Greetings, Gyldhunters! Welcome to the sixth Developer Update. Thank you all for your patience. After a nine-month absence and continuous refinement, we'll be back on June 15 with our new playtest version. Right now, we're both excited and a bit nervous. The project team has entered full preparation mode to face the challenges of the upcoming Steam Next Fest playtest.
Back in March, we revealed our development roadmap. As of now, the planned content is mostly complete. In this Developer Update, we'll report the details of our development progress during this period.
Let's start with the new class everyone is most excited about—the Withered Knight. Originating from the southern kingdom of Gaenaria, they settled in the northern lands after being exiled. They were reshaped through hardships in the bitter cold, years of war, and the savage environment of a foreign land. Although they have lost the polished look of a court knight, they still don their formal armor and maintain an innate sense of order, working tirelessly to find the missing Pontiff.
Looking at the overall silhouette, the character retains the iconic posture of a traditional heavily armored knight. A steady, upright stance is paired with broad shoulder pauldrons. The breastplate, bracers, and greaves all use hard metal for primary protection. This creates a sharp and solid outline, directly highlighting the imposing nature of a heavy-armor class.
Building upon the foundational framework of classic knightly armor, the design team heavily incorporated medieval Scandinavian regional elements. A thick beast-hide mantle is used to ward off the biting northern winds. The lower section of the armor features a patchwork of tattered fabrics and raw pelts, while the entire body is wrapped in functional thick ropes, leather straps, personal pouches, and utility rings. The exposed chainmail, cloth strips, and stained, worn metal plates are all scars left by wilderness warfare. The asymmetrical pauldron design further breaks the symmetry of standard-issue armor. These detailed depictions paint a vivid picture of the Withered Knight—an exile in the Northern Realms, severed from his original kingdom. The Church and knighthood are his origins and his spiritual faith; the Northern Realms are his present, harsh reality.
The helmet is the most striking and eye-catching part of the entire character design. Its design is drawn from the shapes of historical medieval combat helmets. The closed metal visor completely conceals any facial expression, giving the character an inherently cold, reserved, and unpredictable presence of intimidation. The hard, cold metal helmet and the rugged, fluffy Northern fur create a sharp visual contrast. Even when standing among a crowd of Vikings, one can instantly recognize his unique identity as an outsider knight.
At present, the meticulous detailing for the Withered Knight and his accompanying weapons has been fully finalized. The weapon engravings blend knightly religious motifs with native totems of the Northern Realms. The Holy Sigil pattern can be seen all over the armor set. It's the core symbol of the knights—and indeed, of Gaenaria itself—originating from the kingdom's long-inherited religious faith. The unique design, featuring a vertical line piercing a circle, represents the legend of Saeria Sith, the incarnation of the Supreme Deity, who embraced the sun for seven days and sacrificed himself to save the world. It's also an innate symbol of identity and a mark of faith borne by every orthodox Gaenarian knight.
Furthermore, everything from the carved wings on the helmet and the rose reliefs on the armor surface to the chainmail skirts and leather belt creases has been meticulously crafted. At the same time, we've planned multiple color schemes, such as dark purple with gold trim and red with silver armor. These colorways enrich our cosmetic options while further refining the character's overall visual identity.
High-Poly Knight Character and Asset Detail Renders
In June's Steam Next Fest playtest, you can try out the Withered Knight firsthand. We look forward to seeing all Gyldhunters discover his true power in actual combat!
Knight Actor Motion Capture & Gameplay Footage
A brand-new boss challenge has always been highly anticipated, and for this Steam Next Fest, we've added the Cursed Moonwane. This boss originated from a failed, forbidden experiment to summon a deity within Hallowgrove. She was forcibly fused with living flesh and the power of departed souls; this grotesque origin gave rise to her unique appearance and combat characteristics.
The Failed Experiment Site in Hallowgrove
We've divided the boss battle into two distinct phases, layering her visual design around the concept of "concealment leading to breaking free." Phase one focuses on concealment and a state of dormancy. She uses sheer veils, tattered clothing, and crescent ornaments to mask her mangled body. Her smooth, graceful human torso is paired with scattered, mutated wings and a broken mask. Beneath this soft, beautiful silhouette lie incompletely formed, twisted limbs, capturing the chaos and fragility of an incomplete experiment.
