Dev log

Better fights, eight-way characters, new places

A big one. Here's what changed.

Fighting

• Your character faces eight ways now, diagonals too, and swings the way you face. If nothing is in front of you, the swing turns to the nearest Beast in reach.
• Tap attack to chain a three-hit combo. Hold it to charge a heavy swing that hits harder, reaches further and knocks Beasts back.
• On a PC your abilities (Q, X and F) go where your mouse points, and the ones you set down land right there. Ranged abilities reach further too, and if you point past one, a small mark with its key shows where it stops.
• A roll goes the way you're moving, and cuts a swing short.
• Beasts wind up before they strike, with a red ring under them, so you can step out or roll through it. Some circle you first, some charge in a straight line.
• Beasts out in the world are tougher, and give more XP and loot to match.
• Potions have a short cooldown now, and you heal on your own a few seconds after you stop getting hit.

Your character

• Every hairstyle, hat, outfit and face is drawn from all eight directions, so your look holds up whichever way you turn.

New places and quests

• Eleven new quests, from level 20 up.
• The Waystone Relay lets you travel between the waystones in Green's towns, and the Landing Stone takes you back to worlds you've already stood in.
• Finish The Last Entry for a second heavy ability, swapped at the stone circle in the Sanctum.
• The Emberdeep, a new world behind a door in Ashfall Reach, with its own people, Beasts and boss.
• The Kiln, a new expedition from level 30, and Cinder Wisps roaming Ashfall Reach.

Plus a big round of fixes under the hood.

Into beta — your character is safe now

Beast Frontier is in beta. The part that matters to you: from here on, your character stays. No more wipes.

Your account

• You can change your password from the account screen now. Doing it signs out every other device at once — so if you ever think someone has your login, change it and they are gone.
• Forgot your password? You can get back in. Signing up now gives you a recovery code, shown once — write it down. If your account is older than today, press Recovery code on the account screen to get one.

A little more room to grow

• The top rank of an ability opens at level 49 instead of 56, so there is real time to use it before the level cap.

Out in the world

• The PvP flag is a small box beside the menu now, instead of a bar across the top of the screen. Tap it to raise or lower your flag, and it counts down while the flag is going up or coming down.

Keeping it friendly

• You can report a player now. Open the Nearby list and press Report next to their name, or type /report and their name in chat. The report includes the last few minutes of chat you could see, so there's nothing to screenshot, and they never find out who sent it.
• Slurs get hidden in chat, and you can't put one in a character, account or faction name. Names that look like game staff are out too.
• There's a short rules page and a privacy page now, so you know what's expected and what the game keeps about you.
• Your saves get backed up every night, in two separate places.

Beasts move smoothly now, too — they used to jitter a little when more than one was on screen.

Underneath all of it, a long pass over saving, trading and the boards closed a stack of ways a character could quietly lose something or a board could jam. That work is why the no-wipe promise is one we can make.

New quests, all of them

Every quest in the game has been replaced. There are twenty-five now, and they are made differently.

What a quest is now

• A story with people in it. They talk to you partway through, not just when you take the job and when you hand it in.
• Something to work out. You search a place, use a thing where it belongs, or answer a question you have been given the pieces for. What you are told is kept in your journal, so you can read it back.
• Barely any counting. Four steps in the whole set ask you to kill or collect a number, and twenty of the twenty-five have no fighting in them at all.

Rewards you keep

• Wake where you fell: finish the right quest and dying in Ashfall, Skyreach, Tidewrack or the Sanctum wakes you at that station instead of Haven's Rest.
• Your Vault holds ten more pieces. A quarter of your credits survives your death. Later, four pieces of gear survive instead of three, and once a day your whole pack comes home instead of being lost.
• A supply crate once a day from any Vaultkeeper, a better price from every trader, dens marked on your map, a warning before the weather turns, a fire that burns twice as long, and recipes nobody else can make.

Finding them

• Every quest shows what it wants before you start: your level, quests you have done, trade levels, and quest points. Points come from how hard a quest is, and a few later ones ask for them.
• The world keeps what you did. Beacons you lit stay lit, a wall you built stands, stones you set are there the next time you pass.

Everything new in September

A big month, so here's the short version.

Getting in

• You need an account to make a character now. New players make one on the title screen and go straight into character creation. Up to ten characters per account.
• Got an old guest character? It still loads on the device you made it on, and the title screen will offer to save it to an account.
• New characters start on the Deployment Station. Basic Training walks you through fighting, abilities, the Vault, forging, brewing and cooking. You can skip it whenever you like.

Realms

• The game now runs two realms at once. Your character is the same in both, with the same bag, bank and levels, but each realm has its own Beasts, bosses and loot.
• Pick a realm on the character screen, or hop in game with the ◈ button (Realms in the phone menu). You can't hop in the middle of a fight.

Your look

• The character screen has tabs now: body, face, hair and clothes. Pick eye shapes, brows, mouths, facial hair, eleven hairstyles, five tops, a hat, and colours for all of it.
• The new stylist in Haven's Rest changes your look any time, for free. The shop is on the east side of the square, across from the Vault.
• Some looks you have to earn. Tailors can make hats and outfits, every boss has a rare trophy hat of its own, and a few quests give one. Hold a Record and you get a laurel.
• Click a piece in your bag to wear it. It stays in your wardrobe for good, and the stylist's Wardrobe tab shows all twenty and where each one comes from.

