Warriors, the glorious day is upon us: Rend is leaving Early Access! We launched Rend into the Steam Early Access program on July 31, 2018 as a fully developed survival game that offered room for growth and our goal from the start was to continuously grow and improve the game by working directly with players to gather feedback every step of the way.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/547860/Rend/

Rend has seen significant updates and improvements during the eight months of its Early Access – all addressing top player requests, interests and concerns – including 50+ game patches and nine major content updates that introduced new game modes, artifact weapons, biomes, creatures, player abilities, siege weapons, and more. And today with the release of its final content update, we are proud to announce that Rend has officially launched!


With Patch 9 incorporated into the game, the final release of Rend is ready to go live! Available now on the official Rend servers, this major content update introduces more than 250 gameplay improvements and bug fixes as well as redesigned Control Points and the key feature of the patch: an all-new interactive world map. Eagerly requested by players since Rend’s earliest test phases, the map is an important quality-of-life improvement for new and existing players in that it allows a faction’s fresh recruits to get up to speed on their team’s geography much faster. The map also replaces the popup menu when selecting a respawn or teleport destination. Check out the latest changes on the official servers!

Want more on Rend’s latest update? Check out the full patch notes and world map feature!


Rend began with the goal of improving the survival genre to reach a broader audience, incorporating community feedback along the way to help guide its development. We’ve sought to deliver a survival game experience that both players and our own team would want to play: moving the genre forward by solving its associated pain points. Attempting to disrupt a genre is no small task and Rend has fundamentally benefited from having players involved from its very beginning. The team consulted with key influencers, guild leaders, and content creators; staff from all departments engaged with players on our forums, Discord, and Reddit daily. Focus on player insight has been our North Star since the start and we set out to continuously grow and improve Rend by working with you, the players, to gather and incorporate constructive feedback every step of the way through the development process.

Revisit our completed development roadmaps from Alpha and Early Access!

Following a gauntlet of community Pre-Alpha and Alpha test events, our aim was to use the Early Access program the way Valve intended, establishing from the very beginning that we would remove the Early Access tag and launch Rend within one year. Continuing the best practices gleaned during private testing, many gameplay and balance changes were the direct result of community feedback. Over the course of Early Access, Rend released nine major content updates and more than 50 minor or interim game patches since Pre-Alpha. Powerful artifacts, overhauled crafting systems, new game modes, and the Reckoning were just a few of the more than 2500 individual game improvements introduced to address player suggestions, concerns, and requests. None of this would have been possible without our community: we are beyond grateful for the feedback and support Rend has received from players, press, content creators, and industry partners worldwide.


As an independent studio with 18 developers, we were thrilled that during its first week of Early Access Rend held a top 5 rank on Twitch. More than 800 channels streamed their faction wars to the world through our Rend Partner Program. This marks a significant feat for our small team and serve as a symbol of the survival community’s interest in a game that changes the status quo of the genre.

We have received and heeded amazing, crucial feedback from the community during Rend’s time in Early Access, making substantial and frequent updates to the game to improve the overall gameplay experience and ideally we would continue producing content updates for Rend into the future. Ultimately, being an independent developer with finite resources, we must weigh the resource cost of continued development against its commercial potential. Although we will continue to support the final version of Rend down the road, we do not currently have plans for adding new or future content to the game. However, if a steady influx of players are buying and playing Rend, we will re-evaluate opportunities for adding new content or future updates.

It is our ardent hope that we can continue building upon Rend down the road. Until that time, today’s release of Patch 9 is Rend’s last planned content update. As outlined earlier in this letter, this launch patch introduces an improved Control Point system, adds an interactive world map feature to the game, and fixes dozens of quality-of-life affecting bugs reported by our dedicated player community. It also marks Rend’s exit from Early Access, meeting our goal of a full launch within a year of releasing on Steam.

In preparation for launch, we have also consolidated the official servers so that each region will have one Faction War, one Classic, and one Exploration server. We’ll continue to monitor the game’s forums, Discord, and other channels for reports of any critical game bugs or service issues. Additionally, we will be releasing a localization update in the near future that adds Russian, French, and Spanish language options to Rend. We’d like to extend a special thanks to the many polyglot players who contributed their time and skill to make this possible!


Rend’s journey to today’s final launch would not have been possible without the enthusiasm and support of the gaming community. As we’ve highlighted through each development phase of Rend, it is because of our players and the community that we’re able to do what we love: make games. We extend a huge thank you to our players and Rend Partner content creators for sharing their Rend’s experiences with their communities. We’d also like to thank gaming press and industry partners like NVIDIA, Alienware, Discord, Epic, Intel, Twitch, among many others who supported our vision and helped us bring Rend to audiences worldwide.

With Rend launched, you’re probably wondering what all this means for us at Frostkeep Studios. Exciting developments are in progress here and we’re onboarding new team members in preparation for them. While we aren’t at a point where we’re ready to share specific details, we continue to focus on our full potential as an indie studio to deliver new and unique experiences that evolve and push the traditional boundaries of gaming and entertainment. You’ll be hearing more from our team in the future so be sure to follow us on the Frostkeep and Rend channels for ongoing updates and news.

Until then, see you on the battlefield and may your faction earn its rightful place in Valhalla!

https://www.rendgame.com/news/article/rend-developer-letter-spring-2019

Patch 9 introduces an interactive world map, a major update to Control Points, and dozens of important bug fixes to issues reported by you, our dedicated player community. This patch will deploy at 2:00 PM PDT (GMT-7) on Friday, March 29.

Interactive World Map

• The initial design for Rend was to place iconic landmarks and clear pathways for a faction to use as common points of reference in relation to the central Yggdrasil tree which often defaulted as a generic “north” for each of the three map triads. Although this tribal knowledge approach was functional, it ended up not being practical as it put the onus squarely on player communication. This also made it difficult for new players to get up to speed within a reasonable window of time. To improve overall player quality-of-life, we determined that adding a more traditional navigational tool in the form of an interactive map was necessary.
  
  • Can be pulled up via the Map tab along the top of the in-game menu (it can also have a hotkey assigned to it for quick access).
    
  • Can be zoomed in/out and click-dragged to focus on a specific region.
    
  • Markers on revealed map sections indicate a variety of landmarks such as your current position, Faction Strongholds, Control Points, and more.
    
