August 29 marks a major turning point with The Third Edict patch. Act IV opens up the vast, non-linear Ngamakanui archipelago. Eight islands rich with new environments, over 100 monster types, and 12 bosses. Cruel difficulty is gone, replaced by three Interlude mini-acts that bridge the campaign to endgame and bring fresh story beats along the way.
Grind Gear Games introduces the first Rise of the Abyssals league, where fissures spew Abyssal foes, closing them grants access to unique crafting rewards and deep underground challenges. Quality-of-life gets a boost with asynchronous trading list items in your hideout merchant, and others can buy them even if you're offline.
Gameplay systems see broad improvements: sprinting increases movement but leaves you vulnerable if hit, deflect mechanic enhances evasion builds, and support gems are now socketable into multiple skills. The overhaul extends across balance tweaks, new passive nodes, crafting upgrades, more maps, and remastered UI, aiming to refresh the experience and finally let content updates take the spotlight.