Hey everyone,

It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

We’re almost exactly one month after the full release of Dragonkin: The Banished (!!!), and while we’ve been a bit quiet lately, we’re excited to share some fantastic news today.

This isn’t the end of development. We’re still working on Dragonkin.

In today’s DevBlog, we just want to take a moment to talk about where the game is right now, and share a bit more about how we’re approaching what is still a very important and ongoing journey for us.

Before anything else, thank you so much for your support, truly.

We wouldn’t have come this far without your feedback, your time, and your care for the game.

We’ve learned a lot from this Early Access

From how to gather feedback, to how to identify what’s most relevant for us to focus on, and most importantly, how to better understand you, players.

As many of you know, launch day is never really the end of anything.

For us, it quickly became a mix of hotfixes, QoL improvements, and making sure multiplayer was as stable as possible across platforms. Because of the time we spent in Early Access, and your constant feedback and support, we were able to react as fast as possible, pushing out a hotfix, as well as releasing a post-launch update (also introducing a new modifier).

We’ve also really enjoyed watching streams and tinkering with the Ancestral Grid.

Seeing your players come up with creative builds and pushing our systems further than we expected, has been an absolute thrill for the team.

How do we feel right now?

It wouldn't be possible to describe in words how we feel right now but there has been a unanimous sentiment on the team that we genuinely ended up with something we would consider special.

We’re continuing to work on Dragonkin, and we now have the opportunity to bring in content that didn’t make it into the launch version, along with some of the most requested features 

So…

We’ve been taking some time internally to go through your feedback and reflect on what could be improved, and what you’d like to see next.

One thing is very clear: you want more of Dragonkin: The Banished.

We do feel the game still has plenty of room to grow, and there are a few different directions we could take it in. Now that we’re past the initial release on both PC and console, we’re taking a short step back to breathe, look at everything together, and think carefully about what comes next.

Right now, we’re going through feedback and data, and there’s a lot of it, especially on Discord! We’re reading everything we can. Even when we can’t reply to every message, please know it’s being seen, shared, and discussed within the team.

Is Dragonkin becoming a live-service game?

No, Dragonkin: The Banished is not becoming a live-service game.

We’ve seen this question come up a few times, so we wanted to take a moment to address it directly.

From the beginning, our goal has been to build a complete experience, not a game built around seasons or ongoing mandatory content cycles. We’ve always preferred the approach of classic games in the genre of focused, self-contained experiences that feel whole on their own.

As such, we plan to expand the game through FREE updates and DLCs.

Basically, pieces of content that stand on their own, and feel like natural, non-mandatory extensions of the initial experience, rather than something you need to keep up with.

Is there anything we can share (yet)?

At this time, the size and content of this update are still to be decided. While we already have some early ideas we’re excited about, we’re not quite ready to share details just yet. You can expect to hear more on Discord and Steam next week!

We mentioned earlier how your feedback and encouragement have been shaping what Dragonkin has become today, and we really want to highlight how important that has been for us, across every place you reach out to us: Steam forums, Discord, Reddit.

In today’s industry, it’s not always easy for a game to find its place, especially in a genre like ARPGs where so many releases coexist. It’s actually a really exciting time for fans of the genre, even if it does make things more competitive for developers.

To other developers reading this: we hope you find your place too.

As we said before, Dragonkin is not a live-service game. Because of that, we understand that players will naturally come and go, some will finish the game and move on, others might return later when they get new build ideas.

And in any case, if you’ve enjoyed your time with the game and feel like spreading the word, the best way is to like our videos, leave a comment on YouTube, and share this DevBlog!

That genuinely helps us more than we can say.

We can’t wait to reveal more in the coming months! As always, you can find us on Discord if you need help or have questions.

Thank you again for your patience, and for staying with us on this journey. It really means a lot.

Until next time, Dragon Hunters.

Discord: https://discord.gg/K2dJ7WuK2f

Hello, dragon hunters!

Patch notes will feature a \[🔥] emoji whenever the change is based on community feedback!

• New modifier: Bonus Beams

  The skill generates more beams. Increases skill energy cost by 5 per bonus beam.

