Eternal Strands Spring Update: Stargazer ✨🪽
New Content
For this special update, Yellow Brick Games teamed up with Creative Studio III’s Yusuke Mogi, the visionary artist known for his art in FINAL FANTASY XIV Online, to co-develop stunning original content. This partnership brings The Ark of the Nova, a powerful new aerial Epic, which wields all three major magic types on the battlefield, providing a formidable opponent for Brynn and the Weaverband.
Note: This content becomes available at Part 4 of the game.
[h2]New map: Starlight Cape [/h2]
Step into an uncharted territory filled with fresh vertical challenges, a new Elite Fire Summon minion, and additional lore that pull Brynn and her companions even deeper into the Enclave’s mysteries
[h2]New Epic: The Ark of the Nova [/h2]
This unique flying Ark can use its Starscopes to attune to all three strains of magic in order to wield them in powerful, targeted attacks.
[h2]New Questline from Oria + New Codex entries [/h2]
Obtain a Keyswatch from Oria to explore Starlight Cape, defeat the Ark of the Nova and collect new Codex entries to learn more about this mysterious area of The Enclave.
[h2]New minion: Elite Fire Summon [/h2]
A new minion is now present in the Enclave! Battle the Elite Fire Summon minion in Starlight Cape for the first time.
[h2]New power: Celestial Scope[/h2]
Inspired by The Ark of the Nova, this ability unlocks a dynamic drone that synergizes with Brynn’s existing magical spells to provide even more unique gameplay opportunities for players.
[h2]New weapon designs[/h2]
The Stargazer Two-Hander (Kinetic), Sword and Shield (Flame) and Bow & Arrow (Frost) are uniquely mystical in appearance and can be a great addition to any one of Brynn’s armor sets.
[h2]New armor: Umbral set[/h2]
Find new recipes in Starlight Cape to unlock the Umbral set, a timeless lightweight outfit with a magical twist.
[h2]New feature: Dyeing system[/h2]
Players can finally customize their armor’s colors without affecting stats, bringing more personalization to the adventure! The dyeing system doesn’t affect the shape of the armor, but it will allow players to make use of their cumulated resources to experiment with a variety of colour schemes for their gear.
[h2]New resources[/h2]
Players also now have 4 new resources to gather (from the Ark of the Nova and the Elite Fire Summon) and craft with:
Woven ★★★★ : Astral Cloth
Carved ★★★★: Ruby Core
Tanned ★★★★★: Nova Membrane
Carved ★★★★★: Arctic Obsidian
[h2]New difficulty setting: Story Mode [/h2]
Players requested a more accessible way to experience Eternal Strands' world & story without as intense of a challenge. The Story Mode was created with this in mind and is now available in the Gameplay menu.
New Quality of Life features
Thanks to lots of valuable detailed and constructive feedback from our community, we’ve been able to implement a list of quality of life changes that we believe will bring significant improvements to both the new player and veteran player experience.
[h2]Gameplay [/h2]
- Improved hit reactions on minion enemies.
- When player dies, if the number of resources gathered on their expedition in their inventory is lower than the safety pouch limit, the end of expedition menu (safety pouch selection) is skipped and the player keeps their resources.
- Ice Gauntlet now passively reduces stamina consumption when equipped, to make it possible for the player to keep the Ice Gauntlet on while climbing a shaking Epic (as clinging is disabled when the Ice Gauntlet is equipped).
- Added a ceiling limit to brittleness for HP bags.
- Watcher’s wisp is now granted earlier, at the start of Part 1.
[h2]UI & Progression[/h2]
- Increased enticement range of Part 1 quest objectives, to support navigation in early game for new players.
- Added various tutorial entries (loot bag, fall damage, elite minion, weapon and armor bonuses, and more!) and created a tutorial menu prompt at Oria’s station.
- Added a codex menu at Laen's station.
- Enabled stat gauge display for all stats in equipment screen (previously only displayed heat/cold resistance stat variations).
- Added a new "on expedition" option for the “Show Helmet” option Now, players can choose to show their equipped helmet while out on expedition, but hide it in Basecamp & Cassidan’s Hold to be able to view Brynn’s face in these areas.
- Attunement panels now show counters for codex fragments, gear designs, and loomgates in Cassidan’s Hold and Basecamp (previously only displayed a description).
- Added a new quest at end of the main game to help players collect all remaining codex.
- Colored resource pickup text to match the rarity of the resource.
- Added a HUD prompt to appear when there is no valid active objective that the wisps can guide the player to.
- Enabled damage numbers on breakable objects hit with kinetic magic.
- Added a UI feature to indicate mana depletion to the player. If the player doesn’t have enough mana to use a power or weapon ability, the corresponding icon’s color in the HUD will be desaturated and its opacity lowered.
- Added a “Loadout” tab in Menus that displays Brynn’s equipped wepaons and armor along with their stats.
- Added a change that gives priority to interactions that can be completed when there are many near the player (eg: interaction with resources is given priority over health potions when player is full on health potions but has space in their inventory).
- Adjusted the DLSS Application to follow Nvidia UI guidelines.
- Implemented a Confirmation pop-up message when the player chooses the “Restore Default Settings” option in menus.
- Adjusted Camera Sensitivity settings for Bow Aiming and Casting.