Bows, and three new trades

• Bows are in. Wear one and your attack shoots at whatever's in front of you. A bow hits a bit softer than a sword but from much further away, and Agility makes it better.
• Woodcutting: walk up to any tree and press E. The wood depends on where the tree grows, and Skyreach and Tidewrack have kinds of their own.
• Fletching and Tailoring: every Forge Hall has a workbench now, and so do Korrin's smithy at the Ashfall outpost and the trade post at each station. Make bows and arrows, tan hides into leather, and sew light armour that gives up a little defence for aim and speed.
• Every kind of bow has its own look, from the little Shortbow up to the Noumenal Longbow.
• Traders sell plain arrows if you run out, and Salt Gulls drop the feathers to make your own.
• Out in open PvP, arrows hit other players like any other attack. So do fire, water and earth bolts, which only used to hit a duel opponent.

Fishing

• Look for rings on the water, stand on the shore next to them and press E. Each of Haven's four regions has its own fish, and so does every frontier and deep world with something to fish in, lava and cloud included.
• A spot gives up a few fish and then goes quiet for a minute or so, so work your way along the shore.
• Eleven new dishes to cook from what you catch, all the way up to a Cinderjaw Roast from the lava of Voidscar.

A new look

• I redrew the menus, the HUD and this site in the same pixel style as the game.
• Every Beast and every boss has its own hand-drawn art now, with its own walk and attack. Have a look on the Beasts page.
• Your character is taller and built in layers (body, face, hair, clothes, armour), which is what makes proper customization possible next. Your weapon sits in your hand and your arms swing when you walk.
• NPCs use the same new body, each in their own outfit.
• The world is redrawn too: new ground, proper shorelines, taller houses that fade when you walk behind them, trees that suit the region, and new stones, lamps, carts and fences.

The Green world

• Green is an island now, with ash highlands by Windward Rise, moorland around Quietmarch and salt flats behind Saltmere. Haven's Rest keeps the green heartland.
• Each city has its own layout, and winding roads connect them.
• You'll find little abandoned scenes out in the countryside.
• Towns chatter as you walk around, and it changes at night.
• Everyone shares one clock, and a day lasts 16 minutes.
• Beasts graze, patrol and sleep. Wolves come out after dark, and the slimes go to bed.

Shops you walk into

Shops, forges, the Vault, the Exchange and the Faction Hall are rooms now, with the keeper behind a counter. Same for the traders and smiths out on the frontier. The towns got rearranged a little to fit them.

Quests

Quests come from the people who need them now: smiths, bankers and traders in every city. Some start from a page a Beast drops, and some the first time you cross a gate or beat a Beast of a new grade. Your quest list still shows all of them and where each one starts.

Crafting

• Two new skills, the Herbalist and Culinary, and any trader will teach you both. Brew at the still behind each trader, and cook at any fire, including one you light yourself with B.
• Herbs grow in different regions, and Beasts drop meat, fat, eggs, hides, scales and more.
• Potions you brew give you a short bonus after drinking. Shop ones don't. Meals heal over time and give you a physical bonus, and eating at a fire feeds everyone standing there.
• Choose how many to make at the furnace, the still or the fire, and they come out one after another while you stand there.
• Ore gets smelted into bars at the furnace before you forge with it.
• Every recipe has a level. Press K (or Skills in the phone menu) to see the full list for each skill.
• The forge has 55 pieces going up to forging 99, including full Demon and God Slayer sets. The still makes 18 things, including tonics and Restoring Draughts that give you AP back. The fire has 16 dishes.
• Food can burn until you're good enough at that dish.
• Every boss drops a forge core now. The Demon bosses drop Demon Cores, and Noumenon drops the Ascendant Core that goes into the God Slayer set.
• The forge shows your character wearing each piece before you make it (click to turn them around). The still and the fire show what each item looks like.
• Toren has starter recipes for every power, and every power has an easy Basic Beast near the cities to get its crystal from.
• The Vault holds spare gear now, up to 40 pieces, and you can destroy gear you don't want from the Gear panel.
• Crafting levels a lot faster than before.
• Every piece of King Grade gear and up has its own skill now. Your weapon's is on R, and your shield, chest, legs and accessories are on 1 to 5. On a phone they sit in a small pad next to your buttons.
• The Demonforged and Noumenal sets give extra bonuses when you wear 2, 3 or all 5 pieces.
• When a trade gives you XP, a little ring pops up showing how close you are to the next level.

More past level 40

• Korveth, the Standing Seam, a new Emerald boss in a second lair in Voidscar Wastes.
• Two new expeditions: Lastlight Station (level 45) and The Undervault (level 58). Expeditions give XP now, and levels 40 to 60 need about a third less XP.
• Four new Beasts, one for each extreme world.
• Two new quests, The Assay and You Already Chose.
• Factions need fewer members to level up.

Everything else

• Your bag shows each item in its own colour and shape, and loot on the ground shows what it is.
• Ability buttons have a bar that fills as you use them, and the XP bar under your health shows up again.
• On a phone, Stats and Gear are in the menu, and the "rotate your device" message is gone. On a keyboard, the campfire is on B and the map is on M.
• Plus a round of bug fixes, like boss kills not counting for quests and your own armour not showing on your character.

See you out there.