New Updates: Smarter Towns, Better Fishing, and Dragon Battles

Today’s update brings several quality-of-life improvements and exciting new features that make your time in Shroud of the Avatar even more immersive and enjoyable.

Towns are now smarter—NPC buildings like taverns and shops can level their own ground, so you no longer need to find a perfectly flat field to place them. This makes town planning easier and more flexible. Meanwhile, managing your vendor inventory just got faster: you can now adjust prices or reclaim multiple items at once with a single selection.

Fishing has been refined with a new High Contrast mode for the reel meter, helping players with red-green color blindness. A satisfying splash plays when you land a fish, and a helpful hint now tells you exactly which key controls your reel. New anglers get a proper introduction, too—Fleta’s salmon quest is back, and the fishing guide walks you through the mini-game step by step.

For those who love crafting and combat, seeds and fishing bait can now be placed on your Combat Hotbar, with each seed type in its own slot and a visible count. The world also got a refresh: Rampage Island is now Ivory Stronghold, a desert-themed home near Oasis. And dragons are back—with new mechanics like Wing Gust knocking you down, standing under a dragon risking crushing damage, and heavy hits causing dragon wrasses to fall off. Those wrasses can even drain your health if you stand still too long.

Customization continues to grow—players can now choose the color of all floating combat text in Options. And for those who love alchemy, a new potion has arrived: Holy Water. Throw it at an undead enemy, and if they die within the minute, they stay dead. (Yes, it’s made with whiskey.)

Finally, the Recruit a Friend system is now complete—personal invite links, a code box on the login screen, and rewards for both recruiter and new player. When a friend plays two hours on their own device, both get 500 Gold Crowns and the Envoy title. The newcomer also receives a Black and Tan Rottweiler. This feature will activate at launch.

Summarized from Chris "Atos" Spears' work log at Catnip Games.