Major Update The First Ascent

28.05.2026 – Major Update The First Ascent ver. 0.4.634

ENEMIES AND ANIMALS

  • Steamer Colossus – a new mech boss that can be encountered in the Rotten biome. Can be found in a special surface structure.
  • Vesper – a dangerous flying insect with 3 different variants (each with a unique effect: corrosion, lethargy, and a curse)
  • Larva Wasp – a larva that transforms into a Vesper when it senses danger.
  • Bloater Egg – eggs that develop inside caves; small larvae grow inside them and emerge when destroyed, defending themselves from attackers.
  • Small Larva – tiny larvae developing inside Bloater Eggs.
  • Snapbloom – a dangerous plant that spits acid.
  • X-44R – a lovely Scrapper that simply wanders around the Rotten lands.
  • Scorpior – a desert creature that uses an icy stinger to defend itself.
  • Pirate Merchant – a special merchant found on pirate ships.
  • Capybara Merchant – a very rare and unusual merchant with uniquetreasures and specialprices (not always favorable), which can be found on Capybara Island.
  • Updated Damaged Steamer – This one received combat improvements, new attack type, and overall balance adjustments.
  • Mortivar City Guard – a new Mortivar variant guarding abandoned villages.
  • Grimverd Archer – a new type of Grimverd that uses a bow to attack enemies from range.
  • Grimverd Priest – updated behavior, now supports his allies.

NEW MECHANICS

  • Lanterns in off-hand (Shield slot) – lanterns can now be used to illuminate terrain while still holding weapons, tools, or other items in the main hand; they can also be placed like furniture.
  • “Add Picked Items To” option – determines whether picked-up items go directly to the toolbar or inventory.
  • Island save cleanup after X time – optional automatic deletion of visited island save files after a chosen amount of time, reducing overall world save size.
  • Player model leaning in TPP – player characters now lean forward/backward in third-person mode, improving combat against enemies above or below the player.
  • Added a save folder button to each world slot in the world list, which opens the directory containing that specific save file.
  • The character in the main menu now displays the equipment from the save the player last played on.
  • Added play time tracking for each save file, visible on the world slot in the world list (this works starting from this update and does not track time played prior to it)

MECHANIC CHANGES & IMPROVEMENTS

  • Increased boss spawn rates – bosses now appear more frequently; additional mechanics to make boss hunting easier are planned for the near future.
  • Higher-tier keys can now unlock lower-tier locks.
  • Proximity crafting management – each chest can now individually determine whether it participates in proximity crafting; there’s also a setting controlling whether newly placed containers use proximity crafting by default.
  • Expanded proximity crafting support – proximity crafting now works with Island Core and Upgrade Station.
  • Tutorial improvements to increase clarity and accessibility.
  • Ship tutorial now overrides other tutorials when activated, making it immediately visible and preventing accidental skipping.
  • Ship tutorial now completes once the player moves the ship, preventing incorrect step order from leaving it permanently in the quest list.
  • Wooden Pipe and Wooden Caged Pipe recipes unlock moved to the moment the cockpit is placed, preventing premature crafting and wasted resources.
  • Minor changes to Tutorial steps.
  • Refreshed starting tower layout.
  • New structures with destroyed mechanisms on the starting island (distinct from shipwrecks to avoid confusion)
  • Added a new, faster eating animation for smaller food items.
  • Moved the inventory sort button to the left side.
  • Minor player animation tweaks, including adjustments for lockpicking and using keys.
  • Slight adjustments to the ship camera to properly accommodate the size of flying ships.

