The newest update for Amazon’s MMORPG “New World” will be released on March 29, and it appears to be the game’s most significant upgrade since its introduction, both in terms of new content and a wide range of quality-of-life improvements.
The climax of the game’s current main plot is at the foreground of the update, with a new quest leading players to the new Tempest’s Heart expedition to confront Isabella. Tempest’s Heart won’t be simple, with Amazon advising that players be level 60 with a gearscore of 550 to 570 to be successful.
🌵 Battle the Corruption in style with the Blunderbuss – a close-to-mid range weapon that offers high mobility and two distinct playstyles. pic.twitter.com/GQdyazk4Q3
— New World (@playnewworld) March 23, 2022
The new Blunderbuss weapon, which is the first weapon in the game to scale with strength and intelligence, is also a highlight of the update. The Blunderbuss is a close-range powerhouse with two unique skill trees to pick from, one focusing on AOE damage and crowd-control skills and the other on doing damage at extremely close ranges. It will be the game’s second new weapon since its release. “New World“ creative director Dave Verfaillie told GameSpot in an email interview that the studio plans to introduce a new weapon to the game “every six months or so,” but that the cadence of new weapons may slow down as the game’s weapon portfolio increases.
While the new adventure and weapon are unquestionably highlights, there are a slew of additional tweaks that should help make “New World” a more pleasurable experience. To mention a few, these improvements include the elimination of charges associated with transferring things in storage between towns, the ability to inspect your inventory while travelling, and the inclusion of endless low-tier ammunition for ranged weapons. The improvements in this update, as well as other recent friction-reduction tweaks, are all part of an effort “to eliminate everything that is getting in the way of pleasure and doesn’t add to the experience,” according to Verfaillie.
This update also includes new open-world activities, such as Vista View paintings that may be located in each region and exhibited in a player’s in-game house once discovered, as well as new roadside encounters. With modifications to the Life Staff and Fire Staff, no update is complete without balancing changes, and the Heart of Madness update has plenty of them.
“New World”‘s 2022 content plan was just announced by Amazon, and it includes a new zone, the Greatsword weapon, new events, and 3v3 PvP arenas. Looking ahead six months, Verfaillie said the “New World” team would work on polishing the experience by addressing issues like latency and dysync, making transaction systems more robust to minimize exploits that might undermine the game’s economy, and creating new content. The entire patch notes for the Hearts of Madness update can be seen below.
Full Patch Notes For “New World” Heart Of Madness
SPOTLIGHT
TEMPEST’S HEART EXPEDITION & MAIN STORYLINE FINALE QUEST
As you chase Isabella back to Shattered Mountain, the main plot questline resumes. Yseult Meredith, who can be found in Mountain Home Outpost in Shattered Mountain, gives the last mission, The Heart of the Tempest. Additional missions may be obtained from Mara Rosa, who can be found in the church to the south of the Expedition gate.
As you venture further into the Tempest’s Heart Expedition, the last battle against Isabella has arrived. Pursue the Tempest through the distorted capital city of Myrkgard into a perverted realm of reality. While diving further into her twisted psyche, uncover the truths of her history.
The Tempest’s Heart is a 5-player endgame expedition. Level 60 players with a Gearscore of 550 to 570 are recommended.
BLUNDERBUSS IS A NEW WEAPON.
The Blunderbuss is a ranged weapon with excellent mobility and close-to-medium range damage. It’s the first weapon that scales according on strength and intellect, making it an excellent partner for bruiser or mage builds.
Adventurers will be able to pick between two different playstyles by progressing via two different weapon mastery trees.
- The Containment tree is all about closing the distance and unleashing a barrage of hot lead in your opponent’s face.
- The Chaos tree, on the other hand, emphasizes maintaining a safe distance while unleashing massive AoE damage.
We’re also launching a new Legendary Weapon Quest series to go along with the debut of the Blunderbuss weapon. Players should seek out Wang Tang Zhi in the Ebonscale Reach settlement after they have reached Level 60 and the maximum skill level with the new firearm to begin this epic journey.
EXPERIENCE IN THE WORLD
REWARDING EXPLORATION WITH WORLD ADDITIONS
For gamers to discover, new experiences have been introduced all across the planet.
VISTA VIEWS – WORLD PAINTINGS
In each area, there are two easels. Players will receive a painting of their house’s view after interacting with these easels. If a player misplaces their artwork, they can get it back by returning to the same easel 24 hours later.
THE LOOT COLLECTOR, RAFFLEBONES!
Rafflebones rummages across Aeternum in search of missing things and riches. He will spawn at various levels in each area all around the map. Players will have 45 seconds to slay Rafflebones in order to get prizes, or else he will run! A named weapon will always be given to the player. On kills of any level Rafflebones, level 60 players will get Obsidian Gypsum. Level 60 players will receive 500 Umbral Shards if they find Rafflebones in zones above level 60.
