Hey, Slayers!
Welcome to the eighth installment of our Shattered Isles dev blog. Today, we share more details on goals for the Hunting Grounds, our new Public Events, and more for Legend Hunts. Let us hunt!
To each their own
Early in our development, we mentioned that a New Game Mode could potentially replace the Hunting Grounds as part of The Shattered Isles update. While a game mode similar to Pursuits was received positively by our community, we got strong pushback on the possibility of replacing the Hunting Grounds.
We embraced this feedback and decided to make both work together, and for that, we had to find specific goals for each of them on Dauntless.
Beloved Hunting Grounds
The Hunting Grounds will continue as the first game mode Slayers experience in Dauntless, with the Main Quest guiding new Slayers through their first leveling experience and presenting the recommended islands for their Weapon level.
We expect Slayers of any level to be able to choose to hunt where they can leverage their Loadout’s elemental advantages. Islands for each Aether element will be available at all levels to support that choice.
The dangers of Aether
On The Shattered Isles, we are introducing the choice between hunting on islands with normal levels of Aether or the challenging Aether Surged versions of those islands. Aether Surged Islands will draw powerful Behemoths, populating the Island with challenging encounters.
At the release of The Shattered Isles, the Hunting Grounds will have 16 Islands available for Slayers, for total of 32 options of hunts to choose between their Normal and Aether Surged versions.
The Blazeworks, for example, will be recommended for Slayers with weapons from level 20 to 30, and its Aether Surged version is for Slayers with weapons of at least level 50.
Aether Surged versions of Undervald Defile, Coldrunner Key, Cape Fury, Twilight Sanctuary, and The Paradox Breaks will join The Blazeworks as the Islands recommended for experienced Slayers.
Expect some stronger-than-usual Behemoths on those Aether Surged Islands!
Slaying Together
The Hunting Grounds are always better when you experience with other Slayers, and, to incentivize that, we are reworking our Island Events to bring players together to collaborate in public timed quests with shared progress and progressive rewards, our Public Events.
Public Events will start at predictable times, tied to real-life clocks, and once per hour for each island. Examples:
- The Blazeworks: The event starts every hour at XX:00 min
- Twilight Sanctuary: The event starts every hour at XX:20 min
- The Paradox Breaks: The event starts every hour at XX:40 min
The Map will clearly show Public Events to help Slayers get to the right place at the right time!
Let us dive into one example of a Public Event:
EVENT! The Unseen Cult is trying to corrupt an island’s Aether.
Help Granny Strega collect ingredients for an Antidote to shatter their plans!
- Phase 1: 5 minutes to complete – Granny lands on the island and sets her Cauldron down. She asks Slayers to bring her 20 Spore Samples that grow in this environment.
- Phase 2: 5 minutes to complete – The Unseen attacks! Waves of Fauna spawn close to Strega’s Cauldron and Slayers need to protect Granny before they disrupt the brewing.
- Phase 3: 5 Minutes to complete – The Antidote needs an extra ingredient! Granny asks Slayers to defeat a higher-level Koshai for their Floral Pods.
- Phase 4: 5 minutes to complete – It’s time to stop the corruption from spreading! Granny charges Slayers’ lanterns with one dose of the Antidote and asks them to clear all 10 corrupted sites across the island. Come back for additional doses!
- Phase 5: 10 Minutes to complete – The corruption spread is contained, but one Earthshaper Fenroar got infected. Granny asks Slayers to defeat it before it gets too far!
Slayers can join the Public Event at the beginning or during any active phase, their progress will count towards the event and help advance it to the next phase. Rewards are progressive, completing two phases gives better rewards than completing just one phase and so on.
In the example above, let’s say that Slayers were able to complete the event until Phase 4 but failed to defeat Phase 5’s Earthshaper Fenroar in time. If a Slayer joined at the beginning of the Public Event, they would receive a Tier 4 Reward, but if they joined on Phase 4, they would receive a Tier 1 Reward.
Reward progression will be almost exponential, rewarding participation in all phases and collaboration to complete Public Events. Better make friends, Slayer.
The Shattered Isles moves forward
One of our goals for Public Events is to keep the story of The Shattered Isles moving forward, with new Behemoths having ties to some event’s quests and being the final menace at the last phase of one event.
Karkonos, also known as Codename Crudge, will require Slayers to band together to be defeated. For now, all we can say is that Karkonos is very mad at some Orrery Miners.
Menace of Legend
While the Hunting Grounds will embrace new Slayers and guide them through their journey of improving their gear, Legend Hunts will be an end-game mode for experienced Slayers where they can choose a specific Legend to pursue each time they embark on a hunt.
As we mentioned earlier, Legends will be the hardest version of those Behemoths, requiring both appropriate gear and mastery of their movements.
There and Back Again
After years, an old friend, Gaius Copperwheel, returns to Ramsgate with maps containing the location of Legends and is willing to trade them for a cost.
As an experienced cartographer, Gaius guarantees that his maps are precise with the location of those Legends, but he does not guarantee the condition of those Behemoths’ Lairs.
Stuff of Legends
Legend Behemoths are the secret to unlocking the ultimate power of the New Weapons, with the last unlock of each Talent line requiring Slayers to provide specific parts from those Behemoths.
They are very drawn to Aetherite. Might find some there, Slayer.
Join the conversation
Join our Dauntless Discord to share your feedback, engage with our community and see our Weekly development updates of The Shattered Isles.
We are eager to hear your feedback on this blog and all the updates we share!
Clear skies, Slayers!
