Deep in the heart of the Flooded Rainforest, the veil between worlds is thinning. Is it the presence of the Weird Sisters, interdimensional travelers, that has led to the phenomenon? Or perhaps a greater force is at work in bridging the gap between worlds. Whatever the cause, a portal has opened, beckoning Patreayl’s strongest and bravest to step through. On the other side: K’tula’s Cove, sanctuary of the god of chaos himself.

Below the surface the cove looks tranquil, but the presence of Patreaylians for the first time in years has sent a ripple through the waters of this peaceful pocketworld, disturbing the rest of some of K’tula’s most trusted minions.



The new Chaos dungeon will feature five new monsters, as well as two new bosses: the Water Wyvern and King Kar'Nos, both of which feature a couple of new mechanics we hope you all enjoy discovering and mastering. (Read more about the new bosses.)

Complete the dungeon for a chance at two new pets, as well as new Laguz armor sets, which are inspired by the tentacled, underwater atmosphere of the cove. (Read more about the new armor and pets.)



The new Chaos Dungeon can be accessed via a portal in the Flooded Rainforest near the Weird Sister's hut. The dungeon will be part of the normal shard rotation and will start appearing on new shards dropped at all levels.

We hope you enjoy the new adventure!

The OrbusVR Team

In our next patch we’ll release the first Chaos Dungeon of 2022, K’tula’s Cove, which will feature all-new enemies in an eerie underwater zone.


Deep in the heart of the Flooded Rainforest, the veil between worlds is thinning. Is it the presence of the Weird Sisters, interdimensional travelers, that has led to the phenomenon? Or perhaps a greater force is at work in bridging the gap between worlds. Whatever the cause, a portal has opened, beckoning Patreayl’s strongest and bravest to step through. On the other side: K’tula’s Cove, sanctuary of the god of chaos himself.



K’tula is the god of the cosmic ocean, a great swirling nebula of stars from which all life was originally fashioned. He also controls the waters of the universe and as such is worshiped by the fishermen of both Taella-Oso and Taella-Bruha.

“Great Ktula, god of the cosmic ocean, we implore thee: channel the waters right, direct into our path a miraculous catch, and rot the bounty of our enemies.” - from the Scriptures of Ktula

Below the surface the cove looks tranquil, but the presence of Patreaylians for the first time in years has sent a ripple through the waters of this peaceful pocketworld, disturbing the rest of some of K’tula’s most trusted minions.


Gifs of the new bosses and some enemies can be found here.

The dungeon will feature two bosses. First up is the Water Wyvern. Escaped from the fighting arenas of the Rattigard realm, the Wyvern came to K'tula's Cove looking for peace – but it doesn't take much to stir the rage of this former fighter, whose wrath is plentiful.

Delve a little further into the cove and you'll stumble across the lair of the second boss, King Kar'Nos: a crabby crustacean with a penchant for destruction that's as sharp as his pinchers.

Each of the bosses feature a couple of new mechanics that we hope you all enjoy discovering!

In addition to the two new bosses, the Chaos Dungeon will also feature five new lower-level enemies.
And while you're at it, watch out for the environment itself! It will certainly be watching you...

K'tula's Cove Chaos Dungeon will launch late May 2022. We'll have more details on new armor and pets closer to the launch date!

Hi everyone, today’s update is absolutely massive for newer players and should still include a lot of noticeable changes and content for veterans as well!

• New characters can now select their movement and hand options before completing character creation, and must view the Code of Conduct before finalizing it.
  
• The new “tutorial island” is a very brief introduction zone where new characters will end up, which will familiarize them with some absolute basics of interaction, with a new tutorial tracker that is up on screen at all times until tutorial is complete, as well as a better system of showing the players where to go.
  
• Once they are put in Highsteppe, players will be introduced to a more cohesive tutorial quest chain which will explain missions and many other features of the game.
  
• Added 3 new “pre-msq” quests after the tutorial to prepare you for the Explorer’s League quests.
  
• Added around 25 new context sensitive popups to explain various mechanics of the game, some which will appear when a player moves close to that feature (for example, Darius for missions), others situationally happening. Veteran players will also experience these unless they have tutorials turned off in the menu.
  
• Added a few additional help signs scattered throughout the world.
  
• Improved the journal with better bookmarks, adding labels and making bookmarks lead to the correct page
  
• Added new class billboards near the training dummies in the house and outside Highsteppe (requires help signs on)
  
• New Player House tour will explain the different features of the player house.
  
• Added labels to different menu icons
  
• Added labels to class bars like stamina and ammo

• Fully redesigned the house layout to make it match the outside more, make it larger and look less boxy
  
• Added new functioning mirror next to the transmog dresser
  
• Magical Elevator lets you move from floor to floor instantly, with a brief description of what is on the floor
  
• Added a new unlockable 8 slots per furniture chest, costing 100k dram per chest

• Barmaid Jasan needs your help to solve a few problems in the Highsteppe Tavern, go speak to her when you can! Veteran players may recognize some of these characters.

