New World's Season of the Guardian is landing on April 2, details and more

New World’s upcoming season, Season of the Guardian, is dropping on April 2, and according to notes, it should be a wonderland adventure! So I’m here to say my piece and reveal a couple of frosty details. This update is like opening a chest of treasures in a snowstorm, so let’s dive into it.

Let’s talk about the Winter Rune Forge, a new Seasonal Trial where you and nine friends will battle through a gauntlet filled with puzzles, an Icey Construct, and an Ancient Ice Guardian. The rewards? It’s worth the frostbite. And the teamwork required here? Oh boy, it will bring guilds and friends closer than ever.

Now, let’s talk about the artifacts. With eight new additions, each bringing its own unique flair and quest line, your playstyle is about to get an upgrade. Slicing through enemies with the nimble Sin Hatchet, causing whirlwinds of destruction with Tempest Fury, or inflicting deadly poison with Venom, there will be plenty for everyone.

Combat and animations will become smoother than ever, which means big and dense battles are to become a lot more interesting. Also, our prayers have been answered! All those of us who’ve been craving mounts in Outpost Rush will finally get them.

The storytelling in New World has always been rich, but with the complete overhaul of the main questline, it will be quite immersive. As for the Controller warriors, native support will finally become a thing!

Now, let’s not forget about the cooking and trade skill updates. As someone who spends too much time in front of the crafting stations, these changes are awesome. With a new season pass, challenges, and rewards, there’s never been a better time to jump back into the action.

Without further ado, you can find the detailed changes on the official New World’s blog, but also below:

SPOTLIGHT

The Winter Rune Forge, new Artifacts, Mounts in Outpost Rush, some Journey tasks, and a few of the Challenges will all require Rise of the Angry Earth to experience.

NEW SEASONAL TRIAL: WINTER RUNE FORGE

Join up to 10 max-level players in a bone-chilling gauntlet of increasingly difficult enemies. This Seasonal Trial requires teamwork to overcome Rune puzzles, slay an Icey Construct, and fell an Ancient Ice Guardian for unique rewards.

NEW ARTIFACTS

Eight brand-new artifacts have been added to the game to redefine your playstyle, each featuring its own quest line for upgrades.

Three new weapons: be nimble and take advantage of battle with Sin, spin-to-win with Tempest Fury, or be toxic with poison heavy attacks with Venom.
- Sin – Hatchet
- Corruption: Debuffs last 25% longer. (Works on both weapons.)
- Defile: Deal 2% more damage per debuff (max 5)
- Venom – Spear
- Poison Tipped: Heavy melee attacks with either weapon cause poison dealing 20% weapon damage for 5s.
- Tempest Fury – Great Axe
  - Momentum: Successful attacks gain 3% movement speed for 3s. (Works on both weapons and stacks up to 10 times.)
  - Endless Spin: Whirlwind no longer needs to hit targets to continue spins, and can spin up to 12 times
Five new armor pieces: reduce max cooldowns and hit harder with Nature’s Wrath, Ironheart, Gilli’s Gravity Gauntlets, and the Creed Boots or defy death with the new Phoenix amulet.
- Nature’s Wrath – Medium Chestwear
  - Nature’s Blessing: Empower expires instantly but you deal 20% more damage.
- Gilli’s Gravity Gauntlets – Heavy Glove
  - Charged: Whenever you take damage, gain a charge that increases the damage of your next attack by 3%. (Max 10 charges.)
- Ironheart – Heavy Legwear
  - Steady Foundation: When not in Heavy loadout, gain 20% more Max Health.
- Creed Boots – Light Footwear
  - Ambush: Deal 15% more damage and a 25% increased critical hit chance as long as you haven’t hit the target within 20s.
- Phoenix – Amulet
  - In our PTR feedback blog, we detailed changes that would follow Season 5. Thanks to the additional development time we were able to implement them sooner:
    - When you receive lethal damage, avoid death and regain 100% of your max health. Then become inflicted with Vengeance, reducing healing by 200% and and take damage equal to 20% of your max health every second until you die or get a kill. (180s cooldown).

Winter Rune Forge Icey Construct boss fight

UPGRADED COMBAT & ANIMATION SYSTEM

New World’s combat and animation system has been overhauled for enhanced performance in high-traffic areas with many players, such as Wars and Outpost Rush. This new system will also make it easier to make combat adjustments in future updates. We’ve done our best to maintain or improve the feel of the game with this change-over, but would certainly appreciate feedback on anything that doesn’t feel right after the patch.

THE OUTPOST RUSH CAVALRY

Mounts are now available in Outpost Rush! Players who have purchased the expansion and have unlocked mounts will be able to bring their steed into battle within this 20v20 game mode. Now ride like the wind to defend your team’s forts!

MAIN STORY QUESTLINE REVISIONS COMPLETE

The entire New World main story questline is now fully updated from end to end, based on player feedback. Improvements have been made across the board to the story campaign, including the new player starting area. Experience fresh narratives, more quest variety, and a few new surprises as you make your way through an epic story and its nail-biting conclusion. Now is the perfect time to start a new character!

NATIVE CONTROLLER SUPPORT

Controller support is coming to New World! Choose from two pre-set controller layouts to enhance your New World experience. As part of optimizing New World for controller play, we’ve introduced the following new features and settings.

New Features
- Aim Assist
  - Assists with aiming ranged attacks.
  - Available only on a controller and exclusively against AI enemies (as of Season 5; PvP AA to be reevaluated for future seasons).
- Target Friction
  - Reduces reticle speed when hovering over a valid target.
  - Available only on a controller.
- Enemy Target Lock
  - Enables you to lock the camera onto an AI enemy (as of Season 5; PvP TL to be reevaluated for future seasons).
  - Supported by both controller (move the right stick to switch between multiple targets) and Mouse and Keyboard (Middle Mouse Button and Mouse Wheel Up/Down) input methods.
- Freeform Movement
  - Allows running in all directions, including towards the camera.
  - Holding Block/Aim will revert to normal strafe navigation.
  - Activating Target Lock will strafe around the locked target.
  - Defaulted to “on” only while using a controller input device.
- Use Camera Direction for Melee Attacks:
  - When off, allows melee attacks and blocking in the direction of your input/character facing instead of camera facing.
  - Defaults to “off” only with while using a Mouse and Keyboard input devices.
Improved Accessibility
- New radial menu for quick access to commonly used functions like emotes, commands, and camping.
- New Shift modifiers for quick access to all combat abilities.
- UI Help Bars and shortcut buttons provide an improved user experience while navigating the UI with a controller.

