V Rising, the Dev Update: Spellcraft Unbound

Blessings for the bloodthirsty!

With great enthusiasm, we bring you yet another developer update from the crypts of Stunlock Studios! Today, we’ll be delving into changes with the progression. From how spells are acquired to recipes and the quality of unlife that smooths the whole experience into a delightful, intuitive process, we aim to put a new twist on how you play, delivering much-desired changes in unexpected packages.

Light some candles and put on some haunting tunes to set the mood. It’s time to settle in to read more about the future of our villainous aspirations.

The Many Paths of Victory

Hunting V Bloods in V Rising gives you some flexibility in how you carve your way through Vardoran. You can opt out of defeating certain bosses if their spells or unlocks don't interest you, and often, each ‘tier’ of roughly same-level bosses allows you to tackle them in whatever order you like. You can even strike out and face foes well outside your level range if you’re looking for a challenge. 
 

Underleveled? Nah, I’d win.

On the other hand, if you want to rain down burning violet fire with Chaos Volley, you have to track down Lidia the Chaos Archer and drink her blood. Over the course of your journey through Vardoran, you’re pretty much guaranteed to get the exact same spells in pretty much the exact same order. The opportunity for variety exists, but you often have to go out of your way to get it. The first ultimate ability you unlock is always Merciless Charge from Quincey. There are many spells you don’t get until far later in the game that very rarely see any use due to only having access to them for a short period of your adventure.

The intention is for you to get your hands on the more complex spells and ultimates later in the game, as their varied uses may be easier to grasp with the context of some solid hours of gameplay under your belt. The path to becoming the ultimate Vampire is one we crafted with volumes of twisted love, but we want to give you more.  

Let’s shake it up and add some deadly spice to your life. A little deviation for you deviants who enjoy multiple playthroughs. Flexibility for everyone, including those enjoying their first dive through the challenges of embracing their vampire nature. Introducing Spell Points! When you slay certain V Bloods and drain them of their power, in addition to any recipes imparted through their blood knowledge, they give you a fraction of magical energy.

These Spell Points come in various flavors, divided by spell school and then further divided into three tiers. For instance, slaying Clive the Firestarter now awards the recipe for the Alchemy Table, Minor Explosive Boxes, and one Tier 1 Chaos Spell Point.

A Chaos Spell Point icon in the bottom left, looking mysterious.

The Spellbook, which has been redesigned with these changes, has the spells divided between the three tiers. Each tier represents a level of complexity rather than strength. Vampires will be introduced to more complex spells after they’ve gotten their feet wet, unlocking the second tier of spells fairly early in their journey into Dunley Farmlands with Vincent the Frostbringer and Kriig the Undead General.

No fancy chaos dash for you yet.

This will offer tremendous flexibility in the journey without sacrificing meaningful progression or overwhelming newer players with too many confusing options. For instance, by the time you’re making your way into Act 2, where you only had access to Merciless Charge, you could now have access to two of four potential ultimates… including a new one that we think the necromancers out there are really going to enjoy.

ARISE MY CHAMPIONS!

This also offers us more freedom in how we design V Bloods for the future, which we’ve been able to employ in the designs of the new bosses in 1.0. Spells can be built without needing to closely associate or theme them with a boss to accompany them, letting us be a little more creative in our magic and monster design going forward without them restricting one another.

Master Your Magic

We aren’t just changing how spell progression works, there’s more to it than that! We’re also adding new ways to advance your Vampire through a new station we’re calling the Altar of Stygian Awakening. Here, you’ll tap into ancient knowledge to unlock your forgotten potential.

Uncover dark secrets and grab hold of their power.

Each spell school has a tier of passive effect that can be unlocked to provide bonuses that modify your gameplay. Some are as simple as situational boosts in effectiveness. Others provide unique opportunities like spawning Blood Orbs that you can pick up to recover health or summoning a skeletal warrior after you feed.

Being tied to your altar, these effects can be unlocked by gathering materials from the new endgame zone events and pooling together with your clan mates to unlock them one at a time, in whatever order you like! This means you all share a sort of clan-wide progression, encouraging you to work together towards a common goal that empowers you all and prepares you for the oncoming challenges of facing the greatest threats to your rise.

The details of these effects and UI layout may change before launch.

Everybody Hates Moving

Let’s talk about one of the more unique features we’re working on, though we aren’t entirely certain it will be ready for the 1.0 update. Still, we’re interested in hearing your opinion on it because it tackles an issue that survival game players are very familiar with.

In the gothic dark fantasy world of Vardoran, nobody seems to have a friend with a pickup truck. Moving has always been a pain point for players, and getting stuck in Farbane and not having the energy to pick up and move your entire castle into the more convenient end-game areas has been a point of agony for Vampires everywhere since we first launched V Rising back in May of 2022.

This is the feedback we’ve been receiving for quite some time, with the inability to move your lair causing difficulties for players across every level of engagement. The initial wave of vampires on any server tends to settle in the first area, Farbane Woods, and never move on to more convenient castle plots for later game content because it’s such a hassle. This makes it harder on players who join later and can’t find a plot, which can cause servers to stagnate long-term because of the lack of fresh blood!

How am I going to move all of this slime?

We’re experimenting with a way to make it easier! Simply relocate! In a feature we’re working very hard to try and make available for 1.0, we’re making moving your entire castle from one location to another as painless as possible.

The process is fairly simple. Place a new structure we’ve made that will act as the castle heart in your relocated castle in an unreserved territory, then interact with it. You can now connect that heart to a real castle heart that you have ownership of.

Oh, we also have a new icon for the open-world markets.

When you do so, you get access to a new version of the build menu. Within this build menu, you have access to every individual piece placed in the connected castle and can piece together an entirely new stronghold using the parts you already own.

Just getting started moving a smaller castle.

When you confirm it, your old castle disappears, and your new one solidifies and forms. Any pieces that went unused are reduced to their base materials for you to reuse as you like. Just make sure you remember to make space for your prisoners and servants. There are some structures you must place to complete the move, so you won’t be able to leave them behind.

The UI for this section is not final, but it should give you the right idea.

Just like that, you’ve relocated entirely! From one corner of Vardoran to any other, as easily as placing it down to your castle heart’s content!

If you were worried about it taking forever to put your wallpaper back down after the move, that’s also been made a lot easier. Also, wallpapers no longer cost materials!

Portents of the Night

We truly hope you enjoyed this peek into what’s right around the corner for you, our most precious night kin. As the year goes on and the sun rises, the shadows grow longer and darker, and it is within those shadows that you will find promises of approaching greatness.

Big announcements are right around the corner. Things are about to get very interesting.

Have you got feedback about the potential new castle moving feature? Want to discuss it with other Vampires, or make sure we hear your opinion? Connect with us on our socials down below!

V Rising Early Access is available now on Steam!

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Lots of love and a pint of blood,

/The Marketing Team