Hello hunters! Been a while hasn’t it? In today’s DevBlog, we’d like to introduce a brand-new system ! Nowadays, post-endgame-progression in ARPGs feels mandatory, as it gives a goal beyond just better items. Everyone wants to feel like they’re making progress when they clear a hunt, even if they don’t get a shiny piece of new equipment. Introducing the Post-endgame Progression System Once your character hits level 50, you'll begin accumulating experience towards ancestors, which bestow permanent statistics increases and unique passives to activate. Past level 50 for your character OR your wyrmling, any further experience you earn from any source will begin to level up the chosen Ancestor There are 14 Ancestors to level up Leveling up an Ancestor reward you with: Statistic bonus, such as Critical Damage, Elemental Damage, Loot Quality, and Thorn Damage 2 unique passives: one unlocked automatically with affinity activation the other requires both reaching the Ancestor's maximum level (level 20) and affinity activation Whenever both the character AND the wyrmling reach maximum level (level 50), the experience earned for the ancestors is doubled. It’s worth mentioning that only one ancestor can be leveled up at a time , but you choose which ancestor to level up at any time. What are tributes? In a new location within the Cathedral of Montescail, players can interact with the Tribute Wall to check the tributes they have earned so far and manage the affinity activation of the character’s ancestors. The basic principle of the Tribute wall is rather simple! Throughout the story and end-game hunts, players will be rewarded with Tributes: powerful artifacts that are defined by their affinities. Affinities matters There are a total of 8 affinities that enable the activation of the ancestors, and 4 elemental affinities + 1 Physical that are used to enhance certain effects: Each tribute has 2 affinities (+ an elemental affinity). Each ancestor requires 4 specific affinities to be active in order to grant their passive skills. Placing a tribute on the Tribute wall activates its affinities. Players will initially have 2 tribute slots available on the wall. As they progress through the story and endgame hunts, players will be rewarded with additional tributes with different combinations of affinities and 2 more slots , allowing for more flexibility. Players will need to find the right combinations of affinities to not only activate 1 ancestor but multiple at the same time! Some Ancestor effects scale with the number of affinities earned so far and therefore tributes owned. When is it coming? Soon™ (with the multiplayer update) We initially planned to add our post-endgame progression system at the full release. However, since the multiplayer update was delayed, it gave the team extra time to develop and implement this feature. Oops… where’s the Augmentations tab? Some of you may have noticed that the Augmentations tab is gone, and that certain effects from it resemble the augmentations you could previously unlock through the Hunting Board. In fact, as we’re introducing our post-endgame progression, and reworking all Hunting Board rewards, it felt natural to remove augmentations and moved most of their effects into the Ancestors. Players familiar with unique passives, such as the Divine Hammer periodically dealing damage, will now see these effects on Ancestors. Our most attentive players will also notice that some effects have been reworked or enhanced in the process. That's it for today! Phew… The Ancestry & Tributes system is a fairly big addition to the game, and one we’re pretty excited about. Our system is pretty flexible, allowing players to add and remove tributes freely. While some ancestors provide simple stat boosts, others are similar to talents or add a gimmick you can play around. On behalf of the entire Dragonkin development team, we hope you enjoy the changes we’re making! We hope it will give a fresh feel. Join our Discord

How are you doing, Dragon Hunters? Happy New Year! Now that 2026 is on its way, we’re back in the studio to share more about Dragonkin: The Banished . Hope you managed to get a good rest, because the Dragonkin train ain’t stopping any time soon! It’s been a little while since our last update, and we’re excited to finally talk about some important changes coming to the Generator-Spender system, or as we now call it... Answering player’s feedback Let’s be honest, one of the biggest concerns regarding Dragonkin is the Generator/Spender mechanic. In fact, even in positive reviews some of you said that they were apprehensive about getting the game at first because of that system. Since the very beginning of Early Access, the Generator/Spender has sparked a lot of discussion, and we’ve heard you loud and clear. Many players told us that the system can feel outdated or even frustrating at times, which sometimes makes it less fun to engage with. We took our time to think about it and made iterations until we reached a point where we can finally show you what we've been working on. How the Current system works Before we dive into the actual change, let’s take a bit of time to explain what the current system is and how it works. Each class currently has two basic skills that act as generators, along with a set of skills that require Energy to cast. This is the classic generator/spender setup most of you are familiar