World#
The goblins have a home of their own now: a valley south of Alderwic and Marlow's Hut, with camps that get harder the further in you go.
The goblin valley
- New ground south of Alderwic and Marlow's Hut is open to walk. Its mouth is about half a minute from Marlow.
- Goblin Scouts and Warriors hold the lanes, Goblin Shamans the back camps, and the Big Runt has moved from just south of Alderwic to a den at the far end.
- Deer and Stags graze there too, and there are new birch and oak trees to chop.
- Goblin Runts stay in the meadow by Marlow's Hut, with a new group just south of Alderwic.
- The Goblin Scouts, Warriors and Shamans that stood west and north of Alderwic have moved to the valley.
Why: each faction should hold its own country to fight your way into, with harder camps further in, rather than being scattered across the map. The goblin valley is the first.
Alderwic
- Alderwic's houses are now walk-in: they have doors and rooms inside. Among them is a tavern with its Bartender and two Tavern Regulars. Player suggestion
- New townsfolk keep the market stalls: Grocer Edith, Baker Mildred, Costermonger Wulf and Pedlar Leofric. Talk to them; they don't trade yet.
Around the heartland
- More wildlife where the goblins used to be: Heath Adders, Rabbits and Foxes west of Alderwic, and more Deer east of town and on the way north to Fallhaven.
- Fewer Forest Bears on the road to Fallhaven, and fewer Hobgoblin Scouts east of town, on the way to the Crystal Mine.
- One more Alderwic Ranger in town.
- One more shrimp fishing spot at Marlow's pond.
- Red-cap patches around Marlow's Hut and the runt meadow have moved, and there are three fewer.
The edge of the world
- Ground you can't walk on yet now sits under the same mist as the edge of the world, instead of standing in clear view.
- More land around the edge is drawn, under that mist. You can't walk there yet, and it isn't on the map.
Look and sound
- Far-off birch trees no longer have lemon-yellow tops: they match the leaves up close.
- The sun's glint on rivers is softer.
- Night crickets are quieter in town: only a faint cricket or two.
Try it: Walk south from Marlow's Hut into the goblin valley and follow the smoke to the Big Runt's den.
Quests#
Scout Sweep
- Thegn Tom's Scout Sweep now starts by kitting you out. Tom asks how you fight: Strength, Dexterity or Magic. He pays for a full set to match:
- Strength: Benny Smith gives you the bronze set: helm, cuirass, legs, gauntlets and boots.
- Dexterity: the Clothier gives you the leather set: helm, body, legs, gloves and boots.
- Magic: the Clothier gives you the wool set: hat, robe top, robe bottom, gloves, boots and cape.
- Make room in your bag for the whole set: if it won't all fit, nothing is handed over.
- Put the whole set on, then see Alchemist Elias for 10 Health Potion I. You can't eat in a fight, but potions go down any time.
- Then it's a raid on the goblin camp:
- Kill 12 Goblin Scouts (was 5).
- Hear Tom's briefing.
- Kill 6 Goblin Warriors and 6 Goblin Shamans, in any order.
- Report back to Tom.
- Kill the Big Runt.
- Rewards: 500 Silver Coins (was 300), 1,500 Hitpoints XP and a Large Combat XP Scroll. Read it to choose 1,500 XP in Strength, Dexterity or Magic.
- Partway through? You start again with Tom, who kits you out first. Scouts you'd already killed don't carry over.
Turning in
- When your last talk with a quest giver finishes the quest, the same page now offers Complete. Before, the conversation closed and you had to talk to them again.
- When two steps run at the same time, the quest tracker shows each one on its own line with its own count.
Quest tracker
- The tracker now lists every quest you have on, not just the one you're following. The header counts them ("2 active · 1 new").
- The quest you're following comes first, with a gold edge, then the ones around you, nearest first, then quests with no fixed place, then the rest.
- Each quest has a line saying where it is, like "Near Alderwic" or "In The Mine", in amber when it's somewhere else.
