Genshin Impact 3.1 Takes Players To Sumeru’s Desert, Scaramouche Shows Up Menacingly

On top of the brand-new content, a number of improvements have been made to existing regions in the game including visual upgrades, new content to be discovered, and even a new lighting engine. A new type of encounter has been added to the world in the form of traveling cargo caravans, which you can intercept to claim the precious loot inside.

Another major upgrade in 1.0 is the ability to choose your difficulty level, with three now to choose from–relaxed, standard, and brutal. Relaxed is ideal for players who want to prioritize exploration and building, while brutal is the perfect choice for players looking for more challenging combat.

The update adds plenty of new content, including new weapons and new armor, as well as new systems that will let you color-customize your armor and upgrade legendary weapons to make them useful at any level. The 1.0 update also includes a Castlevania crossover, which will add legendary monster-hunter Simon Belmont as a new enemy, among other things.

V Rising’s castle-building mechanic has also seen a few upgrades, with players now having the ability to easily move their castles to any vacant plot in the game. You’ll also find new castle decor, improved item-management when building, and a music player that will let you add your choice of ambience to your castle.

For the full list of changes and additions in V Rising’s 1.0 update, check out the extensive patch notes below.

V Rising Version 1.1

Technical

The game has had a major engine update and is now running on Unity 2022 (and DOTS 1.1) compared to Unity 2020 (and DOTS 0.17). Read more about DOTS here: https://unity.com/dots. The game has had some major optimization updates on both the client as well as the server, and should now be running with improved performance overall.

World Updates

Experience new discoveries in Farbane Woods. Dive into the heart of Vardoran in the Dunley Farmlands and unearth the legend of Dracula’s Demise, where the iconic vampire king was defeated centuries ago by the Church of Luminance.

New Biome – Ruins of Mortium

After forgotten centuries, the slumbering peace of this domain of eternal night is punctured by the marching of Dracula’s Legion. Venture beyond the lands of man and into the shadows, where an ancient evil stirs.

Gather your strength for war in the Ruins of Mortium, an endgame region that introduces dynamic conflict events. Engage in skirmishes against Dracula’s Legion of Noctum and conquer rifts to claim exclusive resources and weapons.

• New Location – West Fortress Ruins
• New Location – South Fortress Ruins
• New Location – North Fortress Ruins
• New Location – Vampire Village Ruins
• New Location – Dracula’s Castle Courtyard
• New Location – Dracula’s Castle
• New Location – Dracula’s Garden
• New Location – Frozen Lake Ruins
• New Location – Ancient Sacrificial Site
• New Location – The Shadow Realm, Throne Room
• New Location – Vampire Merchant Camps
  • In the Ruins of Mortium, the player can visit two new vampire merchant camps, to purchase wares.

Dracula’s Legion

Face off against a new enemy, the fearsome Draculin monstrosities of the Legion of Noctum, and drink their blood to get the benefits of the new “Draculin” blood type. Battle with the mighty generals from the highest echelon of Dracula’s Court: Elena the Hollow, Cassius the Betrayer, and Valencia the Depraved.

Cargo Travelers

The arrogant humans of Vardoran now traverse the world, carrying precious cargo from location to location. Satisfy your thirst for blood and valuable loot at the same time by intercepting their caravans and further your rise to power.

Updated Lighting and General Visual Improvements

More love has been put into the world! The wilds have been sprinkled with touches of additional flavor and life to enrich the setting. It’s also been made more beautiful than ever, our updated light engine letting us better hand-craft the moods of locations all across Vardoran!

Small Points of Interest

With the goal of making the world feel more alive, players can now find small, in-the-moment, scenarios scattered around the entire land. These can feature bandits who have set up a camp, monsters looking for trouble, beasts hunting for prey, and more.

Farbane Woods

Various updates, fixes, and visual upgrades have been implemented across the entire biome.

• Bandit camp updates on the west and east sides of Farbane.
  • Iterated on the size and contents of the camps to make the distribution more even between the east and west sides of the biome.
• Bandit Logging Camp
  • Added some additional sunroofs to make the fight against Rufus a bit more convenient.
• Bandit Copper Mine
  • Now features a new exit route to give players more freedom to choose their path back out of the mine.
• Vampire Cemetery – Player Start Zone
  • The clouds have been rearranged to better teach the player about the concept of sun exposure. The area has also been improved to allow players to find the exit more easily.
• Updated Roads – Farbane Woods
  • Some of the roads featured in the biome can now have Cargo Travelers traversing them.
• New Location – Bandit Camp
  • Added small bandit camp on the west side of Farbane to better balance out the amount of camps available on that side of the zone.
• New Location – Farbane Waygate
  • Two additional Waygates have been added to Farbane Woods. One is located to the northwest, just south of Silverlight, while the other has been placed just south of the Bandit Stronghold right in the middle of the zone.
• New Location – Bandit Copper Querrys
  • Farbane now features two new locations at which the player can more easily find copper.
• New Location – Fishing Lake
  • A new V Blood boss area has been added to Farbane. Here, you can encounter Finn the Fisherman.

Silverlight Hills

Various updates, fixes, and visual upgrades have been implemented across the entire biome.

