The Wayfarer major update for Sunless Skies is now available! Here are the key features:

• A completely reworked Albion
  
• Many new story events for the gods of the sky
  
• Officer secondments
  
• New story content for spectacles
  
• Consequences for some attacks outside of battle
  
• Petrichor, the food of the Dead
  
• Balancing adjustments to Terror and Crew recruitment
  
• Many small fixes and improvements (see the patch notes for details)

We've fully reworked the game's second region, Albion. It's now significantly smaller than before, while still being a lot more open than the Reach. We've also worked to make the possible encounters more varied.

We hope these changes will make it more interesting and enjoyable to explore and traverse – please let us know your thoughts! We may do further work on encounter variety in Albion and other regions, especially if people feel it makes a difference.

Our artists have also been working hard on the look and atmosphere:




You can learn more about the Albion rework in our last Steam update.


In the Wayfarer update, the capricious gods of the sky will tease, torment, and occasionally reward skyfarers.

New story events will fire while you are traversing the heavens, granting opportunities to earn the gods' attention or their wrath. Once the gods have noticed you, further – more perilous – events may occur.



Manage your crew's superstitions. Deal with a frost-fingered visitor. Negotiate with the Whisperwinds. At all costs, do not call at the Empty House.


A number of your officers have found new ways to be helpful. If you can bear to part with them, establish them at a port and let them make themselves useful. Perhaps they will establish an exclusive salon, or a handy workshop!

You will have to do without their counsel in the meantime, of course, but officers on secondment may be able to furnish you with story items, advantages at port, or new Prospects and Bargains.



In this update the Inconvenient Aunt, Incautious Driver, Repentant Devil, Felined Eccentric, Captivating Princess, and Fatalistic Signalman all have secondment opportunities. Talk to them to learn more.


The heavens are replete with wonders and horrors. Originally, skyfarers could only marvel at them, and thrill or lament at their effects on your crew's Terror.

But now, a number of spectacles can be interacted with. Come! Approach! Disembark and explore some of the skies' most enigmatic mysteries. Visit the last vestiges of the Kingdom of Hours. Join the dead in their observances. Excavate the corpse of the Silent Saint.

Here is the full list:

• The War of Fossils
  
• The Grave of the Silent Saint
  
• The Rotting Celestial Behemoth
  
• Skyhenge
  
• The Avid Horizon
  
• The Horologion

Let us know what you think – if people like them, we may add more!


Sometimes, attacks will do more than just damage your hull. They may now trigger story events shortly after the battle. Perhaps you will suffer damage to your engines, or find an unexploded shell lodged in your plating!

Fortunately, you can repair critical damage at each region's central station. Usually, repairing your engine's hull will sort it out, but some damage may require more dedicated treatment.


Ports in the Blue Kingdom no longer sell Supplies. Instead, they sell Petrichor, the same spun-sugar delicacies on which the dead subsist. Living captains and their crew may consume petrichor with what we are assured are only trivial side-effects.


We've been listening to people talk about their experiences and watching streams, and we've come to the conclusion that the balancing for some of the survival mechanics is currently not creating the best experience for most players.

These mechanics both have very important roles to play in shaping the experience, and we feel it's important to get the balance right. For this update, we've made some adjustments: somewhat increasing the rate at which Terror goes up, slightly reducing the amount of Terror removed when returning to a hub or discovering new ports, and reducing the number of Crew available at hub ports.

We think these changes might be controversial, and we're not certain yet we've got the numbers quite right. We considered putting these particular changes on an opt-in branch so we could watch people play and gather feedback, but we were concerned that might result in misleading feedback since we might disproportionately hear from particularly skilled players.

So we decided it would be better to include it in the main Wayfarer update. It's possible we'll make further adjustments in smaller updates before the next major one. And it's likely we'll make further changes in future – for instance, to provide more potential solutions for captains struggling to maintain more than a skeleton crew, or to rebalance easily exploitable methods for managing Terror.

As always, we'd love to hear what you think, especially once you've spent a few hours with the update – please let us know on the forums.


We're still not done improving the game. We'll be ready to talk about the next major update in a few weeks, after we've had time to read and discuss your thoughts on Wayfarer.

To keep hearing about Sunless Skies development and updates, follow us here on Steam or on Twitter. You can also talk to other skyfarers on the Failbetter Games Discord.

Last month, we announced we were working on the first of several major updates to Sunless Skies, with a focus on providing more to see and do during voyages.

We're now ready to talk more about that release: it will be called the Wayfarer Update, and it will be available on 9th April. It will contain a major rework of Albion, as well as many narrative additions – see below for more details!