Cursed Moonwane: Phase 1 Design References
Upon entering Phase 2, the design of the Cursed Moonwane revolves around two key concepts: bewitchment and awakening. Her restrictive garments completely shatter, allowing her limbs to fully extend and her wings of flesh and blood to unfurl completely. The mask splinters into fragmented spiritual entities that cling to her body, fully exposing her intricate markings and mutated details. By completely shattering her design boundaries, this transformation echoes the character breaking free from the shackles of the experiment and embracing the metamorphosis of human soul fused with beastly form. At the same time, the massive visual contrast between the two phases serves as a signature, unforgettable moment in the boss fight experience.
Cursed Moonwane: Phase 2 Design References
Beyond the new boss content, we've also expanded the gameplay features for your camp. Next, let's talk about the brand-new camp feature—the Scavenger Squad. As an expansion of our camp-building gameplay, the Scavenger Squad is a casual feature we've specifically designed for long-term resource progression. Its primary goal is to help players continuously acquire camp resources through non-combat means, thereby easing the progression burden.
This system's growth is tied to the upgrade levels of your camp buildings. As the squad progressively levels up, Gyldhunters can not only expand the squad's roster and upgrade their equipment, but also shorten their exploration time, unlocking more wilderness regions and operational strategies for deployment. We hope this steady progression pace allows everyone to steadily accumulate scarce materials through idle deployment during daily downtime, offering an alternative resource channel outside of regular map grinding.
From the deployment workflow to the final yields, we've polished multiple layers of interaction details. After selecting a target area, players can choose different exploration strategies based on their needs. Different options correspond to distinct item costs and reward pools. Once a deployment ends, the system automatically calculates randomized drops, with high-value rare items also tucked away in the loot pool. At the same time, we've implemented optimization designs like red-dot notifications and reward previews. This allows players to visually gauge the return on investment for a single trip while clearly tracking the squad's progression, enriching the fun of camp management through a lightweight deployment experience.
Scavenger Squad Departure Animation
The gem socketing mechanic is another optimized feature we want to introduce in detail. Compared to the previous playtest, we've replaced the old random affix system with a gem socketing system, making the entire affix build more controllable and progression more stable.
At the same time, we've launched the Loadout System. Through this system, Gyldhunters can quickly assemble a full set of equipment and gems, and buy and equip them with a single click. The Loadout System supports saved configurations: players can save their completed setups as custom loadout profiles, enabling them to instantly switch between multiple combat or exploration-oriented gear setups.
The Loadout System also introduces a build "Share Code" feature. Gyldhunters can generate a unique code based on their own completed builds and share it with other players. Upon copying and pasting the code, users can import the entire equipment and gem configuration with one click, rapidly replicating proven builds and effortlessly facilitating archetype synergy and loadout sharing.
In short, the Loadout Station utilizes a multi-pronged approach—from controllable optimization and profile archiving to seamless sharing—comprehensively simplifying the building process and making build customization hassle-free.
Finally, for our incoming novice Gyldhunters, we'd like to dive into the playstyles and archetypes for each class. In Mistfall Hunter, every class will be equipped with two distinct weapon categories (the second weapon for the Blackarrow, Sorcerer, and Withered Knight is still in development). Through our past playtests, each weapon has naturally evolved into two mainstream playstyles. Below is a breakdown of each to help guide your choice of class.
The Mercenary features two weapon branches: Sword & Shield, and Hammer. Sword & Shield splits into two major archetypes: Sword Build and Shield Build. The Sword Build focuses on offense, relying on powerful slashes and lunges. While in its Crimson Blade state, its damage boosts and strong stacking slashes give the Sword & Shield impressive damage output and excellent pursuit capabilities. The Shield Build's playstyle revolves around blocking and parrying. It relies on Perfect Parries to interrupt enemy onslaughts and gain buffs, followed by Shield Dashes to pursue and suppress targets. Hammer offers two paths: Charged and Stun. The Charged Build maintains mobility, Super Armor, and damage resistance during its wind-up phase. Its wide-area attacks and interrupt effects give it a massively imposing presence in combat. The Stun Build relies on landing hammer strikes to stack debuffs and trigger stun control. Combined with the high-frequency hits and mobility of the Hammer Spin skill, this build maintains relentless pressure at close range.
The Blackarrow uses the bow and arrow as their exclusive weapon, splitting into the Archer and Hunter branches. The Archer archetype fires fully charged arrows that possess excellent energy recovery capabilities, giving the Blackarrow impressive sustained combat potential. This is paired with a Mysticfly Arrow detonation mechanic to unleash massive burst damage. The Hunter archetype focuses on an ailment-based system. Its various debuff arrows deliver exceptional status effects, and landing basic attacks can extend the duration of these debuffs, further magnifying the build's damage-over-time and crowd-control capabilities.