In addition, backwards movement has been sped up in normal strafe navigation.

An Adventurer approaches Isabella with a Torch in an ominous Church.

Isabella prepares to attack an Adventure with a field of Corruption.

NEW SEASON PASS

Season of the Guardian introduces a new Season Journey, new Activity Card, new Challenges, and new rewards including cosmetics and consumables.

COOKING AND OTHER TRADE SKILL CHANGES

Look forward to ingredient updates, revamped Cooking progression, Legendary Fish recipe tweaks, the removal of split attribute food, and more.

Season of the Guardian Season Pass Rewards.

WORLD EXPERIENCE

GENERAL

Adjusted the location of the lore note ‘On the Study of Flora and Fungi’ to prevent it from being inside another object.
Fixed an issue impacting gatherable chests in Unbound Island.
Fixed an issue where players could spawn under the map during the Corrupted Leviathan trial.
Fixed players not always being able to revive while in cross-world Expeditions.
Fixed an issue where fall damage was not applied.
Fixed an issue that could cause stuttering on sloped terrain.
Fixed some issues with remote clients freezing during certain interaction animations.
Fixed an issue with the emote screen if the player enters Deaths Door.

QUESTS

Faction missions with kill objectives in the Preiddeu farms POI in Monarch’s Bluffsnow have reduced requirements.
Fixed an issue in faction missions focused on the Meadowlake fishery.
Eliminated faction missions in Restless Shore that erroneously targeted incorrect enemies.
Fixed an issue preventing the “Admiral Blackpowder’s Fall” quest from being completed as Wally Widdershins now spawns.
Deprecated and removed Level 45 Epic Weapon and Armor quests due to being outdated content.
Corrected the Skinning Skill level requirement in the quest “A Beautiful Stench.”
Fixed an issue that prevented players from acquiring the quest “Music to her Ears” from Aethelwynn.
Updated a statue location for the quest “Art is Suffering” in Edengrove.
Updated the Ice Troll’s name in objectives to Snorok Ice Fist.
Fixed an issue where players could attack while petting Stanley.
Adjusted location of statue in Edengrove for quest “Art is Suffering” to a more appropriate location.
Resolved an issue where the Trial of the Destroyer map pin would not display correctly.
Resolved an issue where players could not get the quest “Music to Her Ears” in Brightwood.

AI

Fixed an issue that caused certain summoned enemies in Tor To-Riven to unexpectedly retreat during combat.
Removed the mist spell attack from Swamp Dryad Shamans to improve visibility for players.
Fixed an issue that prevented Corrupted Acolytes from executing their energy ball attack.
Fixed an issue where certain enemy types were not adjusting the angle of their attacks while on stairs or sloped ground.
Fixed an issue causing Thunderking and Ebonscale Tigers to unintentionally drop named items.
Fixed an issue causing Cursed Woodcutters to not display active Damage over Time effects on them.
Fixed an issue where skeletons would sometimes appear as orbs in the Tome of the Old Warrior.
Fixed an issue where skeletons would sometimes rapidly turn while patrolling.
Scorpius and Eridanus have both been leveled up to 65.
High Priest Oseguera can now be found at Blood Cenacle in Myrkgard.
Fixed an issue where some Ice Varangian enemies may abruptly disappear on death instead of disintegrating.
Rage of the Mammoth Soul Trial: Mahantaram no longer attempts to cast Permafrost Toss at targets behind corners.
Leviathan Tendrils will now spawn properly.
Fixed an issue where the following abilities were not adjusted properly for PvP scaling:
- Musket’s Traps
- Ice Gauntlet’s Ice Spikes
- Ice Gauntlet’s Ice Storm
- Ice Gauntlet’s Ice Pylon
- Void Gauntlet’s Oblivion
- Void Gauntlet’s Baleful Tether

EXPEDITIONS

GENERAL

Fixed an issue where the respawn screen would remain onscreen after leaving an Expedition while dead.

GARDEN OF GENESIS

Fixed an issue where the Blighted Greenskeeper’s burrow attack failed to hit the player.

DYNASTY SHIPYARD

Fixed an issue where the Dynasty Empress’ dragon dive attack only affected the player on their backside.

THE DEPTHS

Fixed an issue where the Ancient Artifact’s nameplate would persist on screen for an extended period.

TEMPEST’S HEART

Fixed an issue where certain abilities were not applying taunt to Neishatun during their encounter.
Fixed an issue where Living Corruption were spawning at a higher level than intended within the base version of Neishatun’s encounter.
Fixed an issue where Neishatun’s Corruption Core was not dealing the intended amount of damage to players if it was not destroyed in time.

GLACIAL TARN

Fixed an issue where spell names could appear incorrectly in Glacial Tarn.
Fixed an issue where Ser Loth’s empower buff could be dispelled by a weapon perk.
Fixed a bug where, on rare occasions, Ser Loth could fall off the arena platforms, forcing players to reset the fight.
Fixed an issue that allowed the Snorok Ice Fist boss to switch targets during its Frost Breath attack.
Fixed an issue that caused the lava plane to not consistently appear.

GLOBAL MUTATORS

Introduced a 0.25s delay between the Enflamed AOE filling up and the damage going off to improve reaction time.
Fixed an issue Rectified an issue preventing certain bosses from scaling their difficulty correctly, impacting bosses like Isabella (Dynasty Shipyard and Tempest’s Heart versions), Chardis, and Anpu.

