Greetings, Slayers!

We’re coming up to the end of a 2024 that has had its share of ups and downs. Earlier this week, we shared a variety of updates and detailed patch notes about the changes coming with this update and in the future, as well as our reflections after the launch of Dauntless: Awakening. Today, though, we want to focus on our first seasonal event with new content in years - Frostfall.

From now until January 2nd at 10am PT, celebrate this most festive of seasons with new quests, new sweaters, an exclusive new crown, and a chance to face off against a Frostfall fairy tale Behemoth come to life - the Cheerless Charrogg.


Talk to Honest Ozz to kick off 5 Frostfall quests, including unlocking a repeatable Event Hunt with the Cheerless Charrogg. Do everything you can, between your weapons, snowballs, and the massively powerful Gift Grenade, to keep this fearsome foe at bay, all on a slippery ice field that will test the festive spirit of even the most joyful Slayers.


Honest Ozz has 3 all-new Frostfall sweaters for sale - the Sweet Skates Sweater, The Gateway Sweater, and, of course, the Cheer Up, Charrogg sweater. Fashion-forward Slayers who complete the set (including 6 classic Frostfall sweaters) will earn the stunningly festive Crown of Good Cheer.


Snowball Fight island events are back, with team and solo events happening on the Skaldeskar Lowlands. Pelt fellow Slayers with snowballs, earn Frostfall Coins, and enjoy wholesome seasonal fun, all without the hassle of actually going outside.

Just like before, Frostfall Coins are a limited-time currency you’ll earn from seasonal quests, the Event Hunts, Snowball Fights, and breaking Behemoth parts on frosty islands.

And Honest Ozz has more than just sweaters in his stall. All sorts of classic Frostfall[ cosmetics/b] and gifts are available for a limited time.

Looking Forward

While we aren’t ready to commit to a roadmap yet, we hope that this Frostfall serves as both a cozy celebration of the year we’ve had together, as well as a preview of the kinds of regular seasonal and event updates we have planned. One of our goals is to make Dauntless a living, breathing live game experience with something fresh and new always around the corner.

For now, we just want to say how grateful we are. We’re grateful for the chance to work on a game that is not just fun to play, but meaningful to so many people. And of course, we’re grateful for you.

Thank you for your passion. Thank you for holding us accountable. And thank you for playing Dauntless.

-The Dauntless Team

Slayers,

We hear you. Dauntless has always been built on the passion and dedication of its incredible community, and with the Awakening update, we know many of you have felt let down. For those who feel your time, effort, and trust were overlooked, we sincerely apologize.

The Awakening update introduced significant changes intended to relaunch Dauntless with a strong foundation for a new, regular Seasonal schedule and to secure the game’s long-term viability. While our goals were ambitious, we acknowledge that the rollout caused frustration and confusion, and our communication fell short. That’s on us, and we’re committed to earning back your trust.

To better respect your lost progress and investment:

• All returning players will receive 300,000 Rams and 5,000 Combat Merits.
  
• We’ll also be awarding up to another 500 Peerless Aetherite to help you regain end-game power, based on your weapon crafting in the pre-Awakening game.
  
• In an upcoming update, we’ll unlock all game modes from the start, for returning players, enabling you to jump straight into the content you want without being required to complete the quest line.

While these steps won’t undo all frustrations, we hope they show our commitment to supporting your return to Ramsgate and valuing your contributions.

Actions speak louder than words, and this is just the beginning. Immediate adjustments are underway to address progression, monetization, and technical issues. Looking ahead, we remain focused on building a game that respects your time, celebrates your passion, and delivers on the promise of the Awakening foundation.

Thank you for your patience, feedback, and your commitment to Dauntless. Together, we’ll ensure that Dauntless becomes a game you’re proud to call home again.


Over the past week, we’ve carefully reviewed your feedback across Steam reviews, forums, Discord, and social channels. Here’s what we’ve heard and how we’re addressing it.

The “Where We Are At” sections outline actions already implemented or included in the upcoming Update 2.1.1, scheduled for release on December 19th. The “Looking Ahead” sections focus on plans for future updates and improvements.

• Legitimate frustration over lost progress, particularly with Slayer’s Path nodes and years of weapon investment.
  
• Compensation for prior investments, such as Rams and other progression resources, felt insufficient.
  
• Concerns over progression speed, especially for newer players, highlighting gaps in clarity and pacing.
  
• Frustration with the flow of key progression systems, including tonic crafting and Dauntless Trials.

• As mentioned up front, returning Slayers will receive 300,000 Rams and 5,000 Combat Merits to acknowledge the time and effort invested in progression. These resources provide flexibility for reclaiming lost Slayer’s Path nodes or investing in other valuable upgrades.
  
• Peerless Aetherite will be awarded to returning Slayers based on pre-Awakening weapon crafting, in addition to any Aetherite provided during the original migration. Players earn one point for each crafted weapon and an additional point for Power Surged weapons. Every 20 points will grant 100 Peerless Aetherite, up to a maximum of 500.
  
• Update 2.1.1 will remove Steel Marks from the Tier 3 Weapon Talent unlock requirements, ensuring that players who prefer not to engage with Trials or have already used their weekly marks elsewhere are not locked out of core gameplay mechanics and power progression. Additionally, the cost of the Artificer lantern core in the Trials Store will be reduced to prevent unintentional time-gating caused by weekly Trials rewards. In both cases, players will receive direct refunds to account for these adjustments.
  
• Increased Rams rewards across quests, Behemoth kills, and Patrol Chests to better support progression.
  
• Improved progression flow for tonic crafting and Dauntless Trials.

• In Update 2.2.0, planned for early next year, all game modes will be unlocked for returning players to enable direct access to desired content.
  
• We are actively analyzing player feedback and behavior data to further refine progression systems.
  
• Future updates will aim to make progression more rewarding and accessible for all players.

• Concerns that progression systems feel paywalled and unfriendly to free players.
  
• Frustration over loot boxes, the removal of Platinum rewards, and non-randomized cosmetics from the Hunt Pass.
  
• Feedback that monetization changes feel out of touch with the Dauntless community.

• While we failed to originally communicate this, on top of the Weapon Tokens provided through the Hunt Pass and weekly challenges, our existing but under-explained plan includes providing variable amounts of Weapon Tokens from other sources during each season. For example, in Dauntless: Awakening, players will be able to earn additional Tokens during our upcoming seasonal event, Frostfall.
  
• Hunt Pass Prestige Core drop tables have been rebalanced to provide more guaranteed Rams and Aetherite, offering greater rewards for active players progressing beyond level 50.
  
• Effective immediately, the previously-paid Aetherite claims from the Store (weekly for Peerless, daily for Shining, hourly for Dull) will be free. Note that these will likely move from the Store to weekly gameplay sources from the next season onwards, alongside existing gameplay sources such as Trials and Heroic Escalation.

• While we will not be able to change this for the in-progress season, the next season’s Hunt Pass will reintroduce Platinum rewards - 100 on the free track and an additional 100 on the Elite track.
  
• Reevaluating monetization strategies to balance sustainability with fairness while remaining rewarding for players.
  
• Exploring ways to refine Hunt Pass content in future seasons to offer better value.

• Awakening launched with performance issues, including broadly lower performance, graphical glitches, and gameplay-affecting bugs.

• Since launch, we have released numerous server-side hotfixes aimed at smoothing out progression and gameplay issues, as well as addressing several crashes.
  
• Update 2.1.1 contains a significant number of bug fixes, including a fix for desyncing Behemoth hitboxes that could not be addressed server-side. The full list of fixes can be seen HERE.
  
• Although the timeframe before deploying Update 2.1.1 limited our ability to fully evaluate all performance feedback, we’ve implemented a short-term solution to enhance performance on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
  
• Update 2.1.1 also contains fixes for several client and server crashes tied to loadouts, weapon swapping, and cosmetic systems, which we hope will make the gameplay experience much more stable.