  • Custom markers can be placed and shared with group members.
    
  • Respawn and teleport options now are house in the world map instead of the placeholder popup menu.

Redesigned Control Points

• Adjusted the loot table reward distribution for Control Point conquest rewards. These now have a weighted chance to drop higher tier artifact rewards (previously was a baseline table).
  
• A faction can no longer interact with a Control Point it owns while its shields are down.
  
• Reduced the cast time to capture a Control Point to 10 seconds.
  
• Control Point shields are now visually accurate from a distance.
  
• Control Points now give a one time burst of rewards when the shields restore.
  
• Control Points around the Roots of Yggdrasil now award more XP than Control Points in the Highlands.
  
• Control Points around the Roots of Yggdrasil are now level with the terrain.
  
• Control Point shields no longer restore automatically after a timer. Instead, they will now raise after a faction has held the point for 4 minutes.
  
• Control Points now reset to neutral when the shields drop.
  
• Reduced the time between Control Point activations by 30 minutes.
  
• Control Points no longer have a structure grid.
  
• Added ruins around the Control Points in the Highlands.
  
• Reduced the frequency of messaging for Control Points dropping and raising shields (less chat spam).
  
• Removed Control Points from Classic and Exploration modes.

General

• Assigned Favor costs to all Artifact tiers.
  
  • Tier 1: 0 - 2500
    
  • Tier 2: 2500 - 4000
    
  • Tier 3: 4000 - 6000
    
  • Tier 4: 6000 - 10000
    
  • Tier 5: 10000 - 20000
• Player corpses no longer block combat.
  
• Rend now supports AlienFX: stats or events can be assigned lighting on devices.
  
• Staggered debuff no longer inflicts damage when it ends.
  
• "Remove All" effects now properly remove all of the specified debuffs.
  
• Hooked "Skill Experience" bonus up. All skills, items, and perks that provide bonus skill XP will now work properly.
  
• Holding the sprint key while strafing no longer consumes Energy.
  
• Female characters now play a stunned animation.
  
• Adjusted Bow falloff curve.
  
• Added a /sing emote animation.
  
• Added red tracers to weapons fire in Classic and Exploration mode.

Private Servers

• Added ReadMe file to the Platform folder for private server administrators.
  
• Added AddFavor cheat to modify a player’s faction use score: "AddFavor <number>" or "AddFactionUseScore <number>".
  
• Added a new variable to server settings: LegendaryDropChance with a value range of 0.1 to 10.0.
  
• Added SetSeason cheat for Roots of Yggdrasil biome.

Talents and Perks

• Warmth of the Ancients (Woodcraft) now increases your Cold damage mitigation by 20% and your Cold Insulation by 20.
  
• Spirit of the Woods (Woodcraft) now increases your Spirit damage mitigation by 30% and Spirit damage you deal by 5%.
  
• Ascension Perk Bonded Backpack now grants a soulbound backpack with +80 Max Weight Capacity (up from 75).
  
• Added clarification to the tooltip of Cruel Apothecary.
  
• Cruel Apothecary now reliably adds poison effects.

Items

• Traps can now take siege damage.
  
• Turrets can no longer be picked up.
  
• Projectiles from Shard Blasters now resemble shards.
  
• Crystalline Edge no longer shatters when it detects it has only hit a structure.
  
• Othershrooms are no longer usable in the Spirit Realm unless they are how you entered.
  
• Sticky Sap, Hardened Resin, Caustic Resin, and Glowing Sap are now classified as item type Sap.
  
• Sap items now properly display their resource information.
  
• Removed the durability from Sindri's Guidance.
  
• Caltrops will now correctly despawn after trigger count has been hit (20).
  
• Players can no longer access a turret's inventory without the correct permissions:
  
  • Faction Base: Kin
    
  • Clan Base: Member
    
  • Personal Base: Clan Member
• Spirit Flowers now decay into nothing (instead of Mulch).
  
• Divinite Heavy Armor now has 400 durability and Warplate Heavy Armor now has 350 durability.
  
• Tarberry and Vitaroot can now be stored in the Warehouse but in limited quantities with a max storage of 250 of each.
  
• Players can no longer demolish faction base containers with items in them.
  
• Rimestriker now applies a 10 second duration protection buff after successfully triggering a stun. This protection buff prevents the application of Rimestriker's snare and stun effects.
  
• Throwing Mjolnir now breaks stealth.
  
• Poisons are now classified as Item Type Poison.
  
• Divinite Bars now stack to 250 (up from 50).
  
• Enchanted Divinite Torch now loses durability at a rate of 0.5 per second.
  
• Skyfall Coldfire Torch now has Heat Resistance instead of Heat/Freeze Rate adjustments.
  
• Possessed Repeater Turret and Possessed Blaster Turrets now target and shoot at enemy players as intended.
  
• Turrets should now properly honor demolish count.
  
• AI-based projectiles should properly appear in the Spirit Realm.
  
• Njord's Vessel will continue to fill itself up even when it reaches 0 water.
  
• Decaying Meat can now be consumed again.
  
• Added Forseti's Judgement and Disir's Edict to artifact loot tables.
  
• Removed collision from Campfires, Bonfires, Standing Torches, and several other cosmetic placeables.
  
• Adjusted artifact reward loot tables: higher tier rewards now become more common as you earn more artifacts (was previously based on character level). Control Point conquest rewards and found artifact chests are not factored into this chance.
  
• Adjusted Stone Conjurer health to match other Conjurers.
  
• Adjusted Fallen Archer Gauntlets stats:
  
  • Old: 108 Armor, 16 Health, +7% Light Resist, -9% Dark Resist, -75% Accuracy, -50 Max Carry Weight, +3 Affixes (T2 Affixes).
    
  • New: 108 Armor, 16 Health, 10% Dark Resist, +25% Attack Speed with Bows, -50 Max Carry Weight, +2.5 Affixes (T3 Affixes).
• Decreased the scale factor of Bracers of the Half-Jotun to 150% (down from 230%).
  
• Increased the scale factor of Durnir's Stubborn Epaulets to 66% (up from 50%).
  
• Increased Adjusted Hungering Vestments resists to +15% Light Resist and -10% Dark Resist (up from +7% Light Resist and -9% Dark Resist) and removed its -0 Max Health stat.
  
