New to Dauntless
New Hunt Pass: Lawless Skies
The Lawless Skies Hunt Pass is brand new for 1.9.0 with a full armour set, two weapon transmogs, and more. If you’re looking to flaunt your skullduggery, this is the pass for you.
Starting in 1.9.0, purchased Hunt Passes will never expire! They will be yours to keep, and you can complete them at your leisure.
New Dawn Season
The New Dawn season brings new weekly challenges, story quests, platinum store offerings, and Reward Cache items. Collect Shady Coins to unlock a pirate’s plunder of new cosmetics. Work with Lady Luck to win over the pirates of the Shattered Isles and bolster Ramsgate’s forces.
Bounty Upgrade System
The Bounty system has received a tune-up to allow you more control over how you spend your bounty tokens and the bounties you draft. Using one additional bounty token, you can upgrade your bounties once from bronze to silver, or from silver to gold.
Furthermore, after patch 1.9.0, bounty tokens will no longer expire at the end of a season, and your free and premium bounty tokens are now combined into a single currency to help streamline the system.
Balance
Gameplay
Reduced Tough Hide’s unwounded damage penalty from -50% to -40%.
Reduced Tough Hide’s currently wounded damage boost from +25% to +15%.
Reduced Tough Hide’s post-wounded damage boost from +50% to +30%.
Shield amount granted from Cascade and Guardians now caps at 600 each.
Slightly reduced size of boosted orbs from Cascade. Purple orbs always appear at larger sizes. Ponder the orbs, Slayer.
Trials
Increased the per-player core health scaling on Behemoths from +59% to +75%. This means players will see an increase in Behemoth core health when playing in groups.
The Chronovore
Decreased The Chronovore’s level from 23 to 22 in the Temporal Anomaly event on The Paradox Breaks.
Frostwülf
Now has its own collision parameters instead of using Embermane’s.
Slightly increased the amount of part health on the back legs.
Slightly decreased the amount of part health on the tail.
Island Events
Wait between rounds reduced from 4 to 2 seconds for all events.
Loot phase increased from 15 to 25 seconds for all events.
Shatterstorm Island Event
This encounter was way overtuned, and these fights took much too long for the island they appear on. The time between crystal spawns and the duration of the buffs increasing keeps Slayers fighting longer while pulling away to refresh their buff less often.
Behemoth health multiplier reduced from 3.0 to 1.5.
Behemoth part health scale reduced from 3 to 1.
Behemoth elemental health scale reduced from 3 to 1.
Crystal spawn time increased from 45 to 60-75 seconds.
Crystal buff duration increased from 45 to 90 seconds.
Timer removed from the event and now only uses the danger meter instead of both.
Stage two is now a solo Behemoth encounter instead of a duo.
Shatterstorm crystals now spawn throughout Iron Falls at random even when the Shatterstorm event is not active.
Firewatch Island Event
Firewalls have just a few too many strange collision issues, and we’re pulling it out of these events until we can address them. While this event is on a Shock focused island, we have reframed the event to emphasize Blaze.
Firewalls modifier removed from all stages of the event.
All rounds now feature only Blaze Behemoths: Bloodfire Embermane, Flameborn Quillshot, Flameborn Gnasher, and Firebrand Charrogg.
Stage one modifier is now Blaze Danger Zones.
Stage two modifier is now Blaze Danger Zones and Splitting Lava.
Stage two is now a solo Behemoth encounter instead of a duo.
Lightning Warfare Island Event
This event was far too chaotic — stacking Behemoths, a lesser Behemoth, additional lightning towers, and shock zones all at once in its second round. These changes smooth this event down to a focus on the impact of having the smaller Nayzaga’s involved at every stage. We’ve extended it to a third round to provide a finale with additional rewards.
All Behemoths no longer have increased health and damage.
Stage one now spawns Firebrand Charrogg instead of Charrogg.
Removed the Tesla Tower modifier from stage one.
Removed Tesla Tower and Danger Zone modifiers from stage two.
Stage two Behemoth pool is now identical to stage one.
Added a stage three, containing a fight against Shockjaw Nayzaga and Nayzagas.
Slice and Dice Island Event
This event had a few random Behemoths in it that didn’t feel like they quite hit the theme. We’ve adjusted the pool to keep this event to the ‘point’. The styxians that spawn have been reduced in frequency to make it feel like a meaningful moment. Finally, this event now ends in a solidly thematic fight against Kharabaks.
All Behemoths no longer have reduced health and modified damage.
Stage one and two spawning pools now pull from Kharabak, Ragetail Gnasher, Moonreaver Shrike, and Deadeye Quillshot.
Stage two is now a solo Behemoth encounter instead of a duo.
Styxians in stage one spawn 6 at a time.
Styxians in stage two spawn 8 at a time and do not respawn for at least 60 seconds after being killed.
Styxians removed from stage three.
Stage three no longer pulls from a random Behemoth and spawns a level 9 Kharabak and a level 12 Razorwing Kharabak instead.