• Continue enhancing performance across all platforms, with both broad optimizations and better player-facing options, as well as targeted fixes for specific performance problem areas, to deliver a smoother and more reliable gameplay experience.
  
• Revamp tutorials and improve onboarding systems in key areas (e.g. Talent Crafting) to provide greater clarity and accessibility, making it easier for new Slayers to dive into Dauntless.

• The removal of weapon crafting has disrupted the core gameplay loop, leaving players feeling that a vital and rewarding progression element is missing.
  
• The current cell system discourages experimentation, with unequipped cells being destroyed, limiting build diversity.
  
• Armor perks feel less impactful, and customization options are more restrictive than before.

• Based on our initial balance pass in response to launch feedback we have swapped some armor perks to better support player builds and flexibility (e.g. replacing Predator with Cunning and Sharpened).
  
• Reintroduced HUD icons for perks like Pulse for better in-game tracking.
  
• Increased shield caps and effectiveness for perks like Strategist and Fortress.
  
• Applied targeted buffs to a number of weapons.

• Exploring ways to bring more depth and player agency back to weapon and armor crafting and customization systems.
  
• Reassessing the cell system to encourage experimentation and support diverse builds.

While the 2.1.1 update introduces many critical changes, it’s only the first step. Beyond this, we’re committed to continuous updates that enhance your experience and rebuild trust.

Our goal is to build a Dauntless that is rewarding, inclusive, and reflective of its community. Every step we take will be guided by your input.


We recognize the need to rebuild trust and improve how we engage with our community. Moving forward, we are committed to refining feedback loops, placing players at the center of the game, and ensuring Dauntless reflects the passion of its community.

Thank you for your patience, feedback, and your commitment to Dauntless. Together, we’ll create a game that all Slayers can be proud to call home.

The Dauntless Team

Please note these Patch Notes are being published a few days early to give exposure to the upcoming fixes. Changes will go live on December 19th!

Frostfall is here, including a new Event hunt, facing off against the Cheerless Charrogg:

The Cheerless Charrogg has long been a fairytale told to ill-tempered children of the isles during Frostfall.

This season, however, the childrens’ collective petulance reverberated far enough to penetrate into dense deposits of unstable Aether and it has erupted from innocent imagination into grim reality.

Beware, The Cheerless Charrogg is an unstoppable humbug that can be damaged, but not killed. Pummel it with all the snowballs and holiday cheer possible to survive until it retreats back into the fireside folklore it came from.

More details in your Inbox once the event starts!

• Fixed an issue with Behemoth attacks becoming out of sync between the game client and server after enrage, resulting in players being hit by attacks that did not visually seem to have hit them yet
  
• Fixed an issue where Epic parts were not correctly dropping from some Dire Behemoths that used to have Heroic versions pre-Awakening
  
• Fixed an issue that caused players to not always be staggered in the correct direction by heavy Behemoth attacks
  
• Fixed Karkonos’ parts being unintentionally hard to break during the Titan’s Awakening event
  
• Fixed Karkonos’ umbral pools not doing damage to players
  
• Fixed Karkonos’ missile attack no longer activating after the first few salvos
  
• Fixed a rare issue where Karkonos could turn invisible temporarily
  
• Fixed horn parts for Boreus, Chronovore, Embermane, and Karkonos incorrectly being set as a second head so it wasn’t breaking to the intended weapons
  
• Fixed Embermane sometimes not spawning a fireball when intended during attacks
  
• Fixed an issue causing Frostwülf’s ice pools to spawn collision above the ground
  
• Re-enabled mounting attack on Malkarion that had previously been disabled in a server hotfix to temporarily address a crash
  
• Fixed Shrike’s tornado attack visual effect sometimes not spawning

• Fixed Alluring Moons-spawned Chaox having player collision blocking movement
  
• Fixed an exploit that allowed players to spawn infinite Chaox using Alluring Moons
  
• Removed a debug visualization that could spawn around Firestorm’s projectiles
  
• Fixed Golden Claws’ Passive III talent stacking infinitely, and also addressed it doing unintentionally high increased damage even without stacking
  
• Fixed The Hunger and Molten Edict retaining equipped mod slots from pre-Awakening loadout
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause a texture to stretch from the model for Reaper’s Edge
  
• Fixed The Anvil being able to max Speed stacks by weapon swapping with Passive talent IV
  
• Fixed The Godhand’s passive glyph continuing to trigger after swapping to another weapon

• Fixed an issue resulting in the intended weekly Heroic Escalation rewards not being granted on completion
  
• Fixed Escalation 10-50s still spawning Heroic Behemoths
  
• Fixed combat audio not playing during Escalations
  
• Fixed the Planar Voyage modifier sometimes giving an unintended -10 Defense stacks at the end of the round
  
• Removing the Chronostones reward from the Radiant Escalation puzzle

• Replaced the Scorchstone Hellion spawn on Cape Fury (Surge) with the intended Bloodfire Embermane, giving them two guaranteed spawns each, and addressing a blocker in the Behemoth Survey: Cape Fury (Surge) side quest
  
• Stopped Chronostones dropping from island events on The Paradox Breaks
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause fauna, gatherables, and patrol chests to not spawn on the following Surge islands: Hades Reach, Undervald Defile, Aulric’s Peak, Razorcliff Isle, Cape Fury, and Snowblind Waste
  
• Fixed an issue causing the big storm-nado to not appear in the middle of Cape Fury’s Surge version

• Fixed some lanterns near Kat in Ramsgate giving off an unintended purple glow

• Fixed Rezakiri’s armour pieces requiring the Level 15 recipe at Level 10 as well

• Fixed the Reaching the Apex main quest unlocking earlier than intended in progression
  
• Fixed the dye Rumours for Koshai, Riftstalker, and Valomyr requiring kills of the now-removed Heroic versions
  
• Fixed a missing objective string in Rumour: Exquisite Sunburn (III)
  
• Removed a reference to the Middleman in Rumour: Toxic Phage (II)

• Fixed Curiosities not being consumed from inventory when used. Pack it up folks, party’s over!
  
• Fixed Hunt Pass Prestige Cores not being listed separately from other Rare cores in the Core Breaker
  
• Fixed Assault Tonic count reducing by 2 when only 1 is used
  
• Fixed Banners not being individually customizable per loadout slot
  
• Fixed Head Accessories being the same across all loadouts, despite the My Slayer screen showing the intended one equipped
  
• Fixed the Wildland Flute emote’s audio not stopping when the emote does
  
• Fixed the rarity of the Champion’s Repeaters transmog from Rare to Epic
  
• Fixed the cosmetic versions of the pre-Awakening lanterns still granting gameplay effects
  
• Fixed the Quickslot 4 keyboard input still activating an item if it had been equipped to the slot pre-Awakening

• Fixed crafting items that had been pinned pre-Awakening still remaining on the Quest Tracker
  
• Fixed some quests unintentionally showing old crafting schematics as rewards in the Quest Log screen
  
• Fixed effect layering obscuring the weapon active ability slot
  
• Fixed tracker information sometimes not displaying correctly in player overheads
  
• Fixed “breadcrumbs” not clearing after viewing the item in a number of cases in the My Slayer screen
  
• Fixed a missing controller input prompt for Continue on the Canister results screen
  
• Fixed a case that could cause popups to stack multiple times when trying to purchase more Platinum from the Canister results screen
  
• Fixed the Canister opening animation being unintentionally stretched on wider aspect ratios
  
• Fixed a poorly-visible Continue prompt on the Message of the Day popup
  
• Fixed a broken UI texture that sometimes appeared around button prompts on Xbox One
  
• Fixed a purchase confirmed text string showing when cancelling out of a Platinum purchase on Steam
  
• Fixed some long quest titles flowing out of the NPC interaction screen
  
• Fixed unintended audio behavior with hold prompts
  
• Fixed videos in the Move List screen not looping on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5
  
• Removed an input that could still allow access to the Reward Cache
  
• Removed an input that could allow access to a work-in-progress version of the Hunt screen
  
• Fixed item names in the Steam checkout popup from appearing in the correct language

