Update 7 is the biggest set of changes we’ve made since our Alpha went full-time. With pet collecting, pet skills and the new Relic system, we’ve rounded out major parts of the character strategic systems. With the Goblin Frontier’s quest revamp, we’ve aligned that frontier around a story. The new character create and select experience is filled with flavor, quality and lore. Some new monsters have crept into the world, and the variety is feeling better. On top of all this, we’ve got a ton of small changes; including our first versions of friends, our test store, and skill point resets. It’s a big step forward from Update 6.  

We are excited to share Update 7: Beast Buddies with you, and we look forward to hearing your feedback. We will keep listening and keep improving this game together.

~ Tyler Thompson, Project Lead at Echtra Games

Features

New Pet Features

As outlined in our previous blog post, your animal allies have received a significant upgrade to their adventuring capability!

Eight new pet skills

Two new pets to collect, the Wolf and Dragonling

Additional pets can now be rescued from cages

• Rescued pets are managed from the new Pet Shelter in your Fort

• A pet vendor has been added to the Imperial Outpost

Relic Revamp

Blood Drinker, Bane, Flaming Destroyer, and the entire Relic system have all undergone a metamorphosis! Additional details are available in our previous blog post.

• Relics now earn skill points to be spent on upgrades

• New activation effect for each Relic

• New active skill for each Relic

• Two new passive abilities for each Relic

• Many more Relics in development!

Goblin Frontier Quests

New arrivals to the frontier are now sent to uncover what has caused the recent frenzy of goblin activity in the area. Dark forces conspire against the safety of the Imperial Outpost, beware!

Quests in the Goblin Frontier have been redone to supply more narrative, lore, and motivation for players embarking on their adventures. New dialogue and rewards can be expected along the way.

Characters with partial progress in the old quest line will be transitioned to a similar point in the new version. In some cases, you will need to visit quest givers to pick up the next mission.

Skill Point Resets

A skill point reset is scheduled to occur with the release of Update 7: Beast Buddies on July 16. This means you’ll have the opportunity to try a new build or tweak your current favorite! Please note that this is not the full-fledged respec system outlined on our roadmap.

We’ll be doing skill point resets  on a weekly basis for at least a few Update cycles in order to make content testing and feedback easier for alpha testers. These resets are optional to claim per-character so you won’t be forced to re-spec if you don’t want to. Full resets will be extremely rare in the release version of the game, we are just using them as a testing aide at this time. We’ll let the alpha players know ahead of time when the “last weekly respec” is coming. 

Frontier Traders Now Open 

Players can now visit the Frontier Trader's Test Shop which offers offers some basic account upgrades: 

• Stash Tabs

• Relic Storage Slots

• Character Slots

Players can purchase Lux, our paid currency, through the Arc Charge Up feature. Alpha players will retain any Lux and Shop items they purchase going forward (no wipe). Please be aware that these are real money transactions and there is no plan for a refund or reset at a later date. The test shop helps us ensure functionality is stable before we begin offering a wider variety and volume of items for purchase. 

New Character Creation Experience

You’ve got to make a good first impression. So we’ve given the character creation experience an impressive facelift. Roll a new character to see what all the hullabaloo is about!

Friends Feature

Friends list, it’s a thing! Currently the list makes use of the Arc Games friends list. You can access your friends list on the party menu using the [P] key, and use the menu to enter chat or send party invites easily. 

This feature is incomplete as there are not in-game actions for sending and accepting friend requests. Those are coming very soon! In the meantime, use the Arc client to add friends you’d like to play with in-game. 

New Netherim and Automaton Creatures

Malevolent forces have burst onto the frontier in the form of massive Netherim Brutes and clockwork Automatons. Be on the lookout!

Quality of Life Improvements

• Added a new Mapworks scroll vendor in the Imperial Outpost, the Mapworks device in your fort no longer produces these scrolls but still serves as an awesome decoration.

• Added a new Adventurer’s Luck buff that provides a 15% bonus to Gear and Gold luck when near other players.

• After a boss is defeated, players can now immediately use their Town Portal skill without first departing the boss arena level. The return-to-entrance portal spawned by bosses has not changed.

