1.5.0 – The Ashen Night: The Bonfire burns

The Ashen Night has begun! From today until October 31 the festival is on – thanks to Hotfix 1.5.0.1, earlier than announced. Plant the Ash Pumpkin under Farming and cook it under Cooking into Ash Pumpkin Soup with its Shiverwarmth. 🎃

The Bonfire burns

Until now, Firemaking was a recipe list. Now it has a heart of its own: the Firemaking page has a Bonfire, and you throw in whatever piles up in your storage. The old list stays unchanged as the Burning Station tab next to it.

What goes into the fire

• Wood, bones, animal parts, hides, food, herbs, coal and special pieces – each group with its own Firemaking XP. Wood gives half the Burning Station XP of its recipe, the other groups a fixed base times rarity (1/2/3/5/8, as with salvaging).
• Click throws 1 piece, Shift+click 10, Ctrl+click 100. The fire takes from your bag, mailbox and bank.
• The fire gives something back: ash for every piece, plus a chance of coal, embers or Soul Ash – the finer the wood, the better. Rare returns have bad-luck protection. The Brandseal doubles the fixed return with 15 % per piece.
• A preview next to your backpack shows exactly what comes out before you throw – the same calculation as the throw itself.

Heat and blessings

• Every throw drives the Heat (0–100) up, and it drops by 20 per minute. From 40 the fire is Burning, from 80 Burning bright.
• Burning: +5 % profession XP. Burning bright: +10 % profession XP, +5 % speed for Cooking and Firemaking, and rare returns ×1.25.
• If the heat drops below the threshold, the blessing lingers as Afterglow for another 60 seconds (from Firemaking 50: 120 seconds).
• Only the strongest blessing of each kind counts – it does not stack with itself.

The stages of the fire – all shown with numbers on the page, as a stage bar with a sentence:

• Firemaking 20: the "Burning" blessing
• Firemaking 30: auto-burn
• Firemaking 40: the "Burning bright" blessing
• Firemaking 50: Afterglow 120 instead of 60 seconds
• Firemaking 60: auto-burn every 2 instead of 3 seconds
• Firemaking 90: auto-burn every second

Below that the heat still rises – only the blessing is missing. The page tells you what the fire would be and from which level it takes effect.

Burn automatically Right below the fire sits its own panel with a big switch (default: OFF) and three presets:

• Wood only: only adds enough wood to keep the heat just above the next blessing threshold. It rests while offline.
• Surplus: burns everything above your threshold.
• My choice: one button per item type with three states – Burn, Keep, Protected.
• One shared threshold (default 1,000): this much of every type always stays.
• A sentence with real numbers says what auto-burn is doing right now. Protected types show as chips with an ×, and a short hint explains everything the first time you open it.
• The Ember Crucible comes first: auto-burn never burns what it needs. Offline, auto-burn keeps going, but without the blessing. Every round lands as one summary line in the journal.

The portrait flame and the heat bar

• While your fire burns, a small flame appears next to your character portrait – like the companion icon. Its tooltip shows stage, heat and blessing, and a click takes you straight to the Bonfire.
• The heat bar now also sits slim at the top, right below the fire – with stage name, number and the marks for Burning and Burning bright. So you can follow the heat while watching, without scrolling. It covers nothing and doesn't jump.

Sound The fire now crackles with real recordings: a calm loop that gets louder with the heat, and a roaring one when it burns bright. Wood sounds different from everything else when thrown, and Soul Ash has its own tone. Everything follows the effects slider, the mute switch and "quiet in the background". The fire page plays the Homestead music.

Ember Paths for all skills (thanks, Holyjester)

Holyjester asked on Discord why only some skills have talent points – "it looks very weird". Fair point. Ember Paths started with the first eight skills and never grew along with the rest. Now all 21 skills have their path: 39 new talents, three for each of the 13 skills that had none. Every talent has 5 ranks and unlocks at level 1, 10 and 25.

