be be present.

  [/*]

• Changed the verbiage on adornment set bonuses from \"Equipped\" to \"Active\".

  [/*]

Essence Wells:

• Reduced Abundance of reagent drops from Essence Grubs.

  [/*]

• Updated placeholder for Essence well named - these now have a chance to drop the item while the named will always drop the item.

  [/*]

• Reduced 3^ density around Essence Wells.

  [/*]

• Essence Drinker has been upgraded to an Essence Gorger.

  [/*]

October 20

Fixes:

• Fixed issues with Ember Stone visuals not initializing after zoning.

  [/*]

• Fixed issue with new EV mobs dropping quest items.

  [/*]

• Fixed issue with some mobs dropping the wrong item for their EV.

  [/*]

• Fixed timing issue with Alchemist Ember Impact ability VFX

  [/*]

Updates:

• Reverted to the previous Unity version. The most recent Unity update introduced a critical logging bug that kills server performance, fills up hard drives, and ultimately crashes zones.

  [/*]

• Updated PvP buff tooltip to indicate that it applies to resists.

  [/*]

• NPCs no longer use Bleeding Strike. They now use new abilities introduced in the recent NPE.

  [/*]

• Disabled visuals on Ember Vein adornments. You can also no longer toggle the visuals on/off for this equipment layer.

  [/*]

• Updated the background color on the Ibaxian Adornment equipment page.

  [/*]

• Added tooltips to Adornments when worn and either no base item is present, or you are in a zone where the item is not active.

  [/*]

• [strike]Haste is now clamped to 100 for No Time To Die\'s cooldown, similar to Auto Attack.[/strike]

  [/*]

Essence Wells:

• Now buff nearby creatures.

  [/*]

• Added VFX around the essence wells and adjusted lighting.

  [/*]

• EV Adornment equipment has been reduced to Superior Tier

  [/*]

• EV Adornments that shared stats across all roles no longer have a Role requirement.

  [/*]

• Some Essence Well locations have been updated to isolate them from existing content.

  [/*]

• Ore & Mushroom spawn locations added to Essence Well rooms.

  [/*]

• Spawn rate and density have been adjusted for Essence Wells. These rooms should now be more difficult.

  [/*]

October 15

Characters have been copied over from live as of October 15, 2025 at 8pm CST.

Fixes:

• Fixed missing QA label in the upper right.

  [/*]

• Fixed default anti-aliasing value being invalid. SMAA is now enabled default.

  [/*]

• Fixed tooltips not showing for subscriber perks on the subscription dialog.

  [/*]

• Fixed tooltips on adornment layer set bonuses showing as active when they should not be because the base layer equipment item is not present.

  [/*]

• Fixed mailbox not updating cost when attached item count changed.

  [/*]

• Fixed an issue preventing resetting NPCs not wiping their combat effects and regenerating too slowly.

  [/*]

Updates:

• [strike]Unity engine updated to the latest minor revision. This includes a recent fix to a critical security bug along with other misc. bug fixes and improvements.[/strike]

  [/*]

• Updated our internal input module to the latest version. Last time we tried this there was an issue on Windows boxes where the ALT+# key binds were not functioning - this should be resolved.

  [/*]

• Disabled seasonal scene overlays and associated quests.

  [/*]

Ibaxus:

• Reworked the Jailer/Morte fights to reduce Drolsc strength, make the fight mechanic more visual and have it be present immediately in the fights.

  [/*]

• Reduced \"Kindle\" debuff.

  [/*]

• Reduced likelihood of getting adds during boss encounters.

  [/*]

• Reduced proc chance of Lashing Vines.

  [/*]

• Fixed Defender Armors not allowing Runes to add more of the Armor\'s base stat.

  [/*]

• Increased the number of recipes from recipe chests.

  [/*]

Essence Wells & Adornments

The ever growing instability within Ember Veins has cumulated in the appearance of several Essence Wells. These represent a potent, concentrated source of Ember energy, drawing both opportunity and danger.

New Encounters

This abundance of raw essence has attracted mutated creatures. These have taken on the unique properties of the Ember Veins in which they feed making them uniquely dangerous.

New Ember Vein Adornments

Rumors talk of their focused energies unlocking new potential for Drifters. These new Adornments give additional benefits while fighting within the Ember Veins and enhance existing gear rather than replace it.

Tiny patch today to fix a few critical bugs.

• Fixed a tooltip display issue for stats when over the armor weight limit.

  [/*]

• Fixed some unnecessary allocations with internal IDs (optimization).

  [/*]

• Fixed an issue where some NPC damage shields would trigger a player damage shield, which would trigger the NPC damage shield, which would trigger the player damage shield, which would...

  [/*]

This patch includes some last minute fixes before the Steam sale. Enjoy!

• Fixed tooltips on class icons in the skills UI and action bar from showing base role data.

  [/*]

• Fixed progression notifications from showing for abilities that you cannot use.

  [/*]

• Fixed incorrect level requirements being shown on some ability tooltips.

  [/*]

• Fixed an issue causing the incorrect level to be used for triggered effects.

  [/*]

• Fixed some nav issues in Ibaxus (NPCs under a building).

  [/*]

• Ant Bulletin tasks from Dryfoot which involved going into Crawling Burrows have been removed. If you had these tasks they will be removed and allow you to obtain a new one.

  [/*]

• Marshal\'s Halt improved Hand IK to prevent arm twisting animations.

  [/*]

• Berserker\'s Impact now increases damage multiplier by tier.

  [/*]

• Sentinel\'s Night Watch heal over time component now has a unique icon.

  [/*]

• Knight\'s Ibaxian set bonus aligned with their Grizzled Peak set bonus.

  [/*]

• Increased AoE range on weapons with 360 degree arcs. These are now 1m greater than their autoattack range.

  [/*]

This patch marks a major milestone for the game, bringing some of our biggest changes yet. Weve overhauled the new player experience by eliminating base roles, introducing Alchemy earlier, and weaving in more class fantasy so every character feels unique from the start. Were also celebrating our third anniversary of being live with a host of improvements, fixes, and quality-of-life updates to make the game better than ever.

3 Year Anniversary

Next month we will be celebrating our third anniversary of being live! That means we are spinning up our usual seasonals:

• Ichabod has returned to Newhaven City with new goodies!

  [/*]

• Enabled seasonal scenes.

  [/*]

• Turnip heads can now drop from humanoid enemies.

  [/*]

• Humanoid enemies may now occasionally equip turnip heads.

  [/*]

New Player Experience

Ember Stones & Alchemy

We want to bring the excitement of Alchemy, the bizarre nature of Ember, and the Ember Veins closer to the start of the game, giving players an early taste of our unique fantasy elements.

• Alchemy quest can now be obtained and completed starting at level 1.

  [list]

• Added a new tutorial popup upon unlocking Alchemy.

  [/*]

Base Role & Specialization -> Class

We want each classs flavor to come through immediately, reducing reliance on generic role abilities so that every character feels and looks unique from the start. To work towards that goal a number of generic role abilities have been replaced with more thematic class abilities:

• Bleeding Strike for Strikers has been replaced by:

  [list]

• Berserkers gain a new ability \"Impact\" which is a slow but inexpensive 2x weapon damage attack.

  [/*]

• Brigands gain a new ability \"Shifting Strike\" which in addition to dealing damage, gives the Brigand a strong +Positional buff for a period of time or after 2 ability uses.

  [/*]

• Wardens gain a new ability \"Snare\" which in addition to dealing damage slows their target\'s movement.

  [/*]

In addition to the skill replacements above, many skills have been brought down to lower levels changing which abilities classes start with. Everyone gets \"Strike\" and the following:

• Berserker starts with:

  [list]

• Impact

  [/*]

• Assault

  [/*]

Other miscellaneous changes worth noting:

• You can no longer forget an adventuring role, spec, or class. To play a different class you must use a different character.

  [/*]

• New characters now start with different equipped weapons and armor based on selected class.

  [/*]

• Various theming elements of each class have been adjusted, such as icons and descriptions.

  [/*]

• Players must select a portrait at character creation.

  [/*]

• Disabled Ally the trainer in Newhaven City. She has finally earned enough to retire.

  [/*]

• Juggernaut\'s Breach Alchemy descriptions no longer mention \"Momentum\" to avoid confusion with their new skill.

