Creatures drop equipment and runes in addition to their usual loot. Magic items can have one prefix and one suffix; rare items can have two of each.
More dangerous areas offer more valuable finds and stronger modifiers. Item quantity and rarity affect rewards.
World chests
New
The first time any world chest is opened it gets extra equipment and runes from the loot system, on top of its own loot, before its contents are shown.
This replaces the 2-4 random stacks of biome loot chests used to get.
Dungeon chests give more than surface chests.
Chests opened before this update are not refilled.
Chest item quantity and chest item rarity improve this extra loot.
Equipment defence bases
New
Wearable equipment armour is automatically allocated to armour, evasion rating or rune shield, supporting three pure and three hybrid bases.
One point of original armour grants one evasion rating or 0.30 rune shield; hybrids split the original base equally.
Armour balance
Balance
Mobile Armour: 0.15% equipment movement penalty reduction per 10 armour (was 15%).
Steel Bearing: +1.3 armour per 30 Strength (was +1.25 per 10).
Runic crafting
Crafting runes
New
Runes add and remove modifiers, upgrade rarity and reroll modifier values. Right-click a rune, then left-click a compatible item.
The Great Rune of Awakening lets you replay a completed runic monolith without awarding its passive point again.
Sockets and punches
New
Equipment can have up to three sigil sockets. Punches add normal, corrupted or divine sockets; a sigil in a divine socket is 50% stronger.
Essences
New
Essences add a random modifier from their family to an item and can be refined into sigils.
Essences will be introduced gradually through patches after the main update.
Sigils
New
Sigils fit into empty weapon and armour sockets and grant additional modifiers.
Disenchanting
New
The Rune Carver Table has a Disenchant tab: any magic or better item turns into azurite dust, more for more and higher-tier properties - about a third of what crafting it with runes would cost. Unique and legendary items also give a little divine dust. Socketed sigils are destroyed with the item and cannot be recovered.
Azurite and Runecarving
Azurite
New
Azurite veins now appear in the world. Mine them with a runic chisel and process azurite in a furnace into dust for crafting runes.
Runecarver
New
A new profession covers azurite mining, dust processing, rune crafting and socket work. Develop it to gain more resources and improve runic crafting results.
New challenges
New bosses
New
New challenges: Rungard, the Thousand-Faced Warden; Morgrim, the Shattered Lord; and the Mist Mother.
Blight Mist
New
After the first victory over Rungard, the Thousand-Faced Warden, Blight Mist appears in the world. It summons harbingers of corruption and corrupts monoliths and azurite veins.
Defeat enemies to awaken the Mist Mother, then overcome her to cleanse the area. Rewards include corrupted azurite, corruption runes and unique loot.
Visages of the First Warden
New
Runic monoliths offer a new reward: Visages of the First Warden. Use them at the end of the trial to summon a boss.
Paths and the Oath Witness
New
At the start, every player chooses a path that determines their starting point in the passive tree. The Oath Witness at the central sacrificial stones helps you swear an oath or break it to change paths.
Altars of Power
New
Altars of Power appear throughout the world: offering a boss trophy permanently increases the health, damage and loot of the current biome’s inhabitants by 10%.
Jewels
Passive tree jewels
New
Six base jewels and more than ten unique jewels for passive tree sockets. Every boss has a unique jewel.
New items
Sceptre of the Pious
New
The first sceptre, a magic club. It swings like a club and gets faster with attack speed, but the blow itself deals no damage: every swing calls down Smite. Each swing costs 5 eitr.
Smite is a yellow lightning bolt that hits the ground beside the target and strikes the area around it, half lightning and half fire. It is a spell, so spell and sceptre damage bonuses apply.
Link staves
New
New items: the Bond Staff (workbench) and the Runic Bond Staff (galdr table). Holding the primary attack emits a harmless beam; touching an ally creates a link, and the beam holds it for eitr. Links are shown as a thin thread between players.
Companion horn
New
New item: the companion horn (workbench). Attack at an enemy to attack, at the ground to go there; alternative attack to wait or follow; block to recall, block with alternative attack to patrol. If the path stays blocked, a recalled companion is moved to a safe spot by its owner.
Skill tree
New passive tree
A complete passive tree overhaul
Changed
The tree has been rebuilt with over 4,000 nodes, new progression paths and dozens of new mechanics for a wide variety of builds.
Masteries are built into notable nodes: spend one point on the node, then a second point to choose one of its mastery options.
