The “Time of the Oldening” is almost upon us, as Vagrus turns to the respectable age of 5 years on the 5th October! The anniversary celebrations bring a new improvement patch, including a couple of small gifts for all our players. The name of the game’s base edition is changing to Anniversary Edition on Steam to reflect half a decade of improvements and free content – a better, improved Vagrus. In addition, in this article we’d also like to shout out one of our fellow developers and their cool new game, Retro Space.

Our Anniversary update contains small gifts available for everyone who owns the base game:

• An in-game banner to commemorate 5 years of Vagrus. This will be available in Kadaath once you reach a certain Renown threshold. Look for an option when talking to the residents.

• An in-game banner themed for spooky month (October). This will be available in Deven, by turning in a large haul of Spectral Residue to the Church of Ahskul.

Note: To equip banners, simply click on the banner in the top left corner of the Leader/Vagrus UI. You will see the list of banners available to you. These are then displayed on the campaign map as well.

These banners arrive on top of a list of updates that the patch includes – more on that at the end of the article.

The celebration does not stop there, because Vagrus is part of the Steam Autumn Sale, with the game and its expansions available at a discount for a limited time. Whether you're a returning vagrus looking to revisit old roads or a newcomer ready to brave the wasteland for the first time, now is a great time to set out. Be sure to check it out as well as our discounts all over the platforms. The wasteland awaits!

A Kind Reminder: The continued development of Vagrus is made possible by the support of players like you. Only a small fraction of Steam players ever leave a review, yet those reviews make a tremendous difference. A few sentences and a thumbs-up help more of you discover the Riven Realms, improve our visibility on Steam, and support the continued development of the game. If you haven't already, we'd be incredibly grateful if you could leave us a review on Steam. Every single one counts!

Our friends at The Wild Gentleman have just released Retro Space, an immersive, disco-punk, space horror where you can be a sneaky chap or a mutant action hero as you try to survive on a space station swallowed by a black hole. A mind-bending ride with weird creatures, immersive features, time jumps, and '70s mustaches! What’s not to love? If you're looking for another promising indie title to follow, be sure to check it out!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2067820/RetroSpace/

5 Year Anniversary Update & Edition

As for Vagrus, we’ve brought you a long list of changes and tweaks. This time, the fixes and tweaks center around trading, certain Perks, some annoying UI issues, and more! Check out the detailed list below.

Our Steam page is also changing, reflecting the 5 Year Anniversary. The base edition’s name changes to Anniversary Edition to reflect half a decade of additional free content, new and updated features, and a ton of fixes, which we’ve felt has earned a bit of recognition.

Important Note: Considering the extent of the improvements, there is little to no chance that we broke nothing in the process. Assume that we did not want to make anyone's life harder. If you see something amiss, please flag it to us using the usual channels, like the inbuilt reporting tool (F1 button), forums, and our Discord[discord.com] server.

• Two new comitatus banners were added for all players: the Extravagant Banner and Witchfire Banner. One can be obtained from the inhabitants of Kadaath when you are famous enough, and the other from the Church of Ahskul in Deven, in return for Spectral Residue. You can switch to them on the Leader screen (interact with the banner on the top left) once you unlock them in any playthrough (even ongoing ones).

• Trade rebalance: Long hauls are worthwhile again, while early-game trading pays somewhat less, and goods a town badly wants now hold their price better when you sell it to them.

• A settlement’s Goods stock now replenishes more sensibly. Scarce Goods that used to never come back now restock properly, and rarer Goods take longer to return.

• Sedarias no longer consumes supplies in the main campaign (duh).

• News distances and price age estimates for far-off locations are now more accurate.

• Fixed an issue that caused the comitatus UI to close and not open back again when entering a settlement.

• Fixed a crash caused by extremely high prices on some long trade routes. Affected saved games repair automatically upon loading.

• Fixed an issue that allowed mutually exclusive pieces of Equipment (such as types of tents and saddles) to be equipped at the same time. Saved games in which more than one Equipment piece is equipped per category place back one item into comitatus storage upon loading the game.

• Fixed an issue that caused markets to be treated as damaged and rebuilt every time the game was loaded.

• Fixed an issue causing the Extras tab not to open in small-screen mode.

• Fixed an issue that caused the ‘Regeneration’ and ‘Conduit Perks’ to not work properly when on higher Perk levels. The combat display now matches the Character Sheet when it comes to the level and effect of these two Perks.

• Fixed several cases where stats displayed outdated values, such as after Forced March or when Companion selection changed.