OUTPOST RUSH

We are implementing the following changes to address ongoing feedback regarding OPR gate strength, while still being mindful of PvE players who prefer focusing on building up fort structures. We will continue to monitor feedback on this topic and consider further changes as necessary.
- Added a 50% weakness for Siege damage to fort gate doors, allowing siege weaponry (e.g. powder kegs) to deal bonus damage to these structures.
- Reduced the Strike/Slash absorption of fort gate doors from 10% Strike/20% Slash to 0% for both, ensuring that Strike and Slash damage types are not reduced when attacking gates. We aim for melee to have a bit of an advantage on the gates, as Thrust/Elemental damage is more prevalent in ranged weapons than melee.
- Increased build and repair time for fort gate doors by 25% for the T2 gate and 50% for the T3 gate, reducing the strength of each repair tick.
Fixed an issue where players could get stuck in the gate crafting animation in OPR.
Keg/Door Changes – Added a 50% weakness to siege damage to the OPR gates so siege damage deals bonus damage to them.
Reduced the Strike/Slash absorption that the doors had from 10% Strike /20% Slash to 0% for both, so strike and slash is not reduced while attacking gates. We want melee to have a bit of an advantage on gates, and thrust/elemental damage is more prevalent in ranged weapons than melee.
Increased the door build /repair time by 25% for the T2 gate and 50% for the T3 gates to make each repair tick not heal the door as much.

ARENAS

Removed the center water fountain from the gladiatorial-themed 3v3 Arena map in order to enhance sight lines and improve overall match fairness.

COMBAT

GENERAL

Equip Load Changes
- Medium equip load is now the baseline, with damage, crowd control durations, outgoing healing, and block stability values adjusted to 0 across the board.
- Heavy equip load: has a 20% decrease to incoming CC status effect durations and +15% block stability. Trade-offs of -15% damage and -30% outgoing healing. Also has increased threat generation from taunting gems and perks to account for the decrease in damage output.
- Light equip load: has +15% damage and +30% outgoing healing. Trade-offs of -15% block stability and +10% incoming CC status effect durations.
Fixed an issue where a player could erroneously appear to target their dueling opponent with healing abilities.
Fixed an issue where reticle coloring could incorrectly show a valid target over a friendly/neutral or non-PvP player.
Fixed an issue that caused the “in combat” indicator to be inaccurate at times.
Fixed Flamethrower’s Pillar of Fire and Javelin’s Shooter’s Stance abilities from not being terminated when menu screens blocking ability inputs are opened simultaneously.
Updated the Bile Bomb heartrune to include outgoing healing reduction equal to half of the incoming healing.
Updated the tooltips for Perforate, Arcane Vortex, Raging Torrent, and Whirlwind to provide details about their approximate cancel windows, given they are multi-hit abilities.
Status effects that scale stat modifiers over time now behave correctly when the potency of that status effect is changed while it’s active.
Players now have limited rotation while dodging forwards or backwards.

NOTABLE FIXES

Fixed an issue where the player could appear to apply weapon oils to non-existent weapons.
Fixed an issue where disabling target lock would not disable locking onto targets while unarmed.
Fixed an issue that caused certain abilities to animate at a slower speed when performed by other players.
Fixed an issue with camera zoom not working consistently after death.
Fixed an issue with weapon swapping while dodging that incorrectly caused exhaustion.
Fixed an issue where a player could erroneously appear to target their dueling opponent with healing abilities.
Fixed an issue where reticle coloring could incorrectly show a valid target over a friendly/neutral or non-PvP player.
Fixed an issue that caused the “in combat” indicator to be inaccurate.
Fixed an issue where players would incorrectly dodge twice in a row if they held block, performed a primary attack, and then dodge cancelled the attack.
Fixed an issue where abilities that push (e.g. Clear Out) and pull (e.g. Maelstrom) enemies did not work as expected.
Fixed an issue where the opponent’s name remains white during a Duel.
Fixed an issue where canceling a melee light attack with a block could cause a short teleport.
Fixed an issue where prone posture transitions could be interrupted with repeated presses.
Fixed an issue that could cause massive client/server desyncs when quickly moving your camera during attacks.
Fixed an issue where weapon swap buffers would cancel dodge buffers.
Fixed an issue where the Dodge and Weave trait could grant haste even if used below full stamina.