• Added a safety bubble indicator to show when it is turned on
  
• Added an icon near other player health bars when you have muted them
  
• Fixed drop rate on dyes in Hard Mode Citadel
  
• Made the League Leader MSQ require level 2 reputation with Darius to prevent completely new players accidentally embarking on a journey that will be much too difficult for them

Finally, if you have a character already on the current (old) tutorial, you will be able to clear it from your inventory by killing a stafrusher, but we do recommend starting over to experience the new one.

Our next patch will be Tuesday, April 5, and will include an updated Player House, brand new tutorial for first-time players, and a new story questline. In today’s post, we preview some of the changes coming to the Player House.

*Note: All pictures represent in-progress work; textures and lighting are subject to change. All pictures also represent decorated rooms; not all items pictured will be in final Player House.*


It's high time the hero of Patreayl had a house befitting their illustrious status! While the previous Player House was cozy and functional, it lacked a certain panache, and following the major update to Highsteppe last summer, the Dev team thought it was time to turn its sights on upgrading the current house.

Let's take a tour, shall we?


When you enter your new Player House, you'll immediately notice the layout is a little different. (A little more spacious if you will.) This new interior setup was designed to match the home's exterior as viewed from Highsteppe City.



When you first walk in, you will still find your Alchemy table on the left and your Player Chest on the right – but the similarities pretty much stop there. The Alchemy table will now face the wall, where you'll find a chalkboard to house the temperature chart and basic potions instructions.


The new dragon breeding room, which is partially open to the room on the floor above

The Dragon Breeding station has now been moved to its own "pet room." Later in the year we plan to change up pet storage in such a way that will allow you to display the pets you own, which will take full advantage of the spaciousness of this room.


Your new "magical" elevator! Simply push the button for the floor you wish to visit


The grand spiral staircase

Just outside the Dragon Breeding room, tucked into a corner beyond the Player Chest, you’ll find a new feature: a "magical" elevator! This new feature functions just as a regular elevator would, and allows you to quickly move between the new floors of your home without having to take the spiral staircase up – because in addition to the ground floor and the basement, you will now have two new floors to explore and decorate.


The second floor now houses several other mainstays of the Player House, including the Auction Room, Lure Crafting station, Transmog wardrobe (now complete with a vanity mirror), and Tinkering station.


The new Auction Room


The main room of the second floor will house the Transmog wardrobe and Lure Crafting station.


Check out your latest look in the new vanity mirror by your Transmog wardrobe.

The main room housing the wardrobe and Lure Crafting station has a cutout between floors, so you can keep an eye on your dragons even from the second floor. The Tinkering station is in its own room, just off the hallway.


The third floor, accessible only via the elevator, houses the library and the training room. With its large windows and vaulted ceilings, we have a feeling this roomy space is about to become your favorite floor in the house.


Large windows provide ample light for reading in your new library.


The new training room

The basement will remain much as is, with both the Potion aging shelves and Artificing station still located here.

As the layout will obviously differ from the current Player House significantly, when the update goes live, all furniture and decor will be reset – so if you want to take pictures to preserve your space as it is now, now is the time!

We'll have more information on the other features of the upcoming patch in a blog closer to the launch date (Tuesday, April 5), so stay tuned!

With the Battlegrounds + Anniversary patch out last week, we’ve officially turned our focus to the rest of the year, which means it’s time for a roadmap!

The Dev team has spent a lot of time balancing ideas and resources and figuring out what we can do to continue the tradition of the game while also improving upon it. This year the community will have the opportunity to explore exciting new worlds as we finally go to the Chaos realm with two new dungeons. We'll bring some much needed guidance to new players with a revamped tutorial. And we'll expand and add more content to many of the game's core mechanics, including dragon racing and breeding, critter capture, tinkering and more. We'll devote plenty of time to finding fixes for issues such as stuck combat and invisibility bugs, while also implementing some requested quality of life improvements, including an update to the Transmog wardrobe and some inventory management improvements later in the year.

That said, here's a look at what you can expect in the first half of 2022!



Since Highsteppe got a major update last year, it seems only fitting that the Player House should get some love, too. We’ll be overhauling not only the general aesthetics of the Player House but its overall layout as well, with every single room receiving attention.

This will tie in with some plans for later in the year to upgrade the furniture system, allowing you to use items such as pets as furniture (and also creating additional storage opportunities for those items).


