New Major Update Out Now! Tend, Build, Thrive Patch Notes

Hello Voyagers! We’re very excited to release our latest patch: Tend, Build, Thrive. We are also very excited to share that Voyagers of Nera is on sale, from now until April 13th. Snag the base game for 34% off, or the Founder’s Pack for 20% off during this time. We also have Twitch Drops active right now! Watch any Voyagers of Nera streamer to earn the Twitch Mana Flare, Infused Skimmer, Infused Sail and the new Infused Watering Can! Or subscribe / give a gift sub to earn the Infused Glider. Now let’s get to the patch notes! We’ve always wanted players to feel like they are rescuing spirits from a dangerous, dynamic world and bringing them back to a Sanctuary you built. To bring us closer to that feeling, this update adds two of the top player requests: Weather and Farming. In your travels, you’ll encounter fog, rain, and storms that bring new life to the world - just look out for the lightning! And you’ll find seeds for all kinds of plants, fruits, and trees to bring back to your base, letting you cultivate bountiful crops. We’ve also heavily reworked our Sanctuary mechanics! As you invest in your base and build a safe haven for the Spirits and yourself, you’ll be rewarded with powerful buffs and benefits for rest. Alongside these big gameplay updates, we’ve made significant improvements to combat feel based off of player feedback, performance optimizations, and a lot of quality of life changes to make building forward bases easier. Check out the full changes below!

🌱Farming

Farming has been one of our top requested features from players on our Feature Upvote Board, and we're so excited to finally add it to the game! While exploring and gathering in the world, any plant collected will have a chance to drop a seed. Bring this seed home, plant it, water and tend to it, and over time it’ll grow into a harvestable plant. Resource respawn times have been adjusted with farming in mind.

Farm Plots Steam post image

There will be multiple types / sizes of farm plots. Stone Planter

• This is a small planter that holds 1 plant

Small Farm Plot

• A small wooden farm plot that holds 4 plants

Large Farm Plot

• A larger wooden farm plot that holds 8 plants

Tree Plot

• A sturdy wooden farm plot that holds 1 tree

Types of plants that can be farmed

You’ll be able to farm nearly any type of plant you can think of – vegetables, fruits and even biome-specific trees!

Plants sometimes may drop golden seeds, which will have a higher yield!

Watering and Water Mechanics

Plants require fresh water. Fresh water sources can be found near the base of waterfalls, and collected with a watering can. Overtime, unlock upgraded watering cans with improved water capacity, higher durability, and even higher spray radius to water more plants at once. As you progress in the game, you’ll unlock new buildables that will help with water production.

Fresh Water

• There are two waterfalls per biome.

• Approach a waterfall and right-click while holding a watering can to collect fresh water.

Watering Cans

There are 3 watering cans currently in the game. Watering cans improve in durability, water capacity, spray radius and watering speed. Wooden Watering Can

• Unlocked in the Embrace.

Ceramic Watering Can

• Unlocked in the Reef.

Greatwood Watering Can

• Unlocked in the Greatwood.

Water Refinement

No more chasin' waterfalls once you unlock these buildables that produce fresh water within the base. Desalinator

• When placed on salt water, it will gradually filter fresh water for Farming, as well as produce salt as a by-product for cooking.

Spirit Well

• Powered by magical spirits, this buildable can be placed anywhere within a Sanctuary, and produces endless fresh water!

Weather Interaction

Farm plots will be automatically watered on rainy days.

🌩️Weather

Weather was also one of our most highly requested features. We’ve always wanted the world of Nera to feel alive and different - weather and environmental effects have a huge impact on this. One day it could be smooth sailing and exploring under clear skies, the next day you might be exploring through the fog, not quite sure where exactly you left those Construct Cores.

Weather States

The world will cycle between those states, tracking which weathers you’ve had and trying to make sure you have a good balance and that you aren’t stuck in a perpetual rainstorm! Fully clear day

• Blue skies, sometimes some cloud cover; this is the typical weather that you experience in Nera today

Overcast

• Full cloud cover, bright

Foggy

• Sometimes this could be heavy or light; reduced visibility

Rainy

• This can be heavy or light; perfect ambiance for a mana tea while watching the rain water your farming plots!

Thunderstorm

• This is a heavy storm; careful though, lightning can strike at any time!

Weather Settings

Steam post image

Weather Quality Settings

We have introduced a Weather Density setting. If you want to keep weather effects active, but find the visuals too intense, use this setting to tune the visuals.

Weather Server Toggle

We have introduced a way to disable Weather via a Server Toggle. Configure this in the Load Game screen by selecting the pencil icon on the save slot, and selecting the ‘Advanced Settings’ menu. Disabling Weather will cause all days to be sunny.

😇Sanctuary Updates

We have made significant updates to how Sanctuaries work in order to reward investing into the base, as well as make it rewarding to build any kind of item. All cosmetic items now have a Sanctuary Point value – we call these Comfort Buildables. As you build more Comfort Buildables and Spirit Amenities, your Sanctuary points increase; and when they hit certain point thresholds, you will unlock special buffs for your base known as Sanctuary Benefits. We have also made adjustments to the Spirit Anchor and its empowerment mechanics.

Spirit Anchor Changes

Power provided to stations is now 1:1 with the Spirit Anchor Level, and is no longer dependent on how many buildables have been built. Upgrades have been simplified on the Spirit Anchor – now upgrading the Spirit Anchor will grant increased Spirit Anchor Power Level, Spirit Anchor Limit, and Sanctuary Radius. Other buffs and benefits have been moved to the Sanctuary Benefits and Spirit Amenities.

