May 15 Update: Skill Tree, Magic, Performance & What Comes Next

Tomorrow is update day.

This has been one of those development phases where a lot of the work is not always easy to show in a single screenshot. Some features are obvious the moment you open a menu or cast a spell. Others are hidden inside logic, optimization, animation timing, loot tables, vendor rules, UI states, localization, and all the small fixes that make a build feel much more stable.

So before the May 15 update arrives, we wanted to walk you through where things landed, what made it into this build, and what is coming shortly after.

Skill Tree Is Here

The biggest part of this update is the Skill Tree, and we’re happy to say that it is now complete and included in the May 15 build.

This is no longer just a visible UI or a work-in-progress system behind the scenes. Skill unlocking, attribute handling, companion progression, resources, node states, UI feedback, icon frames, button sounds, and the overall structure are now fully in place.

Weapon Skills and Combat Skills are implemented and working. Magic Skills have also moved from “planned” to playable. Venom Storm, Doom Shroud, and Goddess Grace now have their effects, audio, and gameplay logic in place, giving you real build options beyond weapon-focused combat.

Healing magic in particular changes the feel of party combat. Goddess Grace now works as a proper support spell, giving you another way to keep both yourself and nearby companions alive. Potions are still something you actively manage through hotkeys, even when using them for companions, but healing magic behaves more naturally. Companions can cast it on their own when needed, which makes party survival feel less manual and gives support-oriented builds a much clearer role.

This also makes Wisdom and Intellect feel much more meaningful than before, especially if you want to build around survivability, magic, or hybrid playstyles.

Since the Skill Tree changes how characters grow and how powerful different builds can become, we’ll be watching balance closely after the update. Some levels may feel easier or harder than before depending on your build, party setup, and skill choices. If that happens, the next step won’t be more Skill Tree development, it will be level and encounter balancing around the new progression system.

For us, this is a major milestone. The Skill Tree is now the core progression system we wanted it to be, and we’re excited to finally get it into your hands.

Combat, Animation & Body Physics Polish

A lot of combat work in this update was about making things feel smoother and more reliable rather than simply adding another flashy move.

Several special attacks and Fury attacks received new or updated VFX, audio, timing, root motion, and impact feedback. Weapons like the Dagger, Great Spear, Great Mace, Great Axe, Staff, and Great Sword all received attention in different ways. Some attacks needed better trails, some needed stronger impact sounds, some needed animation timing changes, and some needed fixes so movement and hit moments lined up properly.

We also continued reducing stutter and awkward transitions in attack chains. Attack buffers, blend timing, root motion, dual wield behavior, great weapon movement, and ranged damage variance all received work. These are the kinds of changes that are easy to miss in a patch note, but they matter a lot when you are actually playing.

The character movement also received another polish pass. Walk animations, twist bones, skinning, body movement, and jiggle physics have been improved so characters feel less stiff and more natural in motion. This touches gameplay, posing, character previews, and