The Sharduk are a savage, cruel, and opportunistic people who are notorious for raiding all the more civilized lands bordering their vast, barren territory, the Great Eastern Desert. When designing these tribal marauders, we went for a versatile damage-dealer enemy type that - when left unchecked - can work itself up to a huge threat.

In Part I. of our breakdown of Mercenary Tasks, we discussed what this new kind of gameplay element brings to Vagrus, how it works, and began describing the types implemented in the current build. In the second part, we focus on the other four types of Mercenary Tasks, in which passengers play an important role.

The Veles Gladiator enemy is an arena combatant in traditional Imperial gladiatorial arms in the Veles tradition, which was modeled after lightly-armored, mobile spear-wielding warriors from the ancient times of the Third Age. This mirrors how a peculiar kind of ancient Roman gladiator was also following a precursor military unit's doctrine - although in this real-world parallel, the arena fighter in question was quite different from our Veles. Still, our design was based on historical sources, albeit tweaked to fit the dark fantasy setting of the Riven Realms better. The enemy itself is a quick, evasive warrior that can work well in concert with heavier frontline fighters like the Murmillo.

The Riven Realms, the setting of Vagrus, is a harsh, violent place. Up until now many players have felt that their ventures are the primary targets of this cruelty but with Mercenary Tasks, you will have the opportunity to return the favor. This facet of gameplay has been in the works since we began developing Vagrus, and it not only adds a ton of variation and replayability, but also goes a long way in softening up story content. Along with the branching story and trading, we consider mercenary work as one of the three pillars that hold up the game. Of course, we leave it to players which facet they want to concentrate on at times in each playthrough. Mercenary Tasks even allow for a completely combat-oriented gameplay, concentrating on forging a warband from your comitatus.

Hey Folks,

the time has come to revisit the region that featured in Pilgrims of the Wasteland, the tutorial/prelude of Vagrus. We opened up that very zone for the open-world campaign, albeit we are 10 years in the future compared to that prologue story, so expect some changes. There was a bit of a switcheroo involving several patches in the works and eventually the choice fell onto pushing this out in part to fix a game-breaking bug from the previous patch. For this reason, expect a smaller update in the near future that irons out a few things regarding the currently added content, although we might end up merging that with Mercenary Tasks, the next larger addition.

The most recent patch (Codename: Perky) brought with it a major Event UI overhaul but we did want to mention all the other Quality of Life improvements we managed to squeeze into the update, too. So, let's jump in and see what changed!

Comitatus UI

Hey Folks,

this next patch is a bit lean on content but that is because we are gearing up to the next one that has a huge new region with tons of adventures awaiting - and it is coming sooner than you think! That said, this current update contains a pile of new features and Quality of Life improvements that will hopefully make you happy - like a completely reworked Event UI, Test boosting that allows you to use Resourcefulness to improve chances in Events, additions to Chart markers that makes it easier to find things in the wasteland (but still keeps it a challenge most of the time), new Hirelings, combat Skill tweaks, and a lot more!

Assassins (and Handjari Assassin variants) in Vagrus are lethal enemies from a Tarkian background or training. Since their stealthy abilities do not translate well to the direct combat in-game, we opted to arm them with skills that emphasize their deadly techniques, use of poisons and battle drugs, as well as their flashy, acrobatic fighting style.

The province of Tark was formerly a sovereign country conquered and assimilated into the Empire. It has always been a region of vast deserts and arid mountains. Its people are a hardy folk who were already adapted to a life in barren lands, which allowed them to easily adapt to the many new deserts on the continent after the Calamity. Thus, a lot of them are natural explorers and traders - but quite a lot of them are mercenaries.

Hirelings are new kinds of allies we have recently added to the game. They are in effect companions but can only be hired for a limited time - for a steep price. They have no story of their own because they are only meant to represent nameless mercenaries, rounding out the abilities of your companions or making up for something you are missing in your comitatus. You always hire these henchmen from certain Factions.