Dauntless "Letter To The Community" Responds To Early Player Concerns, Explains Hunt Pass Choices, And Defends Loot Box Addition

Just 24 hours after the launch of the "Awakening" revamp in Dauntless, Phoenix Labs is taking some time out to review and comment on some of the more common issues and concerns players have been bringing up. Whether you're totally new to the F2P monster-hunting game or a long-time veteran, if you have some gripes, you probably aren't alone.

In the full post from the devs, topics run the gamut from veteran players basically having to "restart" to a certain extent, all the way to loot boxes. It wasn't a "wipe" per se for vets, but new and returning players do kind of have to go through the exact same starting quests as new players.

The team says this was actually intentional since they want both new and returning players to get a feel for all of the new systems and the weapon changes. The devs aren't going to be changing much on this front yet. They feel that the materials veteran players received and their experience will get them through this phase quickly. However, the team will be sending veteran players Golden Claws (radiant Strikers), Twin Suns (shock Repeaters), and Netherlights (umbral Repeaters) at the start of the game. You currently get them a few hours in (and new players will still have to do it this way), but they don't want veteran players feeling like they had to spend Tokens on them. Sinking resources into other weapons until you got them felt bad, too.

Looking at the Hunt Pass, no, there is no plan to add platinum (the cash shop currency) rewards to the pass track. You can occasionally get it from a Cannister pull you emptied. The team is looking at the pass to fund future development, so no free currency there. The Hunt Pass feature weapon will also become available by itself later, but the team is still working on timing between the pass. If it's too fast, then buying the hunt pass may not feel worthwhile.

Sticking to cash shop stuff, the team is already having to defend their choice to add loot boxes to Dauntless. They're already pulling out the "it's all cosmetic", "it's all optional", "you can't get duplicates", and "we're giving you the odds ahead of time so you can be informed" arguments.

Seriously, if everything in the cannisters (loot boxes) was ACTUALLY worth buying and you wouldn't be disappointed getting it, then each item would just be on sale by itself in the cash shop. Loot boxes are predatory and Dauntless should not have added them. Full stop.

If you're curious about the differences between some previous systems, like weapons upgrading, and the talents, there's breakdowns of those in the post as well.

If you're looking for additional fun, the Frostfall holiday event will be back on December 19th with the 2.1.1 patch that introduces a number of fixes. The full post is worth a read if you plan to play for a bit.