Just a few weeks after the announcement of Shadow of the Erdtree - Elder Ring’s first DLC coming sometime unknown, we have patch 1.09, which has balancing to PVP and general gameplay balancing. 

Ray Tracing Update

The first thing obviously is that Ray Tracing was added to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and PC. I can’t really notice too much of a difference between the two versions.  

And Elden Ring isn’t like the most graphically advanced game I’ve ever played, either. So, I can’t really notice much of a difference. Maybe you guys can. I will say it did feel like my performance took a bit of a hit with it on, so you might want to be careful exactly what your settings are.

General Gameplay Adjustments

Next, let’s talk about the general balancing changes to the game before we get into PVP. This is going to apply to everyone that’s not in PVP mode of the game, which is single players and cooperative, so let’s talk about that first.

*The first thing on the list is that they’ve increased the scaling of the following attributes when infusing weapons with certain Ashes of War, magic, fire, flame art, lightning and sacred.

I’m assuming this means that those weapons are going to have more damage when using very specific Ashes of War. I’m assuming it’s magic, fire, framework, lightning, sacred, Ashes of War ones that would default give you those types without using a knife of some kind.

So, we’ll have to see what those are that are very vague. I’m not exactly sure like how much we’re talking either in terms of like the value of the scaling of weapons. This will probably take some time to get sorted out what exactly that means. That generally means probably that you’re going to have more damage with these infusions than it you did before with most weapons.

*The next point is “increased the attribute scaling of the following weapon types: Colossal Swords, Great Axes, Hammers, Flails, Great Hammers and Colossal Weapons.” These are primarily strength based weapons, so it seems like the strength scaling is being improved on these weapons.

My guess is that the difference between two-handing and one-handing these weapons when it came to strength scaling wasn’t that great. And maybe they’re trying to improve that to incentivize people to use strength builds more, although strength builds are already wildly popular. 

*Next is “increased the speed range and recovery time of some attacks from the following weapon types: Great Hammer, Great Axe, Great Sword and Curved Greatsword.”

This is really interesting because I think Greatsword is a very popular weapon type in this game. Maybe Great Axes, Great Hammers and Great Swords are not. I’m not exactly sure, but it seems like this weapon group is getting buffed again. This weapon group seems to keep getting buffed or some variation of this weapon group. So, these weapon types are going to be even stronger.

Flails are also getting a buff, increasing the speed of some of their attacks, reducing the attack recovery time and increasing their poise when two-handing through. So, they can two and through attacks, I guess.

Not too many people use Flails. I know that some people have very specific builds but this is obviously not a super popular weapon. There’s only four Flails in the game, anyway. So, it seems like they need a buff here.

*Increased running attack speed and reduced attack recovery time for the following weapon type: Straight Sword, Curved Sword, Katana, Twinblade, Ax, Hammer and Halberd.

Apparently, their running attacks of these weapons are getting faster. I didn’t think they’re that slow to begin with. I guess the Straight Sword and Katana have a bit of a delay before they attack. I wouldn’t call it the delay exactly, but it’s a little slower than you’d think. 

Maybe they’re speeding that up. But I mean Curved Swords running on attacks with curve starts is what people spam already. That’s crazy. It’s hard to say exactly.

*Increased the first attack speed for the falling weapon type: Straight Swords, Curved Swords and Whips.

This is interesting because I always felt like Straight Swords were in a bad place. They didn’t exactly have the best damage, and they didn’t have very good status effects compared to other weapons. 

I guess the same is happening for Curved Swords and Whips. Obviously, this is probably applying to R1 attacks in that dual wielding with Curved Sword. So, this is really interesting. They’re crawling to entice people to probably one-hand these weapons more.

*Increased the speed of guard counters with the falling weapon types: Straight Swords, Great Swords, Colossal Swords, Great Curved Swords, Katanas, Twinblades, Axes, Great Axes, Flails, Great Hammer, Spears, Great Spears, Halberds.

That’s like half the weapon types in the game. Guard counters have had slow follow-ups on just about every weapon type save a few in this game, mostly like Straight Swords, which is weird why they’re getting a buff here.

I guess because everything else is I don’t know. But that’ll make block counters a lot more viable, which is great. So, hopefully, people will use them more. I mean, block counters are fantastic, so maybe that’ll make them more viable with these weapon types.

Again though, I’ve sort of given a feeling that’s in a change that’s probably supposed to be aimed at PVP even though it’s a PVE change since they’re nerfing basically jump attacks and bleeds I think they want people to use block counters more. And obviously, it’s nearly impossible to land on the block counter with some of these weapon types. So, maybe they want people to use that play style more in PVP. 

*Reduced the attack recovery time for Whip weapons.

*Increase the damage of Claw weapons.

*Added Holy damage and Faith scaling to the Great Club. (So, that weapon now has holy damage and Faith scaling that’s interesting.)

*Increased damage negation when blocking Holy damage and decreased damage negation when blocking damage from other affinities.

So apparently, you’re able to block holy damage more easily now with shields or weapons, but you’re not able to block other affinities as easily again. These feel like changes that are aimed at PVP. They want people to use other damage types rather than just like believe, etc. So, maybe this is the whole change this whole patch is really aimed at PVP even though it looks like a PVE patch.

*Increased the effectiveness of the Twinblade Talisman.