• Cooking: Hot Stove (+5 % speed per rank) · Big Pot (+4 % chance of an extra portion) · Kitchen Study (+5 % XP)
• Firemaking: Dry Wood (+5 % Burning Station speed) · Long Breath (Bonfire heat drops 4 % slower) · Ember Study (+5 % XP, also at the Bonfire)
• Woodcarving: Steady Blade (+5 % speed) · Sparing Cut (+4 % materials back) · Carving Study (+5 % XP)
• Farming: Rich Soil (+4 % double harvest when gathering and on plots) · Gardener's Hand (+5 % speed when gathering and on plots) · Field Study (+5 % XP)
• Artificing: Deft Fingers (+5 % speed) · Masterwork (+4 % chance of an extra piece) · Workbench Study (+5 % XP)
• Thieving: Long Fingers (+4 % double loot) · Quiet Step (+5 % speed) · Alley Study (+5 % XP)
• Hunt: Bounty (+5 % gold from hunting contracts) · Tracking Lore (+5 % hunt points from contracts) · Trail Study (+5 % XP)
• Alchemy: Calm Cauldron (+5 % speed) · Second Steeping (+4 % chance of an extra potion) · Herb Study (+5 % XP)
• Gem Cutting: Fine Polish (+5 % speed) · Clean Cut (+4 % materials back) · Stone Study (+5 % XP)
• Ember Hunt: Full Bag (+4 % double hunting loot) · Hot Trail (+5 % speed) · Stalking Study (+5 % XP)
• Cremating: Hot Chamber (+5 % speed) · Fine Ash (+4 % chance of extra yield) · Urn Study (+5 % XP)
• Runecarving: Essence Sense (essence chance ×1.05 per rank, up to ×1.25) · Fine Dust (+5 % dust) · Rune Study (+5 % XP)
• Hitpoints: Tough Life (+2 % max HP per rank, up to +10 %) · Good Digestion (+4 % healing from food and potions) · Vitality Study (+5 % XP)

All values are per rank, rank 5 is the maximum: speed and XP up to +25 %, yield and thrift up to +20 % – the same scale as the existing 24 talents. No skill becomes an outlier.

• Your Ember Sparks arrive retroactively. On the first load, every save gets exactly the sparks for each of the 13 skills that its reached levels would already have earned (level 3, 10, 20 … 99) – exactly once. Existing sparks stay. The journal and a message tell you the number.
• Work Ember for ranks 2–5 now also comes where it was missing: Hitpoints per defeated enemy, Hunt per target on contract completion, Runecarving per piece salvaged or carved, Firemaking per piece in the Bonfire.
• The weekly reset also refunds the new talents. On Ashfall everything stays as before.
• The max HP and healing cards have their own "Ember Path" line – you see exactly what your talent adds.
• Small side effect: the Ember Spark from the login reward (day 3) went to your highest skill – if that one had no Ember Path, it was lost. Now it always has a target.

The Embertide, reworked

The Embertide was an early-game system that never grew with the game: at combat level 90, weekly goals gave about a hundredth of a level, the Ember Crate a few hundred gold, and whatever you didn't claim in time expired. Now: nothing expires anymore, everything grows with you – and no reward goes down. Every new formula is "the old value or the new one, whichever is higher".

Nothing expires anymore: back pay

• Completed but unclaimed daily tasks and weekly goals are credited automatically at the daily or weekly reset – marks, experience, Ember Crate and weekly track points.
• Unclaimed weekly track tiers are paid out before the new week begins.
• A line in the journal tells you what was paid out. Claiming by button stays – back pay is just the safety net underneath.

