With tomorrow's patch, get ready to tackle a fourth world boss, embark on some new long-term missions, and celebrate the Winter Festival of Strangers.


Just when it seems the balance of power might be shifting in favor of Patreayl’s heroes, a new enemy emerges. Travelers from the far corners of the country have returned with tales of a massive, violent rock golem with the power to summon burning boulders from the sky (or so some claim). Is it an ancient guardian? Continued corruption of nature from Chaos radiation? It’s too soon to know many details -- but not too soon for the heroes of Patreayl to step up and take it down…if they can.



With this patch we are pleased to introduce a fourth world boss: the Rock Giant. Discovery is half the fun, so we won’t tell you where to find it or how to enrage it, but we can tell you that the Rock Giant utilizes a variety of different techniques, including some from the old Esasa world boss in original Orbus.

As with the other world bosses, players who defeat the Rock Giant will have a chance at a cape, a “windup” miniature rock monster pet, and a new ring. This new ring, dubbed “The One,” has the ability to combine the powers of ALL the other world boss rings, as well as a luck ring.

To celebrate the introduction of the Rock Giant, we’ll be hosting a world boss event on Thursday, December 16th at 6 p.m. CST. Interested parties can meet in Fellowship Court at the appointed time (or go directly to the world boss location for those who have already figured out its whereabouts in the overworld).


With this patch we are also adding four new long-term missions. The objectives of the new missions are to:

* Kill all world boss
* Kill all dungeon bosses
* Catch legendary fish
* Complete public events in Flooded Rainforest, Hulthine’s Basin and the Wastelands

Each mission has its own unique reward. Catch enough legendary fish and you'll earn an aquarium for your Player House. The aquarium even hosts a couple of magical fish, which you can watch swim around from the comfort of your new throne, the reward for completing the dungeon boss mission. Show off your accolades outside your Player House by completing the public events and world boss missions to earn an Airship Mount and Royalty Spaulders, respectively.




Top: Aquarium; Bottom: Airship Mount, Royal Throne, Royalty Spaulders

To pick up one of the new missions, visit the LTM NPC on the top floor of the tavern in Highsteppe City.


And finally, the Winter Festival of Strangers is officially back with this patch! To pick up all the relevant mission and quests, visit:

* Festival NPC (outside the gates of Highsteppe) for the main “Strangers” questline
* Festival Farmer (outside Critter Capture shop) for the Floating Lights scavenger hunt
* Pierre Cenn (inside the Critter Capture shop) for the Snowman Critter Capture mission



The Snowman transmog set will be back again this year, available through the main Strangers questline, along with a toboggan mount and a celestial-looking winter cape. For completing the Critter Capture mission, you’ll also earn a new Snowman pet, this year themed to look like a mechanical gingerbread man.

In today's update, you'll begin the hunt for the new Legendary Shard Cosmetics, and discover new details of Patreayl with the three new quest chains found throughout the world!


There will be five new legendary cosmetics available in this patch: a Squirrel Tail, Dragonfly Wings, Demon Horns, and new cat and raven pets.



These drops will be available only from enemies in shard dungeons and use the same system and rarity as the current overworld-only drops.


This patch also includes the new questlines teased in our previous blog post. There will be three new structures in the overworld in the Lamavora, Hulthine’s Basin, and Flooded Rainforest zones, each with new NPCs that will give out quests following a short line.

In the Flooded Rainforest, the Weird Sisters’ hut can be found near the Wagon Graveyard teleport pillar.



In Hulthine’s Basin, the new lighthouse can be found on a small island between the Bear’s Hollow and Flying High teleport pillars. This structure involves some extra work to get to (look for the “Climb Down” button at the edge of the cliff) and is also our first introduction of climbing into an overworld zone.

In Lamavora, the new Salvage Yard can be found down the hill from the Knight’s Fort teleport pillar.

We hope you enjoy the new questlines as much as we enjoyed putting them together!

On Tuesday, November 16th, we'll be releasing a patch with two major updates: new legendary shard cosmetics, which we'll cover in more detail closer to the patch, and several new overworld questlines.

The new questlines will correspond to new structures in three of the overworld zones. For more information on these, we turn to the pages of the Highsteppe Enquirer for on-the-ground coverage.

HIGHSTEPPE, PATREAYL - The big scoop in Patreayl this week is the opening of the new lighthouse in Hulthine’s Basin. The sailing community has been clamoring for this necessity for some time, and with trade flourishing at the docks (and invested parties growing richer by the day), it was only a matter of time before the port authorities conceded.


