It has been quite some time since we specifically checked in on the multiplayer Behemoth-hunting RPG Dauntless, but that was primarily because news coming from developer Phoenix Labs took more precedence – and cast some long and worrying shadows, such as the studio laying off 100 more people this year after it had shed nine percent of its workforce last year and been snarfed up by a blockchain outfit. The game has resurfaced now and is back on our radar this week thanks to a recent dev blog that once more discusses its planned revamp update.
This new post follows a roughly two month-long span of radio silence when Phoenix Labs opened pre-registration for a closed beta in September, and it begins with a new release window for its now-titled Awakening update for the end of this year; recall that the studio had first targeted a summer release, but the studio admits in this new post that it failed to manage expectations properly.
The blog then outlines the “valuable” feedback from that PC beta, which was so valuable in fact that the team reportedly doesn’t require more testing and is moving on with updates. Some of those updates include changes to armor crafting that make it less cost-intensive in terms of materials and clarifies perks in an updated UI, a way to hunt down specific cells, and a variety of bug fixes.
Phoenix Labs then goes on to outline events for the rest of this year: Two small events will kick off on the weekends of November 15th and November 29th, while the Ramsgiving seasonal event will be skipped entirely for now, though players can still purchase themed cosmetics in the cash shop; seasonal events like Frostfall are still on the docket. And on the subject of the cash shop, the post firmly states that Dauntless will not sell NFTs – a nod to that blockchain company buyout, which devs were reportedly required to not disclose.
As for what’s next for the game, the devs promise a new blog this week that will “announce and clarify all the content of the upcoming season,” as well as a nod to a potential Steam release.