• Both [M] and [Tab] now open the area map. For gamepad [Left D-Pad] opens the area map.

• Gamepad controls now sort targets by priority: Monsters, Items, NPCs/Gadgets, Other.

• Increased the number of chests available in each area, including at least 1 bountiful chest.

• Moved the Waypoint found in player Forts to the entrance and removed the second waypoint location found in passages. More real estate for buildin'!

• Shortened the length of Subterranean Trench.

• When picking up a rare or legendary item, other players in the area will now be notified of your good fortune.

• Added a new animation and extended the reach for gold drop pickups.

• Added an option to rewatch the intro cinematic to the menu.

• Increased gold luck values for gear and mapworks scrolls.

• Improved load times for most adventuring areas by roughly 10 seconds.

• Fort Inventory: Moved Shared Stash and Pet Shelter to a Storage/General category.

• Fort Inventory: Moved Wardrobes to a Storage/Wardrobes category.

• Added quest-specific triggered spawners to help spawn champion monsters when needed for various quests.

• Removed the color change to the health indicator when poisoned because it caused readability issues with the health globe.

• Players can now use the /stuck command (entered into chat) to get out of situations where their character has become stuck due to non-gameplay reasons. 

• Your pet will now be hidden when editing your fort.

• Potions now heal the pet as well as the player's character.

• Minions now show a health bar with their nameplate like regular monsters.

Quests

• Updated requirements for "She's Lost Control" quest to include completing the "Buzzworthy" quest first.

• Updated "It's a Sabotage" to be listed before "Dead Collection" in the frontier progression quest "Deep in Goblin Country.”

• Fixed an issue with the missing Fallen Imperial Corpses required for the "It Came From Outer Place" quest.

• Added more champion goblin spawners to Gobstomp Stronghold to help complete the "Village Wrecker" quest.

• Defeating Yapper during the introductory quest sequence automatically completes the defeat X% of goblins subtask.

• Increased the number of champion hyvid spawning for the "Hyvid Tunnels Infestation" and "Exterminate, Annihilate, Destroy" quests.

• Increased the number of hyvid champion spawners in Sunken Forest to help complete the "Sunken Forest Infestation" quest.

Duskmage

• Increased the mana cost of Holy Fury from 3 to 5 to rein in situations created by stacking mana regen.

• Reduced the maximum amount of mana reduction for Holy Fury from 50% to 35% for investing skill points.

• Changed Luminous Run synergy bonuses to only increase the damage of Relic weapon active skills.

• Increased the size of Unholy Bolt's collision shape.

• Increased the size of Holy Bolt's collision shape.

Forged

• Fixed an issue sometimes preventing heat generation when using the Forged's Cyclone ability.

• Adjusted all the weapon affixes so that the right ones that could apply to the Forged's cannon are valid (does not include Attack Speed).

• Forged cannons now get damage affixes tuned for 2H weapons instead of 1H weapons.

• Changed Vent: Vortex Bomb's synergy bonuses to only increase the damage of Relic weapon active skills.

• Increased the chance to drop a cannon for the Forged to roughly double the chance of any other weapon.

• Poison Dart ui elements now properly displays its damage over time effects.

• Coal Launch now lands slightly earlier.

• Poison dart is now easier to hit with and flies faster.

Railmaster

• Foci will now drop for Railmasters too!

• Railmasters using Lay Track will now continue laying track until they intentionally turn off the skill, or are otherwise forced to stop using skills (e.g. when stunned). Using other active skills, secondary skills, interacting with click-ables, harvesting, etc no longer stops the Lay Track action. 

• Created new Railmaster-specific affixes, starting at level 4, for gear drops that are magic quality or better (gloves, boots, foci, weapons, helms, and shoulders):

  • Bonus damage with Pound

  • Increased Vulnerable duration with Blasting Charge

  • Increased Bleed duration with Flying Picks

  • Increased Major Shield duration with Shield Car

  • Increased bonus damage when near train

• Flying Pick UI elements now properly displays its damage over time effects.

