Today we're taking a brief break from working on late Halloween and miscellaneous postgame stuff to move the main story forward. Rest Well Earned, obtained from Officer Rose during the Orc War, can now be completed by returning to Ruby's House. If the trigger was missed to add this quest to your Quest Log, returning to Ruby's House will re-add it just in case. This quest features a rather significant optional lore drop alongside a forced significant lore drop. Using what I learned from designing the Team HH interactions, making this was much smoother than previous events.
Key Notes about this build and development moving forward
The primary build will remain 6.8.5 until the final part of the main story campaign is released which will increase the version to 7.0.0.0. Until then, only the last number will change to indicate quick patches that are being deployed to the live environment as issues are fixed and other important changes are made. These will all end up in the 6.8.5.X notes that release alongside 7.0, but will not have individual posts like this one. To see which game version you are on, press Info from the title screen. Restarting Steam will always pull the latest update. This doesn't mean it will take a long time for me to do, just that I'm going to be rapid firing fixes for this build into the live environment. We realistically might be done next month - I don't know yet!
There may be bugs. Rest Well Earned goes through a brand new zone and series of events created in just the last few days. I tested it myself, but you all break the game way better than I do. If you come across a bug, you can always post it here in the Steam forums or you can reach out to me on Discord. My name there, like here, is Hardytier. We don't have a dedicated server for this anymore as we're rounding the corner for final updates and finalization of the project.
Ruby still has free roam of the Orc War world after completing the quest, but access to Auria is still blocked.
Due to continued difficulty on the back end with the engine constantly crashing, plans for various zones are officially scrapped altogether. Most notably, this includes Terra Anatis, the Auria Prison, Auria Lighthouse, Alpha Ruins, The Pit, Land of Fire, and additional Colosseum raids. After development of this project concludes, we'll have a much longer postmortem discussion about the content cut here at the end.
There will be one final main story quest that takes Ruby's team to a point of no return where saving will be impossible, where the events of the end of the game take place. I plan to begin working on this next quest immediately. When available, it will be obtainable from Captain Reynolds after completing Rest Well Earned. Following that, I will clean up development on Horseman Hunter Pass and Eyes in the Frost, which will serve as official postgame content now at levels 30-40 and 40-55 respectively. Again, we'll have more about this in the postmortem discussion.
Once you reach the Orc War alarm, it is no longer possible to complete The Rabbit's Foot or The Phoenix Ash achievements. As originally intended, they are sidequests which are mostly optional. Access to Auria is restricted completely and access to Lvell is limited.
The final pieces of development in order before this project is complete are:
Final main story quest with game ending
Horseman Hunter Pass - Premium DLC for Brandywine Forest area. Level 30-40.
Eyes in the Frost - Free DLC for the Snowdrift Village area. Level 40-55.
Shadowfrost Citadel - Premium DLC for the final raid of the Snowdrift Village area. Level 55-60.
Awoken Veil cleanup
Following the completion of the above, I will begin a new project for what in my mind has always been Chapter 2. Using what I've learned doing this game, the scope will be reigned in significantly from what we've seen here and I won't push the engine past its limits. More on this later.
6.8.5.0 [Build #193, Release Date: November 14, 2025]
New:
- The "Rest Well Earned" quest can now be advanced by returning to Ruby's House
Fixes:
- Fixed a passability issue on the Rabbit's Foot tileset.
- Fixed an issue where experience would be rewarded for "Standby" before other characters returned to the party.
- Pet Guide is no longer considered "consumable" and won't disappear if the pet is not in the party.
- Fixed an achievement issue with the Colosseum Anura raid.
- Talking to either of the Phoenix Ash NPCs after completing their quest chain will run the achievement check in Port Reception.
Updates & Changes:
- Crossbolt now benefits additionally from five times the total amount of Sacrificed Electric Power in addition to its other effects.
- Adjusted the layout of the Veil Trials and fixed #1's exit point.
- Corrected the text of the Event rift Reaper in the Awoken Veil.
- Fixed terrain issues inside Ruby's House.
- Lightningstrike now hits twice.
- Bolt Cutter now hits three times.
6.8.5.2
Very shortly after this was posted, I got to work on finalizing the Battle Series X free DLC, known in game as the Zodiac Overwatch. After multiple frustrating engine crashes - it's finished and fully playable with significantly increased drop rates from the bosses. Each boss yields its own achievement and defeating the final boss temporarily unlocks an NPC by the entrance. If you can afford it, a special Accessory awaits. Once you leave the Overwatch, this NPC disappears until the final boss of the zone is defeated again. This post was made around 9am, with this update being deployed around 12:30pm.