State of the Game: The Grizzled Peaks

[Drindin]

The Grizzled Peaks​ “These Peaks are rife with adventure and danger. Banton and I have been making our best attempts to find what little scraps of information we can about the Vehueramen people, but getting into their ruined dwellings has proven very difficult. The Gaunts, as the locals call them (fearsome and unnatural creatures, even by Ember standards), are always hungry and never far away, though you seldom see them until it’s too late. The Cor’duun are another problem; a strange and powerful people. They seem to have uncovered many of the secrets of Ember, and guard them jealously. Fortunately, they seem to want to be left alone. Unfortunately, they dwell between the Wildren village where we take refuge and the great and ancient ruined city of Ibaxus, the fabled Vehueramen city founded by Ibax himself. We’ve made it to these ancient ruins only once and nearly died. Getting there was hard enough, but once we were there danger was around every corner. Had Banton not found something crucial to his studies of Alchemy and flew back to Newhaven via the Dryfoot Fallows with all haste we might have died of curiosity - it killed the Grub Bat you know…” - Nia, Academy Acolyte Intro: Hot on the heels of Alchemy (the magic system), we’ve launched an all new level 50 zone with a ton of new challenges for high level players. Also, I want to apologize for the tardiness of this newsletter. We introduced a new member of the family and then we had a funeral to attend, both of which interrupted my normal flow of work. Things are getting back to normal and I’m very excited to share the news of our latest patch at the end of November. Embers Adrift is a challenge-driven MMORPG where players can experience over 1000 hours of entertainment on a single character. With quests that have multiple outcomes, hundreds of rare mobs and thousands of rare/quest items, and a steady stream of new content coming out on a steady schedule. It’s never been easier to find long-term entertainment at a great price. You can support us by buying the game HERE for yourself or for a friend, and subscribing as time goes on. You can also purchase a month of game time for your friends who may not have an active subscription. We also have a MERCH SHOP and a SOUNDTRACK if you'd like to support us in other ways. As a small company trying to go against the grain by not focusing on maximum monetization of our player-base we want to say a huge thank you to our subscribers, your support is very much appreciated!

What’s New: The Grizzled Peaks (phase one) is now in the game and offers a bunch of new stuff for our high level players, including a new tier of monster difficulty. Previously, monsters marked with 4 chevron arrows next to their names were the hardest foes, but no longer. We now have a “boss” tier of challenge rating denoted by a skull icon next to the names of bosses where the chevron arrows used to be. Good luck and happy hunting! We’ve introduced a few new factions to the game: The Cor’duun: These people are tough. Where you’d expect to see a massive camp full of 3 chevron mobs for full groups you’ll find their village full of 4 chevron mobs to challenge our high level players, and on top of that they hit hard with their Alchemy abilities. If you’re looking for a challenge at the highest level of gameplay look no further. These guys feature their own brand new set of equipment loot that they forge using Ember. The introduction of the Cor’duun mobs is just the tip of the iceberg; they have some very interesting lore that is forthcoming. Stay tuned! The Wildren: The children of the wild. These people have broken all ties to their past and are a peace seeking people. They simply want to be left alone to live their lives in the beautiful Grizzled Peaks. They are very secretive and wary of newcomers who represent a threat to their way of life. If you want their help you’ll have to swear the oath. These mild-mannered folk are like warriors in a garden. They know how to defend themselves and must do so regularly in the dangerous Peaks. They are former slaves of the Marauders, escapees from the Exiled King’s tyranny, Newhaveners who never fit in or didn’t want to, and former drifters seeking a place to settle down. They are friendly, but fierce. We’re excited for you to meet them. We’ve added a few new quests to the game: ‘Memorial to a Simpler Time,’ takes place in the Grizzled Peaks, though that isn’t where it starts; ‘A Study in Ember’ which has proven difficult for drifters to find - drifting through the red canyons may help; and, ‘Shards of Living Ember’ which is a tag on to ‘A Study in Ember.’ This last one sees an increase in the player’s Emberstone. Now that Alchemy is here and Ember Essence is so much more important and sought after we wanted to give the players a bump in their capacity. Speaking of Ember Essence we’ve also made many changes to increase the opportunity to gather it since players are using it much more frequently with Alchemy Abilities. Emberdrifts, the portals that lead to Ember Vein dungeons, now spawn 1 chevron solo-able mobs that not only indicate what is in the dungeon, but also can be farmed for Ember Essence. We’ve added new Ember Ruptures and adjusted the spawns of others. These give a chance to turn mobs Ashen and yield Ember Essence when killed. Killing non-Ashen creatures now have some ability to yield a small number of Ember Essence as well. The Flatworms (little glowy things that give awesome long-term buffs to players who catch them by stepping on them) now give 10-20 Ember Essence as well. We’ve introduced a new and fearsome creature - the Gaunt (pictured below). With this creature comes a new NPC mechanic and challenge for high level players. Watch out for these guys, they are watching for you… A few other nice features we added or adjusted: Augmenting items with crafted augments makes them “no trade” instead of “soulbound” allowing players to place them in the shared bank and trade to alts. Launcher and Patch improvements Thread count slider added in options for performance testing DLSS nameplate improvements Added zone line indicators to map ui A slew of new loot and mobs for the new zone We look forward to hearing your reactions on this update so we can make Embers Adrift even better as time goes on, and we look forward to adding even more content to the End game and throughout the whole game, too. You can find the patch notes HERE. Go check out Elloa’s trailer for this patch, too, and give it a like and subscribe.

What’s Next: As we head toward the December Patch - which will come one week early - we are looking at another Ember Vein dungeon, quests, back-end tech upgrades, and more. I am currently working on a roadmap for 2024. I’m excited to share it with you all, but timelines are timelines and highly subject to change. As we all know, game dev is a bugger. We are also looking at February for a fun winter event. Stay tuned! As we iterate from patch to patch, adjusting current content and adding new content, we are asking our community to keep the feedback coming and to please be patient with us as we make adjustments. Thank you all! We are working very hard to keep crafting Embers Adrift into the best classically inspired MMORPG in the genre. Support our indie dev team as we grow the world together with our community of players from over 25 countries globally!

Stay tuned into our YouTube channel, our TWITTER, and our DISCORD server for info about our new content and latest news. You can also take a look at our patch notes on the Embers Adrift forums.