• Updated Roads – Silverlight Hills
  • Some of the roads featured in the zone can now have Cargo Travelers traversing them.
• Sacred Silver Mine
  • Now features a giant cave opening that casts a shadow on Sir Magnus the Overseer, allowing for a more convenient V Blood boss fight.

Dunley Farmlands

Various updates, fixes, and visual upgrades have happened across the entire biome. The eastern side of the zone now connects to Mortium, bridging the two zones.

• Updated Roads – Dunley Farmlands
  • Some of the roads in the biome can now have Cargo Travelers traversing them.
• New Location – Dracula’s Demise
  • At the border of Dunley and Gloomrot the player can now visit the location where Dracula was defeated eight hundred years ago. A Militia Encampment has been added south of this location.
• New Location – Militia Encampment
  • A border crossing point to Mortium featuring Militia units.
• Militia Camp in the south on the border to Hallowed Mountains has been expanded and now connects to the border crossings to Mortium.

Hallowed Mountains

Various updates, fixes, and visual upgrades have happened across the entire biome. The northern part of the biome now connects to the Ruins of Mortium, bridging the two zones.

Cursed Forest

Various updates, fixes, and visual upgrades have happened across the entire biome. The southeastern side of the biome now connects to Mortium, bridging the two zones.

Gloomrot

Various updates, fixes, and visual upgrades have happened across the entire biome.

• New Location – Dracula’s Demise
  • At the border of Dunley and Gloomrot the player can now visit the location at which Dracula was defeated eight hundred years ago. A Trancendum Camp has been added just north of this location.
• Unit Density
  • The unit density in ‘Pools of Rebirth’ and ‘Rustlock Village’ has been reduced.
• Global Patrols
  • Gattlers and other heavy machinery can, on rare occasions, be seen on the roads of Gloomrot South.

Difficulty Settings

Players may now select between three main difficulties when starting a server that modifies the power of enemies as well as how deadly environmental effects are. These difficulties are Relaxed, Normal, and Brutal.

Relaxed

For those that favor exploration, building, and more relaxed combat.

• Units deal 25% less damage
• V Bloods deal 40% less damage
• V Bloods have 20% reduced maximum health
• Blood drain reduced by 25%
• Sun is less deadly

Normal

An experience focused on exploration, building, and challenging combat.

• These are standard settings.

Brutal

Face devastating challenges in a world with evolved adversaries.

Recommended for seasoned veterans.

• V Bloods have additional abilities and modified combat behaviors
• V Bloods have +3 Levels
• V Bloods deal 70% more damage
• V Bloods have 25% increased maximum health
• Units deal 40% more damage
• Loot drops are increased by 25%
• Durability loss is reduced by 50%

Gamepad Support

Introducing gamepad support for PC, offering a new hands-on, action-packed V Rising experience. This includes a reimagined HUD user interface crafted specifically for gamepad enthusiasts, ensuring a seamless and immersive gameplay journey.

• Added haptic feedback to all vampire spells and attacks.
• Added a crunchy texture when biting, giving you some resistance in the trigger when biting down on your victim.
• Added some immersive sounds to be played through the controller such as the gulp when feeding.

NOTE: Due to a bug, some streaming software can pick up the haptic feedback as sound. We have decided to disable haptics while Streamer Mode is enabled to mitigate these issues.

Castle Updates

Relocate Castle

Trapped in your first home in Farbane? Now, using nothing more than a little Vampire magic, you can move from any plot in the world to any other available one by laying down the framework and pressing a button!

Advanced Refinement Stations

A number of advanced refinement stations have been added that are improved versions of existing stations with bigger inventories and faster refinement rates. Some refinement recipes can only be processed using an advanced refinement station.

Stations added:

• Advanced Tannery
• Advanced Grinder
• Advanced Blood Press
• Advanced Furnace
• Advanced Loom

New Structures and Decorations

Your lair reflects your inner Vampire! To that end, we’re providing you with even more decorations to show off your impeccable (and superior) taste!

More items can now be colorized as well, including most light sources! Many metallic decorations now have different metal variants.

The following new decorative and structural items have been added:

Structures

• Stairs (two new variations)
• Castle Doors (three new variations)
• Grass floor tiles are now dyeable
• Mossy Cobblestone is now dyeable
• Rough Flooring is now dyeable
• New additional floor variations

Wall Hanging

• Banners (new variation)
• Mirrors
• Shelves
• Hunting Trophy
• Plaque (Ornament)
• Pillar Hanging Door Bell
• Paintings (new ones and modifications to previous ones)
  • All paintings now have alternate frame colors
• Hanging Lanterns
• Pillar Torches

Garden

• Garden Fences (two new variations)
• Horse Sculpture (hedge collection)
• Garden hedges are now dyeable
• Garden Cobblestone Path (new variation)

Miscellaneous

• Longcase Clocks (two new variations)
• Mushroom Terrarium
• Chess Table
• Carpets (three new variations)
  • ‘Cordial’ Rugs have now been made dyeable
• Vases (new variation)
  • New additional flowers to put in them
  • All vases are now dyable

Music Box

Craft your Music Box and unlock the haunting melodies of Vardoran. Immerse yourself as familiar music echoes through the corridors of your castle. Change your castle music to one of the many themes that can be found in the world.