• Renamed Soul Sniper to Disir's Edict and clarified its functionality tooltip.
  
• Renamed Divinity Shard to Clan Divinity Shard to more accurately reflect its function (and match its recipe name).
  
• Reduced the Knockback Resistance on Thickfur Boots to be tier appropriate.
  
• Reduced the durability loss rate of T4 blasters to be the same as earlier tiers.
  
  • T4 blasters had 1.0 durability per second where all other blasters had 0.1.
• Removed +0 health from Runescribed Riding Harness.
  
• Cleaned up collision on all Totems.
  
• Improved destruction behavior of many objects.

Crafting

• Added the level 50 Perk for Invention: Inventor’s Workshop.
  
  • Players that unlock skill level 50 in Invention can now craft the Inventor’s Workshop Table.
    
  • The Inventor’s Workshop Table is a replacement for all personal base tables allowing the player to craft everything the other personal crafting tables do but at one station.
• Armory Frames now cannot take damage.
  
• Old textures for the faction buildings no longer appear when they are demolished.
  
• Granite platforms now have collision and can be upgraded.
  
• Cragrock platform sides now appear even and flat.
  
• Platforms can now be built above the Totem of Alg.
  
• Increased crafting speed of Faction Base Forges to match T1 Personal Forges.
  
• Updated the recipe for Rickety Bear Trap to reflect its item name.
  
• Updated Divinite War Gloves recipe to now correctly require True Fiber.
  
• Updated Ammo recipes to now match the exact name of the item they craft.
  
• Corrected inconsistencies between Cooking, Storage, Basic Survival, and First Aid from Craft Skill Trees and Quick Craft Menus.
  
• Removed all recipes from Basic Survival Craft Skill Tree and moved them to their correct locations.
  
• Removed recipes for Locked Trusted Chests from the game.
  
• Removed references to “Builder Station” from Station Required error messages.
  
• Removed duplicate Personal Forge recipe.
  
• Removed Gutwrecker Stew recipe from the game.
  
• Cleaned up some Station Required error messages.
  
• Cleaned up the Construction → Cosmetic → Lighting crafting tree including adjustments to recipe costs and required unlocks.
  
• Renamed Wood Barrel to Crude Wood Barrel to match the recipe.
  
• Implemented new models for each tier of turret.
  
  • Tier 5 turrets now have new damage values.
    
  • Adjusted the crafting recipes of all turrets.
• Shadowcloth Pants recipe unlock now requires skilled in Coarsethread Pants (instead of Coarsethread Boots).
  
• The Warehouse can now be used to build structures within the faction base.

Research

• Removed the NYI tag from Lost Anatomy (Research).
  
• Lost Anatomy (Research) bonus physical damage as light damage increased to 15% (up from 10%).
  
• Fixed an issue causing Stamina of the Gods (Research) to not grant its intended bonuses.
  
• Remove Mortal Needs (Research) now causes players to recover 1 Energy and 1 Hydration every 10 seconds permanently.
  
• Added tooltips, descriptions, and flavor text to all research nodes that were missing them.
  
• Corrected discrepancies between Faction War and Classic/Exploration research names and descriptions.
  
• Removed references to deprecated refineries in the Refinery Improvement Research nodes.
  
• Research perks that contain unlockables that only apply to Faction War mode are no longer present in Classic and Exploration modes.
  
• Milestone researches in Factionless and Exploration modes no longer have extra data for Faction Building Upgrades.

Interface

• All of a player’s corpses will now appear on the map.
  
• Elixir of Luck and Uncanny Luck now display in the Elixir Craft Tree.
  
• Deposit amount box in Warehouse interface now disallows non-numeric characters.
  
• Catapult Parts are now classified as resources and won't go on the hotbar automatically.
  
• In the right-click context menu for items, the Station Repair option has been renamed to Repair to make it fit better inside the button.
  
• In the Repair tooltip, durability is no longer displayed with decimal precision.
  
• The clan name font now adjusts for very long names so it fits within the interface properly.
  
• Adjusted text wrap margins in the Memo in the social menu to be smaller to prevent large words from getting cut off.
  
• Campfires now spawn with the logs in the fuel inventory instead of the general inventory.
  
• The icon for Crude Stone Bolt now appears correctly in the ammo select menu.
  
• Added a "red bag" icon to indicate that gear will be dropped on teleport.
  
• Added new icons for Arbalests, Ammunition, and Spirit Traps.
  
• Added empty slot icons to the inventory paper doll.
  
• Added new icons for all empowered harvesting tools.
  
• Added new icon for Brokkr's Forge Hammer.
  
• Added different icons for Pumice, Sulfur Powder, and Black Powder.
  
• Added new rare creature icons.
  
• Added icons for Spore Pods.
  
• Added different icons for Bear Fat and Ichorpod.
  
• Added different icons for Reactive Pitch and Charcoal.
  
• Added different icons for Spirit Residue and Adhesive Paste.
  
• Adjusted Assassin, Pathfinder, Shaman, and Warlord icons for a unified look.
  
• Adjusted tooltip for Blood Soaked to specify that the player needs to drink from a water pool.
  
• Changed Roc Wings (Pathfinder) buff icon to match its new ability icon.
  
• Changed Adrenaline Rush (Assassin) buff icon to match its new ability icon.
  
• Cleaned up the Craft Station display names.
  
• Decreased duration of Growing Blaze effect from Longbow of the Phoenix artifact to 6 seconds (was infinite).
  
• Updated game interface icons.
  
• Hooked up the server selection and inventory sorting menu icons.
  
• Replaced identical poison potion icons with unique ones.
  
• Polished various existing icons.

Creatures and World

• Gjallarhorn
  
  • Reduced ability cooldown to 10 minutes (down from 60 minutes).
    
  • Increased ability effect duration to 60 seconds (up from 20 seconds).
    
  • Now applies the correct buffs/debuffs to both allies and enemies.
• All pet/mount stats affected by gear should now function properly.
  
• Seasons at the Roots of Yggdrasil will now cycle more reliably.
  
• Regular Yxen no longer appear in Frystfel.
  
• Shellback Rotne now have 3 common and 1 rare skin color variants.
  
• Small Banshees and Small Arachnix are no longer tameable.
  
• Horned Rockjaws are now tameable.
  
