Intrepid Studios just released some more information regarding major economy and stat changes coming with to phase three of Ashes of Creation’s (currently scheduled to be launched on August 26, 2025).
The team shared that their current focus is ensuring testers can always outfit themselves with gear appropriate to their level – crafted with fair and engaging investment of time, effort, and skill.
To support this, they’re refining the gathering, processing, crafting, combat drops, and other reward systems to better align with player progression, enrich the overall gameplay loop, and make sure your time spent in Verra feels rewarding.
Below is a closer look at what some of these upcoming changes look like.
Crafting, Gathering, and Recipes
The team has rebuilt all crafting and processing recipes from the ground up to better reflect the overall investment of time it takes to not only gather the required materials, but also process them. Each artisan level now directly correlates with a specific gear grade, and within each of these gear grades are different tiers.
From level one and beyond, starting gear recipes use plentiful, accessible resources, ensuring players can always equip themselves with gear appropriate to their level. At a bare minimum, there will always be at least one set that provides a baseline level of power. As you progress your character, the team plans on having even more recipes that incorporates rarer materials, while still relying on a core of familiar and readily available ingredients.
Once you’re ready to actually craft powerful gear, the required materials will scale accordingly, making it more and more difficult to craft as the power of the gear increases. The recipes for this gear will also expand to require a broad mix of resources, rare components, vendor-sold reagents, specific mob-drops, and even materials that could only be found in certain regions.
To support this new crafting system, the team also overhauled resource spawn locations, yields, and even respawn timers for certain resources. The overall goal is to make every biome within the game feel distinct and rewarding in its own way for gatherers.
Drops, Vendors and Quest Rewards
If you participated in any of the previous testing phases, then you’ll likely recall the minimal amount of rewards you receive from quests and commissions, and also you’ll likely recall a lot of back-and-forth regarding the chances of getting drops from mobs.
The team has made a number of adjustments in all of these areas. Mob drops have been tuned to be similar to the crafting progression (to help ensure crafters and adventurers stay in sync). In general, roughly four hours of mob grinding should yield comparable gear progression to four hours of crafting. Mobs can now drop gear from various tiers within each grade. While most drops will be from the lowest tiers, there’s still a small chance to score high-quality items!
Additionally, in-game vendors will also now offer low gear for all grades, along with reagents required for advanced crafting.
Quest rewards and commissions have also received updates! Many quests will now actually allow players to choose their reward which can include either materials or gear. Commissions have been rebalanced to better reflect the effort to complete them, and now features boxes that reveal a special surprise reward when opened!
How to Start Playing Ashes of Creation
If you’re interested in playing Ashes of Creation, then create an account here and visit the “shop” section of the Ashes of Creation website to purchase your key. Upon purchase, you will receive access to play the rest of Alpha Two, along with a key for Beta One and Beta Two. Additionally, you’ll have access to start playing on the PTR for additional testing.
Additionally, you will receive one month of gameplay for Ashes of Creation upon launch, and $15 worth of embers (in-game marketplace credits). We hope to see you soon in Verra!