Specialized Containers

Bookcases and stashes have been reworked into holding specific types of items (gems, herbs, material, weapons, armor, etc.), rather than featuring general inventories. New additional stashes have also been added based on this change.

Players can directly transfer items of select categories into these stashes using the “quick send” command.

Pillar and Wall placements

Some structures placed on pillars and walls can now be placed on top of one another. Torches, for example may be placed on the lower end of the pillar while ornaments such as a gargoyle can be placed on the higher end of the pillar.

Coffins

You now regain health when sleeping in your coffin as long as you are not flagged for pvp combat.

Chairs & Sofas

Chairs and sofas can now be interacted with, allowing players to sit down on chairs and lay down on sofas.

General

Gem Cutting Station is now a Refinement Station (changed from a Crafting Station)

• Added new Recipes for the “Obsidian” material that is now used to Craft Siege Golems
  • 20x Gem Dust + 4x Radium Alloy + 4x Scourgestone -> 1x Obsidian
  • 120x Greater Stygian Shards + 4x Scourgestone -> 1x Obsidian
  • 8x Obsidian + 1x Primal Blood Essence -> 1x Siege Golem
• New Recipe – Refine 12x Stygian Shards to 1x Greater Stygian Shard

New Castle Structures

Stations added:

• Eye of Mortium
• Stygian Summoning Circle
• The Throne of Darkness
• Altar of Stygian Awakening
• Altar of Recollection
• Target Dummies
• Castle Relocation heart
  • Including Relocation Stash

Castle Heart Upgrades

The Castle heart now visually upgrades with each Level.

• Level 1
  • Floor Tiles increased to 50 from 40
• Level 2
  • Floor Tiles increased to 140 from 100
• Level 3
  • Floor Tiles increased to 240 from 180
• Level 4
  • Floor Tiles increased to 360 from 260
• Level 5
  • Floor Tiles increased to 550 from 420

Spells, Weapons & Armor

Spells, Weapons, and Jewels have been tweaked and tuned. There are two new Weapon Types: the Longbow and the Whip.

Ancestral Weapons and how to obtain them have been changed. “Rare” (blue) ancestral weapons drop at a lower rate from V Bloods and at a higher rate from Incursion Events at level 57 in Ruins of Mortium. “Epic” (purple) tier weapons only drop from level 80+ Incursion events in Ruins of Mortium (these were previously “legendary” items).

A new legendary tier of item has been added that also drops in Ruins of Mortium but with a low drop chance. These are named weapons with unique weapon modifications but have the same item level as epic weapons.

Unlocking Spells

V Bloods no longer unlocks a specific spell but rather unlocks a spell point for a specific school and tier, allowing for more player choice as you make progress.

Passives

Players may now unlock passive buffs boosting the power of your vampire further. There are 18 passives in total connected to the 6 different spell schools. Players may unlock all passives, and similar to the research desk, players may collectively unlock these within their clan.

Aim Feedback Update

All visual indicators for aiming spells have been updated with new visuals along with additional shapes and forms for the Gamepad.

Ancestral Forge

Rare weapons may now be upgraded up to level 26 using the Ancestral Forge making rare items more meaningful up until players are able to obtain epic tier weapons.

Magic Sources Update

Magic sources now have fewer attribute bonuses but have on-hit effects instead, playing into each spell school starting from tier 6.

Armor Sets & Armor Customization

Each sub-tier of armor (tier 4, tier 6, and tier 8) now have four different sets, each with its own stats, set-bonuses, and visuals.

Players may now also customize their armor set. You may replace the visuals of your equipped armor with any other piece that you have access to, and you can change the color-palette of each item.

“Dracula’s Regalia” – A tier 9 end-game armor set has been added.

Attribute Updates

Cooldown reduction has been reworked into “increased cooldown rate” for spells, weapons, and ultimates. Cooldown rate increases the rate at which cooldowns are refreshed, i.e. 100% increased cooldown rate means that your cooldowns refresh 100% faster – equivalent to 50% cooldown reduction.

Some attributes are now capped at certain values:

• Weapon & Spell cooldown rate is capped at 40%.
• Damage reduction is capped at 25%.

General Attribute Scaling Adjustments

Reduced the general physical damage scaling on weapons and increased it on spell damage. Late-tier weapons now gain less physical power, while magic sources more. Since there is a level difference primarily in end game between weapons and magic sources this change should close the gap between them and thus generally make spells slightly stronger and physical attacks slightly weaker.

Players now receive 15-25% more maximum health from armor and PvE units deal 15-25% more damage to effectively reduce the time to kill in PvP scenarios. The increase in health/damage is increased more towards endgame than early game. Healing and Life Leech has been boosted on spells and effects that heal based on spell power to ensure that this change does not affect the power of healing spells.

Note: that healing/leech has not been buffed in general, which could be the perception when reading the detailed spell changes.

Legendary Jewels

Legendary jewels with 4 spell mods may now drop from end-game bosses and Rift Incursion events.

Spider Form

Turn into a spider and burrow to avoid the sun or to surprise your enemy!

