This week’s biggest change is the new option to retire wayfarers on your roster once they have filled all their skill slots. When a wayfarer retires they can teach one of their skills to another wayfarer, and this skill does not take up one of their slots!

This new option caps the whole new wayfarer roster scheme, and we fully expect to take these developments out of beta next week! That will make bugs our top priority for the coming days. You are already doing a wonderful job at reporting issues to our discord server, so reporting issues for this build is appreciated even more than usual!

Other notable changes in this patch are the changes to the combat mechanics. We’ve mostly simplified and streamlined the basic weapon categories and set up basic skills for each group of weapons and added mastery skills for each individual weapon type. These skills improve your options with these weapons and even unlock new ones.

Finally the options on the starting roster now need to be earned. It shouldn’t be all too difficult: you just need to recruit a type of character once to add that background to the starting roster permanently. Participating in the beta now will give you a head start and these unlock will transfer to 1.7!

Ahead of the expected release of 1.7 next week, we have created a legacy branch on Steam to preserve the current public build indefinitely.

Gameplay Changes
- When your character has no more skill slots, they can pass on a trait and retire by talking to other wayfarers.
- You can use sparks to cast depleted spells.
- Rebalanced core weapons: most weapons start with only one type of attack. Additional attacks or other abilities are added when you become more proficient with that type of weapon.
- Redefined the basic combat skills for main weapon groups: axes, swords, clubs, pole arms, bows, and throwing weapons.
- Added weapon mastery skills for individual weapon types: axe, war axe, sword, longsword, short sword, falx, spear, glaive, quarterstaff, club, great club, mace, bow.
- Removed obsolete combat skills: parrying, shielding, superior parrying, single-handed technique, two-handed technique, riposte, very resilient.
- Smarter selection of relevant combat skills when you learn a new skill.
- Adjusted to tutorial to reflect the changes to the combat.
- In combat practice you automatically gain weapon skills for the weapons you take out of the chest.
- Reduces the number of starting skills for most backgrounds.
- Adds a random personality trait to each background that grant an extra option to gain sparks: Scholarly, Challenger, Wildheart, Wrathful, Storyteller, Bookworm, Treasure Seeker, Shrewd, Gourmand, Fortunate, Grit, Sociable, and Belligerent.
- Adds a new background: the Groundskeeper.
- Adds new magic skills: Spark Craft, Flame Protection, Flow Protection, Form Protection, Root Protection, Sky Protection.
- The options for your starting roster are initially reduced to the Adventurer, Disciple, Vault Warden, Farland Hunter, and the Groundskeeper.
- Recruiting new wayfarers adds their background as an option to the starting roster permanently.

Bug fixes
- Addresses an issue with the representation of bulk in combination with weapon grip and armored combat.
- Alternate appearances for specific backgrounds are correctly loaded from the start.
- The crimson crusader starts with honorable and regains their honor when they return to Haven.
- The chronicler actually starts with the correct signature skill.
- When you die you no longer return to haven as a ‘ghost’.
- The dialog that allows you to gain a skill waits if the game is not in its main state.
- Going down to the lower level in Haven’s Temple no longer despawns the other wayfarers.
- You can complete a quest and claim its rewards only once.