with. Over time, players can unlock mods like cost reductions to better manage energy and reduce reliance on generator skills. Towards a spender ‘only’ system Moving forward, our goal is to lean more into a “spender-only” system. ⚠️ Players will now only play with spender skills without needing generators. That said, we’re not removing generators entirely, so if you enjoy using them, they’ll remain optional. How exactly this will work is something we’ll explain later in our DevBlog. Energy Regen Adjustements Some of you are already familiar with Energy Regen. Pretty self explanatory, It slowly restores energy over time. But we're making several changes for our next update. What to expect? Base value has been increased ( ×3 ) Several Wyrmling skills now grant flat regeneration instead of increasing base regeneration by a percent, therefore making it more impactful Energy Regen will now be available on equipment pieces This change is meant to replace Generator skills and reduce reliance on Energy gain modifiers. On a side note, we’re also reducing the energy pool of all classes for balance purposes in early levels, but the energy pool will expand as your level increases. Of course, there are more ways to enhance it with mods and gear. This is especially important for channeled skills, which would be far too strong with the current energy pool unless their cost is significantly increased. Wyrmling skills now consume energy in certain cases, giving you new options for theorycrating . This change should create a more natural power progression and make increasing the energy pool or regeneration through affixes in the early and mid game more meaningful. Ranks up your skills Character skills now have ranks from 1 to 4 . At lower ranks, a skill deals less damage but cost very little energy, which makes it spammable . As you rank up your skills, they become stronger but consume more energy. With this, there is still a need for theorycrafting and resource management. What’s power and how do I get more? Power is represented by the gem icon in the skill tooltip. You increase a skill’s Power by adding modifiers to a skill, and accumulating enough compatible modifiers hit thresholds that grant additional Power . In other words, the more modifiers or higher rarity modifiers you attach to a skill, the more “effective” Power it gets. Basic skills adjustments We’re removing the Energy Generator and adding ranks to all basic skills. Unless you invest heavily in them, they will always stay weaker than core skills (those with an energy cost), but they now feature an additional bonus effect or were buffed in the process, so they can still be interesting in many builds. Like before, basic skills will not cost any energy to be used. Symbiosis requirements updated We’re changing the way a skill enters Symbiosis to make it simpler to understand. Now a skill simply enters in Symbiosis whenever it reaches rank 4 . Which means you need a minium of 15 effective Power to enter in Symbiosis . As a reminder, a skill in Symbiosis: Changes visually adopting the element of your Wyrmling The skill can now deal damage with the element of your Wyrmling (see below) How are Damage Calculated? Short answer: it's adaptive First of all, there are no dual elements. This means that if your base skill deals Toxic Damage, like Dance of Daggers, and you enter Symbiosis with Fire, the skill will not deal both Toxic and Fire damage, it will deal damage from only one element. How does it work? Which element is taken into account? The game checks which of your elemental damage bonuses is the highest and uses that for the skill. You can also check your Battle Log to see the color indicator, which instantly shows the element each skill is dealing damage with. For example: Dance of Daggers deals Toxic damage by default Once Symbiosis is active, if you have a Fire Wyrmling equipped and your Fire Damage stat is higher than any other element, then Dance of Daggers will deal Fire Damage instead of Toxic If your stats are tied (e.g., Fire Damage = 100% and Toxic Damage = 100%), then the skill defaults to its base element, in this case, Toxic Even though you deal Toxic damage, the visual effect will still show Fire Symbiosis. The true indicator of damage type is shown in the battle log. Note: effective power refers to the total active power from each modifier tier achieved in the skill New modifiers At the very beginning of this DevBlog, we mentioned that we’re not removing Generators entirely, but instead making them optional , so… … what does that mean? We’re introducing a new modifier: Energy Generator . This modifier can be attached to skills with the “basic” tag, allowing them to become an energy generator skill and no longer costs any energy. We’re also adding Ultimate Enhancement 2 A word on balancing Consider these changes a first iteration, so expect further adjustments and balancing over time! Our goal is to give players more freedom at the beginning of the game, allowing them to use any skills with minimal cost in the early stages. As players get more tools and can invest more power into their skills, we want to encourage them to theorycraft in order to balance the higher costs that come with ranking up skills with the power you can gain. Alright, that’s it for today! As we’re creeping closer to the release of the multiplayer, we’re back to a steadier rhythm, so expect more from us very soon. Oh! And if you have any questions, feel free to ask! We’ll keep an eye on the comments below! Don't forget to join our Discord