The Sorcerer wields a staff and can follow either the Elemental or Stardust path. The Elemental archetype triggers elemental reactions when skills hit targets. The reaction effects for Fire, Thunder, and Ice vary uniquely; these powerful elemental skills and reactions grant the Elemental Sorcerer substantial damage output and crowd-control capabilities. The Stardust archetype's Stardust Magic features massive damage and crowd-control effects, while its Stardust Arcana can completely bypass the chanting phase, allowing the Stardust Sorcerer to instantly unleash devastating Stardust spells, completely turning the tide of team fights.
The Shadowstrix utilizes Daggers and Dual Blades as their two weapon categories. Daggers split into the Burst and Shadow Veil playstyles. The Burst Build grants the Shadowstrix a powerful, short-term damage boost and energy recovery effect upon breaking stealth. This makes their invisibility an extreme threat, while their various crowd control and mobility skills allow them to seamlessly coordinate with teammates for sudden ambushes. The Shadow Veil Build relies on Frequency Shift and Shadow Veil to achieve cyclical stealth, allowing the player to slip back into hiding immediately after striking and weave through opponents with a highly elusive playstyle. Dual Blades offer two distinct approaches: Wound Burst and Damage Stacking. The Burst Build accumulates wound stacks through high-frequency attacks, triggering massive instantaneous burst damage upon detonation. This build relies on high mobility to flexibly enter the fray and clean up fights. The Damage Stacking Build gains a damage multiplier after landing multiple hits on enemies. Every attack in this state becomes increasingly threatening, making it highly proficient at sustained high-damage output.
The Seer wields the Catalyst and Mace as their two weapon categories. The Catalyst splits into offensive and supportive directions. The Offensive Build can consume Psionic Energy to charge up and unleash enhanced orbs, making the synergy between their crowd control and damage output incredibly threatening. The Support Build provides unique team utility through healing and shielding skills. Its diverse crowd control and buff effects perform exceptionally well in both target-focusing and peeling scenarios during team fights. The Mace utilizes Zeal skills to branch into Speed Boost and Super Armor paths. The Speed Boost Build continuously replenishes Psionic Energy while in a Zeal state, allowing the player to unleash high-frequency runic strikes to maintain relentless pressure. The Super Armor Build gains an extended duration of Super Armor and damage reduction through Zeal. This allows players to seize the initiative in close-quarters combat, even leveraging this extended duration to complete critical interactions and secure a mid-battle tactical advantage.
The Withered Knight wields a Greatsword in combat, splitting their playstyle into Consecutive Break and Delayed Detonation. The Consecutive Break Build prevents Wither stacks from disappearing upon being shattered. Breaking them consecutively inflicts multiple debuffs on enemies; as the number of breaks increases, the Withered Knight's threat to their foes grows exponentially stronger. The Delayed Detonation Build causes Wither stacks to explode after a delay. The Withered Knight can choose to let them detonate automatically, or manually break them to trigger an explosion that spreads the Wither state to surrounding targets. Regardless of the chosen detonation method, this mechanic grants the Withered Knight an incredible presence in team fights.
There's still much more we'd like to share, but due to length constraints, we can't cover it all. This Developer Update is drawing to a close. To prepare for this Steam Next Fest playtest, the project team has spent a long time refining and adjusting the game. Specifically, we've implemented a comprehensive optimization for the looting experience, which was a major point of feedback in the past. Not only have we adjusted the loot drop rules and item drop rates, but we've also added new interactable containers. Loose loot will now also spawn directly throughout the wilderness maps, making the joy of exploration and gathering much more fulfilling.
In addition, we've completely rebuilt and optimized the team recruitment system, drastically improving the experience for team communication and matchmaking. From gameplay refinement to detailed optimizations, every single change is grounded in past feedback from our Gyldhunters. We're always putting our hearts into polishing the content, striving to present Mistfall Hunter to everyone with better quality and a more complete presentation.
We sincerely thank all Gyldhunters for your long-standing patience, companionship, and support. It's your continuous suggestions and feedback that drive the game to grow and improve step by step. The June Steam Next Fest playtest is about to begin. We warmly welcome all Gyldhunters to the world of Mistfall Hunter to experience the brand-new version firsthand and embark on a new, thrilling journey of treasure hunting and monster slaying!