We promised that we would bring Vagrus - The Riven Reams to you in Early Access on Steam and GOG.com when we felt the game was ready for it. Today we are proud and exhilarated to announce that the time has come, and now we know the exact date.

Vagrus - The Riven Realms enters Early Access on Steam and GOG.com simultaneously on July 22 2020.

Dragon Mages are spellcasters who specialize in Draconic magic, especially in manifesting their arcane powers as destructive spells. They are typically attached to Dragon Army or Dragonguard contingents, which is where you will encounter most of them in Vagrus. Dragon Mages are armored, sturdy, have amazing resistances, and regenerate Power that is used to fuel their magical attacks.

We have long been talking about improving the experience with factions in Vagrus. They are currently in the game and can be interacted with one way or the other but there is no UI to track your standing with them, nor is it possible to claim rewards for each unlocked reputation tier (although there are already a lot of implicit benefits and rewards for high reputation with almost every faction). With Tasks being implemented and so intimately intertwined with factions, we thought we'd give you a rundown of what to expect from the next large addition to the game.

The Demo of Vagrus is more story-driven, so we would not want to spoil it for you. However, our dear friend Nookrium agreed to stream the open-world part for you.

Another enemy joins the animation showcase this week! Standing firm with his mighty scutum, the Murmillo gladiator is ready for battle.

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Based on the ton of feedback concerning initial difficulty and learning curve, we have listened to you, our players, and implemented Trade Tasks to make the initial experience smoother in the open-world campaign. While there, and because they are deeply intertwined, we also decided to include the brand-new Factions UI and the faction tier system. We were happy to see that everyone who tried it in the preview build loved it and we are also satisfied with the result. To top it off, we also have a long list of adjustments, fixes, and tweaks (see patch notes at the end of this post).

The time is upon us! As we have previously announced, a new version of Vagrus' free Demo is going to be published at the Steam Game Festival. You will probably be pleased to know that this incarnation of the Demo will have a small set of achievements you can complete! 

Murmillo is a gladiator type from ancient Rome, one of the most iconic in fact, so when it came to designing gladiators for the world of Vagrus, there was no question about including one that looks and feels exactly like the real world warrior of the same name. We wanted to change it around a bit to make it compatible with the pseudo-Roman fantasy world, but these changes are subtle at best, like the absence of fish imagery, bronze used for the metal parts due to the rarity of harder metals, as well as a different loincloth and belt.

While working on Trade Tasks (see more here), we took the chance to revisit passengers and unified their currently existing UI with the new Task UI in the Journal since passengers are in fact Tasks both by definition and application.

The brand new passenger page shows all the associated stats, including (finally) the workforce the passenger provides or needs. For those passengers that reward faction reputation on arrival, you will now see the pretty new faction icons, too. Lastly, the expected tip upon fast arrival is also indicated.

Ashmen, or Ashlanders, are the tribesmen of the Forsaken Waste, an endless desert of grey sand and little else. Yet these nomads make a harsh living off the Qurus, gigantic snail-like creatures, as well as other critters that roam the monotonous wasteland.

When coming face to face with an Ashlander in the game, you can expect a tough huntsman, though by themselves these enemies provide little challenge. In greater numbers they can make use of their supplementary ability, bleed inducing attacks, and ranged capabilities. Their combat skills are: