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Free-to-play Monster Hunter rival Dauntless has finally launched on Steam after years on Epic’s storefront, and it hasn’t gone down well with players. The trip to Valve’s store was accompanied by a brand-new update, which completely changes how Dauntless is played. There are now loot boxes, quests and weapon progress has been changed, and some mechanics have even been removed. Players across the Steam page, subreddit, and other online communities have voiced their concerns, and now developer Phoenix Labs has responded. The trouble is, this response hasn’t gone down too well either.
Dauntless has been available on both the Epic Games Store and console for a few years now, but Thursday December 5 marked the game’s Steam launch. This came with the RPG’s colossal Awakening update, which has been met with an ‘overwhelmingly negative’ response from the community. Players aren’t pleased with the addition of loot boxes, a progression reset, the removal of some weapons, and loads of other system changes.
In response to the Dauntless community’s concerns, Phoenix Labs has penned a letter. Here, the team has aimed to address many of the issues raised by new and old players alike, while outlining what the future of Dauntless looks like.
To start, players don’t like the new Canister mechanic. These Canisters offer up a range of cosmetic items and act as brand-new loot boxes added with the Awakening update, while this sudden turn is not one the community agrees with.
“As our community has pointed out, Canisters are indeed loot boxes, however, our team has taken a very careful approach to the addition of Canisters to the game,” Phoenix Labs writes.
The team adds that items players get from Canisters are cosmetic only, and that they will “never receive duplicate items” either. “In the end, Canisters are all about choice. Slayers don’t have to utilize them if they don’t want to, but the Dauntless: Awakening Canisters also don’t contain anything that would prohibit game progression if Slayers opt out of engaging with them.”
Players don’t just have gripes with new loot boxes, though, as quests and progression have been mostly reset. “For legacy players, based on the feedback we’ve seen, it appears this transition and ‘reset’ back to the start has felt too abrupt or jarring, especially in conjunction with other changes,” Phoenix Labs writes. “We want to acknowledge this frustration, and we hope that the speed with which veteran players will be able to move through these quests will ease some of this concern.”
The team adds that “advanced players should be able to move through these pretty quickly both due to the resources we granted to help get you through them, and due to your game knowledge,” but this also hasn’t gone down well. Longtime players are upset they need to do a lot of these quests again, so since the Steam launch, Phoenix Labs has made some changes to benefit veterans.
As of right now, all pre-Awakening players are being given some Chain Blades, Strikers, and Repater weapons they would normally need to earn via quest progression, so they “can get up and running with them right away.” New Dauntless players don’t get this bonus, and will instead need to get the weapons via quest progression.
Dauntless players are also upset with the weapon changes, as the “old-style weapons where each Behemoth had its own of each weapon type” have been retired by Phoenix Labs. Players can instead get seven unique weapons through early quests, while another 11 can be obtained via Weapon Tokens, a currency obtainable from Hunt Passes (which are either free or paid), weekly challenges, or purchased outright with Platinum premium currency. The Awakening update also removed weapon crafting, with Weapon Tokens taking their place.
“We want to acknowledge that these changes mean that there are fewer weapons per type, per element, and per gameplay use (Cutting etc). The design intention behind these changes is the creation of more unique weapons that then allow for much more variety in gameplay styles,” Phoenix Labs explains.
“At first glance, it may seem like there are fewer weapon options available. However, with the addition of Talents and the unique abilities of the new weapons, we believe these changes provide Slayers with greater depth and variety in gameplay, allowing for more meaningful and personalized choices.”
Across the subreddit players have been addressing this Phoenix Labs letter, with user ‘Adrakhan’ calling it “a bad joke of a letter,” while ‘DoctorDakka94’ thinks it’s “a spit in our face” and “disrespectful to the people who made your F2P game possible, the fans.” This is a sentiment shared across the Dauntless community, with many other posts and comments not at all pleased with the Awakening update.
The rest of the Phoenix Labs letter goes into further Hunt Pass changes and what’s next for the problems with performance and graphics. You can read the letter in full right here.
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