• Horned Rockjaws now spawn with 4 new color variants.
  
• Jotun now drop a treasure chest when slain.
  
• Harvesting Shrillstem no longer yields two nearly identical items. Instead, Shrillstem now has a 50% chance of inflicting poison on consumption.
  
• Armory crates no longer float.
  
• Renamed new player respawn point as Starting Hill.
  
• Significantly increased Jotun spawn time.
  
• Slightly increased the knockback on Grunter attacks.
  
• Reduced the Research Spark drop quantities from Tier 3 and above creatures.
  
• Reduced the mountable radius for Stags to 5 meters (down from 12 meters).
  
• Added collision to a root in Roots of Yggdrasil that was previously missing it.
  
• Adjusted resource node batching to improve spawn rates.
  
• Adjusted the position of the Forgeworks frame within the faction base, allowing an additional square of structure placement.
  
• Polished assorted creature rigs for smoother movement.
  
• Polished Banshee projectile effect to no longer visually persist after impact.
  
• Smoothed over terrain in areas that were causing players to get stuck.
  
• Corrected collision for assorted objects that players could fall through.
  
• Removed the Thornwood Barbs that could not be harvested in Myrkfen.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where bases with a large number of structure inserts (doors and bracers) caused them to not properly synchronize with the game client.
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur while returning to the main menu.
  
• Fixed a texture issue with Aesirok foundations.
  
• Fixed an issue that was causing personal crafting tables to take no siege damage.
  
• Fixed mount attachment points on Horned Rockjaw and Shellback Rotne.
  
• Fixed an issue that was causing items that don't exist in the Warehouse to block crafting recipes such as Tool Empowers.
  
• Fixed the name for Iron Arbalest to match its recipe.
  
• Fixed Survival Instincts (Bow) to now correctly trigger when you take a hit instead of only on critical hits.
  
• Fixed terrain gaps in Roots of Yggdrasil.
  
• Fixed name discrepancies between Resource Conjurer item names and recipe names.
  
• Fixed an issue that was causing small Arachnix and small Banshees to have ~99% reduced health in the Spirit Realm.
  
• Fixed the tooltip for Master of Poisons (Assassin).
  
• Fixed the tooltip for Widow's Web perk.
  
• Fixed a typo in the Find Weakness (Assassin) description.
  
• Fixed a typo in the Enemy Stronghold debuff description.
  
• Fixed tooltip for Conjure Mystical Bow (Shaman) to show duration.
  
• Fixed tooltip for Spiritual Light (Shaman) buff.
  
• Fixed the name for the Taming Crystal item.
  
• Fixed some inaccessible chest spawn points in Dreadveil.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause certain spells to fail when your character model became too large.
  
• Fixed tooltip for the Light Leather Wraps buffs.
  
• Fixed tooltip for Assassin's Resolve (Assassin).
  
• Fixed tooltip for Assassin's Flare (Assassin).
  
• Fixed missing icon for Worthless Dust.
  
• Fixed tooltip for Noxious Gas debuff.
  
• Fixed missing icon for Razorstone Shard.
  
• Fixed typos in the descriptions for Divine Vessel and Fur Armor research.
  
• Fixed broken flavor text of Crude Weapon Strap and Crude Riding Harness.
  
• Fixed issue related to pet unfavoriting.
  
• Fixed an issue where Control Point shield timers would never finish.
  
• Fixed error related to siege hammer damage.
  
• Fixed the timing of cast animation to prevent sticky bow strings.
  
• Fixed the formatting of Durnir's Stubborn Epaulets tooltip.
  
• Fixed typos in assorted research categories.
  
• Fixed model of Helm of the Ancient Vanir artifact to no longer show hair outside of the helmet.
  
• Fixed textures on Crystalline Edge artifact.
  
• Fixed a bug where the pet inventory interface was missing the weight bar.
  
• Fixed Stag sizes and prevented them from floating when mounted.
  
• Fixed a typo in the Outcast warning message.
  
• Fixed a typo in the Scent of Blood debuff.
  
• Fixed inconsistencies for when the nameplates on creatures appear.
  
• Fixed assorted causes for client crashes.
  
• Fixed a gap in the Spirit Stable roof that players could fall through.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented item repair without first interacting with the crafting station.
  
• Fixed textures of some male and female armors to remove visible gaps.
  
• Fixed an issue causing Research Unlock tooltips to fail to display sometimes.
  
• Fixed an issue causing Coarsethread Head and Boots to display twice in a crafting menu in Classic and Exploration modes.
  
• Fixed the Conclave level-up/skill-up VFX color so it matches Conclave green.
  
• Fixed water volumes in Skarsyre to now display correctly.
  
• Fixed missing textures in the Roots of Yggdrasil.
  
• Fixed jagged water textures in Myrkfen.
  
• Fixed yxengrass that was floating in the Highlands.
  
• Fixed the floating rocks, spiderwebs, and trees in Dreadveil.
  
• Fixed the water volumes in Dreadveil so they can be interacted with as intended.
  
• Fixed the lighting transitions in Dreadveil to no longer be so abrupt.
  
• Fixed floating trees in Stagswood.
  
• Fixed an untextured ditch in Stagswood.
  
• Fixed bushes that were floating in Stagswood.
  
• Fixed harsh lighting volumes in Frystfel caves.
  
• Fixed floating Blast Forge when placed.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused placeholder textures to appear when the Construction Building is destroyed.
  
• Fixed a bug where Njord's Vessel was not filling up in all cases.
  
• Fixed an issue with trap placement collision.
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause Mjolnir to fail to spawn after thrown, making it unusable until relogging.
  
• Fixed an issue that was preventing some research nodes, such as Divinite Vaults, from displaying in Classic and Exploration game modes.
  
• Fixed a crash related to pet favorites.
  
• Fixed a display issue related to research tooltips.
  
• Fixed certain research buffs that weren’t applying in Classic and Exploration modes.
  
• Fixed research buffs to correctly apply their buff stack count upon research completion.

This Early Access article highlights an upcoming feature that the Rend community has been asking for since the days of Alpha: an in-game world map. Player feedback has driven the interactive design of this feature, originally only available as a static image on external fansites. Read on for an overview of how the addition of this map is set to change how you play Rend when it arrives in our next major game update!


