Greetings, Flameborn!

We'll keep this brief: Enshrouded releases tomorrow! We'll help you wait for the last day or so with an early release of our release trailer, as well as our complete changelog!

Highlights

Finally, a full map to explore!

The full release 1.0 of Enshrouded finally lets players explore all the hidden valleys and majestic mountains of Embervale. Up in the north, beyond the now open gates past the Veilwater Basin a completely new area can be explored, the Cinder’s Cradle. Cinder's Cradle has two sides. Below, lava flows through a barren wasteland littered with the ruins of a mysterious past, some areas lost to the Shroud, others lost to time and decay. But the player's journey doesn’t end here - above the lava and ruins, the Ancients have lifted the earth to create a realm of floating islands filled with unusual fauna, intricate architecture, and unrelenting guardians. Both worlds are connected through tendrils of the Shroud, reaching ever higher to snuff out a sacred light in the Ancient midsts.
Whilst exploring Cinder’s Cradle, a brand new threat is standing in the player’s path. Bring your best gear, upgrade it, cook the most efficient food before testing your mettle against these new formidable guardians of the last secrets of Embervale.
However, the new biome is only a part of the now complete new map.
Two new Hollow Halls have opened their gates, one in the Albaneve Summits and one in Veilwater Basin - bring your snorkel.
Many new areas have been added to Springlands, Blackmire and Kindlewastes specifically. These new areas expand the previous playable areas towards the edges of the world. While not as densely filled with points of interest as the central areas, they still offer many surprises and rewards for explorers - including new Shroud roots for those who need the extra skillpoints.
As part of the main quest through the new areas, players will visit structures in the previous biomes, some of which had players wonder and desperately look for a hidden entrance for years. The time to investigate what was hidden behind these doors is now!

Bring hope to a broken world

Players finally discover the mysteries behind the Ancients and the deadly Shroud corruption - and, if all goes well, put an end to the plans that threaten all of Embervale. But it will not be easy; high up in the sky, evil is hiding its strongest champion yet.
With update 1.0.0.0, the story of Embervale is concluded - for now. Even after dealing with the most imminent threat, the Shroud still lingers and the Fell still aim to conquer more territories. But the survivors in Embervale will now have a new sense of hope for this world - and a new inspiration to thrive, flourish and rebuild the realm.

New levels of power

Together with the new region, a new tier of progression is unlocked. The new maximum level for the player is 50; gear can now be upgraded to a maximum level of 55.
Before entering the Cinder’s Cradle, the next Flame Level is waiting to be unlocked - which in turn will raise the maximum of Flame Altars to 15. Rumors have it that besting the biggest threat to the peace of Embervale will unlock yet another level of the Flame - with even greater might to push back the Shroud - enabling Flame Altars to shine in areas formerly unreachable.
A new survivor, specializing in Ancient knowledge and recipes, joins the base.
As with previous biomes, a new tier of crafting progression can be explored and over time unlocked with new equipment, tools, food and other consumables, arrows, spells, giving players the level of power needed on the new battlefield.
The comforts back at home are certainly not forgotten; new furniture, props, building blocks and plants are unlocked as well.

Hey, listen!

All lore notes, letters, books and other texts found in the world are now fully voiced in English, German and Mandarin Chinese.
Players can continue exploring while listening to lore notes (like an audiobook) - playback of multiple notes can be queued in a playlist.
But it’s not just the books that talk now; all main crafting survivors and major quest-giver survivors are also now voiced in English, German and Mandarin Chinese! Perhaps now they’ll have a bit more to say than just oi…

Advanced Adventure Sharing - The Sparkworks

Players can now create their own gameplay in their worlds using the new logic system called “Sparkworks”. The possibilities range from simple interactions like light switches over dungeons with traps, puzzles, and even enemy encounters, to… well, we think the sky’s the limit. Why not try building a challenging parkour level, or battle arenas, escape rooms - or whatever else comes to YOUR mind!

The world was pretty before; now it shines!

A new rendering technology, the “brick renderer,” is now used to truly bring the vast open world to life. It significantly improves vistas by displaying a much higher level of detail for terrain and voxel buildings at a distance. Now, instead of turning into a pile of abstract blocks, that intricate castle you made will still look great from afar!
Each biome now feels more different and unique. The various areas have specific lighting, air moisture and sky atmosphere settings, strengthening the idea of exploring a living, breathing world.
Numerous small changes, and some really big ones, have been added under the hood to achieve the impossible. The game runs at a good level of performance with less needed memory, while at the same time looking better than ever before. One example is the improved point light shadows - while predominantly a performance increase, this change allows the engine to render more point lights than previously, which will be especially noticeable in large player bases.
We have also improved dynamic global illumination, which leads to, among other things, more vibrant colors in the Shroud and better lighting beneath large trees, in dense forests, and inside buildings.
Also, HDR is now supported, if you have a monitor or TV that knows what to do with that.