For this update, we've completely reworked the map of Albion, with three main aims:

1) Improving the general look and atmosphere of the region. A few screenshots...

Near the Mausoleum:



London:



The Avid Horizon:



2) Adding more terrain to make navigation and combat more interesting. Albion will still be much more open than the Reach, except in a small number of locations like the Ormswald. For comparison, here's a diagram of Traitor's Wood from when we were designing it:


And here's one of the new areas in Albion (the coloured patches and letters in these images are related to agent and discovery spawning):



3) Creating more variety in the creatures, locomotives and discoveries players can encounter on any given journey. Right now, many areas of the game can be quite predictable in terms of what you'll find there. We're hoping that introducing more variation will improve the experience when visiting areas you've already explored; if it does, we'll do more of this in the other regions, as well. Please let us know what you think once you've played the update!


We'll also be adding many more narrative encounters that can take place during voyages, including most (and hopefully all, but we can't promise that just yet) of the following:

• Many new ways to encounter the gods of the skies, draw their attention or their ire, and benefit or suffer from it.
  
• Suffering the attacks of certain foes may now have a variety of delayed consequences. In particular, caution when engaging Guests is now advised.
  
• It will now be possible to more closely investigate several of the greatest wonders and horrors of the skies when your travels bring you near them.
  
• Sometimes, you will be able to deploy your officers to pursue shore-side opportunities – these will be focused around Albion for now, but we'll add more if you enjoy them!

Finally, to stay up to date on what we're doing:

• Follow our publisher page on Steam
  
• Follow us on Twitter
  
• Join the Failbetter Games Discord

Hello, delicious skyfarers!

Today we have another patch with a range of narrative and tech improvements and fixes. Meanwhile, we're still hard at work on our first major post-launch update, which will be focused on adding more variety and depth to the experience while travelling between ports.

We'll be ready to talk about the update's specific features and story additions a bit later this month. To be notified as soon as that happens, follow us here on Steam or @failbettergames on Twitter.

• The Heart-Catchers will now assist a captain whose death has been prophecied only once. After all, one foretelling of doom is happenstance; two seems like attention-seeking.
  
• The Repentant Devil's quest will now be correctly marked as completed in the event that he remains aboard your engine.
  
• Captains who drop off the Repentant Devil somewhere in Sky Barnet will now be able to reunite with him at the same location.
  
• The Truth ambition no longer directs captains to _Low_ Barnet.
  
• The Price of Charity now removes rather Visions of the Heavens instead of giving them.
  
• Captains may no longer infinitely renew their acquaintance with the Blind Bruiser.
  
• The Dismal Chamberlain will no longer attend funerals when his personal circumstances preclude it.
  
• Your journal will no longer incite you to export Sapling-Knots or Verdant Encouragement from the Nature Reserve if they can no longer be procured there.
  
• Hybras may now always be put to new purpose even if your captain died after finding it abandoned. (If this affected your game, selecting any branch on the Hybras Deserted storylet will put things right.)
  
• Dying at a certain point in the Fatalistic Signalman's story will no longer prevent future captains from pursuing it.
  
• It is no longer possible to get something for nothing when experimenting with alchemy in the Shapeling Vats.
  
• Captains who stand for Parliament in Worlebury-juxta-Mare will no longer be thrown out of the port afterwards.
  
• The Deathless will no longer set impossible deadlines when asking you to smuggle Starshine.
  
• After completing the Amenable Host's quest, future captains will now still be able to interact with him at Magdalene's (unless he has in fact gone somewhere else).
  
• Captains will now have permanent backstage access to Magdalene's so long as one captain in their lineage has discovered the Amenable Host's identity.
  
• Getting caught with contraband at Albion will no longer result in instant transportation to a relay.
  
• Captains who pay the Chrysanthemum Price will no longer receive a sudden windfall of Visions of the Heavens.
  
• The Illusive Forged Companion's magic show will now leave an appropriate impression upon your crew.
  
• A chorus of devils for the Well of the Wolf may now be gathered only once per legacy activity.
  
• Only spider-sweepers may sweep the well.
  
• There should be fewer printing errors in the Song of the Sky.
  
• As usual, many typos have been corrected.

• Segments should now always spawn correctly when entered.
  
• Linux users will now see their own captain's avatar instead of the default one.
  
• Randomly generating an avatar will now correctly select a random brow.
  
• Must events will no longer delay other must events from firing.
  
• Branch previews will no longer include rogue quotation marks.
  
• Branch previews now display a single sentence rather than the entirety of the branch text.
  