The initial design for Rend was to place iconic landmarks and clear pathways for a faction to use as common points of reference in relation to the central Yggdrasil tree which often defaulted as a generic “north” for each of the three map triads. Although this tribal knowledge approach was functional, it ended up not being practical as it put the onus squarely on player communication. This also made it difficult for new players to get up to speed within a reasonable window of time. To improve overall player quality-of-life, we determined that adding a more traditional navigational tool in the form of an interactive map was necessary.

A relatively common feature in any number of other games, the world map will be immediately familiar to almost everyone. The map is about the same size as the generic in-game menu and can be pulled up via the Map tab along the top of the in-game menu (it can also have a hotkey assigned to it for quick access). When summoned, it can be zoomed in and out and click-dragged to focus on a specific region. The world’s three faction triads have been divided into 71 sections making for 213 total map areas. Each section needs to be individually explored to reveal it on the map (meaning that navigating to the Conclave Highlands won’t expose the Order and Revenant Highlands).

Markers on revealed sections of the map indicate a variety of landmarks such as your current position, the position of your corpse(s), and any members of your current group as well as Faction Strongholds and Control Points. If the section has been explored, Control Point markers will also show ownership and timers that tick down to when they’re up for grabs again. Custom markers can also be placed by players and shared between group members, useful for indicating points of interest such as obelisks, resource nodes, or threats. The world map is also the new home of the respawn and teleport options instead of the placeholder popup menu.


As this feature has been one of the most common requests from the community, we want our players to have the opportunity to test it out before it hits the live servers. Join us on the Public Test Realm (PTR) server where an advance version of our next game update is currently live and available to play right now! This patch also contains dozens of important bug fixes and gameplay improvements: read all about them with our preliminary patch notes.

Be sure to share your feedback on this new feature with us on Discord and the forums!

https://www.rendgame.com/news/article/new-feature-interactive-world-map

Patch 9 introduces more than 250 gameplay improvements and bug fixes as well as redesigned Control Points and an all-new interactable world map. A overview of these new features and more can be found in the preliminary patch notes.

With internal testing complete, we’re inviting players to participate in an early public test of Patch 9 on the Public Test Realm (PTR) server before it goes live.

Here’s how to participate in the test:

1. Open Steam and click Library at the top.
2. Right-click on Rend in your Steam Library and click Properties.
3. Click the Betas tab, select “publictest” from the pulldown menu and click Close.
4. Steam should detect the Rend PTR patch and begin downloading it. Restart Steam if it does not.
5. Run the game (should show as “Rend [publictest]” in your Steam Library). Click the Find Server button, then the Filters button. Select Custom from the Game Modes and click Apply, then join the "Public Test" server that appears.
6. Please note that the PTR server is in Faction War mode and will be updated incrementally. Scheduled downtimes will be announced in the Server Status forum.

We’ll release the final patch notes for Patch 9 when this version of the game hits the live servers. We’re eager for your feedback on the many changes that Patch 9 brings so be sure to share your thoughts with us on the forums, Discord, Reddit, and Steam!

https://www.rendgame.com/news/article/patch-9-available-now-ptr

Patch 8 introduces a major update to Bow combat, rebalanced and amended Ammunition and other crafting recipes, and dozens of important bug fixes to issues reported by you, our dedicated Early Access community. This patch will deploy at 8:00 AM PST (GMT-8) on Tuesday, January 29.

Bow Combat Rework

• We’ve made a comprehensive update to how Bow combat works. As of this patch, you draw your Bow by clicking and holding the left mouse button and fire the arrow by releasing the button. This means you can take as much or as little time as you want to fire your arrow. Additionally, the damage, velocity, range, and accuracy are all scaled by how far you have drawn your Bow before firing. Zoom (ADS) is still controlled by right clicking but is no longer required to draw or fire a Bow.
  
• Bows have also been converted from hitscan to projectile weapons and have had their attack speed (draw speed), accuracy, range, projectile speed, and gravity adjusted to match. The damage values remain the same but relative damage-per-second has slightly increased to compensate for the weapon no longer being hitscan.
  
• We’ve added several feedback indicators to give you a good sense of Bow draw progress and when your Bow is fully drawn: the main visual change is a new Bow draw indicator as part of your crosshair while drawing a Bow. In addition, you’ll notice an arrow nock sound, a small visual effect near the head of the arrow, and a very minor camera shake have been introduced, all of which indicate when your Bow is fully drawn and ready to fire at full power.
  
• Now that projectile Bows have been introduced to Rend’s combat, we’ve made a bunch of projectile-related improvements:
  
  • Projectile weapons can now deal critical damage.
    
  • Projectile weapons are now affected by distance-based damage falloff.
    
  • Projectile weapons logic has been reworked to more reliably send the projectile to where the player is aiming.
• We hope you enjoy our new Bow combat and are eagerly awaiting your feedback!

General

• Players stuck behind enemy faction shields will gain a debuff causing them to rapidly perish. This debuff does not apply during Reckoning events.
  
• Increased the volume of the sound effect and the noise generated when you land from jumping.
  
• Player scaling now affects harvest distance.
  
• Cleaned up the position adjustment due to character scaling.

Items

• Arbalests can no longer use siege Ammunition.
  
• Removed Shademoss from the game.
  
• Removed Ichorpod from the game.
  
• Taming Crystals should no longer affect players.
  
  • In addition, Taming Crystals should no longer be consumed when attempting to apply them to an invalid target.
• Increased Chitin stacks to 200.
  
• Arrow Breaker Shoulders now grant the correct increase to Maximum Health (24 up from 0.24).
  
• Hearthfur Pants now grant the correct amount of Armor (284 up from 130).
  
• Changed Armory Upgrade Costs
  
  • After initial construction, the Armory requires a deposit of Weapons and Armor similar to the equipment it grants for free. This should prevent Armory rewards from trivializing crafting progression for many players.
• Significantly decreased Armory Bow power.
  
  • They are now approximately equal power to the first Hunting Bow in a given crafting tier instead of advanced Bows from that tier's progression.
• Individual plugs can no longer be destroyed on the Armory.
  
• Each Armory upgrade increases the Health and Armor of the building.
  
• Reduced Divinity Seed Armor to 200 to be more in line with Lesser/Greater Divinity Seed progression.
  
