Introduction

I really wish this landed on v850 instead just for a nice round off number but it's ok :(

Welcome to the next expansion of Project Duck and probably the largest patch that we have ever released up til now. I'm really excited to finally be able to put this out there. There has been so much work behind the scenes to get this done and the small team that we have of developers and testers worked real hard and I'm proud of our work and what we accomplished here.

There's a ton of changes and these patch notes are so incredibly long and I doubt people are going to read most of it. That's fair since a fair amount of it is early game changes that most veterans won't need to worry about. However, I would greatly appreciate a fair read.

I understand that some of these choices may be frustrating or confusing to a lot of players (especially the progression based changes) but there's a reason why they are the way they are. If you would like to read more into the design choices behind progression for EXP5, I plan to write a developer blog to explain why things are the way they are.

• Joorji

Hot damn there's so much tech in this patch that isn't mentioned in these patch notes (well, on top of all the tech that is mentioned) to support all the new content you can't even imagine. This is why I've been a little slow on delivering features that I've mentioned in the past (I don't think anyone disputes that getting content out is more important than saving people a few clicks).

It's also crazy to me that we're at the point on the asset pipeline side that our small group of costume makers are able to make amazing new costumes and weapons (see below) with much less direct involvement from me, because man it sucked back then when every custom model had to go through me to be added to the game. Now they can add them themselves! And add their own effects!

Anyway, I'm excited to get this patch out to y'all (hopefully without that many bugs, but if you see them, report them!) and don't worry, I'll be able to work on even more performance improvements, bug fixes, quality of life features, and more again soon. Please look forward to long awaited features such as saved/importable skill builds, costume presets, account-wide friends/blocks, and more very soon.

• Vahr

Trailer Video

Defense Rework & Stat Changes

Defense

Holy shit it matters again?!

Defense is coming back in a big way! In EXP5 content, the damage you take will depend on your defense stat. Don't worry, all older content will still be the same unless specified otherwise.

How it works

Before anything, what's important to know is EHP or effective HP. EHP is the real amount of health that you AFTER defenses are accounted for. Of course, if you have 100 HP and you have 50% DEF, and the enemy deals 150 damage, when it actually hits you, it'll do 75 damage instead.

In the past, DEF would give you more EHP the more of it you have, meaning there was a curve. In the new system, each point of DEF will linearly increase your EHP, so a straight line.

Before, VIT used to give you HP and DEF and INT would give you MDEF. In the new system VIT grants DEF and MDEF meaning that your DEF/MDEF will pretty much always be equal no matter what (unless you're an oldie still wearing an Adorned plate or something).

Class Specific Scaling

Just like damage stats scaling STR to PDMG on a Gladiator, each point of VIT will grant HP and DEF. This scaling is different for each base class.

This means that each base class will have different defense values since they scale differently with VIT.

Why?

We want more levers to tune when it comes to balancing classes. An Assassin that has Feint probably shouldn't take the same amount of damage as a Lencea. We want there to be proper tradeoffs for certain classes. We're probably going to have to adjust this a lot to get it right. Of course, class balancing will also have to get adjusted to be fair to the classes that take more damage.

Adaptive Stat

Welcome to a new world of convenience

Introducing the brand new stat: Adaptive Stat (and Adaptive Stat%)! This stat will replace most instances of STR/INT/AGI, especially on the new dragon gems! Now, instead of getting Brutal, Windswept, or Wise dragon gems, you can now slot in an Adaptive dragon gem and the game will automatically grant the main stat associated with your class. There will be new gems for early, mid, and late-game which uses this system.

Example

You're a Duelist and you have an adaptive stat dragon gem that grants 700 adaptive stat. When you slot that gem into your equipment, it will instead grant you 700 AGI. The same will happen with 4% adaptive stat. That will convert into 4% AGI when you slot it in as a Duelist. You can take the same gem, and put it in a Chaos Mage and it will automatically turn into INT! If you're an Assassin, it'll grant both AGI and STR in equal amounts.

Long gone are the days of multiple gem sets for STR/AGI/INT classes that you play! Now you only have to worry about the weapon gems!

Final Damage

• Final Damage cap has been increased again to 20,000 only for EXP5 content. The final damage cap for older EXP4 content is still 9,444.

Critical Stats

• Critical Chance and Damage cap has been increased again to 3,700,000 only for EXP5 content. The critical stat caps for older EXP4 content are still 1,957,494.

Town & Fields

Myla Laurel

Brand new grass!

Garden of Solace

sad not so sad

• Removed
• All portals moved to Frozen Foothills

Frozen Foothills

New look coming soon...

Event and new stuff here!

• Solace of Oblivion
• Event Portals
• Hyperbolic Time Chamber
• Timeless Return Portal

Twilight Bay

New worldzone hub!

New content here!!!!

• Brynhildr Nest
• Treasure Nest
• Abandoned Springs
• Arcadian Maple Passage
• Forest Dragon Nest

New Player Experience

Welcome to the new player experience! If you're just starting out or if you have a friend that's new, here's where to go. Once you're in Myla Laurel, class change at Zeke and then head south across the bridge to Port Duckling

Port Duckling

The new player hub!