Fists for Tools keystone
Changed
Fists for Tools is now a keystone: fists chop trees and break ore, with +1 fist tool tier and +1 more for every boss killed in the world.
Craft tree
Profession progression
Craft levels
Changed
Craft levels get harder as you go: each level costs more than the last, and level 250 now takes about three times the experience of level 1. Points you have already earned stay yours.
Craft tree without tasks
Changed
The craft tree no longer has tasks, task points, a tasks panel or a tracker; craft points come from craft levels, runestones and Eureka.
Craft tree without fog or areas
Changed
The craft tree has no fog or areas: any node is taken along a path like in the main tree; points spent on areas before are returned.
Combat and equipment
Combat mechanics
Running speed stamina cost
Balance
At +30% movement speed, the running stamina-cost multiplier is now ×2 instead of ×1.6. Cost reductions still apply; the existing final minimum cost is retained.
Stagger is not an ailment
Changed
Stagger build-up only grows from rows that name stagger. Ailment build-up — general, with a weapon or with charged attacks — no longer raises stagger.
Resistance penetration
New
Fire, frost, lightning and poison penetration allow their damage to affect immune targets: 12% penetration lets 12% of the original damage through before other defences.
Each component of a mixed hit uses its matching penetration and the target’s effective resistance, including weak spots and status effects.
Shared charge cooldown
Balance
All attack-charge sources now share a 3-second cooldown between successful grants. Spending the charge does not restart it, and failed attempts do not extend it.
Eitr leech
New
Leech can now restore eitr, from the same hits as life leech. Each instance returns 2% of maximum eitr per second, all of them together at most 20% per second, and full eitr ends it.
Interface and usability
Usability
Loot filter
New
A new button at the right of the bar above the inventory opens the loot filter; the bar icons are smaller.
Six groups: ignore (no marks, no auto pickup), normal, rare, very rare; unique and legendary are set by rarity.
Each group shows its map mark, has a button to hear its sound and its own volume slider; there is also an overall filter volume.
Inventory over the tree
New
Tab with the tree open opens and closes your inventory over the tree - only the bag, without crafting or character details.
Jewels from this bag go straight into tree sockets; Esc closes the bag first, then the tree.
Closing the tree with a jewel on the cursor opens your bag with it still on the cursor, to put in a slot or drop.
Respec planning
Changed
In respec mode, left-click toggles a node both ways: mark it for refund and take it back.
Item tooltips
Changed
The item type is shown with its rarity, for example Unique Jewel.
Lore text sits at the very bottom in quotes; on unique items it is orange.
Item and tree node affixes look the same: a marker on the left, light text and white numbers; modified numbers are blue. Unique items get an orange star and orange text.
Item tooltips also show in the bag over the skill tree.
Hovering a socket with a jewel shows that jewel's item tooltip.
Fixes
Creatures and world
Monolith barrier
Fixed
The monolith barrier no longer stays up after the trial ends, even for the host.
Modifiers follow stars
Fixed
Creatures never have more modifiers than stars, and modifiers no longer show up on starless creatures.
Reeking on tamed creatures
Fixed
Tamed Reeking creatures no longer poison players.
Double stars
Fixed
Tamed creatures no longer show two rows of stars alongside other HUD mods.
Ore in chests before the boss
Fixed
Ore and bars no longer show up in chests before the biome's boss is defeated.
Early axe heads in chests
Fixed
The chest rarity mastery no longer swaps items the game only puts in chests - early axe heads, Hildir's keys and the like - for something rarer.
Items and crafting
Endless salvage
Fixed
Fixed salvaging giving materials again and again from the same item.
Tree properties on items
Fixed
A property with a qualifier (burning build-up, fire damage, spear damage) now applies only to that, not to everything.
Extra craft points
Fixed
Craft points no longer pile up on every world start.
Eitr cost on staves
Fixed
The weapon tooltip shows the eitr cost of staves again: it used to be hidden whenever the attack also cost stamina.
Corrupted Visage of the First Warden
Fixed
Added the missing item description.
Interface and multiplayer
World setup window
Fixed
The world setup window now appears only for the server admin, and only once.
Enemy health numbers
Fixed
The black outline no longer covers the digits of enemy health numbers.
Health numbers can no longer pile up on top of each other under one bar.
Desync after the tree
Fixed
A long shared pause in the tree no longer desyncs players.
Black screen on respawn
Fixed
Respawn in multiplayer no longer hangs on a black screen.
Boss points
Fixed
Boss kill points stay with the character after relog; a boss trophy restores lost ones.