Spartans!

Today we are releasing our Unreal Engine 5.7 update for Dawn of Defiance, bringing not only the anticipated performance improvements and new graphical settings, but also (surprise!) new content, including revisions to the Desert Reign raid puzzles & labyrinth, a new Cyclops enemy, 20+ new decor pieces, and introducing the Wandering Spartans: challengeable NPCs across the Crossroads with a new unlockable armor set and weapons! Read on for more information on these highlights, and see the patch notes for today’s extended list of changes, bug fixes, and quality-of-life improvements!

STEAM REVIEWS

Thank you for being a part of our open development! We would ask you to write a steam review, so we may continue to hear from all of our players! Feedback has been invaluable to us since we started Early Access, guiding our development focus by keeping us informed of the strongest and weakest parts of our game. Your criticisms and commendations remain equally valuable today and every day onward to 1.0. So whether short or long-form, we would greatly appreciate your review!

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UPDATE 0.4.0.0 HIGHLIGHTS

THE WANDERING SPARTANS

Long abandoned by the Gods and lost to the Crossroads, the Wandering Spartans will not rest without a fight. Find and fulfill their final wishes, then challenge these five heroes to offer them peace in death. Unlock a brand new armor set and give a second life to their powerful weapons: Andronika’s Final Shape, Demos' Blade Theory, and Ajax’s Mono Labe.

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THE TEMPLE OF POSEIDON 2.0

A new enemy type defends Poseidon’s palatial temple! Take on the lumbering Cyclops in the latest raid, then upon completion, find them in the Ancient Desert! Following player feedback, we also addressed a few key areas in the raid, including boss fights, the courtyard, and the labyrinth! The Courtyard vent puzzle is more challenging, sending a wave of captains and soldiers to defend two levers. Bosses have updated behavior trees to make them more responsive and more aggressive. The labyrinth experience is more directed and engaging, with more obvious entry points, a simplified footprint, and more thoughtful, integrated traps and puzzles.

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NEW DECOR KITS

Enjoy around forty new buildables, including daybeds, chairs, paintings, merchant stands, shelves, buckets and more. These new kit collections gives you the ability to give life and vibrance to your palatial courtyards and plazas, as well as decorating your more intimate interior rooms. Players now also immediately unlock the existing brazier collection as part of the wood kit. And per a special player request, we added rose pots in the spirit of Spring!

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UE 5.7 PERFORMANCE

Updating our engine to 5.7 brings performance improvements in a few tangible ways: Load times have been improved, both on the mini-logo splash screen and during portal loads. We also believe endlessly loading black screens have been reduced for most players, if not addressed completely. You will also find new graphical options in your settings which may enhance your gameplay experience depending on your hardware, including Nvidia DLSS, Multi Frame Gen, Reflex, and AMD FSR.

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QUALITY-OF-LIFE

Lastly, to point out some often-requested improvements, players now have a stack and sort button in their inventory! You may also toggle your helmet visibility. Free the beard! Free the pony! Repeatable quests are labeled to reduce confusion after raid-completion, and our archery challenges at Apollo shrines and Euryale’s chamber now use both colors and symbols to improve player accessibility. Please continue to inform us if you experience accessibility concerns!

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HOUNDS OF ZEUS

Today, we also want to inform you of our next series of updates! Unlike “Desert Reign” and “Sisters of the Deep” which were singular, major updates, Dawn of Defiance “Hounds of Zeus” will be released in at least two parts, planning to start with the mountain biome overhaul in Q2 and culminating with the Temple of Zeus raid shortly after! This is mostly to improve efficiency, but we also hope it offers you more content, more often!

You can see this reflected on an updated roadmap graphic which will be accessible on our website at all times. Alongside this addition, “husbandry” has been removed from our roadmap due to our scope and goals for 1.0; however, we have added “fast travel,” “dynamic world events,” and “cave systems!” We look forward to sharing more about content coming to Hounds of Zeus in coming months!

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Thank you as always for playing Dawn of Defiance! You may contact us with questions and thoughts in Steam Reviews, Steam Discussions, our Discord, or our support email: support@traega.com. Please report your bugs to Feature Upvote, and follow us on social to stay notified of future updates or roadmap changes:

YouTube | Twitter | Instagram | Reddit | Discord

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FULL CHANGELIST 0.4.0.0

FEATURE ADDITIONS

• Unreal Engine 5.7 Update
  • Nvidia DLSS
  • Multi-Frame Gen
  • Reflex
  • AMD FSR
• New Enemy Type, the Cyclops
• Wandering Spartans, challengeable NPCs.
• New Armor Set
• New Weapons:
  • Sword, Demos' Blade Theory
  • Spear, Andronika’s Final Shape
  • Shield, Ajax’s Molon Labe
• New Decor
  • Floor Tiles (4 Variants)
  • Merchant Stands (8 Variants)
  • Paintings (3)
  • Chairs (2)
  • Daybeds (2)
  • Toilets
  • Buckets
  • Rose Pots (4)
  • Bookshelves (5 Variants)
  • Cabinet (2)
  • Curtained Post
• New Desert Reign Labyrinth Puzzles
• Quality-of-Life
  • Toggle Helm Visibility
  • Sort Inventory Button

IMPROVEMENTS:

• Desert Reign Raid Adjustments
  • Petrified debuff removed from Nyssara’s Beam ability.
  • Ironwake is more aggressive and stalls less in combat.
  • Taurok is more aggressive and stalls less in combat.
  • Courtyard vent puzzle changed to a wave-based, lane defense challenge.
  • Clearer entry points and completion markers added to the labyrinth.
  • Labyrinth layout has been simplified, eliminating need for supplementary map.
  • Updated traps
• UI changes to Settings menu to accommodate new UE 5.7 options.
• Repeatable quests are now labeled.
• Load Time Improvements
  • Updated world portal system to the raid version.
  • Reduced portal load time (especially for Clients).
  • Reduced splash (mini-logo) screen load time.
• The intro prologue should now automatically advance upon completion.
• A note about raids requiring bows was added.
• Desert Reign Shrines received a visual polish pass.
• Soldier Camps have been updated but remain visually under-construction. They will be completed for the next update.
• Symbols added to Apollo & Euryale archery challenge for improved accessibility.
• Brazier Buildables are now unlocked with the wood kit.
• Added a “loading” indicator to address confusion with non-functioning “Continue” buttons.

BUG FIXES:

• Inversion and Statis arrows now accessible to players.
• Fixed an issue where the quest to light the Braziers of Prometheus could not be completed. 
• Fixed an issue where some inlay removals could damage the player.
  • (We also fixed the issue where they would enter “ready” stance upon removals).
• Fixed an issue where some durability inlays resulted in repair issues.
• Fixed an issue where “Warm” status would get stuck on the player.
• Fixed an issue where Aphrodite’s quest items could be infinitely obtained.
• Fixed certain armor types being mislabeled as Heavy armor.
• Fixed an issue where inlays were not being removed when completing Jason’s Daily Quest.
• Fixed an issue where some players experienced long wait times when exiting the game.
• Raid World / Environment issues
• World / Environment issues
• Various crash fixes

KNOWN ISSUES:

• We are aware of the issue where some players are losing Skills/Inventory and are actively investigating this.
• Some players experience a permanent “Wet” or “Cold” debuff until they relog.
• Some players experience issues with the Cooking Spit until it’s rebuilt.
• Bone Dust asset is missing from Grindstone station.

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