UPGRADED COMBAT & ANIMATION SYSTEM CHANGES BASED ON THE PTR

Fixed an issue where players could get stuck in the gate crafting animation in OPR.
Fixed an issue where ranged attacks/abilities could not be block canceled.
Fixed an issue where aim friction could be disabled during a weapon swap.
Fixed an issue where shooting with the Musket or Bow after dodging from crouch could cause the character to slide.
Fixed an issue where some of the Ability-specific weapon Perks of Ice Gauntlet were not working as intended
Fixed an issue where players were unable to lock on to enemy targets while in a raid group with the “Raid Targeting via Hotkeys’ option enabled.
Fixed an issue where Penetrating Shot and Poison Shot wouldn’t buffer correctly during Explosive Arrow.
Fixed an issue where various player vfx could linger in the world with no player currently activating them when a world is under load.
Fixed an issue where weapon swap input buffer windows were smaller than intended.
Fixed an issue that caused attacks to incorrectly inherit velocity while using freeform movement.
Fixed an issue that prevented dodge inputs from buffering while dodging.
Fixed an issue where using Self Cast on Sacred Ground, Divine Embrace, and Lights Embrace would take longer than normal casts unless the Self Cast button was held prior to using the ability.
Fixed an issue where passives that reduced pushes and pulls (e.g. Unmovable from The Unmoved artifact) would cause a desync for your character.
Fixed an issue where other players could be invisible after they fast traveled next to you
Fixed an issue that could cause buffered basic attacks to take priority over buffered abilities.
Fixed an issues where a frame perfect dodge cancel while blocking with Greatsword could cause the player to lose the ability to dodge until death
Fixed an issue where buffering basic attack inputs and other inputs simultaneously could cause issues.
Fixed an issue where using Rapier’s Fleche ability while being teleported to/from an instance could cause the character to spin infinitely.
Fixed an issue that would cause the ADS camera to stay active after switching to a different weapon.
Fixed an issue that could cause a positional desync when aiming Sacred Ground while moving.
Fixed an issue with character turn speed being too slow while sprinting with freeform navigation off (mouse and keyboard default movement)
Fixed an issue where canceling dodge with certain attacks while using freeform movement could cause unwanted movement.
Fixed an issue where Bow hipfire inputs wouldn’t buffer correctly.
Fixed an issue where entering the mount attachment skinning screen would cause the player character to phase through the mount.
Fixed an issue where holding/releasing aim or block while moving backwards would cause the player to play a 180 turn around animation.
Fixed an issue where mounts could cause stamina regen to stop working.
Fixed an issue where magic weapon basic attack inputs wouldn’t buffer during certain abilities.
Fixed an issue where Net Shot couldn’t cancel attacks unless you were idle or moving backwards.
Fixed an issue that allowed players to use a shield with incompatible weapons.
Fixed an issue where the Powder Burn ability would disable when summoning a mount with the ability active.
Fixed Flail’s Warding Bludgeon siphon spell sometimes existing multiple times per attack.
Fixed an issue that caused the player to continue to move forward after landing from a jump with no movement input.
Fixed an issue allowing a small desync to occur when performing certain actions as a mount is summoned.
Fixed issues with queueing actions, for example, performing shield rush, weapon swap then dodging.
Fixed an issue where using Great Axe abilities in quick succession will trigger the base version of the abilities.
When dying an item while mounted, you will now be able to view the screen when dismounting.
Fixed position desync/slide at the end of Great Axe Whirlwind ability.
Fixed an issue where the player became unresponsive when performing an action after summoning a mount.
Fixed an issue where changing directions after a dodge could cause the character to temporarily run in place.
Fixed an issue where players would desync when using perks or passives that reduce knockback distance to nothing, such as The Unmoving artifact boots.
Fixed an issue that caused the entire stamina bar to deplete when dodge cancelling the Spear’s Javelin ability.
Fixed an issue that could cause a crash when aiming down sights from the Spear’s Javelin ability.
Fixed Flamethrower’s Pillar of Fire and Javelin’s Shooter’s Stance abilities from not being terminated when menu screens blocking ability inputs are opened simultaneously.
Fixed an issue where Refreshing Fleche was able to trigger multiple times in a single use.
Fixed an issue where you could use the Blunderbuss’s Mortar Charge ability without a reload cooldown.
Fixed an issue where crouching while reloading the Blunderbuss could put the character in a bad state.
Fixed an issue that caused certain spells to refund their mana cost.
Fixed an issue where Distancing Throw wouldn’t cancel the basic throw attack while moving.
Fixed an issue where alternating between Hatchet light attacks and aimed throw could cause a bad animation state.
Fixed an issue that cause the ice and ring cores to be missing from weapons.
Fixed an issue where pressing block after casting Sacred Ground could put it on cooldown without activating it.
Fixed an issue where an extra basic attack would trigger when canceling Evade.
Fixed an issue that would cause the character to stutter when recovering from a stagger animation, specifically with Riposte.
Fixed an issue where Tondo’s “And Again” upgrade was not functioning.
Fixed an issue with the navigation and locomotion animations while using void blade.
Fixed an issue causing players to become dismounted when attempting to apply a skin to mount attachments.
Fixed an issue causing players to be unable to jump while mounted if their character’s stamina was depleted.
Fixed an issue where weapon coating consumables appeared to end prematurely when changing mount attachments while riding.
Fixed an issue where mounts would spawn on top of the player when canceling a summon at the end of the timer.
Fixed an issue causing other players’ mounts to sometimes not animate correctly.
Fixed an issue causing combat status and mount summon eligibility to occasionally mismatch.
Fixed an issue causing mount attachments to immediately appear instead of fading with the mount.
Fixed an issue causing occasional positional desyncs when landing after jumping on a mount.
Fixed an issue that caused the inventory to be inaccessible from the mount collection screen. Pressing the inventory button (default TAB on Mouse and Keyboard, Start on Controller) when in the mount collection screen will now bring you to the inventory.
Fixed an issue when using armor dye while mounted where you were not able to dismount.
Fixed an issue where mounted players could become unresponsive after feeding their mount multiple times in a row.
Fixed an issue where dismounting while landing from a mount jump would leave the character floating on an invisible mount.
Right Mouse button no longer stops mounts while navigating with inventory active or viewing map.
Fixed an issue with the movement stopping speed of Bow, Musket, and Blunderbuss that didn’t match the animations.
Fixed an issue causing input buffers to not work correctly while staggered or knocked down.
Fixed an issue that caused a light attack to incorrectly buffer when canceling Entombed with the Basic Attack input.
Fixed an issue that caused some ranged attack animations to get stuck when dodge canceling.
Fixed an issue that caused the player to get stuck in an attack animation for magic weapons when spamming the attack button at a certain moment in the attack sequence.
Fixed an issue with mounts and stamina regen.
Fixed an issue where passives that reduced pushes and pulls (e.g. Unmovable from The Unmoved artifact) would cause a desync for your character.
Fixed an issue that made exiting Greatsword stances feel laggy.
Fixed an issue with Bow’s Rain of Arrows ability that caused it to fire off long after being cast.
Fixed an issue where animation transitions could desync at low latencies.
Fixed an issue where horizontal heavy attacks from the Greatsword would not connect with targets despite appearing to do so.
Fixed an issue where players could get stuck in the gate crafting animation in Outpost Rush.
Fixed an issue that caused ability inputs to buffer incorrectly while dodging.