STINKY THE HUNTER is a character in the film STINKY THE HUNTER
During the day, Stinky the Legendary Hunter may be seen prowling the wetlands of Weaver’s Fen, but at night, he retires to his modest house. For level 30 players, Stinky can drop three named items: Stinky’s Keepsake, Stinky’s Sharpshooter, and Stinky’s Hatchet.
THE YETI WHO WAS FORGOTTEN
Yeti didn’t get the news that the Winter Convergence was over, and they may be seen wandering the Great Cleave’s frigid wastelands. These Yeti drop typical elite goodies at level 45.
ENCOUNTERS ON THE ROAD
Along the pathways in Weaver’s Fen and Restless Shores, new random roadside encounters can be encountered.
ISLAND WITHOUT BOUNDS
Unbound Island in Cutlass Keys now has a new layout and encounter experience. Investigate the curse of Benjamin Boatswain’s ill-gotten wealth! (Intended for those at or near level 30.)
ANDROMETUS
In Weavers Fen, I redesigned the layout and encounter experience for Andrometus. Blight continues to spread from Lepus, putting Aeternum in jeopardy. (For players with a mid-level of 30)
OPEN WORLD
- Doubled the storage bonus for all tiers of Storage Chests. Chests that used to provide 200 weight of bonus storage now provide 400 weight, etc.
- Storage Chests’ description has been updated to properly reflect the advantage they bring.
- Trophies’ description has been updated to properly reflect the real benefit offered by these things.
- The Watcher now provides players a choice of four weapons from a weapon rack during the first beach encounter in Windsward, to better fit their playstyle.
- A Warhammer, Fire Staff, Bow, or Hatchet are available to players.
- Each weapon also comes with chest armor, some meals, and several mild healing potions.
- The loss of durability has been revised. When you die, only your equipped equipment will lose durability.
- Storage of territory
- The cost of transferring objects between territories has been eliminated.
- To move stuff between your storages, your faction no longer has to possess both regions.
- Collision between players
Collisions between players have been deleted from the Open World, Expeditions, and Invasion modes.
- When traversing small distances, fast transit is now more responsive.
EXPEDITIONS
- The Expeditions wait requirements have been updated to simply need one person at the door, allowing the other members to enter from wherever they are in the globe.
- In the Dynasty Shipyard Expedition, we fixed an issue where boss music would cease playing following a party wipe.
- Expedition Victory banners have been updated to include new sound effects.
IMPORTANT BUGS FIXES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
- After a fresh build was published, an issue with Edengrove faction missions in progress that couldn’t be turned in was fixed.
- The “Active Bonuses” component of the Faction Mission Flyout has been added.
- After refreshing the project board, players were no longer able to accept some community objectives.
- A remedy for crashes in the objective system has been included.
- When players swap sides, Faction Advancement Quests now have an automatic award.
- Gatherables didn’t always sync properly to the client, which was fixed.
- When Nekumanesh and Barkimedes quest pins were unpinned and re-pinned, they appeared off to the side of the map.
- Early game POIs and MSQ route to level 15 have been made easier.
- Certain adversaries with the improper gameplay tier for their location were changed.
- To avoid back spawning in solo play, the amount of AI in several POIs has been reduced.
- Several spots where players may drown on land have been fixed.
- Reekwater and Ebonscale Reach communities now have Tier 4 homes.
- Fixes in general for
- Collision
- Planes of death that are bad
- Locations of camps in permissible regions
- The world is full with holes.
- Objects that float
- Textures that flicker or are missing
- Under terrain or cliffs, AI and gatherables
QUESTIONS AND UPDATE REQUESTS
- The MSQ now has new soloable quest choices, allowing players to proceed without having to complete specific excursions.
- New missions have been added that lead to the Legendary Blunderbuss weapon reward.
- New Faction Missions aimed at combating Corruption Breaches have been added to all zones.
- Starting beaches have been changed, and weapon racks have been introduced to offer players more options when it comes to fighting.
- In Shattered Mountain, Reekwater, and Ebonscale Reach, Gypsum has been added as a reward for level 60 tasks.
- For the Faction Advancement missions, map markers for Trial Quest NPCs have been added.
- Main Story Quests do longer have any level limitations.
- The “Intro to Factions” has been updated to be more concise, and new map/overhead symbols for NPCs have been added.
- The NPC for the “Down Payment” quest has been moved further from the spawn area of the Corrupted Portal.
IMPORTANT FIXES
- Various issues with quest NPC VO being cut off and having echoes were fixed.
- Issues with quest goals looping and preventing players from completing tasks have been resolved.
- Resetting a quest resolved a number of difficulties that hampered the accomplishment of the mission’s objectives.