  [/*]

• Sentinels have had three of their abilities renamed to focus on a stronger theme and class identity:

  [list]

• Replenish -> Restoration

  [/*]

• Distracting Strike -> Blinding Strike

  [/*]

• Overprovision -> Night Watch

  [/*]

• Additional Balance changes:

  [list]

• Increased damage on Halt, Halt by default no longer disables auto attack, Halt now also has additional hit triggers before being removed by default.

  [/*]

• Juggernaut Roar base ability no longer gives a +dmg increase (this has moved into Momentum).

  [/*]

• Warden Assist has moved up to level 30 in order to bring Quillback Spines down to a lower level.

  [list]

• Assist now grants the entire group Advantage for a duration instead of just your defensive target.

  [/*]

Current Characters

• Characters without a base role or specialization will be required to select a class before they can enter the game. A new button \"Select Class\" will show on the character nameplate, which will show a new dialog with your selection options (this choice is FINAL and cannot be reverted).

  [list]

• With no base class you can select from all 9 available classes and will start at level 1.

  [/*]

• With a base role but no spec you will be able to choose from the 3 subclasses of your base role. If you are below level 6 then your class level will match your current level. If you are above level 6, then your class level will be set to level 6 and will need to play catch up.

  [/*]

Newhaven Valley Adjustments

• Most camps have been reduced to 1^ in difficulty. The Ancient Bear camp remains 3^.

  [/*]

• Regular named mobs have been reduced to 2^ difficulty (rewards are unchanged). This excludes Misha and Knave of Harts.

  [/*]

• Increased respawn rate of cave bears.

  [/*]

• Increased frequency of Frenzied mobs near the newbie area.

  [/*]

• Wayward Mangrove has been brought closer to the newbie area, while it is non-aggressive it does assist the Mandrakes if you are not mindful.

  [/*]

• The Crawling Burrows Ember Vein has been moved from Dryfoot to Newhaven Valley. The content and rewards within have been updated to reflect the lower level (~lvl 5).

  [list]

• Added a new tutorial popup describing Ember Veins upon entering the Crawling Burrows.

  [/*]

Ibaxus Updates

• Fixed an issue preventing Ibaxian Recipe chests from spawning in Central Ibaxus.

  [/*]

• Fixed missing stats on Central Ibaxus Juggernaut Curved Sword Relic.

  [/*]

• Fixed issue where Movement Resists were being added twice for Ibixian Adornment outer armor.

  [/*]

• Fixed issue while shaping Central Ibaxian Relics that was causing the wrong Relic to be considered for setting Class Requirements to equip.

  [/*]

• Central Ibaxus Shaped Relics should more consistently inherit stats from the supplied Lower Ibaxus Shaped Relics.

  [/*]

• Crusader Arribac\'s allies no longer share a respawn timer.

  [/*]

• Disciples of Ruto in Ibaxus have had their Energy Leech ability reduced and the self-haste component removed.

  [/*]

• Updated Central Ibaxus weapons (Greater Ibaxian Relics) to have enhanced emissions.

  [/*]

• Reduced potency of abilities from Corduun Seekers and Excavators.

  [/*]

• Reduced Daze duration on Ibaxian Slagjacks.

  [/*]

• Ibaxian Adornment Outer Armor pieces now consider all resist runes to give their full effect

  [/*]

• Added new NPC reset tech that restricts mobs to a defined volume. Mobs will reset if they or their targets leave the volume, and they will ignore incoming damage from players outside of it (will show as avoid). This system was applied to Ibaxian encounters meant to be fought in specific areas, such as Arribac (+allies), Morte (+allies), and his Jailers (+allies).

  [/*]

Improvements

• Added VFX to player teleports (see gif below).

  [/*]

• Added VFX to Other\'s disappearances (see gif below).

  [/*]

• Added VFX for Ashen spawns & deaths.

  [/*]

• Added a context menu option to character select buttons to remove characters from the Ember Ring visually on selection.

  [/*]

• Added an option to disable visuals for adornment layers. This is available via context menu on the adornment layer tab within the equipment UI.

  [/*]

• Added toggle to the gameplay options to enable/disable world boss death announcements.

  [/*]

• World boss death announcements are now shown in the emotes channel.

  [/*]

• Marta is now selling items from her fall lineup.

  [/*]

• Damage over time should now show damage types in the combat log tooltips.

  [/*]

• Disabled the depth-of-field effect on character selection. Hopefully this gives your GPU a little break.

  [/*]

• Player Damage Resists now impact damage over time abilities per-tick damage calculations.

  [/*]

• Meadowlands Lake Brown Bears have been reduce to 1^ difficulty.

  [/*]

• Reduced respawn rate in Grimstone Canyon fishing village and Stonecoat camp.

  [/*]

• Crafting intro quest should now be a bit more resilient (back end improvements).

  [/*]

• GEL now uses the player\'s actual level for XP calculations against yellow and lower mobs (actual chevron color), while orange and red mobs use the GEL level (GEL icon color). This provides \"the best of both worlds\", combining the old method with the newer one.

  [/*]

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45320885/e6dbdad5fec2c1d96d604f78455c35b29b383af7.gif\"][/img][img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45320885/5e40b87693dedb0747527bb86e030dce4ee81fc7.gif\"][/img]

Fixes

• Fixed stuck spots in Grizzled Peaks, Ibaxus, Grimstone Canyon, and Highland Hills.

  [/*]

• Fixed spelling errors in Watchful Other and Ageta dialogs.

  [/*]

• Fixed missing tooltip on the Login with Steam button when Steam fails to initialize.

  [/*]

• Fixed the macro bar not considering the bottom buttons as part of the window. In other words: they can no longer be pushed off screen.

  [/*]

• Fixed an incorrect death broadcast from Wolf Wildfire in Ibaxus.

  [/*]

• Fixed a bug that could prevent the finalization of a subscription purchase through Steam.

  [/*]

• Fixed a bug that could cause abilities to swap places in the skills UI when they were swapped on the action bar.

  [/*]

• Fixed a bug that could cause duplicate scenes to load from character selection.

  [/*]

• Fixed a bug with default chat settings not being present.

  [/*]

• Fixed Noble Elk recipes incorrectly requiring level 25.

  [/*]

• Fixed multiple player ability animations that could fail to play.

  [/*]

• Fixed typo on Hardtack.

  [/*]

September 20th

All characters from Live have been copied over to QA from September 20th @6pm central.

• Increased emissions on Central Ibaxus Greater Relic Scepters and Shields.

  [/*]

• Increased respawn rate of cave bears in Newhaven Valley.

  [/*]

• Adjusted VFX from Mandrake poison VFX.

  [/*]

• Warden\'s Venom Strike Alchemy I no longer snares the target. It now receives a damage increase.

  [/*]

• Increased the base effectiveness of the Warden\'s Snare ability.

  [/*]

• Fixed missing levels of Brigand Stun Alchemy.

  [/*]

• Knight\'s receive Order of the Tribune starting at level 3. This order has increased threat on auto attacks.

  [/*]

• Increased text size for class descriptions on creation and class selection dialog.

  [/*]

• Added audio to Ashen spawn & death VFX.

  [/*]

• Fixed an issue with default chat settings not being present.

  [/*]

• Fixed a rare bug that could cause duplicate scenes to load from character selection.

  [/*]

• Added an EV tutorial popup.

  [/*]

• Alchemy Quest update:

  [list]

• If the quest is started at Banton in the Academy then you must first find the bag of Ember Stones in the Crawling Burrows before other objectives are available.

  [/*]

• If you go to the bag of Ember Stones first then that will also start the quest.

  [/*]

• Interacting with the bag of Ember Stones in the EV will grant you your first Ember Stone. This will allow you to naturally fill your stone as you proceed with the Alchemy quest (as it was previously).

  [/*]

• This new flow should also resolve an issue with the UI not updating when completing the quest.

  [/*]

September 19th

• Fixed a bug causing abilities in the skills UI to move around if they were moved on your action bar.

  [/*]

• Fixed missing material on Ember Stones inside of the bag in the Crawling Burrows.

  [/*]

• Added audio to player teleport and Other dissolve VFX.

  [/*]

• Trim role descriptions on character creation and the select class dialog.

  [/*]

• Updated Ashen spawn and death VFX (still WIP).

  [/*]

• Updated VFX for ant abilities.

  [/*]

• Updated a number of NPC defensive ability VFX.

  [/*]

• Updated Order of Iron VFX.

  [/*]

September 18th

• Adjusted spawn & death Ashen VFX (still WIP).

