Dauntless Awakening Now Live, So Is The Steam Launch...And Apparently So Are Queues

The day has arrived and Dauntless is finally available on Steam. As part of the 2.0 "Awakening" update, Phoenix Labs brought the F2P monster-hunting game to the digital distribution platform after years of having the PC version tied to the Epic Games Store. Cross play and cross progression across all platforms, including consoles, is available. Just remember, you will still need to create or link an Epic account to play, even while playing on Steam. The cross play options are tied to that account. You don't need to have the Epic Games Store installed, but you do need the account.

Anyway, aside from a Steam launch, Awakening revamps a lot of Dauntless. This second revamping of the entire game comes with the ability to carry two weapons and swap between them, a new Behemoth to hunt, a new hunting ground replacing the old Twilight's Sanctuary, and massive reworks to the game's progression systems and some monetization changes...including the addition of loot boxes.

A few other things from the previous version of the game have been removed, too. Lanterns are a thing of the past, reforging is gone, and the multiple passes are scaled back to one pass.

As of server launch, there are queues, which I guess should be taken as a good thing for a game that many thought may just silently fade away. That is until Phoenix Labs was purchased by a blockchain-related company (which may explain some of the monetization changes).

While all returning players likely play through the current launcher, Steam Charts does have Dauntless at over 2K people already, and it just opened a few minutes ago, so good luck to the team!