• Renamed Spiked Steel Barricade to Spiked Iron Barricade to better reflect its metallurgic source material.
  
• Clarified Crystalline Edge description text.
  
• Cleaned up Dain's Odd Boots tooltip description.
  
• Projectiles will now properly play fire sound and VFX.

Crafting

• Cleaned up the Ammunition crafting tree.
  
  • Fixed several Ammunition recipes to make them more consistent in reagent cost and item count returns.
• All Ammunition craft quantities are now consistent (15/30crit for Darts, 5/10crit for all other Ammunition types).
  
• Removed Shademoss from recipes.
  
• Removed Ichorpod from recipes.
  
• Recipes for Toxic Cloud Mine and Death Fog Mine now result in the correct appropriate item.
  
• Moved Clan Divinity Shard into the Divinity Seeds crafting tree.
  
• Moved Pioneer's Tent (Pathfinder) into the Divinity Seeds crafting tree. It will now only display for Pathfinders.
  
• Architect's Divinity Seed will now only display for players with the requisite perk.

Interface

• Creatures with no Pet Rating, such as the Lost, no longer display Pet Rating 0 on their nameplate.
  
• Added Favor value to the item tooltip while in the faction stronghold.
  
• Added Deposit All button to Warehouse interface.
  
• Added a sort button to the inventory which sorts all of your items by highest weight first.
  
• Corrected the position of the edit faction memo UI.
  
• Added the ability to drop an item from an unowned inventory if the player can take items from the inventory.
  
• Added /group chat channel for groups.

Art

• Brightened the Order symbol on female light skin mesh.
  
• Adjusted the flamethrower VFX locations on Smoldervine plants to prevent them from floating.
  
• Adjusted Armory crate sizes.
  
• Polished Blaster material appearance.
  
• Added new Building Frame art for Forge, Warehouse, Armory, and Spirit Stable.
  
• Reduced the intensity of the refracted light from the crystal on top of mines when viewed at certain angles.
  
• Updated visual effect for swapping Spirit Tools.
  
• Removed floating rocks from under the floating rock bridges.
  
• Updated the model and textures for Stags.
  
• Miscellaneous cleanup and polish of terrain.
  
• Corrected an area of bad navmesh in Stagswood.

Creatures

• Rebalanced Siege damage from creatures by level.
  
• Hitbox and ability timing improvements for Wargs, Arachnix, Hammerskulls, and Draaks.
  
• Frabbit pets should no longer run away while harvesting.
  
• Creature dodge abilities now share a cooldown.
  
• Adjusted creature dodge cooldowns to account for shared cooldowns.
  
• Creatures should no longer start to fly when they hit a rock or stump.

Optimizations

• Implemented optimizations for sending numerous server/client events.
  
  • You may notice brief aggregation delays of events like Loot Ticker, Experience Ticker, or Crafting Progress.
• Optimized network traffic when crafting recipes with very short craft times.
  
• Implemented an optimization related to resource spawning.

Bug Fixes

• Added some checks so that the game doesn't “freak out” when restarting.
  
• Fixed an issue causing Granite and Cragrock Frames to leave small gaps in between structure pieces.
  
• Fixed various floating resources around the world.
  
• Fixed some texture issues causing the appearance of holes in the terrain.
  
• Fixed a texture issue with the logs in the Stonefire Oven.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented properly saving the state of a named pet.
  
• Fixed collision for Dreadveil rock arches.
  
• Fixed an issue with lighting volumes causing abrupt lighting changes.
  
• Fixed a typo in Antidote flavor text.
  
• Fixed a typo in the Shaman Archetype description text.
  
• Fixed Gold Bar display name.
  
• Fixed an issue where depositing item into Armory storage didn’t affect Favor correctly.
  
• Fixed an issue with Mjolnir's Hammer return logic that should make the return path server-authoritative.
  
• Fixed the experience required to master Dark Hide Armor recipes.
  
• Fixed an issue that was causing some weapon and armor crafting recipes to gain incorrect amounts of experience in Classic and Exploration modes.
  
• Fixed an issue that was causing some weapon and armor crafting recipes to be uncraftable in Classic and Exploration modes.
  
• Fixed Tarberries to once again require a Tier 2 Scythe to harvest.
  
• Fixed mismatched recipe and item result naming in many recipes.
  
• Fixed several typos in item and recipe display names.
  
• Fixed swapped icons for Standard-Issue Hide Treads and Handwraps.
  
• Fixed an issue that was preventing players from seeing tracers for their own hitscan and projectile spells.
  
• Fixed an edge case that could allow some interaction through walls.
  
• Fixed an edge case that could cause dropped items to spawn in the air.
  
• Fixed Learned Survivor Ascension Perk scaling incorrectly.
  
• Fixed Weight of the World Ascension Perk scaling incorrectly.
  
• Fixed an issue with Divine Resistance causing damage conversion problems.
  
• Fixed Odin T3 Pants Red Mesh.
  
• Fixed Female Fiber Pants
  
• Fixed a bug where the character select screen widget stopped updating.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the client to be unaware of the type of a displayed inventory. This should fix several inventory UI related bugs.
  
• Fixed client crash related to nearby builders.
  
• Fixed various crashes.

This Early Access roadmap article explores the newly optimized realm of Rend with specifics about the macro and micro adjustments to the map. Our earliest players will recall that this is not Rend’s first map change, however, it is the most significant in terms of scope. Read on for insights from the developers into how the game’s map has changed as of Patch 7 and why!


One of the final steps of Rend’s Winter roadmap was to optimize the game world’s familiar triangle-shaped layout with the goal of creating more interesting terrains from a gameplay perspective; this means introducing terrains full of bottlenecks, choke points, and narrow corridors. While the map is still roughly the same shape and size, there is now less overall landmass available to players. Each biome has been pared down and now features more defined pathways between faction territories, a change intended to increase the map’s player collision (developer terminology for members of opposing factions encountering each other), generating friction between factions and leading to PvP combat.


Click the thumbnails for larger versions of these before and after maps.

