This log is a continuation of a series of logs that reviews the development of new modding tools for Darkest Dungeon. We highly recommend that you check out Part 2 before reading this log.
This log is an overdue transparency report, covering the status of the mod tools and the development of the 1.0 release.
This isn't easy to admit, but there's been little to no progress on the development of the new mod tools. The reason why largely boils down to gibbed, the main developer of the new mod tools, having incredibly sparse availability throughout the year due to personal circumstances.
We’ve tried to find someone to take over for gibbed, but the mod tools' technical complexity and our limited resources as a community project have made that extremely difficult. and we haven’t been able to secure a replacement.
We apologize for delaying this Captain's Log until the end of the year. It could have been made sooner, but we were holding out in hopes of things changing.
Normally, there'd be some sort of positive spin that we'd try to put at the end here, but there's not a silver lining to this. We really wish there was more to show. Being forced to tread water indefinitely just sucks.
Due to the stagnation of the mod tool development, we're not in a position to promise more features. Additionally, several features from the Part 2 Captain's Log have serious issues, as we were in active development when the log was posted.
In the event that gibbed's availability opens up, or we find someone else to help progress the mod tools in the near future, our goal will simply be to complete what was outlined in the Part 1 and 2 Captain's Logs and complete the 1.0 Release.
In the event that gibbed's availability doesn't open up, and we can't find anyone else, we'll be forced to cancel the mod tools entirely. We'll likely just post what we have publicly on GitHub, and if anyone else feels like finishing the project down the line, they can. This would be the worse case scenario, and we wouldn't be happy about this, but we can't just be in development forever.
We'll be making a Part 3 log for this sometime early next year that expands on this.
While mod tool development has stagnated, we've continued to work on content for the 1.0 release. Most of this is content related to the Black Reliquary, which we won't be showing much of publicly until the final update, but there is some new content unrelated to the Reliquary that we want to share.
A boss of the Reliquary...
We've previously stated that we weren't planning to include another hero addon. But one of the artists we work with, Soggy Pizza, stepped up and offered to take care of most of the art for one more addon.
To be clear, since Thorn's implementation didn't require the mod tools, and since the artwork for her was essentially donated to us, the development of Thorn did not delay the 1.0 Release.
So... surprise! The Thorn has officially joined BR’s lineup as the fifth and final hero addon.
Thorn in Black Reliquary works in a similar way to the original mod but features entirely new artwork, animations, and sounds. Much like all the other addons, her gameplay has been adjusted to better fit Black Reliquary's combat systems. Her gameplay still revolves around picking between offensive and defensive stances. However, all of her skills are now usable in both stances, with most skills having a different effect in each stance.
For example, defensive stance Hearken is still a Guard + Marking Riposte.
While offensive stance Hearken provides offensive buffs to the Thorn and her target.
Party Riposte???
The Mandrake is a new Veteran+ Cactonid enemy. Some of his features are still being worked out, but right now the plan is for the Mandrake to emulate a more classic swords and sorcery mage.
In his human form he'll be casting spells and buffing allies.
If the circumstances are right, he'll shapeshift into a size 2 beast, being much more aggressive towards your party.
While each of these features are pretty minor by themselves, we've been adjusting the balance and reworking things such as:
Trinkets
Camp Skills
Caverns (length)
Treasury (rewards)
Lesser Sandwurm (will flee the battle if focused early)
Expanding Hero Prep Options
End-game progression (making it faster to get to Lv. 6)
Symptom/Disease Progression
Quest Generation (quests generate based on roster levels)
Much more
There’s way too much to cram into one log, but after eight months of nonstop changes, the 1.0 release is going to feel vastly different from the live version.
We have another Captain Q&A!
Just like other times, we posted a form asking for community questions on our Discord and our Twitter, and the Captain answered a selection of them.
We mention this often, but it feels important to state it plainly here: Black Reliquary is a community-driven project. Everyone that contributes donates their time or money to some extent. Our Patreon provides some crucial support, but we still operate at a significant loss. We do our best to keep developing and improving the mod, but there are moments when circumstances simply fall outside our control. The situation with the mod tools has been a tough reminder that even the most reliable looking plans can unravel and that we shouldn’t rely too heavily on any single point of failure.
As for the future of the 1.0 Release, we're looking to complete it late next year (2026). We're not confident enough to give a timeframe more specific than that, but since we've managed to make some significant 1.0 progress, the timeline is starting to fall into place.
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Thanks again for your support and patience,
-Team Reliquary