Rewards grow with you

• Daily tasks: +0.1 marks per combat level (so 19 instead of 10 at level 90) and, new, 2 % of a level as experience in the matching skill.
• Weekly goals: +0.25 marks per combat level (at level 90: 72 instead of 50) and experience worth at least 10 % of a level – in the matching skill: "Chop 633 logs" now gives Woodcutting XP instead of combat XP (ore → Mining, fish → Fishing, smithing → Smithing, contracts → Hunt).
• Ashen Codex: at least 10 % of a level.
• Ashfall Urn: at least 30 Ember Ash or 4 % of the Ember Ash from your last Ashfall.
• Ember Crate: now follows your level – gear one tier below the one you've reached, plus 10 % of your ember gold value.
• Astral Freight: from combat level 75, an extra 25 % of your ember gold value.
• Wayfarer's Rations: 20 meals + 1 per 5 combat levels (at level 90: 38).
• Weekly track: once all your companions are level 30, tiers 3 and 7 give an Ember Gold Pouch instead of treats. Tier 10 now also gives an Ember Compass. And it goes on: bonus tiers every 200 points for +25 marks, up to 5 times.
• Reroll a daily task: for 25 marks, up to 3 times a day – if you don't feel like chopping wood today, you don't have to.

New: the Ember Compass A brass needle that points to the ember you want. In the Embertide Shop for 240 marks (buyable once a day, unlimited stock) and on tier 10 of the weekly track. With it you choose in the schedule which Embertide comes next – the current one stays, and so does the shop rotation. The compass is a tool: never vendor trash, unsellable, can't be salvaged, and it never ends up in the Ember Crucible or the Bonfire.

More numbers, fewer riddles

• The Embertide cards now show every number: Searing Hunt "Ember Crates 0.5 % per kill, at most 6 a day", Frostbreak "loot +25 %".
• Marks today (expandable below your marks): kills and gathering (x/300), orbs, bosses, trials, Roaming horrors, dungeons, tasks – you finally see the formerly silent marks from orbs too.
• Ember Crate, Ashen Codex, Ashfall Urn, Astral Freight and Wayfarer's Rations show in the shop what they're worth for you right now.
• Astral Freight and the Astral Crate still promised "Gold to Emerald gear" – that tier has long been called Thaurium. Fixed.
• A short sound plays when the Embertide changes (only while the game is visible), and the Embertide page plays the market music instead of the town music.

Mirror Lake: chests and keys balance out (thanks, Madazenus)

Madazenus described it perfectly on Discord: endless chests on one side, endless keys on the other. We simulated 10,000 casts per depth – at 500 m the lake handed out about 28 Rift Reliquaries but hardly any direct Mirror Keys, and at 800–2,200 m keys and chests were 5 to 10 times apart.

• The lake balances out: if you have more chests than keys of a kind, the next chest you find becomes its key with 50 % – and the other way round. This applies to the visible rod, the set line and offline.
• A fish belly now only holds a key that one of your chests is actually waiting for. If none is waiting, it holds something else.
• Rufus trades on the quay: 3 spare keys for 1 missing one – same tier, one tier shallower or any deeper tier. The button sits in the "Treasures" tab right next to the chest, with a sentence and the real numbers.
• In the simulation, every chest/key pair ends up at about 1 : 1 afterwards. Nothing is taken away – what you have stays; only new finds are redirected.

Bait: now with every number (thanks, Holyjester)

"What does bait actually do, and how much?" – the answer wasn't written anywhere. Now it's in the tooltip, the magnifier and on the bait button at the Mirror Lake, all from the same data the rod itself uses:

• Every fish the bait attracts, with its multiplier (×1.1 to ×3) and depth; monsters listed separately, since they only bite while fishing actively.
• How much your catch changes: the share of bites at your set depth with and without this bait.
• Your line's reach, consumption (on a bite; the Silver Spoon Lure only when the line snaps), Bait Lore (8 % per level) and "without bait ×2 slower" for the set line.
• Bait only changes which fish bites – not the depth and not the bite rate. Abyss Bait helps the set line below 650 m.
• Fixed: monsters and the Knowing Carp didn't use up bait when caught. Two bait descriptions promised effects that don't exist – corrected.