When players enter Rend, they are now guided towards other teammates and opponents. Player feedback also indicated that the game needed better points of reference given that Rend doesn’t offer a minimap, instead requiring factions to convey location using shared landmarks. Towards that end, we created terrain-based points of interest to help with navigation and make the placement of creatures and resource nodes feel more natural. As such, biomes are now no longer nebulous and undefined and instead are immediately identifiable: the new gaping chasms are far more visually distinctive than the previous open fields and play into the thematic flavor of Rend being a shattered fragment of Midgard, floating in the ether. Combined with reshaped and well-defined map edges, these changes further cut down on total map real estate which is a positive side effect.

Learn how Rend’s combat has changed with the map in our Combat Reloaded roadmap article!


When you begin to explore the new Rend map, you’ll notice changes as soon as you spawn in for the first time. The starting area geography of Hearthholm now leads players in the direction of Yggdrasil and the faction stronghold instead of in the opposite direction towards the map edge. Myrkfen, Dreadveil, Scarsyre, and the Highlands have also been reduced in size with new cavities in the land creating more defined roads and narrower traversal spaces. These visually interesting pathways double as identifiable landmarks for players to use as reference points for where they are in the world.

With reduced available territory, the number of creatures that simultaneously cohabitate each biome has been decreased but each individual creature is now far more perceptive of players and presents a significant threat. Many of each biomes’ resources have also been moved and clumped together into a rich vein, drawing players deeper into each region and increasing the likelihood of mid-harvest PvP encounters rather than allowing players to skirt the perimeter for easy-to-reach nodes. Additionally, the number of Control Points in the game has been reduced from nine to six with the removal of the three “byway” points between each faction slice: the remaining points are now much more important to gameplay. The prime Control Points in the Roots of Yggdrasil biome can now be reached via a new passageway through Frystfel, helping streamline access to the center biome and introducing new methods of flanking and capturing its Control Points.

Catch up on all of the game changes introduced with Patch 7!


Eager to explore the latest changes to Rend’s map? Good news, each official Faction War server will migrate to the new map layout when its current saga ends (the most active servers are already using it). We’ll be introducing new Classic and Exploration servers that feature the new map over time but are most interested in your feedback on how it plays in conjunction with Faction War, particularly the new placement of resource nodes. We look forward to hearing your thoughts on what’s working and what could be further improved on Discord and the forums.

This feature article is the last of our Early Access roadmap series for Winter 2018. We'll be sharing details about what's coming next to Rend early this year!

https://www.rendgame.com/news/article/rend-roadmap-optimizing-world-map

This has been a year of milestones for Frostkeep Studios. We doubled in number of team members, progressed through our Alpha testing and content roadmap, were featured at a half-dozen major game industry events, reached the front page of Twitch with our partner program, and self-published Rend as an Early Access title on Steam just to name a few highlights. With 2018 coming to a close, let’s review some of the recent studio and game developments since our Fall Developer Letter.


What started with a trio of ambitious industry veterans has become the passion project of twenty full-time Frostkeepers. The Rend team continues to grow with new engineers, programmers, designers, and producers joining our ranks in recent months. Through their added talent, we shifted our game update cadence towards more content-rich releases that drove this season’s Early Access roadmap. And we’re just getting started: keep an eye on the Frostkeep careers page where we have over a dozen new positions in our Art, Design, Engineering, Marketing, and Production departments and will be adding more through the end of December.

Got Rend on your wishlist? Get it for 66% off during the Steam Winter Sale!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/547860


Over the course of the months since it was announced, the Winter Early Access roadmap has provided an overview of the gameplay content and quality-of-life improvements planned for Rend. Completed as of Patch 7, it now serves as a recap of how far along the Early Access game has come since late September.

• New Game Modes
  
  • Allows for open-ended gameplay with significant changes to core Rend systems including the game's pre-established factions and shielded strongholds.
• Combat Improvements
  
  • Tightens up the gunplay and enhances the aesthetics of combat, making both feel more impactful and bringing them in line with modern shooters.
• Crafting Reconstructed
  
  • Simplifies game aspects such as harvesting and refining as well as crafting tables and recipes with the intent of making Rend more accessible to a broader audience.
• Streamlined Storage
  
  • Overhauls how the game handles storage and team resources with the return of the redesigned Warehouse and repurposed Armory in the faction stronghold.
• Legendary Artifacts
  
  • Introduces epic items from Norse mythology including unique weapons and armor that can shift the balance of power within a saga.
• Dynamic Siege Combat
  
  • Makes raiding faction strongholds a more engaging experience by adding new siege weapons and tools such as catapults and personnel flingers.
• Refined Social Mechanics
  
  • Shifts decision-making power to the faction through permission requests and voting, introduces player grouping for cooperative PvE and PvP parties, and much more.

We’ve added another roadmap entry for a recently introduced feature: map layout optimization. Anticipate a detailed article on how the new map reshapes the world to funnel players into smaller areas and drive collision and combat.


Though the team is taking a much-deserved break to enjoy the holidays with our families, we’re looking forward to what’s in store for our first game. We plan to have Rend exit Early Access and be fully launched on Steam in 2019. Anticipate big updates on the game’s direction very early in the new year including a renewed focus on Faction War mode!

See you in 2019!

The Rend Team

https://www.rendgame.com/news/article/rend-developer-letter-winter-2018

Winter has officially begun with today's launch of the annual Steam Winter Sale - and Rend is participating!

Save big on Rend during the Steam Winter Sale: 66% off the normal Early Access price! We've also just introduced artifact weapons and armors as well as combat, crafting, and storage improvements making now the perfect time to gift Rend to the survival gamers in your life (or to finally buy it from your Steam wishlist).

https://store.steampowered.com/app/547860

New to Rend? Be sure to catch up on the latest game developments with our Early Access roadmap, community issues board, and full notes for Patch 7 and Patch 7.1.

Hurry, this sale ends on January 3 at 10:00 AM PST (UTC-8)!

Our fifth Early Access roadmap article delves into artifacts, one of Rend’s most unique features. Inspired by the mythical treasures of the gods from ancient Norse myths, these mighty items can shift the balance of power in a saga. Read on for an introduction to how artifacts change the core Rend experience, examples of artifacts weapons and equipment, and most importantly how to claim them for yourself in-game!


Survival is the essence of Rend where every fallen tree branch or shard of flint can mean the difference between suffering through a bitterly cold night or the rudimentary shelter of a campfire. In this unforgiving world where weapons and armors are crafted from what a player can find, encountering a magical gift sent from Valhalla is a literal game-changer.

