• We have initially completed gamepad support. You can now use a gamepad to play Dark Hunting Ground!
  
• You can modify the gamepad operation key settings in the Settings.
  
• If you have any problems while playing with a gamepad, please contact us. Thank you very much!

• Adjusted the speed of slow-movement. Now, when the speed is greater than 10, holding down the slow-movement key will reduce the speed to 10. If the speed is less than 10, it will not change. (Previously 5)
  
• The interval between projectiles fired in sequence will now decrease based on the number of projectiles to be fired
  
• Fixed the issue where the number of crystals exchanged for the All Exchange option in Crystal Exchange was incorrect
  
• Fixed the issue where the buff effect provided by some buff skills was not enhanced when equipped with the Slate - Infusion

Greetings, Captains! As Year 2 Season 1 draws to a close, we're keeping with tradition by taking a moment to reflect on the season's highlights, and to give you a glimpse of what's coming with Year 2 Season 2.

We continue to be incredibly grateful to you, our community for the unwavering support that you demonstrate for the game.

Whether you're sharing feedback across our platforms or submitting a bug report, we truly appreciate all the ways you engage with us and the community. Your input is invaluable and plays a key role in helping us craft a game we can all be proud of. As we head into the next season, we hope you'll continue to share your feedback, in-game moments, and bug reports.

We kicked off Skull and Bones' Year 2 back in April with our showcase, giving you a glimpse into our plans for the future of the game, followed by the release of our Year 2, Season 1 update.

Our primary goal with the beginning of Year 2 was to mark a turning point for the game - and re-affirm our commitment to bring new, exciting content and features to the game while refining and improving our core game experience based on your feedback.

The many positive reactions from so many of you to both the showcase, and the new update were both encouraging and motivating for the entire team. While there is still a lot of work ahead of us, we strongly believe our decision to focus on quality first is the right strategy moving forward.

With the conclusion of Year 1, we made the commitment to move away from the Seasonal Helm reset as a direct answer to your feedback.

To do so, the launch of our Year 2 Season 1 update brought some major and important changes to the Helm Empire.
With these changes, we've successfully re-positioned the feature as an endgame, long-term activity for our most dedicated players to invest in and build a significant source of passive income. Your manufactories are now able to produce not just Pieces of Eight but also a variety of different resources, and help you build and expand your fleet.

Thanks to your feedback, we are now looking at further improvements, such as improving the return on investment in the early stages of building your empire, but also further expanding the feature with more unique functionalities and benefits.  Our long-term vision is to position the Helm Empire feature as more than a passive long-term investment, and a true reflection of your power and influence as Kingpin.

With the launch of Item Ascension, we've brought a whole new range of options for you to optimise your favourite loadout and playstyle on the high seas. The amount of discussion this feature alone generated is a clear confirmation of the excitement and enthusiasm many of you find in theory crafting.

Here as well, the team is actively working on refining and improving this popular feature based on the feedback we've gathered. One key aspect we're looking into is reducing the amount of randomness involved in reforging - and give players more agency to craft their perfect loadout.

More specifically, we're working on implementing an option to lock the effect of a modification, while allowing you to reforge only its values, as well as giving you more venues to obtain weapons blueprints even when they are not on active rotation.

While these improvements are still a work in progress and not quite ready to release with Season 2 just yet, we wanted to acknowledge the problem space and offer some insight into what's coming up in the future. Do let us know your thoughts, or any additional suggestions you'd like us to consider for future improvements to Item Ascension!

Following the introduction of Mythic Vikram in Year 1 Season 4, we've continued to explore more ways to bring new levels of difficulty to the game for our most dedicated players. Our goal with introducing World Tiers is to create dedicated spaces for both new and veteran players, where we can tweak the various rules in our open world, and reward players according to their achievements.

