Closed Alpha v0.256 is now live

22 May 2026Developer post

Source: Steam Community (opens in a new tab)

Everstorm Closed Alpha version 0.256 is now live on for everyone who has access to the Steam Playtest.

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PATCH NOTES:

Our team is very excited to share that we've made significant progress on some major development priorities over the last few weeks:

1) MATCHMAKING BUG: Perhaps most importantly, we fixed the matchmaking issue that sometimes prevented players from queueing together.

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2) BONFIRES: We made Bonfire spawn points strategically important nodes for players by adding a Souls-like inspired Attribute Upgrade system, as well as an Ally Resurrection function. This means players are going to want to stop in at these Bonfires around the map as they roam and level up.

Please note that since this feature is brand new, the Bonfire UI/UX still has significant room for improvement and polish. It's not perfect yet.

You can check out a quick video of the activation effects we're adding to them to ensure they get players' attention: View game page

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3) SOULS CURRENCY: We created a new "Souls" currency that drops upon player death. This currency is used exclusively for in-game upgrades and creates a nice reward for killing other players. It's intended to drop from PvE targets during the daytime cycle, meaning daytime is when players are farming for more power.

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4) GOLD CURRENCY: We're making some changes so gold will function as our persistent currency that you keep after the match to purchase permanent upgrades. This will drop at night, meaning players will have an incentive to survive increasingly difficult nights to farm currency for permanent upgrades found in the PROGRESS tab in the main menu.

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5) HOTBAR CHANGES: To clarify the difference between consumable items and Storm Spells, we added a separate consumable item slot on the left side of the menu. These are hotkeyed to D and F by default, and can only be used for things like potions and wards.

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6) FAST TRAVEL PORTALS: We noticed no one was interacting with the fast travel waypoints at all. To address this, we added visual cues that activate when players approach them. We also added more portal locations around the map.

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7) SOUND IMPROVEMENTS: We added new sound effects for dragons, resurrections, and fast travel portals.

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8) ABILITY RESPONSIVENESS: We significantly optimized ability functions, reducing compute/response times by up to ~75% in some laggy abilities. This optimization also makes some of the abilities that were failing to trigger at times much more reliable.

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9) STEALTH GRASS: We changed the behaviour of the grass around the map to allow players to hide in it from most neutral monsters.

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10) BERSERKER DESIGN ADJUSTMENTS: We found players were spamming the Berserker's single-target Pummel ability.

To make his frontal cone bleed feel more clearly like an opener, we reduced its rage cost and increased its cooldown. This will make it feel more natural to use as soon as a fight starts.

To make the single-target core ability and AoE ability feel more like a situational choice, we made their rage costs equal.

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- ... We also fixed dozens of other small bugs that aren't worth outlining. Please let us know if you experience any issues with matchmaking with your friends.

We are really trying to finalize all matchmaking issues before proceeding to the next phase of Closed Alpha.