- Powder kegs could no longer be put in “Shivering Timbers” due to a bug.
- In the Ebonscale mission “Shrine Cleansing,” difficulties with Tiger despawning and AI leaping into walls were fixed.
- Fixed an issue where expedition orbs were not being awarded when certain objectives were completed.
- Fixed an issue in Mourningdale where two missions may be awarded at the same time, preventing one from progressing.
- In the quest “Contained Night,” a bug was fixed that prevented advancement after crafting.
- On some quests, quest VFX was active for all players. This was fixed.
- There was an issue where quests may have blank goals. This has been fixed.
- Issues with the quest “Destiny Unearthed” have been resolved.
- Malign Nodes encountered in the “Malign Dominion” quest now have larger hit boxes.
- In “Ixia’s Blessing,” we fixed a problem where quest items were not collectable and objective marks were missing.
- Fixed bugs that caused quests to be formatted incorrectly in the HUD and diary.
- Several quest item descriptions that were erroneous or ambiguous have been corrected.
- Fixed an issue when players in First Light collided with unseen objects at Daughterwell.
- Fixed a bug where mission descriptions didn’t match the name of the POI.
- The prerequisites for the quest “That Beautiful Stench” have been clarified.
- A bug was fixed where a subquest’s objectives would transfer over to the following subquest.
COMBAT & ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
UPDATES IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN GENERAL
- In the open world, AI target acquisition has been updated to avoid targeting players who are not actively fighting.
- The AI’s first target acquisition remains the same, with the AI assaulting the first player it detects.
- Once an AI has identified its primary target, they will only consider additional players if they act aggressively (attacking the AI, taunting, healing a player fighting the AI, etc).
- These new target acquisition rules are not used by the AI in Expedition, Invasion, or Outpost Rush. Those AI will find targets in the same way they have in the past.
- On spawn, AI aggression now has a grace period.
- Players will not be aggroed by AI until 5 seconds after their spawn begins, or unless they are damaged.
- The AI that spawns organically in the open world is affected by this latency. This update has no effect on expedition AI or AI created by events (such as Corrupted Breaches).
- Players that utilized a taunt ability soon before entering Death’s Door were being targeted by AI.
- After their target leapt over an item, AI was unable to target another player. This was fixed.
AI ENEMY UPDATES
GENERAL AI UPDATES
- Varangian Knights
- A bug that caused status effect VFX from debuffs and damage-over-time abilities to appear at their feet has been fixed.
- Varangian Knights’ swords were not correctly gripped due to a visual glitch.
- The Varangian Scout’s armor now looks like it should.
- Guardian of the Ancients
- Players may now hear when an Ancient Guardian resurrects after death, thanks to an update to the SFX.
- The Ancient Guardian Mage’s Arcane Bubble spell was not displayed due to a bug.
- Commander of the Invasion
The Invasion Commander no longer does damage to structures due to a bug.
- Summoner of the Dynasty
The Summoner’s ambient animations were showing his magical swords floating several feet below him, which was fixed.
- Villager Skinners and Farmhands who have been tainted (Knife and Pitchfork enemies)
The hemorrhage from the triple stab and charge strike has been removed.
- Timber Wolf is a fictional character.
The Grit empowered hamstring attack’s direct damage component has been removed, and it now simply applies bleed.
- Grey Wolf is a fictional character.
- Bleed and Grit were removed from the lunge attack.
- Lunge attack has been tweaked to lessen the likelihood of it translating past the player on impact.
- Impaler of Corruption
Removed The backhand slash melee attack required grit and a full-body reaction.
- Retcher withered
The projectile assault now has no pushback.
- Grenadier who has drowned
The bomb projectile’s full-body response has been removed.
EXPEDITION AI
- Amrine Excavation
- Grey, Simon
Simon has discovered out way to remove the dreaded cage off his head! (He now has a new model and color scheme.)
- Genesis’ Garden
- Greenskeeper on the verge of bankruptcy
Fixed a bug where the Blighted Greenskeeper would occasionally kill players who were hiding behind her rocks.
The Blighted Greenskeeper’s group wipe ability no longer kills players who have previously entered Death’s Door.
Players that were knocked out by the Blighted Greenskeeper’s group wipe ability were no longer permanently hindered.
- Fixed an issue in Garden of Genesis where the animation for interacting with the Azoth Sapling might stutter and fail at random.
MUTATED AI & MUTATORS
- The difficulty of elite named AI has been reduced, but the difficulty of bosses has been increased.
- Major curse tooltips are no longer visible on Mutator difficulty lower than 9.
- Desiccated
- Fixed an issue where Combustible chains would occasionally cease chaining if there were valid targets.
- Combustible was no longer able to inflict damage on invulnerable AI.
- When hovering over the Combustible timer, it displayed the incorrect wording.
- Eternal
Damage over time effects no longer trigger Paranoid.
