Hey Slayers,
Dauntless: Awakening is nearly here! Get ready to encounter a new Behemoth, powerful and unique weapons, an armour overhaul and more. Read on for a fairly comprehensive look at what’s coming in the new season.
TL;DR
We’ll detail each of these updates further below, but, to start, here’s a quick rundown!
- Karkonos
- Our newest Behemoth is coming to Islands Events on the new Umbral Hunting Grounds: Twilight’s Domain
- New Weapons and Progression
- Unique weapons with their own Legendary abilities and talents
- Weapon swapping
- Swap between weapons for a strategic Elemental edge or to do epic swap combos
- Armour Progression and Cells Update
- Amours will be the centerpiece of your builds, using Cells to lock in perks
- New Hunt Pass and Canisters
- The Hunt Pass is the core of the new season and includes free pulls from a new cosmetic distribution mechanic - Canisters
- New Cosmetic sets and bundles
- The Deep Sea set and the Godhand Armour Bundle will be making their debut
- Streamlined Questline
- New and updated quests will introduce all of the new mechanics, and make the game more accessible to new players
- Improved Loadouts
- Swap all things cosmetic (including Slayer’s appearance and crowns) via loadouts
- Elemental Status Updates
- There will now be Radiant and Umbral Elemental statuses, and Frost’s is getting a tweak
- Behemoth reworks
- Many behemoths are getting behavioural tweaks, with particularly notable changes to Embermane and Valomyr
- New Fauna
- 3 new Fauna will be added, and Fauna drops will now be crucial for crafting Supplies
- Streamlined Buffs
- Buffs will be simplified to 6 core categories
- Ramsgate Updates
- Various tweaks are happening in Ramsgate
Karkonos
Formerly known by its codename, Crudge, Dauntless is getting its first new Behemoth in a hot minute, built, proudly with input from our community. Learn more about Karkonos here.
Karkonos will, naturally, drop the parts needed to build a new set of Karkonos armour. There will also be a rumour for a new Karkonos-inspired Dye.
You will be able to encounter Karkonos via Island Event on a new Umbral Hunting Grounds map: Twilight’s Domain.
New Weapons and Progression
There will be 7 unique weapons available through early quests:
- The Silver Sword (a Frost sword)
- The Living Branch (a Terra pike)
- Skies of Ostia (a Shock hammer)
- Fury of the Mountain (a Blaze axe)
- Netherlights (Umbral chainblades)
- Twin Suns (Shock repeaters)
- Golden Claws (Radiant aether strikers)
There will also be 11 more unique weapons, available in exchange for a new currency, called Weapon Tokens, which are obtained from Hunt Passes (free and paid), weekly challenges, or for purchase with Platinum:
- The Anvil (a Frost hammer)
- Bane & Balm (Terra chainblades)
- Eternal Winter (a Frost axe)
- Firestorm (a Blaze pike)
- The Godhand (a Radiant pike)
- The Hunger (an Umbral sword)
- Molten Edict (a Blaze hammer)
- Oathkeepers (Terra aether strikers)
- Reapers Edge (an Umbral axe)
- Thundersoul (a Shock sword)
- To & Fro (Frost chainblades)
In addition, every weapon has a unique Legendary ability, can be powered up to Level 60, and has 25 unlockable Talents including boosts to special, active, and passive abilities. We’re also introducing Aetherite as an exciting, collectible XP boost to weapons. You can read more about the weapon update here.
Oh, and one last thing - you will be able to equip both a weapon and subweapon, with both weapons gaining equal XP. You can swap between the weapons, either with a button click or through a badass weapon swap combo.
As we’ve already mentioned, with this update comes the retirement of the Reforge system. As a reward for the players who engaged most passionately with Reforge, there’s now an even more prestigious Reforge crown reward for Slayers who reached Level 10 Reforge on each weapon! Let this crown forever serve as a badge for the most dedicated Slayers. Read more about the original Reforge crown plans here.
Armour Progression and Cells
Armour will be critical to your builds, as the main source of buffs and perks, and will be upgradable to Level 20. You’ll be able to preview the perks that each armour piece can unlock in the new armour crafting screen, and, once your armour has crossed the threshold, the perks will activate. As we mentioned last week, Beta feedback was critical for getting this armour update right.
Armour will be the only place to use Cells, which now serve to support the perk system, helping you lock in perks. Note that once Cells are attached to armour, they’re locked in. Removing the Cell or swapping in a different one will destroy the original Cell, so you’ll want to be strategic about which armour you attach them to. It will also be easier to hunt down particular Cells through Cores in Patrol Chests on certain areas (see above), as well as in the Trials and Gauntlet stores. Learn more about the armour update here.
A New Hunt Pass
The first in over 2 years, this new 50-Level Hunt Pass is brimming with rewards. The free tier contains tons of Dull Aetherite, along with Weapon Tokens, Bounty Tokens, Patrol Keys, Cell Cores, and free pulls from the new Canisters (we’ll get to those in a second).