• Enabled dynamic resolution (with a lower bound of 70% of 4K) as a short-term assist to performance on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Please note that improving performance more generally across all our platforms remains high on our priority list

• Fixed an issue causing timeouts loading into the game on accounts that had heavily customized their cosmetic setup per loadout, and had a high number of loadouts
  
• Fixed a server crash that could occur when mounting Malkarion due to a missing file in the game package
  
• Fixed a rare server crash related to weapon swapping
  
• Fixed a rare client crash in the colour picker UI
  
• Fixed a rare client crash related to breadcrumbs
  
• Fixed a rare client crash related to the Umbral elemental effect

• Fixed an issue with the Steam version of the game not detecting language correctly
  
• Fixed an issue with a portion of UI strings not displaying correctly in Spanish, and falling back to English
  
• Miscellaneous text and localization fixes

• Moonreaver Shrike’s wing swipe projectile now adds the Shocked debuff if hit
  
• Allowed Sporestruck Charrogg to use more of its moves outside Enrage, to reduce encounter downtime

• Removed the Steel Marks requirement for the third Weapon Talent unlock on all weapons
  
• Fixed Fury of the Mountain’s Special IV talent so it correctly gives a Determination gain of 15 (was 5)
  
• Increased duration of Oathkeeper’s legendary ability from a default of 15 seconds to 30 seconds
  
• Increased Oathkeeper’s Legendary III talent from 5 to 10 seconds
  
• Stopped players from being able to hit or redirect lightning orbs spawned by Skies of Ostia turrets, as they can get in the way and cause you to do less damage
  
• Lowered The Living Branch’s legendary ability default cooldown from 60 to 40 seconds (and with the talent, 40 seconds to 20 seconds)
  
• Lowered The Silver Sword’s legendary ability cooldown from 90 to 50 seconds

• Basic attack damage increased by 10-20% each
  
• Light attacks grant 3 meter per hit
  
• Active talent II buffed from 5% to 15%
  
• Passive talent I buffed from 30% to 40%
  
• Passive talent II now also works with Passive talent V
  
• Passive talent V no longer gives a defense penalty, now just gives 4 Defense while in Verge of Night

• Added existing Blazeworks 75% XP boost to all Level 60 Hunting Grounds, and removed it from the Level 30 Blazeworks
  
• Tuned down the power level of Behemoths on Level 60 islands, as they were hitting harder than intended

• Replaced the Predator perk on Shrike armour with Cunning, and on Malkarion armour with Sharpened
  
• The Predator perk’s cost has been reduced from 8 to 5
  
• The Strategist perk now stacks up to 500 shields (please note that the text string will be updated in the next patch)
  
• The Fortress perk increased from 120 to 150 shields

• Rebalanced Hunt Pass Prestige Core drop tables to give more guaranteed Rams and Aetherite
  
• Significantly increased Rams rewards from (almost) all Main and Side quests, and added Rams rewards to a few Side Quests that didn’t have them
  
• Increased average Rams dropped from Patrol Chests
  
• Increased Rams dropped from Behemoth kills from a range of 100-500 to 115-1000, based on Behemoth level
  
• Adjusted Chaox kill Ram drops to better balance with Behemoth kill drops

• Removed weapon swap combos from the move list panel in the Training Grounds, to avoid confusion for early game players who only have one weapon equipped, and so cannot complete them. They still show in the full Move List menu

• Fixed Emberthorn Cove sometimes matchmaking in other players - it is intended to be a tutorial island for new players

• Re-added the HUD icon for the Pulse perk for better tracking

• The main quest A Heroic Accomplishment no longer requires main quest Karkonos Rising to be completed first, to allow players faster access to Dauntless Trials and Heroic Escalation
  
• The side quest Medicinal Purposes (which unlocks tonic crafting) no longer requires the side quest The Slayer’s Path to be completed first
  
• Main quests Welcome Back, Slayer! and Basic Slaying now both unlock from the start for returning players, to avoid a rare case where they could get stuck unable to unlock Basic Slaying in order to proceed through the game

Hi Slayers,

First of all, we wanted to say thank-you to all the players, new and returning, who jumped in to check out Dauntless: Awakening - it’s great to see Ramsgate so bustling, and people trying out everything included in our latest update!

We’ve seen a lot of comments and feedback surrounding this update, so we want to take some time to address these concerns, and a few other conversations we’ve seen so far in response to today’s update, as well as giving you a preview of what’s next for the game.



Our decision behind this change was rooted in the desire to ensure that all Slayers, new AND old, would receive the same instructions surrounding the new and modified gameplay systems. Trying the new weapons in Training Grounds before deciding what to commit to starting off with, encountering weapon levelling and talents as they become relevant in progression, etc. We wanted to ensure that even veteran players would have and take the time to dig into the new and complex systems before jumping straight into the hunt potentially with non-ideal gear set-ups, therefore encountering a degree of difficulty that would be counter to a positive gameplay experience.

For legacy players, based on the feedback we’ve seen, it appears this transition and "reset" back to the start has felt too abrupt or jarring, especially in conjunction with other changes. We want to acknowledge this frustration, and we hope that the speed with which veteran players will be able to move through these quests will ease some of this concern. Most of these quests require trying a mode or gameplay system once, separated by quests to reach particular weapon levels (which can mostly be accomplished using the Peerless Aetherite we granted to all players who had Reforged once before the update, which can take a weapon from fresh up to around level 50).

The TL;DR of this is that advanced players should be able to move through these pretty quickly both due to the resources we granted to help get you through them, and due to your game knowledge.

In addition to your feedback on the Quest reset, here are a few areas where it seems we’ve missed the mark:

Most returning players will have started off with no Chain Blades, Strikers, or Repeaters. There are absolutely versions of these that require no purchase, but they unlock from quests a few hours into progression, but having to invest precious Aetherite into a weapon you don’t really want to play with just to get to one you want to because it used to be your main, does not feel good. We’re sorry that this has created the impression that these classes are only accessible through Weapon Tokens.

• To address this, we’ve made a server-side change that will grant all returning pre-Awakening players with the Golden Claws (radiant Strikers), Twin Suns (shock Repeaters), and Netherlights (umbral Chain Blades) from the start of the game, so you can get up and running with them right away.
  
• For those who joined us from December 5 with the Awakening update, you’ll still obtain these through quest progression, a few hours into the game.

We’re also investigating some technical issues that are unintentionally exacerbating this ‘reset’ experience:

• Some returning players ended up in a state where they completed the “welcome back” quest at Bosun Markus, but then did not have the first quest of the new Main Quest chain available at Trainer Rosk, blocking them from progression. While we continue to investigate why this occurred, we’ve already deployed a live change that disables the “welcome back” quest, meaning everyone safely starts with the “Basic Slaying” quest at Trainer Rosk and can proceed. If you were impacted here, please check back into the game now!
  
• Some returning players lost some unlocked Slayer’s Path nodes when updating to the Awakening and its revamped Slayer’s Path. We apologize for this oversight, and are working on an automatic solution for players. In the meantime, please feel free to contact our wonderful SUPPORT TEAM[support.playdauntless.com] and we’ll get you granted the items you need to repurchase these nodes.

In Dauntless: Awakening, as you’ve likely seen, we’ve significantly overhauled how weapons work. There’s been some conflicting information going about our communities, so we first want to recap:

The old-style weapons where each Behemoth had its own of each weapon type, that were only differentiated by element, unique effect, and cell slots, has been retired:

• In its place are a smaller set of more unique weapons, more like our Exotics of old, that each have their own Passive, Active, and Legendary abilities.
  
• For the launch weapons, many of these come from combinations of existing weapon and lantern abilities.

Weapon crafting and upgrading with Behemoth parts has been removed:

• Instead, players get 7 weapons from Quests (one of each type, and covering all elements), there is 1 new weapon per season in the Hunt Pass Elite Track, and a number of other weapons are available with Weapon Tokens in the Store.
  