COMBAT UPDATES IN GENERAL
Players that use emotes that allow mobility now get the Road Speed Boost boost.
SHEATHING OF WEAPONS
Fixed an issue where the sheathing and unsheathing animations for weapons would loop if the player moved while playing.
When in the prone position, the player’s weapon might remain equipped instead of sheathing, which was fixed.
UPDATES TO THE AMMO
T1 Flint ammunition is being replaced with an endless supply of ammo. Ranged weapons (musket, bow, and blunderbuss) may now be fired without ammunition.
- If no ammo is installed, the reticle will not display an ammo counter, but the weapon will still be able to fire.
- In a game option that grants endless ammo (such as Outpost Rush), if players have higher tier ammo equipped, an infinity icon will display on the reticle to distinguish it from having no ammo equipped.
The following ammo rarity/damage levels have been updated:
- 1.00x damage for T1 Infinite (formerly Flint).
- T2 Iron has a damage multiplier of 1.05x.
- 1.10x damage for T3 Steel.
- T4 Starmetal has a damage multiplier of 1.15.
- 1.20x damage from T5 Orichalcum.
Flint Arrows: Due to the advent of endless ammunition, these arrows have been removed from the game. Any Flint Arrows you’ve made before will turn into Iron Arrows. Furthermore, any Flint Arrows listed on the trading post will be revoked and returned to the person who submitted the listing as Iron Arrows.
The weight of ammo has been eliminated.
The maximum stack count for ammunition has been increased from 500 to 1000.
UPDATES ON WEAPONS
BOW
Bow status effects could not be prolonged by perks or other benefits, which was fixed.
STAFF ON FIRE
A bug was fixed that prohibited players from using a block to halt consecutive light assaults.
Burning: Several fire staff skills now apply a burning debuff.
- Damage tick rate has been increased from 1.5s to 1s.
- Maximum stacks have been reduced from ten to five.
- Damage per stack has been increased from 3% to 6% weapon damage every tick.
- All relevant abilities’ tooltips have been updated.
If it ventures into deep water, its ability now terminates early.
- Flamethrower:
- Accelerating Flamethrower (Item Perk): This perk’s effectiveness was not appropriately scaled with gear score due to a bug.
AWESOME AXE
Bloodlust: Reduced detection loudness to prevent dueling gamers from exploiting each other.
Charge: If it ventures into deep water, its ability now finishes early.
HATCHET
- Torrent of Rage
Refreshing Torrent (Item Perk): Fixed an issue where the cooldown reduction from this perk was not being applied to the last attack of Raging Torrent.
- Rush of the Feral
Energizing Feral Rush (Item Perk): This perk now correctly applies the stamina gain to both hits of Feral Rush.
If Feral Rush crosses into deep water, it now finishes early.
ICE GAUNTLET
Heavy Attack: Fixed an issue where a heavy attack might be charged with insufficient mana, resulting in a light attack being executed at the end. Attempting to charge without enough mana now results in a light attack being launched instantly.
A bug was fixed that prohibited players from using a block to halt consecutive light assaults.
Entombed
- Healing Tomb (Item Perk): Fixed a bug that prevented this perk from working correctly if the player diddging out of the Entombed condition.
Fixed a mistake in the description for Heavy Freeze.
Ice Spikes: Fixed a bug where the Mighty Spike images wouldn’t show up in some situations.
Wind Chill: This ability no longer triggers the Defiant Freeze passive even if it is canceled.
LIFE STAFF
Orb of Protection: Corrected a tooltip text mistake that indicated it healed for 10% weapon damage when it really healed for 8%. The healing values themselves have not changed; just the language has been altered.
Sacred Protection: A bug in this passive caused it to deal durability damage to the equipped weapon while transferring weapons was fixed.
Spirits United: A bug that caused this passive to apply durability damage to the equipped weapon upon swapping was fixed.
Sacred Sites:
- (Upgrade) Blessed:
- This upgrade’s name has been changed to “Anointed” to avoid confusion with the item perk of the same name.
- This upgrade no longer provides healing using Ice Gauntlet’s Entombed ability.
Basic Assaults:
- Self-targeted heals can now negate light and heavy assaults.
- While holding the block button, a bug enabled light strikes to fire at a quicker pace.
Divine Embrace: Fixed an issue where the channeling UI element did not correspond to the ability’s actual casting time.
MUSKET
Shooter’s Stance
- Fixed an issue where entering and exiting Shooter’s Stance without the ability being on cooldown increased the meter for the “Censored” mutator. Only when the first shot is fired while in Shooter’s Stance will the meter increment.
- Marksman: This update was not operating correctly due to a bug.
Back it Up: This passive was formerly blocked while using Sticky Bomb.
Critical Reload: Corrected an issue that caused this passive’s sound effects to play erroneously. Hit counting has been more reliable.