  [/*]

• Adjusted VFX for Shifting Strike.

  [/*]

• Cleaned up some ability animations that weren\'t showing with a bow.

  [/*]

• Alchemy quest no longer has level requirements. Alchemy can be acquired at any level.

  [/*]

• Fixed Alchemy quest starting clickable in Crawling Burrows EV.

  [/*]

• Fixed new characters starting with 2 separate stacks of smelling salts.

  [/*]

• Weaken Alchemy 2 no longer stacks with Dread Tone.

  [/*]

• Dread Tone Alchemy 2 additionally extends duration of the effect.

  [/*]

• Updated Ibaxian Runestone descriptions for runes that now have full effect on outer armor.

  [/*]

September 17th

All characters from Live have been copied over to QA from September 17 @10am central.

• Increased damage reduction on Dread Tone (ability balance is still in flux based on recent feedback)

  [/*]

• Ibaxian Adornment Outer Armor pieces now consider all resist runes to give their full effect (Rune tooltip not updated yet).

  [/*]

• Fixed issue where Movement Resists were being added twice for Ibaxian Adornment outer armor.

  [/*]

• Reduced potency of abilities from Corduun Seekers and Excavators in Ibaxus.

  [/*]

• Updated Central Ibaxus weapons (Greater Ibaxian Relics) to have enhanced emissions.

  [/*]

• Fixed issue that was preventing characters from getting their class skills if they had not picked a spec yet.

  [/*]

• Added VFX when a player teleports somewhere via Monolith or Ley Link (WIP).

  [/*]

• Added VFX to Ashen creature spawns and deaths (WIP).

  [/*]

• Disabled depth-of-field effect on character select screen. Hoping this reduces GPU chugging here.

  [/*]

• Adjusted class description flyout sizes and positions.

  [/*]

• Trimmed class descriptions (WIP).

  [/*]

September 16th

All characters from Live have been copied over to QA from September 16 @10am central. This means that newbie characters from the previous week of QA are no longer with us - thank you for testing!

With this test we have the following focus items:

• Characters without a base role or specialization will be required to select a class before they can login. You will see a button \"Select Class\" on the nameplate, which will bring up a new dialog with your selection options.

  [list]

• With no base class you can select from all 9 available classes and will start at level 1.

  [/*]

• With a base role but no spec you will be able to choose from the 3 subclasses of your base role. If you are below level 6 then your class level will match your current level. If you are above level 6, then your class level will be set to level 6 and will need to play catch up.

  [/*]

Other changes:

• Updated dialogs for various trainers, Beardin, and the Alchemy quest.

  [/*]

• Reduced emission on Retaliate VFX.

  [/*]

• Others now play a dissolve-like VFX when they vanish.

  [/*]

• Adornment layer visuals can now be toggled on/off via context menu option when right clicking the Adornment tab.

  [/*]

• GEL now uses the player\'s actual level for XP calculations for mobs yellow and below (actual chevron color). Orange & Red uses the GEL level (GEL icon color). This is basically \"the best of both world\" in the sense that it uses a mix of the old method and the newer method.

  [/*]

• Changed Warlord starting look - now have gloves instead of a single vambrace.

  [/*]

• Increased Dread Tone range to match Heavy Crossbow range.

  [/*]

• Corrected stamina cost for Order of Iron at higher levels.

  [/*]

• Prevent multiple sources of Dread Tone from stacking.

  [/*]

• Fixed issue preventing Dread Tone from listing details in the tooltip.

  [/*]

• Fixed issue preventing Alchemy Order of Iron from triggering from Ripostes.

  [/*]

• Fixed issue while shaping Central Ibaxian Relics that was causing the wrong Relic to be considered for setting Class Requirements to equip.

  [/*]

• Central Ibaxus Shaped Relics should more consistently inherit stats from the supplied Lower Ibaxus Shaped Relics.

  [/*]

• Updated various Ant ability VFX.

  [/*]

• Fixed missing stats on Central Ibaxus Juggernaut Curved Sword Relic.

  [/*]

September 12th

• Re-enabling zoom slider on character creation.

  [/*]

• Fixed the macro bar window to properly include the + button so that it cannot be moved off screen.

  [/*]

• Fixed typo on Hardtack.

  [/*]

• Auction House duration now correctly shows \"Days\" on QA.

  [/*]

• Beardin now accepts any type of diseased hide.

  [/*]

• Order of Iron now bypasses active defenses.

  [/*]

• Added Alchemy for Impact.

  [/*]

• Added Alchemy for Dread Tone and adjusted range.

  [/*]

• Adjusted Dread Tone, removing the Damage over Time component and adding a Damage Debuff on the target.

  [/*]

• Adjusted stamina on Order of Iron

  [/*]

September 11th

• Reduced healing amount of worker ants in Crawling Burrows EV

  [/*]

• Reduced number of Glyph Ants that spawn outside of Crawling Burrows EV

  [/*]

• Reduced social aggro range of ants that spawn outside of Crawling Burrows EV

  [/*]

• Further increased spawn chance of Frenzied mobs in newbie area.

  [/*]

• Followup quest rewards for Ember Essence updated to be low level potions.

  [/*]

• Brigand ability Shifting Strike limited to increase positional bonus for the next two attacks.

  [/*]

• Disciples of Ruto in Ibaxus have had their Energy Leech ability reduced and the self-haste component removed.

  [/*]

• Further reduced respawn rate for Fishing Village and Stonecoat Camp in Grimstone Canyon

  [/*]

• Fixed some environmental issues in Grimstone Canyon.

  [/*]

• Updated Alchemy and Alchemy descriptions for new abilities (still WIP)

  [/*]

• Fixed Alchemy not being available after completing the Alchemy quest at level 6.

  [/*]

• Other misc Alchemy quest fixes.

  [/*]

September 10th

• Alchemy Quest updated for the new level 5 EV. The quest can be started the normal way (talking to the NPC in the academy) or via a clickable just inside of the EV. Note that we have not yet tested these changes internally, so have at it and make sure to /report any bugs.

  [/*]

• Fixed an exception that could cause Steam transactions to not finalize.

  [/*]

• Fixed the Login with Steam tooltip not showing when Steam could not initialize.

  [/*]

• Disabled Archie and corresponding quest clickables in Meadowlands.

  [/*]

• Fixed spelling issues in some quests involving the Grotto.

  [/*]

• Fixed some stuck spots in Ibaxus and Grizzled Peaks.

  [/*]

• More fixes to Noble Elk recipes.

  [/*]

• Lake bears in ML are now 1^.

  [/*]

• World boss death announcements are now funneled to the emote channel.

  [/*]

• Added an option toggle to disable world boss death announcements.

  [/*]

• Enabled seasonable scene to celebrate the 3rd anniversary of the launch of Embers Adrift.

  [/*]

• Re-enabled turnip heads on humanoid NPCs both to wear, and as drops.

  [/*]

• Updated VFX and animations on new skills.

  [/*]

• Wayward Mangrove is now bigger.

  [/*]

• Fixed a Staff/Polearm animation that was failing to play.

  [/*]

• Warlord\'s Dread Tone now scales with weapon damage.

  [/*]

• Knight\'s Order of Iron now scales with weapon damage, only triggers on auto attacks, and has had the base damage increased.

  [/*]

• Juggernaut\'s Alchemy for Breach has removed mention of \"Momentum\" to avoid confusion with the new skill.

  [/*]

• Marshal:

  [list]

• Concussive Strike has been replaced with the original Threatening Strike. In order to see this change you will have to re-create a Marshal

  [/*]

• While the daze was a good fit for the Marshal\'s kit, replacing their most used ability for damage/threat with an ability which might be held for CC purposes caused too much conflict. As Threatening Strike is no longer a shared generic role ability it was an easy choice to maintain playability and balance.

  [/*]

September 8th

We would like to invite the community to comment, test, and provide feedback on our upcoming changes to the new player experience which focuses on initial class selection, class identity, changes to Newhaven Valley content, pacing and balance.

Given the focus of this test we are settings things up on the dev server a little differently:

• The QA server is a blank slate. You will have to create a new character for testing.

  [/*]

• Your shared storage and the auction house will be empty.

  [/*]

• All Steam logins are considered a subscriber so that you can create 9 characters.

  [/*]

• The only zones currently online are: Newhaven Valley, Newhaven City, Northreach, Central Veins 1+2, and any Ember Vein accessible from NHV & Northreach.