• Weapon Tokens can be earned from a weekly challenge every week (in the Challenges tab of the Quests menu), on both the Free and Elite tracks of the Hunt Pass, as well as purchased directly with Platinum if you choose.
  
• Returning players were also granted up to 500 Weapon Tokens to start with based on the number of weapons they’d crafted and Power Surged pre-Awakening, which allows them to unlock a good number of the new Token-obtainable weapons from the start.
  
• Behemoth parts are then used instead to make Essences, which unlock Talents to make weapons more powerful and more personalized

We want to acknowledge that these changes mean that there are less weapons per type, per element, and per gameplay use (Cutting etc.). The design intention behind these changes is the creation of more unique weapons that then allow for much more variety in gameplay styles. We’ve already seen positive feedback from players that have spent the most time diving in with the new weapons so far, and this opens the door for us to offer much more differentiated weapons in future seasons. We recommend, and intend, for players to mix-and-match these new weapons into their two weapon slots, and experiment with combinations that you can switch between in combat to best fit the situation.

At first glance, it may seem like there are fewer weapon options available. However, with the addition of Talents and the unique abilities of the new weapons, we believe these changes provide Slayers with greater depth and variety in gameplay, allowing for more meaningful and personalized choices

We hope this information makes it clear that there are a number of routes available (free and paid) to obtaining weapons, and that they are not all locked behind a paywall.


Another question we have seen come up often is “when and how players will be able to access the Hunt Pass weapon in future seasons”. Our current answer is that weapons which originate from the Hunt Pass will eventually be added in the Weapon Token store - we’re still working on the exact timing that balances the value of purchasing the Hunt Pass for them (and everything else you get in that purchase), versus broader availability and integrity of modes like Trials, but Weapon Tokens will be how you get them, so if you wish to save them up in advance, here’s your heads-up!

Something we want to make especially clear that we have no intention of making the Hunt Pass weapons de-facto “better” than weapons we offer from other or free sources. We think of them as an opportunity to do different and exciting (and maybe weird) things - you can look to the Alluring Moons’ fauna-spawning abilities as an example of how we plan to continue here. Over time we intend to fill out the matrix of weapon and element types - for example, Season 2’s weapon will be a new Radiant Sword.

Another aspect of feedback we’ve seen on the subject of weapons changes, is that many players don’t feel they have enough information to make a decision on which weapons they should be picking up with their Weapon Tokens.

Based on this feedback, we’re exploring ways to let you “test drive” weapons before purchase to help better inform your decisions. We don’t yet have a timeline for this as we’re just kicking off these explorations, but this is something we want to address and provide further clarity on.


Before Dauntless: Awakening, Cells were an integral part of players’ builds. In the Awakening world, with all the changes to buffs and perks, the core part of what makes up builds now comes from armour, with increases to the perks they provide (as well as extra cell slots) coming from upgrading that armour to max level. Our hope is that once you’ve got a build you’re feeling good about, this is when you socket in your Cells to hit a perk threshold you’re almost at. This system is definitely designed to reward continued investment and upgrading of your armour, and so we’re wanting to collect and reflect on feedback over a longer post-launch period.

Similarly, we’re also closely watching how many Cells players have and how they use them, whether the number of them that come from various sources support experimentation enough, and whether we want to adjust those sources, or on the flip side, if we need to be providing ways for players to get an alternative value out of cells they have far too many of.

While we’ll be looking at the data around these armour and cell changes in this update carefully from our side, we feel it’s important that we’re accounting for how that changes feel to you, so as you continue to spend time with your armour and cells in Dauntless: Awakening, we do invite you to post your feedback in this area to inform future plans.


With the launch of Dauntless: Awakening, we changed how the Hunt Pass system works, refocusing on just one Hunt Pass per season, anchored by the new gameplay weapon, and supported by a whole lot of Aetherite and other resources to help with your progression. At the same time, we retired the Slayer’s Club that used to be an additional purchase and added many of the boosts and benefits from that subscription over to be part of the Elite Hunt Pass too.

These new Hunt Passes do not directly include Platinum (with the exception of if they include a pull from a Canister if you’ve already emptied it). This is a decision we’ve made for the overall health of the game - purchases of the Hunt Pass will be directly funneled back into continued development of future gameplay content for Dauntless.


As our community has pointed out, Canisters are indeed loot boxes, however, our team has taken a very careful approach to the addition of Canisters to the game.

• Dauntless: Awakening Canisters are cosmetic items only. They do not contain items that will give players more of an "edge", and they do not contain items that are "mandatory" for players to have as part of the ideal gameplay experience within Dauntless
  
• Slayers will never receive duplicate items from Canisters. This was an especially important ethical concern to our team as part of ensuring the value of Canisters.
  
• All Canister odds are transparently and accurately reflected within the store, so Slayers can make an informed decision surrounding the value
  
• In the end, Canisters are all about choice. Slayers don’t have to utilize them if they don’t want to, but the Dauntless: Awakening Canisters also don’t contain anything that would prohibit game progression if Slayers opt out of engaging with them

As with any major update, we have some reported issues to address in future patches. And with an update of this scale, and particularly with the update to Unreal Engine 5 to support ongoing development, despite the best efforts of all our internal teams and external supporters, things are less polished than we’d like them to be.

We have already deployed server-side hotfixes to address the following issues:

• Karkonos was spawning with part health that was far too high, and so parts could not be realistically broken before it was slain.
  
• Some returning players could not progress with the Training Ground quest after completing Bosun’s “Welcome Back” quest.
  
• Fixing an issue where some Tracker data could be lost during the Awakening migration.
  
• Unreliable recognition of Steam players’ language settings.
  
• And as mentioned earlier in this post, we’ve granted all returning pre-Awakening players with the Golden Claws, Twin Suns, and Netherlights from the start of the game.

We continue to work on potential hotfixes for the following:

• A small number of returning players who did not get the expected Crowns or Weapon Tokens during the Awakening migration.
  
• Returning players who unlock all new nodes in the Slayer’s Path before accepting the side quest “The Slayer’s Path” cannot complete it, blocking consumable crafting. Please note that this issue does not affect new players.
  
• Investigating a couple of server crash and disconnect issues in certain gameplay scenarios.

We also want to broadly address issues with performance and graphics following the Awakening update. While best efforts were made following our engine upgrade to get the game running performantly on all our many platforms, feedback from our players following launch have made it clear that we have further work to do in this regard, and have more work to do, particularly on current-gen console platforms and PC. While we don’t have anything concrete to share today, we are prioritizing this work and looking at both short- and longer-term solutions in this area.

We are compiling a visible list of Known Issues[trello.com], and we’ll be working our way through the list in future updates. Speaking of…


Our next update is currently planned to roll out on December 19.

Because of the process of launching Awakening across our various platforms, this update will include not just fixes to issues reported from the live game since launch, but also fixes from the last few weeks of internal development.

Amongst many other fixes and adjustments, this update is currently planned to address:

• Fixing a server-client desync that could result in Behemoth attacks hitting you before they visually should.
  
• Moving the Karkanos main quest to be non-blocking, so players can get to Dauntless Trials and Heroic Escalation modes faster.
  
• Improvements to usability in the newer screens such as My Slayer, weapon infusion and talent crafting
  
• Many fixes and adjustments for reported issues with the new weapons, as well as targeted buffs to The Hunger, The Living Branch, The Silver Sword, and Fury of the Mountain.
  
• A variety of text and localization improvements.

Also launching alongside Update 2.1.1 is this year’s Frostfall, Dauntless’ December seasonal event. Expect lots of cosmetic rewards available for earnable Frostfall Coins (including three stylish new holiday sweater transmogs), as well as an all-new gameplay activity featuring The Cheerless Charrogg, and a new limited-time Crown to earn.

In conclusion, we want to extend our thanks to all our players and community surrounding the launch of Dauntless: Awakening. We consider this a new opportunity for the game, and are committed to continued support in bug and performance fixes, quality of life improvements, and new content.