• Selecting branches with difficulty challenges will no longer cause the result text to draw downwards before snapping to the top of the storylet interface.
  
• Speaking to officers or closing the storylet panel when outside of ports will no longer result in a The Sky area interface.
  
• Players will no longer see a blank Leadbeater and Stainrod storylet before branches load.
  
• The bank button is now greyed out at ports where it is unavailable.
  
• The bazaar is no longer available at most platforms.
  
• Bazaar item tooltips are now formatted correctly.
  
• Equipped items for which you no longer meet the requirements are now clearly marked on the hold panel.
  
• Blast damage is now displayed on mine and rocket tooltips.
  
• The armour tooltip now displays your base hull instead of your current hull.
  
• Tooltips will no longer run over the edge of the screen.
  
• Tooltips on the character progression screen now show correct quality values.
  
• It is no longer possible for equipment icons to become stuck on the screen.
  
• Locomotive names will no longer overlap on the hold interface when inheriting a Spatchcock.
  
• Hull and Crew will no longer overflow on the hold interface when the font size is set to large.
  
• Quest icons are now aligned correctly in the quality result text.
  
• The Something Dark chart icon in Eleutheria is now replaced with something more specific once the player draws close to them.
  
• Investigating Curator's Eggs, Bully's Acres and Wrecks may now sometimes reveal enemies.
  
• Discoveries that have been fully exploited will no longer be marked on the chart again if you voyage close to them.
  
• Homesteads now display the appropriate animation after interaction.
  
• Discoveries will now never spawn on top of each other.
  
• Agents will now never spawn underneath discoveries.
  
• Damage visuals are now removed from agents if their health recovers.
  
• Scouts no longer discover platforms in the Blue Kingdom when traversing the Reach. (Unfortunately, a consequence of this fix is that players who have actually visited platforms in the Blue Kingdom will now need to rediscover them; until then, they won't show up on the chart.)
  
• Discovery icons on the chart will now always be the correct size when zooming out.
  
• Scouts now have additional messages.
  
• Mining sky-rocks in Eleutheria will no longer result in messages implying that the player is in the Reach.
  
• The Blue Kingdom chart is now correctly aligned in relation to the player.
  
• Players will now see the loading screen when using transit relays, rather the region's skybox.
  
• When loading a save, the title screen artwork no longer fades back in before transitioning to the loading screen.

Hello! This week we have another patch with more than 50 fixes. Among other things, we've resolved various UI issues and controller annoyances, and also reduced the number of accidental spiders, which we're told is a good thing. The full change list is included below.

We're currently working on a major update that will be out in the next month or two, as we announced earlier in the week; and we'll also be releasing further patches with fixes and other improvements in the interim.

Failbetter

• The close button on the bazaar interface is now aligned correctly.
  
• The denominator is now visible in the bazaar and shop interfaces on 4k monitors.
  
• Direction tokens now display correctly in tooltips and quality results.
  
• The hinterlands of Lustrum hold many hazards, but invisible rocks near Salomé's Fall are no longer among them.
  
• The bazaar interface will now correctly display cargo capacity after the player fulfils a prospect.
  
• The tutorial hint for reaching maximum hold capacity now fires when it should.
  
• A level up indicator is once again displayed on the captain's portrait when they are ready to select a new facet.
  
• Closing the centre panel will no longer cause the game to freeze temporarily after loading a save.
  
• Having a stat above 100 no longer prevents captains from using locomotive equipment.
  
• Dodging will no longer cause the player to take damage when attempted at the exact moment the locomotive overheats.
  
• The engineyard interface now updates when cargo is jettisoned.
  
• Qualities you no longer possess are now not displayed on the possessions and profile panels, instead of being displayed with a level of zero.
  
• Scrolling now works properly on the chart interface when using a 4k monitor and at the outskirts of a region.
  
• The opening animation will no longer repeat if you die before character creation.
  
• The Horror icon has been removed from the Well of Wonders.
  
• Titania's special prospects now provide more suitable rewards.
  
• Area names no longer overflow the area list on centre panels.
  
• Movement instructions at the beginning of the game now mention cruise control.
  
• The escape key once again closes the options menu while on the title screen.

• Controller prompts no longer appear on interfaces when no gamepad is connected.
  
• There is now an appropriately located controller prompt for re-opening the centre panel while docked.
  
• Focus is now maintained on the tutorial interface.
  
• Tooltips are now displayed on the character progression interface.
  
• A feedback message is now given when attempting to equip officers and items while not docked.
  
• Trying to equip an item without meeting its stat requirements now results in appropriate feedback.
  
• Locomotive slot highlighting for equipped items is now clearer.
  