PERKS

Fixed an issue where the accelerating traps perk did not apply bleed if only the first trap upgrade was unlocked.
Fixed an issue where several haste status effects were not properly extended by the Alacrity perk and the Wing Shoes artifact.
Fixed an issue where the bleed from the Bleeding Sweep perk could not be extended past the base duration.
Fixed an issue where the Exhilarate perk on runeglass gems was not properly increasing damage while all abilities were on cooldown.
Fixed an issue where the Keenly Jagged bleed could stack up to 3x if applied via different sources.
Fixed an issue where the Retaliate perk on jasper runeglass gems was not stacking.
Fixed an issue where the Enfeebling Maelstrom perk would not always trigger if a target was at a further distance or at a specific angle around the player.
The number of equipped perk stacks for shields will now be displayed within the Inventory screen.
Changed the text on Refreshing Toast to reflect that it works on all consumables.
Fixed an issue where Refreshing Fleche was able to trigger multiple times in a single use.
Fixed issue where the Wizard’s hat artifact would increase mana inconsistently with other mana increasing perks. And updated the tooltips of all mana increases to specify that they increase mana by a % of the base value.
Updated functionality of the Sword’s Empowering Whirling Blade Perk to fix an issue where it was not scaling with the number of nearby targets as desired. Changed from being a damage bonus when 3 or more targets are nearby, to if 2 or more targets are nearby, increase damage by the listed amount for every nearby target, to a max of 5 targets. Base damage increase max value was decreased from 52% total bonus to 24% per target to account for change in functionality.
Fixed an issue where status effects that were applied to other players when you are hit would not properly be modified by perks (e.g. extending durations) properly.
Fixed an issue where the blighted enchantment perk was not properly categorized as a poison which prevented it from being modified by effects that change poisons.
Fixed an issue where players would desync when using perks or passives that reduce knockback distance to nothing, such as The Unmoving artifact boots.
Fixed an illegal perk combination on Moon of Healing.
Potential fix for issue where players would lose attributes from the Magnify perk upon entering a game mode or teleporting.
Fixed an illegal perk combination on the Field Medic Life Staff.
Fixed an issue that caused any Gauntlet weapon perks to appear as applied twice after logging into the game.

ARTIFACTS

Increased the total number of active artifact quests a player can have simultaneously in progress from 5 to 10.
Adjusted logic to enable the Windchill ability to function alongside the Blooddrinker Ghoul’s Harmony artifact perk.
Fixed an issue where the Pestilence blunderbuss was causing interference with Life Staff functionality when used simultaneously.
Fixed an issue where the status effect caused by Pestilence’s Blighted Enchantment perk would not be reduced by Invigorated.
Fixed an issue where the Inferno and Lifetaker Artifacts wouldn’t display the proper damage values in the Inventory when scaling off of their alternative stats.
Added pity ticker functionality for Artifacts to guarantee their drop after a set number of kills.
Fixed an issue where the Nature’s Wrath artifact would prevent Void Gauntlet’s Baleful tether from functioning.
- To fix this, we have made it so the empower and weaken can no longer be cleansed. The tether will now be treated similarly to persistent AOEs where the effects applied while inside can not be cleansed. So the effects applied by the base tether cannot be cleansed.
Fixed an issue where Tempest Fury Artifact Momentum Perk could apply multiple stacks with a single shot of Blunderbuss. Added a 0.1s cooldown to it to prevent it from triggering multiple times with a single Blunderbuss shot against 1 enemy, but it can still apply when cleaving though multiple targets with the Greataxe.
Fixed a few issues where the death from the Phoenix Artifact could be bypassed. It will now cancel entomb.
Fixed an issue where the Wizard’s Hat Artifact would increase mana inconsistently with other mana increasing perks.
- Updated the tooltips of all mana increases to specify that they increase mana by a percentage of the base value.
Fixed an issue where the duration of fortifying perforate could not be extended beyond its base duration.
Fixed an issue where status effects that were applied to other players when you are hit would not properly be modified by perks (e.g. extending durations) properly.

ATTRIBUTES

Fixed an issue where the 350 Strength attribute bonus was not applying to ranged ability damage.

WEAPONS

BLUNDERBUSS

Fixed an issue where if a blunderbuss grenade detonated at the precise moment it hit a wall, the split grenades would spawn behind the wall.
Fixed an issue where Claw Shot root effect could be reduced to a low enough value that it would break the ability’s functionality.
- Adjusted Claw Shot’s root effect duration to prevent modification by duration modifiers, further avoiding potential issues with the ability. Reduced Claw Shot’s base duration from 1s to 0.7s to compensate for the reduced flexibility in fixing the above issue.
The Claw Shot ability and player homing now work against the War Blossoms in the Artemis encounter.

BOW

Fixed an issue where bow heavy attacks were sometimes being treated as light attacks.

FIRE STAFF

Fixed an issue where the Trial by Fire ability could affect targets through gates and structures.
Ensured mana regen does not occur while Flamethrower is active.
Made visual adjustments to several Fire Staff abilities for better combat clarity and optimization.
Fixed an issue that caused the flamethrower ability to regenerate mana during use.

FLAIL

Modified the radius of the area of effect for the Better Together ultimate ability. It will now vary based on the player’s equip load, with Light load offering a 5m radius, Medium a 4m radius, and Heavy a 3m radius.
Fixed an issue where the Door of Night shield wasn’t functioning with the kite shield portion of the Ironclad Superiority arcane smite upgrade.
Added Cleric and Monk as possible attribute perks for Flails to roll.

GREAT AXE

Adjusted Base whirlwind to be able to do 4 spins without stopping by default and only in the upgrade require hits for the additional 5th, 6th, and 7th spins.
Fixed an issue where enemies would not register damage from certain melee weapons after using the fortifying whirlwind perk.

HATCHET

Increased damage from 140% to 150% for the Infected throw ability.
Increased debuff duration extension from 20% to 25%, and damage per debuff from 3% to 4% for the Persistent Hindrance Ultimate ability.
Increased ranged damage at 20m from 20% to 25% for the Hurling Force passive ability.
Fixed an issue where the Berserk ability was triggering an additional stun reaction after cleansing a stun with Berserking Purge.

ICE GAUNTLET

Increased the damage of the final two meters from a 20% increase to a 25% increase for the Windchill ability.
The Wind Chill ability will now play impact sounds upon hitting environmental surfaces.
Increased damage of Spike Trail from 56% to 61% for the Ice Spikes ability.
Increased the slow effect duration from 2s to 4s for the Frozen Touch passive ability.
Sheathing the Ice Gauntlet while an active Ice Pylon will now continue to provide functionality to destroy the Ice Pylon by continuously holding down the assigned ability key.
The Ice Pylon ability will now play a sound effect when the ability is deactivated.

LIFE STAFF

Updated Targeted Healing option descriptions to enhance clarity.
Updated “Target Self” UI prompt when using targeted healing abilities now shows when the player is not in a party or raid group.
Fixed an issue where the Glowing Focus passive ability was not extending the duration of Fortify from the Protector’s Touch passive ability.

