This briefing is for your eyes only, agent.
We're back! Another month, another update. Let's talk about everything coming your way. A new quest, new activities, Earth Magic and... Penguins?
Earth Magic
Finally - the fourth element has arrived. Earth Magic joins Air, Fire and Water, and brings a new, earthy flavour to Magic.
At level 14 Magic, you'll be able to equip Earth Runes for Staves and Wands. Earth attacks deal Blunt Damage, staggering enemies and interrupting attacks.
Earth Magic specialises in AOE Damage, launching waves of earth at the target. The final hit of the Staff Combo hits the area around the target too, catching nearby enemies. The Staff's Special Attack creates an earthquake, with multiple aftershocks. Charge it to increase the affected area. Once cast, you can leave it to do its thing while you reposition, to make terrain difficult for your foes.
There's also a defensive benefit to this - Armour of the Earth. Earth Magic hits build a defensive buff on you, reducing your damage taken. You can build up to 3 stacks, and they're consumed on your next incoming hit. You'll consume the stacks, and take less damage on that hit. Landing more hits keeps the stacks coming - so stay in the fight, push forward and maintain the stacks to reduce your damage. And, yes - At 60 Attack, you can enchant your melee weapons with this too, to build Armour of the Earth on-hit with melee as well.
Penguin Hunting
Ashenfall has been infiltrated by the Killer Gentoo Penguins - KGP for short - and we have received reports that over 200 of them have appeared across the continent of Ashenfall. It's time to get hunting. Penguins spawn in batches - no more than 3 agents at a time, per region. These reset at regular intervals of 7 in-game days so as you progress through your adventures, you'll spot more dotted around! Hidden in plain sight, these can be found, spotted and interacted with.
Once they flee, you'll collect a token - evidence they were here - leaving you a Penguin Coin. This coin will be used at a new shop in Bramblemead, with a Full Penguin Armour Set, KGP Hat, a Penguin Cape, and decorations for your base including new tapestries from iconic RuneScape Art Community founding member, and legend of the Forums: Prezleek.
We've also added an amulet that improves chances to catch Pristine Fish, and a ring that reduces stamina for reeling in fish to make it easier to reel in the big one! These are the first steps we're making to improve fishing based on your feedback!
We'll be adding more rewards to the shop in the future so there'll be more to come back for, too!
A Reel Downer - New Quest
Over in Umbral Sands, someone’s having a rather difficult fishing trip. Head to the Manafem Clan’s camp for our new quest, A Reel Downer. Their fisherman’s catch won’t stop crying, and the clan can’t stand the taste of miserable fish.You’ll need to help him find a way to cheer them up. Apparently, happy fish taste better.
Finish the quest to unlock the Fishing Rod Rack recipe, giving your collection a proper display at home. You’ll also unlock trophy recipes for the sad fish, so if you catch a pristine one, you can mount it on your wall.
Nothing brightens up a home quite like a miserable fish.
The Rug Pull
There’s a new trail to uncover in Umbral Sands.
Four brothers stole a valuable carpet and some treasure from an ancient vault. But when the loot disappeared, greed and suspicion tore them apart.
None of the brothers survived, but they left behind their final journal entries, each telling their side of the story....
Find them scattered around the desert, piece together the clues and use the landmarks around you to work out where you need to dig.
Follow the trail to unlock plans for two new rugs for your base!
Letter Deliveries
If you’ve completed Letters from the Dead in Fellhollow, Postie Pete has some new delivery routes for you, taking you into Dowdun Reach and Umbral Sands.
Buy the plans for a regional post box using that region’s currency, then build it at your base. Each post box gives you letters for its own region, so you can choose where to make your rounds.
Deliveries in Dowdun Reach reward you with Infernal Fragments, which you can spend at Postie Pete’s Evil Emporium.
Over in Umbral Sands, you’ll earn Garou Chits to spend with the region’s merchants. Riches - or, a wage for your work, await!
PTR (Public Test Realm)
One suggestion we've heard a lot from players across our community spaces is something to the effect of "We'd love a PTR to help get hands on early and catch things if we can!"
We think that's a great idea, and we're taking our first steps towards making this happen!
We'll start with a select group of PC players who will explore upcoming builds, put the new features through their paces and help us identify issues that we may otherwise miss. This also lets us learn what works and what doesn't to make the PTR experience even better, if we are going to build it into a regular part of developing Dragonwilds.
What we want to be very transparent about a few things, though:
Due to the long lead times required for Console submission, any PTR on Steam is the build that is being deployed to consoles on release date. That means some of the issues discovered in the PTR before release would be resolved in a later patch.
Participation would also involve you backing up your saves and switching between a PTR branch and the Live version of the game. We'll provide instructions when the time comes, but it is crucial that you protect your progress when venturing across that Wilderness wall into the new branch!
We're going to test this out with a smaller, selected group initially to explore the branch, with dedicated spaces in Discord and Reddit to collate feedback - and contain spoilers. Our commitment in the wake of the PTR is that we will absolutely own, report and discuss what you discovered, what we're able to address, and what needs work. Diving into the PTR shouldn't just end with "Thanks for the feedback!" - we want it to feel like you know what happens next.
Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue where door opening animations looked smooth for the host but not for clients on that world.
Fixed an issue where Spell Books/ Spell Wheels would show the incorrect spells for the page when opened after using a lodestone or opening an interface.
Ascending Masterwork Armour now correctly increases its stats.
When filling stacks in chests, the stacks will now no longer pull from the Quick Access Bar.
Streamlined the process of interacting with Processing Stations to reduce the number of inputs.
Fixed an issue where Player-built structures on Dedicated Servers would lose collision and you would clip through them in certain circumstances.
Getting 99 Agility will now correctly trigger the achievement on consoles.
Fix for users who lost the ability to use the item wheel after using spell wheel hotkeys a few times.
Fixed an issue where summoning Sworn Servant "Buddy" would continually apply a Stamina Regen debuff even after despawning or expiring.
Added a new UI interface to showcase the number of enemies/waves attacking when a Base Raid event takes place.
Fixed an issue where clients in a hosted world would grow two trees from each planted seed.
Fix for the issue where the Quick Select wheel could not switch weapons during longer animations.
Fix for users who had adjusted their system clocks on PC being prevented from accessing Crossplay.
Deployed a fix where creating a new character using a renamed character's previous name would delete the original character.
Fix for Crafting Recipes that require six different materials that caused the UI to overflow into the quantity section.
Fixed an issue where users could use a broken 1-handed weapon by equipping a shield.
Resolved an issue where opening/closing the map would cause your inventory to stay open.
Resolved an issue where the Enchanted Weapon ambience has been tapped down.
Fixed an issue where Trunk Totem XP was multiplied incorrectly when various Trunk Totems were too close to each other.
Fix for High-Epic Graphics Settings displaying an incorrect LOD for a mountain in Umbral Sands.
Fix for an error message showing when disconnecting from the internet while logging in to Online play.
Resolved an issue where adding an item to your inventory would cause the inventory items to sort.
Resolved an Audio issue where Hosts would hear other players' Magic Wand SFX as if they were right next to them.
Fixed an issue where you could drag unrelated items into the fuel/combustible slot in the Campfire. Stop that.
Fix for a crash due to an audio reverb issue.
Fixed an issue where building menu icons looked pixelated.
Fixed a UI issue which caused the Compost Bins to display the incorrect status on use.
Fixed an issue where Gilded Gyrhawk, Glory, Strength, Magic and Salve Amulets were not calculating durability loss correctly with use.
Known Issues
Armour of the Earth Hit Reacts are not triggering their bespoke SFX.
If a player receives the same location twice in a row for Postbox Letter Delivery, the player must leave the area and return to complete the delivery.
In the Dowdun Reach area, the Camera unexpectedly pulls into the player model in certain spots.
Clients may appear as a default character for a brief time when first loading into a large world. Give it a minute and you'll pop right in as your normal self.
After being opened and then closed, doors will be slightly offset.
Using a mount appearance consumable without either base mount unlocked, will incorrectly show 'Mounts Unlocked'.
Pressing Up on the D-Pasd in the "Advanced" tab of Custom World Settings navigates up 5 menu entries, rather than the intended 1. Down on the D-Pad works fine!
These two in particular have been on our radar and we're introducing more telemetry tracking with 1.0.2 to help us better log data on these to investigate further:
Stuttering during auto-save following 1.0.1 update
In some instances, only one client will be able to join an Xbox-hosted world.
And that’s JUST this month’s update! Next month, we’ll have…
Luminance
This December, Elves arrive in Ashenfall with the Luminance Update, bringing a new adventure, the musical magic of the Lyre and a new way to build and shape your journey across Ashenfall.
You'll be exploring a new outpost area that will emerge from the fog on the edges of Ashenfall, meet new characters and learn to pluck, strum or otherwise noodle on a Lyre to resonate with songstones to progress! A continent wide hunt for a sinister Bounty Hunter will net you valuable resources and a way to earn Harmonised Crystal Fragments - valuable currency if you're in the market for new Elven gear. (You are, by the way.)
Embrace the Elven fantasy with a new Prifddinas-inspired building kit, a range of new character customisation options and craftable Elven armour and Weapons!
And what's a RuneScape adventure without another skill to level? Prayer joins Dragonwilds this December! Call upon Saradomin to smite your foes, Guthix to keep you and your friends in the fight, or Zamorak to trade a little health for some serious extra damage. Just remember, the gods all have their own ideas about how you should survive Ashenfall.
All of this lays the foundations and weaves in the first threads of our most ambitious, exciting questline yet in the Blood Crystal Saga. There's still dragons involved, of course.
Alongside all of this, we're continuing to improve the core experience with quality-of-life changes across platforms and targeted visual improvements for Nintendo Switch 2.
For now, that’s all we’ve got - but we’ll be in touch again soon. Until next time, have fun out there, adventurers. Be good, and we’ll see you in Ashenfall!