  [/*]

• The QA zone is offline.

  [/*]

• At a later date we will bring over data from Live so that you can all test character migrations (ability changes, players without a spec selecting a class, etc).

  [/*]

Please join us in our #qa-chat discord channel to discuss and provide feedback.

Note that for new/changed abilities the Animation/VFX and Alchemy versions are not all finished yet.

Intent of Changes:

• We want to bring the flavor of each class more immediately to the game and reduce the presence of generic role abilities, each character should immediately feel and look unique.

  [/*]

• We want to bring the excitement of Alchemy, and the bizarre nature of Ember, Ruptures and Ember Veins closer to the start of the game to make sure players get an early taste of the unique fantasy the game has.

  [/*]

• We are taking extra care to try and align with new player expectations in regards to what a class\' role and fantasy is within the world.

  [/*]

Character changes:

• Characters now start with different equipped weapons and armor based on class selected.

  [/*]

• Removal of the Base Roles, characters select their Class (previously specialization) during character creation.

  [/*]

• Rearrange skill grant order to prioritize early game class feel and fantasy.

  [list]

• For example Brigands starting with Stun

  [/*]

Content Changes:

• Most Newhaven Valley camps have been reduced to 1^ in difficulty, the Ancient Bear camp remains 3^.

  [/*]

• Regular named (excludes Misha and Knave of Harts) in Newhaven Valley have been reduced to 2^ in difficulty, but rewards remain the same.

  [/*]

• Increased frequency of Frenzied mobs to show up near the newbie area.

  [/*]

• The Crawling Burrows EV has moved from Dryfoot into Newhaven Valley, the content and rewards within have been updated to reflect the lower level (~lvl 5).

  [/*]

• Wayward Mangrove has been brought closer to newbie area, while it is non-aggressive it does assist the Mandrakes if you are not mindful.

  [/*]

• Meadowlands Lake Brown Bears have been reduced to 1^ in difficulty.

  [/*]

• Reduced daze duration on Ibaxian Slagjacks.

  [/*]

• Crusader Arribac\'s adds no longer share a respawn timer.

  [/*]

System Changes:

• Player Damage Resists now impact damage over time abilities per-tick damage calculations.

  [/*]

Fixes:

• Fixed Noble Elk Recipes incorrectly requiring level 25

  [/*]

• Fixed issue preventing Ibaxian Recipe chests from spawning in Central Ibaxus

  [/*]

• Fixed Robust Leather recipe component name.

  [/*]

• Fixed missing tooltips for Mental, Chemical, and Ember damage stats.

  [/*]

• Fixed an initialization issue with stat tabs on your equipment sheet.

  [/*]

• Fixed an issue with ability low level indicators not properly updating after leveling.

  [/*]

• Fixed Healing filter logic to work similarly to the Warlord Song filter: enables/disables healing messages in conjunction with the MyCombatIn, MyCombatOut and OtherCombat filters.

  [/*]

• Fixed skinning level on Wolf Whelp.

  [/*]

• Noble recipes reduced to level 15.

  [/*]

• Ibaxus

  [list]

• Fixed a few stuck spots.

  [/*]

• Fixed some building colliders not conforming to the building shape.

  [/*]

• Fixed an issue that prevented the jailer\'s portcullis from opening.

  [/*]

• Fixed an issue where certain mobs received additional armor penetration.

  [/*]

• Fixed Hunter\'s spotlight not disabling on death.

  [/*]

• Reduced social aggro on crabs.

  [/*]

• Reduced respawn rate on 2^ and 3^ mobs.

  [/*]

• Reduced health on 2^ mobs.

  [/*]

• Adjusted Central Ibaxus respawn timers to more closely match Lower Ibaxus.

  [/*]

• Mandrakes are again non-hostile.

  [/*]

• Cor\'duun Sentries drop Artifacts and Runes again, but have a much longer respawn timer.

  [/*]

• Hunter mob respawn at much slower rates.

  [/*]

This month\'s patch has a number of QoL improvements, bug fixes, and design adjustments.

IL2CPP is now the default build configuration (detailed here ). For those of you who were running the live_il2cpp branch you will need to revert back to None to get the most up to date client built with IL2CPP tech.

Fixes

• Fixed stuck spots in Newhaven Valley, Northreach, Dryfoot, Highland Hills, Redshore, Redshore Ridge, Grizzled Peaks, and Ibaxus.

  [/*]

• Fixed issues with Berserker Assault animations sometimes not playing.

  [/*]

• Fixed initialization issues with friend & guild lists + show offline button.

  [/*]

• Fixed a bug with input fields locking character movement after a window was closed.

  [/*]

Improvements

• Added dithering effect to most vegetation when the camera is in close proximity.

  [/*]

• Added arguments to the /played command. You can now do \"/played all\" to show total played time for all characters on your account. In addition, you can specify another character on your account to get the played time for that specific character (i.e. \"/played drindin\"). Supplying no arguments (just /played) will function as it did previously.

  [/*]

• UI:

  [list]

• Added specific loading tips to some loading images regarding those images.

  [/*]

• Added a confirmation dialog when deploying a portable crafting station while missing your bag.

  [/*]

• Added a confirmation dialog when attempting to apply a consumable when that consumable\'s effect is already applied.

  [/*]

• Escape now closes confirmation dialogs.

  [/*]

• Added a \"Can Use\" toggle to merchant windows.

  [/*]

• Chat window:

  [list]

• Revamped the saving & loading procedure for chat windows so that they are more reliable.

  [/*]

• Added \"/resetchatwindows\" chat command to reset all chat windows to the default layout of 1x chat and 1x combat window in the bottom right of your screen.

  [/*]

• Added \"Healing\" filter to combat tabs.

  [/*]

• Note: if you run into any issues we recommend running the above reset command for a fresh configuration.

  [/*]

GEL Experience Adjustments

When you group with other players, our Group Elevated Level (GEL) system helps lower-level players keep up with their higher-level group mates. GEL temporarily raises your effective combat level (up to +5 higher than your adventuring level) so that you can better land hits and contribute against more difficult enemies.

Previously, experience rewards while GEL\'d were calculated based on your real level. This ultimately led to lower-level players getting poor experience returns when compared to other activities. With this month\'s update, experience rewards will now be calculated using your GEL level when comparing against the enemy\'s level. That means your experience gains will better match the challenge of what your group is fighting. Here is a practical example:

Before (old system):

• Drindin (level 20) groups with Undone (level 26).

  [/*]

• GEL raises Drindin\'s effective combat level to 25.

  [/*]

• They defeat a level 27 NPC.

  [/*]

• Drindin\'s is effective in combat.

  [/*]

• Drindin experience reward is calculated based on a level delta of +7, which results in diminished experience as if the NPC was level 17 (light blue). (note that experience for level deltas of +3/+4/+5/... is diminished)

  [/*]

After (new system):

• Same scenario: Drindin (level 20) + Undone (level 26).

  [/*]

• GEL raises Drindin\'s effective combat level to 25.

  [/*]

• They defeat a level 27 NPC.

  [/*]

• Drindin is still effective in combat.

  [/*]

• Drindin\'s experience reward is calculated based on a level delta of +2, which results in non-diminished experience as if the NPC was level 22 (yellow).

  [/*]

We fully recognize that this doesn\'t solve all of our problems, but we believe it is a step in the right direction. It is also worth noting that while this is not exactly a \"catch up\" mechanic, lower level players should progress through their level at a faster pace than their higher level group mates. This is because higher levels require more kills to progress when compared to lower levels.

Next Month

We\'re working hard on revamping the new player experience for next month\'s patch. The plan is to start players off with a specialization and allow them to acquire their Ember Stone + Alchemy at level 6. Please stay tuned as we will need some heavy QA testing.

Also note that next month\'s patch will come a week earlier on September 23rd!

August 18th

Characters were copied over from live as of August 18th at 9am CST.

• Fixed some potential exceptions with the Map.

  [/*]

• Updated the \"/played\" command to support arguments of \"all\" or another character name.

  [/*]

• Adjusted dither distance on vegetation.

  [/*]

• Updated multiple camps in Newhaven Valley to have more of a focus on 1^ mobs.

  [/*]

• Stricter leashes on mobs within Shrieking Barrows to reduce the chances of 2^ mobs wandering into the 1^ loop.

  [/*]

• Stags, Does, and Elks now have a chance to drop Tea leaves as loot (they still drop from skinning).

  [/*]

• QA auctions no longer expire more quickly than Live.