Here you will receive guidance from various NPCs to tell you where to go and what to make.

Wooded Krag Hollow

Probably very familiar to many of you...

A nice wooded forest on the outskirts of a town. It's a equalized dungeon, the perfect place to start with no gear. During the final boss encounter, the boss will interrupt you and forced to rebuff yourself (and your party if you're in one).

• Equalized
• Revives: 3
• Drops Hunk of Junk which can be extracted to obtain materials to craft Adventurer Equipment!
• When you clear you will obtain 1,000 gold (one time per account)

Rocky Mountain Pass

Roaaaaaaaa....

Hidden within the mountain pass is a lush forest with beautiful trees. The native residents don't seem very fond of your presence though. During the final boss encounter, the boss will continuously do a stomp mechanic until all players iframe, jump, or block the attack.

• Revives: 3
• Drops Shiny Pebbles which are used to craft Adventurer gems
• Additionally drops enhancement materials for your Adventurer equipment
• When you clear you will obtain 2,000 gold (one time per account)

Goblin Tribe Garrison

A heavily fortified fortress... Chief Long Dong is waiting for you

Don't become overwhelmed with an army of monsters guarding Chief Long Dong! During the final boss encounter, the boss will continuously attack the entire map until all players successfully iframe the attack.

• Revives: 3
• Drops Ancient Tribal Masks which are used to craft Adventurer Crests
• Additionally drops enhancement materials for your Adventurer equipment
• When you clear you will obtain 3,000 gold (one time per account)

Dead Man's Cove

Arrrg...

A dangerous shoreline guarded by pirates and their monster allies. Cut through them and reach the highest point! During the final boss encounter, the boss will cast a map-wide attack that can only be dodged when players receive a buff from a safe-zone. The boss will continuously cast this attack until all players avoid the attack.

• Revives: 3
• Drops Lavatory Permits which are used to craft Adventurer Talismans
• Additionally drops enhancement materials for your Adventurer equipment
• When you clear you will obtain 4,000 gold (one time per account)

Rowdy Pirate Galleon

Beware of Cap'n Sea Man

You found the pirates' hideout! Break their ranks and fight your way to Captain Sea Man to put their pirate reign to an end. During the final boss encounter, you will be tested on everything you've learned so far!

• Revives: 3
• Drops Family Jewels which are used to craft Adventurer Accessories
• Additionally drops enhancement materials for your Adventurer equipment
• When you clear you will obtain 5,000 gold and be given the "Duckling" title (one time per account)

Conclusion

Once you've completed all the dungeons in Port Duckling, you're ready to move on to the next stage of the game by going to The Void! See the new intended progression path in the Progression Path section of patch notes below.

Cut Content

We had to make the decision to chop off a lot of old nests to optimize progression for this update. This new progression path should be much simpler to follow for players to follow and sets us up for future expansions. Those of you that have been around for a long time probably have a lot of questions on how players will progress when all this content is getting cut out but keep reading and you'll see how it'll all tie together later.

The following content have been removed from the game:

• Cerberus Nest
• Typhoon Krag Nest Solo/Duo
• Granom Nest Solo/Duo
• Guardian Nest Solo/Duo
• Professor K Nest
• Kaeron Trial Nest
• Volcano Nest
• Goddess Lament
• Tyrant's Valediction
• Reclaimed Peak
• Green Dragon Nest Time Attack
• Illusory Domain
• Garden of Solace (You can't enter anymore and the portals in here have moved to Frozen Foothills)

If you're wondering where the drops for that content have been moved to, read on. It'll be addressed.

Mid-game Content

EXP4 Dungeons

Intricate Valley, Golden Grasslands, Blazing Caldera

• Gold drop reduced: 1500g --> 1000g

Storm Manticore Nest

• Monster HP reduced
• Gargoyle bar mech HP reduced
• Grants players who do NOT have the "Prepared for EXP5" achievement the "Beginner's Luck" buff
• Beginner's Luck grants players increased offensive stats

Drops

Reborn Apocalypse Nest

• Monster HP reduced
• Grants players who do NOT have the "Prepared for EXP5" achievement the "Beginner's Luck" buff
• Beginner's Luck grants players increased offensive stats

Drops

Rune Dragon Nest Normal

• Grants players who do NOT have the "Prepared for EXP5" achievement the "Beginner's Luck" buff
• Beginner's Luck grants players increased offensive stats
• First time clear reward no longer grants Box of Lumens

4-Man Drops

8-Man Drops

Rune Dragon Nest Hardcore

• Upon clearing, grants "Prepared for EXP5" achievement which allows you to enter EXP5 content (this applies to 4 man and 8 man)
• The "Prepared for EXP5" achievement additionally grants the "EXP4 Experienced" title which grants the following stats:

Drops 4-Man

Drops 8-Man

Snowdrift Citadel

• Removed Abyss difficulty
• Revives: 0 --> 1

Drops

Side Content

Most side content are now equalized or soft equalized. Soft equalized is a form of equalization sets everyone at a base level of stats and then adds a percentage of the gear your wearing on top as a bonus. Some of you may know this as ladder equalization.