• Fixed an issue that caused older saved game data to be loaded when savegame slots were overwritten.

• Xbox: Improved savegame reliability, including a memory-related error when saving games.

• Nintendo Switch: The game now picks your system language as the default on the first launch.

• General stability and reliability improvements.

Well, that’s quite a lot of things, but it only scratches the surface. We’ll leave you for now, but we’ll soon be back with more anniversary celebrations. Until then, stay awesome, stay safe, and conquer the wasteland!

– The Lost Pilgrims Team

Hey everyone,

As we are approaching the fifth anniversary of the release of Vagrus, we’re taking the time to look back on this journey we’ve been on. In our ‘Revisited’ Series, we are venturing back to iconic and intriguing locations across the playable Riven Realms, rediscovering their atmosphere and the stories they hold. But looking back also means thinking about the road ahead. As a new season begins, our September Steam Sale offers an opportunity to return to the Riven Realms whether to revisit an old journey or embark on your first. And as we look towards the future of Lost Pilgrims and our community, we are also taking a fresh look at our Patreon, with a short survey[docs.google.com] to help us understand what our supporters and followers would genuinely value from us going forward.

We wanted to gather all the ‘Revisited’ articles into one post here for your enjoyment, so without further ado, here they go:

A City Forged in Fire

Avernum is one of the major settlements of the Searing Plains. So close to the Mountains of Fire with its volatile volcanoes, as well as the lava rivers that spawn constantly from them, it is no wonder that people named the place after the gates of a fiery underworld. Its strange ruler, the soft-spoken but tyrannical Prefectus, has allied himself with the Empire, but in truth, he runs his city as his own domain. Avernum has many a sight to behold – its darkstone walls embedded with gigantic bestial skeletons, the mighty Slagfort, the watering holes and slums of the Scoria district, or the fabled underground necropolis called the Ossuary are ominous locales that draw travelers and locals alike.

A Sea of Sand

The Bronze Desert is a great arid region in the northwestern corner of the continent of Xeryn. According to legend, the Bronze Desert got its name when an early Emperor, Honrarius II., arrived at the newly acquired province and declared that the copper-colored sands should inform the naming. The legend does not speak of how the sovereign despised the bronze glow or that only a small region of the wasteland displayed that specific color. These days, the Bronze Desert is nothing but endless dunes and rock formations, slightly darker in hue than the Searing Plains to the south. Countless oases dot the landscape, veritable harbors in this sea of sand. The region is mostly inhabited by the native Bandul, though Imperials have had a strong presence there in the last 500 years.

A Fortress of Fear

The Vigilus Tower is a wayward fortification in the Jagged Waste. A blackstone tower that is over 150 feet tall over a huge rocky hill, Vigilus is a great achievement of Imperial engineering. The thorns and barbs adorning it are of the new age architectural style, and they are meant to strike fear into the enemies of the Empire. The tower was built alongside the nearby Fort Viridium some time before the Orc War to guard precious resources in the area as well as the ventures that harvest them. The great fortress was thought to be too far from the important crossroads and so the Vigilus Tower was raised to serve as a forward outpost to it.

Perhaps even more ominously, a hidden sacred place is said to hide among the rocky base of Vigilus. Dedicated to the Black Sun, the sanctum is constantly guarded by a cadre of the knights of the Empire’s most fearsome holy orders. Common folks have no knowledge of the shrine, let alone the reason for its existence beneath the grim fort.

All of the music in these short videos can also be found in-game and in the Vagrus Original Soundtrack.

Looking back also gives us a chance to think about where we want to go next. We are taking a fresh look at our Patreon and asking our community what they would like to see from us in the years ahead. Through a short survey[docs.google.com], we’re exploring everything from exclusive Vagrus lore and behind-the-scenes glimpses into development to community involvement, special digital and physical extras, and the possibility of bringing more of the Riven Realms to the tabletop. There are many paths we could take, and we’d like to hear from the people who have travelled with us along the way before deciding where the road leads next.

As summer draws to a close and a new season begins, it feels fitting to return once more to the Riven Realms. Our September Steam Sale is a chance to revisit old journeys, rediscover forgotten corners of the world, or set out into the wastes for the very first time. Whether you’ve travelled with Vagrus for years or have yet to take your first steps into the Riven Realms, this is a good moment to begin – or begin anew. Vagrus and its additional content are currently available at a special price during our September Steam Sale.

That is all for now, but stay tuned for further updates this fall. Until then, stay safe, stay awesome and conquer the wasteland!

 – The Lost Pilgrims Team