• Fixed an issue preventing the Railmaster from laying track while moving slowly with a gamepad.

• Updated Celestial Cuirass armor to receive a physical defense affix instead of fire.

Tuning

• Made the following slots eligible to receive affixes for Critical Hit Chance: 1H, 2H, Focus, Pants, Locomotion, Helm, Gloves, Pet Tag

• Made the following slots eligible to receive affixes for Critical Hit Damage: 1H, 2H, Focus, Chest, Shoulders, Boot, Hatch, Pet Tag

• Made the following slots eligible to receive affixes for Energy Cost Decrease, Cooldown Decrease, and Bonus Damage: Focus, Helm, Shoulders, Boots, Hatch, Gloves.

• Adjusted damage over time effects for burn, bleed, and poison to be slightly differentiated from one another (e.g. poison lasts longer but does lower damage compared to burn).

• Undead creatures are no longer immune to bleed effects.

• Increased potion cooldown from 5s to 8s.

• Sickly Mossrat champions now only appear at level 4 and above.

• Decreased the likelihood of pet gear drops.

• Increased the value of Attack Speed affixes, so they have a greater impact on basic attacks.

• Renamed all the basic weapon attacks to "Basic Attack: [Weapon Type]" to make it clear what skills Attack Speed impacts.

• Decreased the values possible for secondary damage affixes on Foci.

• Increased the values possible for primary damage affixes on Foci.

• Increased the minimum and maximum damage values for legendary weapon primary affixes.

• Removed knockback resistance affixes.

• Reduced the amount of energy/endurance/steam dissipation regenerated per second from affixes.

• Increased Poisoned DoT damage values on affixes so they should range between 20 and 35%.

• Reduced the chance to proc Poisoned.

• Rebalanced gold, gear and potion luck affixes to only increase their values with quality.

• Reduced the number of bonus shock bolts on rare and legendary item affixes.

• Foci and shields can now receive bonus shock bolts affixes.

• 1H and main hand weapons will now always have the bonus chance to shock affix if they also have the bonus shock bolt affix.

• Weapons with ice affixes will no longer be able to receive slow, immobilize, or stun affixes.

• Limited health on kill affixes to 1 per item (aside from legendaries)

• Added "Hearty" magic quality chest, pants, and locomotion armor that has bonus HP as a primary affix.

• Added "Robust" rare quality chest, pants, and locomotion armor that has bonus HP as a primary affix.

• Added alternate tuning for foci to drop with either a higher possible energy regen or damage as a primary affix.

• Added alternate tuning for shields that drop either with a higher possible block chance or defense as a primary affix.

• Increased harvesting time duration to 3.5 seconds.

• Reduced Kronch, Stone Guardian's hit points and damage.

Monsters

• Significantly reduced Yapper's hit points for the tutorial battle.

• Yapper now reacts more to being hit during the introductory sequence.

• Reduced Deadmaster Retchbreath's hit points and damage.

• Slightly increased Goblin Warrior hit points.

• Slightly decreased Goblin Gunner hit points.

• Additional skeletons are now eligible to spawn at lower levels in skeleton-specific Mapworks dungeons.

• Adjusted spawners in Restless Glade to more consistently spawn physical and fire skeletons, mimics, mossrats, and gargoyles.

• Fixed an issue causing Mimic chests to wander around instead of hiding.

• Poisonous skeletons will no longer spawn from bone piles in the Goblin Frontier, and fire skeletons will no longer spawn from bone piles in the Hyvid Frontier.

• Adjusted values to ensure that Hyvid Egg Pods and Guardians only spawn at the appropriate level ranges.

• Increased the health of Voracious Goblins.

• Increased the health of Goblin Miner.

• Poison skeletons are now prevented from spawning in the Ostian Sepulcher and its Mapworks incarnations. Fire skeletons can now spawn in the Ostian Sepulcher and its Mapworks incarnations.

• Raised Infernal Slayer's minimum level to 23.

• Removed the self destruct skill from the Goblin Bomber.

• Fixed an issue preventing Champion Hyvid Larva from dropping loot.

• Egg pods now have a limit to their egg spawning.