Hello to all of you Dragon Hunters, and welcome to another dev update! As you know, our team has been hard at work on multiplayer and we’re now at the point where we are finally able to tell you more about it! That’s why today, we will break down how multiplayer will work and answer some common questions we’ve been seeing since the beginning of Early Access. Expect to walk away from this DevBlog with a better understanding of what it will be like when players will get their hands on the multiplayer update. Our Approach The online multiplayer of Dragonkin will consist of partying with up to 4 players to progress through the story together or to take on high-end content such as the Hunting Board or Chaos Hunts! Players will also contribute to the evolution of the City of Montescail that can host up to 50 players. Some people like diving straight into battle and completing story/endgame hunts as much as possible, some prefer endgame activities! From quest completions to gathering relics or crafting, in this way, everyone can feel like they’re contributing in their own right as everything gives XP to the City. Because our philosophy is focused on creating a friend-oriented experience, items you’ve gathered can be shared by putting them in the City’s shared chest or dropped on the ground for your friends to pick up. We’ve chosen this approach instead of a global trade system or player-driven economy as it aligns with our intention of not having Dragonkin be a live-service game, also meaning that it remains fully playable offline . As such, there’s no major gameplay advantage to playing online. In fact, Multiplayer is simply another way to experience the game, mainly for those who want to play alongside friends or develop their city together. If you don’t want the details, here a sum up: TL;DR: City Hub: Up to 50 players, with 32 online simultaneously Quests: Up to 4 players can team up for Story or Endgame content Shared Progression: Level up the City together Level Catcher: Lower-level players level up faster if a high-level player is present Friend-Oriented: Share items freely without global economy Transfer characters: Move your characters across online and offline Cities anytime Teleport: Instantly teleport to other players in the party, even mid-quest Revive: Bring fallen allies back into the fight or after combat Loots: Drops are for you only (but you can give them to anyone) Dragonkin can still be played fully offline! City Ownership & City Progression Online Cities are the main structure that brings players together. Each city can host up to 50 players , with 32 able to be online simultaneously. You can create a city or join an existing one only through invitations from friends. You can have multiple characters in the same online City or across different ones. Each City includes a group system. Cities are organized into groups of 4 players , who can play Story or Endgame content together. Of course, players can move freely between groups as long as there's space. In story group , the progression is shared by any character that joins this group, so you can join at any stage with any character and continue the adventure without losing progress. Note: A group is considered locked while it’s being used by a character for the prologue and tutorial, meaning it cannot be joined nor deleted. What Happens If the City Owner Leaves or Destroys the City? Because character progression is saved locally, nothing is lost if an Online City is destroyed or if the owner leaves. Your characters remain intact, but they will be in a “non-city” state. The next time you log in with that character, you’ll simply need to either join another city or create a new one. This to ensure that character progress is preserved. It's also worth mentioning that city ownership can be transferred to another player, so it's not necessary for a city to be deleted. Managing the City City Management is accessed via Options > Player Management . From here, you can: Check who’s online or offline See each player’s current location Teleport to friends instantly Each player has a rank with permissions managed by the owner. Transfer your characters anytime across Cities You’ll be able to transfer your characters between cities from online to offline and vice versa. This can be done anytime from the main menu and without restrictions. What do I keep (or not)? You get to keep all your inventory items, resources, and gold. However, you will lose the bonuses you had from your previous City if the new City offers fewer or different bonuses.While you will lose access to your old chests, you’ll gain access to the stashes of the new City you join. Hunt together Up to 4 players can play together and either progress in the story or tackle endgame hunts. For the Story Quest, it depends on the current stage of the story, which is determined by the progress of the city group. For the Hunting Board, the quest is validated at the end for everyone who participated in the hunt. Difficulty & Level Catcher The player who starts the quest sets the difficulty, while enemies scale to the highest-level party member currently in the map, even if they join mid-hunt. As you can expect, the enemy's health scales with the number of players in the quest, as