Hello everyone!
We’re excited to share update 0.3.1, which brings a variety of improvements, balance tweaks, and bug fixes inspired by your feedback from previous testing stages. Huge thanks to everyone who joined the playtests and took the time to report issues and share suggestions. Your feedback plays a key role in how the game evolves.
In this dev log, we’ll highlight the main changes included in the new version. Let’s take a look!
One of the main areas we’re focusing on is exploration. We want every journey through the world to feel rewarding, and this update brings several new features to help with that:
Aspects – ancient stone tablets infused with dormant magic. Each one you find permanently increases one of your character’s core attributes.
Gifts – special items that can be given to key characters in the Training Camp. They help increase approval, which can further unlock helpful bonuses.
Unique resources – rare deposits like gemstones, ornamental stones, or metal shards. These can be used for crafting things like jewelry and artifacts. Unlike common resources, which appear in many places, unique resources only exist in one fixed location. This makes discovering new areas especially valuable. Right now, these can be found only in dungeons, but more types are planned in future updates, including some in the open world.
New rare items, crafting recipes, and artifacts – hidden in the world, waiting to be discovered.
We’ve also added new locations and made adjustments to some existing ones. A few now feature hidden cellars or small layout changes that reward exploration.
Previously, dungeons were packed with enemies but often felt underwhelming in terms of rewards. To make them worthwhile, we've introduced several types of treasure rooms that now appear at the end of all dungeons. These can include Ancient Shrines, Burial Sites, Smuggler Stashes, or Mage Hideouts, each offering special loot like Aspects, Gifts, unique resources, and rare items.
We've also made some balancing tweaks: the maximum enemy level has been lowered in dungeons closer to the starting area, and enemy spawns have been slightly adjusted overall to improve pacing and challenge.
One of the most significant changes in this update concerns resource harvesting. Previously, each resource required a specific harvesting tool and did not provide skill experience if the wrong tool was used. Combined with the need for nine different tool types, this system was quite cumbersome. Now, tools are divided into two categories: Essential and Specialized. Essential tools include Axe, Pickaxe, and Sickle, which are sufficient to gather all resource types efficiently. Specialized tools remain in the game but are optional and provide minor bonuses to harvesting efficiency if you want the best results. Harvesting skill experience is now always granted in full regardless of the tool used. Additionally, crafting harvesting tools is no longer required to unlock processing equipment.
Trees and plants now have a chance to drop seeds from the start of the game without needing specific abilities. These abilities will still increase the drop chance.
Alongside new unique resources, a new processed resource called Ceramics has been introduced. Ceramics have a different crafting mechanic compared to other processed resources and are used in some building part recipes.
We also made various quality of life improvements:
Auto-equipping and manual resource harvesting work better.
Picking up resource pieces and other objects has been made easier.
Small shrubs can now be harvested directly without chopping.
Plants such as fibers and herbs grow closer together, making gathering more efficient.
Wood branches no longer appear on the minimap, reducing clutter.
In earlier versions, enemies mostly kept to themselves unless you wandered directly into their territory. That’s changed. While exploring the open world, you can now be ambushed by roaming enemies. The type and strength of the attackers depend on the region you're in.
Ambushes are more frequent at night, so think twice before heading out after dark. They’re active on Normal and Survival difficulties, with a higher rate on Survival. Sandbox players can rest easy, ambushes are disabled in that mode, so you can enjoy a more peaceful experience focused on building and crafting, if you prefer.
Another key area we want to improve is the magic system. It was originally designed to support weapon combat skills with a hybrid approach, but we are now working to make pure caster playthroughs more viable. In this update, we added two new equipment sets specifically for mages: Forsworn and Apprentice. Newly introduced jewelry such as rings, amulets, and medallions also provide valuable bonuses to magic users.
We included new magic types, Shield and Barrier, that add protection for mages, helping them better withstand enemy attacks. Various balance changes have been made, including more than doubling spell damage, significantly buffing summons, and improving their attack range and targeting. Enemies will now prioritize nearby targets, focusing mostly on summons to keep the caster safer.
Looking ahead, we plan to make mages a fully standalone class with their own skill and class trees. This will complement existing Magic Arts perks and Sigils, further enhancing their power and flexibility.