Spell and Ability Changes

General

• Target spells such as Power Surge and Phantom Aegis can no longer be cast on horses/mounts.
• Knockback resistance is increased during counters and barriers, some attacks such as Tendon Swing, Aerial Strike and certain knockback jewels on spells will no longer interrupt these effects.
• Subdue target can no longer be used in quick succession to charm two targets at once
• The jewel effect that turns condemned targets into mages instead of warriors has been removed.
• Players are now always invulnerable during iframes for all veils, sword shockwave travel duration, and blood rite immaterial duration.
• You can now abort the channeling state when trying to revive an ally.
• Blood Mend healing increased to 5% from 4% and now drains 0.1 blood per tick, reduced from 0.2

Jewels

Many jewel effects have been tweaked, replaced, added, or removed for balance purposes or for spells that have been reworked.

Generally, many consume spell school debuff jewels have been reworked to instead apply the bonus effect without consuming the debuff.

Veils (Space)

All veils now grant 5% maximum healing on the following M1 on top of spell school unique effects. This change should make all veils more viable as the life leech component from veil of blood was unmatched in most scenarios.

Ultimates

The cooldown of all ultimates has been reduced to 120s from 150s.

Blood School

School Specific Effect – Leech

Leech the life force from your enemies for 5s. Physical attacks restore 10% of damage dealt against Leeched enemies.

Heal yourself for 3% of your maximum health when a target affected by Leech perishes.

Shadowbolt

Projectile damage reduced to 170% from 180%.

Blood Rite

Cooldown increased to 10s from 9s.

Blood Rage

Healing increased to 60% from 40%.

Movement speed reduced to 15% from 25%.

Sanguine Coil

Changes to how leech, healing, and some spell jewels were calculated, these changes drastically reduce self-healing with some combinations of jewel mods.

Veil of Blood

Now triggers a nova of blood, dealing 20% damage and draining 20% health.

Crimson Beam

Damage over time increased to 250% from 200%.

Ally Healing increased to 200% from 150%.

Self Healing increased to 75% from 25%.

Chaos School

School Specific Effect – Ignite

Ignite your enemies with chaos flames, dealing 50% magic damage over 5s.

Triggers an explosion that deals 50% magic damage when a target affected by Ignite perishes.

Aftershock

Speed increased slightly by reducing cast time, projectile speed, and time before impact slightly.

Cooldown reduced to 9s from 10s

Chaos Barrier (Rework)

Block melee and projectile attacks in front of you for 2s. Blocking an attack charges the barrier up to 5 times. Unleash a chaos bolt, dealing 50% magic damage and inflicting Ignite when the effect ends. The projectile deals 40% additional damage per charge.

Recast during the effect to launch the projectile early.

Cooldown increased to 11s from 10s.

Power Surge

Movement speed bonus reduced to 20% from 25%.

Attack speed bonus reduced to 20% from 25%.

Duration reduced to 3.5s from 4s.

Veil of Chaos

Triggering the recast increases the cooldown by 1s.

Chaos Barrage

May now move while channeling the attack.

Damage per direct hit increased to 200% from 150%.

Area damage increased to 100% from 75%.

Unholy School

Bone Explosion

Cooldown reduced to 9s from 10s.

Ward of the Damned

Cooldown increased to 11s from 10s.

Death Knight (Rework)

Summon a Death Knight at target location that attacks nearby enemies. Each swing deals 50% magic damage in an area and inflicts Condemn. The Death Knight lasts for 6s.

Veil of Bones

No longer deals bonus damage nor bonus damage on targets with low health.

Now summons a skeleton warrior on successful hit.

Soulburn

Cast Time increased to 0.5s from 0.2s.

Volatile Arachnid (Rework)

Summon a giant spider that chases down your enemy and explodes when nearby, dealing 250% magic damage, inflicting Condemn, and spawning 3 spiderlings. Each spiderling explodes dealing 125% magic damage and inflicting Condemn.

Army of the Dead (New)

New ultimate spell, replacing “Summon Fallen Angel”. (Summon Fallen Angel has been moved to a Soul Shard item.)

Inflict Condemn on nearby enemies and summon an army of 5 skeleton warriors and 3 skeleton mages around you. Skeletons last for up to 8s.

Illusion School

Phantom Aegis

Cooldown increased to 11s from 10s.

The shield lasts for 2s instead of 3s.

Mist Trance

Cooldown increased to 10s from 9s.

Wraith Spear

Now dashes in input direction instead of inverted cursor direction.

Mosquito (Rework)

The Mosquito can no longer move but gains 320% of spell power as health instead of 125%. Taunts nearby PvE enemies and deals 100% spell damage when exploding, increased from 70%.

Spectral Guardian

Guardian melee strikes damage increased to 100% from 80%.

Wisp Dance

Wisps now leech 30% of damage dealt.

Frost School

Freeze

Freezes your enemies solid, making them unable to move or act.

Deals 25% magic damage, inflicts Chill, and staggers the target for 1s if the target is immune to Freeze.

Vampires are frozen for half the duration.

Ice Nova

The initial blast now freezes enemies affected by Chill.

Cooldown reduced to 9s from 10s.

Frost Barrier

Cooldown increased to 11s from 10s.

Cold Snap (New)

New Counter spell that replaces Ice Block.