  [/*]

• Auction House Buy It Now update:

  [list]

• Now shows a reduced price when you are the current highest bidder. The total cost remains unchanged. However, if you are the highest bidder you can now pay the difference between your bid and the buy it now amount.

  [/*]

• A \"lower buy it now\" indicator has been added when this is in effect - the tooltip shows the original price.

  [/*]

Threat Updates

Thanks to everyone who tested the recent Defender threat changes. While we believe our most recent change helped in a number of ways, it also created some new issues that were not anticipated. In light of that we are working on a more long term solution to the off-tanking problem. In the mean time however, we have adjusted the threat generation on a number of abilities:

• Increased Threat on Knight ability Bash

  [/*]

• Increased Damage and Threat on Marshal ability Pressure

  [/*]

• Increased Threat on Marshal ability Sweep

  [/*]

• Increased Healing reduction on Warlord\'s Alchemy Despair

  [/*]

August 12th

• IL2CPP is now the default configuration for client builds. For the next monthly patch our plan is to make an alternate non-IL2CPP branch available for a short period of time, before fully deprecating these build configurations.

  [/*]

• Wayward Mangrove path moved to the newbie area.

  [/*]

• Mandrakes now spawn in the newbie area.

  [/*]

• Increase Ibixian Shard drop counts.

  [/*]

• Added dithering effect to most vegetation when the camera is in close proximity.

  [/*]

• Added a confirmation to deploy a portable crafting station when you are missing your bag.

  [/*]

• Added a confirmation to overwrite a consumable effect of the same type.

  [/*]

• Added custom loading tips for a number of loading images.

  [/*]

• Added Can Use toggle to merchants.

  [/*]

• Chat window improvements:

  [list]

• Revamped the saving & loading procedure for chat windows so that they are more reliable.

  [/*]

• Added \"/resetchatwindows\" chat command to reset all chat windows to the default layout of 1x chat and 1x combat window in the bottom right of your screen.

  [/*]

• Added \"Healing\" filter to combat tabs.

  [/*]

• note that loading into QA might have an impact when swapping back to live as the saved chat window data is shared

  [/*]

Defender Threat Changes

(see updates from August 18th above)

[strike]To address feedback regarding off-tanking we are doing a slight rework to how Defenders generate threat. Currently on Live Defenders have certain abilities which have increased threat multipliers making them necessary for tanking. However, they are also quite impactful for damage - if the off tank is holding off on using these abilities to keep their threat low they are also reducing their damage output.[/strike]

[strike]We are testing some new changes on QA that adds an additional self-buff component to the Defender ability Provoke. Its current functionality remains fully intact, but using it will additionally buff the Defender with a character stat +threat multiplier which is effective across all abilities. [/strike]

[strike]Our goal is to allow Provoke to be the opt-in for Defenders who are active as a group\'s main tank and those off-tanking can use their full kit with a reduced risk of pulling aggro.[/strike]

[strike]Accompanying this change is the removal of additional threat multipliers on individual abilities. Some abilities whose increased threat was the only distinguishing factor have been slightly reworked:[/strike]

Here\'s a slew of fixes to cleanup issues from recent changes:

• Fixed scroll bar issues on macOS builds.

  [/*]

• Fixed crafting UI only allowing 2 digit input (now accepts 3).

  [/*]

• Fixed free look not being available in over-the-shoulder mode while sitting.

  [/*]

• Fixed \"Bidding too soon\" message from not showing before the confirmation.

  [/*]

• Fixed tooltips not showing on the character select screen.

  [/*]

• Fixed an exception that could occur when inspecting someone with no gear.

  [/*]

• Fixed a potential exception with the death UI countdown panel.

  [/*]

• Fixed select value dialog not activating input field on show.

  [/*]

• Fixed context menu not being clamped to your screen on show.

  [/*]

• Fixed missing stats on Ibaxian Relic Banners and Scepters.

  [/*]

• Fixed inability to trade crafted Ibaxian Relics.

  [/*]

• Fixed armor type filters not working on the Auction House.

  [/*]

• Fixed Auction House clear type button tooltip.

  [/*]

• Added \"Augment\" and \"Recipe\" to the Auction House type dropdown.

  [/*]

• Added 70, 80, and 90 FPS limit options.

  [/*]

• Increased the duration of \"The Good Stuff\" potion to 30 seconds.

  [/*]

• Increased the number of hits for level 50 Augments.

  [/*]

• Changed Dagger of the Glacier to have 1H Damage instead of Parry.

  [/*]

• Removed starting delay from Void Energy VFX to better communicate when the debuff is applied.

  [/*]

Small hotfix for the following issues:

• Fixed raid window not showing after joining a raid.

  [/*]

• Fixed mail UI showing a large amount of coin on opening.

  [/*]

• Fixed map not loading the first time around.

  [/*]

• Fixed /report not properly focusing when opened.

  [/*]

• Fixed an issue with equipment window lock state not saving correctly.

  [/*]

This month introduces a slew of improvements, QoL updates, and a new performance branch (IL2CPP) for further testing.

Fixes

• Fixed issues with resources that were spawning under water.

  [/*]

• Fixed item category on Mangrove Logs.

  [/*]

• Fixed Radiant Flux crafted weapons not showing their updated visuals.

  [/*]

• Fixed Cooked Tough Meat recipe output.

  [/*]

• Fixed an issue that allowed some ranged NPC abilities to be parried and riposted by players.

  [/*]

• Fixed characters not being clickable on character selection.

  [/*]

• Fixed tooltip typo in high resolution sun shadows option.

  [/*]

• Fixed macro edit dialog text not wrapping.

  [/*]

• Fixed visual issue with the Log UI when opening/closing the window with the hunting log selected.

  [/*]

• Fixed an issue with macOS performance when \"None\" was selected for the framerate limiter.

  [/*]

• Fixed lights disabling in the Shaper hallway.

  [/*]

• Fixed an issue that was causing overhead chat bubble text to be faded.

  [/*]

• Fixed a spelling error on level 50 dropped tar flasks.

  [/*]

Improvements

• Adjusted LOD on a number of weapons.

  [/*]

• Adjusted LOD on all Ember Ring vegetation.

  [/*]

• Doubled the AFK boot timer for active subscribers.

  [/*]

• Increased the number of bears that spawn for Hallick\'s Tower quest.

  [/*]

• Rotated seasonal wares on Marta.

  [/*]

• Updated the entrance to Freehold to be more solo-friendly.

  [/*]

• NPCs:

  [list]

• Reduced the damage over time component on Ashen Boar\'s Impale ability.

  [/*]

• Reduced rate that NPCs can use the Patch ability.

  [/*]

• Redmane Stalkers should no longer attack boars.

  [/*]

Optimizations

Engine and Shader Updates

This patch includes a Unity Engine update to the latest subversion. This brings some small performance improvements and bug fixes. In addition, all vegetation and custom shaders have been updated which should also yield some minor performance gains.

Terrain Rendering Optimizations

This month we are adding new culling tech to overland scenes. Most zones are composed of 4 large terrains in a 2x2 configuration. Each individual terrain has a performance setting that was previously set to a fixed number. With this patch we are now dynamically adjusting this value based on your distance to each individual terrain - which should provide a small break to your GPU.

In addition, we have enabled stochastic texture sampling in terrain shaders for all outdoor zones. This rendering technique should reduce the frequency of repeated texture patterns.

Application Startup Optimizations

The last few patches have ballooned our application load times to an unacceptable level. On application start we are pre-loading a lot of data which can cause the client to show as \"not responding\". To mitigate this issue we have deferred some loading until the first loading screen is shown. This means that your first \"zone in\" after application startup may take slightly longer than it did previously, but subsequent zone loads will be quicker.

UI Performance Optimizations

During a deep dive into performance of the game we identified an an issue with how our UI windows interact with Unity\'s backend UGUI system.

Previously, all hidden windows have an alpha value of 0 and are not raycasted against, which means that they cannot be seen or interacted with. When a window is shown, we transition the alpha from 0->1 for a fade in, and enable racyasting for interactions. As it turns out, even though a UI element is not being rendered or raycasted against we were still paying a performance overhead in UGUI to keep them registered and available.

This patch changes how we handle hidden windows within our UI system. Once hidden, a window\'s game object is now completely disabled which removes them from the UIGUI system entirely. The downside to this, is that there is a slight performance hit for disabling and enabling objects (which is why we did not do it previously). However, this performance hit only lasts a single frame on open/close rather than us paying for having it registered with UGUI on every frame.