- Quests you can start show up too, tagged New, when the person who gives them is within 250 m. The line says who to talk to.
- Click a quest to follow it. Click the one you're following, or a New one, to open its details.
- It shows up to 5 quests, then "+N more in the Quests tab".
- Click the header to fold the tracker away. It stays folded until you open it again.
Learning the Ropes
- Before your first fight, Marlow now warns you that you can't eat while you're in a fight.
The Alchemist's Apprentice
- The Wildleaf you plant for Elias now grows in 15 seconds (was 90).
Try it: Talk-to Thegn Tom in Alderwic to start Scout Sweep, or pick up where you left off.
NPCs#
Helm
Byrnie
Mail Skirt
Gloves
Boots
Round Shield
Spear
Fur Cloak
Goblins and hobgoblins
- Goblins now cover levels 2 to 6 and hobgoblins 12 to 19:
- Goblin Runt 2 (was 3)
- Goblin Scout 3 (was 4)
- Goblin Warrior 4 (was 5)
- Goblin Shaman 5 (was 6)
- The Big Runt 6 (was 8)
- Hobgoblin Runt 12 (was 9)
- Hobgoblin Scout 14 (was 10)
- Hobgoblin Warrior 16 (was 11)
- Hobgoblin Shaman 18 (was 12)
- Hobgoblin Healer 19 (was 13)
- Goblin Runts now attack newcomers who come within 15 m. The range shrinks as you outlevel them, and from combat level 17 they leave you alone.
- Goblin Runts come back after 45 seconds (was 15).
- Goblin Shamans no longer heal themselves or other goblins. Hobgoblin Shamans and Healers still do.
- Goblin Warriors, Hobgoblin Runts, Hobgoblin Warriors, Skeletons, Lowland Trolls, Mangy Wolves, Giant Rats and Forest Bears notice you from 15 m (was 12).
- Deep Shift Miners notice you from 15 m (was 30).
Why: goblins are where you train from level 1 to 10, and hobgoblins from 11 to 20. Scout Sweep's goblins are pitched for a brand-new character; tougher goblins for levels 7 to 10 are coming to the back of the valley. Runts stay aggressive near the start so new players learn to pull.
Goblin drops
- Goblin Runts drop much less: fewer Silver Coins, Goblin Fangs, Cooked Meat and Hemp Seed less often, and no more Wildleaf or Health Potion I.
- Goblin Warriors always drop Silver Coins now, and more of them.
- Goblin Scouts, Warriors and Shamans drop Wildleaf far more often, sometimes two.
- Hobgoblin Runts, Scouts, Warriors and Shamans now drop Vervain too.
Why: runts are the starter field, and higher levels were farming it. Now runts pay the least of any goblin, and the pay climbs with each goblin's level. Each family drops its own tier's herb.
Alderwic's Huscarls
- The Alderwic Guards are now Alderwic Huscarls, level 14 (was 9), the village's sworn guard. They wear nasal helms, mail, round shields, spears and fur cloaks.
- They drop pieces of the Huscarl set they wear, instead of Bronze Spears, Bronze Shields and Bronze Gauntlets.
- Sergeant Tom is now Thegn Tom. He wears the Huscarls' fur cloak, no helmet, and a full beard.
- The Huscarl set needs Strength 14. It's a helm, byrnie, mail skirt, gloves, boots, round shield (blocks 51), one-handed spear and fur cloak. It never wears down.
Why: drop-only sets worn by named NPCs give you something to look forward to between the metal tiers, without a second crafting ladder.
Aggro range
- An NPC's aggro range no longer grows when you're a lower level than it. It still shrinks as you outlevel it.
- Wicks and Coven Acolytes no longer attack on sight. They still join in when their allies are attacked.
Why: a level-50 Mountain Troll could pull a level-3 player from 62 m away.
Every NPC
- Brawlers like Goblin Runts and Warriors, wolves and trolls are tougher, with more health and armour, but hit a little softer and have no magic resistance.
