Hello everyone!

Good news — work on the patch is full steam ahead and nearing completion.

Here’s what I’ve been working on since the last update:

• Added 15 new enemy types, not counting those I mentioned in the previous news.

• Added several large new locations.

• Created appearances for over 60 characters.

• Completed all bounty board quests in Crimson Yar and the village before it.

• Added 25 new dungeons — and that’s just in the territory available in the upcoming patch. For comparison, in Early Access there were only two.

• Nearly finished work on ambient sounds for the new locations and new enemies.

• Added a Bestiary to the player’s journal — after killing an enemy for the first time, you’ll learn about its weaknesses and backstory.

• Loot crates can now be broken open with weapon strikes.

• The upcoming patch’s territory is now populated with loot, crates, chests, items, alchemy plants, ore veins of different types, and other collectible elements.

• Set up enemy loot tables.

• Finished work on the Dark Forest location.

• Added a forest trader of rare goods who trades them for acorns (which can be farmed from forest creatures).

• Added 4 upgrade tiers for the following weapon types: swords, dual swords, greatswords, axes, dual axes, greataxes, spears/halberds, bows. In future patches I’ll be adding staves, throwing axes, wands, maces, crossbows, and more.

• Added new items — for example, a grindstone that can be crafted from stone and ore, and when used increases the damage of piercing/slashing weapons.

• Began implementing the weapon sharpening system — most likely it will be fully added after the patch release.

• Assigned NPC patrol routes and basic simulation of their activities.

• Completed many small tasks I can’t even recall, like setting up NPC mouth movements, and so on.

What’s left to do:

• Trader inventories.

• Optimization of the new areas.

• 2–3 more days of combat polishing.

• Play through the game a couple of times to set at least some initial difficulty balance.

• Another pass of quest polishing and finishing minor details.

• And generally, since everything I’ve done for the patch so far has been at about 95% completion, now it’s time to tie up all the loose ends — fix, finish, and add anything I’ve missed.

Some things I’ve decided to add later, after the patch release — for example, everything related to sorcerers and their magic/staves. This is a huge chunk of work that would delay the patch.

I’d like to (and might be able to) finish the patch by the end of August, but if I’m not satisfied with the quality after my test playthroughs, the release will be moved to mid-September.

In any case, I recommend waiting for the full release version rather than playing an incomplete build, as there’s still a lot of exciting content to come.

The patch will mainly be released so it can be tested, and to remove any doubts about the work being done. But the best experience will be at full release.

The patch may contain a lot of bugs (or maybe not) since I’m currently focused on adding content rather than polishing it. All polishing will come afterward.

Thanks everyone — back to work!

Hello everyone!

Lately, I’ve been working to the limit — I just can’t stop. I’m developing the game like a man possessed, eager to release the next patch as soon as possible.

Here’s what I’ve been working on recently:

1. Extensive rework of the combat system.You’ll now see many more active and passive abilities in the skills menu.
Each weapon type will have its own set of abilities — 8 in total: 4 standard ones you’ve seen in Early Access, and 4 enhanced ones with various effects.
These advanced abilities won’t come easy — you’ll need to complete divine trials, and they’ll likely become available in the second half of the game.

2. Elemental enchantments.
You can now enchant your 4 core abilities with different elements. Feel free to mix and match: apply fire to a stun ability, or lightning to a sweeping strike — anything goes.
Weapon attacks are quite diverse, and even I’m surprised at how many fun combinations you can create by enchanting abilities for unique effects.
I think players will be able to come up with tons of builds, especially since I’ve added several new weapon types:

• Dual weapons

• Spears / halberds / bardiches

• Throwing axe

• Staves

Each weapon has a distinct feel, with its own strengths and weaknesses, but all are powerful — so pick the one that suits your style.

3. Weapon and shield transmogrification.
For those unfamiliar: this feature lets you apply the appearance of one weapon to another while keeping its stats.
For example, if you prefer simpler, less flashy weapon designs, you can now play even at level 30 using a plain staff like Gandalf’s. Just apply the look of the first staff you find to your high-level one.

4. New enemy type — mages.
They can attack while retreating, kite you, and cast spells from afar.

5. Added werewolves and a new type of spider, and improved the existing ones.
Spiders can now immobilize players using their web.

6. Four new types of lizard enemies.
Each with its own combat style:

• A shielded tank

• A fast claw-attacker

• A two-handed brute

• A lizard shaman

7. Complete overhaul of the character equipment display system.
This allowed me to add visible bows and quivers with arrows or bolts on the character.
It also fixed several visual bugs.

8. Rebalanced experience gains from quests and monsters throughout the next patch — from Early Access up to Cold Yar.

9. Added a system to reduce XP gains if the player farms monsters excessively, preventing over-leveling.

10. Added gold rewards to most quests.

11. Composer finished a new track for the Dark Forest.

12. Currently modeling a boss.
I won’t spoil which one — let’s just say it’s a reference to a well-known fairy tale

13. For the past few days, I’ve been distributing enemies across the world of Borea:
in forests, dungeons, caves, and so on.
I’m planning progression, enemy balance, where they appear, and how many — trying to make encounters interesting.
As usual, some enemies will be stronger and block access to certain areas until the hero becomes powerful enough.
It turned out to be a much bigger task than I expected

Honestly, if not for insomnia, I probably wouldn’t have written this report at all.
I barely have time to talk to my family — my partner says I’m obsessed and that I need to stop.
She brings me food, gives me massages... but this is the way.
I can’t do it any other way.

And just to be clear — I’m not complaining. I absolutely love making games.
I’m passionate about this project, proud of the results, and I’m no martyr.
Sure, it’s exhausting — but it’s also insanely fun.

The joy from seeing the game take shape is what’s keeping me up at night.
I keep thinking about how players will experience it, what else I can add, how to make things better.

I’ll try to take at least one day off to recharge.
But honestly, it’s hard for me to take breaks — whenever I stop working on the game, I get incredibly bored and just want to dive back into the engine.

By the way, for those wondering — my arm seems to be healing. Morning push-ups and pull-ups are helping.

Wishing you all the best!