We have done a fair bit of internal testing and everything appears to work as usual. In theory this change should not even be noticed - outside of the performance improvement. On average I was saving upwards of 4ms per frame which isn\'t a giant leap forward, but it just may be enough to make a difference for you.

IL2CPP Branch

To further improve performance, we have built an alternate client using Unity\'s IL2CPP build process, which converts the game into a native binary. In theory, this should provide significant performance gains. In practice, however, the results can vary considerably depending on several factors - most notably vegetation and point light shadows.

Earlier this month we deployed a QA build using this tech but did not get enough feedback for us to make a call on if we should move forward with this tech as the primary build. We would ask that you try playing with the alternate IL2CPP build this month and report any issues you might encounter. If something game breaking comes up you can always swap back to the default branch.

To swap to this branch right click on Embers Adrift in your Steam library and select \"Properties\":

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45320885/ac905ccea80bc9cf88260acfb526998d01870d54.png\"][/img]

Next select \"Betas\" in the left hand column and you should see a menu on the right named \"Beta Participation\". In this dropdown you should see an entry called \"live_il2cpp - experimental IL2CPP builds\" - select this and you are good to go!

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45320885/ccc8594450b5ef27a45af1d221202c9fdbfca0aa.png\"][/img]

To swap back to non-IL2CPP builds simply change this dropdown to \"None\". And just to reiterate - our goal is to make the default IL2CPP so any and all feedback you can provide on these builds would be extremely helpful.

Note that this is a LIVE build -meaning that this branch connects to the LIVE server.

This month we are deep diving into some performance optimizations, application load times, and other low hanging fruit. Characters were copied from live as of July 8th, 2025 2pm Central.

July 9th

• Fixed character creation / edit from not functioning.

  [/*]

• Fixed an issue with macOS performance when "None" was selected for the framerate limiter.

  [/*]

• Added new tech to optimize terrain chunk LODs in overland zones.

  [/*]

• Adjusted nav mesh links near the lake in Ibaxus to limit mobs from climbing up rocks.

  [/*]

July 8th

Improvements

• Set animators to cull completely when not on screen. This should yield some minor performance benefits - but please let us know if you notice any funny business when animated things (creatures + players) come into view.

  [/*]

• Revamped the entrance to Freehold as a solo area. A wall was added to more clearly separate the solo area from the group area.

  [/*]

• Improved wording on the error shown when you cannot connect to Steam.

  [/*]

• Corrected material category on Mangrove logs.

  [/*]

• Ability UI elements now properly use Alchemy execution and targeting parameters when selected.

  [/*]

• Auctions that have bids can no longer be cancelled.

  [/*]

• We are sprucing up our loading screens by including various renders of our custom creatures & props that correspond to the region you are currently loading.

  [/*]

Application Startup Optimizations

The last few patches have ballooned our application load times to an unacceptable level. On application start we are pre-loading a lot of data all at once which can cause the client to show as "not responding". To mitigate this issue we have deferred some loading until the first loading screen is shown. This means that your first "zone in" may take slightly longer than it did previously, but subsequent loads will return to normal.

Please let us know if you see a considerable improvement here when compared with Live.

UI Performance Optimizations

As mentioned in the opener, I have done a deep dive into what can be done to improve performance of the game. One area we identified was how our UI windows interact with Unity's backend UGUI system.

Currently, all hidden windows have an alpha value of 0 and are not raycasted against, which means that they cannot be seen or interacted with. When a window is shown, we transition the alpha from 0->1 for a fade in, and enable racyasting for interactions. As it turns out, even though a UI element is not being rendered or raycasted against we were still paying a performance overhead in UGUI to keep them registered and available.

This patch adjusts how we handle hidden windows within our UI system. Once hidden, a window's game object is now completely disabled which removes them from the UIGUI system entirely. The downside to this, is that there is a slight performance hit for disabling and enabling objects like this (which is why we did not do it previously). However, this performance hit only lasts a single frame on open/close rather than us paying for having it registered with UGUI on every frame.

We have done a fair bit of internal testing and everything appears to work as usual. In theory this change should not even be noticed - outside of the performance boost. On average I was saving upwards of 4ms per frame which isn't a giant leap forward, but it just may be enough to make a difference.

Please let us know how this QA build's performance compares to the current Live build, or if you notice any oddities with UI windows.

Future Experiments

To further improve performance we will be looking into moving client builds to IL2CPP. This would allow our code run as "native code" on your device, which in theory should yield even more performance benefits. Once we get these builds going we will need a heavy bit of testing from you all, so please stay tuned!

Improvements:

• Added internal logging to the ability execution pipeline.

  [/*]

• Added protections against a rare exception in the ability execution pipeline that could cause a zone to crash.

  [/*]

• Adjusted leash distances Highland Hills Ember Vein spawns between the 1^ and 3^ areas.

  [/*]

Fixes

• Fixed container slot (inventory / bags / etc) highlights not always disabling when the mouse leaves the slot.

  [/*]

• Fixed reset distances not being respected on some mobs.

  [/*]

• Fixed some exceptions involving grabbing the most recent chat input.

  [/*]

• Fixed an issue that allowed some instant executions to work while swimming.

  [/*]

• Fixed Deer Bulletin Task in Newhaven Valley to count all deer types.

  [/*]

• Fixed an issue where players were not properly being removed from raid chats after leaving a raid.

  [/*]

• Ibaxus:

  [list]

• Fixed some issues with potential failures on the completion of the Forged in Time quest.

  [/*]

• Fixed some floating props.

  [/*]

• Fixed terrain pixel error values. This was causing some visual shifting of the terrain while moving around.

  [/*]

• Fixed some stuck spots.

  [/*]

• Fixed target reticles not rendering on some buildings.

  [/*]

• Fixed incorrect stats and damage values for some mobs. Wildfire Wolf in particular got a significant boost in HP.

  [/*]

• Fixed some issues with Overprovision not triggering from some DOTs.

  [/*]

• Fixed Daze VFX not appearing on certain abilities.

  [/*]

• Fixed missing level requirement on Gate of Sages quest. For those of you who snuck in previous to level 50: congratulations!

  [/*]

Improvements

• Some minor UI performance optimizations.

  [/*]

• Added "shift+r+s" as a keyboard shortcut on the login screen to reset the skybox.

  [/*]

• Reduced kills required for Toad/Emberfly Grimstone Canyon Bulletin Board task to 8.

  [/*]

• Login clarifications:

  [list]

• Changed "Steam Login" to just "Login".

  [/*]

• Changed "Legacy Login" to "Legacy Account".

  [/*]

• Legacy login screen wording now says it is for non-Steam purchases.

  [/*]

Gate of Sages Quest Adjustment

The Gate of Sages quest no longer requires you to kill the three raid bosses in Grizzled Peaks. While this made sense on paper, it was not going to work out in the long run from the player's perspective. If your schedule did not align with the community raids then you would forever be locked out of Ibaxus unable to participate.

To remedy this, the quest now requires you to kill a new unique mob in Grizzled Peaks that will be up far more frequently. This mob has no loot because their sole purpose for existing is this quest. They are however, no slouch, so you will still want to bring friends.

This is our largest patch yet, introducing a brand-new level 50 group and raid zone: The Lost City of Ibaxus. We've taken everything we've learned up to this pointlessons from past zones, systems, and player feedbackand poured it into the design of Ibaxus. With many new features built specifically for this zone and a wealth of content to explore, this update delivers hundreds of hours of additional gameplay for max level players.

Fixes

• Fixed nameplate height inconsistencies for Stonecoats and Nocturnes.

  [/*]

• Fixed a rare issue with loot rolls not triggering in a raid.

  [/*]

• Fixed "()" being shown on Need/Greed/Pass button tooltips if the action is not bound to a key.

  [/*]

• Fixed a floating brick in Meadowlands.

  [/*]

• Fixed missing portrait on Ageta.

  [/*]

• Fixed a display issue with remaining sub time for new purchases who have also purchased subscription time.

  [/*]

Improvements

• Adjusted 3^ spawns near the Highland Hills Ember Vein solo loop.

  [/*]

• Ember Essence can now be tracked on your action bar in place of experience. Right clicking the bubble has a new option "Ember Essence" if you have an Ember Stone.

  [/*]

• Added a new tell audio clip selectable in the options called "Notification".