I literally know nobody who uses this in a build, so that’s probably good that got buffed. 

*Slightly, reduced roll traveling distance for light equipment weights. 

They just made light rolling better in like the last patch, if I’m not mistaken. The fact that they’re nerving it here seems weird again unless they’re nerving it for PVP purposes.

*And finally decreased the hitbox size for some attacks of the falling weapon types: Thrusting Sword, Heavy Thrusting Sword, Spear, Great Spear and Halberd.

Again, this seems like this is aimed at PVP. These weapons aren’t really considered busted in DB. I mean, they’re good weapons in PVE. But I don’t know why would the developer nerved them. This seems like a PVP nerf as well. So all in all, a lot of changes that change the gameplay for everyone, but that seemed mostly aimed at PVP.

Ashes Of War Adjustments

There are also some Ash of War adjustments. I’m not going to go through all this. You can see them on the screen if you want to go through them. Great Oracular Bubble increased the projectile generation speed and reduce recovery time, that makes this very viable even more viable in PV than it already was. So, that’s really good. 

Shriek of Milos increased the close range Poise damage. This is good for this ability because it’s hard to get this ability off. So, I’m glad they added that.

Spearcall Ritual will increase projectile generation. This ability was already busted, so it seems like that’s making it even more busted.

Cursed-Blood Slice increased the projectile generation speed and reduce recovery time.

I Command Thee, Kneel increased attack generation speed. This is good because it’s hard to get off because of how long the wind-up takes.

Starcaller Cry increased the speed of the follow-up attack. The follow-up attack for that takes forever. I’m glad to see that is sped up, too.

Bug Fixes

I’m going to go through some of the bugs. I’m not going to go through all of them.

But the first one I know people will be interested in, which is a fixed debug where the Scarlet Rock buildup was not properly reflected when giving the Antspur Rapier a Cold Affinity. This has been bugged since like launch. So, this is like a huge change here or not launched, but like patch 1.03 or something like that. It’s been bugged for a very long time, so just get that fixed.

Finally, I’m sure people will be thrilled about that another bug similar to this was that the Scarlet Rock status was not properly reflected when giving the Rotten Greataxe of a Blood affinity. So, those two have now been patched.

Another one is that fixed a bug where the Roar Medallions Talisman didn’t affect the increase in power of some incantations. Dragon communion spells are now affected by the Roar Medallion Talisman. This is a huge change. 

Those are the main ones. There are other bug fixes and performance improvements of the game you can read through them if you want to see them all.

PVP Exclusive Adjustments

When it comes to the PVP exclusive balance adjustments, even though it feels like the PVE balance adjustments were really for PVP. If you look through the list here, you’ll see there’s a decrease in effectiveness in Lord of Blood’s Exultation and the White Mask. There’s a decrease in the effectiveness of the Claw Talisman. There’s a decrease in the effectiveness of two-handed jump attacks and the power of heavy and heavy running attacks of Fist and Claw weapons. 

So, I feel like generally speaking here, the nerf to PVP is nerving jump attacks and nerving blood. I feel like this is going hand in hand with them, buffing the other infusions of other elements in the regular balancing changes.

Also, they decrease the damage buffs of the tires that you could use with your flasks because, obviously, those were probably very deadly in PVP. I’m not a huge PVP player. 

Other things that were nerved: Raptors Black Feathers, the jumping attack damage again affecting jump attack damage and then waves of Gold were also nerved. And Founding Rain of Stars has had its attack power reduced as well.....

…

A week ago, the game director of Last Epoch, whose name is Judd Cobler, brought us the highlights of our long-awaited multiplayer update patch 0.9 - Convergence. Next, let’s take a closer look at what he said.

Convergence drops on March 9th. For the first time in Last Epoch you’ll be able to adventure through time with up to four players in your party. Adding friends and grouping up is easy, and you can start playing together right from the start of the campaign.

Developers have upgraded all in-game content, including the Arena, Dungeons and the Monolith of Fate to ensure that group play feels great. *For example, in the Monolith, they’ve introduced a new Echo completion system that ensures fair rewards for the full party.

*And in the arena, they’ve introduced a group ready check to allow parties to strategically proceed to the next Arena wave set when the entire party is ready.

*In multiplayer, the loot you find drops per player. So, you’re not having to compete for the same items (which you can get by using Last Epoch Gold) on the ground.

Related: Outstanding Build Guides for Beginners in Last Epoch

*Additionally, if you find an item that would help your allies, you’ll be able to gift items to your party members, who are fighting alongside you.

“With multiplayer dropping on March 9th, we are looking forward to seeing what powerful team compositions you put together with your party. We hope you enjoy slaying the enemies of a Eterra with your allies,” Cobler said.

While you’re crushing enemies alongside other Travelers, you will notice a whole host of upgrades developers have made to increase the impact and polish the feel of combat in Last Epoch. They’ve added a new win hid visuals to enemies.

Visual impacts now have directionality carrying the weight through from your swing or spell cast. Death effects have been updated to correspond with the elements that are used on the killing blow. Elements applied to enemies displayed nicer on enemy models and many enemies have had death and stun animations significantly improved. All of these updates combined make slaying enemies in a Eterra feel much more satisfying.

“If you are returning to a terror from our last update, prepare to see the world come to life like never before. Our team has been hard at work and there is an overwhelming amount of new visual upgrades coming to Convergence.”, the director said.