As we move into future seasons, we've identified three key areas of focus that we believe will enhance the overall experience for both World Tier 1 and 2:

With the continuous addition of new content to our open world since the launch of the game, things can sometimes feel a little over-crowded. While random encounters bring a certain element of surprise and excitement, overlapping events also bring unfortunate difficulty spikes that can be difficult to manage. As such, we have decided to implement short-term fixes to reduce the frequency of Dynamic World events, while we work on more robust improvements to solve the issue in the long-term.

Following up on our commitment to take a pro-active approach to balancing our game's content and difficulty, our next focus is set on solving on-going issues that you have been raising to our attention.

More specifically, we are actively looking at the amount of health ("bullet-sponge") or ability to deal sudden and significantly high damage ("one-shot") given to specific AI encounters, with the goal of introducing better ways for players to engage, manage and survive such encounters.

We're also continuously relying on your feedback to identify possible improvements to the many different ships and loadouts and give you all more options to tackle the various content we have in the game.

With World Tier 2, we wanted to make sure tougher challenges came with more appropriate rewards. We started with the base world, including ships sinking, plunders, and world events. Moving forward, we'll keep refining rewards in both World Tiers, expanding to other activities such as quests, contracts, and Helm Takeover Opportunities.

All of these changes had a significant impact on how you engage with the game's content, and our end-game activities more specifically, and we want to provide you with even more enjoyable experiences in the future.  

Throughout Season 1, Megafort Oosten remained the most efficient activity to earn Pieces of Eight as well as other sought-after materials and items. With Season 2, we're increasing the Pieces of Eight you can obtain from other activities to improve their risk vs reward ratio and increase the variety of activities you can choose to engage with.

At the start of Year 2 Season 1, we made several UI changes — updating the look and adding new features. Along with a major visual overhaul of the menus, especially the HUD and map, we also added a new mini-map — an update many in the community had been asking for since launch.

The introduction of Loot Beams in Season 1, re-adjusted in Season 2 based on Community feedback.

Going into Season 2 and beyond, we’re continuing to improve our game’s user interface, and adding visual quality-of-life improvements in the game. We’re excited to introduce the outpost maps in Season 2. When docked at an outpost, opening the map will now display a new, dedicated map for that location — helping you better understand the various walkable paths within each outpost.

Also in Season 2, you can look forward to more polished and streamlined tooltips, making it easier to find the information you need, when you need it.

Our commitment to neater and more consistent UI across seasons reflect our desire to bring our visual standards to a greater level of quality – and of course, the work does not stop here. We’ll be constantly looking to improve the look and feel of game menus and UI season upon season, blending artistry with immersion in the game. We’ll be revisiting some of the older menus and UI to bring them visually closer to our newer, well-polished elements.

Our mid-season update brought the long-requested dedicated PvP mode - Death Tides.
Its development was kickstarted by a smaller dedicated team as a direct response to players requesting for a balanced team-based PvP experience for the game at launch.

We launched Death Tides in BETA as a first step, with our aim to continuing iterating and improving the mode for the long term, working with you our community and the feedback we receive.

More specifically, we are currently looking at improving rewards as well as presets - bringing in new, more competitive presets, and potentially implementing a preset only game mode in the future.

Thanks to your feedback and the beta release of Death Tides, existing balancing issues that were already present in the game but arguably less impactful on your overall PvE experience became more apparent. As a result, we made the commitment as a development team to place a stronger focus on re-balancing all aspects of Skull and Bones.

The first step was a significant series of changes made to the various ships and equipment that were progressively added to the game throughout Year 1. While we believe these changes were necessary for the game, we're aware they had a significant impact in the way many of you engaged with our PvE content.

As such, our next steps are very much focused on improving - and not reducing - the effectiveness of underperforming ships and equipment for every encounter in the Indian Ocean. We will continue to carefully review and adjust edge cases, and to ensure all of our content can be tackled using the right approach and strategy, in both World Tiers.

We strongly believe balancing for both PvE and PvP to be an ongoing process, that will require continuous monitoring and adjustments over time. That being said, we want to reassure you, our community, that we have all the tools at our disposal allowing us to approach PvP and PvE balancing separately and fully intend to do so moving forward.