- Fixed DLSS Anti-Aliasing (DLAA). Now sets Anti-Aliasing to TSR when using DLSS in order for DLAA to work properly.
- Added an “Abandon Expedition” option to the System menu.
- Added a failsafe safety pouch for players when first entering gameplay state. This will enable a player to save some of their loot in the event of a game crash during an expedition. This also triggers a safety pouch menu when the player exits to main menu or quits the game.
- A save is now automatically triggered upon looting a resource. In the event of a system or game crash, more loot will now be retained on reloading of the game.
[h2]Settings & Controls [/h2]
- Made last selected option in certain menus (system, load, save) persistent.
- Added the option to delete save slots in the Save and Load menus.
- Additional support for variety of keyboard layouts.
- Added an option for PC players to clear key bindings.
- Added descriptions to mappable keys, giving players more information on controls.
- Added the option to toggle certain action inputs instead of holding them (sprint, open wheel and casting stance).
- Added a 3rd controller scheme that allows swapping of L1/R1 mappings to L2/R2 mappings. In this scheme, the Magic wheel control is mapped to R1 and Block/Parry/Bow are mapped to L1.
- Adjusted the DLSS Application to follow Nvidia UI guidelines.
- Adjusted the DLSS Application to follow Nvidia UI guidelines.
- Implemented a Confirmation pop-up message when the player chooses the “Restore Default Settings” option in menus.
- Adjusted Camera Sensitivity settings for Bow Aiming and Casting.
- Fixed DLSS Anti-Aliasing (DLAA). Now sets Anti-Aliasing to TSR when using DLSS in order for DLAA to work properly.
Bug fixes
[h2]Performance[/h2]
- Various performance improvements.
- Disabled DX11 launch support.
- Fixed an issue causing Southwall Waystation (Basecamp) graphics to be tinted bright red.
- Fixed textures disappearing on all graphics settings (PC).
[h2]World [/h2]
- Fixed floating objects in Prologue, Lower Dynevron, The Bastion and Basecamp.
- Fixed unbreakable objects in Upper and Lower Dynevron.
- Fixed an exploit to prevent loot farming with Spitfire nests.
- Fixed an area where player could navigate out of bounds in the Prologue.
- Fixed a bug that caused inconsistencies in how lanterns explode.
[h2]Gameplay [/h2]
- Improved parry reactivity & precision in Epic combat.
- Fixed a bug in which Epic attacks without interruption when the player is out of reach.
- Fixed a bug in which Ark of the Winter Tide wasn’t using its ice sphere ability if Brynn was unreachable but close.
- Fixed a bug in which combatting the Conjurer during a Flash freeze modifier didn’t grant any advantage.
- Fixed a bug that caused the Ark of the Forge’s belt armor to stretch too wide, causing unintended physics collisions.
- Fixed a bug preventing NPCs from entering combat after being attacked by the player under certain conditions.
- Fixed a bug that prevented players from harvesting the Highland Iceclaw in Arkon’s Hearth.
- Fixed a bug that caused the Brennig Glasstail to become passive/unresponsive during combat.
- Fixed a bug causing certain minions to attack Epics.
- Fixed a bug causing tier 3 kinetic streams to negatively affect the player's capacity to hold onto Epics because of the power’s velocity.
- Fixed inconsistencies occuring with ice power generation in certain circumstances.
- Strengthened ice power generation when used by player to create bridges.
- Fixed Rehnland Sledgewyrm’s offset kinetic bubble throws.
- Fixed an issue causing the player to get stuck in slow motion when aiming the bow & arrow.
[h2]VFX & UI[/h2]
- Fixed a bug in which cursor resets to the first choice in dialogue options too quickly.
- Fixed text positioning in dialogue for certain localizations.
- Adjusted subtitle size not applying to emphasized words.
- Fixed miscellaneous localization errors.
- Fixed a bug causing the Ark of the Winter Tide’s VFX to flash incorrectly when damaged.
- Fixed an issue causing desynchronized subtitles and voice over.
- Fixed a bug preventing companion’s alternative portraits (displaying emotion) to appear at intended points in dialogue.
[h2]Progression[/h2]
- Fixed a bug preventing “The Tapestry” quest text from loading.
- Fixed an issue preventing players from unlocking the Smoked achievement, even when all criteria was met.
[h2]Miscellaneous[/h2]
- Fixed a bug that cancelled rumble events on PC.
- Fixed a bug that caused the bow to stop zooming and reticle to flicker when chaining arrow shots.
- Fixed a bug causing the background to disappear in Cassidan’s Hold during dialogue in certain circumstances.
- Fixed a bug causing the Highland Iceclaw’s Icicle Rain damage numbers to not display the full extent of the damage on the player.
- Fixed a bug causing chained magic attacks to be delayed upon mana regeneration, even if player holds input throughout.
- Fixed an issue preventing players from opening the magic wheel right after using Weaver’s grasp or Frost Mine.
- Fixed a bug preventing frost and fire arrows from reaching their target under certain circumstances.
- Fixed an issue affecting the Ark of the Forge’s animation when constrained in ice during a rapid dash action.
- Fixed certain issues affecting cinematics to play twice.
- Fixed control schemes not updating in the tutorials menu when switching between schemes.