General

• Rare harvesting drops now have their own model assets for wood, stone, and metal. 

• Added new fire hazards to the Goblin Frontier.

• Added more locations for goblin cages to spawn in Lost Woods.

• Added fire totem hazards to the Goblin Frontier.

• Added more objects and variety to Goblin villages.

• Doubled the size of the cog icon during load screens. It makes it go faster we’re sure. 

• Added a sound effect when purchasing items from a vendor.

• Guards have been repositioned from the town center to the docks during the introductory sequence.

• Improved the visibility of several minimap icons.

• Added an animated loading screen for Forts.

• Added more objects and variety to Infested cave maps.

• Added a portal to the Deadly Arena.

• Added a series of new affixes that summon allies to fight at your side, including:

  • Skeletons

  • Mossrats

  • Wolves

  • Netherlings

  • Zombies

• Added several new Legendary items:

  • Legendary Pet Tag, Bloodlust Tag

  • Legendary Digitus, Nethergrip

  • Legendary Railhammer, Deadhammer

  • Legendary Sword, Bonerazor

  • Legendary Shield, Boneblocker

  • Legendary Cannon, 3C-7R4 Repeater

• Added a shine effect to "continue" buttons.

• Added a description for the shared stash.

• Updated player minimap marker image.

• Foliage now moves when characters pass through it.

Fixes

• Fixed an issue preventing netherim champion spawners from working correctly in the Subterranean Trench.

• Fixed an issue from shock effects from not doing damage.

• Fixed an inconsistency with the Wideload loading screen text.

• Fixed an issue causing Goblin Bomber bombs to be difficult to see.

• Fixed an issue causing two music tracks from playing during Yapper cinematic.

• Fixed an issue preventing pet tags from swapping to wardrobes using right-click.

• Fixed an issue preventing skill animations from playing during high latency situations.

• Fixed an issue that sometimes prevented Yapper from appearing during the introductory sequence.

• Fixed an issue that sometimes caused tool-tip text to improperly overlap when using certain resolution settings.

• Fixed an issue allowing the player to revive before the animation or option screen pop up appeared.

• Fixed an issue that prevented destroyed destructible items from disappearing in certain situations.

• Fixed an issue sometimes preventing focus from shifting to the correct list when navigating vendor menus.

• Fixed an issue preventing players from skipping the opening cinematic in certain situations.

• Fixed an issue preventing the mailbox from being closed while using the gamepad.

• Fixed an issue causing skills with 0 levels to show as level 1 in the tool-tip. 

• Fixed an issue causing the Imperial Outpost music to properly trigger during day and night cycles.

• Fixed a typo in the tool-tip for the Railmaster's Shotgonne Car.

• Fixed an issue that sometimes caused a screen flash when attempting to add items to a full pet inventory. Added an "inventory is full” message.

• Fixed an issue that sometimes resulted in players receiving the wrong frontier level when completing a quest.

• Fixed an issue preventing spent skill point total from updating correctly after spending a point.

• Fixed an issue preventing the Chief Imperial Guard from reporting for duty in the Polluted Plateau.

• Fixed an issue preventing monsters from fading properly after being defeated.

• Fixed several issues with Waypoint placement and functionality.

• Fixed an issue preventing breakables from properly breaking when broken... formerly broked.

• Fixed an issue sometimes causing a crash when a Phase Beast escaped.

• Fixed an issue causing characters to stop or jitter when running along edges in some cases.

• Fixed an issue allowing players to re enter an already completed Mapworks.

• Fixed an issue causing music to cut out during combat.

• Fixed the wording on affixes for bonus damage vs. particular monster types.

• Fixed a bug preventing the animation from playing when equipping a focus with a Railmaster.

• Fixed an issue preventing skill descriptions from showing the next level bonuses.

• Fixed an issue preventing foci from appearing on characters during character select.

• Fixed an issue preventing skill casts while holding down the left stick on the gamepad.

• Fixed an issue causing an improper shader effect on 3D previews in the Fort and Contracts menus.

• Fixed an issue sometimes resulting in a crash when accessing the stash in your fort.