Sanctuary Benefits

As you increase your Sanctuary Points, you’ll unlock more buffs. Along the Sanctuary Points track there are both Sanctuary benefits, and improved Rejuvenation buffs. Sanctuary Buffs are global effects within the Sanctuary Radius, such as removing Stamina costs while in the Sanctuary radius.

Sanctuary Benefits Tiers

Humble Shelter

• Spirit Sanctuary - Suppress enemy spawns within Sanctuary radius

• Cleansing Aura - Slowly cleanse corruption within Sanctuary radius

Quiet Refuge

• Gain Rejuvenation I after Resting

Spirit Haven

• Gain Rejuvenation II after Resting

Living Sanctuary

• Vim and Vigor - No stamina costs while in the Sanctuary Radius

Sacred Retreat

• Gain Rejuvenation III after Resting

Flourishing Grove

• Strong Back - No encumbrance in the Sanctuary Radius

Garden of Nera

• Gain Rejuvenation IV after Resting

Rest Mechanic

Now you can rest during the day. Resting will fully heal you and restore your mana, as well as grant a Rejuvenation buff. There are multiple tiers of Rejuvenation buff, which can be accessed by improving your Sanctuary. Rejuvenation I

• +25% Stamina Regeneration for 20 minutes.

Rejuvenation II

• +30% Stamina Regeneration for 25 minutes.

Rejuvenation III

• +30% Stamina Regeneration for 30 minutes.

• Stay nourished by food 10% longer.

Rejuvenation IV

• +40% Stamina Regeneration for 40 minutes.

• Stay nourished by food 20% longer.

Functional Spirit Amenities

Previously, Spirit Amenities were purely cosmetic, decorative stations that were built to attract Spirits to the base – they looked special but didn’t really follow through in any significant way. We wanted to give more impact to the amenities - after all, if the Spirits think they’re so great, you should too! Spirit Feasting Table

• When placed within a Sanctuary, food buffs no longer decay for players within the Sanctuary Radius.

Spirit Hotspring

• When within your Sanctuary, interact with this Hot Spring to receive a potent Health Regeneration buff for a short time.

Spirit Totem

• Interact with this totem to commune with the Spirits and receive a potent Mana Regeneration buff for a short time.

Spirit Tree

• This magical tree harnesses the power of the wind and earth to significantly increase the growth rate of any plants nearby.

Ancient Construct

• When within your Sanctuary, interact with this Construct to channel its protective energy and cleanse corruption.

👻Spirits Spawning in the Base

We wanted the base to feel like a safe haven for Spirits, and that you would be able to be surprised and delighted by seeing them in the base. However, only seeing them on Spirit Amenities felt pretty limiting – now Spirits will appear all over your base, taking over any furniture that looks unoccupied and comfy! Spirit Companions have also come out to play! Expect to see Cindertails, Tiderays, Skylacers and Terratoises hanging out in your base as well!

🔥Fuel

We wanted to add more depth of management to crafting and refinement, so we have introduced a fuel mechanic. Stations that are powered by fire like the Campfire, Kiln, Smithing Station, Alchemy Station and Desalinator require fuel to operate.

Fuel Types

Wood

• Wood harvested from trees. Burns for 30 seconds per piece.

Charcoal

• A more advanced fuel than wood. Burns for 1 minute per piece.

Blaze Coal

• An enhanced coal that has improved efficiency. Burns for 5 minutes per piece.

Mana Coal

• A vastly improved fuel type infused with magical essence. Burns for 10 minutes per piece.

⚔️Combat Responsiveness

We have gotten a lot of feedback that attacks felt unresponsive - players locked down by lengthy animations, attacks were slow and cumbersome, and the actual hit impact was unsatisfying. We have made significant changes based off of this feedback and we’re excited to hear what you think! We focused on increasing the fluidity between attacking and moving, increasing the responsiveness of pressing the button → the attack happening, and amping up the sounds and visuals when striking, blocking and parrying to make it more satisfying.

Attacks

• Significantly decreased the amount of time it takes to transition back to movement after performing an attack

• Reduced amount of time it takes to transition from movement → attacking, so that initial attacks out of movement feel more responsive

• Moved attack translation (aka your character moving towards the target) at the beginning of the attack, so that attacking feels less jarring and does not miss enemies as frequently

• Increased attack speed of Spear and Sword / Club weapons

• Allowed player to move while attacking underwater - no more being outrun by those little fish!

• Added SFX for critical hits

Blocking and Parrying

• Reduced amount of time it takes to deploy the shield, resulting in more responsive blocking

• Enhanced VFX when blocking and parrying so that it is more clear that blocking is working

• Added escalating parry SFX to make parrying multiple times in a row more satisfying

Player Damage Effects

• Improved VFX on the player when they are taking damage to make it more clear

• Improved logic on damage vignette so that flashes only when players take significant damage, and pulses persistently when they are low health

🌀Increased Spirit Anchor Limit + Teleporter unlocks sooner

We have increased the amount of Spirit Anchors that can be placed. Now you will begin with the ability to place 2 Spirit Anchors at the beginning of the game, and this will increase by 2 at the Empowerment level at the end of each Biome. Additionally, Teleporters will now be able to be unlocked earlier. They will be available at level 8 in the Knowledge Tree, and have been moved to a Spirit Encounter that is much earlier in the Reef. We hope this will make it easier to build more bases across the biomes, as well as address feedback that teleportation comes too late in the game.

❤️‍🩹Quality of Life Changes

🐛Bug Fixes

⚠️Known Issues