NEW / CHANGED ITEMS & OBJECTS

  • New Objects:
    • Ladders – classic ladders allowing vertical climbing.
    • Moisture Collector – passively gathers water from air.
  • New Arrows: New basic arrows with varying damage values and crafting materials (wood / stone / bronze / iron / steel)
  • 16 new special arrows with effects such as burning, poison, bleeding, and more.
  • Bow Modifiers: Bows can now have up to 3 modifiers (previously only durability reduction existed):
    • Crit DMG – increases critical strike damage.
    • Backstab – increases damage dealt to unaware enemies.
    • Resistance Penetration – penetrates a percentage of enemy defense (depends on arrow type; e.g. Ice Arrows penetrate ice resistance, Basic Arrows penetrate armor)
  • Bow Load Damage Bonus – scales overall damage based on bow draw percentage. For example: at 50% draw, a 20% bonus boosts damage to 70%; at full draw, damage reaches 120%.
  • Tool Use Stamina Cost – reduces stamina consumption while firing bows (also added to other weapons)
  • Bow Runes: Bows now support rune slots like other weapons.
  • Existing runes adapted for bows: Charge, Battle Feast.
  • New bow-exclusive runes:
    • Wind Blow – fully charged shots create a shockwave that pushes nearby enemies away and has a chance to stun.
    • Sky Pierce – increases arrow speed and reduces arrow drop.
    • Shadow Echo – arrows have a chance to spawn a following Shadow Arrow.
    • Infused String – increases duration of status effects applied by arrows.
  • New Unique Items:
    • Pirate Hat – grants special stun and lockpicking modifiers.
    • Arcane Legacy Necklace – boosts all magical effects at the cost of physical defense.
    • Treacherous Abyss Necklace – increases all outgoing damage while also increasing incoming damage.
    • Cursed Ring of the Assassin – greatly boosts backstab damage but significantly lowers HP.
    • Chaotic Nature Ring – increases duration of all effects on the wearer, both positive and negative.
    • Mortified Wall (Shield) – provides massive armor but slows the wearer due to its weight.
    • Skyshatter Guard (Shield) – grants freeze resistance and boosts ice damage.
    • Void Decree (Sword) – the only melee weapon with defense penetration and its own poison effect.
    • Scarlet Scythes – inflict bleeding and deal extra damage to bleeding targets.
  • Mage Clothes: Fire / Ice / Electric / Poison sets added.
  • Each magic aspect receives 4 clothing pieces:
    • T1 Chestplate + Hood.
    • T2 Chestplate + Hood.
    • These sets feature stronger modifiers and scale much better when upgraded compared to basic mage robes.
  • Tattoos, markings, and scars added to character customization.
  • Charred Wood – created by burning Tropicalwood in a furnace.
  • Pirate furniture set – decorative objects found on pirate ships and sold by dedicated merchants, including trampolines and playable drums.
  • Reworked structures with new hidden objects, ladders, lanterns, and more.
  • Added a new icon for low or zero durability items held in hand.
  • Added new pirate structures on the water (Galleons)
  • Added a new set of mechanical Steamer weapons.
  • New Cave Plants:
    • Crimsonbell – Forest biome.
    • Starbloom – Desert biome.
    • Noxglow – Rotten biome.
    • Mireglow Rose – Swamp biome.
    • Embercrest – Jungle biome.
    • Every biome now has its own dedicated moss variant.
  • New Resources from Mobs & Animals:
    • Snapbloom Petals.
    • Snapbloom Poison Gland.
    • Corrosion Vesper Sting.
    • Lethargy Vesper Sting.
    • Curse Vesper Sting.
    • Bloater Larva Egg Membrane.
    • Scrapper X-44R Track.
    • Scrapper X-44R Detector.
    • Bloater Larva Mucus.
    • Frosttail Scorpion Sting.
    • Chitin.
    • Colossus Steamer Module.
    • Gunpowder.
    • Ice.
    • Rope Netting.
  • You can now place a Boat Stand and use it to display your boats.
  • Some Altitude 1 Iron objects changed to Bronze material (e.g. Thick Bars, Torch Holder, Door)
  • Buried Chests – hidden underground treasure chests with pirate-related loot.
  • New Desert Vases.
  • New Jungle Vases – standard resource variants and special surprise variants.
  • Pirate Scarf wearable item.
  • Added Glasthyr and Runalit to caves (rare resources)
  • Auranite ores now spawn in deserts and jungles.
  • Ice Veins and the Ice resource added to deep caves in Forest, Swamp, Desert, and Jungle islands.

BUG FIXES

  • Fix for progression loss on multiplayer ( clients progression loss + losing progress on single-player world after leaving multiplayer session)
  • Improved flying ship collision – ships should no longer clip into islands or underwater.
  • Fixed players losing interaction when stamina interrupts tool usage.
  • Fixed chest/station content deletion and locking by clients.
  • Legendary and Elite Wraith Lords now correctly drop their unique weapon.
  • Legendary and Elite Wraith Knights no longer drop unreleased recipes.
  • Wraith Lord should now properly emerge from its sarcophagus.
  • Fixed empty recipe issue from Grimrockholder.
  • Fixed one item disappearing from stacks moved from hotbar.
  • Optimized proximity crafting performance.
  • Fixed multiplayer death orb inventory deletion.
  • Cockpit synchronization fixes.
  • Improved display of unlocked block variants.
  • Basic roof tiles can now be rotated.
  • Fixed duplicated drops from legendary and elite enemies.
  • Horrors no longer leave invisible projectile-blocking collision behind.
  • Improved staff damage scaling after upgrades.
  • Fixed host crash when clients leave the lobby.
  • Charge Rune now works in all languages instead of only English.
  • Fury Rune now works correctly for clients.
  • Fixed clients placing multiple blocks in the same spot in P2P.
  • Inventory sorting no longer displays all sorted items as newly picked up.
  • Several fixes for infinite loading screens when joining P2P sessions.
  • Fixed untextured blocks.
  • Fixed clients resetting generator timers.
  • Improved transfer of full coin stacks between inventory and containers.
  • Improved replication of ship mechanism animations in P2P.
  • Improved generator interaction locking in P2P.
  • Joining clients no longer knock hosts out of gliders.
  • Double Hatch no longer loses player collision.
  • Structures destroyed alongside supporting blocks now properly replicate for joining clients.
  • Fixed an issue with incorrect ship size expansion; flying ships now properly expand their buildable area in every direction (previously, the size incorrectly expanded downwards)
  • Fixed an issue with tile roof blocks not rotating correctly.