For example, the dialog system has been updated across the game to include better ux and beautiful new NPC portraits, allowing you to get to know the iconic cast of characters a little better. Many environments across satara have received new tech that makes their visuals come to life and this new tech will continue to be extrapolated in future patches.

In addition to the many new environments and visual updates, they’re introducing 15 updated or newly added enemies, tons of skill VFX improvements and 14 entire new gear set visuals across all classes.

There are also new player summon models and animations in addition to completely updated animation kits for both the prime list and acolyte.

“All of this together results in the Last Epoch gameplay feel that you’ve never seen before and one that we’re all very excited for our players to experience,” he said.

Convergence will also be bringing a number of new powerful build shaping uniques for you to hunt down, including the Harbinger of Stars. This new unique belt enables any class to have the chance to cast Meteor when landing a Critical Strike. We’ve already seen some very interesting builds created with this belt in early testing, like Meteor.

The new Hand of Judgment gloves can bring holy Justice into the palm of your hand, giving your unarmed Paladin Divine strength, allowing you to slam your fist into the ground to cast Judgment, which will scale area and damage by stacking Attunement.

Finally, Jelkhor’s Blast Knife captures the power of the Rogue’s Detonating Arrow ability and infuses it into a melee strike, transforming your Marksman into a bomb slinging assassin.

Ailments have undergone significant changes that will make them more easily understood and bring their effectiveness against bosses and packs of low-held enemies more in line. Namely, by reducing the duration that the full effect would take place over and will now display the full amount of stacks applied to enemies.

The balance of all elements has been updated in a number of ways. “Since our last release Depths of Eterra, we’ve put a significant amount of work into improving performance across the game,” he said.

Baseline frame rates in zones and performance when using abilities have been greatly improved, especially among stabilities that were noted as poor performing in earlier patches. While this update does bring significant improvements to performance will continue to make improvements to performance in future patches, as well.

They’ll also be shipping an early version of the MTX system with this update. While you won’t be able to purchase anything new or access the shop just yet, you’ll finally be able to equip cosmetics that you own through previous supporter pack purchases.

“I’ll also take this opportunity to reinforce our commitment that Last Epoch will never sell items that grant player power. We’ve taken a hard stance against this and will continue to champion that stance into the future with that said if you have fun ideas for how certain skills pets or armor could be re-skinned we’d love to hear them”, he emphasized.

…

We have, of course, just entered the brand new month of March, which means we can expect to see a bunch of changes and updates all around the New Horizons Island. Today, we’ll cover everything you can expect to see, from Events to Materials, and even some of the smaller details we like to cover, such as the Bushes and new Weather Phenomena… 

1. Shamrock Day 

Now, given Festivale fell in the Winter, and was celebrated much earlier this year, March is a relatively quiet month on the Event front. However, we will get to celebrate Shamrock Day. 

Shamrock Day, is essentially a Seasonal Event, however, offers a bit more content than your typical seasonal celebration, and comes in 3 parts. From March 10th through to March 17th, the Shamrock Doorplate, Rug and Soda items can be purchased from the Nook Stop, in honour of the Event. 

However, the celebrations can be taken a step further, as the Shamrock Suit, Shoes, Hat and Glasses will able be available throughout that week, from the Able Sisters, which is a nice little expansion to the Seasonal Event. 

And finally, the DIY recipe for the Shamrock Wand is also available inside Balloon Presents for the week leading up to Shamrock Day itself. Collecting all of these makes for a super fun activity, especially for the newer players out there. 

2. Seasonal Events

Now, speaking of limited-time items, March does see some of your typical Seasonal Events too. These include Hinamatsuri that began in February and will end on March 3rd, Pi Day, which begins March 1st, and runs for 2 weeks until March 14th, and finally April Fools Day, which adds items from March 26th through to April 1st, in preparation of the real world celebration. 

We can purchase all the ACNH Items available alongside these Seasonal Events from the Nook Stop. 

3. Seasonal Materials 

Now, as I’m sure you’ve seen already, Spring has begun here in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Snow has completely melted. This Seasonal Change means Snowflakes are no-longer available.

However, Young Spring Bamboo is now spawning in their place. Young-Spring Bamboo can be got from Bamboo Trees alongside the normal Bamboo crafting materials. 

Like every other crafting material, Young-Spring Bamboo brings with it a bunch of corresponding DIY Recipes which can of course be obtained primarily from Balloon Presents. Both the Materials and the Recipes will continue to be available until May 31st. 

For those in the Southern Hemisphere, Summer has now ended, and you can no-longer encounter Summer Shells. However, Autumn has arrived, and brings with it the Acorn & Pine Cone materials and recipes. These will be continue to be available until June 10th.

Don’t forget, if you still need Snowflakes or Summer Shells, or any of their recipes, you’ve now unlocked the corresponding Kapp’n Islands. Now the previous Seasons are over. 

4. Weather Phenomena

Now, as with any new Season, we see a large shift in weather patterns, and Spring is, of course, no different. From the start of Spring, and continuing throughout March, Rain now falls instead of Snowfall, and brings with it the chance of Thunderstorms. 

Thunderstorms are pretty rare, but typically on hours with heavy rain you have a chance of seeing lightning light up the island, as well as experiencing some extremely immersive thunder. 