Please continue to share your constructive feedback with us on this topic---it greatly helps us identify the areas we should focus on next.

During our Year 2 Showcase, we gave you a high-level overview of our plans for new content coming with in Season 2 - Oaths of War.

Today, we're excited to finally share a little more information about the first (and long-awaited!) large ship coming to Skull and Bones, the Frigate. Large ships in general have been long requested by the community.

Designing the Frigate, we wanted to take into consideration all the feedback and suggestions we've received and ensure it meets your expectations. As such, the Frigate is a powerful and imposing vessel that's sure to leave an impression---although it is not exempt from weaknesses. As with any ship introduced to the game, we have made several tuning passes ahead of launch and will continue to monitor its performance closely after launch. For more details, keep an eye out for our upcoming devblog deep dive!

Throughout Year 2 Season 1, the most observant among you may have noticed the on-going construction of a new Megafort. Expected to be complete with the launch of Season 2, its ownership will have changed... bringing a new challenge to the Indian Ocean for you to tackle.

Without spoiling too much of the experience, we strongly recommend you bring not only your most powerful ship, but also other like-minded captains. Our matchmaking system will ensure you get more than a party of three to work together and seize victory. Keep an eye out for the dedicated devblog covering the Megafort.

With our mid-season update, comes a brand-new major feature: Faction War. Focused on the Compagnie and DMC conflict, you'll soon have to choose a side, and fight for it to reap the rewards.

This key feature introduction in Season 2 is only the first step, as we have plans to expand on it throughout the rest of our Year 2 roadmap, with updates and improvements shaped by your feedback.

We'll share more details on what you can expect as we get closer to the mid-season update!

Year 2 Season 2 will see a new series of contracts and stories, all of which are set around the growing conflict between the Compagnie and DMC. This season will see the return of a Community favourite character from Year 1. We’re sure that will be music to your ears.

Along with the new key features in Y2S2, long requested QoL updates are coming as well along with the update. Among which are:

• Wind & Sailing Improvements - these changes make sailing more responsive and skill-based, giving players more control. If you align your ship well with the wind, you'll go faster than ever. If you drop anchor smartly, you'll turn harder and faster.
  These improvements are aimed at introducing additional layers of challenge to navigation in general and provide a little reward for experienced captains who can steer their ship masterfully.

To be clear, we intend to keep the current sailing controls and mechanics largely intact while we introduce further gameplay depth to sailing - all of which would provide additional navigation bonuses; there will be no new penalties introduced for sailing against the wind.

Ship Loadout - a long-requested feature that's finally here.

Weapon Vanity – a new feature that lets you personalize your weapons with unique skins.

We'll have more to share on the new content coming with Year 2 Season 2 in the coming weeks on Discord, Reddit, Social Media, and our website.

Last but not least, we want to take a moment to highlight some of the members of the Skull and Bones community.

Today, we're shining a spotlight on none other than Heinz --- the creator behind Skull and Bones Tools, a fan-made resource that's helped many players. And if you haven't checked it out yet, make sure to visit the Skull and Bones Tools.

Once again, we want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your continued support, engagement and passion for our game. Whether you are sharing your stories, providing feedback through the Insider Program, or taking the time leaving suggestions on Discord and Reddit even when things aren't perfect - we truly appreciate it.

It's thanks to you, our community - we're able to keep improving and shaping the future of Skull and Bones. We'll see you all the high seas!

-Reworked some code related to touch slow down and made it very slightly heavier.

-Added a slowdown to jumps so it should prevent bunny hopping.

-Changed heading hitbox shape and size and disables body collision when heading the ball so hopefully it should be more consistent.

-Added it so when a player's body collides with the ball, it adds an impulse that moves the ball in the direction the player is moving. This should hopefully make controlling the ball with your body easier to do.

-Changed some code to slide tackles to hopefully make it more effective and extended slide tackle movement length. This should hopefully make slide tackle actually useful.

-Changed GK dives to not require GK catch mode to be activated. When in the box the slide/dive button will dive, outside it will slide tackle/bicycle kick.