Our goal with artifacts is to introduce new and exciting rewards for players to covet and seek out. With certain artifact abilities rivaling some of the skills and spells of the game’s archetypes, these powerful items are designed to change up the way that the Rend community thinks about playing the game. Many artifacts are also directly inspired by the epic poems of Norse, the very mythology that the fantasy world of Rend was built upon.

Learn about Rend’s new Warehouse and Armory in our Streamlined Storage roadmap article!


There are three ways to get your hands on artifacts in Rend.

• Boon of the Gods: These celestial chests are earned just by playing the game normally through PvE and PvP activities such as combat, gathering, crafting, research, and so on. They appear in the world marked with the target player’s name and can only be opened by that player.
  
• World Exploration: Artifacts can be found in the world of Rend by exploring its biomes and Spirit Realm. Glowing treasure caches, accessible by everyone, will often contain them. However, be ready to confront other treasure seekers!
  
• Brute Force: Beyond their enhanced power, artifacts function much like any other piece of equipment in that they are not soulbound and do drop on death. Brandishing an artifact will imbue a player with the strength of the gods but will also make them a tempting target for their foes.

Artifacts come in all shapes and sizes, ranging the gamut from armors, weapons, tools, and more. There are even special consumable artifacts that grant Ascension Points. We’ve also added a new item type called relics which can be equipped to passively apply special buffs. We're going to continue adding a variety of new artifacts in future game updates.

Catch up on all of the game changes introduced with Patch 7!

There are two rarity categories that these items fall into: artifacts and mythic artifacts. Artifacts have orange icon borders and provide bonuses that exceed the norm for items of their level (or often of any level!). Meanwhile, the rarer mythic artifacts have red icon borders and are inherently significant to the world of Rend, indicated by their godly powers.

• Sample Artifacts
  
  • Njord’s Vessel: This special waterskin constantly refills itself.
    
  • Dain's Odd Boots: These boots grant higher jump height at the cost of sprint speed.
    
  • Sindri's Burden: This armor grants immense bonus carrying capacity.
• Sample Mythic Artifacts
  
  • Mjolnir: Once the possession of Thor himself, this hammer has both a powerful melee attack and a devastating ranged attack.
    
  • Tyr's Hand: This petrified hand is all that remains of Tyr, empowering your unarmed attacks to deal massive damage.
    
  • Crystalline Edge: A fragile weapon of the gods that can slay in a single hit but shatters on use.

Artifacts may move between these two tiers as we iterate on them. We’re also exploring whether to make certain artifacts be unique per server, increasing their desirability and the prestige one gains in wielding them.


Patch 7 now live and the first batch of artifacts can be found in Rend. Read the full (long!) patch notes for this update to learn about the many changes from our Early Access roadmap that have been introduced.

Best of luck in your artifact hunt and be sure to share screenshots of the treasures you find!

https://www.rendgame.com/news/article/rend-roadmap-introducing-artifacts

This interim patch fixes a number of minor yet important issues reported by the Rend community in Discord and on the official and Steam forums. It also changes how the Warehouse reflects its material capacity and Favor payout behavior. Thanks to our diligent players for their constructive feedback and bug reporting!

General

• The Warehouse now displays the item count in white while you can gain Favor for depositing that item. The count changes to yellow when this value is exceeded and further deposits won’t be rewarded Favor (this Favor or soft cap is approximately 66% of maximum capacity).
  
  • In addition, the Favor value for an item in the Warehouse is hidden when depositing it will not give you any Favor (due to that item being past its Favor cap).

Balance

• Looting a spawned Boon of the Gods chest should no longer cost Favor.
  
• Reduced the number of loot payouts from Gnarlwood Trees.
  
• Reduced the drop quantities of Caustic Resin from Thornwood Trees.
  
• Slightly reduced the number of loot payouts from large Thornwood Trees.
  
• Slightly reduced the weight of Runeoak, Geistwood, and Ironfir Logs.
  
• Slightly reduced the weight of Tin, Copper, Flux, and Iron Ores.
  
• Divine Reinforcements now correctly cost 20 sparks per research.

Artifacts

• Hel-Touched Longbow, Hel's Last Gasp, and Trickster's Gambit have been temporarily removed from the loot tables.

Crafting and Research

• Ironfir Bows, Spirit Hammers, and many other recipes can again be crafted.
  
• Removed unnecessary durability value from bombs. Bombs crafted before Patch 7 should work once again.
  
• Removed Dross Metal Bar from all remaining recipes that still had it as an ingredient.
  
• Switched default demolish permission state from YES to NO. This results in requiring the use of the demolish vote system in order to destroy faction base pieces regardless of rank.

World

• Boon of the Gods should no longer spawn when you're in the faction stronghold.

Creatures and Pets

• Glutts
  
  • Glutt AI no longer has a dead zone where you can stand causing it to do nothing.
    
  • Changed the melee attack for Glutts to a belly flop.
    
  • Glutt now has a backwards dodge if you get too close.
    
  • Rare spawn Glutts now have a body slam attack.
    
  • Minor tweaks to the speed and spacing of projectiles from the Glutt's spew.
• Festerwigs now have a basic ranged attack.

Interface

• Added slash command to kick a player from group: /kick PLAYERNAME or /groupkick PLAYERNAME. You can still use the social tab context menu to kick players from your group. This only works for the leader of the group.
  
• The demolish vote header no longer reads "Outcast Vote".
  
• Disabled notifications of attempts to use excess Favor.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a crash related to clan promote.
  
• Fixed the demolish vote data so that it is properly saved and loaded.
  
• Fixed an issue that was preventing Twilight Reaper (Shaman) from applying at night.
  
• Fixed an issue with the Warmarch artifact causing Stamina cost to behave erratically when the buff was removed.
  
• Fixed the talent mastery border frame.
  
• Fixed a Warehouse display issue that was displaying the incorrect maximum stored values of each resource (they were all 5000).
  
• Fixed an issue that allowed players to go into negative Favor values while removing items from storage containers.
  
• Fixed an issue that was allowing players to gain Favor for deposited items even past the Favor cap.
  
• Fixed Classic/Exploration population display on server screen.
  
• Fixed Faction icon not showing up for Faction War mode on character select screen.
  
• Fixed skin choice not being reflected in character select screen.