• It is now possible to cancel out of equipping an item.
  
• Interacting with interfaces after closing the chart will no longer sometimes cause your scout to set forth.
  
• Closing side panels will no longer remove focus from a centre panel.
  
• It is now possible to jettison items more than once while outside of ports.
  
• Pressing B within story branches to view branch requirements no longer closes the centre panel.

• The Clay Conductor's storyline may now always be completed, even if it requires him to be forthright about his feelings.
  
• The Heart-Catchers will now charge for their services.
  
• A Spider-Sweeper may now always sweep the well, as is proper.
  
• Skilled captains may no longer rinse the occupants of Langley Hall for their money via repeated games of cards.
  
• Captains will no longer accidentally stumble upon spiders at Langley Hall. Let it be known that Langley Hall is almost certainly not inhabited by spiders.
  
• The Unseen Queen will now reliably acknowledge your victory over a foe in a clocktower.
  
• Delivering the Sequencer's care package to Worlebury-juxta-Mare will no longer trigger an incongruous opportunity to deliver it to London.
  
• If you didn't share a moment with the Eccentric before completing her storyline, you may now do so.
  
• Sabotaging the activities of the Parsimonious Chairman will now conclude properly and result in a suitable reward.
  
• Temporarily backing out of a certain act when pursuing the Truth ambition will no longer make it impossible to complete.
  
• If Lord Rochester invites you to race to Titania, he will now actually turn up.
  
• The New Street Line story now provides more accurate directions as to the location of someone you need to meet.
  
• Captains who come down with a High Wilderness ailment will now always receive the one they should receive, and no other.
  
• It is no longer possible to impose statis on Hybras by dying at a certain point in the port's storyline. (If this has affected your game, performing any action at Hybras will resolve the problem.)
  
• Backing out of your own funeral will no longer forever bar you from receiving funerary rites.
  
• Rubbery Passengers will now only board your locomotive if you meet the requirements to convey them to their destination.
  
• A certain canine mascot will now wreak havoc a little less often, but also select the target of its affection with more determination.
  
• Defeating the final champion in a certain hidden ambition will now cause your journal to be updated correctly.
  
• Viewing the contents of a supply cache without actually taking any will no longer make you a debtor in the eyes of the Burrower Below and your crew.
  
• Returning to the Wreck of the Boatman will now never result in incongruous messages.
  
• The correct number of Experimental Modifications will now be deducted when acquiring a bathysphere.
  
• Successful mushroom foraging at Hybras will no longer give your captain food poisoning.
  
• Cricket matches are now a little less soothing.
  
• As usual, many typos have been laid to rest.

It’s been a couple of weeks now since we released Sunless Skies, and we’re really happy with how the launch has gone.

This is, by some way, the best critical reception one of our games has ever had. Sunless Skies has been called “Failbetter’s finest hour” by PC Gamer, “Terrifying and exhilarating” by PCGamesN, “Essential” by Eurogamer and “A triumph” by Gamespot. And at the time of writing we're at 87 on Metacritic, putting us right below a few little known games in their 2019 rankings called, umm, Slay the Spire, Apex Legends, and Resident Evil 2? Needless to say, we’re intensely grateful and delighted.

Thank you to everyone who played Sunless Skies during Early Access: it couldn’t have become what it is without you.

Sunless Skies is doing very well for us commercially, too. Far better than we needed it to do. We occasionally receive sympathetic enquiries about our financial health from the community; to be clear about that, we're in a very good position, and now we're really looking forward to spending several months further extending and improving Sunless Skies.


In the next couple of months, we’ll be releasing at least one major update, with a focus on filling out the game with more to see and do while travelling, including more narrative choice and consequence and, of course, unusual ways to die.

We're not ready to say more about the details just yet, but we think you'll like what we have planned. We’ll be working on more updates with other areas of focus after this as well, with plenty of new stories, gameplay features and other improvements.

And naturally, we'll continue patching the game to fix bugs and improve performance. We’ve already released three patches last week with more than 80 fixes and improvements; we’re working on another that should be ready in the next two or three days.

Thank you again, for everything. We couldn't have done any of this without your enthusiasm, your feedback, and your support.

The skies are yours,

Failbetter Games

Just in time for the weekend, we have another 40 or so fixes, including an optimisation that should greatly improve performance in the storylet interface.

We'll release at least one more patch next week, and we're expecting to say a little about our future plans then as well. In the meantime, thank you again for your enthusiasm, patience and support!

The Sky is Yours,

Failbetter Games

• Captains who run out of Fuel will now immediately notice and have an opportunity to take action, instead of remaining oblivious for several in-game days.
  