We’ve completely reworked how crafting and building recipes are unlocked. In previous versions, many recipes were hidden behind nested unlocks, where certain parts only became available after building others. This system was often confusing and hard to follow.
Now, we’ve removed those nested requirements. Recipes are unlocked simply by collecting the relevant resource types or by constructing the appropriate workbenches for more advanced items.
The updated unlock structure is also fully integrated into the in-game guide. At any time, you can open the guide to see which resources unlock specific building parts. You can also click on any item listed to craft or build it directly from the guide, without having to dig through menus. This should make the whole progression system much clearer and easier to use.
We’ve added a new in-game guide that not only explains the updated recipe unlock system but also provides tutorials and breakdowns of key gameplay mechanics. It’s designed to help both new and returning players get a better understanding of how things work. The guide is always accessible from the Pause menu or by pressing the default shortcut key “G”.
The building system has received a wide range of improvements. New build parts have been added, and equipment has been unlocked for additional professions like Mason and Jeweler. Other professions, such as Potter and Carpenter, also gain access to new tools.
Stone structures and buildable Basements are now available once Mason tools are unlocked. Basement modules can be combined to expand your home underground.
All fences and gates have been made modular and now snap to placement grids on foundations and flat ground, making them easier to position. Foundation placement on flat ground also benefits from a grid system.
Furniture variations are now handled as style options when placing a build part, rather than being listed separately in the build menu. This makes navigating furniture options more convenient.
We've updated alignment logic for all house-building elements, fixing previous issues that sometimes caused misalignment or small visual gaps.
Another new feature is Camp Fortification. You can now defend your settlement using palisade walls, gates, walkways, and towers.
Numerous bug fixes have also been made to improve overall building stability and behavior.
The crafting system received a number of additions and improvements. Jewelry crafting is now available, including Rings, Amulets, and Medallions, which require unique materials to unlock and make.
Several new equipment sets have also been added, along with side quests related to their discovery.
We've also improved the overall crafting experience. The crafting menu now shows how many of each item you already own, helping avoid unnecessary duplicates. When salvaging items, a confirmation message appears if your storage is full, so resources won’t be lost by accident.
The story progression received a few updates as well. Since the early game was mainly focused on building the first camp, switching straight into combat at the Training Camp felt a bit disconnected. To address this, the Training Camp now offers two parallel progression paths. One follows the original route with the Obstacle Course and Combat Training. The new one centers around helping with building and crafting tasks. You can assist Training Camp members such as the Quartermaster or Blacksmith by making various items for the camp and earn special rewards in return. This gives you more freedom to choose how you want to progress.
Trading has also been unlocked, allowing you to sell and purchase goods from Training Camp vendors.
Another new feature is the ability to give gifts to key characters at the camp. These can be found while exploring the world and gifted when you return. Improving someone’s approval brings various benefits, such as better trading prices, and in future updates, characters with high approval will become available for faction recruitment.
Several existing quests were improved as well. The Combat Training quest now provides a shield to make completing it with blunt weapons easier, and ranged weapons automatically come with ammunition. A free skill point is also given during training to unlock a Strong Attack ability.
Quest experience rewards have been increased across the board, and recommended levels were adjusted to make progression feel smoother.
The squad system has been made more flexible. After unlocking squads through story progression, you can now choose between Solo and Party modes. Solo mode is for those who prefer to play with just one character and don’t want to switch between others. To support this playstyle, the main character receives a set of stat bonuses, including increased Stamina, and Focus, faster buildup of status effects, and damage reduction.
If you prefer to manage a full group, Party mode keeps things as they were in previous versions, with access to multiple characters and the ability to switch between them freely.
Character customization has received several updates. A new Appearance tab has been added to the Inventory menu, letting you change how your gear looks without any relation to its stats. Once you discover a piece of equipment, its visual style becomes available and can be applied to the corresponding gear slot, regardless of what you currently have equipped. Equipment colors can also be freely adjusted, giving you more control over your character’s look.
Character equipment is now also displayed during the character selection screen. Old characters need to be resaved for this to take effect.
That wraps up today’s overview of what’s new in this version. There are many more fixes, tweaks, and smaller changes not covered here, so be sure to check out the full patch notes for all the details.
As always, thank you for your continued support and for helping us test and shape the game. We’re excited to hear your feedback and hope you enjoy everything we’ve added. See you in the next update!