MUSKET

Fixed an issue where the Power Shot and Powder Burn ability cooldowns would reset when travelling through certain structures.
Added contextual information for the Scent of Blood traps upgrade to inform of a 1s cooldown upon ability activation.
Fixed an issue where activating Shooter’s Stance and then quickly deactivating it could leave you in a permanent crouch pose.
Fixed an issue where Blunderbuss and Musket would have an incorrect movement speed after firing.
Fixed an issue where the Sticky Bomb ability could cause the character’s hand to twitch.
Fixed a issue when reloading the Musket while prone causing a client crash.

RAPIER

Fixed an issue where the Swiftness passive ability cooldown was longer than the duration between flurry blows, preventing the ability from applying a status effect stack for each blow.

VOID GAUNTLET

Increased the base damage of the weapon by 5.25%.
- Due to this baseline damage increase, the damage output for the Oblivion and Scream abilities has been lowered to keep their power roughly consistent with current performance. These two abilities are performing well due to their utility, so we are holding off on buffing their damage for now but will continue to monitor.

WAR HAMMER

Increased the stagger reaction animation duration and stagger duration itself by 5 frames for Path of Destiny’s Seismic Waves upgrade.
Increased Haste duration from 3s to 4s for Clear Out’s Swing Away upgrade.
Adjusted the Guarded Sprint passive ability to work while traversing, e.g., walking, running, and sprinting.
Updated text for the Aftershock ultimate ability to better describe its functionality.

MOUNTS

Made improvements to auto-run road following: when player does not input any steering controls for more than 1 second, the mount will follow the road as far is at can. When player makes any steering input, mount re-aligns to the camera direction.
Added a small grace period when leaving roads to prevent the loss of the on-road speed boost when stepping off for only a moment.
Mount attachment faction flags now feature unique description text.
Mount attachment flags are now correctly named in the Transmog menu.
The UI now displays a “Purchase Bundle” when viewing the tooltip of a store-purchasable mount in the mount selection screen.
The UI now displays a “Purchase Expansion” message when the player attempts to mount up without already having purchased the expansion.
Updated level requirement text for mount slots to maintain consistency with player slots.
Crafting higher tier mount food now yields a higher currency reward.
Improved the positions and size for all the shield type mount attachment items (round, tower, and kite).
Killing small prey with a mount now progresses quest objectives and awards XP.
The mount quick-slot description icon will now properly indicate the acquisition source.

ECONOMY, PROGRESSION, & GEAR

TRADE SKILLS

CRAFTING: COOKING SIMPLIFICATION

Food and Recipe Simplification
- Removed Split Attribute foods. Upon login, any Split Attribute food in your inventory will be converted into the Single Attribute food of the same tier.
  - (Example: If you have T4 Dex/Con food before the patch, you will have T4 Dex food after the patch. The same logic has been applied to cooking recipes.)
- Distilled Gathering and Crafting foods into a single tier, Tier 5. Other tiers in your inventory will be replaced and shifted up to Tier 5.
  - (Example: If you had T3 Mining food before the patch, you will have T5 Mining food after the patch. The same logic has been applied to cooking recipes.)
- Note: Removed any active Tradepost listings at the time of the patch. Updated items will be sent back to the owner for them to manage as they wish.
  - (Example: If you had T2 Str/Con food on the Tradepost, and the listing was active, when this patch goes live, the listing will be canceled, and you will receive T2 Str food in return.)
Recipe Adjustments
- After simplifying the recipes, new homes were found for some ingredients that no longer had a use.
  - Saffron was added to Clam Chowder (T4 Str Food).
  - Squid Ink was added to Calamari and Tomato Stew (T4 Int Food).
  - Venison Tenderloin is now the main ingredient in Grilled Tenderloin and Veggies (T52 Skinning Food).
  - Juicy Ham Hock was added to Biscuits and Gravy (T52 Harvesting Food).
  - Coconut has replaced Seasoning Blend for the Banana Parfait (T52 Con Food).
  - Wheat has been added to Meat Pie (T2 Dex Food).
- Most recipes have been changed to provide 3 meals instead of 1. They have also had their ingredient amounts increased to account for additional meals and bonus craft chance considerations. This will help generate more XP from the craft, and chefs will benefit from the First Craft bonus while leveling, as well as the increased output from Bonus Meal chance when crafting at a high level.
- Cooking crafting recipes have had their required resource amounts lowered for recipes that provide 3 meals per craft.
Loot Drop Adjustments
- The locations for food recipe drops have changed. Drop rates have also been adjusted as players had many of these recipes in the past.
  - Drop rates from Small Loot Containers have been reduced from 5% to 2%.
  - Drop rates from Large Loot Container have been reduced from 20% to 5%.
Experience Adjustments
- XP Boost events for cooking have been increased by 15-20% depending on their value. (Smaller values got a 20% bump, and larger ones got a 15% bump.) This was done to counteract the loss of the First Time Craft bonus for many crafts due to the reduction of items. This, combined with recipes taking more ingredients, should provide an accelerated progression rate for cooking compared to current live rates.
- Potency Adjustments
  - Adjusted the potency of T5 foods to better balance all options and progression. These changes aim to address the decreasing value of legendary fish since the Brimstone Sands update. Below is an example of how Dex T5 foods are changing, and the same ideology can be applied to all attribute types.
  - Current Values
    - T5 Dex Food – Fried Albenaja
      - +40 Dex
      - Duration 40 minutes
      - Requires Cooking Level 200
      - Requires Player Level 60 to use
    - T5 (Brimstone) Dex Food – Chili con Armadillo
      - +40 Dex
      - Duration 60 minutes
      - Requires Cooking Level 200
      - Requires Player Level 60 to use
    - T5 (RotAE) Dex Food – Banana Pudding
      - +48 Dex
      - Duration 50 minutes
      - Requires Cooking Level 205
      - Requires Player Level 61 to use
  - Season 5 Values (re-ordered to highlight intended progression)
    - T5 (Brimstone) Dex Food – Chili con Armadillo
      - +40 Dex
      - Duration 40 minutes
      - Requires Cooking Level 150
      - Requires Player Level 45 to use
    - T5 (RotAE) Dex Food – Banana Pudding
      - +44 Dex
      - Duration 40 minutes
      - Requires Cooking Level 205
      - Requires Player Level 61 to use
    - T5 Dex Food – Fried Albenaja
      - +48 Dex
      - Duration 40 minutes
      - Requires Cooking Level 250
      - Requires Player Level 65 to use
Tradeskill Level Requirements
- Adjusted the required Cooking Level for many recipes to make them more consistent.
  - Health and Mana Recovery foods are as follows
    - T1 – Base
    - T2 – Cooking Level 1
    - T3 – Cooking Level 50
    - T4 – Cooking Level 100
    - T5 – Cooking Level 150
  - Crafting and Gathering Foods
    - T5 – Cooking Level 125
  - Attribute Foods
    - T2 – Cooking Level 15
    - T3 – Cooking Level 50
    - T4 – Cooking Level 100
    - T5 (Brimstone) – Cooking Level 150
    - T5 (RotAE) – Cooking Level 205
    - T5 (Legendary Fish) – Cooking Level 250
Required Level to Consume Adjustment
- Adjusted the levels required to consume food due to changes in the number of recipes. Everything has had a requirement reduction, so anything consumable before will still be consumable after these changes (T5 Attribute food is an exception, but there are multiple changes for this Tier, details below).
  - T5 Gathering and Crafting Food
    - Was Level 60, now Level 15
  - T2 Attribute Food
    - No Change
  - T3 Attribute Food
    - Was Level 20, now Level 15
  - T4 Attribute Food
    - Was Level 40, now Level 35
  - T5 Attribute Food
    - Was Level 60, now Level 65 (Due to the potency adjustments mentioned above)
  - T5 (Brimstone) Attribute Food
    - Was Level 60, now Level 45 (Due to the potency adjustments mentioned above)
  - T5 (RotAE) Attribute Food
    - Was Level 65, now Level 61 (Due to the potency adjustments mentioned above)
Ingredient Description Updates
- Updated the item descriptions for many ingredients. The flavor text (heh, puns) has been removed and replaced with more information regarding where to find the item, making discovery and acquisition easier in the game.
- These changes do not impact fish. The descriptions on fish will remain the same.