RAPIER
Tondo: Fixed an issue where using Evade to cancel Tondo might cause damage to be done without the VFX being displayed.
Flurry: Fixed a bug that prevented Fleche from canceling this ability.
Fleche: If it ventures into deep water, its ability now finishes early.
Momentum: This passive’s visual effects no longer remain after the rapier is sheathed or switched.
SWORD AND SHIELD
Leadership: This passive no longer causes durability damage to the equipped weapon when swapped.
Leaping Strike: If this ability crosses into deep water, it now finishes early.
Counter-Attack: A bug was fixed that caused this ability to cease working and display 0s for all of its values.
VOID GAUNTLET
Heavy Attack: Fixed an issue where a heavy attack may be charged with insufficient mana, resulting in a light attack being conducted at the conclusion of the charge. Attempting to charge without enough mana now results in a light attack being launched instantly.
WAR HAMMER
Path of Destiny
- Stimulated Reduction: The cooldown reduction is only applied to the first four foes struck by this talent, according to the updated description.
Gavel of Might
- Justice For All: A bug was fixed that allowed the ability’s cooldown to be refreshed after the second hit.
Outnumbered: Corrected a bug that prevented this passive from working when its requirements were satisfied.
ITEMS
Vial of Wyrdwood Sap: This item’s perk was referenced to both “Gathering Restoration” and “Gathering Recovery” in different places of the UI. In all cases, it is now referred to as “Gathering Recovery.”
Perks for Chain Elementals: Fixed an issue where these perks didn’t show how much damage the chain effect dealt. They’ve updated the description to say that the chain delivers 11% weapon damage.
Damage Ward Perks: Previously, Amethyst gems’ Abyssal Ward perk had a greater damage absorption rate than other gems that gave elemental protection. To standardize this shift, we are bringing up the values supplied by all gems across the board in this release. Physical resistance gems have seen a lesser rise, owing to the fact that physical harm is more prevalent.
- Damage absorption offered by Abyssal Ward has been adjusted from 2.5 percent /3.5 percent /5 percent /6 percent to 3 percent /4 percent /5 percent /6 percent.
- Only the absorption of tiers 1 and 2 was altered.
- Damage absorption for Thrust/Slash/Strike Ward has been increased from 2% /2.5 percent /3 percent /3.75 percent to 2% /3 percent /4 percent /5 percent.
- Strike Ward: This perk no longer mistakenly states that it reduces Lightning damage.
- Increased damage absorption from 2 percent /2.5 percent /3 percent /3.75 percent to 3 percent /4 percent /5 percent /6 percent for Arcane/Ice/Fire/Nature/Lightning Ward.
Fixed an issue where weapon passive abilities like Sacred Protection were being deleted after the weapon was sheathed when potions were consumed.
Blood Letting (Ring Perk): Bonus for bleeding length has been increased from 5% to 15% to 10% to 30%.
Burning (Ring Perk): The boost for burning duration has been increased from 5% to 15% to 10% to 30%.
Fixed an issue where the Divine (Amulet Perk) bonus was being deleted on death.
Plentiful Shells/Plentiful Arrows: These perks’ descriptions have been updated to include a previously unmentioned 2s cooldown.
Retaliate: This perk has been changed from providing a damage bonus for three hits after being hit three times to providing a two-second damage bonus after being hit once. While this is already active, it will not refresh.
COMBAT BUG FIXES IN GENERAL
The shield blocking SFX was being heard instead of the attached weapon’s blocking SFX, which was fixed.
Fixed an issue where the SFX for weapon sheathing and unsheathing did not always change after changing weapons.
A bug where a player’s mana may be depleted was fixed.
When a gate is destroyed, the VFX is no longer absent.
When cannons are fired, the ground effects are no longer absent.
Outpost Rush’s Darkness Portal VFX has been fixed.
Baroness Hain would not play SFX on several special attacks in Outpost Rush due to a bug.
Fixed an issue where the incoming healing efficiency modification was improperly capped at 50% rather than 100%.
UPDATES TO THE GAME MODE
When you buy game mode products like the Outpost Rush consumables, they will now auto-equip to your hotbar if there is an empty space available.
From their map, players may now queue for Wars and Invasions.
ARENAS FOR ELITE BOSSES
The number and quality of gifts players will earn from Elite Boss Arenas reward caches has been increased.
Completing a boss arena now awards you with 50 Umbral Shards.
WAR
Defenders will no longer be able to respawn on points A, B, and C. They can only respawn inside of their Fort.
Increased the quantity and quality of rewards that players will receive from reward caches granted from War.
INVASION
The number and quality of goodies that players will earn from reward caches offered by Invasion has been increased.
RUSH OUTPOST
Outpost Rush’s fallen status has been removed. When a player reaches 0 health, they will now die immediately.