  [c]3 Power Beams: +1 │7 Power  Beams: +2 │15 Power  Beams: +3 [/c]

  Compatible skills:

  [c]Flame Thrower, Shattering Shield, Compressed Air, Ice Breath, Voices of the Dragon, Lightning Beam, Fire Breath, Ice Breath, Frozen Assault, Lightning Breath[/c]

• Tributes wall now unlocks only at the end of Act 2, alongside the Ancestor menu

• Ancestors are now unlocked for all characters on the account if any of their Ancestors have ever gained XP

• Added a “Wait for All Players” step to The Hunt for Jailanung before leaving the arena. This prevents one player from skipping the cinematic for everyone while others are still looting the boss.

• Portals in the Test of Will leading to the new stage can now be interacted with by all players in multiplayer and co-op

• Reduced enemy spawn rate in the “By Kalaarang’s Design” quest

• Removed the reset lever in “The Enchanted Gate” to avoid player confusion

• Added a quest marker on soldiers to follow in “Venture Across Cyrrha”

• Adjusted several Dungeon Rifts (final room):

  • Heat Rift: increased damage by 25% → 50%

  • Ritual Rift: now works in tighter rooms

  • Cold Rift: 30 areas every 5 sec → 20 areas every 4 sec

• 🔥 The final wave of the Dungeon Rift now spawns earlier if all chest thresholds are met

Summons

• Damage and behavior improvements:

  • All summons = improved damage and / or attack speed

  • All summons = greatly increased movement speed

  • Marty for the Eternal = added an AOE attack with a cooldown

  • Draconic Ally = added more range to all attacks

  • Draghurss Call = added a dash attack with a cooldown

  • Improved summons’ sight and reactivity

• Fixed a bug with the modifiers Transcendance and Focus

• Fixed a bug with summons not being able to target bigger enemies (such as Dragon lords)

Tracker

• Mounted Hunt (Talent)

  • Now has a chance to apply a Mark on contact

  • Now properly interacts with Enfeebling Mark (Passive)

• Pack Hunter (Talent)

  • Dragurss count increased: 1 / 2 / 3 → 2 / 4 / 6

  • Dragurss damage reduced: 100% → 50%

• Hunting trap

  • 🔥 Now detonate when the skill expire

• Dance of Daggers

  • Base cost reduced :  40 / sec → 30 / sec

Barbarian

• Meteoric Projection

  • Damage reduced by 20%

  • Range reduced

• Earthen Rage

  • Base cost reduced :  20 → 15

• Axes of Toriel

  • Range reduced

• Ancestral Totem

  • No longer has a cooldown

  • Buff no longer stacks with each summon

  • Attack multiplier aura: 5% → 10%

  • Damage reduced by 20%

Oracle

• Antagonistic Energy (Talent)

  • Damage increased: 25% / 30% / 40% → 50% / 75% / 100%

  • Buffs (thorns, reflex, block): 10% at all ranks → 5% / 10% / 15%

• Chain Lightning

  • The bolts now reach a shorter distance, but strike a more focused area

Knight

• Squad Leader Knight

  • Soldiers count increased: 1 / 2 / 2  → 2 / 2 / 3

  • Archers count increased: 0 / 0 / 1 → 0 / 1 / 2

  • TOTAL summons (just a recap): 1 / 2 / 3 → 2 / 3 / 5

• Flamethrower

  • Damage increased: 40% / tick (160% / sec) → 60% / tick (240% / sec)

  • Base fuel cost reduced: 25 / sec → 20 / sec

• Show of Strength

  • Interrupts movement a bit less

• Explosive Overload 

  • Obtained the Projectile tag (now scales with bonus projectiles)

Wyrmling

• Thunderous Ricochet

  • Now only bounces once per target

• Deadly Orb

  • Damage reduced: 200% → 50%

  • Proc change: 30% → 20%

• 🔥Class-specific talents can now be added to crafted rings, and attribute bonuses have been increased

• 🔥Automatically fills ingredient slot when crafting if there is a single compatible value