Hulthine's Basin lighthouse, in progress

No expense was spared in construction of the lighthouse - except perhaps for its staffing. While the position of lighthouse keeper was no doubt highly coveted, there has been much controversy over the appointment of Arlo Bateau, son of famed ship captain Arto Bateau. More qualified candidates were certainly passed over, and rumor is the younger Bateau left his previous position under shameful circumstances, though no source could positively identify what those were exactly. Whether he is up to the task of managing the lighthouse is yet to be seen - although any failure is certain to be seen as the beacon is highly visible and will be used by many.

The Hulthine's Basin lighthouse isn't the only new piece of construction out there though. Travelers through Lamavora may be pleased to find a new shop awaiting them in the former battlefields: the Lamavora Salvage Yards. (This is a separate enterprise from the Salvaging shop in Highsteppe, run by the mysterious girl child Whisper. And I know what you are thinking, dear reader, but yes, our great nation is still so covered in junk that we can now host two separate salvaging operations.)



Run by self-proclaimed enterpreneur and inventor Yorick Gundrun, the salvage yard will deal mainly in scrap armor, spare airship parts, and reclaimed building materials, though Yorick hopes to eventually pedal some of his inventions as well.

Yorick is perhaps best known for his invention of the Essence Grinder, though residents of Highsteppe may be familiar with some of his other work, including the ill-fated Feline Confinement Cube, which was designed to roundup stray cats in town but instead trapped several children for the better part of a week, as well as the Self-Operating Scythe, a farming device that has claimed the fingers of six novice farmers to date.

“That was a one-off incident,” said Gundrun. “Ok, two incidents. You’re not going to include that in the story are you? Nothing like that has ever happened with any of my other inventions. Well, at least my off-market kind, designed for scientific uses. Just ask the Travelling Companions of Science how useful my work is!”

A representative for the Travelling Companions of Science was not available for comment at this time.

And in other news, rumors of two old, ugly women touring the country have been bantered about between patrons of the Highsteppe Tavern. While strange creatures are a dram-a-dozen in these parts, these two unsightly hags drew extra attention from travelers due to their strange behavior at common landmarks and the appearance of unusual magick.

“It was real strange,” said Martel Drumand. “I was passing by the arch on my way back from hunting stag, and I saw them doing some kind of heathenistic dance around it. Bunch of weirdos.”



Whether the rumors are true that they have set up keep in the Flooded Rainforest and are now luring strangers to their home to participate in blood sacrifices has yet to be confirmed by this reporter.

But speaking of dram-a-dozen strange creatures, several sources have reported a new girl in town. What is her business in Highsteppe? Why does she only keep to the back alley behind Pierre Cenn's shop? And why are her eyes such a creepy shade of red? Those with information are encouraged to bring it to the offices of the Highsteppe Enquirer.

Another big update is on the horizon! On Tuesday, September 28th we will be rolling out a patch with two major changes: a character update and the return of the fall Harvest Festival.


We have heard from the community that you all would like more options when it comes to styling your in-game avatar - and we couldn’t agree more! To that end, the upcoming patch will introduce a combined total of more than 40 new hairstyles, eyes, mouths and noses for you to mix and match and adjust to fit your own personal style. We’ll be introducing a large number of more feminine styles for hair, eyes and mouths, as well as some out-of-the ordinary options for those of you really looking to spice your character up.






In addition to new styles, we are also excited to introduce animations for eyes and mouths. Eyes will now blink, and mouths will move when a player is talking, all of which we hope will make characters feel more natural. Each mouth's animation will look slightly different from the other styles (just one more way we are striving to add variety), and will be tied to the volume meter on your character.



Note: Facial animations will be disabled by default for the time being. In order to turn this feature on and see other characters' animations, select "Enable Facial Animations" on the Graphics tab of the Settings menu.

To celebrate the update, we are giving every active character a free refresh so you can utilize the new styles. When you log in following the patch, click on your character, then select the "Change" option from the list of choices. If you find you want to change your appearance later on, you can always visit the NPC in the Odds and Ends store in the underground market of Highsteppe to purchase a Barbershop token.


The annual fall Harvest Festival will also be returning for its third year on Tuesday, September 28th. We'll be introducing three new rewards (details in a future post), while also bringing back the pumpkin helm and skeleton gloves transmog set. Everyone's favorite spirits will be back haunting the countryside again, so get ready to do some slaying!

Welcome one and all to the newest version of Highsteppe, as many of you know Markos’ triumphant return, with help from a few brave adventurers, he has declared that now is a time of prosperity. With that, the city has invested Dram along with countless craftsman hours to restoring Highsteppe to its once great stature, that of itself before the dark times that fell upon us.