- Quick fighters like Goblin Scouts, rats and rabbits hit harder.
- Casters like Goblin Shamans lost their bit of armour.
- The changes are biggest on low-level NPCs. Higher up, health and armour moved by a few percent. The Codex shows the new numbers.
- Many NPCs swing a little slower, and each hit lands a little harder to match.
Combat#
Dexterity gives crits
- Each Dexterity level now adds 0.4% critical hit chance to your melee and ranged hits (was 0.15%).
- Dexterity no longer speeds up your attacks (was 0.25% a level). Your attack speed now comes from your weapon and your leather armour only.
- At Dexterity 20, that's 8% more crit chance and no extra speed (was 3% crit and 5% speed).
Why: Dexterity now does one job, critical hits. The extra crit chance about makes up for the speed you lose, so your damage over a fight stays about level.
How Dexterity and crits work
- Your Dexterity level, plus what leather armour adds to it, gives 0.4% crit chance per level. Your weapon's own crit chance adds on top.
- A critical hit does double damage.
- Crit chance stops at 25%. Anything above that makes your crits hit harder instead: at 30% you crit 25% of the time, and each crit does 220% damage.
- Example: you have Dexterity 40 and Steel Daggers (8% crit). That's 16% from Dexterity plus 8%, so 24%: you crit about one hit in four, for double damage. At Dexterity 50 it's 28%: you crit a quarter of the time, for 212% damage.
- Magic never crits.
Fighting without armour
- A new chat hint, once a session, the first time you take damage with nothing on your head, body, legs, hands or feet: "You're fighting without armour. Armour cuts the physical damage you take. Blacksmiths sell it, or smith your own." Robes count as armour for this.
Death#
- Bronze and iron tools stay in your bag when you die, like your coins: pickaxes, axes, fishing rods and hammers. Steel and better still drop to your body.
- The first 2,000 silver of every death is free to claim from Marlow. Above that, you pay only the rest: a death worth 10,000 silver costs 8,000 to claim. Walking back to your body is still free.
- What's free goes with your things to Marlow if your body runs out first. Things Marlow was already holding before this update cost their full value.
- Claiming your items is now a proper window instead of a conversation. Right-click Marlow and pick Claim items, or talk to him and pick Claim items. The window lists each thing with its icon, where it is, how long your body has left and its price. Click Claim on a row, or Claim all at the bottom. If your bag can't hold it all or you're short of silver, the bottom button claims what fits or what you can afford.
- The "You died" window now waits until you've respawned, instead of opening the moment you fall. Its "Show Marlow on the map" button is gone: you respawn next to him.
- Bronze and iron tools say "If you die: Stays in your bag" on their tooltip, and the first low-health tip tells new players what dying costs.
Why: early on, one death could cost everything you had, with no silver to get it back.
Worn gear#
- Magic robes now carry Armour and Magic Resist: a fifth of the same-tier plate's Armour, and the same amount of Magic Resist. Capes still carry none.
- Wool: hat 2, robe top 6, robe bottom 4, gloves 2, boots 2
- Hemp: hat 5, robe top 12, robe bottom 7, gloves 5, boots 5
- Flax: hat 7, robe top 18, robe bottom 11, gloves 7, boots 7
- Stinkreed: hat 10, robe top 24, robe bottom 14, gloves 10, boots 10
- Toetoe: hat 12, robe top 30, robe bottom 18, gloves 12, boots 12
- Sunthread: hat 17, robe top 42, robe bottom 25, gloves 17, boots 17
- Merino: hat 22, robe top 54, robe bottom 32, gloves 22, boots 22
- Leather keeps half of plate's Armour and the same in Magic Resist, and plate keeps no Magic Resist.
Skills#
- There's one Bowstring again. Every fibre twists into it at the spinning wheel (wool, hemp, flax, stinkreed, toetoe, sunthread and merino), and every bow takes it. Each fibre still needs its usual Crafting level and gives its usual XP.