CRAFTING: OTHER

Removed Legacy Gypsum Casts from the Gypsum Kiln. Casts that players have already crafted should remain in their inventory and can still be opened.
Fixed an issue where the achievement Crafting a Named Flail Achievement was not progressing.
Fixed an issue causing Mythril Jewelry to show options in the crafting menu for invalid components.
Fixed an issue causing Savage Divide and Glacial Tarn replica hatchets to not give the appropriate crafting XP bonus.
Fixed an issue where the Azoth currency icon would appear blurred in crafting recipes.

GATHERING

The music sheet “Honor: Upright Bass” should now be available.
The music sheet “Memories Of Brightwood: Upright Bass” should now be available.
The music sheet “Sap Of Brightwood: Upright Bass” should now be available.
The music sheet “Gatherer’s Rush: Upright Bass” should now be available.
The music sheet “Old Windsward Shack: Upright Bass” should now be available.
Shortened the description for the performance buff ‘Never Stop Learning’. The effect has not changed.
The All Together Now music buff now has correct durations based on how well the song was played.

REFINING

Moved Charcoal to the Smelting inventory category from Woodworking.

PROGRESSION

Removed “Stand As Long as You Like at ‘Last Stand Outpost'” from the achievement list since Last Stand Outpost is no longer available.
Moved Gypsum from the Rewards inventory category to the Resources inventory category.
Moved Timeless Shards from the Rewards inventory category to the Resources inventory category.
Increased player wallet coin cap from 500,000 to 1,000,000.

Who wants to be a millionaire?
Artifacts now have a pity mechanic which will guarantee a drop after a set number of kills, to help those who have extremely bad luck.
Fixed an issue causing Pristine Gleamite to disclose that it would be removed at the end of the Winter Convergence event. This item now has proper event attribution and will no longer indicate that it’ll leave your inventory.

PVP REWARD TRACK

Rank requirements for most tiers have changed:
- Recruit is now Ranks 0-9.
- Steel is now Ranks 10-19.
- Bronze begins at Rank 20.
- Silver begins at Rank 50.
- Gold begins at Rank 100.
- Platinum begins at Rank 150.
- Starmetal remains at Rank 200.
Each tier’s rewards have a new minimum Gear Score for equipment, starting at 650 for Recruit. Adventurers without the Rise of the Angry Earth expansion will still only have maximum 625 GS.
Frequency and order of appearance for all rewards has been updated:
- Potion packs have been replaced by Recruitment Packs on Ranks 0-19.
- Consumables and PvP Craft Mods can now be purchased directly from the Reward Track.
- Artifact appearance frequency has been increased.
- Coin, Faction Token and Dark Matter reward quantities have been slightly decreased but frequencies have been increased. Players will see a net gain overall.
- Craft Mod types have been reduced to a more optimized selection.
- Gypsum Orb and mount attachment frequency has been reduced.
Additional rewards have been added:
- Faction Dyes: Marauder Greenhorn, Marauder Camouflage Green, Syndicate Violaceous Ink, Syndicate Aged Wine, Covenant Young Fawn, and Covenant Illustrious Yellow.
- Exclusive Décor: Champion’s Display Shelf, Champion’s Canopy Bed, Champion’s High Back Chair, Champion’s Partition, and Champion’s Monument.
- Runeglass crafting materials, including gemstones and glyphs.
- New Level 65 Tier 5 Named weapons, armor, and trinkets.
- New Predator’s trinkets are now available at Starmetal Tier and above.
The Azoth Salt cost of most rewards has been adjusted to better represent the value of the item.
Fixed an issue that caused the “It Has That Nice Devastation Smell!” achievement to be duplicated.