Your reports – fixed

• Bait, rods and keys are never vendor trash (thanks, Rody): the first four baits showed up in the "Sell vendor trash?" dialog. Checking every item in the game, we found the same with fishing rods, Mirror Lake keys and chests, Rufus' logbook pages and the five monster trophies – and the Ember Crucible could have melted some of them. Now one shared rule applies to all automations: tools, bait, keys and collectibles are never vendor trash and never crucible fodder. Also new: crates plus all Mirror Lake fish and bait ingredients.
• Stolen goods are vendor trash (thanks, Rody): Ruby Signet Ring, Pearl Necklace and friends from the pocket grab – "taken to be sold", says the tooltip – were missing from the "Vendor trash only" filter. Now they're there. Legendary and mythic stolen goods stay out of bulk selling for now – you can still sell them one by one. One piece for the museum, favourites and the Loot Book stay protected.
• The forge tells you why it stops (thanks, Isorn): with 5 identical gear pieces in your chest, the forge stops so the chest doesn't silently fill up – this also applies to workshop gear and the side slot. The game just said it far too quietly. Now the message names both ways out, and the activity bar shows "stopped: 5× … in your chest · ▶ go on without a limit" – one click and it continues. The workshop no longer silently restarts such a stop.
• Weapon market: "buy a copy" instead of "reroll" (thanks, Isorn): for a weapon you already own, the button said "reroll" – but every click bought another copy with its own bonus stats, each four times the price of the last. The button now says "buy a copy · price", the tooltip shows the real markup and how many copies you have, and after buying it tells you your old piece stays. If you really want to reroll your weapon's stats: that's the Ember Smelter.
• Finding the Ember Crucible again (thanks, countzero666): with "Hide completed" on, fully upgraded cards vanished together with their switches – the Ember Crucible, Silent Kiln and Potion Warden could no longer be set. Cards with switches now always stay visible, and searching for "Ember Crucible" takes you straight to the switch and gold reserve instead of the Ember Smelter.
• Tavv's picture no longer blinks (thanks, Madazenus): in the Silent Chamber, Rift Researcher Tavv's picture blinked every few seconds. The placeholder now stays steady until Tavv gets a portrait of his own.
• Night watch with themed loot (thanks, Faith): twelve hours offline at the Glacier Giant – and not a single Frozen Heart-Water. The night watch never rolled the themed loot from the loot table. Now it rolls kill by kill, with the chance from the display times the night share – like unique pieces, trophies and cards.
• Homestead: hand in everything at once (thanks, Isorn): just like in the Silent Chamber, you can now hand in all the items needed for an upgrade in the Homestead with one click. Favourites and whatever the museum still needs stay protected.
• The overview shows the workshop (thanks, Isorn): under "Active" you now also see the workshop and the side slot.
• Faster Cremating in the late game (thanks, Rody and Madazenus): the last levels took much longer than in other skills. Three new burning actions from level 62, 78 and 92 cut level 80 → 99 from about 257 to about 25 hours – on par with the other crafting skills. Nothing gets slower; the old recipes are unchanged.
• Upgrades on Ashfall, now described honestly (thanks, Madazenus): "Last Ember" (weapon) and "Last Ward" (chest piece) keep your item through the Ashfall – both with sockets and carving, and for both the upgrade drops to +0. That was always the rule; the Ashfall window just didn't mention it for the chest piece. Both Pyre Tree texts and the window now say it clearly.

Visibility: what you see is what works

• Bait multipliers and their share of your catch in tooltip and magnifier.
• "Marks today" by source, Embertide cards with every number, shop offers with their value "for you right now".
• Heat bar at the top of the Bonfire, the fire's stage bar with every unlock, portrait flame with tooltip.
• The forge limit in the activity bar, the real markup in the weapon market, the chest/key situation in the "Treasures" tab.
• The "Ember Path" line in the max HP and healing cards.
• Percentages in texts now follow the game language (French, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian with a comma and " %").

And the Ashen Night?

The Bonfire is only the beginning. Now that the nights are growing longer, one of the Embertides suddenly burns in a different colour, and out in the fields something grows that doesn't belong there … We won't say more just yet. Who knows what else the Ashen Night is hiding. 🔥

Thanks to Holyjester, Rody, Madazenus, Isorn, countzero666 and Faith for your reports and ideas – and to everyone who keeps writing to us. Every report from Discord and the forum ends up in the next patch. ❤️