Basically, it'll be equalized but the gear you wear will give you marginally better stats than someone completely naked (close to around ~2% to ~10% depending on gear).

Please remember that all forms of equalization still require you to wear a conversion gem if you're a class that needs it AND skill plates and +1 skill-ups and wellsprings do apply.

• For these content, you can go in naked (with the above stipulations) and be "fine" but wearing gear will grant you additional stats

Vein of Sorrow

Revamped and made to be more useful

Vein of Sorrow was always something that was helpful for early game players but not very helpful to those at the end game. It was also incredibly confusing to see how many clears you have that week. I would like to revisit Vein of Sorrow in the future to make it more interesting, but that'll have to wait until later.

The drops and entrance requirements have been completely revamped.

• Portal moved to Frozen Foothills --> The Expanse
• Equalized
• Now requires item: Misfortune Pearl to enter
• Misfortune Pearl can be obtained at Kaye's Social Credit shop and has a weekly purchase limit per account
• No longer has a weekly clear limit

Rotating Time Attacks

Black Dragon Nest and Desert Dragon Nest are both moved to the Frozen Foothills. There you will find the mysterious Aeon Telephone.

Both the raids are now in this portal and are on a rotating schedule and only one of them will drop materials. Every Wednesday, 09:00 AM (server time), the nests will swap and the other nest will grant materials. You can still do the nests but there will not be a end chest and you will receive no materials or gold.

If you're ever confused on which nest is on rotation, you can check the Aeon Telephone (NPC) outside of the gate.

• Account-wide first time clear mail for Black Dragon Nest Time Attack now changed to first time clear for Black Dragon Nest Time Attack OR Desert Dragon Nest Time Attack
• Rewards for first time clear changed to give: 200 Chaos Constructs, 200 Desert Medallions, and 8 Vahrtite

Black Dragon Nest Time Attack

• Requires achievement: Prepared for EXP5 to enter
• Soft equalized (takes 10% of your gear as bonus stats)
• No longer able to obtain "Unrivaled Destruction" title (you can still obtain a title with the same stats by clearing RuDNHC)
• NEW: Checkpoint after defeating Punisher (Boss 3)
• NEW: Now has a Master mode
• NEW: Upon reaching the checkpoint, autobubbler is enabled

Normal

Master

Desert Dragon Nest Time Attack

• Requires achievement: Prepared for EXP5 to enter
• Soft equalized (takes 10% of your gear as bonus stats)
• No longer has an Easy mode (only Normal/Master now)
• NEW: If you have at least 1 oasis use and you reach the checkpoint, it will automatically consume that charge and wipe your morale before saving the checkpoint
• NEW: Upon reaching the checkpoint, autobubbler is enabled

Normal

Master

Solace of Oblivion

Season 4 with more bosses, artifacts, features coming later!

• Portal moved to Frozen Foothills --> The Expanse
• Requires achievement: EXP4 Experienced to enter
• Soft equalized (takes 10% of your gear as bonus stats)
• Enemy HP and ATK rebalanced

Since Illusory Domain is removed, everything to do with Godly Expedition crests have been moved here!

Artifact Changes

• Fortify shield strength reduced: 100%/125%/150% --> 30/50/100% of your max HP
• Ego ATK boost reduced: 20/30/40% --> 20/25/35%
• Sustain regeneration reduced: 2/3/4.5% --> 1/1.5/2% HP regen and 3/4/5.5% --> 1/2/3% MP regen
• Exploit additional damage per debuff increased: 5/7/10% --> 7/10/12%

Reward Loop A Drops

Reward Loop B Drops

Additional Drops On Loop 2

Additional Drops On Loop 3

Additional Drops On Loop 5+

Dragon Hunting

Thank you for enjoying the Dragon Hunting event for Lunar New Year 2024! While it wasn't perfect, we're glad that some people enjoyed it.

We're happy to announce that while all the drops aren't staying, the content itself is.

You can continue to do Dragon Hunting for the same amount of gold that it was dropping during the event. Event tokens no longer drop.

However, we do have some brand new set of 11 exclusive PDN Exclusive Collectible NFTs that you can only find in Dragon Hunting. Additionally, the rate of finding the original NFTs are boosted. Enjoy!

Ice Dragon Nest Vahrcore DX

• Additionally drops Subglacial Rune

New Progression Path

After finishing Port Duckling, you're expected to go to The Void and tackle the EXP4 dungeons like Intricate Valley, Blazing Caldera, and Golden Grasslands. You can also go through Storm Manticore Nest and Apocalypse Nest. You'll obtain your new Astral Gems there and obtain Extinction Talismans and Astral Crests. Once you have your gems, crests, and talismans, you can tackle Rune Dragon Nest Normal (4/8man). Using materials from Rune Dragon, you can craft Astral Extinction Equipment. Then, continue to clear Rune Dragon until you have enough Starlight Cells to enhance to +10. Then you can tackle Rune Dragon Nest Hardcore. Enhance your gear with Starlight Clusters and materials from Snowdrift Citadel, and then you're ready for EXP5 content!

New Content

Abandoned Springs

Introduction

Infiltrate the abandoned hotsprings and find the source of its mythical powers!