GEAR & ITEMS

Fixed an issue causing syndicate hatchets to use incorrect appearances. Although correctly themed, they were utilizing the wrong tier of appearances. This reorganizes their appearances and will change existing hatchets to use the correct appearances.
Added Seal Extractors to the Faction Shops, allowing adventurers to remove custom attribute seals from their faction armor and revert its attribute back to Constitution.
Fixed appearances for faction flails. Players should now correctly unlock Faction Flail skins when purchasing flails from Faction Vendors.
Fixed the crafting recipe for Elysian Wilds housing item Dragontail Thuja, which was incorrectly a duplicate of Giant Corpus Lily.
Removed the ability to trade Tier 1 weapons and armor.
Fixed an issue with the description of Cloth Robe Gloves.
Fixed an issue where Mythril Flails had a Focus attribute bonus instead of Dexterity when crafted with Golden Scarabs and Rough Leather Beaded Strap.
Fixed an issue impacting the durability for the Mythril Longsword, Rapier, War Hammer, Great Axe, and Greatsword to better match other Mythril weapons at 3,000 durability.
Fixed an issue where Magus tier items in the Syndicate Faction Shop were unintentionally named ‘Occultist’ instead of ‘Magus’.
Fixed an issue causing tradeskill armor pieces to sometimes drop as Bind on Pickup.
Fixed an issue where Immutable Resolve, Priscilla’s Shield, Scutum of Magnus, and Door of Night did not have the correct attribute perk. They previously had the Round Shield Aggression perk, and now correctly have the Kite Shield Refreshing perk.
Fixed an issue where certain kite shields were functioning as round shields.
Updated wording on weapon coating status effects for better accuracy and clarity.
Fixed an issue where dye channel did not function on the Ironwood Rondel Shield skin.
Fixed an issue with the Harbinger Heavy Chestwear cape, which was not displaying on male characters.
Fixed an issue where VFX appeared distorted on the Pirated Great Axe skin.
Removed unobtainable item appearances from the Transmog UI: Blown Glass War Hammer, Glass Orichalcum Void Gauntlet, and Glass Orichalcum Blunderbuss.
Fixed an issue where you were able to aim and shoot while interacting with furniture.

MAGNIFY

Adjusted how Magnify functions. Magnify now has a drop down on the attribute screen, and players are able to pick between Highest Stat (current functionality) or any of the other core attributes. If picking a core attribute like Strength, all of your magnify points will convert to that attribute. This should allow better flexibility to customize your build when using Magnify.

LOOT

Chain of Zane and Hoop of The Cursed Son will no longer drop in Mutated Lazarus runs.
Fixed an issue with Weaver’s Fen side-quest rewards. Rewards are now at appropriate Gear Score levels, and rewards display the correct rarity in quest reward previews.
Rebalanced pre-expansion Materia costs. To help leveling players gear themselves, pre-expansion named item Materia crafting now costs significantly fewer Materia. This change also moves pre-expansion Materia crafting into their respective crafting stations, so lower-level players can access them.
Heartrunes that were previously crafted with pre-expansion Materia are now crafted with Dense Materia.
- Bile Bomb is crafted using a smaller amount of Mutator Materia, as there is no Dense Amrine Materia.
Fixed an issue that was causing higher-level Corrupted Portal events (most noticeable in Shattered Mountain) to award the incorrect rewards when completed.
Slightly increased the chance to get a craft mod from a small chest.
Wooden Coins have been added as a potential drop for higher-leveled players to Supply Caches to prevent an issue where they would sometimes award nothing.
Winged Leather Shoes and Quickdraw Gloves artifacts that were on the Season 4 Season Pass now drop from Helianthus and Ipomoea world bosses in Elysium Wilds, respectively.
Fixed an issue where sometimes Quest Reward Equipment Cases would sometimes award nothing (most noticeable with armor).

TRANSMOG

Fixed an issue where part of the arm was missing when previewing skins on the spear.
Fixed various character animation issues around previewing skins from your personal collection.
Fixed an issue that could cause the character’s left hand to be out of position in certain cases.
Fixed an issue with hand positions being incorrect while previewing 2-handed weapons in the Transmog screen.
Fixed an issue where character arms could be misplaced in the Transmog menu while previewing ranged weapons.
Removed unobtainable item appearances from the Transmog UI: Blown Glass War Hammer, Glass Orichalcum Void Gauntlet, and Glass Orichalcum Blunderbuss.
Fixed an issue with the Transmog screen not appearing when changing skins while mounted.

SEASONS

Fixed an issue where Season Trophies from previous Seasons couldn’t be placed in the same house as new Season Trophies.
Fixed an issue where schematics from premium furniture crates weren’t properly granting their associated recipes.
Updated the S3 Leaderboard Reward skins for Savage Divide Clear Time and Score to have the correct titles.
Fixed the ‘Gather Tier 5 Resource Node’ Season Pass Activity not progressing when gathering Myocyte or Mycodendrite in Elysian Wilds.
Fixed an issue causing the Spicy Hotpot to increase the benefit of healing foods.
Premium Winter Convergence Tokens will be removed from inventory outside of the winter event.

UI/UX

Added a warning message when attempting to start a musical performance while standing in water.
Fixed an issue that prevented emotes from working on the first use immediately after purchase.
Unclaimed territories should no longer flash their overlay when zooming in on the map.
Fixed consumable cooldown visuals sometimes not playing, even though the cooldown is actually active.
Fixed an issue that caused Housing actions to not properly disable.
Fixed the mastery level requirement number being off by 1 in the improved group finder’s role selection UI.
Resolved issue where player controls can get into a bad state after loading into a screen with locked content.
Fixed an issue that prevented abilities from being assigned to the third ability slot.
Increased responsiveness for some game pad button inputs based on feedback from the PTR.

Fixed an issue that was causing title unlocked notifications to appear more than intended when loading into or out of a cross world instance.
Fixed a UI issue that could sometimes cause the client to crash when viewing the Improved Group Finder screens.
Fixed an issue which caused the queue status UI to show an incorrectly formatted timer.
Fixed an issue that caused group invite limits to being enforced instead of raid invite limits.
Fixed a UI issue that could sometimes cause the client to crash when viewing the Improved Group Finder screens.
Fixed an issue that allowed players to use the “Leave Group” button to leave 3v3 Arena or Outpost Rush (should have been disabled).

So, grab your warmest cloak and sharpen those blades because Season of the Guardian is about to take us on an unforgettable journey full of mysteries in New World. I can’t wait! What about you?