Our second major update Desert Reign is now live! Today, either start a new journey or continue your current odyssey into the Ancient Desert! Nyx guides you to the Temple of Poseidon, but to uncover more answers to the missing Olympians, you’ll need to first survive the desert heat, complete the labors of Artemis, Aphrodite, and Demeter, and then challenge Poseidon’s most loyal guardians!

For players with existing saves! You will be prompted by the character creator before choosing your world save. After creating your Spartan, you’ll then be able to play them in any new or existing world; however, the skills of your new character will have reset to 0. This is because we’ve reworked the skill system and have also tied them to the individual characters. Going forward, when moving between worlds, your character will take their skills with them.

New Bundle!

Alongside our exciting Desert Reign release, we’re bundled with Voyagers of Nera for an extra 10% discount. If you love the myth, ruins, and monsters of Dawn of Defiance, we think you’ll like their game too! Consider grabbing both games at a perfect time to play our Desert Reign update and Voyagers of Nera’s winter update which is on its way next week!

Now before you go forth into danger on the Crossroads, here’s a rundown of our update’s best features, followed by a more thorough changelist. We will keep the bottom of this page up-to-date with known issues to the best of our ability throughout next week.

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Dawn of Defiance "Desert Reign"

FEATURES

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CREATE YOUR ANTI-HERO

Give your Spartan personality with our new character creator, featuring the long-awaited female player model and dozens of characterization options, from hairstyles, face shapes, to makeup and more. 

DEFEAT THE CHAMPIONS

Within the Temple of Poseidon, master the aqueducts, navigate the labyrinth, and challenge the greatest of his champions: the Ironwake golems, Queen Nyssara, and the minotaur Taurok, the Crownbreaker. 

WIELD THE TRIDENT

Through this raid, earn powerful new rewards including the legendary Spirit Bow of Artemis, the Stillblade of Aphrodite, and the newly improved Trident of Poseidon, in addition to two new armor sets and three unique-tier weapons. 

SURVIVE THE DESERT

With the overhaul of the Ancient Desert, prepare to face the devastating heat as you take on nine new shrine quests in the name of Aphrodite, Artemis, and Demeter to unlock the gates of Poseidon's Temple.

CONTROL THE WEATHER

Call upon the power of Demeter with the Kythera, a new facility granting you the ability to control the weather in the Mediterranean, plus a new, dedicated facility to craft inlays: the Arcanist bench. 

EXPAND YOUR SKILLS

Desert Reign increases the skill cap to level 25, adding new level 10 and level 25 skill perks, plus the ability to raise your skill in Dash, Downward Strike, Fishing, and  the new Legendary skill which lets you maximize the potential of your strongest items!

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CHANGELIST

NEW CONTENT

Expansion of the Ancient Desert

New Raid “Fallen Royalty,” including 3 New boss fights. the New raid zone, the Temple of Poseidon; and New puzzles!

Character Creator

Female Character

Demeter’s Kythera, weather facility

Arcanist Bench facility, plus new, lesser inlay shards

Biome Hazard mechanics, including Cold Effects in the Dark Forest and Heat Effects in the Ancient Desert, and Biome Hazard mitigation

New Legendary Weapons: Aphrodite’s Stillblade, Poseidon’s Trident, Artemis' Spirit Bow

New Unique Weapons: the Ironwake shield, the Crownbreaker mace, the Eternal Verdict bow, plus Inversion & Statis Arrows.

Two new armor sets: the Primus gear and the Signifier gear

New Merchant and Quest-giver, Jason

New Resource & Items: Quartz. Lotus Flowers, Infernal Embers

New Fauna, the Crocodile

9 New shrine quests, 3 each for: Artemis, Aphrodite, Demeter, plus repeatable & daily quests

New Decor: Two new beds, two Ottomans, New Roman Braziers

Skill Level cap increased, including New Level 10 perks, New level 25 perks.

4 Skills you can now earn points towards: Downward strike, Fishing, Dash, Legendary

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IMPROVEMENTS

Increased Pomegranate resource locations

Shields no longer block enemy's entire body. You can aim for feet and legs when shield is raised.

Bracers now affect unarmed combat

New Art, Charcoal Kiln

New Art, Improved Cultist camps

Quests redistributed between Jason & Aeacus

Aeacus sells more items

Supplementary lore, including Lore tablets and Prologue VO

Optimization, including raid improvements, gameplay Cues, and Damage/Combat numbers

Inlay changes, Including equipment slot - Forged items now have two inlay slots, while Unique items only get one (see below)

Unique equipment changes - Unique items have had new buffs added to them (hence the single inlay slot)

Current “Sisters of the Deep” Unique items and “Desert Reign” Unique items have the same buffs, but expect changes in the future.

Changes to the Bronze Ingot recipe

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BUG FIXES

Players can no longer place Town Center in the Crossroads Portal

Show Controls Input works on every character blade tab

Turning 180 no longer breaks Sprint

Soldier heads less likely to disconnect on death

Some Z-fighting issues fixed with buildable items

Golden Bow VFX stay on when switching weapons

Fixed Hephaestus' Shrine of Soot run-off text

Fixed Fishing pole stats overlapping window

Hephaestus forge now blocks foliage

Added increased damage to Heavy/Sprint unarmed attacks

Fixed buildables staying on cursor after switching from hammer

Fixed bear kills counting more than once

Fixed Golden Bow’s shots not counting towards wrath unless bow is fully drawn

Fixed “Add Stacks” pulling non-stackable items

Fixed players losing access to radial wheels if they rebind [F]

Fixed Solarium staggering ranged attacks

Various world fixes

Audio fixes, such as strange SFX on game exit and bears making boar sounds

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We will aim to keep our players informed of any known issues. Please reference our Steam changelist if seeking more info. This update will be followed by a minor update, and we'll let you know when we've made updates to the roadmap regarding our next major update.

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