Anyway, now that Winter is over we can no-longer encounter Auroras or Heavy Fog around the New Horizons Island. However, now that we’re experiencing Rain, it means both Rainbows and Double Rainbows can be encountered instead. 

5. Clouds 

Now the Seasonal Changes around the New Horizons Island affect more than just the Weather Patterns. From March 1st, Billow Clouds can no-longer be encountered, with Thin Clouds taking their place. We can see these special clouds through to May 31st, which weirdly is the same time Young-Spring Bamboo also stops spawning. 

It’s a little different for players in the Southern Hemisphere, as Cumulonimbus Clouds that began spawning in January, in the Summer, will continue through the Autumn, until mid march, at which point, Cirrus and Cirrocumulus Clouds spawn in their place. We can see these from March 16th through to May 31st. 

6. Bushes 

Now something I’ve always liked to highlight the details and timings of the Bushes. Just because it’s a pretty neat feature and helps players who wish to change up their Bushes according to the Season. 

March is pretty simple though, as Pink and Red Camellia Bushes that are already in bloom for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, will continue to flower until the end of March. 

Players in the Southern Hemisphere do get to see a change though as Red and Yellow Hibiscus will stop blooming on March 20, with Orange and Yellow Tea Olives flowering in their place. These will continue to bloom until the end of April. 

7. Post Cards 

Now, something that never really gets highlighted are of course the changes we see month to month at the Post Card stand, inside Dodo Airlines. 

Just like every new Month or Season, the Post Card stand is updated with new Seasonal and Event Designs. The Seasonal designs include Full-Bloom Card, the Cherry-Blossoms Card and the Dandelion Card. These are available from the beginning of Spring through to May 31st. 

This month, there is only 1 Event design, which is of course the Bunny Day Card. This will become available from March 15th through to May 10th, in honour of Easter. These Designs can, of course, be used to write letters to your Villagers, if that’s something you like to do. 

But even if not, it’s still worth checking out, just to see the new designs. 

8. Critters

Moving on, I want to give an honourable mention to the Bugs, Fish and Deep-Sea Creatures. 

Just as you’d expect, a new month and a new Season, introduce the next wave of Critters that can be encountered around the New Horizons Island. 

Players in the Northern Hemisphere can expect to see 20 new Critters, including the Barred Knifejaw, the Orchid Mantis and the Spider Crab, to name a few. 

Similarly, players in the Southern Hemisphere can expect to see 22 new Critters, including the King Salmon, the Bell Cricket and the Sweet Shrimp, amongst others. 

These numbers are significantly higher than usual simply because we’ve gone from one season to the next. So, it’s set to be a pleasant month for hunting critters if you’re still trying to complete your Museum. 

Anyway, all-in-all March is a fairly quiet month, especially seems Festivale fell in February and won’t be celebrated in March again until 2025.

…

Today, we’re looking at 17 Furniture Series in the Animal Crossing franchise that were simply deemed not worthy of a place in New Horizons.

1. Astro Series

First up, we have the Astro Series, which is a futuristic space-themed series. This furniture set defaults in Orange and White but can be customised in Blue and Black, and Black and Red.

If Nintendo ever released DLC Furniture Packs, like the Sims, this would be perfect for a Space Pack.

Anyway, villagers including Mira, Chadder and Cheri all own several items from this series. It’s pretty cool.

2. Balloon Series

Second, we have probably the ugliest Furniture Series known to Animal Crossing, and that’s the Balloon Series.

As you can see, it’s made up entirely of Balloons. It’s pretty difficult to look at. These are typically got from Balloon Presents, which is probably why they never returned, given we now get Recipes from Balloons…

Despite that, the option to use them would have been cool. You have probably guessed by now, but Pietro owns several of these items in New Leaf.

3. Blue Series

The third Furniture Series missing from New Horizons is, of course, the Blue Series. This interior Furniture Series is perfect for those who like to decorate a simple-looking house with all the necessary furniture pieces.

It comprises mostly Blue-coloured wooden items, and I’m pretty sure is a fan favourite. Plus, it can be customised into a variety of blue-shades.

I can only assume this never returned because the Simple Series, that’s actually the Minimalist Series in previous games, can be customised into a Blue-theme, kind of making the Blue Series redundant.

Anyway, several Animals across the series own items from the Blue Furniture Series, including Bluebear, Jeremiah and Sydney, amongst others.

4. Card Series

Next up, we have the Card Series, that you’ll either consider genius, or as ugly as the Balloon Series.

Anyway, this series is of course furniture made up of playing cards, and exclusive to GracieGrace. Which means every piece is expensive to purchase with limited availability.

Furthermore, because it takes so long to upgrade Nooks in New Leaf, and in turn unlock Gracie, this set isn’t available for months when first playing… making it even more exclusive.

So much so, no villagers use these items in their homes. We can only assume it never returned, because Gracie didn’t either.

5. Gorgeous Series

Speaking of GracieGrace exclusives, we have the Gorgeous Series. Probably one of the most gorgeous Furniture Series in the Animal Crossing Franchise.

This is again exclusive to GracieGrace, so takes months to unlock, and is exclusive to winter. It’s also one of the most expensive Series in the game, costing 2.1 million Bells to purchase 1 of every item in the Series.

The Gorgeous Series can’t be customised, although it doesn’t really need it. Being such an expensive Series, villagers only ever own 1 or 2 of these items, including Claudia, Elvis and Nan, amongst many others.