• Must events at Brabazon and Polmear and Plenty's will no longer commingle surreally with shop inventories.
  
• Terror cues are now attached to the SFX slider and can be muted.
  
• The Ambient SFX volume no longer resets when launching the game.
  
• Weapons will now fire while the cursor is over the heat bar.
  
• Rockets and the Wrath of Heaven will no longer fire when clicking on HUD elements.
  
• Gamepad controls are no longer present on screen when first loading a save file.
  
• The bank interface will now update when equipping hold items.
  
• The performance of the storylet panel has been greatly improved, particularly when a lot of text has been logged.
  
• Quality requirement tooltips now display on the prospects.
  
• Pending prospects for which you no longer meet the hand-in requirements now correctly display the image for the cargo they require.
  
• Scroll arrows are now present on the character progression screen on 4K monitors.
  
• Tooltips are no longer cut off on 4K monitors.
  
• The number of Sovereigns displayed on the hold panel will now update immediately when items are bought or sold.
  
• A captain who successfully escapes Eaters of the Dead will no longer be endlessly haunted by the sound of their jaws.
  
• Agents that have just become hostile will no longer linger after death.
  
• Port tooltips will no longer stop the locomotive from moving once the chart is closed.
  
• Centre and side panel tooltips will no longer trigger when viewing the chart.
  
• Locomotive movement will no longer become locked when opening the chart while in motion.
  
• You can no longer interact with officers while the chart is open.
  
• It is no longer possible to get stuck on the legacy screen when scrolling through the details of your inheritance.
  
• Transferring items to the bank when you only have a single item in the hold now functions as intended.
  
• Focus is now maintained on the Delete Save File confirmation window.
  
• Focus is maintained on the character progression screen after passing on a legacy.
  
• Focus is maintained on the hold after jettisoning items.
  
• It is now always possible to navigate between all facets during character progression.
  
• The option to sell Villainy Affiliation items to the Gentlemen will now appear correctly.
  
• The Gentlemen will no longer offer you prospects with impossible deadlines.
  
• The Tea for the Eagle's Empyrean prospect now grants a Moment of Inspiration, rather than setting Moments of Inspiration to one.
  
• Dying while in possession of a Ravelling Jack will no longer prevent your next captain from buying one. However, the Royal Horological Office will only return half the deposit when you return a Jack to them.
  
• When leaving the presence of the Pansekretis, if you were already in possession of your liver you will no longer have an additional liver inserted into you.
  
• Completing the Truth ambition now unlocks a new facet: a Terrible Secret to plague your legacy.
  
• The Corruption in the Court can now be completed: the Ombudsman will await captains at the Forge of Souls.
  
• It is no longer possible to become trapped in the Trials of the Dead, however narratively appropriate that might be.
  
• The Initiate of Carillon quest is now correctly tagged as complete when it is completed.
  
• Captains may now commission the Orator's statue at Titania.
  
• You may now return to the tour of Brabazon from the back streets – if you have enough time.
  
• Hunting for the Verdance is now more challenging, and may require searching some additional locations.
  
• Some minor inconsistencies in the Long Passage storyline have been resolved.
  
• The Repentant Devil no longer lies about his qualifications when seeking employment.

Hello! We have a small patch today with a dozen more fixes, mostly for controller issues. These were planned for Thursday's (edit: see below) patch. We were able to complete and test them today, though, and hope they will make the experience significantly better for controller users. So we're releasing them ahead of time.

Thanks again for your support – we'll be back with another patch later in the week!

Edit: unfortunately, the patch we hoped to put out today will be delayed due to sickness. We'll release it tomorrow instead.

- Failbetter

• Scrolling with the R-Stick now works correctly on all panels. For now, shops and engineyards still require use of the L-Stick; the view will scroll automatically to selected items.
  
• Bargains can now be selected when there are pending prospects.
  
• The Menu Focus hotkeys are now disabled if a UI element is already selected.
  
• Shops now display LB/RB tips.
  
• We've added XInput Support.
  
• Locomotive navigation is now disabled when side panel icons are selected.
  
• On the officer panel, equipping or unequipping an officer no longer causes the selection highlight to jump back to your First Officers.
  
• There is no longer a delay when switching from a centre panel to the status side panel.
  
• Jettisoning items will no longer trigger an exception that impairs the functionality of the X button.
  
• Large weapons can now be equipped to large weapon slots.
  
• Port tooltips on the chart now display correctly on screens with all aspect ratios,and not just 16:9.
  
• Changing the resolution no longer causes the port tooltip trigger on the chart to become misaligned.