The latest content update (Patch 0.5.30 Codename: Brimstone and Bones) brings with it a spacious region to explore, the most prominent part of which are the Smolderbone Flats. Players who took the 'Pilgrims of the Wasteland' standalone story for a spin surely recognize this place, as it was an important location in that story. And yet you will find that much has changed since your last visit, with 10 years passing, allegiances shifting, and new threats rising.

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.

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.

Those of you who have played the game extensively surely know Deven, the great Imperial city that occupies vast caverns beneath the arid and hot Jagged Waste. It is a regular stop for many traders, wanderers, and vagri. Although the subterranean location is protected from the scorching sunlight of the surface, it is in turn enveloped in perpetual twilight only broken by the many braziers and luminous crystal clusters.

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.

Should the darkness cruelly whisper,

Call upon a kindly sister

Sister, sister, blood drops glister

Revoke now your cruel dark whisper

- From an Imperial children's rhyme

Kindly Sisters are members of the Nosferatis Sisterhood, a coven of mystics and sorceresses who delve into the deepest, darkest arcane secrets one can think of. The organization is one of the Pillars of the Empire, a religious order that serves the realms in an important capacity, although in the case of the Nosferatis, most Imperials have no idea what this service entails - except that it is most ominous. The wise seem to believe that it involves espionage, magical warfare, and arcane research. Members of the coven worship Bal-Ur-Kaal the Demon Prince and Ahskul, King of the Underworld, which is quite telling in and of itself.

The vagrus's ability to change the type of beasts their comitatus uses has been planned to be added to the game from the beginning but it had to wait until now for a couple of reasons. The first being that there were a number of other, more important, things to be added before and also because changing between two types only would have been a bit lackluster, but the third type was locked behind content that we got around to just now (and will be available with the addition of Larnak).