“We are really excited about Update 6. The new skill progression system harkens back to TL1 & TL2 as well as our work on Diablo 2. It provides the kind of choices and ownership we have heard you expecting from an ARPG. We also heard loud and clear that our leveling pace was too slow and grindy. Update 6 also does a few things to address that: bosses giving more XP, quests giving XP, monsters pacing improved, and lower leveling costs. Together, we feel like these changes have really made the game feel better. We hope you like it too.”

- Tyler Thompson

Features

Skill Progression System

Check the recently published skill progression article for further details, we’re super excited with the major changes coming in Update 6.

• Added new Skill Paths for each class: Brawl & Barrage for Forged, Dark & Light for Dusk Mage, and Lineage & Conductor for Railmaster.
• Skills on the various paths can be upgraded and feature numerous synergistic improvements for every point spent.
• Players earn a maximum of 100 Skill Points and can invest up to 12 points into individual skills.

Existing characters will be migrated to the new system during Update 6 maintenance, be sure to check and latest forum post for the specifics of how your character will change while preserving earned progression.

Leveling Rebalance

One of the major areas affected by the skill progression changes is leveling speed. We’ve roughly doubled the rate at which players will level up at lower levels. In addition we’ve tweaked a few things along the way:

• Players can now more easily fight above their level at the early stages of the game.
• Bosses, champions, and quests now grant additional XP.
• You can now equip gear that is up to three levels higher than your current Frontier level.
• Levels ranges of the zones within each Frontier now span 1 - 30.

Revive Options

Having to run from the dungeon entrance after being defeated is a chore, and getting stuck reviving at an entryway choked with monsters was even worse. We’ve added a few quality of life elements in this area:

• On death, players now have a choice of where to Revive. Certain choices have a gold cost.
  • Right Here: 10% of current gold
  • At Level Entrance: 5% of current gold
  • In Town: no cost
• After reviving, characters receive a short-duration buff which makes them invulnerable, untargetable, and able to move through monsters.

More Trains!

We just released the Railmaster with Update 5: Lonesome Whistle, and it’s time to up the firepower! Two new offense-oriented cars have been added to the repertoire:

• Shotgonne Car: (Level 1) Passive: Periodically fire a large blast of fire that hits an area for 100% weapon damage. Active: Shoot a single, large slug that pierces enemies for 250% weapon damage. (This car is mutually exclusive with Shield Car)
• Flamethrower Car: (Level 1) Passive: Adds a flamethrower car to the rear of the train that periodically shoots flaming missiles in 1 sec bursts that deal 10% weapon damage and leaves enemies burning for 6 sec. Active: Make the flamethrower shoot a 3 sec burst of flaming missiles that deal 50% weapon damage per hit and leave enemies burning for 2 sec. (This car is mutually exclusive with Mortar Car)

Other Notable Additions

• Pet movement and behavior greatly improved. Pets now navigate the world without so much erratic skittering, and are a lot better about actively engaging in combat.
• Pets have a tab in the skill menu, and players will see a skill bar for their pet while this tab is selected. This is part of the preparation for eventual pet-skill features.
• Increased player movement speed by one meter per second.
• New craftable wardrobes for all three classes. These are not limited availability - they provide a baseline for all players to be able to craft sufficient wardrobes for exploring across frontiers.
• Loading tips. We got ‘em. Want more? Tell us what you want to see!

Updates

Skills

• Increased Dark Spears base DPS by 50%.
• Lowered the proc frequency of the Forge's Cyclone Mode.
• Fixed the description for Shotgonne Blast and Slug shot to clarify the damage is calculated from your cannon.
• The Dusk Mage's Holy Fury can now destroy breakable elements in the environment.

Pets

• Pets can now be sent to town while in town, they'll sell stuff quickly. Additionally, if you travel to town while your pet is on the way there, you'll meet them there. Good boy!
• Pets now run the appropriate direction toward town when fleeing and running errands.
• Reduced pet damage from 75% to 50% of player damage.
• Wardrobes now have slots for pet items.
• Increased pet hit points from 200% to 300% of player hit points.

Monsters & NPCs

• Made the intro experience of fighting goblins and Yapper in the Imperial Outpost a little easier and increased the XP earned.
• Remaining monsters will now be defeated upon slaying Psora in the Ravaged Ravine.
• Updated Snotskin Village, Gobstomp Stronghold, and Gobtown to have a better ebb and flow of monster spawns.
• Increased Strongtusk's health and damage.
• Increased the health of Goblin Gunners, Voracious Goblins, Brittle Skeletons, and Clumsy Zombies.
• Added the Fiery Forest Sentry as a rare champion-only spawn to areas level 20 and over.
• Adjusted the size and position of the Goblin Blaster's damage area to better match the VFX.
• Monsters not killed in one strike now have a better chance of being disrupted with a hit animation.
• Decreased the damage of most bosses.
• Decreased the health of Rotface, the Interminable.
• Reduced the damage of champion Netherlings.
• Reduced the knockback on the Gob Hound death animation.
• Removed mimic chests from the Den of Upheaval.
• Disabled the Goblin Bomber due to gameplay issues. They’ll return soon.
• Changed the location of the NPC Thanes Snow.