• Revives: 2
• Autobuffer: ON
• Normal difficulty only
• Party-size scaling: ON
• Requires clearing Rune Dragon Nest Hardcore (4 or 8 man) to enter

Intermediate Chests

You can find chests laid out throughout the dungeon which drop a special item!

Drops

Arcadian Maple Passage

Introduction

The maple forest is crawling with overgrown buds, monsters, and bandits. Liberate the forest and bring peace to its natural inhabitants!

• Revives: 2
• Autobuffer: ON
• Normal difficulty only
• Party-size scaling: ON
• Requires clearing Rune Dragon Nest Hardcore (4 or 8 man) to enter

Intermediate Chests

You can find chests laid out throughout the dungeon which drop a special item!

Drops

Brynhildr Nest

Introduction

Break through queen Brynhild's defenses and make your way to her stronghold.

• Revives: 1 (full party revive after every boss)
• Autobuffer: ON
• Easy, Normal, Abyss difficulties
• Requires clearing Rune Dragon Nest Hardcore (4 or 8 man) to enter

You will face three bosses in Brynhildr Nest. Queen Brynhild herself won't allow you to fight her until you defeat the Forest Dragon...

Easy Drops

Normal Drops

Abyss Drops

Treasure Nest

Introduction

Treasures found deep in this cave are some of the most valuable known to mankind.

• Revives: 1 (full party revive after every boss)
• Autobuffer: ON
• Easy, Normal, Abyss difficulties
• Requires clearing Rune Dragon Nest Hardcore (4 or 8 man)to enter

You will face three bosses in Treasure Nest. The beast guarding the main treasure room won't let you through until you defeat the Forest Dragon...

Easy Drops

Normal Drops

Abyss Drops

Forest Dragon Nest

As mentioned previously, Forest Dragon Nest will not be releasing immediately on this patch. We will be releasing it two to three weeks later to allow people to adequately gear up first without completely burning out on the first few days rushing to get into the raid.

More info on when the raid releases later. Stay tuned.

Daily & Weekly Missions

Dailies

The following dailies have been removed:

• Clear Ice Dragon Nest Vahrcore 4-Man in a full party
• Clear Professor K Nest in a full party
• Clear Guardian Nest in a full party
• Clear Black Dragon Nest Time Attack
• Clear Granom Nest in a full party

The following dailies have been added:

• Clear Storm Manticore Nest in a full party
• Clear Reborn Apocalypse Nest in a full party
• Clear Rune Dragon Nest 4 Man Hardcore in a full party
• Clear Brynhildr Nest in a full party
• Clear Treasure Nest in a full party

Daily Reward Box

The contents of the daily reward box have changed:

• Midnight Rock 150x --> Terra 4x
• High-Grade midnight Rock 100x --> Eternal Albino Rose 3x

Weekly DNP

The following weeklies have been removed:

• Clear Ice Dragon Nest Vahrcore 4 Man in a full party
• Clear Red Dragon Nest Vahrcore 4 man in a full party
• Clear Kaeron Trial Nest

The following weeklies have been added:

• Clear Desert Dragon Nest Time Attack
• Clear Forest Dragon Nest (obviously not clearable until FDN is released later)

Existing Item Changes

Obsolete Items

Either removed from drop tables or removed crafting recipe

• Pure Dragon Blood
• Omega Dragon Teapot &
• Lumens
• Midnight Frost & Frostbursts
• Starbursts
• Frosted Plates
• Evolving Radiance Accessories
• Omega Dragon Gems
• Sealed Omega Dragon Gems
• Defiled Rune Key
• Defiled Rune
• Vermilion/Lapis/Flawless Dragon Souls

Wellspring Pouches

• Superb Wellspring Pouches are now guaranteed to give Erosion (unique grade) wellsprings (aka epic wellsprings have been removed from the result pool)
• Superb Wellspring Pouches now allow you to obtain Defensive Erosion Wellsprings

Weapon Tuners

• Weapon Tuner - Legendary renamed to --> Weapon Tuner
• Weapon Tuners can now used for all sets regardless of rarity

Fleeting Energy

• Can no longer be crafted (can still be obtained otherwise)

Astral Extinction Equipment

• Now requires Spatial Mass to craft (new material obtained from Rune Dragon Nest; otherwise unchanged crafting cost)
• Enhancement gold cost reduced by 40%

Calamity Accessories

• Crafting recipe changed: EVOT6 + Starlight Cell + Lumens --> 3x Starlight Cells + 30x Starlit Jewel + 130x Void Essence
• Now tradable
• Gold cost reduced: 20,000 --> 10,000

Sinister Accessories

• Crafting recipe changed: Calamity Acc + 3x Starlight Cluster + 50x Starlight Jewel + 200x Void Essence
• Now tradable
• Gold Cost reduced: 40,000 --> 15,000

Covetous Calamity Accessories

• Crafting recipe changed: 9x Covetous Dust --> Sinister Acc + 90x Starlit Jewel + 300x Void Essence + 9x Covetous Dust
• Now tradable

Paradox Gem Divinity

You know, the thing you use to get Godly plates

• Removed recipe A which required more Eternal Timepieces. Now the only recipe is the 750 Eternal Timepiece one

Void Enigma

The thing you use to buy Void Talismans

• Recipe changed to be much easier to craft
• Void Essence cost: 50 --> 20
• Starlit Jewel cost: 15 --> 10
• Gold cost reduced: 10,000 --> 500g

Sinister Dragon Gems

The "Time Attack Gem" Now crafted!