-Lowered GK catch/perry speed threshold. This will make catching high speed shots as a GK happen less often.

-Increased free kick/corner kick shield size to give more space when taking free kicks or corners.

-Made request swap with other players functional.

-Made personal mutes of other players functional.

-Added overall ratings to the formation items, this way you can see a player's overall without switching to list view.

-Added offside line markers.

-Added AFK auto-kick timers.

-Changed mercy rule to be 4 goal difference instead of 5.

-Changed forfeit by players leaving/quitting ranked matches number from 3 players leaving/quitting to 2.

-Added spectator free camera. Also added zooming in and out to both free camera and broadcast cameras with the mouse scroll wheel.

-Fixed offside not resetting when a GK catches/perries the ball.

-Fixed free kicks sometimes placing the ball at the kickoff spot.

-Fixed camera height setting not working.

-Fixed red cards displaying incorrectly on player list items.

-Added player IDs being displayed in server join messages + player chat messages.

-Changed server timeout length which should help reduce disconnects from servers instantly when connection drops out for a moment.

-Added search bar for custom lobbies browser.

-Fixed fullscreen settings not saving.

• 新增战争功能，增加地方氏族

• 修复密报中某些描述错误的地方

• 处理第一回合导致角色怀孕的事件

Hey Everyone!

The Bonus Missions update is finally here! Thank you all for being so patient, we're excited to see people get a chance to play these new levels. We'll continue to keep an eye out for bug reports, please continue to share in the Steam Discussion Forums or in the Black Eyed Priest Discord Server.

TRAILER:

Patch Notes

• There are 6 Bonus Missions to Unlock, accessible from the main menu.

• You can unlock each bonus mission by finding a Golden Bullet in one of the chapters of the main game. Chapters with a Golden Bullet to find in them are marked with a Bullet Silhouette in the Chapters select screen.

We hope you enjoy the Bonus Missions and the challenges they pose. Good Luck!

If you haven't already, please leave a review for the game, it helps a ton!

- Henry and Jordan

Watch our live showcase of the released game - CHINESE FRONTIERS! Step into the epic world of ancient China!

Head to the beach for some fun in the sun. You can access the beach from the FOB.

New voice lines for both the Missing Twins case and the Purgatory case.

• Added New Swim Mask to the Beach Map – Now you can dive in with style

• Replaced All ‘Ominous’ Voices in Missing Twins and Cult of the Sacred Seraphim

• Locked Yokai Traps Until Binding Charm Is Acquired in Land of the Dead

• Beach Map Party Mode Activated

• Added Failsafe to ‘Sanzu Passage’ in Land of the Dead – Late arrivals no longer get left in the void

• New Intro Music for Missing Twins and Cult of the Sacred Seraphim

• New ‘Cookout’ Decorations added to the FOB – Fire up the grill, Hunters

• Renamed ‘Chupacabra Canyon’ to American Chupacabra – Now with more yeehaw

• New Encounter Music added to the Beach Map – Groove with the crabs

• New Radio Added to the Beach – Tune in, chill out

• Improved Beach Wardrobe Visibility – Better fits, brighter days

• Fixed Minor Lighting Issue in Land of the Dead case.

• Fixed Xenoraptor’s Acid in the Prologue – No more surprise insta-deaths.

• Fixed Xenoraptor Pathfinding in the Prologue – He’s a bit smarter now… just a bit.

• Fixed Animation Bug when rolling after firing – Only in multiplayer, of course.

• Fixed Issue Preventing Tablet Use on Quads – You can now multitask like a real hunter.

• Fixed an Issue Causing GOOB to Steal the Quads in the FOB

As always, thank you for the support. Stay cool, stay safe, and happy hunting!

Hello Erenshor community!

Erenshor launched almost 2.5 months ago, and from day 1 the community has been providing feedback and ideas for the game's future. I believe I've read just about every single message that has come my way and there have been some pretty consistent themes in there.

