Today is the day where Dauntless gets Reforged. The much-ballyhooed update that shifts a number of the multiplayer RPG’s base systems — particularly how players find Behemoths to hunt and how they progress — is going live today and has shared some patch notes ahead of time.
The notes themselves, as one would expect, link back to prior explanations of these systems including the new Hunting Grounds islands, the Slayer’s Path progression system, and power surging and reforging of weapons and armor, but it also offers a look ahead at the Cold Front Hunt Pass which introduces a number of Viking-themed cosmetics.
The notes also showcase a number of other specific adjustments like modified damage curves for dealing and taking damage, which should make character power levels and elemental damage and resistances more impactful; lowered power bonuses per level from Escalation and the end of those boosts applying to non-Escalation hunts; and an increase in daily Bounty Tokens as well as a shift to those rewards as part of the daily coin flip.
The update arrives at a point when developer Phoenix Labs is experiencing a growth spurt. A press release notes that Dauntless itself has surpassed 25 million players and the studio has added 50 new employees. In fact, Phoenix Labs is set to open two new studios in Los Angeles, CA and Montreal, Canada, on top of its existing studios in Vancouver, Canada and San Mateo, CA. The presser also states that Phoenix Labs will be working on “multiple prototypes” for new games, though specifics on that front weren’t otherwise shared.
For more on Dauntless’ game-changing update, you can check out our preview for some first-hand impressions. Or you can wait until later today to try things out yourself.