• Can now be enhanced to +100 (materials locked at milestones to make room for future expansions. Realistically you can only enhance to +45 once Forest Dragon Nest comes out.
• Can no longer be extracted
• Can no longer be traded
• Can no longer fail or degrade or break
• Enhancement costs changed
• Now requires Chaos Constructs and Desert Medallions to enhance alongside some EXP5 materials

Crafting

Sovereign Dragon Gems

The "Solace Gem" now crafted!

• Can now be enhanced to +100 (materials locked at milestones to make room for future expansions. Realistically you can only enhance to +45 once Forest Dragon Nest comes out.
• Can no longer be extracted
• Can no longer be traded
• Can no longer fail or degrade or break
• Enhancement costs changed
• Now requires Illustrious Mirror and Memory Wisps to enhance at lower levels and requires Ultima Solice Oblivia at later levels alongside some EXP5 materials

Crafting

New Items

New Materials

Amber Maples & Forest Essence

• Tradable

New materials found in Abandoned Springs and Arcadian Maple Passage! You can also obtain by extracting Yggrasil Dragon Gems. They're used for various crafting materials, primarily to create the Genesis Spaera. You can exchange one for the other in the crafting menu.

Eternal Albino Rose

• Tradable

Mysterious bloomed flower found in the chests of Abandoned Springs and Arcadian Maple Passage. You can use these to create new special crests like Absolute Destruction and more to come in the future...

Yggdrasil Seeds

• Untradable

Hardened seeds from Yggdrasil itself. These seeds are found in Abandoned Springs and Arcadian Maple Passage. They're primarily used to craft Yggdrasil Dragon Gems or you can exchange them for Eternal Albino Roses

Overworld Frost Crystal & Treasure Quartz

• Tradable

New materials found in Brynhildr Nest and Treasure Nest respectively. They're primarily used to create the Genesis Spaera.

Genesis Spaera

• Tradable

New material created from various elements found in harsh and mysterious natural environments. They're used for many recipes for equipment and more.

Whispering Everbloom

• Untradable

New material found in Forest Dragon Nest. This mysterious flower opens up during twilight, faintly calling the name of nearby adventurers. While you cannot obtain this material yet since it comes from Forest Dragon Nest, it's important to know that it's used for various crafting and enhancement recipes.

+15 Omega Gem Fragment

Obtained from extracting Omega Dragon Gems at +15. Those of you who spent the time grinding out and obtaining these dragon gems can extract your +15s to these fragments. These fragments can be exchanged for new materials at Kaye's Material Exchange shop.

Verdant Aeon Equipment

Womp womp new gear time

• Untradable
• Craftable from Belin
• You can't obtain these yet since Forest Dragon isn't released yet!

Crafting Recipe

Subject to change of course

Terra Accessories

A new series of accessories forged with the power of nature

• Tradable; 3 binds
• Found from Brynhildr Nest & Treasure Nest
• Crafted from Belin
• Requires clearing Brynhildr Nest or Treasure Nest for the first time to equip

Extraction

You can extract Terra Accessories into scrap at the extractor.

• 1 accessory = 3 scrap

For example you can extract a Fae Spiritus Necklace and obtain 3 Spiritus Scraps or extract a Perished Nivis Ring and obtain 3 Nivis Scraps

Crafting

You can combine some scraps you obtained from extracting with some Terra to craft a new accessory of your choice.

Potentials

Lot's of bonus rolls...

These accessories can roll two potentials at once. You can roll any combination low/mid/high stats on the following stats:

• PDMG + MDMG
• Critical Chance
• Critical Damage

You can also roll Final Damage on these accessories but there is no low/mid/high roll, just one single kind.

Potential Overlay

Potentials at a glance. No more reading through the stats to remember what bonus stat you rolled.

Set Bonuses

They're back?!

These accessories grant bonus stats based on how many pieces you wear. You obtain set bonuses when you wear 2 pieces or four pieces.

Terra Accessory Fluid

A "box" item which can be appraised to grant you one random Terra Accessory.

• Tradable
• Found from Brynhildr Nest & Treasure Nest
• Crafted from Belin

Verdant Aeon Crests

• Tradable; 1 bind
• Found from Brynhildr Nest & Treasure Nest
• Purchased from Belin's shop
• Requires clearing Brynhildr Nest or Treasure Nest for the first time to equip

Extraction

You can extract crests for 1 Cracked Verdant Crest which can be used to craft Verdant Heart of Nature (see the Verdant Heart of Nature section below for additional info) or purchase an Verdant Aeon Crest of your choice at Belin's shop.

These fragments are tradable.