We’ll be continuing to monitor your comments, feedback, and bug reports, and want to remind players that if you have an account-specific issue, it is best to reach out to our Support team directly[support.playdauntless.com] so they can investigate.

-The Dauntless Team

We’re so back.

After over a year of planning, designing, tweaking, and reworking (thanks to your feedback), Dauntless: Awakening is now available to play, including on Steam 🤯.

We’ve covered everything coming in the update, and the whole migration plan for how your progress will carry over. So, there isn’t much else to say at this point except thank you.

Thank you to you, our most dedicated Slayers, for sticking with us, providing your insights all along the way, from Karkonos’ design, to live feedback in Discord and social media, to Beta testers for really refining Awakening. You’ve kept us going, and you know, like we do, that when we say “Dauntless is back”, that it’s with a bit of a wink and a smile because we’ve been here with you all along.

We asked some of the Dauntless team if they’d like to share any messages to the community (aside from how we won’t shut up in Discord…) and here’s what they said.

Originally posted by author:

We put our heart and soul into every sparkle that went into Dauntless, I really hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it. - Vi

Originally posted by author:

What Vi said. We’re thrilled about what lies ahead, and we’re excited to take you with us. Thanks for playing x - Loz

Originally posted by author:

I'm going to get Long Furby into this game somehow, mark my words. - also Vi for some reason

Originally posted by author:

Phoenix Labs has been through many changes over the years but the thing that has stayed consistent is the dedication, talent, and resilience of every person here. I couldn’t be more proud of this team and what we’ve achieved this year. Awakening signals our renewed dedication to Dauntless, and there’s so much more goodness to come. Clear skies ahead! - Jen

Originally posted by author:

I’ve been lucky enough to work on Dauntless for the last six years of my life, through ups and downs, and challenges. But my love for Dauntless is just as strong as ever, and I remain just so excited to keep building content for it, and for everyone who plays it. - Ahrelia

Now get out there, and get slaying.

Sincerely,

The Dauntless Team

They said it would never happen…and yet here we are - Dauntless is now available directly on Steam!

Dauntless remains, as always, fully crossplay and cross-progression. To bring your progress to Steam, launch the game and, when prompted, sign into the same Epic Games Account that you are using to play on other platforms - from there you’ll be good to go! As well as of course adding support for Steam Achievements, we’ve also added Achievements on the Epic Games Store.


Uncovered as part of an Orrery mining expedition gone wrong, the fearsome Umbral beast Karkonos has arrived in the Shattered Isles!

First brought to life in direct collaboration with our community, Karkonos of course comes with a full new armour set to craft and upgrade, as well as a new dye Rumour, so head to Twilight’s Domain and keep an eye out for the Titan’s Awakening event!

Learn more about Karkonos[playdauntless.com]


Twilight’s Domain is an all-new Umbral Hunting Ground map, replacing the old Twilight’s Sanctuary. Full of mysterious caves and ill-advised ritual sites, Twilight’s Domain is where you’ll find Karkonos on both the Level 30 and Surged Level 60 versions, as well as many of your other Umbral faves.

The weapon systems in Dauntless have been significantly overhauled in this update - while there’s much more detail on our blog, here’s the highlights.

• Slayers can now carry two weapons at a time and swap them at a button press or as part of new swap combos mid-combat
  
• There are now 18 unique weapons and each come with their own passive, special, and legendary abilities. Weapons still belong to the broad 7 categories you’re used to, but they’re now much more distinct, with their own personability and abilities. Weapons are now unlocked, not crafted
  
• The first 7 weapons come from quest progression, with the other 11 available in the Store for Weapon Tokens, which can be earned from sources like the Hunt Pass and Challenges, or purchased with Platinum
  
• After unlocking weapons, they upgrade to Level 60 via XP from hunts and infusing XP-filled Aetherite items that you’ll find from reward sources across the game.
  
• Weapon Talents are powerful customizations for to your weapons, unlocked at Level thresholds and custom to each weapon, allowing you to lean into the particular style of play you most enjoy.

Learn more about weapon and gear progression[playdauntless.com]

• Armour is returning to a 20-level upgrade system using Behemoth parts and Rams
  
• Armour will be where you get all your resistance, as the only place to slot Cells
  
• All armour now has Prismatic Cell slots, unlocked as you level up each piece, to help you reach Perk activation thresholds
  
• Equipping a Cell (of which there are now only one tier, goodbye +3s) into a piece of armour is now a binding choice - swapping it for another, or removing it, will now discard the Cell
  
• Note that Cells are more plentiful, and you can now target grinding for specific Cell categories from region Patrol Chests, as well as the Trials and Gauntlet stores

It’s a whole new Hunt Pass! The Awakening season’s Hunt Pass is headlined by the Alluring Moons, a brand new pair of Umbral Repeaters with Chaox-summoning special abilities (yes, you can call them the raptor-peaters). Alluring Moons is immediately unlocked upon purchase of the Elite track. Also included in Elite at Level 50 are their cosmetic counterpart, the Alluring Suns repeater transmogs.

Elsewhere on the Hunt Pass you’ll find loads of Aetherite ready to level up your weapons, as well as the usual offerings of useful currencies like Rams and Bounty Tokens. In addition, going Elite with your Hunt Pass now also gives you gameplay boosts - 2x Hunt Pass XP earn rate, extra Weapon XP from Behemoth and Fauna kills, extra Escalation XP, and even a bonus loot roll!

Over in the Store, you’ll find a new armour set inspired by the Godhand radiant pike, a Canister full of brand new cosmetics inspired by the Deep Sea, another Canister bringing back the fan-favourite Arcslayer items, Weapon Tokens, and a weekly rotation of other limited time offerings.


We’ve made a significant shift to how players unlock new gameplay, modes, and content in Dauntless. While the Slayer’s Path is still present, it is now exclusively for bonuses and boosts to enhance your slaying journey.

Instead, all main progression, modes, islands, and feature unlocks come from a brand new Quest flow that starts right at the Training Grounds and takes you all the way up to our end-game modes, with many adventures along the way.

Learn about quest migration for existing players[playdauntless.com]


Three new fauna are now present across the Shattered Isles - Chaoxes, Vespers, and Orquids, for a different challenge than you’re used to from fauna. All fauna now drop parts that are used in consumable crafting with Granny Strega


There have long been a huge number and variety of different Buffs (and Debuffs) available across Dauntless’ many modes, systems, and gear. With Awakening, we are compressing (most of) them into six new core Buffs: Might, Speed, Critical, Defense, Endurance, and Vitality.

Buffs can come in positives and negatives (yes, you can get negative crit chance!), and in two versions: Held or Temporary. A Held stack is always on, never expiring, and often comes from effects on your weapons and gear. Temp stacks will expire after a duration, and you’ll see the ticking down on your buff icon - these might come from a Behemoth’s attack, or a Cell with a trigger condition. You’ll see these new Buffs across the game, from weapon abilities to tonics.

Perks have been changed too. As well as adding some new and removing some old, Perks no longer scale in power based on your equipped gear and cells, instead requiring a hard threshold to activate (with no benefits to being higher than that threshold).

• Radiant: If a Behemoth does an Unstable Move, the effect explodes, dealing minimal damage, but interrupting the Behemoth. If the Behemoth doesn’t do such a move, the effect deals a small amount of damage as it ends
  
• Umbral: An umbral cyst appears on a random part of the Behemoth, for 30 seconds. The cyst has 3,000 health and, when hit, deals part damage in an AoE explosion. When destroyed, they explode, dealing umbral and heavy part damage in an AoE
  
• We’ve also adjusted the Frost elemental effect - instead of slowing Behemoths, it now freezes them for four seconds.