Instead of the player who puts them on death’s doorstep, credit for killing a player now goes to the person who kills an opponent.
For contesting a control point, players will now gain score credit.
Teams may now track the enemy’s movement on the battlefield as they approach a Corrupted Brute Token.
The Outpost Rush gate-building tutorial pop-up has been reinstated.
REWARDS, ECONOMY, AND CRAFTING
ECONOMY
When a player abandons a residence, they will receive half of the initial purchase price back.
When selling certain products from a multi-item contract, the notice has been reinstated.
CRAFTING
Attribute Foods was added to the Buttercream Pudding category.
The resources needed to make Elite Arena Tuning Orbs have been lowered. They now require three Runestones rather of five, as well as three orb-specific resources (
Instead of 5, use Firefox, Fancy Shell, or Glowing Swamp Moss.
Crafting mod tooltips have been modified to reflect the appropriate ranges based on gear score.
The crafting mod picker popup has been reorganized into alphabetical order.
The world has been updated with new perks and perk items.
The Upgrade option was incorrectly available for Tier 4 products, which has been fixed.
The description wording for Guardsman’s Insignias has been updated.
Some Potions didn’t correctly apply crafting benefits that scale with higher or lower tier ingredients, which was fixed.
Instead of 30, Shard of Lithomancy and Keeper’s Pendant now offer a maximum of 25 of their stat.
REWARDS
To find secret stashes of Earthly goodies, harvest, record, and mine. Elemental motes, coins, and diamond gypsum are now waiting to be discovered on Aeternum as you collect.
Enemies in the surrounding Elite zones may now drop keys for the Elite Boss Arena.
Fixed an issue where Expeditions might drop treasure meant for regions outside of the Expedition in the wrong place.
Fixed a bug where Angry Earth foes would occasionally drop Ancient T5 Muskets.
Fixed a bug that made Invasion weapon drops very uncommon. They ought to be a lot more likely now. This update also makes it somewhat more likely that the specified weapon from Invasion will drop.
EQUIPMENT AND LOOT
The light and medium Garden of Genesis outfit sets now have a few visual concerns fixed.
The Toughened Leather Chest of the Zealot gear set now has a fix for a visual problem.
Tempest Ice and Void Gauntlets now have better visuals.
A visual problem with the Mixer’s Hat has been resolved.
A visual problem with the Lichen Lord clothing set has been resolved.
The Nettle and Heartpiercer Rapier skins now look like they should.
A visual problem with the Jadeite Dragon Armor skin has been resolved.
A visual problem with the Stormbound skin has been resolved.
A visual problem with the Autumnal Lord’s boots has been resolved.
The Tempest Guard Shirt of the Battlemage clothing set now has a fix for a visual problem.
A visual problem with the Stonebark skin has been resolved.
The Trading Post now sells some Tradeskill clothing items that were previously unavailable.
Defiled Void Gauntlet now has a proper icon.
The Reinforced Steel, Reinforced Starmetal, and Reinforced Orichalcum Void Gauntlet Charms’ names were not correctly displayed due to a bug.
The categories for old amulets, rings, and earrings have been updated.
The names of old amulets, rings, and earrings now have correct suffixes.
Crafting Patterns now have their own section in the Trading Post.
The look of the Life Breaker War hammer has been updated. Previously, it was inaccurate.
Fixed a problem that caused Gear Score to be scaled based on Expertise level from gear obtained from Fishing Quests.
Every day at 5 a.m. in each server region’s time zone, daily cooldowns are now refreshed. Every Tuesday at 5 a.m. in each server region’s time zone, the weekly cooldowns are refreshed.
UX, UI, & SOCIAL
QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVEMENTS
The Main Story Quest symbol has been updated to make it more visible in the Compass and when pinned to the player’s onscreen HUD.
The icon draw order in the Compass has been updated to make the Main Story Quest (MSQ) icon more apparent.
When the MSQ is pinned to the HUD, it now has a header.
When viewing the MSQ’s flyout on the map, it now has a header.
When the MSQ is approved, a banner will appear in the HUD.
When the MSQ is finished, a banner will appear on the HUD.
The Journal now has a “Guide” tab.
Fast Travel, Housing, and Fishing Guides have been included.
The Fast Travel symbol has been updated to look more like a Spirit Shrine.
When a Spirit Shrine is located, a banner for enabling rapid travel is added to the HUD.
Activated and undiscovered Fast Travel symbol states in the map have been updated.
The map’s Spirit Shrine flyouts have been updated to include the shrine’s name as well as its quick travel status.
The /help emote list’s functionality has been updated to only show accessible emotes.
For activity cooldown times, a loading indication has been included.
A loading tip for utilizing Repair Kits in Expeditions has been included.
Various grammatical mistakes and uneven capitalization were fixed across the user interface.