Potentials

These plates can roll one potential as usual. However, now there are different stats you can roll and there are low/mid/high rolls:

• PDMG + MDMG
• Critical Chance
• Critical Damage
• Defense + Magic Defense
• Final Damage

Verdant Heart of Nature

Using this item allows you to reroll Verdant Aeon Crests to guarantee a bonus stat line!

Yggdrasil Dragon Gems

Brand new gems for your convenience!

"ig-druh-sil" btw

These gems come with the brand new adaptive stat and do not need to be enhanced.

• Tradable; 2 bind
• Do not have any potential lines
• Found from Abandoned Springs, Arcadian Maple Passage, Brynhildr Nest, and Treasure Nest
• Requires clearing Brynhildr or Treasure Nest to equip

Crafting

Extraction

Since these gems are an obtain once and forget (you don't need to enhance them and there are no potential lines), you might have a lot of them later! You can extract Yggdrasil Dragon Gems for Maple Ambers and Forest Essence which can be used for other crafting recipes.

Blooming Talisman

You can't obtain these yet since Forest Dragon Nest isn't out yet but I can at least talk about it a little bit

• Untradable
• Crafted from Belin

These are the replacement for the void talisman in EXP4. Instead of having Savage/Elusive/Arcane talismans for the Blooming Talisman, we leverage the Adaptive stat here so you don't need multiple (unless you just really want them for alts)

Instead of many different potential rolls like the Void Talisman from last expansion, the Blooming Talisman does not have any potential rolls. It's just an improvement on its stats all around, nothing particularly special (it does have crit stats at later levels though!). There are higher tiers that you will be able to craft later on in the expansion.

Crafting

These crafting costs and rates are very much placeholders so I wouldn't think about it too much.

Astral Dragon Gems

For the new players! Now you don't have to stress about enhancing your gems...

• Tradable; 2 binds
• Crafted from Belin using materials from Storm Manticore Nest and Reborn Apocalypse Nest

A new line of Dragon Gems for mid-game. This gem is slightly stronger than an Omega Dragon Gem +15 and can be obtained easily through crafting using materials from Storm Manticore Nest and Reborn Apocalypse Nest.

Crafting

Crafting - Omega Gem Transmutation

Remember these do NOT need to be enhanced to transmute them. It's a quick skip to what's basically +15  for those of you who are behind.

Absolute Destruction

Demon mode

Absolute Destruction is a brand new special skill crest that can only be used in dungeons just like Ruler's Authority. Upon use, it summons a demon's crest and lightly sucks in enemies in a small range. After a brief delay, it explodes dealing massive damage to all enemies caught in it's small range.

• Cooldown: 10 seconds
• Damage: 160100% Dark DMG
• Does not share cooldown with Ruler's Authority

Demo

Crafting

Adventurer Equipment

Sleep well Midnight Frost equipment, my dear prince...

New equipment obtainable early game for new players. It replaces Midnight Frost gear in the progression line and has stats equal to it. I know some of you still have your Midnight Frost mainhand +25 or something as a memento so I made sure to make a new set instead of replacing the old one (also this needed new mats).

You obtain the materials to craft this set by doing the early game dungeons found in Port Duckling.

Crafting

Adventurer Accessories

New accessories obtainable early game for new players. You can obtain the materials to craft these by doing early game dungeons found in Port Duckling. They're equal to Evolving Radiance VI accessories.

Crafting

Adventurer Crests/Talismans

Oof replaced...

These new crests and talismans technically aren't new... We actually swapped the names of all Midnight Crests and Frost Talismans to say Adventurer instead. They're equal in stats and now have new acquisition methods.

You can obtain the materials to craft these items from doing the early game dungeons found in Port Duckling.

There is now also a Adventurer Fierce plate!

Adventurer Dragon Gems

Goodbye OG epic set...

The starter gem set for any new player.

• Tradable; 2 binds
• Crafted from Belin using materials from Rocky Mountain Pass

PvE Class Balancing

/\c36\Ice Witch

Consistent icing so it can keep up with Jotunn

[Frost Chaos] cooldown reduced: 16s --> 10s

/\c38\Chaos Mage

[Fast Forward] skill no longer goes on cooldown until the buff's effects are applied

/\c84\Black Mara

[Ripping] cooldown reduced: 6s --> 4s
[Envy Ripping] cooldown reduced: 6s --> 4s

/\c43\Saint

Better lineup for rotation in exchange for some damage

[Blessed Sign]

• Damage decreased: 1519% --> 1300%
• Cooldown reduced: 20 --> 15s

/\c99\Vena Plaga

This class doesn't need this lol

[Flow Down] no longer cleanses debuffs

/\c63\Reaper

Way too fast lol

[Shadow Rage] action speed removed: 30% --> 0%
[Class Mastery II] PATK: 15% --> 25%
[Flame Dragnile]

• Removed iframe
• Animation changed to backflip into the air
• 5084% per hit --> 15252% one hit (overall damage unchanged)

/\c95\Launcher

More consistent hits; also I have no idea why the iframe was so long on the follow up attack but so short on the part that's actually a dodge lmfao?

