Hey Slayers!
Welcome to the latest edition of State of Dauntless. Today, we’ve got some exciting development news to share with you.
For the last few months, our team has been steadily growing and working behind the scenes on a major update that will launch in the summer of 2024 – The Shattered Isles content update! We know many of you have been eagerly waiting for updates and details about future development, so thank you for your patience while we finalized our plans for this major upcoming patch.
The Shattered Isles will include a new, permanent progression system, combat upgrades (including the ability to swap weapons during combat), improved Behemoth behaviour, enhanced core gameplay, system-wide upgrades, and much more that we will get into later in this post!
The Shattered Isles is our commitment to making Dauntless the very best it can be for all Slayers, as our community continues to grow and evolve.
Why is this happening, and why now?
Dauntless first entered beta more than six years ago. Since then, we have learnt a lot and received feedback from Slayers about the kind of experiences you would like to have while hunting. As a live service game that patches every two to three weeks, it is challenging to make large changes that have a meaningful impact on current systems and address long-standing feedback. To execute more substantial changes, we’ve decided to go full steam ahead on key development efforts for The Shattered Isles.
What does this mean for you?
Whether you are new to Dauntless, or a veteran Slayer with years of experience, you will continue to have plenty of events and activities to look forward to in-game while we work on The Shattered Isles.
- New Gauntlet seasons and rewards
- Seasonal challenges
- Seasonal events (such as Saint’s Bond, Springtide, Dark Harvest, Ramsgiving, and Frostfall)
- Bonus weekend events
- Reward Cache updates
- Weekly Trials rotations
- Weekly Heroic Escalation rotations
We have been working hard to ensure that we are able to deploy the above content without patches or downtime, so we will only patch for major bug fixes as necessary. After we’ve shipped The Shattered Isles in the summer of 2024, we will return to our regular patch cadence, adding more Behemoths, gear, and other new content – like the community-designed Behemoth Codename Crudge!
Outside of the game, you can look forward to monthly development blogs that will update you on our progress as we work on The Shattered Isles.
In addition, we will also be hosting surveys and regular community playtests to gather as much player feedback as possible. Unlike previous major updates, our goal for this one is for you to know exactly what is coming in The Shattered Isles before it launches. Sign up for our newsletter now for a chance to gain early access – or join us on the Dauntless Discord server to get exclusive development updates. Don’t miss this opportunity to share your feedback directly with us and play a vital role in shaping The Shattered Isles!
To keep things fresh, we will also be hosting fun community activities on our social media channels, with lots of opportunities for you to win in-game prizes. Stay tuned for more details!
The Shattered Isles: Coming Summer of 2024
As we look toward the future of Dauntless, we want to focus our efforts on three specific areas that will enable us to grow the game and our community of Slayers. These areas are gear, encounters, and overall player experience.
The Shattered Isles will bring significant changes to the way you slay and progress with your gear. You’ll also be able to better enjoy the vibrancy of our world as we bring islands to life with bespoke encounters that visually and mechanically demonstrate the true threat Behemoths pose. Lastly, we want to provide you with an elevated player experience by offering a major overhaul of core systems and elegant UI updates.
Gear
Combat Enhancements:
- Ability to equip more than one weapon at a time
- Unique weapons with individual identities
- More flexible combat options
- Clearer combat systems and ability effects
- More responsive interactions between Slayers and Behemoths
New Progression System:
- Deeper, permanent individual weapon progression
- Address feedback on Power Surging and weapon reforging without invalidating the effort to reach high reforge levels
Encounters
- More dynamic islands
- New Behemoth behaviours – including the ability to attack and destroy environments
- New hunt experience – combining the clarity of old Pursuit hunts and the dynamic appeal of open worlds
- Encounters that test your mastery of game mechanics
- Fine-tuned difficulty across all game modes
Player Experience
- Key bug fixes
- Balance
- Improved clarity and visual style
- Improved main story and side quests
- Improved tutorial systems
- Improved UI, new activities, and more meaningful rewards for events
We will have more details for you in our monthly development blogs, so keep your eyes on this space. The first development blog next month will cover weapon swapping during combat!
Thank you for joining us on this journey thus far. We are excited to take this next big step forward with The Shattered Isles, and we are so thrilled to have you with us every step of the way!
As always, feel free to drop us your questions on Twitter, Reddit, and Discord — we love hearing from you!
Clear skies, Slayers!
Jordan Power
Dauntless Product Lead – Phoenix Labs