- Any wool, hemp, merino or other bowstrings you had are now Bowstrings. Open Grand Exchange offers for them were cancelled: your silver or strings are waiting in the collect box.
- Bows are worth less now that they don't need a costly string, so shops pay less for them:
- Birch Bow 5 (unchanged)
- Oak Bow 11 (was 17)
- Willow Bow 26 (was 51)
- Swampwood Bow 52 (was 108)
- Maple Bow 89 (was 188)
- Pine Bow 192 (was 416)
- Moonwood Bow 336 (was 733)
- A Bowstring is worth 2 silver (a Flax Bowstring was 23).
- The Fletcher now stocks 5,000 Bowstrings and 100,000 Feathers (was 1,000).
Slayer#
- Until you've finished your first Slayer task, Edric Thorne's offer always has Goblins as its easier card. You can still swap it or take the harder one.
Interface#
- Health bars, on nameplates and your own action bar, show a short mark every 100 HP and a full one every 1,000, instead of marks at each quarter, so you can read how big a health pool is at a glance. On very big pools the short marks drop out. Nameplate bars are a little taller to fit them.
- Big stacks show shorter counts: exact up to 99,999, then thousands ("100K", "2280K"), then millions from 10 million ("10M"). This covers your bag, the bank, shops, loot and the action bar.
- The amount box (the X option at a station, the bank, a shop or a trade) now accepts k, m and b, and commas: "2.5k", "10K", "1m", "1,000".
- The World Map zooms toward your pointer instead of the middle of the map. Zoomed all the way out, NPC dots are smaller so they don't overlap.
- Tip cards sit in the bottom-right corner, above the Loot, Run and Auto-retaliate buttons, instead of the middle of the screen, and have an OK button.
- A new tip card the first time you carry food, You can't eat in a fight: once something is attacking you, you can't eat, but health potions work in combat. If the low-health tip already taught you this, you won't see it.
- Food tooltips show In combat: Can't be eaten on its own line near the top, instead of in the small print at the bottom.
- Cooking's recipe tabs, at the range and in the skill guide, follow the dishes: Fish, Meat, Omelettes, Cakes and Herbed Cakes (was one Dishes tab).
- Tickboxes ("Don't show tips", "Stop at Masterwork" and others) are drawn as proper boxes with a tick.
- The XP calculator's sort and filter are now dropdowns that list every option. Top now shows everything from your tier up, locked or not (at level 44, everything from 41), instead of 20 levels below your best action.
Characters#
- Nine armour-like parts have left the character creator, which offers clothing only: a torso and hips for each body, a head covering, two back pieces and a pair of shoulder guards. They're now used for armour.
Music#
- A new song, Goblin Country, plays in the goblin valley. It unlocks the first time you walk in, and the music player lists it under The Goblin Valley.
Play in browser#
- The download page now lists system requirements for the download, the browser and phones.
- Phones and tablets are now marked experimental. Before sign-in, Android phones and tablets show a one-time notice that the game is built for computers. iPhone and iPad show one that they don't work yet. Both can play anyway.
- Computers whose built-in graphics are too slow for the browser show a one-time notice that the download runs faster there, with a download button. You can still play in the browser.
- On phones and tablets, the graphics settings now say "Phones and tablets are experimental. Presets above Potato are too slow on them."
Fixes#
- Spellbook: on a Bound Blade II or higher, Blink Strike's card showed 1 damage and the tier I mana cost. It now shows the blade's real damage and mana. The spell itself already hit for the right amount.
- Bows: with a bow and a melee weapon both equipped and nothing targeted, your character held the drawn bow and the melee weapon at once. The melee weapon is now put away.
- Fishing: a stray ripple with no fishing spot behind it offered Fish and did nothing. It can no longer be clicked.
- Recording: on Windows, Record was missing from the capture menu when ffmpeg's folder was written in quotes in your PATH.
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