[Drift Step] iframe window increased: 20f --> 35f
[Shoulder Crash] iframe window decreased: 55f --> 10f

• Range (AoE) increased: 170u --> 230u

/\c96\Impactor

Also fixed a bug where consecutive uses leaves you with no super armor at all

[Intense Pulse] super armor increased
[Awakened Illusive Fist] cooldown increased: 3s --> 5s
[L-Buster] NEW: Guaranteed bubble generation per hit
[Body Check CM3] NEW: You can now hold [RMB] after [Shoulder Crash] to chain into [Body Check CM3]

Returned Hero Rework

Previously, as many of you who have come back to Project Duck recently have seen, players who have been gone for a while got... jack diddly squat nothing when they came back from a hiatus, besides yellow text telling you to go read the patch notes in a dreary and mildly confusing basement of a town that doesn't exist.

No more! We love and welcome back our returning heros so we've gone ahead and redid the welcome back experience. There's rewards now!

• Returned Hero's Jewel (30 days) - see below for the buff it grants
• 10k DNP coupon
• 20 Blue birds
• Returned Hero's Flag (30 days)
• Returned Hero Title

Upon selecting your character, you will now be sent to the Meadow of Reunions, where Gerrant is ready to guide you back to Project Duck.

After chatting with him, you are free to stroll along the beautiful forest path to the portal that returns you to Myla Laurel.

Your Returned Hero rewards (see above) are mailed to you, so you'll want to open that mail once you're in town.

The Returned Hero's Jewel grants a buff to you and your party members in pre-EXP5 dungeons and nests.

Social Credit Point Rework

Social credit has always been a troublesome system to balance. Players who had a lot of free time and were willing to ended up creating tons of alt characters just to farm social credit.  Meanwhile, those who didn't have the time or didn't like multi-character farming fell behind. I decided to revamp Social Credit to make it a little more fair for everyone.

The items in the shop were too oppressive and powerful in progression so it has been adjusted with this new system in mind.

• Points are shared across your entire account
• Point limit increased: 50,000 --> 1,000,000
• Weekly point acquisition limit increased: 10,000 --> 20,000
• Purchase limits at the shop are changed from weekly per character --> weekly per account
• Kaye's Social Credit Shop changed accordingly (see shop section below)

NPC Changes

GM.X General Shop

• No longer sells Goddess Title: Teardrop or Vessel of the Goddess

Overlord Zeke

• Crystal Point Shop removed
• Starter Shop removed
• Ardent Exchange Shop removed
• Now allows players to job advance (moved here from Kiwi)

Kiwi

• PvP General shop no longer sells Engraving Scrolls
• General Shop no longer sells Duck Buff & Dragon Buff
• No longer job advances players (moved to Zeke)

Material Exchange Shop

Removed Items

• Omega Dragon Gems
• Omega Expedition Plates
• Box of Lumens
• Vermilion/Lapis Dragon Souls
• Hailstone
• Snowballs
• Midnight Crests
• Frost Talismans

New Shop

Here you can exchange your extracted +15 Omega Dragon Gems to help yourself get started with the new gems or exchange some old materials. Once you're done with your gems, you can also use your additional Yggdrasil Seeds obtained from this exchange or from dungeons to fast-track your Eternal Albino Rose farm.

Exchange Tab

Useful for those of you who have a lot of items that are now obsolete. You can exchange them for some new items that may have some use to you still.

Mei's Solo Challenge Shop

• Removed Ardent and Midnight shops

Social Credit Shop

Purchase limits at the shop are changed from weekly per character --> weekly per account. For more info, see above Social Credit section.

Removed Items

• Midnight Crest Teapot
• Frost Talisman Teapot
• Prismatic Medal
• Starlit Jewel
• Evolving Radiance III Accessories
• Box of Lumens
• Vermilion/Lapis/Flawless Dragon Souls
• Defiled Dragon Rune

New Shop

Belin

• The Crafting option at Belin has been moved to the top level menu instead of being under a sub menu
• Now sells a Verdant Crest of your choice in exchange for 6 Cracked Verdant Crests

Pitch Black

No actual changes to the shop. However, important note is that once unobtainable items like Subglacial Rune or Abyssal Rune now drop in Ice Dragon Nest Vahrcore DX and Vein of Sorrow respectively.

[Cosmetics] Bonfire Lit Arsenal

Introduction

A brand new set of gacha weapons are here for everyone to gamble on (spend responsibly). The prices are the same as the usual gacha box. If you're curious what items are in the box and what the rates are, check it out on Minerva (after patch) or check Gachapon's shop.

ガチャポン (Gachapon)

Here you can exchange your weapons for [Bonfire Coins] to purchase the weapon of your choice. Use the Purchase tab to buy the item you want with the coins or the Sacrifice tab to turn your existing Bonfire Lit Arsenal weapons into Bonfire Coins

Item Preview

The trailer at the top of the patch notes has many shots of the items in the "gacha box". However, if you would like to see what they look like in game, check out Gachapon's shop and click the preview button.

