This is the update we've been building toward. For the first time, the game is one connected story from start to finish. The figure from the opening film finds you in the wilderness, remembers every answer you give him, and waits behind a barrier at Nocthollow for the last fight of the age. Beat him, and the age ends.

It's a huge update: a real ending, a whole new layer to combat, swords that wake up, and training you can finally plan around. We're thrilled to hand it to you, and we can't wait to hear how your story ends.

TL;DR

• The Wanderer is here. He finds you in the wilderness up to four times. Every gift you take, every refusal and every argument you win comes due in the final fight.
• A real ending, at last. Break through Nocthollow's barrier with an attuned Magic Sword and take him down to end the age. Whoever wins that fight earns The Vanguard, a title worth 35 VP.
• Story mode, now the default. No round limit. The game ends when the Wanderer falls, and the most VP wins.
• Combat techniques. Over 80 new moves that light up at key moments in a fight. Hit Space in time and they fire. Your enemies have them too!
• Magic Swords come alive. Attune your blade at Kubani to reveal its true name and its signature ability.
• Magic Swords are easier to forge. Fellowship requirements are lower, and the forge never fails once you meet them.
• Training without dice. If you can pay for a lesson, it works, and you can see exactly when each trainer teaches.
• Level-ups you earn. The attributes you can raise are the ones your fights proved you use.
• Boss fights you have to win yourself. Quest bosses and Battle Arena duels must be fought, not simulated.
• See other players. In multiplayer, players on your tile or in your city show up on screen, and you can click them.

The Wanderer

You don't go looking for him; he finds you. Step onto a wilderness tile and he may already be waiting. The first time you set foot in the true wilderness, he always is.

Every meeting is a conversation, and your answers matter:

• Take what he offers. Energy, extra time, an item, or the location of a buried chest of 50 coins that goes to whoever digs it up first. He'll remind you that he's keeping count.
• Refuse him. The wild turns on you for a while.
• Say nothing. Nothing happens.
• Argue. With enough Persuasion, you can tear into the holes in his argument.

Every gift is a loan, and the final fight is when it comes due. Take too much and he fights angrier. Win your arguments and he comes to the fight shaken.

The ending

This is the moment the whole game now builds toward. A barrier seals Nocthollow from the first turn, and no teleport, caravan, tablet or auto-travel gets you through it. You walk in with an attuned Magic Sword in hand.

Inside, you get one last conversation, and then the fight. You can still turn back at no cost, but the fight itself can't be simulated. This one is on you.

Win, and:

• You earn The Vanguard (35 VP). It finally brings Titles level with the other aptitudes at 120.
• The age ends, and whoever holds the most VP wins the game.
• The wilderness stops spreading, but the land it already took stays taken.

In single player, a closing film plays, narrated in English and Mandarin. In multiplayer, only one player can land the killing blow, and the whole table goes to the results together.

Story mode

Story mode is the game as it's meant to be played now, so it's the new default end setting. There's no round limit, and nothing ends the game except the Wanderer's death. Prefer a fixed-length game? The other settings are all still there.

In multiplayer, the table can vote to end a Story game early. The vote has to be unanimous, so one "no" keeps the game going. If it passes, the most VP wins.

Techniques

Fights get a whole new layer. At key moments, one of your techniques lights up: after you lock your power, before their strikes land, between volleys, or mid-defence. Press Space before the window closes and it fires. Miss it, and you wait for the next opening.

• Each city teaches its own branch, and Scetcher's Coliseum branch works with every style.
• You can learn many techniques but carry only one to four into a fight, depending on your Technique. Choose well!
• Enemies use techniques too, and you can see what they carry before the fight starts.
• Existing characters keep everything they've earned.

Your stats and your opponent's techniques now stay on screen for the whole fight, so you always know what you're up against.

Magic Swords

Forging your Magic Sword is now only the beginning. Take it to Kubani for the Attunement Rite: a test of steadiness, a real fight against a master of the Order, and a final test of timing. Finish it and your sword gets its true name (your Water Sword becomes Tidecaller) and a signature ability. An attuned sword is also your only way into Nocthollow.

And getting there is easier than ever. The Fellowship requirements at Starfex are lower (18 to 40, down from 20 to 50), and once you meet them, building the sword always succeeds.

Training you can plan

Training used to be a stack of dice rolls, and a round in a training hall could end with nothing to show for it. Not anymore:

• A lesson you can pay for always works.
• Trainers teach on a fixed schedule, shown on the new Trainers page. Masters teach on fewer days than Adepts, so they're worth planning a trip around.
• Critical Thinking sets how many lessons you can take each season. A lesson from a Master uses half as much of that allowance as one from an Adept.
• Wilderness trainers have their own meeting screen that shows the price before you commit, and lessons from another player no longer fail.

Level-ups you earn

Your character now grows the way you actually fight. A combat level-up used to let you raise any attribute. Now your fights keep a record of what you did, and an attribute opens up once you've proved it enough times. Simulated fights count too, and the Combat screen shows your progress on each attribute. Technique is still taught by trainers only.

Fights that matter

• Quest bosses and Battle Arena duels can't be simulated anymore. Each quest boss brings a signature technique, and you're told what it is before the fight, so you can plan for it.
• High Technique and Stability finally pay off in fights. Fights used to cut Technique to 12 and Stability to 14, so boosts above that did nothing, including a Magic Sword's +2 Technique. Now Technique counts up to 15, and Stability has no cap.

Multiplayer

• You can see who's with you. Players sharing a tile fan out with your piece on top, and a message tells you when someone arrives or leaves. In a city, you can watch other players move around in real time. Hover over one to see if they're free, and click to interact.
• Everyone in a lobby needs vAlpha.43.

Interface

• The Allies screen is rebuilt. You can see exactly what each ally adds to your fights.

Bug fixes

• Errands: you could walk into a building through its back wall by pushing the mouse past it. Now the door is the only way in.
• Elixir of Vigor: hazards warned that you'd take damage, and then said you took it, when the elixir meant you took none.
• Playing in Chinese: the game's end setting was lost when you loaded a save.
• A low-level errand runner was told a coin had been docked from their pay when none was.

Known limits — we'd rather tell you

• The closing film is single player only. In multiplayer, the bell rings for everyone at once and the table goes straight to the results.
• Techniques, the new training pace and earned level-ups are all brand new. We've tested them heavily, but real players are how we tune them.

Tell us: does the Wanderer turn up too often, or not enough? Are any technique windows impossible to catch? Does a season of training feel too slow or too fast?

For the first time, the whole story is in your hands, from the opening film to the final blow. He's waiting at Nocthollow. Go find out what your answers were worth, and tell us everything!