Quests

• Updated the "Bogwood Hollow Suppression" quest to require Hyvid Gliders instead of Hyvid Fliers.
• Updated the description of the "Best Frenemies" quest to be more clear.
• Updated Kenik's dialogue for the "Fortuitous Arrival" quest.
• Updated text for the "Netherdelve" quest to accurately describe requirements.
• Updated the requirement to kill Cocooned Goblins for the "Missing Troops" quest to optional.
• Increased the spawn rate for Netherlings to assist in completing the "They're Coming Out of the Nether Realm" quest.
• You can now complete the "Key Bind" quest by talking to General Graye in the Imperial Outpost.
• Updated the requirement to clear a % of monsters in the Den of Upheaval as part of the "Tidying Up the Den" quest to a flat number.
• Increased the spawn rate for Hyvid Egg Pods in the Feeding Den to assist in completing the "Muther Krr'usha" quest.
• Champion Hyvid Gliders and Larvae now count toward completing "The Greendark Infestation" quest.
• Disabled the "Way Back" quest.
• Added more netherlings to the Glimmering Grotto to assist in completing the "Netherdelve" quest.
• Decreased the number of Hyvid Champions you must defeat for the "Hideout and Exterminate, Annihilate and Destroy" quest from 10 to 6.
• Decreased the number of Chargerbugs to defeat for "The Acid Pools" quest from 10 to 3.

General

• Added new map icons for resources, pets, portals, vendors, and party members.
• Updated class mechanic descriptions in the Help Menu to be clearer.
• Reduced the time it takes to harvest common resources.
• Reduced teh cooldown on potions from 15 to 8 seconds.
• Added help pop ups when learning about assigning skills during the introductory quest.
• Fixed an issue causing "Disable Camera Shake" and "Mute Music" to be linked in the Settings Menu.
• Equipped items are now displayed when in the Shared Stash menu.
• Added animation to loading screens.
• Updated the VFX for the second swing on the Railmaster's attack when using a mace.

Fixes

• Fixed an issue causing the Contract screen to display an invalid reward after the season has ended.
• Fixed an issue causing the animation for Holy Fury to stutter when running low on energy.
• Fixed an incorrect value in the tooltip for Holy Bolt.
• Fixed an issue causing Holy Fury to fill both light and dark energy bars.
• Fixed an issue causing the Dusk Mage's energy bars to misrepresent the level of charge.
• Fixed the description for the Dusk mage dark and light energy mechanic.
• Fixed a typo in the tooltip for Coal Launch.
• Fixed an issue causing a crash when using the Railmaster's Blasting Charge on breakable items.
• Fixed a funky tooltip that displayed "I love cheese” in French. Affineur hour, amirite?
• Fixed an issue preventing the exit portal from spawning after defeating Wideload.
• Fixed an issue causing players to become stuck in the Storage menu.
• Fixed an issue causing an extra tab to appear on the wardrobe menus.
• Fixed an issue preventing the equipped items tab from displaying in the wardrobe menus.
• Fixed an issue preventing leaf piles from being clickable.
• Fixed an issue causing players to get stuck on certain terrain in Gobtown.
• Fixed an issue causing certain terrain in Hyvid Colony to not have collision properties.
• Fixed an issue causing boss chests to have improper collision properties.
• Fixed an issue causing pathing to sometimes be blocked in the Cave of Sorrows.
• Fixed an issue preventing the saving of progress upon completing certain quest tasks.
• Fixed an issue preventing the saving of progress when two different quests' requirements were met at the same time.
• Fixed an issue preventing boss chests from spawning in certain cases.
• Fixed an issue preventing Charger Juveniles from moving or attacking in some cases.
• Fixed an issue causing Stun duration to use the highest value from a single affix instead of stacking.
• Fixed an issue causing the boss and champion defeated animation to appear at their spawn point instead of where they fell.
• Fixed an issue causing characters to appear with a different skin tone in the character select screen.
• Fixed an issue causing some skeletal mapworks dungeons to be skeleton free. Spooky, but mostly annoying.
• Fixed an issue causing certain area entrances and exits to be difficult to click on.
• Fixed an issue causing player rubberbanding when affected by a speed boost.
• Fixed an issue causing quest-related champions to activate even for players who did not have the quest.
• Fixed an issue preventing the missile damage from Coal Launch.
• Fixed an issue causing unintended terrain object to appear in Wood's Edge.
• Fixed an issue causing Hyvid Crystal auras to remain after being destroyed.
• Fixed an issue causing boss chests to appear in the wrong location in some cases.
• Fixed an issue causing Goblin Gunner to fire at players instead of their current facing. Supes deadly, yo.
• Fixed an issue causing the Keys for the "Key Bind" quest to be impossible to pick up.
• Fixed an issue preventing certain items from being able to be picked up.
• Fixed an issue allowing players to equip a 2h weapon and a shield in certain situations.
• Fixed an issue causing certain clickables to twitch. It was freaky.
• Fixed an issue with the Gob Hound's defeated animation.