Cold Snap Island Event
Cold Snap is the lowest level event that features fauna as part of the round structure (outside of Aether Surges). The implementation felt like it didn’t have a narrative thread, and it no longer fit the desire for Slayers to have a meaningful reason to engage fauna. This event now finishes with a big fight against Boreus, while introducing you to its fauna as you go. This means less total fauna spawns, ensuring that they give the Boreus buffs.
All killed fauna now give a buff to a Slayer’s next attack.
Stage one is now a single Behemoth encounter with the Frigid Touch modifier and spitters that respawn after 60 seconds.
Stage two is now a single Behemoth encounter with the Frigid Touch modifier, spitters, and bombers that respawn after 60 seconds.
Stage three is now a Dreadfrost Boreus and another Behemoth from the content pools of stage one and two with the Frigid Touch modifier.
Shrike Strike Island Event
This event added quite a lot of chaos for the island level it occurs on, with elemental attacks on the Shrikes, multi-Behemoth fights, and fauna. We’ve streamlined this event down to be a straightforward test for a fresh Slayer’s understanding and mastery of Shrike, finishing with a confrontation with Dire Shrike a few islands earlier than a player might normally meet it.
Stage one is now two level 6 Shrikes with no modifiers.
Stage two is now two level 8 Shrikes with no modifiers.
Stage three is now a single level 9 Moonreaver Shrike with additional weaker Shrikes.
Quality of Life
Chain Blades
Lacerating Onslaught has new animations for the first 2 attacks.
Players can move or dodge sooner after performing either light or heavy follow-ups with Reaper’s Dance and Insatiable Dance specials.
Audio
New Nikola armour set now plays jingling bells audio. The holidays may be over, but the spirit lives forever.
Glider audio has been revised to call for a more immersive gliding experience. You will now hear a burst whoooooooooooooooooosh when diving, a breaking whoosh when pulling up, and the glider travelling audio now matches the velocity of the glider more accurately.
UI
Players can now salvage 1 or 5 cells at once at the Middleman.
Quest objectives requiring specific items will now display the description of the item.
The chat box will now display who interrupted Behemoths. Let them know you appreciate them!
Huntpass automatically opens when purchased.
The skip cinematic button will now fade when it’s not being pressed.
Ramsgate map now has a tutorial.
Destroyable projectiles now show damage numbers.
Bug Fixes
Gameplay
Timed objectives that involve killing Behemoths now properly count the combat time instead of time spent on the island.
Poisoned debuff visual effects now correctly disappear.
Audio
Fixed issue where Kharabak bee swarm audio would continue to play after its death. Not the beeeeeees!
Explore music now plays on Aulric’s Peak hunting grounds.
Music in Frost Escalation no longer overlaps.
Axe
Flight of Ruin no longer causes the camera to hitch.
Turning while using the Axe charge is no longer slowed.
Chain Blades
Momentum is now correctly granted when the meter is filled.
The HUD now uses the correct ability icons when using Cruel Riftstrikes.
Sahvyt
Sahvyt now heals once it returns to an aether vent and not before.
The Chronovore
Slaying The Chronovore now counts towards Radiant quests and bounties.
Shock effect is now correctly applied to The Chronovore.
Severed parts now spawn in the right place.
Thrax
Players can no longer stagger Thrax during the portal train attack when at the edge of the arena. This will prevent some cases of Thrax turning invisible.
Cosmetics
The Benson Basher will keep its textures after an Aetherslam.
Player arrival landings have better foot placement with less hovering.
Fixed cases of armour clipping on Sahvyt and Malkarion armour pieces.
The Hunting Grounds
Fixed cases of the supply crate leaving persisting visual effects behind.
Slayers who leave the area of an island event after it ends will no longer see a blue glow in the arena when they return.
The Behemoth health widget now only re-animates for players re-entering the combat arena.
UI
Replaced incorrect cell dusting amounts for Omnisurge, Pulse and Tactician cells.
The experience bar in the HUD no longer stops updating its visuals.
Behemoth parts that are no longer available will be removed from the objective tracker.
The Charged Swordfocus description in Slayer’s Path now correctly matches the description of the mod.
Players can now properly interact with other players’ quick menu on islands while out of combat.
Evasive Blast is now on the Training Grounds movement list.
Cell fusion screen no longer shows incorrect information.
Text that still mentions “cell dust” now states “aetherdust”.
The background menu can no longer cycle while selecting a bounty.
Users will no longer see Moyra behind the Crafting screen. Let it go, Moyra.
Island Event phase progress text is now always visible.
Players’ level in their name plate now correctly updates when they level up.
The skip quest using platinum button in rumours is now working again.
The Insatiable Dance now shows how to obtain it when viewed in the loadout menu.
Grammar corrections for specific Behemoth journal entries and tips.
Fixed cases of UI information breaking out of bounds.
We’ve rebalanced many island events in 1.9.0 to either reduce their time to complete, reduce chaos, or keep them narratively cohesive. We want all events to be enjoyable experiences that make sense in the world of Dauntless, and we have even more island event balance changes coming in 1.9.1.