Today's patch going live around 11AM CST features the brand new remodeled Highsteppe and some minor bugfixes. You can read the detailed patch notes, with map notes and a list of changes with the positions of certain NPCs here:

https://community.orbusvr.com/t/patch-14-01-highsteppe-makeover/24279

We'll see you in game!

The updated Highsteppe will be coming out in a patch on Tuesday, August 31st. For a preview of the many upcoming changes, we turn to the pages of the Highsteppe Enquirer and their in-depth coverage on Highsteppe and all things Patreayl.

HIGHSTEPPE, PATREAYL - By edict of Markos of Runevale, recently returned to sanity and consciousness from the clutches of evil sorcerer Sephotep, the city of Highsteppe has been renovated in order to match the splendor of Patreayl!

Gone is the hodgepodge, ramshackle style of old Highsteppe. The raw timber and salvaged materials have been replaced city-wide with stone, glass and new wrought iron work crafted by our very own Master Smith.


Newly refurbished home of Patreayl's homegrown hero


Chef Lethrow's new kitchen

Mayor Kaia finally has her own office for conducting her mayoral affairs, and Pierre Cenn’s shop has received a facelift. Chef Lethrow’s kitchen has also received a major upgrade, with ample space for his cauldrons and cooking stoves, a necessary change as the chef has more mouths to feed with the ever-increasing population of the surrounding area. The Chef is helped in his culinary pursuits through the salvaging and harvesting efforts of Whisper, who has expanded her shop to include extra space for drying herbs.


New Fellowship Hall and Fellowship Court

Even your very own Highsteppe Enquirer has new offices, though our request to be moved off the side street into the thick of town was denied, so you will still have to visit us next to the airship dock to submit any bits of news or gossip for your local reporter. And speaking of the airship dock, the newly constructed dock offers a breathtaking view for the adventurous spirit willing to clamber all the way up there. (You will quite literally have your breath taken away after climbing to the top of the new dock. It's quite tall.)


View of Highsteppe from the top of the new airship dock

While the pathways through town have mostly remained the same, some unidentified person in city planning made the questionable decision to put a bank of new housing next to Mayor Kaia’s office, so all residents will now need to take the new tunnel off the bridge from the center tree in order to access the far side of town. This change has also created a dead-end alley behind Pierre Cenn’s Critter Capture shop, which no doubt will create a gathering place for the town’s riff-raff.


Pierre Cenn's renovated Critter Capture shop, with entrance to new tunnel on left

Trade with the Ottathamine and Parathine empires has been steadily increasing in recent months, and the payoffs of this prosperity can be seen all over town, from the new cobblestone walkways to the exquisite fountain under the Guardian tree to the peaks of the refurbished Fellowship Hall.

“It’s about time this city reflected the wealth of our empire,” Markos told this reporter. “Gone are the dark days!”

Not everyone believes the dark days are gone, however. The new stonework seen on buildings around town is echoed ten times in the newly strengthened stone walls of the city - which begs the question, if Patreayl has really returned from dark times, why are we strengthening our walls rather than venturing beyond them?

“Dunno what Markus is talking about,” said Rodolphous Dungbar, aged 36 of Highsteppe, who is always good for one off-color remark. “Last time I set foot outside the gates, a bush damn near took my head off.”

The countryside is no doubt still overrun with monsters and Scavs, though you can’t say that the wealth of monsters hasn’t translated itself into a wealth of another kind. All it takes is one look at Darius’s renovated shop to see that business is certainly booming for the Sphinxian bounty hunter. Inside you’ll find a menagerie of Patreayl’s finest monsters on display. Darius has even gone to the effort of organizing them by region of the country, so the city's intrepid explorers can see what fiends and foes await them in the lands beyond.


Interior of Darius's newly renovated shop

Speaking of the lands beyond, not all new construction has been relegated to inside the city's walls. The risk of monsters hasn't stopped Farmers Sam and Jonce from reestablishing their farmsteads in the Highsteppe Hills.

“After so many years of lying fallow, the soil in the hills is at its finest. I think we’ll see some of our best harvests this year,” said Sam, whose humble homestead can be found in the foothills of the path up to the plateau. “I’ve been working sun up til sundown since moving out here. Might have to advertise for a farmhand soon. Say, does the enquirer have a classifieds section?”

But whatever you do, don't take this reporter's word for it. Get out and explore your own town!

The Highsteppe Update Patch will release on Tuesday, August 31st. We will have more information about content in the rest of the patch in our next post.

