CAMPFIRE CHECKPOINT: 13/11/2026

A few weeks ago we dropped our Halloween reset and we felt like now was a good time to get the team together and talk about how things are going in our most recent Roundtable stream.

This time, Will and Bretton joined me to discuss what’s worked, what hasn’t, and how your feedback is shaping the next round of changes as we head towards our next test phase starting on December 3rd.

NOTE: It’s worth repeating, but there were no big reveals planned for this one. We wanted to have an honest conversation about the new features we’re all currently playing on this most recent build.

Of course, that became an almost two-hour stream.

Woops.

A WORD ABOUT THIS TEST/RESET

The Halloween reset brought together some substantial changes: our new Adventure Mode, Loot 2.1, a compressed Eternal climb, refreshed Dungeon routes, a new rewards structure and some significant work to things on the backend as well.

It’s important to our team that we use this window to test ideas that need time and iteration before we hit 1.0. Though, we could have done a better job of explaining what that meant and setting some realistic expectations. That’s on us.

For someone logging in after a reset, seeing a new Dungeon and a collection of new systems, it’s understandable to expect a complete new Season. Some of what you encountered was unfinished, some systems hadn’t been touched, and some experiments just didn’t land how we initially thought.

Woodland Glade, for example, wasn’t updated as part of this test. Its current state shouldn’t be read as a statement about our final plans for it since we still have a lot we’d love to do there. Ideally, we would test changes of this scale separately while everyone else continued playing the existing game but our current player numbers make splitting the population that way difficult.

That makes clear communication especially important. We need to explain what we’re testing, acknowledge problems sooner and follow up more consistently while we’re fixing them and this is something we’ll definitely keep in mind for the upcoming reset and test which we’re aiming to get out on December 3rd.

Thank you to everyone who has jumped in and given us feedback. We truly appreciate it!

ADVENTURE MODE

Adventure Mode set out to solve a real problem; getting people into Dungeons without spreading them across too many separate queues. If that’s all we look at, we definitely see some pretty good results. Queue times have definitely been faster but we know that getting into a Dungeon quickly is only part of the experience.

Heaps of people have been telling us (and we agree) that Adventure Mode loses too much of Fellowship’s sense of mastery and progression. When the Dungeon scales alongside your equipment, getting a stronger Weapon doesn’t deliver the same satisfying kind of power fantasy.

We also noticed that specifically in the Hard difficulty, runs can also feel repetitive since there’s little to no challenge and it just feels a bit monotonous. Again, agreed.

We’re exploring how to preserve the accessibility of Adventure Mode while bringing back more of that familiar progression; attempt something difficult, improve your gear or execution, then return and beat it.

That could mean different modes existing alongside each other, including a progression structure that draws on what worked in Leagues. Funnelling every player through the same experience may not be the right answer but you’ll have to “watch this space” to see how this one unfolds.

SOME STAKES, PLEASE.

One idea discussed on the stream was giving the scaling Adventure experience a different kind of challenge from Eternal.

For example, a limited pool of revives could make survival and coordination matter without introducing a timer. Higher difficulties could offer more meaningful risk, alongside reasons to master that particular mode. It’s something we’re exploring but we don’t yet have anything we’re ready to commit to just yet.

Naturally, I heard “limited revives” and immediately continued my relentless campaign for my long-wished-for version of Hardcore Fellowship. Join me?

LOOT 2.1: WHERE TO NEXT?

The response to Loot 2.1 has given us plenty to build on; both positive and negative.

Players have more control over the equipment they’re working towards, more practical ways to target particular modifiers and more freedom to adjust their builds. That ability to adjust matters a lot to us. If a Dungeon presents a different challenge, changing your build should feel like an interesting decision you can act on.

Previously, the time, expense and randomness involved could make that adjustment feel exhausting but we do recognise we may have gone too far in simplifying some of the choices. Removing problematic or mandatory modifiers leaves less options on the table. Combined with more predictable vendors, that allowed some players to finish substantial parts of their equipment very quickly and with little fanfare or feeling of accomplishment.

The team wants to preserve the agency that people are enjoying while restoring more depth and a more satisfying pace of progression.

There’s also an important connection to Adventure Mode here; better gearing systems need opportunities for players to actually feel their equipment getting stronger. Improving that relationship is a major part of the conversation. Longer-term progression is being discussed too, but there isn’t anything specific we’re ready to share.

DUNGEONS: VARIETY AND IDENTITY

Crown of the Wild gave us a new setting and a new faction to play with, and we’re happy with its overall theme and presentation but it’s clear that some of its encounters need more attention. In particular, certain abilities and enemy combinations have been too punishing for Melee players. Those are areas the team is looking to iterate on.

We also agree that the wider route changes/mob placements also pushed some experiments too far. Mixing enemies between Dungeons created variety, but sometimes weakened the identity of the places they appeared in. Some places probably don’t need bears and some Dungeons also ended up with considerably more enemy types to learn.