The Elite tier immediately unlocks the new Umbral Repeaters: Alluring Moons (seen above, and which we plan to detail in a later blog closer to launch). The rest of the track contains Shining and Peerless Aetherite, Bounty Tokens, Rams, Rare Cell Cores, Transmog Stones, Canister pulls, and more, culminating with the brand new Alluring Suns repeaters transmog (seen in the background above).
The Elite track also offers unprecedented benefits throughout the duration of the Hunt Pass, including some adjusted perks from the now-retired Slayer’s Club:
- 2x Hunt Pass XP
- +10% on earned Weapon XP
- +10% Escalation XP
- Bonus Loot Roll
Upon completion, both tracks will pay out a Prestige Core with each new level, offering Dull Aetherite, Bounty Tokens, Patrol Keys, Uncommon and Common Cell Cores, and Rams. Which means the Elite track gets 2 Prestige Cores with each level.
The Hunt Pass is designed to be the centerpiece of each season and, as such, the Reward Cache will be retired.
With this update also comes a much clearer approach to Hunt Passes - there will be one Hunt Pass at a time, ending at the end of each season. With that said, the last thing we want is for anyone to miss out on rewards they could have earned, so any Vault or Event Hunt Passes you have already started or backlogged will automatically credit the full rewards at the start of this new season.
Canisters
As introduced earlier, Canisters are a new-to-Dauntless approach to offering cosmetics. We understand that lootbox mechanics are a sensitive subject, and we’ve aimed to add this feature with as much transparency and integrity as possible, offering transparent odds and making sure duplicate purchases are impossible.
There will be two Canisters available during Dauntless: Awakening. One, featuring the brand new Deep Sea cosmetic set, the other containing classic Arcslayer cosmetics. Free pulls from these Canisters will be available from the Hunt Pass, and additional pulls can be purchased with Platinum.
New Cosmetics
In addition to the Deep Sea cosmetic set, the Godhand Armour Bundle will be making its debut as a real money purchase.
Main Questline
The main questline has been updated to better tutorialize the game, its modes, and to reduce confusion for first-time Slayers. All gameplay unlocks are now tied to questlines, with the Slayer’s Path being used to unlock buffs and boosts.
Returning Slayers will be prompted to complete these new quests, to ensure that you have been properly introduced to all of the new mechanics. You’ll still have your gear and upgrades, we just want you to know what’s going on!
The Master quest line will also be removed for the time being, as it is closely tied to the Reforge system. So, if you’re keen to get the Adamanant Fist Monk armour set, now’s the time to complete that quest!
Improved Loadouts
All cosmetics, and even your Slayer’s appearance, will now be able to be saved to Loadouts, allowing you to experiment with drastically different builds and self-expressions, with the click of a button. And yes, that does include crowns.
Elemental Statuses
Radiant and Umbral elements will now have elemental statuses:
Radiant: If a Behemoth does an Unstable Move, the effect explodes, dealing minimal damage, but interrupting the Behemoth. If the Behemoth doesn’t do such a move, the affect deals a small amount of damage as it ends.
Umbral: An umbral cyst appears on a random part of the Behemoth, for 30 seconds. The cyst has 3,000 health and, when hit, deals part damage in an AoE explosion. When destroyed, they explode, dealing umbral and heavy part damage in an AoE
In addition, the Frost elemental effect will now freeze the behemoth for 2 seconds, instead of just slowing it down.
Behemoth Rework
Both Embermane and Valomyr are getting updated moves to make their encounters more exciting, with quite a few other Behemoths also getting behavioural updates.
New Fauna
The new Fauna - Chaoxes, Vespers, and Orquids will be making their debut, as a bigger challenge than you’re used to from Fauna. In addition, Fauna drops will now include new parts needed for Supply crafting.
Streamlined Buffs
Buffs have been simplified to six core categories: Might, Critical, Speed, Vitality, Defense, and Endurance. Read more about the update here.
Ramsgate Updates
- The Middleman will be leaving Ramsgate for the time being, as is Cell cooking, to support the streamlined Cells update.
- Granny Strega is taking over grenade-crafting from Admiral Zai.
- Kat has opened up her castle for you to poke around in, in preparation for an upcoming arrival.
Summary
Obviously, that’s a lot! If you’re still reading at this point, you’re probably the kind of dedicated Slayer who has also noticed a few features that we’ve talked about previously that aren’t on this list, including Legend Hunts and Pets. Those features are still in the works, and we’re not committing to any dates for those yet. When we do, you’ll obviously be the first to know!
That’s about everything for now, Slayers. The ramp up to launch is real and we’re so grateful for you being along for the ride with us. Be sure to tell us what you’re most hyped about in Dauntless: Awakening. Keep your eyes on Discord and social media (X/Instagram/Facebook) for more teases, reveals, and first looks to come!
Until our next update,
Clear skies!