  [/*]

• Minor shadow optimizations in some dungeon rooms.

  [/*]

• Decreased the transparency of loot rolls.

  [/*]

• Include "Stronghold" or "Drybone" in the names of lockbox keys to more easily differentiate the two.

  [/*]

• Revamped the player stat panel:

  [list]

• Improved visuals with better titles and spacing.

  [/*]

• Improved tooltips.

  [/*]

• Negative haste is now calculated and displayed correctly

  [/*]

• Weapon augments are now included on your stat sheet (main hand only).

  [/*]

• Holding ALT will break stats into Equipped / Augments / Effects in the tooltip.

  [/*]

The Lost City of Ibaxus

The lost city of Ibaxus has been discoveredcarefully guarded by a faction of Others calling themselves Sages, who command their Corduun puppets. To gain entry to these hallowed grounds, you must find a way to attune yourself to the Gate of Sages, a powerful ward that repels all unworthy "Ibaxi'duun".

Ibaxus lies in the highest reaches of the Grizzled Peaksa breathtaking but treacherous ruin. Though it was their second home, it was the first city built entirely through the use of Alchemy by the Vehueramen people of old. It is said that the earliest whispers of their destruction were heard here, in the very city where Ibax himself once lived and breathed.

Ibaxus is the most perilous region ever discovered by Drifters. Those who dare to explore its sacred grounds in search of lost knowledge and forgotten treasures should proceed with cautionand never drift alone.

To preserve the thrill of discovery, we wont reveal too muchbut here are some highlights of what you can expect from Ibaxus:

• Must complete the new quest Gate of Sages to gain entry (requires a level 50 adventurer that has also completed the The Cor'duun Heresy quest).

  [/*]

• New challenging group and raid content with overlapping progression paths. Whether you're a dedicated group or part of a guild logging in just for the big encounters, both play styles can progress their characters in meaningful ways.

  [list]

• Multiple tiers of progression.

  [/*]

• Two distinct areas containing multiple bosses and mini-bosses.

  [/*]

• Custom Hunting Logs that apply to entire groups of creatures from the different areas rather than being specific that a single creature type. NPC titles are used to indicate which region the creature comes from, and hence which Hunting Log entry they progress.

  [/*]

• New equipment progression paths (see Artificing below)

  [/*]

It is also worth noting that we aren't done yet; additional regions will be added to Ibaxus in the future!

Greetings Drifters,

Stormhaven Studios has completed the migration of Embers Adrift to the Steam platform which will fully launch on June 24th, 2025. We are happy to announce that we will be launching a new level 50 zone alongside our Steam launch, and running a 50% off sale on the game purchase and the wonderful game soundtrack from June 24th throughout the Steam Summer Sale ending July 10th. You can find our store page here:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3336530/Embers_Adrift/

If you are a returning player please follow these instructions to connect your current Embers Adrift account to your Steam account in order to download and play the game via Steam:

https://forums.embersadrift.com/index.php?threads/steam-keys-and-account-linking.5981/

As many of you may know, weve had a rough past year that saw our team shrink or dev hours reduced and where we chose to offer Embers Adrift and its subscriber perks for free up until May 2025 due to the Digital River debacle (read our press release here: https://forums.embersadrift.com/index.php?threads/stormhaven-studios-press-release-10-29-24.4710/ ). During that time we received zero revenue, but were helped by generous donations from the community which allowed us to keep the lights on. We are extremely grateful for their support and are humbled at having made it through this difficult time with our community. During that time we did not sit idle, but worked diligently to improve the game and add many exciting new features. Now that the hurdle is jumped and behind us we are excited to move forward on the Steam platform. Here is a brief list of what was done in roughly the last year while we battled through. For a more detailed look at each individual item and at the plethora of things that didnt make the list you can go to our patch notes (https://forums.embersadrift.com/index.php?forums/patch-notes.105/ ) and for specific items that interest you, match the date of the patch notes with the date that matches any of the items listed below:

New Features and Improvements list:

Zones

We will complete our full launch of Embers Adrift on Steam on June 24th. This will coincide with the launch of our new zone: Ibaxus - legendary lost city of the Vehueramen.

As many of you know we have not received any revenue for Embers Adrift since June 2024. We are happy to announce that that will be changing as of the end of this month - we should be receiving our first revenue payment in a year! We are extremely humbled by the initial response to our soft launch as we worked out subscriptions vs time blocks and the support you all have given us has been overwhelming. As a thank you and a celebration we will be holding a 50% game sale starting with our full-fledged launch on June 24th, it will continue throughout the Steam Summer Sale event ending on July 10th (this will apply to the game purchase and the soundtrack purchase).

We have worked diligently throughout this difficult time and have brought many improvements and new features to the game (auction house, group summons, crafting overhaul, item set bonuses, new raid bosses and rare loot, the highly requested compass, and more) all culminating in the launch of this legendary zone - Ibaxus. With it comes several level 50+ raid encounters and small-large group content, continued lore, a new level 50 crafting profession that doesn't count towards your total professions cap, new quests, new level 50+ item progression that allows for customization, and much more. Please check out this trailer we've made to mark the occasion and share it with friends and players new and old.
https://youtu.be/PpQkbXCGR4E

June 16th, 2025

This month's QA cycle is a bit shorter since most of the new content and features are focused on the upcoming new zone. However, there are a few improvements that need some testing! (Note that characters have not been copied over from live recently)

• Added portrait to Ageta

  [/*]

• Improvements to the 3^ spawns near the Highland Hills Ember Vein solo loop.

  [/*]

• Revamped mastery tab selection on the skills + crafting UI.

  [list]

• Adventuring & Gathering/Crafting tabs are now slightly separated on the Crafting UI.

  [/*]

• Gathering tabs always come before Crafting tabs on the Crafting UI.

  [/*]

Grizzled Peaks 2 Update

Grizzled Peaks 2 (not the final name) is on track for going live next week and is chalked full of exciting new content. This dev update includes a number of behind the scenes technical upgrades that are required for this zone to function so please be on the look out for any oddities. Some teases:

• New level 50 raid zone.

  [/*]

• New creature.

  [/*]

• New stat system for GP2 mobs

  [/*]

• New "Threat Modifier" stat

  [/*]

• New equipment layering system

  [/*]

• Supports small/medium/large groups & raids.

  [/*]

• Multiple progression paths exclusive to this zone including:

  [list]

• custom hunting logs

  [/*]

• a new gear progression system

  [/*]

Don't be fooled by the niceties however as this zone is the most challenging content we have designed to date. There are no outposts, no conveniences; you are going to have to work for it.

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the "Add Time" button was not functional after returning to selection.
• Fixed an issue where the "Time Remaining" data was missing after returning to selection.
• Fixed "Add Time" button was not showing for new purchases
  

Fixes

• Fixed Wicked Jack's portrait for real this time.
• Fixed NPC VFX issues (purple stuffs).
• Fixed a stuck spot in Dryfoot.
  

Improvements

• Reduced culling range in Newhaven City to reduce the number of NPCs loaded at any given time. This should make the city less crash prone.
• Self-Effect panel can now only be moved while holding the "Move UI" keybind.
• Added a "refresh" button to the Self-Effect panel (while Move UI is held) which will force a refresh of the layout group: this may or may not help with the panel not collapsing.
  

Minor Engine Update

• Upgrades DLSS version from v3.1.10 to v3.7.20, fixing some ghosting artifacts and improving image stability.
• Fixed a crash occurring with FSR2.
  

Subscription Time Blocks

• $11.99 for 30 days
• $29.99 for 90 days (17% discount)
• $54.99 for 180 days (24% discount)
• $99.99 for 365 days (31% discount)
  

This months update introduces a range of improvements, bug fixes, and technical enhancements. NPC abilities have been upgraded with new visual effects, giving players clearer cues to interrupt or evade attacks during encounters. Additionally, the game engine has been updated to Unity 6, which has allowed us to enhance performance and expand dynamic resolution options, ensuring smoother visuals and better optimization across various systems.

It should also be noted that with this patch we are officially deprecating the legacy launcher. Thank you legacy launcher. You served us well; may you rest in peace.