There’s a difference between refreshing a familiar route and asking players to absorb a much larger collection of mechanics all at once.

The active Dungeon pool went too far in the other direction. Eight Dungeons and two Capstones proved too small, and the team is looking to expand that selection for the December reset. We still want room to rotate content, refresh Dungeons and maintain a manageable competitive pool. This test has helped establish where the smaller end of that range stops feeling varied enough.

WHAT ABOUT BLP?

Bad luck protection was added shortly after the update to address repeated Dungeon selections in Adventure Mode.

There’s more work to do on how that selection feels. The team also discussed the possibility of letting players express preferred Dungeons or ones they would rather avoid, with those preferences contributing to the group’s selection.

THE ETERNAL CURVE

Compressing Eternal into 32 difficulties was an experiment in keeping players closer together and making the climb feel more approachable though we aren’t hard committed to 32 as an arbitrary number. More importantly, the curve needs work.

The current experience can quickly shift from comfortable clears into a much sharper wall, with players still able to beat the timer while individual mistakes become immediately lethal.

Changes to gearing have contributed to that. Players can optimise equipment differently and reach certain power levels sooner, so assumptions carried over from previous Seasons don’t always hold up.

The team is looking more closely at the relationship between enemy Health, Damage and the size of each difficulty step.

The aim is a more meaningful climb, supported by the ability to adapt your equipment to the challenge ahead.

Dungeon modifiers are also being discussed, including potential additions. Whether those are ready for December will depend on testing.

CHALLENGES AND REWARDS

The old Star Map had a lot of personality that we all loved but it also carried substantial technical and maintenance costs. Keeping it updated required a growing amount of manual work, and expanding it further wasn’t sustainable in its existing form.

The current replacement gave us a way to keep Challenges and reward claiming functioning while that work continues but we agree that it definitely needs more polish!

The bigger goal is the important one; Fellowship should offer rewarding things to pursue for people who enjoy completing Dungeons, collecting cosmetics or tackling particular objectives, alongside those pushing higher in Eternal.

We also need to be clearer about rewards that are visible but aren’t intended to be obtainable during the current test. There are definitely issues with that in the current build like the pets from completing “Paragon” etc.

Some rewards were placed in high-rating Challenges as temporary homes. That wasn’t explained properly, and it understandably left players wondering how they were supposed to reach them.

KEEPING A GOOD PARTY TOGETHER

Finding a group you enjoy playing with is one of Fellowship’s best moments. Immediately saying goodbye to that group feels like a missed opportunity and given that our current build forces the latter, that’s definitely not the right approach.

We want to find ways to help players continue together after a successful match, alongside ways to recognise players who help others. That conversation includes helping new players, queuing for roles in demand and adding backfill to Dungeons already in progress so the run doesn’t need to completely fall over.

WHAT ABOUT LEAVERS?

Leaving Dungeons is still something the team wants to address. Part of the puzzle is reducing the reasons people want to leave in the first place. Vote Restarts and more precise Eternal queue options have already helped tackle some of those situations.

Disincentives are also being considered, hopefully for the winter update, but the team wants to start carefully. Harsh punishments can create their own problems, including encouraging players to hold a group hostage.

We also discussed a potential player-avoidance feature. Automatically excluding everyone on an Ignore list creates significant matchmaking complications, so the team is looking at more limited possibilities, such as a small or temporary avoidance list.

NOT-SO-VISIBLE BACKEND CHANGES

Some of the biggest improvements in this update happened behind the scenes. Previously, deploying a fix could mean taking the servers offline, interrupting everyone’s evening while the team updated and checked the servers.

Our new tech now allows certain changes to happen without that downtime which is huge progress for us. It’s a substantial improvement, even if its best outcome is that you barely notice it happening.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

December 3rd remains the target for the next reset. It is still a target, and we’ll share a firmer breakdown of its contents closer to the time. The December test is intended to be less disruptive than the Halloween experiment, building on what we’ve learned and leaving the game in a stable state for the holiday period.

Before then, expect the focus to remain on maintenance and addressing serious issues or exploits. Some adjustments may reach live servers earlier if testing supports it, but there isn’t a separate gameplay update to promise.

Looking further ahead, the conversation about 1.0 kept returning to the same goal: Fellowship needs to be a game you can join and enjoy at any point. The first hours need to be polished, and the wider progression needs to keep people finding games long after the initial rush.

There’s still work to do, including on Hero balance and systems that weren’t the focus of this reset. Your feedback is helping us decide where that work needs to go.

Thank you again to everyone who joined the stream, played through the test and told us how it felt. We hope to get everyone together for another Roundtable before the next reset, once we can talk more concretely about what’s coming.

See you in the Stronghold, - The Chief Rebel Devs