Latest News

2026 Beta Season Launch

We're excited to announce that the new beta season will be launching on:
Friday, January 30, 2026 4:00 PM UTC

Lowered Rates
Experience: 3x
Skills: 3x
Magic: 3x
Loot: 1x
These changes aim to ensure a long-term focus and a more stable economy.

In-game Store
The store only contains purely cosmetic items such as outfits, companion skins, decorations, and so on. We're strongly against anything that's pay-to-win, so rest assured you won't find any here.
All coins you purchase will be re-added to your account when the main season launches, so your purchases will never go to waste.

Bots Prohibited
To ensure a fun and fair experience for all, from now on, using any kind of bot or macro will lead to a permanent account deletion.

Our Vision
We're committing to a deeper RPG experience this season with more immersive lore, engaging NPC interactions, and reworked areas that feel more natural. Expect to see enhanced existing systems, added quality-of-life features, polished UI, and much more. For more information, check out our previous announcements and changelogs.

Keep in mind this will still be a beta season. While we've tried our best to make it as polished and bug-free as possible, we will likely run into a few, so if you find one, please report it to us.

We're looking forward to seeing everyone in-game soon. Thanks so much for your patience and for being such a supportive community.

See you soon!

New Action Progress Bar System

We've added a new action progress bar system for interactive gameplay.

Certain actions and quest interactions will now trigger a progress bar. While it's active:
You may not move
You may not attack
You may not cast spells
You may not take damage

Any of these will result in the progress bar being interrupted and the action must be restarted.

This allows for more immersive quest design, meaningful interactions, and prevents players from rushing through collect-style objectives.

You'll begin seeing this system used in new and updated content going forward.

New Task System Released
We have completely reworked the task system to create a more immersive and quest-driven experience. The previous automated system, which generated repeatable tasks for every monster in the game, has been fully removed. In its place is a streamlined NPC-based task system that encourages interaction, exploration, and variety in hunting.

New Quest-Driven Task Structure
Tasks are now offered directly by NPCs rather than being automatically assigned. NPCs with a ! above their heads may be potential task givers, so keep an eye out while exploring the world. Each task is handcrafted to fit its region, monsters, or narrative context. Task will not end with a mini-boss fight but 'Greater' monsters will still remain in the game as replacement for mini-bosses. Task families, like in the previous system, are still supported in most tasks.

Task Rewards
Tasks can now reward:
Items
Experience
Gold

Some tasks will still be repeatable, but most are now one-time quests designed to push players toward new areas, new monster types, and more meaningful interactions.

A More Immersive World
This system aims to make tasking feel like part of the world’s story rather than a background grind. NPCs now play a larger role in guiding players through different regions and encouraging varied hunting paths.

Ongoing Additions
More task quests will be added regularly, and all future changes or new tasks will be included in the changelog.

Major Update to the Ability System

We are introducing a significant overhaul to the ability and enchanting system, removing orbs entirely and replacing them with a new progression model centered around Affinity Points and permanent ability unlocks. This update is now live for testing and open to community feedback.

Removal of Orbs
Orbs no longer drop from monsters, and all existing orbs are now deprecated. The system has been replaced with a more direct and progression-based method of unlocking enchantments. Ability items will still drop from monsters at the same rate and still contain their unique abilities.

Introducing the Affinity System
A new NPC, Ingrid, now handles all ability unlocking through her Affinity Crucible. When you find an item containing an ability you want to learn, you can sacrifice that item to gain Affinity Points toward permanently unlocking that enchantment.

You select one ability from the item, the item is destroyed, and you receive progress toward unlocking that ability’s tiers. Abilities unlock in a tier-based, level-up style system, typically from Tier 1 to Tier 3. Higher tiers allow your rerolls to reach stronger ranges, improving the potential power of your items.

Base abilities remain available from the start at Tier 1, and the forge continues to function as usual. Bjorn still handles adding, rerolling, and deleting abilities, all of which now cost gold instead of orbs.

Why This Change?
This system removes the inflation and long-term economic issues caused by orbs, which were often hoarded, discarded, or circulated in ways that distorted progression. By shifting the system to gold and permanent unlocks, the economy becomes more stable and players have a clear, long-term method of growing their enchantment library. Gold sinks also help maintain balanced economic flow over time.

Future Expansion
In addition to the affinity-based abilities, we will be introducing unique, rare abilities in the future that are not part of the affinity system and will come from quests, bosses, or raids.

Feedback
This update is open to player feedback. Let us know your thoughts on the new unlocking system, tier progression, and how it feels to interact with Ingrid and the crucible.

A couple new features have been added to the game:

Loot Client Module
The new loot window offers a streamlined way to manage your autoloot settings. It works similarly to the original system but includes several quality-of-life improvements.
You’ll see a list of items currently on your autoloot list along with the container type they’re assigned to. Right-clicking a list item lets you change the container or remove it. Right clicking an item in the map lets you add or remove the item to the loot list. There’s also a search function to quickly find and add items.

From this window, you can also:
Toggle the memory system with a checkbox
Enable a new "throw on ground" option to make hunting with loot bags easier

Note: Loot lists are now saved on your client. If you lose your roaming data, your loot list, minimap, and hotkeys will be lost.

Quest Notification System
NPCs with available quests now display a ! above their heads, similar to other RPGs. The icon will only appear if you're eligible to accept the quest, and it will disappear once you do.
This system is intended to help players find useful quests and gear more easily. Northwatch is fully updated with this feature, and the rest of the mainland will be updated gradually in the coming months.

Let us know if you encounter any issues, and enjoy the updates.