Hi everyone,

It’s been awhile since we last put out an official roadmap, so here is a look at what is coming up in the world of Orbus between now and the end of the year.


The new Highsteppe will officially debut on Tuesday, August 31st! Along with a new look for the main hub town of Patreayl, we’ll also be introducing a couple new side questlines in this patch.




Early fall will also see the addition of new character styles! The update we have planned should have more than 40 new hairstyles, eyes, mouths and noses. There will be some new options for female characters in particular, as well as a few off-the-wall choices.




We will also be introducing a new Battlegrounds map in Q4 2021, which will replace the “arena” currently in-game. While the concept will remain the same (still “Capture the Outpost”), the new map should provide a more challenging and intriguing setup, with more capture points spread throughout both interior and exterior portions of a temple-like structure.


Everyone’s favorite seasonal festival (okay, maybe just our favorite seasonal festival) will also be back in early October. As always, the countryside will experience a terrain change, and we'll have a few new themed rewards to collect.



Other new content you can expect to see later this year:

• New Legendary Overworld Drops: We'll be adding a few new ones later this fall.
  
• World Boss: We'll be brining back a reimagined version of the fan favorite Esasa world boss from the original game. As with the other world bosses, defeat the Esasa Lord for a chance at a cape, world boss pet, and even a ring.
  
• Long-Term Missions: We’ll be adding some new long-term missions in a variety of activities (including some that haven't been covered yet, like dragon racing) to keep you grinding away.
  
• Winter Festival: And finally we will be ending the year as always with our winter festival!

Along with the above planned features, the Dev team is also dedicating time to fixing some class-specific bugs in order to improve the general playing experience of the community. Last week we successfully rolled out a patch with our first targeted class fix, which was for Ranger weak points. Next up we will be tackling the issue of Shaman orbs not respawning sporadically on top of the totems.

We appreciate the community helping with this process, as well as the continued support and patience you all have given us.

The OrbusVR Team

The latest patch is live, and with it a few updates.


Overworld boss Bjorn Stafrute (aka "Treesus") has now been temporarily added to the community event area Edge of Nowhere to facilitate larger community events in a less performance-intensive area.

Drops will still be the same, and don't worry: Bjorn can still be found in the overworld, too! We'll cycle Bjorn out for another world boss in future patches to keep the fun moving.

We encourage the community to organize some world boss events and let us know if hosting events in this new area significantly improves the large group experience!

As a reminder, you can access the Edge of Nowhere zone through a door in the Highsteppe Tavern (on the upper balcony, next to the Long-Term Mission Vendor).


With this patch we are also introducing a first pass on a new blocking feature. This is an additional option you may choose to employ from the proximity menu if muting is not sufficient. Blocking another player will turn them in a ghost orb, as well as mute and prevent spell effects from being seen.



Blocking does not currently prevent invite popup boxes, but we are looking to add this feature in the future.


It's been over two years since the release of OrbusVR: Reborn and we felt it was time for a new look to represent the game. Check it out!

The Summer Festival is now live! It’s the return of the fishing season in Patreayl, and the fishermen’s guild need your help bringing in their haul – as well as corralling one of their best fishermen into focusing on his work and stop chasing legendary fish.

Visit the Festival NPC outside the gates of Highsteppe to pick up the first quest in the line and start your way toward earning a few rewards. This year's lineup includes all-new summer-themed rewards. In addition to the customary festival cape – whose colors we're really digging! – there is also a Surfer Mount and a Fishy Plaque that you can hang on the wall of your Player House to celebrate your accomplishments. (If you need a reminder on how to use Player House furniture and decor, check out our tutorial video for step-by-step instructions.)







So get out your pole, whip up some fish scent attractor potions, and brush up on your lure making skills.

The Hard Mode Citadel Raid is now officially live. During the two-week beta period we made some changes to mechanics, as well as scaling, based upon community feedback. We are excited for players to go through the full raid, as it will be the most challenging content we have in game so far.

The bosses will drop +6 gear and weapons, with a chance at a +7 legendary. You can also earn an Enraged Sephotep pet, mount, and cape, as well as achievements and a title.




As with the normal mode raid you will receive a token for that specific gear every time you kill the boss if you do not receive an armor/weapon drop. These will be Citadel Hard Mode tokens that you can redeem at the Hard Mode Vendor inside of Highsteppe.

This patch also includes the second round of balancing for the tank/healer/support classes, with the changes we have made based upon player feedback.

Thank you to everyone in the community that offered feedback on Hard Mode Raid and class mechanics! We appreciate the input, as well as the patience in this longer-than-usual beta period.