• Fixed an issue where the Railmaster would swing its railhammer instead of its actual weapon for attacks while in lay rail mode.

• Fixed an issue causing the Waypoint found in the Lower Excavation to be out of reach.

• Fixed an issue causing certain wardrobes to appear incorrectly.

• Fixed an issue sometimes causing Relic weapons to spontaneously swap out of players' hands when gaining experience.

• Fixed an issue sometimes causing helmets to float above the ground after dropping from monsters.

• Fixed an issue where bonus Relic Weapon damage didn't show correctly in the UI.

• Fixed an issue preventing proc trait bonuses from showing up correctly in the UI.

• Fixed an issue causing rare quality poison weapons spawning with redundant text in their names.

• Fixed an issue causing "Send to your bag" prompt to appear in menus other than the pet inventory.

• Fixed an issue preventing the Earth Ember sample from having an icon.

• Fixed an issue causing champion minions to be oversized.

• Fixed an issue causing some particle effects to persist longer than intended.

• Fixed an issue preventing potions from restoring health while Relic weapons are active.

• Fixed an issue preventing the guards from attacking goblins in the Imperial Outpost during the introductory sequence.

• Fixed an issue causing pets to idle when returning to the fight during a boss battle.

• Fixed an issue sometimes causing a crash during the Strongtusk cinematic.

• Fixed an issue that caused boss monsters to target player pets too often.

• Fixed an issue preventing players from interacting with the waypoint in another player's fort.

• Fixed an issue allowing damage over time effects to affect Strongtusk's netherim pylons while they're inactive.

• Fixed an issue causing loot to drop from breakable pots in the Imperial Outpost.

• Fixed an issue allowing players to walk through rocks in the Ostian Sepulcher.

• Fixed an issue causing players to become stuck in Hyvid Tunnels.

• Fixed an issue causing players to become stuck in Sunken Forest.

• Fixed an issue causing players to become stuck in Lake Gobdunk.

• Fixed an issue causing players to become stuck in Murky Cavern.

• Fixed an issue causing players to clip through the walls in Hyvid Central.

• Fixed an issue causing players to clip through the walls in Hyvid Capital.

• Fixed an issue causing players to become stuck in Upper Excavation.

• Fixed an issue causing players to become stuck in Goblin Stash.

• Fixed an issue causing players to become stuck in Upper Excavated Mines.

• Fixed a hole appearing in Wood's Edge.

• Fixed an issue causing players to become stuck in Hyvid Tunnels.

• Fixed a hole appearing in Snotskin Village.

• Fixed an issue causing players to become stuck in Hyvid Colony.

• Fixed an issue allowing players to walk through rocks in Wood's Edge.

• Fixed an issue causing players to become stuck in Deadgob Falls.

• Fixed an issue causing players to become stuck in The Underground.

• Fixed an issue causing players to become stuck in Goblin Stash.

• Fixed an issue causing players to become stuck in Deeper Sorrows.

• Fixed an issue causing players to become stuck in Den of Upheaval.

• Fixed an issue causing players to become stuck in Hyvid Central.

• Fixed a wall object blocking visibility in the Hyvid Grotto.

• Fixed an issue causing loot from breakables to be unreachable in the Upper Crypt.

• Fixed an issue causing floating debris to appear after destroying a breakable object in the Underground Tunnels.

• Fixed an issue causing extra mini map information to appear in Wood's Edge.

• Added fire effects to the backcountry cookpot fort prop.

• Fixed an issue preventing chests from casting shadows.

• Fixed an issue preventing breakable objects from casting shadows in River Run.

• Fixed an issue causing shadows to appear improperly in the Imperial Outpost.

• Fixed an issue sometimes causing Relic weapon effects to persist even after a player goes offline.

• Fixed an issue sometimes causing players to spawn at the edge of the Imperial Outpost when not coming from an adjacent area.

• The damage reduction buff Railmaster and Forged receive for making melee attacks now show numerical details.

• Fixed an issue causing slow affixes to apply to a weapon's DPS rating.

• Fixed an issue sometimes preventing champions from dropping loot.