Because certain tasks do not have a maximum progress, the progress indicator above the “Always Available Town Projects” has been deleted.
The average gear score of a player now displays in the War Board’s tooltip.
MESSAGING
During battle, inventory alerts for equipping and unequipping weapons were inconsistently presented.
Various text overlapping issues have been resolved.
For the Mining Armor Luck perk, we’ve fixed a wording error in Spanish.
In Outpost Rush, a bug with wording in Italian caused the Baroness’ arrival timer to appear inaccurately.
If a player lacks authorization or does not match the minimum character level criteria, they will receive error warnings while attempting to deposit or withdraw from the Company Treasury.
Trading error messages have been updated to reflect the right account age probation limitation regulations.
When examining the inventory and Mutator Expedition information, tooltips were obscured at the bottom of the screen.
At 4k resolution, tooltips while placing furniture or camps looked to be too small.
Tooltips for gathering tools were shown erroneously due to a bug.
War Hammer icons were not scaled appropriately due to a bug.
The tooltip symbol for the Infused Silk Robe Handwraps did not match the in-game model.
The Starmetal Plate Helm symbol no longer does not match the in-game model.
The visual effects of the Heartpiercer Rapier Weapon skin were fixed.
For unknown Expeditions with active mutations, the Mutator icon was improperly shown.
When the player was at the maximum difficulty level, the Mutator menu flashed an unlock requirement notification.
When joining an Expedition with a Mutation, the highest accomplished rank was not shown. This has been fixed.
When a player held the shift key over equipped objects, the inventory discard prompt would show improperly.
After creating a new Camp, the camp distance warning timer notice did not reset, which was fixed.
The camp’s out-of-range banner no longer displays erroneously.
Players might no longer get invites to companies that no longer exist due to a bug.
The tooltip text would occasionally exceed the text box’s margins, which was fixed.
During Outpost Rush, the compass icons for Baroness Hain and Corrupted Portal would not display.
USABILITY
When holding down the shift key and fast left-clicking to place prize containers in the Storage Shed, players might accidentally unlock reward containers.
When the player attempted to retrieve a locked item from the Storage Shed, an item may accidentally move into the Inventory. When the player tries to salvage a locked object, a notification appears that says “Unlock this item to allow it to be salvaged.”
Players in Expeditions and Outpost Rushes could no longer read “Help” chat messages from players in the open world.
When extending and shrinking the muted area in the social UI, players were displayed erroneously.
After accessing the settings panel, the fishing UI would vanish. This has already been fixed.
The treasure bag preview window should now always show the correct numbers.
AUDIO
After quick travel, the music tracks in a Settlement did not always update, which was fixed.
Firecrackers was not playing SFX due to a bug.
Fixed an issue where SFX were not played after finishing a camp.
After beating the monster, the Spriggan and Siren event music would not turn off.
When new members join a Company, SFX is now played.
Various housing objects’ SFX have been updated to be quieter.
PTR NOTES
The following notes were added or changed as a direct result of internal testing efforts and players submitting feedback in the PTR. Thanks to all those who participated!
COMBAT
INVENTORY WHILE MOVING
We’ve included a much-requested quality-of-life feature in this update: you may now move while accessing your inventory! Opening your inventory will no longer stop you in your tracks, whether you’re using directional inputs or auto-run. While sprinting to your next place of interest, feel free to check your treasure or switch your gear. While you’re on the go, keep in mind that you won’t be able to change your equipment if you’re in conflict. This leads us to the next exciting new feature…
IN THE SYSTEM OF COMBAT
When the player is actively engaged in any sort of conflict, the new “In Combat” System detects this and prohibits some activities. When a player begins battle, their life, mana, and stamina bars display, along with a crossed swords image to the right of their health bar. The player will be unable to change skills or equipment while in this state. This removes the previous functionality, which restricted changes to skills and equipment while they were on cooldown. There are a few new advantages to being out of battle as well.
HEALING AFTER A COMBAT
Players will now receive passive health and mana restoration when out of battle. This additional regeneration is designed to reduce the amount of time it takes to recover between combat encounters, and it provides the following advantages:
- Increase your health by 40 points every second.
- The rate of mana regeneration has risen by 100%.
- The healing power of the food buff boosted by 150 percent. This advantage only applies to the longer-lasting healing buff, not the shorter-lasting healing boost that stops when damage is absorbed.
UPDATES AND FIXES FOR GENERAL COMBAT
Fixed an issue that might lead a player to travel substantially slower than planned inadvertently.
Fixed an issue where if a player became burdened while utilizing weight reduction perks, their animation would fail.
Staff of the Fire Department
- Refreshing Pillar of Fire (Item Perk): This perk no longer grants cooldown reduction while doing damage with DoT effects due to a bug.