With all the changes made in Dauntless: Awakening, a number of pieces of content and systems have been retired:

• All previous gameplay weapons, including legendary weapons, have been removed, with the exception of Exotic and Event weapons (which are part of the new lineup)
  
• “Gameplay” Lanterns have been removed, and the slot is no longer present in the My Slayer screen. Lanterns are now cosmetic only (with many of their previous gameplay features now moved to some of the weapons), and so are in the Customize screen
  
• The three Exotic helm armours - The Skullforge, Prismatic Grace, and Tragic Echo - have been removed
  
• The Neutral “element” is no longer present in the game - Shrike is now Shock, Quillshot is now Frost, and Gnasher is now Terra, with all of their gear updated to match
  
• The “Multi Hunt Pass” feature, the repeating “Slayer Commission” currency passes, and the purchasable Vault and Event Passes have been removed from the game, in favour of the One True Hunt Pass
  
• The Hunting Grounds Restless Sands, Frostmarch, Thunderwatch, Fortune’s Folly, and Twilight’s Sanctuary have been removed. In addition, Emberthorn Cove has been redesigned into more of a tutorial hunt
  
• The Reforge feature has been removed, and Slayers no longer have an overall “weapon category level”, with each individual weapon now having its own upgradable level that cannot be reset
  
• The Middleman has left Ramsgate, and taken his cell fusion systems with him
  
• The “Far & Away”, “Spore Problems”, and “Call of Kaltauga” Mission Hunts have been removed. Kaltauga will return…
  
• The Reward Cache has been retired
  
• Aetherdust, Aethersparks, Aetherhearts, Chronostones, and Cache Coins have all been removed
  
• Many Reforged-era quests have been removed from the game, and replaced where relevant

Learn more about changes for existing players[playdauntless.com]



While you’ll see a new coat of paint across much of Dauntless, the My Slayer screen and Armour Crafting in particular have been fully rebuilt to better support and highlight the new systems.

Of particular note, and inspired by feedback from our Awakening Beta, you can now preview every level of an armour piece to see its resistance, perks, cell slots, and crafting materials, before you invest in it!


It isn’t just your gameplay gear that is tied to loadout slots, your cosmetics are now too! Moved from the old Personality screen to a Customize option in the My Slayer screen, you can now set custom emotes, flares, titles, and even unique character appearance to each of your loadouts.


With the new weapon system now in play, we’ve taken the opportunity to refresh how Trackers work. Still purchasable from the Research Lab, your Trackers now get equipped in the Customize screen and track across all your gameplay once they’ve been unlocked, not just when they are active on a specific weapon.


Lady Luck’s “Lucky Break” has a new look, joining the rest of our modern stores, and both it and the Gauntlet Research Lab now offer targeted Cores for categories of cells, as well as being home to a Lantern Core (what used to be called Omnicells), and some returning dyes.

• A number of achievements/trophies have had their requirements updated so they remain unlockable with all the other game system changes
  
• This is also true for many rumours, which have had objectives removed, replaced, or updated to match the new game progression and currencies

Dauntless now runs on Unreal Engine 5, better setting us up to support the game for the future. Things should mostly be the same, but if you find you are having any new performance or stability issues, please write into our wonderful Support team so we can track any issues.


With such a large update, with a long development period, we are not compiling a full list of bug fixes and balance changes this time round (suffice to say, there were lots!). Expect this back for future updates.

Hello, Slayers!

It’s hard to believe that Dauntless: Awakening is only one day away.

One of the biggest changes coming in Dauntless: Awakening is an overhaul of the weapons. This blog isn’t meant to be a comprehensive breakdown of every weapon and every ability - we want you to discover all these weapons for yourself! But we do want to give you a primer on the change, offer an inside look at how we approached the design, and tell you what we’re most excited about.


In the past, weapons have operated basically the same way within each category. A Hammer would play like a Hammer, etc. etc. And so, aside from Exotics, different “weapons” would really be more like different skins. One of the goals for Awakening is to create a different relationship between a Slayer and their weapon. You won’t just be an “Axe” main, anymore - maybe you’ll turn out to be a “Fury of the Mountain” main instead.

Each class of weapons (Swords, Pikes, etc.) will still share a basic moveset and core combos, however each weapon now also has unique abilities and Talents. For the examples below, we’ll talk about the ones for the umbral Netherlights Chain Blades.
(note that this gif isn't from the Netherlights, it just looks cool)

Special Ability

• Eg. Cruel Riftstrike, which allows you to teleport past the closest Behemoth, then turn around and strike it to leave an umbral rift that deals damage over time. When the rift expires, it explodes for Umbral damage

Passive Ability

• Eg. Shadowdodge, where dodging an attack causes an explosion of umbral energy, which can interrupt

Legendary Ability

• Eg. Power Syphon, which performs an umbral slash that steals health from a Behemoth, dealing damage, healing you, and instantly inflicting the umbral status on a random Behemoth part

Talents, which give you the ability to add enhancements to 2 different buffs, your Special ability, your Passive ability, and your Legendary ability

• Note that you can only activate 3 Talents at a time for each category, so there’s some strategy behind choosing Talents too

Ultimately, what you do with these weapons is up to you (as long as you’re using them to hunt Behemoths… don’t make us revoke your privileges). And with each weapon being so distinct, you may be surprised at what you can do. Like if you prefer to be a tank, but you really like Ostian Repeaters, then the Oathkeepers, with their Shield, Health, and defense boosts will help you live out that fantasy.

It would a shame to have so many awesome new weapons and NOT let you swap them.

Weapon swapping was actually the first thing that we decided to do during this update, because there are just so many advantages, for both new and seasoned Slayers.

For one thing, we designed Dauntless combat to be easy to pick up for new players. Adding weapon swapping (along with the deep customization we just mentioned on the unique weapons) adds a whole new layer of (the good kind of) complexity, where dedicated Slayers can optimize and customize their builds in unprecedented ways.

Plus there are some pretty immediate gameplay advantages - like being able to swap from a heavy Axe for some up-close-and-personal damage before swapping to Ostian Repeaters from a distance. You can be a menace from anywhere!
Since every weapon has its own element, being able to swap with the hit of a button means you’ve got up to twice as many elements at your disposal at any given moment. Or, just stick to one element if you want! Do what you want, I’m not your dad.

The way Behemoth parts break has gotten kind of wacky over time, so we’re also resetting to a more logical approach to part-breaking. Cutting damage can sever tails, while crushing damage breaks horns and tusks. This is another win for weapon swapping, as you track down particular Behemoth parts.

Not to mention, both your weapon and subweapon gain equal XP!

And last, but certainly not least, weapon swapping, especially weapon swap combos are just COOL! I mean look at this.
Weave between your weapons for as long as your stamina will allow.

On a personal note, the designer of weapon swapping’s personal favourite is the sweet roundhouse kick whenever you swap to Aether Strikers. Make sure you check that one out in the Training Grounds.

With a new weapon at the heart of Awakening’s new Hunt Pass, designing Alluring Moons was no small task.

When designing a new weapon, the first thing we do is to look for gameplay holes - what haven’t we done yet, that we want Slayers to be able to do? In this case, there was a great opportunity to use some of the ideas we’ve been throwing around regarding pets. The original concept was for this new weapon to actually corrupt nearby fauna to fight for you. It turned out they were rarely in convenient enough places for that to be advantageous, so instead, the new weapon actually summons the new fauna, Chaoxes.

From there, Ostian Repeaters were the weapon type that made the most sense for this summoning ability, since you’d be able to trigger it at a far enough distance to leverage those Chaoxes properly.
The original name for the repeaters was Umbral Moons, which then changed to Corrupting Moons, before landing on Alluring Moons (since they “Lure” the Chaoxes). Just how much luring can you do? Between the Leader of the Pack Legendary ability (which summons a unique, mutated Chaox), your Special ability, and Talents, you can actually have up to 7 Chaoxes fighting for you at once! Talk about chaox-tic.

Alluring Moons is available immediately upon purchase of Dauntless: Awakening’s Elite Hunt Pass. And Level 50 contains the Alluring Moons-inspired repeater transmog - Alluring Suns.

As always, we want to hear what you think about weapons in this new phase of Dauntless, the Alluring Moons, and everything else coming in Dauntless: Awakening.

We can’t wait for you to play it… TOMORROW!

Until then, Slayers,

Clear skies!

Hail, Slayers!