• 🔥Offering equipments or fragments to the Grand Benedictor now grants gold / dust when the cap has already been maxed out

• 🔥Talent descriptions are now always visible on pendants, making it easier to choose quest rewards, especially using a controller

• 🔥Players can now see the talent description of Wyrmling’s armors and access the talent menu with a gamepad while the Jailer menu is open

• Players can now toggle the overlay map even while dead

• Clicking the loot filter button from the Ancestral Grid now directly opens the "Fragments" tab

• 🔥Added a warning when trying to sacrifice items that are saved in the Arsenal

• The ring crafting interface now displays talents like the Ornament, showing the current talent value plus the bonus gained from the ring

• Tracker’s innate ability “Targeting” marks are less visible on enemy health bar when the ability is on cooldown

• Added feedback for quests blocked by another hunt during the story: an icon of the required hunt is now displayed so players can see what’s preventing progress easier

• “Press Start to Join” message now only appears when using the second controller if there are more than two controllers connected

• Removed irrelevant stats in the menu and added new ones:

  • removed: all piercing stats beside the base one (unused in-game)

  • added: all wyrmling stats (wyrmling aoe, duration, chance, cooldown)

• Buff icons have been slightly improved to be more accurate and readable

• Polished the look of dropdowns to make them more visually appealing

• Class-bound talents now display the related character class

• Tooltips now display the equipment slot type (e.g., Head, Torso) for all items

• Improved item equipment error feedback by adding background and visual effects

• Improved the Oracle’s introduction in the prologue to prevent the praying fanatics to appear abruptly

• Removed some canopy leaves in several shots for coherency in Jailanung post-transition cinematic 

• Made minor improvements to Kalaarang - Banished Lord of the Jungle’s cinematics backgrounds

• Removed rain from Okerobia outroduction cinematic

• Lowered fog in the second transition cinematic of Xhantineos - Banished Lord of Okeanos to make the vortex creation more visible

• Fixed the missing ice textures on Fafnir’s body on one shot during its outroduction cinematic

• Added the breaking Seals of the Eternal visual effects after defeating Vidskrig - Banished Lord of Nurorgartt and Saur Iknog - Banished Lord of Erde-Nor to be in tune with the other bosses outroduction cinematics

• Reworked dialogues in the quest “Counterattack at Ja’Ksara” to be shorter, preventing Son-kan from speaking when he is no longer present

• Added a scene in the “Counterattack at Ja’Ksara” for Son-kan’s imprisonment

• Added soldiers to Alix’s escort during “Strategic Meeting” and “By Kalaarang’s Design” quests

• Hide loot during "Echoes of Grievances Past" and "Daring Reconnaissance" cinematics

• Moved Cornelys closer to the cathedral in the Order’s Garrison district during “Back to the Light” and “Une nouvelle priorité” quests to better connect the dialogues

• Shortened Trackers dialogue in “The Quest for the Draconic Seal” to better align with the action

• Alaric now leaves the scene after the dialogue in “Le monstre des plaines de lave”, improving the transition to “Journey through Hell”

• Improved the Plakonésos scenic by adding a fake eye and old temple ruin

• Added a new blowback and dialogues animations for Almentea during the “Call of the Depths” ritual

• Improved Alaric physic in “Reconnaissance audacieuse” cinematic

• Updated dungeon rifts’ behavior, music, and SFX patterns.

• Added SFX to the “Day of the Poem” quest

• Tweaked dialogues and added audio in the “Era of Fear” cinematic

• Added theme music for all champions

• Added SFX for all minor champions

• Added SFX for some Endgame quest affixes and Chaos mutations on elite enemies

• Added SFX for Ancestries gameplay effects

• Added SFX for Talents

• Made general tweaks and tuning on characters, enemies and environments

• Added SFX in the Test of Will consequences and special waves

• Added SFX on destructible eggs during Swamp “In the Dragon’s Maw”

• Added various SFX during Act 3 quests:

  • The Forgotten Battle

  • Toriel’s Light and the Bridge of the Fallen

  • Fafnir’s Fortress

  • Paradise Lost

  • The first Dragon-Blood

• Added various SFX during Hunt 4 quests:

  • Journey through Hell

  • Maze of Lava

  • Bridgehead in Erde-Nòr

  • Kill the Dragon in the egg

  • Koleos Summit

  • Daring Reconnaissance

  • Assault on the Fortress

  • In Search of Alaric

• Fixed several crashes

• Fixed an issue where the game would sometimes freeze

• Fixed a performance issue when looting fragments

• Fixed a memory issue caused by the snowy fog effect during the Vidskrig - Banished Lord of Nurorgartt’s introduction cinematic, which could lead to a crash if skipped

• Fixed an issue where some NPC animations in the City of Montesail could cause performance drops

• Improved overall online stability for both server-side and P2P connections

• Reduced enemy population in Vidskrig - Banished Lord of Nurorgartt’s Lair to improve multiplayer performance.

• Applied overall tweaks and optimizations to the Draconic Atlas menu

• Overall tweaks & optimizations on characters skills

Skills, Talents & Attributes

• Fixed a weird interaction with the oracle “Summoner Strategist”  reducing all DoT to 0

• Fixed Chaotic Armour (Oracle) skill granting infinite barrier briefly when spammed

• Fixed Ancient Runes (Barbarian) stacking indefinitely

• Fixed an exploit where Savage Whirlwind (Barbarian) could be channeled indefinitely without consuming energy

• Fixed an issue where the Enhanced Vision modifier (Oracle) did not interact correctly with the Spiritual Aura (Oracle passive tree)

• Fixed Lightning Beam (Oracle) energy consumption with Vision

• Fixed Electrifying Charge (Electric Wyrmling) behavior with summons

• Fixed Control talent in multiplayer doing damage each time per player having the talent

• Fixed an issue with the Control talent where damage display and battle log were incorrect

• Fixed Electric Wave (Oracle) skill symbiosis visual effects

• Fixed a missing tag on Solar Flare (Knight) skill

• Fixed area tag missing on Volatile Decoction (Tracker) skill

• Fixed a Core / Utility damage multiplier on:

  • Executioner’s Claw (Tracker)

  • Malignant Assault (Tracker)

  • Resonating Strike (Barbarian)

  • Voices of the Dragon (Barbarian)

• Fixed an interaction between Foresight (Oracle) modifier and Explosive Eruption (Oracle)

• Fixed damage display and double damage issues on Offensive Rampart (Knight)

• Fixed an issue with Inhuman Reflexes (Tracker Talent) not triggering on death

• Fixed an issue with Psychokinesis (Oracle) when interrupted

• Fixed Intense Propulsion (Knight) glowing weapon effect not disappearing if the animation was canceled

• Fixed an issue with Path of Cold (Ice Wyrmling)

• Fixed various tooltips errors and missing tags on skills

Story Quest & Gameplay

• Fixed an issue in the “At the Heart of Dark Worship” quest where the effect would keep dealing damage near the dungeon borders after defeating Naga Padang

• Fixed an issue in Act 1 where Sirkiel and Knephiel (Champions) had wrong spawn animations

• Fixed Sumdia animations in Act 2

• Fixed trackers’ incorrect rotation during “The Battle of Pont-Noir” after retaking the village

• Fixed visual inconsistencies for Astrea during the “The Eye and the Spirit”

• Fixed Captain Alix T-posing into the ground in “Daring Reconnaissance”

• Fixed an issue in “Okeanos Counterattack” where Gerome would not get back up after starting his prayers

• Fixed the Water Breathing ritual being misplaced during the fight against Grimariel in “Echoes of Grievances Past”

• Fixed Young Harald rotating incorrectly toward the player during a dialogue in “Voices of the past” quest

• Fixed character placement in the tavern during “Songs of Glory” to prevent Cornelys and Truelson from standing above the ground

• Fixed barbarians leaving their outpost during “Domistria III : Steel”

• Fixed the Arkeocruog arena in “Domistria I: Leader” not spawning or remaining spawned

