Last week, Dauntless promised that it would summarize the features of its revamp-filled Awakening update in a follow-up to its recent progress report. That synopsis has now come online, which provides a pretty comprehensive look at what Awakening is bringing – both on the positive and the negative side.
We’ll get the possibly unwelcome news out of the way, as Dauntless’ monetization is getting tweaked a fair bit. The update will introduce lockboxes known as canisters that will rerun arcslayer cosmetics and house a new deep sea cosmetic set. Developer Phoenix Labs promises “as much transparency and integrity as possible” with this feature, with transparent odds and the inability for duplicates to be awarded when cracking open these gambleboxes.
There will also be an all-new hunt pass – a first for the RPG in two years – that awards pulls for these lockboxes, a new currency known as weapon tokens that can be used to purchase new unique weapons, and Slayer’s Club benefits in its elite track. Players can also purchase lockbox pulls and weapon tokens from the cash shop, while weapon tokens can be earned from weekly challenges.
As for the better news, Awakening will bring plenty of updates to existing features, most of which the studio has been outlining over the past several months’ worth of dev blogs. That includes the ability to swap between two weapons and refinements to gear systems like cells, reforging, loadouts, and armor buffs.
There will also be some new things on tap as well, including a refined main quest line, an all-new Behemoth known as a Karkonos along with its relevant armor, some new effects for umbral and astral weapons, and seven new unique weapons earned through early quests. Players can also expect some Behemoth reworks (the Embermane and Valomyr are specifically called out here), three new smaller critters, and some shuffling of NPCs in Ramsgate.
There are a few things that were previously discussed that are absent from the summary, most notably targeted hunts and pets. Phoenix Labs says it’s not fully committing to a release date for these features as they’re still in the works. The post also doesn’t provide a launch window for the patch but promises that “the ramp up to launch is real” and invites players to stay tuned for more.