Block melee and projectile attacks for 1.5s. Blocking an attack triggers an ice nova that deals 50% magic damage and inflicts a 3s Freeze. Gain a shield absorbing up to 100% of your spell power for 6s when this effect triggers.

Veil of Frost

No longer triggers a frost nova effect, dealing 50% area damage

Now grants a shield absorbing 100% of your spell power on a successful hit.

Ice Block (Reworked into Ultimate)

Combined with Frost Vortex and reworked into an Ultimate ability.

Turn target ally or self into solid ice for up to 5s and summon a frost vortex. The ice block shields the target for 450% of your spell power, grants immunity to crowd control effects, and heals up to 10% of the target’s maximum health.

The vortex initially deals 100% magic damage and inflicts Chill. The vortex deals 240% additional damage over the duration of the effect.

Storm School

School Specific Effect – Static

Electrify your enemy for 5s, causing physical damage dealt to them to trigger a shock dealing 10% magic damage.

Triggers a chain lightning effect traveling towards the nearest enemy dealing 50% magic damage, inflicting Static, and bouncing up to 2 times when a target affected by Static perishes.

Static Stun

Stun caused by static now has diminishing returns.

Discharge (Rework)

Block melee and projectile attacks for up to 1.5s. Blocking an attack pulls the target toward you and grants one Storm Shield. Enemies triggering Discharge in close vicinity are stunned for 0.8s.

Storm Shields circle around you, dealing 20% magic damage and inflicting Static. Effect stacks up to 3 times.

Cyclone

Range has been heavily reduced to make Cyclone play more into melee builds. Technically acts as an AoE type of spell ignoring counters and barriers.

Ball Lightning

Cooldown reduced to 9s from 10s.

Lightning Curtain

Cooldown increased to 11s from 10s.

Movement speed bonus reduced to 30% from 40%.

Veil of Storm

No longer inflicts Static by dashing through an enemy.

Raging Tempest

Fixed bug causing the spell to waste some of its attacks against immaterial targets.

Lightning Typhoon (New)

New ultimate replacing “Eye of the Storm”. (Eye of the Storm has been moved to a Soul Shard.)

Spin around, gaining a 70% fading haste and shocking nearby enemies, dealing 720% spell damage and inflicting Static over 3.5s. Occasionally release sparks of lightning, dealing 40% spell damage and inflicting Static.

Crossbow

Crossbow has been slightly reworked to reward a more active playstyle where you can combo attacks to gain temporary attack speed buffs.

Primary Attack

Damage reduced to 100% from 115%.

Consumes “Marked” dealing 25% bonus damage and increasing attack speed by 7% for 10s, this effect stacks up to 3 times.

Rain of Bolts

Each hit now inflicts “Marked”.

Snapshot

Slow duration reduced to 1.5s from 2s.

Now splits into two additional bolts upon hit, each bolt inflicts “Marked”.

Slashers

Camouflage duration reduced to 2.5s from 3s.

Elusive strike cooldown increased to 10s from 8s.

Axes

Fixed an issue where the attack speed buff of Frenzy scaled too much when combined with other attack speed buffs, resulting in higher attack speed than intended.

Reaper

Tendon Swing snare duration increased to 2.5s from 2s.

Great Sword

Death from Above cooldown increased to 10s from 8s.

Pistols

Explosive Bullet cooldown increased to 10s from 8s.

Longbow – New Weapon

Primary Attack

Hold to charge a projectile that deals 60-120% physical damage on hit and grants Focus. Focus stacks up to 3 times and increases the effectiveness of your other Longbow skills.

Fully charged shots pierce up to 2 enemies, subsequent hits deal 50% damage of the previous hit.

Multishot

Fire 5 piercing arrows in a cone dealing 100% physical damage and knocking enemies back. Consumes Focus, launching one additional arrow per stack, each stack dealing 20% bonus damage.

Guided Arrow

Fire an arrow dealing 120% physical damage and inflicting a 2s fading snare. The arrow turns to hit the same target again after impact, dealing 50% damage. Consumes Focus, increasing the number of times the arrow turns to hit by one per stack.

Whip – New Weapon

Primary Attack

Perform a combo of melee attacks dealing 50/50/55% physical damage to the first enemy hit. Deals 20% additional physical damage in a small radius at the tip of the whip.

Aerial Whip Twirl

Leap towards the cursor and swing your whip around you, dealing 100% physical damage, knocking enemies back, and inflicting a 1.5s fading snare.

Entangling Whip

Strike in a line, dealing 100% physical damage and inflicting a 2.5s entangle.

Units

General

• Horses now have 20% increased maximum health
• Taking damage while trying to mount a horse will now interrupt the ability
• Dominated Horses now visually disappear instead of turning into ghost horses when they die
• Ranged units are now less likely to run toward players that stand behind small obstacles
• Player minions are now properly excluded from all boss mechanics that are intended to scale with the number of players.
• Fixed an issue where bosses could disengage players that jump over terrain with travel abilities
• Fixed an issue with applying a knockback on a boss while it was casting an ability that would sometimes cause it to teleport a short distance after the knockback
• Generally Improved AI behaviors and fixed issues where units could get stuck in certain states where they were unable to use their abilities.

Unit Updates

Holy Priest

• Holy Beacon summons now have a max lifetime of 30s.