6. Gracie Series

Moving on, but keeping with the Gracie-theme for now, we have the wonderful Gracie Series.

This Furniture Series is, of course, inspired by Gracie’s fashion, featuring their trademark pattern of Green and Orange circles on Blue backgrounds.

The Gracie Series is the Summer exclusive items that, of course, take months of playtime to unlock. Furthermore, the Gracie Series is the most expensive Furniture Series in the entire game, costing a whopping 2.6 million Bells to purchase…

Despite the cost of items, Moose and Robin each own 2 pieces from the Gracie Series.

7. Green Series

Here, we have the Green Series. This Furniture Series is incredibly similar to the Blue Series, because it contains simple and minimal interior Furniture items.

However, they are, of course Green, instead of Blue. Much like the Blue Series, we can only assume this never returned because the Simple Series exists in New Horizons, and can be customised to closely resemble the Green Series.

Never the less, it’s a very common Series in previous games, with several Animals owning Green items, including Chuck, Drift and Goose, amongst others.

Plus, it’s great for Feng Shui, and can even be customised into other shades of green.

8. Modern Series

Possibly my favourite Series of all time, is the Modern Series. It features a Black and White Checkered-board design, making it look minimal but modern. At least in the older games.

This series is always popular, because like all other Furniture Series, excluding the likes of the Gracie items, the Modern Series can be customised into an array of styles and themes, including other colours, as well as Ore-variations, giving them a crystal finish.

This Furniture Series has featured in every Animal Crossing game, so it’s a shame it never returned to New Horizons. Given its popularity, a bunch of Villagers used these items in their homes, including Ed, Roscoe and Savannah. I‘’m still holding on hope that one day Nintendo will release DLC furniture packs, and bring this series back!

9. Modern Wood Series

Next, we have the Modern Wood Series. This Series features outstanding wooden Furniture Items, made up of various types of wood. It’s fairly abstract and modern and, of course, has several customisation finishes, including Simple and Diamond styles.

Similar to the Blue and Green Series, we can only assume this beautiful Furniture Series was cut from New Horizons, because the Wooden-Block Series exists, and has a Mixed-Wood customisation option, that sort of resembles these items.

Cally, Bonbon and Deirdre own the most items from this Furniture Series.

10. Polka-Dot Series

Another Furniture Series, that is almost certainly an gained taste, is the Polka-Dot Series. As you can see, its primary design is of course Red and White Polka-Dot, surrounded by Yellow Backgrounds.

Like many other Series, it features all the typical interior items a player needs to fully furniture a home. Similar to the Modern Series, it has an insane amount of Customisation options, both with Colour and Ore-variations.

Fortunately, Frobert, Rosie and Apple enjoy this Series and own the most Polka-Dot items in the game.

11. Princess Series

Heading back to GracieGrace furniture, we have the Princess Series. This is another high-end Furniture Series that’s fully decorated with white wood and light-blue fabrics.

Like the other Gracie items, it’s seasonal, being available only during the Spring, takes months to unlock, and is incredibly expensive. Honestly, I do not know why this didn’t return to New Horizons. It would have been perfect.

Anyway, the Princess Series is the third-most expensive Series, after the Gracie and Gorgeous Series, costing 1.9million Bells to purchase.

Again, a handful of villagers own Princess items, such as Chèvre, Chelsea and Étoile, but are limited to only 1 or 2 items, and can’t be customised.

12. Regal Series

Moving on, we have the Regal Series, which has featured in every game, except New Horizons. This furniture series is known as the Royal Series in Japan, made up of creamy white items, with gold finishings.

Like most of the furniture we’ve mentioned, the Regal Series can be customised into several variations, changing the gold-features into many other designs.

It’s owned by several Snooty villagers, including Friga, Olivia and Pecan, which makes sense given the nature of the inspiration behind this series.

13. Robo Series

Now the Robot Series, is at this point an iconic Furniture Series, after being introduced in Wild World and returning to every game since…Well, until New Horizons.

As you can tell, the Robo Series comprises futuristic items, each with a Robot design. Many items have antennas, arms and even Robot eyes. And of course, can be customised into several finishes. It’s pretty cool.

Again, I do not know why this couldn’t have returned to New Horizons. But maybe Nintendo will pack it in a DLC pack one day, with the Astro Series.

Anyway, this Series is often hard to come-by, but is owned by many villagers, including Cube, Del and Chief, to name a few.

14. Rococo Series

Next, we have another wonderfully detailed Furniture Series called the Rococo Series. This Series is inspired by an 18th-Century French style of Architecture, and looks amazing.

Of course, if you’re not fond of the default design, it can be customised drastically into 1 of 4 other variations, including Gothic Brown, Yellow, Black and White.

This series debuted in New Leaf, and of course never returned. In New Leaf it’s owned by the likes of Muffy, Beardo and Pashmina… And suits their aesthetics perfectly.

15. Snowman Series

The Snowman Series is a classic Furniture Series and again debuted in the original Animal Crossing, and then featured in every game until New Horizons. It’s primarily made up of Snowman features, and mostly, got from members of the Snowfolk family.

It’s a pretty playful and cheeky series, with many cute items, so I can only assume Nintendo decided against bringing this to New Horizons, because it doesn’t look as realistic as other furniture.