• Fixed inconsistencies with the Scale Illumination altar missing in “Survival of the Fittest and Law of the Just”

• Fixed wrong NPC behaviour and orientations in:

  • Race against Time

  • Survival of the Fittest and Law of the Just

  • The Noose Tightens

  • Master of Fire

• Fixed various issues with prisoners during “Glory Enough for One”

• Fixed Alaric’s weapon being visible during the “The Monster in the Lava Plains” dialogue

• Prevented Captain Alix from moving too far during “Journey through Hell”

• Fixed Son-kan not teleporting after dialogue in “Unmasking the Enemy”

• Fixed NPCs rotating toward the first speaker during dialogues in “Back to the Light” and “Era of Fear”

• Fixed incorrect dialogue animations in various quests that caused scaling issues on Barbarian NPCs

• Fixed Son-kan rotation during the “Merging of Two Worlds” dialogue

• Fixed Alaric’s animation and VFX not displaying during Alaric’s Protection in “Maze of Lava”

• Fixed missing quest indications in “The Lord of Okeanos” when returning to the city during the quest

• Fixed a missing quest marker during Alaric’s Protection in “Maze of Lava”

• Fixed Son-kan showing two quest icons above his head when captured in “By Kalaarang's Design”

• Adjusted damage calculations in “Illumination” and “The Gold and the Soup” (endgame) quests to prevent scaling that could make them impossible to complete

• Fixed an issue in “Blood Sorcery” ritual where the beam did not always target a player

• Fixed an navmesh issue in Jungle of Kalah that could sometimes block Son-kan during “The Lost Scale”

Endgame Quest

• Fixed a missing path between two quests on the third map in the war room

• Fixed the “Purge the cult” quest marker pointing to the wrong portal, Ancient Ruins instead of Corrupted Temple, in the “Hunt for Kalaarang - Banished Lord of the Jungle”

• Fixed an issue in the  “Hunt for Albéric Main-Leste” where soldiers would spawn incorrectly when the player got very close by preventing soldiers to be able to move

• Fixed an issue where arrows pointing to enemies were missing during Live Canons event, that could happen in Chaos Hunts

• Fixed a missing indication for where the relic was dropped in the “Hunt for Nohog”, now a quest indicator at the Relic Thief’s death location - pointing to the drops

• Fixed an issue where the progression could be blocked if an objective was interacted with too early during the Battering Ram quest

Online

• Fixed "Craft & Equip" button not equipping ornaments if the player is in an online City

• Removed the Missing Tracker quest from Saur Iknog - Banished Lord of Erde-Nor endgame hunt to prevent issues in multiplayer

• Fixed destroy objectives sometimes not completing in multiplayer

• Fixed server rollbacks that could still occur during online sessions

• Fixed the final boss in Chaos Hunt being selectable as random but not as a forced encounter

• Fixed death logs not always updating correctly in multiplayer

• Fixed Electric Hazard and Electric Elite VFX not displaying properly during online endgame hunts

• Fixed cinematic skip button behavior in multiplayer

• Fixed cinematics not properly stopping in some multiplayer cases

• Fixed Androdaiktos Orb skill in multiplayer

• Fixed a navmesh issues that could teleport characters far from their previous position during online sessions

• Added the “Wait for players” option to “Era of Fear" cinematic to fix some graphic issues if players were not gathered together in multiplayer

• Fixed an issue with the quest compass not appearing when joining another player during a search objective, such as in “Hunt for Amphisbaina.”

• Fixed an issue with Explosive Shot (Tracker) skill not working properly for other players in multiplayer

• Fixed damage display and battle logs for summons sometimes not working as intended in multiplayer

• Fixed various VFX & SFX not ending properly in multiplayer

• Fixed Damage over Time not being displayed properly in multiplayer

• Fixed death malus applied to the wrong player when revived by another player

• Fixed the Sacred Tree (Eikidikt) not displaying correctly to all players during “The Day of the Poem” in multiplayer

• Fixed some enemies not appearing when joining an ongoing Test of Will in multiplayer

• Fixed wave numbers not synchronizing if a player joined at the very end of a wave in the Test of Will

