It’s been a while since we peeked in on the cutesy indie MMORPG Villagers and Heroes, but we’re just in time, as Mad Otter has revived Equinox with today’s 5.23 patch. Equinox, for those for may have forgotten, is a long-running in-game event that takes place in the Oasis of Anuk’Amon event zone.
“The Spring Equinox Event Zone, the Oases of Anuk’Amon, has arrived, bringing with it a scenic desert filled with adventure, rewards, and evil pharaohs!” the studio promises. “Thrilling new mounts and flair, as well as a slew of exciting game improvements await in this build. Come explore the Oases today!” The patch notes do indeed three mounts: Desert Paddlepaw, Nocturnal Paddlepaw, Petroglyph Prowler. We also spy a few other bug fixes, mostly text-based.
Back in January, Mad Otter – fresh off a year when it was laser-focused on heavily expanding the game’s housing – dubbed 2024 the “year of new high level content,” with a focus on endgame and a level cap raise to 100. March was supposed to see the release of The Crux zone and storyline for endgamers, along with Season 8: Eye of the Storm and a new raid called Tempest’s Reach. But of course, it’s May now – so where is that content?
It turns out it’s just been delayed. Last month, the studio told Discord fans that it was aiming Season 8 for this week, the Equinox event for later in May, and The Crux for early summer, with The Hive and Sunkentooth Content presumably to follow later in the year. “When the Crux goes live, the level cap will NOT be raised to 100. It will go to 96 or 97,” Mad Otter’s Basha clarified. “The level cap raise to 100 will not come until the Sunkentooth content, which is much further down the road.” Two weeks ago, the studio clarified again that the Equinox event and S8 have been swapped – hence the fact that Equinox is here today and S8 isn’t.
“The Equinox Event Zone will now be going live on Monday, May 6th. Season 8 of Raids will not be going live on that date as originally planned. (We’re now shooting for end of May/early June for Raids.) So we’ve swapped Equinox and Raid dates.”
So there you go: It’s all still coming, just a bit behind the original schedule.