Hatchet
- Berserking Purge: This upgrade no longer fails to remove stun debuffs appropriately.
Gauntlet of Ice
- Entombed: A bug that prohibited the Ice Tomb from being damaged by chain element perk effects has been fixed.
Gauntlet of the Void
- Petrifying Scream: The root’s duration has been reduced from 2s to 1s.
Staff of Life
- Fixed a visual discrepancy between the casting timing and the animation effects in Divine Embrace.
RUSH OUTPOST
You may now join up for Outpost Rush from anywhere, then pick the Modes tab from the main menu by pressing “escape.”
Allowing the UI to display more than two prizes at the same time.
When you join an Outpost Rush match after Baroness Hain has spawned, the HUD will no longer show a broken timer.
ELITE POIS
Added a low-chance drop rate of Arena Tuning Orbs from Elite AI enemies in Malevolence, Forecastle Drift, Spires of Melpomene, and Eternal Pool.
WAR
Letters will appear on the Gate Markers and HUD during War and Invasion to help players better identify each gate.
INVASIONS
The current invasion wave is now displayed on the HUD.
QUESTS
- Daily faction mission token rewards have been increased by 5x.
- Lowered difficulty of Corrupted Chaplain encounter.
- Killing withered beetles in Reedgill Fishery now properly gives quest credit.
CRAFTING
The sword crafting recipe known as “Balance of Time” has been rebalanced to cost less and be more in line with other T3 weapons.
Blight Seeds have been renamed “Epic” instead of “Legendary.”
Quick Salvaging a well-known recipe now alerts you that you already have the recipe.
When Alkahest is made, he now receives additional goods as intended.
EXPEDITIONS
Some players were unable to get the second lore letter in the Garden of Genesis excursion due to a bug.
Tempest’s Heart exit gate now has sound effects.
The use of the Book of Isabella interactable no longer locks the player in place.
Fixed a bug in which Dynasty Expedition gave out less gold than other mutant Expeditions.
When players arrive at their goal, the Expedition quest marks disappear from the map.
Final Fight of Isabella & Neishatun
- Due to PTR player feedback and internal testing, a number of problems in the Expedition have been fixed.
- As a result of PTR player feedback and internal testing, a range of balancing improvements were made to the Isabella and Neishatun encounters.
EXPEDITION LOOT OF ISABELLA
Isabella’s Tempest Heart Expedition yields a variety of strong new items; here are just a few examples of the fantastic stuff available:
- Isabella’s Rapier – With its sharp blade, Isabella’s merciless weapon inflicts brutal damage and punishes adversaries who dare to swing and miss.
- Blackguard’s Firestaff – This powerful staff does a lot of fire damage to its victims.
- Raider’s Armor – This medium-weight armor comes with a lot of strength increases and new upgrades.
- When wearing the Surgeon’s Ring, you can use void abilities and increase your critical hit probability with any weapon.
- The Void Gauntlet of the Blackguard – Increased critical hit odds combined with disease make this Void Gauntlet worthy of the Blackguard.
IN-GAME STORE
Character Transfer panel now displays number of free Character Transfers owned.
GENERAL FIXES
- A unusual server issue that occurred while picking up things from the ground has been fixed.
- Fixed an issue where storage chests’ weight capacity was not updated until they were relocated.
- A bug where a player’s initial respawn attempt at a shrine might fail has been fixed.
- When the trading post was removed, there was an issue that may cause the game to crash.
- When nearing the item limit, players might sometimes fail to equip ammo/arrows due to a bug.
- Fixed an issue where items with a gearscore of 600 or higher might occasionally drop with an inaccurate gearscore.
- Unpinned missions were re-pinned to the map after logging in, which was fixed.
- Fixed an issue where players might sign up for a war that had not yet been proclaimed while dying in a conflicted area.
- Players with more over 500 unique goods in their inventory no longer have troubles.
SOCIAL
By default, players may now sign up for Invasions and War from the map.
Fixed an issue that enabled banned players to use text or voice chat to interact with the player who had blocked them.
INTERFACE AND USER EXPERIENCE
The resting XP graphics have been updated to make them more visible when the bonus is active.
The Select Skin menu has been updated to sort by the player’s own skins first.
Different UI bugs with overlapping text for multiple languages were fixed.
The player’s health bar was occasionally invisible until it was forced to emerge due to a bug in the HUD.
Fixed a bug in the HUD that caused the user to view an erroneous amount of experience earned on occasion.
Fixed an issue where deceased players might join up for a war that had not been declared in a conflicted area.
Paying taxes while dead might prohibit players from utilizing UI components, which has been fixed.
Friends’ online statuses did not change until after scrolling due to a bug in the Social menu.
The Twitch Subscriber Army’s description was unclear due to a glitch in the Social menu.
Text in the feedback menu was not displaying correctly due to a bug.