Technically, the Snowman Series is a limited-time Furniture Series, so no villagers own any of these items.

16. Stripe Series

Next up, we have a very satisfying Furniture Series, called the Stripe Series. I’m sure you can tell where it got its name from.

This Series is of course made up of Horizontal Blue and White stripes, but as you’d expect can be customised into 6 other colourful variations, making it a great Series to work with.

It debuted in New Leaf, but of course never returned. Villagers including Henry, Hamlet and Moe own most items from this Series.

17. Sweets Series

And finally, we have the Sweets Series, and the final Gracie Grace Furniture series that seemingly never returned to Animal Crossing New Horizons. This Series is the Gracie Furniture available during the Autumn, or Fall, and looks super tasty, the more you look at it.

Out of all the Gracie items unlocked months into the New Leaf game, the Sweets Series is the cheapest to purchase, with the entire Series costly around 1.5million Bells.

Being a limited-time Series, it’s not customisable, however, many villagers own 1 or 2 items from this Series, including Chai, Merengue and Apple… Which are of course all food-related Villagers, which is pretty neat.

So, there we have it. 17 complete Furniture Series removed from the Animal Crossing franchise, and have yet to return to Animal Crossing New Horizons.

…

I am glad you're here because we just got one of the biggest new chapter reveals ever in the history of ESO. So much to talk about here from the reveal of Hermaeus Mora as the next Daedric Prince to the Telvanni Peninsula and Apocrypha as new playable zones. There is also a powerful new class called the Arcanist, new companions, new systems and much more coming to the Elder Scrolls Online this year. So much for us to break down and discuss. But right now in this article, I want to show you my favorite new feature and that is the new Arcanist.

In his class and everything we know so far, we learned today that the new Arcanist in this class for ESO is going to have some major similarities with other classes in the game as you might expect but also with some new gameplay mechanics thrown in for starters. We know the three class Skill Lines will be similar to other new classes like the Warden and Necromancer, which included dedicated lines for Damage, Tanking, Survival and Healing. We also found out the actual class skill line names or Skill Trees, which are going to be Herald of the Tome, Apocryphal Soldier and Curative Runeforms.

I'm guessing that may be DPS tank and healing in that order. Now, you might already get the sense that this class is heavily based in theme and abilities around Hermaeus Mora and Apocrypha with references to tomes and runes and Apocrypha itself. Now, we don't know the full backstory of the Arcanist class quite yet other than the fact that it's closely associated with the Telvani Peninsula region and especially with the Daedric prince as we met mentioned from asamora. It seems like arcanus and ESO are devout seekers of knowledge so much so that they have an intimate connection to the Daedric realm of Apocrypha, which we can see expressed with these references to tomes and runes within the active abilities that we saw in the ESO.

Design team themselves actually confirmed that the Arcanist's entire persona. It's actually based on the Black Books of Hermaeus Mora, which inspired how the Arcanist skills look and feel. And while players will not be wielding the infamous Black Books themselves, Arcanists do have their own unique tomes in which they've scribed their own powerful magic.

Now I think this class looks absolutely amazing in terms of visual. I love the vibrant green particle effects. Here especially and the appearance of runes all over whether it's damaging enemies or buffing yourself or allies. Now we did get a few glimpses of the Arcanist skills in action. For example, here we see the Arcanist is summoning a book in their left hand while throwing two projectiles with their right hand. And here we see what appears to be a defensive Rune Shield.

One confirmed skill is Apocrypha's Gate, which opens a pair of temporary portals between your location and wherever you're aiming that you can jump between for some extra mobility during combat or even for exploration outside of combat. Then we saw Abyssal Impact, which was a melee damage skill that infuses your arm with unstable magic transforming it into a tentacle that thrusts for damaging enemies and likely applying some nasty status effects. Now just scratched the surface.

So far it was also confirmed during the ESO Global reveal that the Arcanist in this class makes use of a unique combo point system, something that differentiates it from every other class in the game. In this system, some abilities build points while other abilities spend points giving the Arcanists some extra bonuses and augments during combat while this does sound complex the team emphasized that the combo point system would be simple enough for all players to easily pick up and take advantage of right away to me. This does sound similar to the way the Necromancer class empowers its abilities if you're familiar with that class.

The Necromancer basically can use corpses or additional effects and to make its skills even stronger. So, it'll be interesting to see how this affects the Arcanist gameplay. If it's similar to the Necromancer and how impactful it really is on the game.

Other than that we did find out that there's two new companions coming in the chapter this year. One is going to be an Argonian Warden and the second is going to be a red guard Arcanist so that new class theme is definitely going strong.

This year should get a lot more of the Hermaeus Mora lore and storytelling. If you choose to get that companion as well, we also saw a little bit about the quarter one DLC, which is going to be a two dungeon DLC pack as it usually is every year now from some of the gameplay and the art this is called Scribes of the Fate.

By the way, it looks like we may see some of these Arcanist abilities in the actual enemies that we face in these two new dungeons so that should be interesting to see as well. Of course, the new chapter is what we're all focused on and it has been confirmed to drop on June 5th.

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Amazon Games' New World has made big changes in its first year online with major updates on a regular basis that have addressed many of the issues players had at launch. Nearly every month since its release, New World's updates have introduced new content, weapons, events, system reworks, and quality-of-life changes that have significantly improved the game in many areas. As a result, leveling has become quicker, crafting is easier, combat is more fluid, the early game is more streamlined, and there's plenty of content for endgame players. While the game's population may not be what it was in its early days, current New World players seem to be growing more satisfied with the experience.