We know that Orbus is a challenging game for beginners and that the steep learning curve often prohibits some players from joining the community and fully enjoying the game. To ease new players’ transition into the game, we're going to spend a little time in Q1 revamping the tutorial. It’s been a wish-list item for the Dev team for awhile now, and we’re excited to finally be working on this project for the next generation of Orbus players.


Each quarter we’ll be releasing a bank of new questlines. Some will be focused on building out the overworld, some a continuation of the MSQ or the mission vendor lore quests. Either way, you should have some new content to peruse (and a few new characters to meet) each couple months.

And speaking of quests, Spring Fest will also be returning late February, so if you’ve got the winter blues and are ready for a brighter landscape, just hold tight. The Skogtrolls are coming.



We'll be putting out two new dungeons in 2022, one for each half of the year, but both will take place in (are you ready for it?) the Chaos realm!



Hop through an interdimensional portal to Taella Bruha. Take in the sights. Fight some weird monsters. And don’t forget to duck the tentacle arms that appear to be growing out of the earth.




The first dungeon will release in mid-Q2. Trash mobs will feature all-new chaos enemies, and we'll have two trippy dungeon bosses for your group to take down. After talking about the Chaos realm for so long, we're excited to finally take the community there.


In an effort to lure in more business (and keeps its customers there longer), the Highsteppe tavern will be introducing a new fun activity for tavern-goers to enjoy. The idea is to provide you and your party with something to while away the time between dungeon runs or raid attempts. While we haven't ironed out the details just yet, expect something in the vein of axe or knife throwing.


Late spring/early summer we'll be putting out a handful of new one-time use, limited-duration tinkering items. Currently we are looking at adding:

- Mobile-repair NPC: Fix your gear from anywhere in the overworld, no apprentice smith needed.
- Teleport Cheat Sheet: Can't remember the spells for the teleport pillars in each zone? With this handy little billboard, you won't have to.
- Campfire: Throw down a campfire for you and your friends to sit around in the overworld.

We'll also be adding a few new pieces of tinkering furniture at the same time, providing additional decorating opportunities for your newly revamped Player House.


We'll also have more new quests in Q2, along with Summer Fest returning in late May. In addition to quests, we will also be adding a few new dragon races and critters for capture, as well as updating the weekly missions for various mission vendors.

Among all of these new features and content, we are also planning on devoting time to working on bug fixes. We'll put out more blog posts as we get closer to individual patches with more info on each one of these new features. We are excited for another year of Orbus!

Next Tuesday (January 18th), we will be releasing a new Battlegrounds map. The patch will also include the Four-Year Anniversary Scavenger Hunt.



The old Battlegrounds has served us well over the last two and a half years, but we thought it was time for a change. Introducing our new battleground: the Temple of Ma’at. The goddess of peace and creativity, Ma’at’s desire for order and prosperity stands in contrast to her Gods of Chaos siblings. Her temple, along with its well-manicured grounds, reflect that desire for order. So it seems only right that we introduce a little chaos into it.

• The new Battlegrounds can still be accessed through the Player Menu (Social - Activities - Battlegrounds). The old Battlegrounds will no longer be accessible after the patch.
  
• Team colors are now Blue and Gold. A color-coded mini flag will appear underneath your status bar up top so you can easily identify which team you are on.
  
• Flags will start out a neutral color but once captured will change to match the color of the capturing team.
  
• Each flag will also have a beam of light above it in the sky (similar to the public event beacons). Uncaptured flags will display a white beam. Once captured, the beam will change to match the color of the capturing team.
  
• To spice up the current dynamics, we are also introducing a few elite enemies to the Battlegrounds. These enemies will drop aged invisibility potions, which will have a short duration and can only be used within that Battlegrounds instance. (You will not find them in your inventory upon leaving the Battlegrounds, and they won’t show back up next time you re-enter the Battlegrounds.)
  
• The temple grounds will be color-coded as well. For example, the Sapphire Dome Flag hall will have blue floors, the Violet Dome Flag hall will have purple floors, etc.

To celebrate the release of our new Battlegrounds map, we’ll be holding a Battlegrounds with the Dev team event on Thursday, January 19th from 4 to 5 PM CST. To join the event, simply log in and queue up for the battlegrounds from your Player Menu.


The next patch will also include our Four-Year Anniversary Scavenger Hunt.

• Pick up the first quest from the Anniversary NPC near the community billboard outside the Player House.
  
• Complete the scavenger hunt to earn a Penguin Transmog set.
  
• All players who log in during the Anniversary Event will receive a four-year anniversary cape and cake (Player House decor), which can be picked up from the Rewards NPC near the Critter Capture shop.

We'll have more info on the anniversary in a look-back post next week!

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


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



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

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

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


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

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

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




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

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


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

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



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

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


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



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


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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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


Hulthine's Basin lighthouse, in progress

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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


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






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



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

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


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