well as XP gain. One thing we’ve been very actively considering during development are: “How can we create a pleasant and seamless experience for players who want to play with their friends?” We know that friends don’t always start the game at the same time or progress at the same pace. It’s important for players to be able to play at the same kind of level, as such, we are introducing a Level Catcher system that benefits all lower-level party members. This system helps players quickly catch up to the power level of their highest-level friend. Teleport (almost) anytime, anywhere to your friends! From the Player Management tab, you can teleport to your friend at their exact location at any time. This also allows you to teleport directly from anywhere to the map where they’re currently on a quest or in the City. The only exception being during a Dragon Lord fight. Revive allies As many of you already know, dying during a quest displays a Death Recap along with a button to revive yourself up to 5 times. That said, any player can also revive another player! We’re still working on the details of the death penalty, but we felt it was essential to add this feature to enhance friends' interactions. Loots & Resources Each player receives their own loot, adapted to their class, so you won’t have to rush to grab shiny items. Meanwhile, all players can interact with resource nodes and gather their own resources. Offline inventory & Online chests Your character and inventory are both stored locally , meaning your personal inventory is saved directly on your PC. In addition to this, when online, the City has shared chests, which are stored on our servers. Items placed in your private chest can only be accessed by you, while items placed in the shared chest are accessible to everyone in the online City, allowing you to freely share equipment and fragments with your friends. When should you expect the Multiplayer? Early 2026 is the target, but we won't rush the game. If you’ve been following our recent announcements, you know we delayed the Multiplayer Update to early 2026 and we know you’re clamoring for the patch date. We still can’t give you a specific date yet, that said here’s where we are at. All the team members are playing multiplayer daily to QA test our most recent build. So far, gameplay is feeling smooth and mostly lag-free with up to 4 players on a hunt. While things are progressing well, there are still plenty of bugs to squash and some remaining stability issues related to multiplayer that we need to iron out. We cannot overstate how important it is to us that multiplayer launches well. A bad initial multiplayer experience would negatively impact everyone’s enjoyment of Dragonkin . We want multiplayer to be fun and stable from day one, even in early access, without players facing random disconnections or game-breaking bugs. Of course, some issues may still arise, but we’ll do our best to address them as quickly as possible. We’re all really looking forward to it and can’t wait to bring you more news about the release date! Have a wonderful Holiday Season! We hope you’ve enjoyed this deeper dive into the multiplayer and maybe you’ve got a little bit better idea of how the game will feel to play with your friends. Truthfully , we still have a few things to share that we're super excited about, but you'll have to wait until the time is right . For now, though,but for now, it is time for the team to rest. Stay happy, stay healthy and have a happy holiday season & a happy New Year! See you in 2026! Got questions for us? Drop us a line here, or feel free to join us Discord .

Hello Dragon Hunters, Winter has rolled in and we're reminded that it's never the wrong time to show a little gratitude! In that spirit, we'd like to offer our warmest thanks to all of you for helping make Dragonkin: The Banished a better game throughout Early Access. Thank you all for your feedback and encouragement! The Steam Awards 2025 nominations have recently started. We've recently received a fair few positive Steam reviews, and we're very grateful for them. If you feel like Dragonkin: The Banished deserves your votes, we'd love your support! There are several categories to choose from, but if we were to suggest only one, it would be: the " Best Game You Suck At ". But obviously, it's up to you which category to choose! As the nominees are determined by the community alone, every vote makes a big difference. Whichever titles you wish to support, we hope you will all participate in big numbers and share some love for your favorite gaming experiences of 2025. Speaking of sharing the love, of you'd like to spread the word about our game: The best way to get the word out for your favorite games is to review the game on Steam! It really does make a huge difference, so thanks for taking the time! Or by telling your friends, especially with the upcoming Multiplayer Update. Finally, if you want to hang up with with fellow fans (and the devs!), join our Discord Community ! Again, your support, patience and optimism means a lot to the team. It drives us in creating the best experience possible, and means the world to us. We also wish you all happy holidays. We'll be back before the end of the year with more dev blogs and news, so stay tuned for more. This isn't the last you'll be hearing for our journey with Dragonkin: The Banished. Cheers, - From EKO Software