Withered Vampires

• Got a glow-up with a new model, animations, and some new attacks and behaviors.

V Blood Updates

Alpha Wolf

• Alpha Wolf changed to Alpha the White Wolf.

Keely the Frost Archer

• Arrows now deal reduced damage when several arrows hit the same target.
• Keeley has received a new model and portrait in the VBlood menu.

Errol the Stonebreaker

• Errol has received a new model and portrait in the VBlood menu.

Lidia the Chaos Archer

• Lidia has received a model and VBlood portrait update.

Rufus the Foreman

• Now has a stable return range center position at the center of his arena. (Was previously dependent on where he was engaged as he walked around)

Grayson the Armourer

• Polish to the timing of effects on attacks.
• Added ground impact effect on his basic attack.
• Fixed issue with sliding after attacking.

Goreswine the Ravager

• Fixed issue with sliding after casting a projectile.

Clive the Firestarter

• Has received a new model and VBlood portrait.

Kriig the Undead General

• Reduced health and damage of his minions spawned by his ward of the damned

Kodia the Ferocious Bear

• Ferocious Bear changed to Kodia the Ferocious Bear.
• Fixed issue with sliding after attacking.
• Reduced turn speed.

Quincy the Bandit King

• Players can no longer counter or block his Charge Ability.
• Is now smarter when he uses his parry to better counter players.
• Increased cooldown and reduced damage of his parry.

Leandra the Shadow Priestess

• Shadow soldiers now have a smoother dash attack sequence.
• Shadow soldiers have slightly increased time to attack.

Maja the Dark Savant

• Maja now only spawns a minion from her ranged attack if it successfully hits an enemy player.
• Fixed a bug where she would consume a killed inkling.

Meredith the Bright Archer

• Reduced her minion’s health scaling per player.
• Meredith has received a texture update and improvements to her VBlood portrait.

Frostmaw the Mountain Terror

• Fixed issue with Freeze duration HUD not resetting correctly when multiple freezes were applied.

Octavian the Militia Captain

• Fixed issue with Leap attack effects that did not play correctly when the ability was countered.

Domina the Blade Dancer

• Fixed issue with Leap attack effects that did not play correctly when the ability was countered.

Angram the Purifier

• Fixed an issue where he could swap aggro to random enemies.

Ungora the Spider Queen

• Fixed an issue where her webs would stop being rendered before the web actually despawned, causing unfortunate vampires to get stuck in invisible webs.

Albert the Duke of Balaton

• The Duke of Balaton changed to Albert the Duke of Balaton.
• Tweaked swallow ability to be slightly easier to avoid.
• Increased cast time of his leap that creates poison areas.
• Increased cooldown of summoning adds abilities.
• Reduced turn speed.

Ben the Old Wanderer

• The Old Wanderer changed to Ben the Old Wanderer.

Henry Blackbrew the Doctor

• Tweaked effects and hitboxes of his beams to more accurately match one another.

Matka the Curse Weaver

• Vampires can no longer feed while transformed into pigs.

Terrorclaw the Ogre

• No longer tries to pick up icicles that are about to despawn due to low lifetime.

Lord Styx the Night Champion

• Nightmarshal Styx the Sunderer changed to Lord Styx the Night Champion.
• Styx has found his way through the mists of the Cursed Forest and has now made his camp at Dracula’s Demise.
• Made an overhaul on Styx’s abilities.
• Now has a quick teleport move to close the gap.
• Added a jump attack for some more vampire flair.
• Now summons Gargoyles instead of Withered Vampires.
• Added another projectile to the Bat Swarm spell.
• Tweaked the timing and pattern of his spin attack.
• Styx now has a new voice and additional voice lines.
• Oh, and he has gotten help from his flying and fire-spewing pet.

Talzur the Winged Horror

• The Winged Horror changed to: Talzur the Winged Horror
• Removed the split on the ice projectiles.
• Fixed several hit box issues meaning that Talzur now is much better at hitting vampires with its swipes.
• The Winged Horror now spawns 8 Frost Vortexes instead of just 1.
• Drastically improved performance on this fight, meaning that it does not cause stutters anymore.

Solarus the Immaculate

• Reduced return range of Divine Angel to keep it inside the combat arena.

Nibbles the Putrid Rat

• Putrid Rat changed to Nibbles the Putrid Rat.
• Fixed an issue causing him to reset the fight unintentionally.

V blood descriptions have been changed on the following v blood units:

• Alpha the White Wolf
• Beatrice the Tailor
• Christina the Sun Priestess
• Leandra the Shadow Priestess
• Meredith the Bright Archer
• Jade the Vampire Hunter
• Lord Styx the Night Champion
• Gorecrusher the Behemoth
• Solarus the Immaculate
• Talzur the Winged Horror

New V Blood Units

6 New V Blood units have been added to the game:

• Finn the Fisherman
• General Elena the Hollow
• General Cassius the Betrayer
• General Valencia the Depraved
• Simon Belmont the Vampire Hunter
• Dracula the Immortal King

New Units

Farbane Woods

• Bandit Scout
• Bandit Rascal
• Giant Crow

Ruins of Mortium

• Vampire Cultist
• Hand of Dracula / Sanguinary Guard
• Exsanguinator
• Giant Bat
• Blood Prophet
• Dreadhorn
• Gargoyle
• Night Maiden / Dark Temptress
• Shadowkin
• Slaughterbeast / Ripperbeast
• Withered Vampires
• Giant Crow

Blood

• 100% Blood now grants a 25% effect bonus, reduced from 30%.
• Dying now causes you to lose 10% of your blood pool and not your entire blood pool.
• Reviving an ally no longer consumes blood, you and your ally keep your existing blood.
• The Blood Tracking effect has been improved and is now visible even while in combat, while in Wolf form, or while mounted.