Co-op

• Fixed an issue where the first player could not move or attack properly with the mouse if the second local player had the Ancestral grid opened

• Fixed an issue where the second local player’s input was not working when a gameplay-blocking menu was opened

• Fixed second local player being able to be stuck in an ability if they press the button at the same frame as the first local player opening the pause menu

• Fixed camera when using dodge or Arcane Portal (oracle) in local co-op

• Fixed an issue with portals texts in the Test of Will that may not be set when the focus changes and players failed the test in local co-op

• Fixed the Dark Merchant icon not displaying the correct tab in local co-op

• Fixed an issue where the second local player could rotate the first player’s fragment if both players were dragging fragments simultaneously

• Fixed an issue where the second local player could not scroll tooltips

• Aligned the Eternal Gift choice menu to the right for the second local player to prevent tooltip collisions

• Fixed the first local player’s mouse being locked when the second local player opened their skill grid

• Fixed the second local player being able to block their cursor by pressing “A” while hovering over the fragment chest viewport

• Fixed the loot filter button in the player menu being visible for the second local player

• Fixed controller type not being correctly detected as PS5 when adding a local co-op player with the first controller getting redirected to the second player (i.e. only one controller is connected)

UI

• Removed the “City XP Gain” notification for “Activity Finished” when completing a Test of Will. Players now only see the specific XP gain that scales with the number of wave

• Fixed relic count on the world map not updating immediately when collecting a relic

• Fixed many buff icon textures not having a correct alpha channel

• Fixed Damage over Time display on health bars

• Adjusted the remaining shaders value font to prevent text flickering when the value changes

• Tweaked skill grid slot display to ensure compatible fragments remain visible during selection or when using the Dark Merchant

• Fixed tutorial popups sometimes never disappearing in specific conditions

• Fixed an issue that could create a misleading gear display after closing the Memorialist menu and opening the Inventory

• Fixed sell reward feedback not showing Primordial Dust count

• Fixed an issue that could loose the cursor focus when deleting a city using a controller

• Fixed the minimap sometimes appearing empty when starting a dungeon

• Added magnet behavior for menus when using a controller

• Fixed divine resources not being selectable in some cases within the Enchantment menu

• Fixed quality mode not resetting properly on consoles when using “Reset All to Default”

• Fixed selection mode that would remain active when closing the Enchantment menu in some cases

• Fixed Wyrmling Armor talent sources not displaying in talent tooltips

• Fixed fragments sometimes not updating when moving a character skill in the Ancestral Grid

SFX

• Fixed Spadiel sub-boss theme not playing during its fight

• Fixed a SFX issue on Androdaiktos Orb skill

• Fixed music during the scale illumination event in the “Illumination on the Ruins of Fafnirstrid” ritual

• Fixed “Meridies Cornely’s Plot” cinematic not properly stopping music when skipped

• Fixed an issue where Draghurss footsteps would not play correctly

• Fixed Test of Will sound not working as intended / correctly after loading screens

• Fixed a rare case where death overlay sounds stopped playing

• Fixed an issue with Targeting (Tracker’s gimmick) not always triggering its SFX upon executing an enemy

• Fixed Skokiel’s (Champion) clones SFX not properly ending after being defeated

• Fixed endgame portals SFX not always behaving correctly

Misc.

• Fixed players being able to craft rings of Legendary rarity or higher without a talent

• Fixed Race against Time quest dialog which was depending on an optional visit to be optional too

• Fixed damage display on enemies with multiples hitbox, such as Vidskrig - Banished Lord of Nurorgartt

• Fixed Twitch Drops options sometimes not appearing in the customization menu

• Fixed an issue where Koleos Geyser explosions would sometimes not trigger

• Fixed an issue where one-shotting an enemy sometimes did not register the damage in the battle log

• Fixed an issue where the layout would become unstable when loading the list of unlocked items or adding items to sacrifice

• Fixed teleporter interaction not happening in some cases

• Fixed dust reroll cost being too high

• Fixed crowd control effects triggering on Titan type elites and city elite dummies