There’s one question you’ve been asking since we announced Dauntless: Awakening… “When?”

How does December 5th sound?

Celebrate the upcoming launch of Dauntless: Awakening with this all-new trailer and then read on for more details.


Now that we’ve answered the biggest question, there are a ton of other questions we’ve received around what the experience will be like for existing Slayers, from other platforms, moving into a post- Awakening world. If you're brand new to Dauntless, you can skip the homework.

First up - there will be some scheduled downtime for all other platforms starting on December 3 at 10am PT, so if you're already playing and have got any unfinished business for the season, now’s the time to take care of it!

One major last chance is with regard to Reforges, as the Reforge system will be retiring at the end of this season.

To honour all of the Reforges that have happened, there are two exclusive crowns available:

• Crest of the Reforged for Slayers who Reforge each weapon type once
  
• Crest of the Committed for Slayers who have Reforged at least 70 times, across any weapon type

And there’s an extended Gregario’s Treasure Hunt 2X XP event coming up this weekend (November 29 - December 3 10am PT) to help you finish those off!

For additional context on the changes that are coming, check out the previous Steam announcement detailing all the upcoming changes. For today’s blog, we’re focusing on what this means for your existing gameplay items and currencies, if you've played Dauntless before.


The Godhand, Molten Edict, The Hunger, and Twins Suns will remain in the game and be immediately available for Slayers who already own them.

• Slayers who have power surged these weapons will automatically have theirs levelled up to Level 10 (of 60), otherwise, they will start at Level 1.

The Silver Sword and Golden Claws will remain and be immediately available for Slayers who already own them.

• These weapons will be migrated to match your progress with them pre- Awakening. For example if you made it to Golden Claws IV, your Golden Claws will come over at Level 4 already.

Any other previously-crafted weapons crafted will be available to the Slayers who owned them as Transmogs.

• Any Transmog Stones spent on these weapons before the update will also be refunded.
  
• All other gameplay weapons, including Legendaries, will be removed from your inventory and not usable.

All players who have Reforged at least once will receive 60 Peerless Aetherite, containing enough XP to level any weapon right up to Level 50 in the new system.

Players will also receive a number of Weapon Tokens for a head-start on obtaining the new gameplay weapons, based on their inventory before the migration:

• For every 20 gameplay weapons you have crafted, you will receive 100 Weapon Tokens.
  
• A weapon that has been Power Surged will count for double.
  
• There is a maximum of 500 Weapon Tokens that will be granted (so for having 100 gameplay weapons, 50 Power Surged weapons, or a mix along the way).

Players who already crafted the three Exotic helm armours - The Skullforge, Prismatic Grace, and Tragic Echo - will have them unlocked as Transmogs, and any Transmog Stones spent on these items will be refunded.

• The armours themselves will be removed from the game and no longer equippable.

All other gameplay armour will remain in the game and usable.

• With armour changing to a levelling system up to Level 20, any armour that has been power surged will be automatically upgraded to Level 10, otherwise it will start at Level 1.

Gameplay lanterns with unique effects have been removed from the game, as has lantern crafting, with many of the effects moved to be part of our new weapons.

As a result, all players will now have the one “basic” lantern, and will customize it with Transmogs as before, but now from the Customize Slayer screen (alongside banners, emotes, etc.).

• Any gameplay lanterns previously crafted will be available as Transmogs, and any Transmog Stones spent on these lanterns will be refunded.

We’re returning to the world of “one true Hunt Pass” per season, that lasts only for the duration of the current season. For more on the future of Hunt Pass, check our recent dev blog.

As a result, all Vault Passes and Event Passes (everything other than the Slayer Commission pass) will be retired and no longer offered in the future. Items from them may appear over time in other sources like the Store for folks who missed them.

For anyone who still has a purchased but uncompleted Vault or Event Pass will have them auto-completed as part of the update rollout.

• Please note that for technical reasons, you’ll still need to go into the Hunt Pass screen and claim the rewards manually, like you would for completing them yourself.

This auto-completion does not apply to the currently-active Slayer Commission pass. At the end of the season, it will expire like any other and you will only receive the rewards up to where you’d reached.

The following cells are being removed:

• Aetheric Attunement, Aetheric Evasion, Bloodless, Conditioning, Fleet Footed, Impulse, Invigorated, Mender, Rage, Shellshock Resist, and Zeal.
  
• For Slayers with any of these Cells, they will receive Cell Cores, which can drop any of the remaining or new cells:
  
• +1 Cells will be replaced with a Cell Core containing 2 Cells
  
• +2 Cells will be replaced with a Cell Core containing 3 Cells
  
• +3 Cells will be replaced with a Cell Core containing 4 Cells

In addition, all Cells are now +1 only, as they become more of a supporting part of the perk economy. As a result, for Cells that are remaining in the game players will receive:

• Per +2 Cell, 2 of the base Cell
  
• Per +3 Cell, 4 of the base Cell

At launch, all Cells will be unequipped from your existing weapons, armour, and lanterns to allow you to implement them how you wish in the new armour system.


With so many systems and features changing in the update, we’ve decided to have everyone start back at the beginning in terms of the main quest, so even legacy players can be introduced to these new systems in context.

• Importantly, you will not be losing any items or other progress other than that which we’ve already detailed above. Consider this “quest reset” a tutorial on what’s changed. Legacy players who have Reforged will also be able to get through it fairly quickly due to the Aetherite you’ll receive in the migration process (mentioned above under Weapons).

All existing Slayers will load into Ramsgate after the update to find Markus waiting for you with a welcome back and quest to head to the Training Grounds. From there, you’ll quickly learn about the new progression systems via the updated Main and Side quests.

You will need to unlock access to islands, modes, Behemoths and gear crafting via this new progression rather than having them all available from the start.

No progress on Rumours or other remaining Side Quests will be lost, although you may find objectives have been updated to make sense in the new world of the game.

Any Slayer who has already completed the Rolling Thunder side quest, but hadn’t yet unlocked and crafted the Tempest omnicell will be granted one (as it now comes from that quest).

Any Slayer who has already completed the Mother Knows Drask side quest, but does not have the rumours for the Field-Rigged Battlemask or Field-Rigged Battleplate will be granted the initial unlock for these Rumours (as they now come from this quest).

The Middleman is leaving Ramsgate and he’s taking his Cell cooking functionality with him.

Any player who had purchased one or both of the premium cooking slots that were available will receive 25 Patrol Keys per slot owned, which will be useful for farming new Cells from the new targeted Patrol Chests on islands.

With the changes to weapons in this update, what are currently Weapon Trackers will also be changing.

These will now become Trackers, now a one-time purchase from the Research Lab, but now equipped to your player in the Customize Slayer screen, where you’ll also be able to see your current stat.

As before, other players will see your equipped stat above your head in the game world, but please note that for now only one stat can be equipped at once.

A stat will now start tracking as soon as you purchase the relevant Tracker, rather than only when a specific weapon is equipped.

For players with existing Tracker data, we will take the following to be your new starter value:

• Biggest Hit, Longest Glide: highest set value across any existing tracker
  
• Fastest Heroic Escalation Completion, Fastest Dauntless Trial Completion: lowest set value across any existing tracker
  
• All others (wounds, parts, dogs pet etc.): all set values across existing trackers will be combined!

Slayer Links remain in the update, and existing links from before the update should remain, but please note that your reward pool will be re-rolled to match items and currencies in the new game world.

Just to be very clear: no premium cosmetic items will be removed as part of the update. All of your flares, banners, emotes, arrivals, titles, crowns etc. will be right where you left them - and now equippable per-loadout!

Aetherdust, Aethersparks, Aetherhearts, Chronostones, and Cache Coins will all be retired with this update, so if you're still playing on another platform, don’t be afraid to use them in advance!

PHEW! That should cover everything!

We can’t wait to introduce you to this new phase of Dauntless on December 5th!

Clear skies!

The Dauntless Team

Hey, Slayers!