Blood Types

New Blood Type – Draculin

Has the following effects:

• 10-20% Increased Movement Speed during the Night.
• 10-20% Increased Damage against enemies below 30% Health.
• 40-80% Increased Healing from Blood Mend.
• 1 Additional Bite charge and restores 5% of your maximum health when killing an enemy using Bite.
• Boost all the above effects by 25%.

Creature Blood

• Damage Reduction reduced to 8-16% from 10-20%

Warrior Blood

• Physical Power bonus reduced to 10-15% from 10-20%.
• Damage Reduction reduced to 6-12% from 7.5-15%.
• Parry chance reduced to 10% from 15%.

Brute Blood

• Leech increased to 6%-12% from 5-10%.
• Attack speed increased to 8-16% from 7.5-15%.
• 90% Blood Healing proc buff now increases all physical damage, not only damage from primary attacks.

Rogue Blood

• Explosive shot on Pistols no longer triggers the Rogue Blood crit buff.

UI/UX Updates

The entire user interface has gotten a facelift with additional quality of life additions along with a tailored interface for the gamepad for select parts of the game such as the HUD and the Build Menu.

HUD

Updated visuals and improved readability of different HUD elements, character bars and interaction UI.

Main Menu

Visual updates and improvements to options, browsing online servers, hosting private games, and altering advanced settings.

Map

The map has gotten visual updates with improved readability. The closest route to a map marker will be outlined once one is placed.

Added a key bind to center the map at yourself

Minimap is now available in the starting crypt and graveyard.

Scrolling Combat Text

Damage values now scale in size depending on how much damage was dealt.

Spellbook

Spellbook has been updated with a new visual look that is also more gamepad-friendly.

Death Log

You can now see the source of your defeat.

Character Menu

Character Blood Pool Tab

• Added a tab in the character inventory to display your current blood pool.

Attribute Tab

• Added a tab in the character inventory that displays all your stats and attributes.

Shapeshift Wheel

The action wheel for shapeshifts and emotes has been expanded to 12 slots so that all powers and forms are available at all times. Players may change shapeshift skin on each entry instead of having skins as separate abilities.

The wheel is now always centered in the middle of the screen.

Refinement Stations

Changes to the layout of recipes: players may now turn off specific recipes in refinement stations

Crafting Stations – Track Recipes

Players may now track individual recipes within Crafting Stations.

Progression & Material Changes

General

• General changes and updates to some V Blood levels, gameplay balance, and rewards.
• Basic materials now have bigger stacks (wood, stone, blood essence, etc.).
• Many decoration unlocks have been moved to be part of V Blood unlocks instead of Research unlocks.
• Players now gain more basic materials such as stone and wood when harvesting, reducing the amount of early game grind.
• Many structures and decorations have had their build cost rebalanced. Generally, decorations are cheaper now.
• Wallpapers no longer have any item cost and can now be placed by holding down the input, making it a lot faster and easier to redecorate your rooms.
• You may now grind Hells Clarion and Ghost Shrooms into Pollen in the Grinder.

Consumables

• Crafting costs for various consumables have been rebalanced.
• Most consumable effects have had their duration of the effect increased to 60 minutes.
• Potions increasing physical and spell power have had the effect reduced to 3 from 4 (early game potions) and to 6 from 8 (end game potions).
• New Potion – Vampiric Brew
  • Increases spell leech by 10% and blood type efficiency by 5%.

Soul Shards

The four most powerful V Blood bosses drop Soul Shards, these have been reworked into Magic Sources with unique on-hit effects and ultimate abilities. Depending on server settings there may only be one of each active at once.

Soul Shards can only be repaired by participating in world events (Rift Incursions in Ruins of Mortium). Players will need to venture out into the world and risk it all if they want to keep their Soul Shards, or they will be destroyed and reset to each Shard carrier.

Bag Rework

Bags have been reworked and are now a single equipable item that increases your entire inventory space. Bags may also have additional stats.

Journal (Quests) and Tutorial

There’s a number of updates to existing journal quests along with new entries and rewards. All Tutorial steps have been updated and additional onboarding tips have been added.