Misc

• Unrivaled Destruction (Title) now grants 15,000 Crit Chance and Crit Damage
• Duckling Starter Bag no longer grants the Duckling title
• Duckling title stats changed:
  MDMG/PDMG: 1.5% --> 6% + 8000
  All Ele: 2% --> 6%
  Final Damage: 60 --> 100
  Critical Chance: 6000
  Critical Damage: 6000
  HP: 100000
• Added input setting for Lencea's [Hornet Touch] spacebar input
• All skills that have an input setting to enable/disable (e.g. Gladiator Feint, LK Awakened Eclipse) now state how to enable/disable in their tooltips
• Removed a bunch of not-useful information from map select (e.g. FTG, recommended level)
• Dungeons and nests that adjust to party size now have an indicator icon and tooltip on map select
• DDNTA Ship and Eyes of Life now have their DPS meter sections omitted from clear total (so it will still show the DPS result for those stages, but they will not count toward the final DPS result)
• Added new acheivements for the new content
• Range of all classes' item looting increased: 400 --> 700
• Class looting is now more intelligent and will skip items you have already tried looting (but can't be picked up e.g. due to party rolling for an item)
• You can now toggle visibility/view order of costumes while on mounts
• Significantly improved text rendering in 3D space (players, allies, NPCs, monsters, portals, etc)

• Marketplace now allows filtering and searching for Divine grade items

• Removed the max level character level information on the left side of character select (because we don't have levels or EXP or bonuses for having them)
• Player characters now have water reflections (only on High settings)

• Pebbles got some new text lines!
• Portals in fields (Frozen Foothills/Void/Twilight Bay) are always activated even when you can't enter but now additionally explain why you can't enter when you enter it
• Kavasnacks have been removed from new character creation, instead you now simply have 115g when your character is made (should make things less confusing for new players)

Systems

Tooltips

• Improved/updated stat tooltips for major stats (CRIT, CRITDMG, DEF, FD). In town, they will display for each major content segment as well as providing useful information for newer players. While in field, it will simplify to only showing the current applied cap/stat (2nd image)

• FD tooltip now shows and highlights if the % cap is adjusted by the current map (e.g. DDNTA)

• Improved the new account first login setup flow (where you set your account nickname and your preferred server region). It is now its own step that appears after logging in but before server select, which should be less confusing for new players
• Added an option for classic (ugly) shading
• Added Memory Mapped Data option under the Advanced section, for players who have lots of memory (can make loading even faster lmao)
• PDN Settings (ESC > Settings (on the left side) setting tooltips now state whether or not the setting takes effect immediately or requires a game restart

Network v2

Massive success!! Well, besides for EU PvPers for some reason

We've had Network v2 rolled out for a few weeks now for everyone to try, and almost universally, players have reported significantly better network experience using v2. So, we're turning it on for everyone everywhere! The launcher will no longer have a v2 checkbox, accordingly.

However, we did have some differences in PvP that require more investigation and work to improve, so we're adding the ability to select v1 or v2 for PvP only until those can be ironed out.

Photo Mode

• Added camera smoothing/acceleration option to Photo Mode. You can control how much smoothing (just like in ESC > Settings) while controlling the freecam
• Added Hide interface option to Photo Mode. Press the `~ key to hide/re-show the Photo Mode interface (useful for recording videos)

Bugfixes

General

• Fixed Return Hero sending you to a random server region instead of your configured one
• Fixed characters not receiving shadows while on a mount and after dismounting
• Fixed hand missing when using [No Gauntlet Mastery] when viewed by other players or while not in town
• Fixed an issue where the F11 cash shop would become unusable if you tried using it while being a passenger on someone else's mount

PvE

• Fixed an issue in RuDNHC where at Volva (boss 3), if the safe buff balls at final barmech are frozen/ice stacked, they don't grant the hitter the immunity buff
• Fixed Solace of Oblivion Slow Start artifact not scaling with level
• Duelist's [Phase Blade] description fixed to no longer say it is iframed the whole duration

PvP

• Fixed Blunt Slash not going on cooldown when cast through the right click input after Brandish in PvP

Afterword

Thanks for reading through these patch notes if you did, it means a lot to me since I spent so much time on it. Again, I'm really proud of our work on this patch and I genuinely hope everyone enjoys the patch. I know there will likely be some problems/bugs but we'll try to address them as quickly as possible. We're a small team and we only have so much time. I'd like to thank the team for the hard work and effort they put into this patch.

• Vahr for always guiding and teaching me, all the tech work on tools that makes everything else possible, and of course the Returned Hero revamp and much more
• Chris for putting in the time and committing to learning how to dev to put together most of the early game revamp, equalization for some of the modes, and assisting in design work
• Kozima for his great work in the past, being our consultant on design choices now, and whipping us into shape (and somehow always taking the blame for things he isn't responsible for)
• Cope & Mikret for the hard work and dedication on the Bonfire Lit Arsenal gacha box
• The rest of our costume closet team - Kotaro, Koshiro, Mort, Vino, and Kura - for their hard work on handling recolors and custom cosmetics
• The tester team for being there to give opinions, feedback, and spend hours testing & many others for their support

Much love for everyone supporting us and Project Duck and I hope to celebrate many more years with everyone. Happy Expansion 5!

• Joorji

TL;DR

Scroll up and read the fucking patch notes we spent all this time writing for your lazy ass.