Fixes

• Fixed a potential exception when sorting the guild list.
• Fixed a potential exception when retrieving the most recent chat tab.
• Fixed auction house level slider not working correctly for recipes.
• Fixed portrait context menu not being available while missing your bag.
• Fixed missing portrait for Verika NPC.
• Fixed missing portrait for Wicked Jack NPC.
• Fixed timeout at character select taking you back to legacy login.
• Fixed Hallows from floating apart in some zones.
• Fixed framerate limiter not being respected after changing quality settings.
• Fixed dropped Radiant Fluxes not stacking with crafted ones.
• Fixed zoom in/out keybinds working while chatting.
• Fixed stairs in Forgotten Depths from not receiving target reticle decals.
• Fixed AC value on some low level gloves.
• Fixed the reset button position for the control panel (upper right).
• Fixed typo on Flasks of Viscous Tar.
• Fixed issues with mismatched time remaining for subscription tooltips and UI elements.
• Fixed crafted crab meat missing the "seasoned" prefix
  

Improvements

• Resource nodes now have abbreviated overhead names.
• Ability line-of-sight checks are now cached to avoid multiple identical raycasts per frame.
• Added the "/discord" chat command to open our Discord invite link.
• Added basic armor and weapons to Newhaven Valley merchants.
• Added a search field to the crafting window.
• Added loading screen tip "If you are having trouble with ranged NPCs try breaking line of sight".
• Wolves may now howl.
• Increased Flatworm collider radius by 70%. This "should" make them a bit easier to catch. If they continue to be a problem however, let us know and we will re-work the detection methods in a future patch.
• Warden ability Venom Shock: updated the alchemy tooltip text description to be named "Ember Shock" and that it deals Ember damage specifically with alchemy.
  

NPC Execution Visibility Improvements

Engine Upgrade to Unity 6

• STP (Spatial-Temporal Post-Processing): this is Unity's platform agnostic frame-gen solution that works on Windows, MacOS, and Linux with any current hardware.
• FSR2 (AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution 2): this is AMD's frame-gen solution that works on Windows and does NOT require an AMD graphics card.
• DLSS (Nvidia's Deep Learning Super Sampling): this is Nvidia's frame-gen solution that works on Windows with compatible Nvidia hardware.
  

Payment Issues Update

Due to a recent issue with Steams payment processing system, some users have experienced account-related disruptions and unexpected transaction activity. A support ticket has been opened with Steam, and we are actively working with their team to better understand and resolve the situation.

[b]To ensure no one is negatively impacted during this time, we have issued full refunds for all eligible subscriptions made during the affected period.

Unfortunately, some transactions were initiated with an order number of 0 (mainly duplicated ones initiated by Steam, not us); for these we have no way to issue a refund from our end. For any transactions not refunded we will make sure that your accounts are properly credited with sub time once the free weekend has concluded.

Finally, we believe that all subscriptions should be cancelled at this point, but we recommend double checking your Steam account page to ensure that no active subscriptions to Embers Adrift remain.[/b]

In addition, as a gesture of goodwill and appreciation for our communitys patience, we will be making all subscription perks free to access for everyone throughout the upcoming holiday weekend. If you use "Login with Steam" your account will be granted all subscriber perks.

To help prevent similar issues in the future, we are actively working on adding alternate payment options to give our users more flexibility and reliability when purchasing subscriber perks.

We encourage any users still experiencing issues to contact our support team on Discord or at support@stormhavenstudios.com. Updates will continue to be shared via our official channels.

Thank you for your continued support!

May 14th, 2025

Fixes

• Rotating bits on Hallows in Grizzled Peaks (and elsewhere) should no longer drift away.
• Fixed issues with mismatched time remaining for subscription tooltips and UI elements.
• Fixed some issues with AC on some level 1 gloves.
• Toned down VFX for Basilisks.
• Reverted input package to fix issues with keybinds with the alt modifier on windows.
  

Improvements

• Added shortened overhead nameplates to gathering nodes.
• Added basic armor & weapons to Newhaven Valley merchants.
• Added VFX for Grubs, Fireflies, and Gaunts.
• Added VFX and new animations for Vengeful Mangrove.
• Adjusted STP step counts to allow for a greater range of resolution scaling.
  

May 13th, 2025

Fixes

• Fixed a potential exception in guid roster sorting.
• Fixed a potential exception when retrieving the most recent active chat tab.
• Fixed missing portrait for Wicked Jack
• Fixed typo on flasks of viscous tar
• Being timed out from character select/creation now takes you back to the start screen rather than the legacy login screen.
• Reset button for the control panel (upper right) is now in the correct spot.
  

Improvements

• Ability line of sight check results are now cached to avoid multiple identical raycasts per frame.
• Added loading screen tip "If you are having trouble with ranged NPCs try breaking line of sight."
• Added "/discord" chat command to open the discord invite.
• Added tech to allow for abbreviated overhead names for resource nodes. These will trickle in and be updated as the data gets added.
• Warden Ability Venom Shock: updated the alchemy text description to be named Ember Shock, and that will be dealing Ember damage specifically with alchemy. This a text update only for Alchemy I/II Venom Shock.
  

NPC Execution Visibility Improvements

• Ants
• Basilisks
• Bears
• Bats
• Beetles
• Boars
• Boars
• Crabs
• Crocodiles
• Cragscales & Snatchscales
• Stags & Does
  

• Newhaven Valley: all creatures that live here have been updated.
• Basilisk's Run EV: Basilisks have a very unique VFX that we would like some feedback on.
• Redshore Beach: requesting feedback on Crocs and Crabs
  

After hours of reimporting textures, compiling shaders, and working through errors we finally have Unity 6 clients ready for testing! Engine upgrades are always a pain in the neck and typically introduce random bugs; that is where you come in!

First you will need to switch Embers Adrift on steam to the "development" branch. This can be done by right clicking on Embers Adrift in your Steam library -> Properties -> Betas -> Beta Participation dropdown select "development".

Note that this will patch your game to the latest QA client - and in this particular case download is a decent size due to the engine upgrade (many files have changed). Once live and dev are on the same engine version then this difference will typically be much smaller. To swap back to live you follow the same procedure outlined above but select "None" in the betas dropdown.

Changes

• STP (Spatial-Temporal Post-Processing): this is Unity's platform agnostic frame-gen solution that works on Windows, MacOS, and Linux with any current hardware.
• FSR2 (AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution 2): this is AMD's frame-gen solution that works on Windows and does NOT require an AMD graphics card.
• DLSS (Nvidia's Deep Learning Super Sampling): this is Nvidia's frame-gen solution that works on Windows with compatible Nvidia hardware.
  

Fixes

• Fixed spelling error in Daeric dialogue.
• Fixed spelling error in Daeric's title.
• Fixed typo in Flasks of Viscous Tar
  

Improvements

• Steam Login button is no longer disabled when Steam fails to initialize. Instead, the button is disabled (grayed out) with a tooltip indicating that the client must be started through steam to use this feature.
• Added text to the legacy login screen as a reminder that the embersadrift.com account credentials are used.
• "Subscription: New Purchase" changed to "Optional Sub: New Purchase" to drive home the fact that the included subscription with a new purchase is optional.
• Adjusted the corpse + loot roll timeouts on the server for named and boss mobs. This should reduce the chances of th body expiring before loot rolls have concluded.
• Default graphics quality changed to "Performant"
• Default humanoid resolution changed to "Medium"
• Default cloud quality changed to "Medium"
• Default Nvidia DLSS to enabled when supported.
• Added optional subscription cost & perk details to the Steam page.
• Added instructions on linking legacy accounts to Steam to our Steam news page.
  

For those of you who have previously purchased the game on EmbersAdrift.com we have reserved a Steam key just for you! Following these instructions will allow you to access your characters with your Steam credentials. Please follow steps 1, 2, 3, and 4.

If you had been playing for free before our transition to Steam but have never purchased the game, you will first need to purchase the game here on Steam before following the instructions below to access your current characters. Once purchased please follow steps 1, 2, and 4.

If you run into any issues during this process please reach out to us on Discord in the #embers-help channel!

Step 1: Link your forum account to your steam account

Step 2: Permanently link your EmbersAdrift account to your Steam Account

Step 3: Redeem your Steam key (if you have previously purchased the game on EmbersAdrift.com)

Step 4: Launch the game and login with Steam

• Steam Login: logs in with your Steam credentials and allows you to purchase a subscription.
• Legacy Login: allows you to continue to use your forum username & password. Using this method will not provide any subscriber perks and has been left in place to allow those with multiple accounts to access those characters. Keep in mind that non-subscriber accounts only allow for two active characters. To gain subscriber perks on a secondary account you will need a second Steam account to purchase a subscription.