BALANCE CHANGES

  • Increased base magical charge count for all staffs.
  • Increased Green Crystal Dust recharge amount from 5 to 10 charges.
  • Rune fragments can now be processed into Green Crystal Dust (4-5 pcs)
  • Runalit can now be processed into random rune fragments (2-4 pcs)
  • Adjusted durability and resource drops from trees across all biomes.
  • Changed Bloater Larva loot drop from Glue to Mucus.
  • Starting arrow recipes changed from copper arrows to wooden arrows.
  • Merchants can now sell multiple copies of the same item with randomized stats (mainly weapons and tools)
  • Crabs now drop Chitin.
  • Mortivar Lord now always drops 1 of 4 armor recipes.
  • Golem now always drops 1 of 4 Crystal Grimrock Armor recipes.
  • Rebalanced enemy special attacks so they scale correctly with enemy level.
  • Mortivar Archers can now use fire-effect arrows.
  • Rebalanced tool/armor stands.
  • Increased chestplate chance on armor stands.
  • Reduced weapon/tool chance on tool stands.
  • Arrow boxes now provide different arrow types depending on height level.
  • Covers/barricades with embedded arrows now return arrows matching their visual model.
  • Buffed the water bucket (now provides more water)
  • Minor balance changes to upgrade requirements for:
    • Iron wearables.
    • Crystal Grimrock wearables.
    • Crystal Grimrock weapons.
    • Desert T1 wearables.
    • Magical staffs.

02.06.2026 – Hotfix ver. 0.4.658

  • Fixed Grimverd Golem loot below 7th sub-altitude level (below 1500 blocks) – it should now correctly drop guaranteed recipes.
  • Fixed an issue where Mortivar Lord could become immortal.
  • Removed specific Steamer item recipes from loot, as they were not supposed to be available yet.
  • Grimverd Golem and Steamer Mech can now spawn as Elite / Legendary variants.
  • Fixed Unique item prices – upgrading items could previously change their value drastically, reaching tens of millions or even negative amounts.
  • Fixed a crash related to managing items in the trading menu.
  • Forest Moss now has the correct Alchemy Effect.
  • Minor save conversion fixes – fixed teleporting outside the Flying Ship after conversion, as well as specific cases where converted saves could fail to load.
  • Potential fix for crashes after breaking or placing a block on a flying ship.
  • Improved decal refreshing – decals such as resources on blocks were not always displayed correctly, especially under moss or other objects in caves. They should now appear properly after being uncovered.
  • Improved the lighting behavior and quality of the in-hand Lantern.
  • Improved Grimverd Priest behavior.
  • Fixed Scorpior animation replication in multiplayer.
  • Fixed Axiom Crawler animation replication in multiplayer.
  • Removed collision from placed Skull objects.
  • Replaced the Windblow effect icon with the correct one.
  • Minor localization fixes – updated Spanish texts and added missing translations for Bow modifiers.
  • Added the “Scroll” prompt to the radial menu, informing players about the input used for scrolling.
  • Fixed loot from destroyed Grimverd Tents, they could previously drop incorrect loot or no loot at all.
  • Rebalanced Tier 2 Mage Robes drops – moved them to a higher sub-altitude.

10.06.2026 – Hotfix ver. 0.4.668

  • Fixed a crash when opening the Waypoints menu on specific save files.
  • Fixed cockpit interaction replication issues on multiplayer.
  • Pirate ropes under the ceiling now spawn correctly.
  • Improved Steamer Colossus behavior – it no longer moves away from the player when the player runs into it.
  • Improved Mortivar Lord’s pull special attack.
  • Improved Repairing UI – gamepad support and text layout fixes.
  • Fixed loot dropped by destroyed Iron Bars.
  • Improved Bloater Egg SFX and VFX.
  • Improved Grimverd Priest behavior.
  • Adjusted the recipe for Poison Mage T2 robes.

26.06.2026 – Hotfix ver. 0.4.715

  • Game Optimization – This update should improve overall performance, reduce stuttering, and help boost FPS across the game. It also includes fixes aimed at resolving crashes some players have been experiencing on Steam Deck.