In case you're new here, Dauntless: Awakening is a huge update coming to Dauntless, and it's nearly here! Get ready to encounter a new Behemoth, powerful and unique weapons, an armour overhaul and more. Read on for a fairly comprehensive look at what’s coming in the new season.


We’ll detail each of these updates further below, but, to start, here’s a quick rundown! If you're new to Dauntless, be aware that in the later section, things may get a bit specific around the nuances of the update, but don't be deterred by the nitty gritty details.

Karkonos

• Our newest Behemoth is coming to Islands Events on the new Umbral Hunting Grounds: Twilight’s Domain

New Weapons and Progression

• Unique weapons with their own Legendary abilities and talents

Weapon swapping

• Swap between weapons for a strategic Elemental edge or to do epic swap combos

Armour Progression and Cells Update

• Amours will be the centerpiece of your builds, using Cells to lock in perks

New Hunt Pass and Canisters

• The Hunt Pass is the core of the new season and includes free pulls from a new cosmetic distribution mechanic - Canisters

New Cosmetic sets and bundles

• The Deep Sea set and the Godhand Armour Bundle will be making their debut

Streamlined Questline

• New and updated quests will introduce all of the new mechanics, and make the game more accessible to new players

Improved Loadouts

• Swap all things cosmetic (including Slayer’s appearance and crowns) via loadouts

Elemental Status Updates

• There will now be Radiant and Umbral Elemental statuses, and Frost’s is getting a tweak

Behemoth reworks

• Many behemoths are getting behavioural tweaks, with particularly notable changes to Embermane and Valomyr

New Fauna

• 3 new Fauna will be added, and Fauna drops will now be crucial for crafting Supplies

Streamlined Buffs

• Buffs will be simplified to 6 core categories

Ramsgate Updates

• Various tweaks are happening in Ramsgate

Formerly known by its codename, Crudge, Dauntless is getting its first new Behemoth in a hot minute, built, proudly with input from our community.

Karkonos will, naturally, drop the parts needed to build a new set of Karkonos armour. There will also be a rumour for a new Karkonos-inspired Dye.

You will be able to encounter Karkonos via Island Event on a new Umbral Hunting Grounds map: Twilight’s Domain.

There will be 7 unique weapons available through early quests:

• The Silver Sword (a Frost sword)
  
• The Living Branch (a Terra pike)
  
• Skies of Ostia (a Shock hammer)
  
• Fury of the Mountain (a Blaze axe)
  
• Netherlights (Umbral chainblades)
  
• Twin Suns (Shock repeaters)
  
• Golden Claws (Radiant aether strikers)

There will also be 11 more unique weapons, available in exchange for a new currency, called Weapon Tokens, which are obtained from Hunt Passes (free and paid), weekly challenges, or for purchase with Platinum:

• The Anvil (a Frost hammer)
  
• Bane & Balm (Terra chainblades)
  
• Eternal Winter (a Frost axe)
  
• Firestorm (a Blaze pike)
  
• The Godhand (a Radiant pike)
  
• The Hunger (an Umbral sword)
  
• Molten Edict (a Blaze hammer)
  
• Oathkeepers (Terra aether strikers)
  
• Reapers Edge (an Umbral axe)
  
• Thundersoul (a Shock sword)
  
• To & Fro (Frost chainblades)

In addition, every weapon has a unique Legendary ability, can be powered up to Level 60, and has 25 unlockable Talents including boosts to special, active, and passive abilities. We’re also introducing Aetherite as an exciting, collectible XP boost to weapons. You can read more about the weapon update here.

Oh, and one last thing - you will be able to equip both a weapon and subweapon, with both weapons gaining equal XP. You can swap between the weapons, either with a button click or through a badass weapon swap combo.

Armour will be critical to your builds, as the main source of buffs and perks, and will be upgradable to Level 20. You’ll be able to preview the perks that each armour piece can unlock in the new armour crafting screen, and, once your armour has crossed the threshold, the perks will activate. Player feedback was critical for getting this armour update right.

Armour will be the only place to use Cells, which now serve to support the perk system, helping you lock in perks. Note that once Cells are attached to armour, they’re locked in. Removing the Cell or swapping in a different one will destroy the original Cell, so you’ll want to be strategic about which armour you attach them to. It will also be easier to hunt down particular Cells through Cores in Patrol Chests on certain areas, as well as in the Trials and Gauntlet stores.

The first in over 2 years, this new 50-Level Hunt Pass is brimming with rewards. The free tier contains tons of Dull Aetherite, along with Weapon Tokens, Bounty Tokens, Patrol Keys, Cell Cores, and free pulls from the new Canisters (we’ll get to those in a second).

The Elite tier immediately unlocks the new Umbral Repeaters: Alluring Moons (seen above, and which we plan to detail in a later blog closer to launch). The rest of the track contains Shining and Peerless Aetherite, Bounty Tokens, Rams, Rare Cell Cores, Transmog Stones, Canister pulls, and more, culminating with the brand new Alluring Suns repeaters transmog (seen in the background above).

The Elite track also offers unprecedented benefits throughout the duration of the Hunt Pass, including:

• 2x Hunt Pass XP
  
• +10% on earned Weapon XP
  
• +10% Escalation XP
  
• Bonus Loot Roll

Upon completion, both tracks will pay out a Prestige Core with each new level, offering Dull Aetherite, Bounty Tokens, Patrol Keys, Uncommon and Common Cell Cores, and Rams. Which means the Elite track gets 2 Prestige Cores with each level.

As introduced earlier, Canisters are a new-to-Dauntless approach to offering cosmetics. We understand that lootbox mechanics are a sensitive subject, and we’ve aimed to add this feature with as much transparency and integrity as possible, offering transparent odds and making sure duplicate purchases are impossible.

There will be two Canisters available during Dauntless: Awakening. One, featuring the brand new Deep Sea cosmetic set, the other containing classic Arcslayer cosmetics. Free pulls from these Canisters will be available from the Hunt Pass, and additional pulls can be purchased with Platinum.

In addition to the Deep Sea cosmetic set, the Godhand Armour Bundle will be making its debut as a real money purchase.

The main questline has been updated to better tutorialize the game, its modes, and to reduce confusion for first-time Slayers. All gameplay unlocks are now tied to questlines, with the Slayer’s Path being used to unlock buffs and boosts.

Returning Slayers will be prompted to complete these new quests, to ensure that you have been properly introduced to all of the new mechanics. We just want you to know what’s going on!

All cosmetics, and even your Slayer’s appearance, will now be able to be saved to Loadouts, allowing you to experiment with drastically different builds and self-expressions, with the click of a button. And yes, that does include crowns.

Radiant and Umbral elements will now have elemental statuses:

Radiant: If a Behemoth does an Unstable Move, the effect explodes, dealing minimal damage, but interrupting the Behemoth. If the Behemoth doesn’t do such a move, the affect deals a small amount of damage as it ends.

Umbral: An umbral cyst appears on a random part of the Behemoth, for 30 seconds. The cyst has 3,000 health and, when hit, deals part damage in an AoE explosion. When destroyed, they explode, dealing umbral and heavy part damage in an AoE

In addition, the Frost elemental effect will now freeze the behemoth for 2 seconds, instead of just slowing it down.

Both Embermane and Valomyr are getting updated moves to make their encounters more exciting, with quite a few other Behemoths also getting behavioural updates.

The new Fauna - Chaoxes, Vespers, and Orquids will be making their debut, as a bigger challenge than you’re used to from Fauna. In addition, Fauna drops will now include new parts needed for Supply crafting.

Buffs have been simplified to six core categories: Might, Critical, Speed, Vitality, Defense, and Endurance.

That’s about everything for now, both new and returning Slayers. We’re so grateful for you being along for the ride with us. Be sure to tell us what you’re most hyped about in Dauntless: Awakening. Keep your eyes on Discord[discord.gg] and social media (X[x.com]/Instagram[www.instagram.com]/Facebook[www.facebook.com]) for more teases, reveals, and first looks to come!

Until our next update,

Clear skies!
The Dauntless Team