Some recurring themes:

• The game plays too fast

• The combat is unclear and hard to read

• The endgame gets too easy

• The middle game gets too hard

• We want an Archer / Bard / Summoner / Buff class etc.

• WHERE ARE RAIDS??

Using that info, and aligning it with my own vision for the game, I've come up with a development plan for the rest of 2025.

Increased Party Size: Erenshor players may notice that the game expects certain party roles to be fulfilled: DPS, Heals, Crowd Control, and Tanking. Limiting the party to 4 characters prevents players from expanding on one of these roles to fit their playstyle. You can't bring two healers without sacrificing something else. You can't stack DPS without losing CC or Heals. etc. Adding an extra party slot will allow players to customize their builds more, without punishing themselves.

It goes without saying that this will also require a full game rebalance.

Smoother Combat Flow: One player put it best to me: Combat in Erenshor just comes down to "Can you out-heal the NPC damage". This stems from:

• Mana is 'unlimited' right now with duelist mana restore spells. Mana pool doesn't matter. I plan to address this by removing the duelist mana restoration spell line completely. In-combat mana regeneration will be reduced greatly, and out of combat mana regeneration will be increased greatly. The size of your manapool will matter.

• Spell mana costs and SimPlayer spell usage will be tweaked to support this change. An able party should be able to complete encounters without running out of mana through careful mana management.

• Healing spells heal for too much right now. You can plan on the max level heal spell 'fully healing' just about any player in the game once you get it. Heal spells will shift to faster cast, lower amounts. You'll be able to decide to top up the tank right now, or wait until he's lower and hit him then.

• Damage is too spiky. Currently, NPCs hit for huge amounts of damage, and can "2-round" a tank in some cases. That's not fun, that's hoping RNG is kind to you. I want to stretch combat out - NPCs will hit for less, but they'll hit at a quicker pace. You'll be able to predict incoming damage and plan your stategy around that.

• NPCs will be getting cast bars so players can plan to interrupt spells. Damage spells longer casting time will help facilitate this.

• MOBs die too fast in many cases (not all cases). With the addition of a 5th party member, their HP pools will need an increase.

Itemization: Anyone who has played to endgame knows that getting blessed items and ascending them to "purple" is the be-all-end-all of class gearing. Purple items use a formula that adds value to every stat on an item. This ends up making a very select few items BIS for every class.

In this update, purple items will only enhance stats that already exist on items. So your DPS ring will be better at DPS. Your tanky armor will be better at being tanky. You'll be able to pick and choose which items you want to ascend based on your playstyle.

Zone Reworks: The dungeons of Erenshor will be expanded in many cases to allow for new named mobs, items, and exploration. Some earlier dungeons (Island Tomb, Krakengard) will need full rebuilds. They're crowded with a party of 4, and 5 will be worse. Expect some renovations.

During this combat rework this summer, patches will be far less frequent than they've been since launch. This is the first huge content patch Erenshor is receiving, and the game build will not be in a state where I can quickly patch and fix things for the duration of this work.

The Goal of these reworks is to set the stage for raids: I want to have Erenshor's first raid live by the end of this year. It's really important to me that I start developing raids from a good starting point of game balance.

I worked for a long time to make all my items purple and now they're being nerfed? TL;DR; Yes, many will be 'less good' than they are now. I understand players have put in a lot of hours to get their characters to build completion and the new purple items may no longer be your BIS. There will be dev commands in game to add Planar Stones and Sivakruxes to your inventory to ascend new items. If you feel that you don't want to do the grind again to get your characters to BIS, I will share those dev commands with you. It's a single player game, we can do things like that :)

🎆🎊 Earn Double XP and more Coins today by playing WWZ! 🎆🎊

Appreciate the fireworks and the Zeke explosions while getting 1.5X Blue Coins, 1.5X Yellow Coins, and Double XP. ⬆️

Make sure to stick around and enjoy the Event to the fullest until July 7 at 8am ET. 🎺🤩

🎇 Gather a team to play with on the official Discord server: https://discord.gg/wwz 🎇