More spells, better spells, better combat, better players

Let's start at the beginning: the completely new faction in Cinder’s Cradle brings 14 new enemy types, which with the enemy variants we’re adding to other factions, adds a total of 37 new faces roaring for a fight.
Investments also went into making all enemies just a bit smarter, better at finding their way through our complex environments, and just feeling more convincing as adversaries.
As for the players, while the changelog is full of many, many small and big improvements for all playstyles, the biggest combat focus of this update was the mage classes. We added 9 completely new types of spells to give mages more tools on the battlefield to handle challenging enemy encounters. This includes new crowd control spells, more area-of-effect damage, summons, and utility spells. Also, many additional tiers of existing spells have been created to broaden the options for mages at all stages of the progression.

• All spells now have eternal spell variations for the late game - eliminating the need to worry about running out of charges. Never again will you realize you're out of charges at the worst possible moment. Probably.
• Eternal spells, and arrows, can now be upgraded just like weapons or other equipment.
• Players can now actively summon skeletons to fight alongside them. They work for free, never complain, and only occasionally get in the way. This, combined with new “Necromancy” weapon gems and support skills, allows players to create an impressive amount of undead minions.
• Wand gameplay has been expanded with a heavy attack that is immediately available, as well as unlockable evasive and aerial attacks as active skills. Also, wand gameplay has been improved with many small but significant fixes for selecting targets and general handling, including free aim.
• Numerous fixes, improvements and additional settings have been added for aiming with ranged weapons, allowing players to fine-tune the aim assist, enemy targeting, and much more.
• Several new skills and improvements have been added to the skill tree. Thanks to community feedback and our own experience playing the game, the balancing of the skills and equipment continued, broadening the range of meaningful choices throughout every step of the progression.
• Looking at the combat and movement of the player characters themselves, it was time to add the next layer of quality. We added many small animations to the player character to make turns, starts and stops in and out of running and sprinting more grounded and fluid, while keeping the reactivity and snappiness on the same level as in previous versions. At the same time, the camera has been improved with many, sometimes subtle tweaks and changes so that in the best case, you now completely forget that it even exists.
• Traversal on steep slopes has been reworked to make the behavior more consistent and deliberate. At the same time, issues with involuntary sliding have been fixed.

A fresh start - Early Game Improvements

We hope that with version 1.0.0.0, many new Flameborn climb out of that Cinder Vessel for the first time, ready to start exploring Embervale with fresh eyes. It was therefore a perfect opportunity for us to once more look at those first hours of the gameplay and work on the pacing, guidance and fun of getting to know the game’s features and challenges.
We added more chests to the early game regions in Springlands and Revelwood to better reward exploration and also give players more opportunities to try out different gear and level up their weapons with more available runes and loot.
Many roads and enemy camps have been touched up to reduce the chances of getting utterly lost in the open world and instead make players feel more in control of their journey.
The recipes in the crafting progression have been reworked, especially in the early game. The goal was to reduce the grind and get players to the good stuff faster.

Player suggestions we included because hey that sounded like a good idea

• Shader compilation times after updates or GPU driver installations have been significantly reduced. Okay that one’s a trick we were always gonna improve it.
• A new skill allows building in a free-flying mode. This makes it so much easier to build in hard-to-reach areas.
• The boss in the Albaneve Summits has been reworked with a substantial nerf to its health, and with added opportunities to deal damage with melee weapons. Your twig collections will thank us. Also, the arena has been changed to make it easier for players to stay on solid ground or get back to it after jumping or being pushed over the ledge.
• Scattered loot can now continuously be picked up in a larger radius. Either on demand by holding a button or automatically by sheer magnificence of being the Flameborn (by setting it so in the gameplay setting). Excluded from this is loot in containers, from enemies or special quest items.
• Players can now choose between the classic and the new, more realistic character proportions, either when creating a new character or by changing an existing one at the Barber. Perfect for those of you who weren’t so keen on hobbit roleplay.
• Storage chests can now be upgraded. This can be done in place without having to empty them and pick them up first. Huge win for feng shui enthusiasts.
• Updraft charge duration is now configurable in world settings, so if you preferred instant updraft, you can have your cake and eat it, too.
• Custom map markers and chests can now be freely named. We know that some of you are VERY excited about this one.
• Fishing progression has been improved significantly; players can now hunt for specific fish by selecting the designated bait for each tier. Also, chances for higher quality fish have been improved.
• And so, so much more..