A roadmap revealing many of the biggest changes coming to New World has been revealed during the New World Dev Update for December, including some features that have long been requested by players. New World will soon be getting transmog, gear set storage, 20-player groups, changes to crafting tiers, territory wars, and some challenging new PVE content.

Let's get into it and see what they have in store for us over the next few months. First I would like to just say I really like this dev blog a ton more than usual, this one was a lot more relaxed showing out takes cracking jokes, and the best part it wasn't two hours long, it was just a nice short chat about what's coming.

Winter Convergence

So the first thing they talked about was The Winter Convergence of 2022. We can expect this to hit live in the next couple of weeks, if you guys didn't play last year, at this time let me just start by saying. This was the best event in my opinion that new world has ever had. it had different things you could do quests collecting the meteors, killing the yetis, it was just an all-around fun event, and the decorations around the settlements really gave the game a nice feeling during the holidays. This year they're adding a few new things, there will be a new world boss, a new quest associated with the winter warrior. This guy will be big, and dangerous, much like the real Halloween event boss. I'm excited to see if they will continue with last year theme and give us a bunch of new home decor and skins. One thing a bit silly with this year's event is they chose the same style of settlement Decor on Brimstone, a desert it's burning hot, but in town you're in a snow globe sort of situation. But anyway not a huge deal, it's just for fun.

Territory Control

The next thing they talked about was Territory Control, they're making three big changes in December in terms of wars and territory influence. The first change will be an introduction of a company leave cooldown, this cooldown will last 72 hours, and during that time you can participate in any activity associated with territory control, so it will become more important for people to really think before leaving a company. The next big change will be to war roster limits, they will be implementing a new mercenary limit, they wanted mercenaries to still be a thing to allow players to still participate and show support for their faction, or potentially show their ability to get recruited. But they wanted to limit it, so what they will be doing is setting the mercenary limit for a territory defense team to be 10, and the attacking teams will be set to 25 mercenary cap. They are also introducing a daily War limit, the limit will be one attack and one defense per day, and this limit will be account wide per world. So if you have multiple characters per server, you will still be locked on both.

I know these changes will piss off some players out there, but I think it is a good step. it will allow more players and more companies to get on the map, and allow people to have access to a system that before was controlled by a very small group of players.

They also emphasize that this is a December change only, not the end. They will be watching Territory Control and all those systems closely, and will continue to make changes moving forward that will improve them.

Crafting Stations

They talked about how they are changing crafting stations, what they are doing is making all procedural recipes, not have a crafting station tier requirement, stuff that has drop down menus. When I heard this a few months ago was exactly what they addressed, so that's pretty awesome, which was why would any company bother to spend going to upgrade anything. There are still huge benefits to upgrading, you will still need High tier stations for high-end specialty stuff, named items and that kind of thing but also the higher tier stations will offer lower reductions in crafting costs, as well as the new territory control.

New cinematics, quality-of-life changes, a hardcore Sandworm Elite Trial for the toughest PVE players, cross-world Outpost Rush, and a free weekend are just a few of the other things to look forward to in the near future. I do believe that more contents will released and waiting for players to explore in the New World future.

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Just a few days ago, World of Warcraft: Dragonflight launched a new cosmetic collection feature that has similarities to a Battle Pass. This new World of Warcraft feature is called Trading Post. The purpose of this feature is to make it easier for players to obtain rare and exclusive cosmetics while playing the game.

Trading Post

If you have experienced World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, chances are you know that there are a total of four Major Factions in Dragon Isles, namely the Dragonscale Expedition, Iskaara Tuskarr, Maruuk Centaur, and Valdrakken Accord. A new Trading Post has been added in the capital of each faction.

This is a special market where players can get unique weapon and armor transmogs, pets, and mounts. Inventory in each Trading Post is also refreshed every month. If you are more interested in a certain item, you can also choose to freeze this item to save it for the next month. The Trading Posts themselves undergo some noticeable changes each month, with new and novel inventories displayed on the armor racks each time, and brand new mounts placed in the stables.

Trader's Tender

What you need to pay special attention to is that no matter which Trading Post you are in, you will need to use a new currency called "Trader's Tender" to trade. So, what channel should you use to get Trader's Tender?

First off, you can easily earn 500 Trader's Tender just by having an active subscription and accessing the Trading Post. Second, you'll need to complete special monthly challenges in the Traveler's Log. The content of these challenges changes every month, sometimes you need to complete progression activities such as World of Warcraft raids and Mythic+ dungeons, and other times you need to participate in some interesting activities such as resurrecting players or using emotes on specific NPCs.

In short, no matter what kind of challenge it is, it generally fits the holidays and themes in the game. And after you complete these challenges, you can earn another 500 Trader's Tender.

Players' Reactions To The New Feature

Once the Trading Post feature goes live, players from the Alliance will only need to head outside the Mage District in Stormwind to find the Tawny and Wilder Trading Post. And players from Horde can simply go to the Grommash Hold in Orgrimmar to find the Zen'shiri Trading Post.