General

• Lots of bug fixes, anti-exploit fixes, and tuning of content.
• Vampires are now able to walk through an optional key bind.
• Extensive work to optimize visual effects throughout the entire game with the goal to provide a more stable FPS and improved gameplay experience across more hardware.
• Additional units added to Fabane (low-level bandit scouts/rascals and wildlife crows).
• Golems and explosives are placeable on 2.5 heights.
• Added additional tiers of health scaling for Golems in Advanced Settings.
• Devoted now has Scholar blood instead of Warrior blood.
• Ancestral Weapons are no longer sold by merchants in Gloomrot, are now instead sold by vampire merchants in Ruins of Mortium.
• Gloomrot and Cursed forest saplings that are planted in your territory now yield gloom wood and cursed wood respectively.
• Many visual FX should now be correctly hidden while the player or enemy target is invisible (for example, during stealth or when teleporting).
• Horses now feed on plant fiber instead of water bottles.
• Shard bearers are now part of the V Blood progression tree panel and are no longer a separate tab.
• Players can no longer unstuck while wounded.
• You can no longer kill/charm prisoners from an enemy castle.
• We have added a Rimlight to the unit models to increase readability and enhance the graphical visual impression of the game. This setting can be found in the Graphical option menu.
• We have implemented an image based lighting solution to better render materials and lighting conditions throughout the entire game. This new lighting model affects every area of the game, making the objects in the environment better interact with each other.
• You may now teleport with your mount when using local castle teleporters.

Bottles and Potions

• Players no longer need to fill bottles with water/sludge.
• Drinking a potion will no longer consume the bottle, an empty waterskin or glass bottle will be returned to the inventory after consuming the content.

Inventory Management

• Players may now drop their entire inventory into a single container bag (similar to the death bag).
• Added hotkeys for “compulsively count”, “take all”, and “sort”.
• The “Compulsively Count” action has been split into Quick Take and Quick Send, allowing the action to work both directions. There are additional input bindings for these actions (Default “Q” for Quick Take and “E” for Quick Send using KBM, L3 and R3 using Gamepad).

Fishing

• Canceling fishing too early no longer despawns the pool of fish.
• Fishing drop tables update: there is now a higher chance of actually getting fish when fishing!
• Fishing poles can now be crafted from inventory.
• Players may now feed prisoners with more types of fish.

Achievements

Introducing Steam Achievements! Conquer bosses, explore the map, reach pivotal progression milestones, and ultimately triumph over Dracula himself. Gear up, level up, and prepare to rise to glory! Are you ready to claim your victory?

Servants

• New Servant Hunts locations
  • West Fortress Ruins
  • Dracula’s Castle Garden
• Cleric Servant
  • Fixed an issue where they would cast supporting abilities on dead horses.
• Reduced the duration of servant injuries (from completing servant hunts).

Visual Effects & Sound

Visual Effects

• A great amount of visual effects have been updated with new and improved visuals along with performance improvements to make sure it looks great and runs smoothly.

Sound

• Support for DualSense® controller including both haptics and controller speaker.
• 7.1 and 5.1 surround support added.
• New player VO for abilities, emotes and social.
• New UI sounds for menus and crafting.
• Remastered voice acting for some older voices.
• General mixing, refinement, optimization and bug squashing.

Music

• Added new music tracks for Mortium day and night.
• Added a new music track for the Dracula boss fight.
• Added a new music track for the Simon Belmont boss fight.

Voices

• Added additional vampire voice lines for a number of actions.
• Added voice lines for emotes.
• Removed voice lines out of date with the current narrative of the game.
• Added voice lines for new V blood units.
• Removed old voice lines and added new ones for Styx.

Server Settings

The server Settings menu has been updated, and settings have been distributed into different categories:

• Game Settings
• Items
• PvP
• Building
• Progression

Settings have been streamlined in the in-game interface, and some niche settings have been removed from the menu (note that most options are still available when setting up dedicated servers but all settings are not available in the in-game interface).

Change settings on existing servers/saves

Using the “Load Game” menu players may now edit the settings of their save/server allowing you to customize a game world even after hosting it. The vast majority of settings can be changed and will take effect immediately after restarting the server / loading the game.

Settings with limited support:

• Altering “Teleport Bound”, “Bat Bound” or “Blood Bound” settings will only affect new items created after toggling the setting
• Progression settings such as starting level and starting items will only affect new vampire avatars created after changing these settings
• PvP Protection will only affect new vampires created after toggling this setting

Updated Settings

Added new settings for “Rift Incursions”.

• Incursion Interval
• Minor Incursion Duration
• Major Incursion Duration
• Real-time hours for when Incursions may spawn

Added settings for the “Relocate” feature.

• Enable/disable the feature
• Modify the cooldown from 0 – 48h (how often a castle may be relocated)

Journal Progression Settings reworked into “Starting Level”. You may no longer individually select what journal quests are unlocked, instead, all quests below the set starting level will be unlocked for all players, including all research on select level

Other

• Added build limit settings for Stygian Summoning Circle and Throne of Darkness.
• “Teleport Bound Items” split into two options – One for waygates and one for bat form.
• Siege Golem Health setting now has additional health values between 750 Health and 7500 Health.
• Increased the maximum setting for Castle Floors to 800 tiles.

Official Server Setting Updates

• PvE Servers now allow Bat Form when carrying items with the “Cannot be Teleported” tag
• All Official servers now only allow one Castle Heart per Vampire.
• Duo PvP servers have a lower limit for maximum Tombs.
• PvP Servers now show golems on the map.
• Servers with Unique Shards enabled will have Mortium Events disabled between the hours of 2.00 and 8.00 Local Server Time. This is for the sake of motivating players to attend the zone during active hours, as well as, prevent Shard holders from taking advantage of off hours to recharge their Shards.