If you are careful, you may have found that World of Warcraft has added stables to the two locations mentioned above in Shadowlands Patch 9.2.5, which seems to imply the emergence of new content. Players can expect to see the Trading Post in the Public Test Realm in the upcoming Dragonflight patch 10.0.5.

The general reaction from players to the Trading Post launch has been largely positive. The first reason is that most World of Warcraft players are more interested in collecting decorations. Secondly, players can also find various challenges that suit their play style in the Traveler's Log. Best of all, in the Trading Post, each month they can pick up interesting and unique items. These alone are enough to keep players logged in, even during the slow period of World of Warcraft's patch cycle.

If you want to complete the various challenges in the Traveler's Log faster, it would be a good choice to prepare some WoW 10.0 Gold in advance.

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There are bits and pieces from the many Need for Speed games within Need for Speed Unbound, and it does a fair job of balancing these elements.

In order for franchises to last decades, they typically have to reinvent themselves a few times. Need for Speed is no exception, even though in Need for Speed Unbound, the series takes inspiration from past titles. This is certainly not a bad thing, as there is a lot to be learned from the franchise's past.

Need for Speed Unbound returns to the street racing that characterized the series during the 2000s. It also features a focus on characters which is something that became more prevalent during the 2010s. The two elements are blended well, resulting in an addictive racing game.

Need for Speed During the 2000s

For most of its lifetime, the Need for Speed series has been about exhilarating races and evading the police. However, it has changed its setting quite a bit over time, giving each of the games a different feeling. Earlier Need for Speed titles feature tracks with some urban influence, but they also wind through the outskirts of cities, allowing gamers to enjoy the stunning scenery. This is seen, for instance, with Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2, which was released in 2002.

The 2000s is also the decade where Need for Speed, like many arcade racers of the time, delved into street racing. It was the perfect time to do so thanks to the level of popularity that Japanese imported cars and car customization had achieved in pop culture. This era of the franchise is best represented by Need for Speed Underground and its sequel which feature hip-hop soundtracks and the ability to customize cars to make them look as flashy as the player likes.

For most of the 2000s, the franchise stuck to this identity, arguably reaching its pinnacle with Need for Speed: Most Wanted. However, the formula eventually got stale. Furthermore, street racing lost the popularity it once enjoyed. Consequently, when Need for Speed: Carbon rolled around in 2006, many gamers saw this as the beginning of a decline in the series.

In many ways, Need for Speed Unbound is a return to form for the series. It embraces urban street racing once again, features intense police chases, and gives players the option to wildly customize vehicles. In many ways, it feels like Unbound was created for gamers who enjoyed this era.

Need for Speed in the 2010s

The 2010s were a weird time for the Need for Speed series. After the fall of the popularity of street racing, the franchise seemed to be searching for a new identity. Technically, this began in the late 2000s with titles like ProStreet that tackled legal street racing, but things have only gotten weirder from that point onward.

During the 2010s, the franchise looked toward the online world and attempted to make the most of it.

Hence, gamers got titles such as 2010's Need for Speed: World and 2015's Need for Speed which attempted to reboot the series. Neither of these titles was particularly well-received. The 2010s also saw the series look past just the cars, and pay attention to the racers as well. For example, in The Run, there are sections where players get out of their vehicles and engage in quick-time events, while 2019's Need for Speed Heat, gamers can select their own playable character from a catalog of presets.

Need for Speed Unbound also focuses on characters; it allows gamers to pick their own playable character and customize them with designer clothing. However, its single-player offering is still the main attraction, and it doesn't attempt to bill itself as an online multiplayer game as other titles in the decade did. With Unbound, it appears that Need for Speed has found an identity that suits it in the modern landscape. It takes the street racing of the 2000s and blends it with the focus on characters from the 2010s. The result is a concoction of fun arcade racing that reminds players that the franchise has not yet met its demise.

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Trading in New World is once again temporarily disabled due to a newly discovered exploit affecting the Trading Post. This comes after the team had already paused some of its newly implemented cooldown restrictions on Company switching for a few days.

“Today our internal data alarms detected a Trading Post exploit, involving manipulating specific contracts in an error state. We have a fix for this issue in testing,” the update begins. Something set off the data alarms and they declare that only a small number of players took advantage of this exploit, but in order to shut down the possibility of more exploits and minimize damage to the economy, trading is once again temporarily disabled by Trading Post and player to player trading as well.

The downtime is likely to be minimal since they are currently testing a fix for the issue after identifying it. As with more recent times when trading was affected in this way due to exploits, the New World team looks to minimize disruptions.

This new issue comes on the heels of the week’s update, which stated the newly revamped Winter Convergence Festival, but also included some changes intended to fight the shell Companies, which let some territory fall under the control of the same people and eliminate fair competition. One of the changes included cooldowns when it came to certain actions:

“When leaving a Company, players will start a 72 hour cooldown on fighting in a defensive War and earning Influence for any Company toward War declaration eligibility. The cooldown begins once a player leaves.”

The issue arose when the update applied this penalty retroactively, meaning that those that had left companies this week were being locked out of participation in Wars. Some in the community expressed their frustration at the retroactive application and allegedly unclear time when they would’ve had to have their Company set.

Amazon has decided to suspend these cooldowns for a few days in order to let players get things in order. This will begin to be enforced on December 11th at 2 AM PT/ 5 AM ET so if you are thinking of switching Companies, you need to be in the right one three days before this deadline.

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