Dauntless Update 1.46 February 4 Is for Frost Escalation 1.5.3

Phoenix Labs has released another major content drop for Dauntless and it’s the Frost Escalation content drop! The Dauntless update 1.46 February 4 patch is live now and this is also called Dauntless patch 1.5.3 by the devs Head on below to see everything new in this title update.

Dauntless Update 1.46 February 4 Patch Notes (Frost Escalation 1.5.3):

FACE FRIGID FOES AND FEARSOME FIGHTS IN FROST ESCALATION

Frost Escalation launches with 1.5.3 on February 4.
Fight off the chilly frostbite status effect in Frost Escalation.
Face new Deepfrost Behemoth variants.
Power up your Escalation runs with avatar abilities.
Complete the Realm of Ice Hunt Pass.

THE BEST-LAID PLANS

In addition to overcoming Frost Escalation’s perilous Behemoths, you will need to actively manage your frostbite level during Escalation runs. While the Skaldish have a leg up due to their “snowblood” — a genetic mutation that makes them resistant to frostbite — you’re not so lucky.

Frostbite will carry over between encounters, and you’ll need to make the most of the new tools at your disposal … or risk defeat.

During a Frost Escalation run, you can view your frostbite level in the meter to the right of your health and stamina bars. The bar is made up of two components:

Frostbite bar – The bar starts at 0 (empty). As frostbite progresses, the bar fills up.
Frostbite icon – When your bar reaches the frostbite icon, you will be frozen in place until you (or a teammate) reduce your frostbite level to 75% or less.

There are a number of ways to lower your frostbite level during a Frost Escalation run:

Defeat the current Behemoth.
Enter the warming aura of a brazier or a cleansing pylon.
Take advantage of the active boon.
Use your avatar ability. (Learn more about avatars and boons below.)

Another wrinkle you’ll want to keep in mind: Frostbite will accumulate a little faster after each Behemoth encounter you complete.

In addition to reducing frostbite, the braziers you encounter will prevent frostbite from building up as long as you remain in their area of effect. The same goes for cleansing pylons, a new consumable launching with 1.5.3. You can unlock the cleansing pylon on the Slayer’s Path and upgrade it to increase the number of pylons you can carry, their duration, and the size of their area of effect. Be sure to visit Granny Strega to craft a handful of these before heading to the frozen tundra.

BOONS ABOUND

Linnea Silver, the Queen of Skaldeskar, has come to aid any Slayer who braves the frozen wastes. During Frost Escalation runs, Linnea will offer boons, special blessings that empower Slayers to reduce frostbite in a variety of ways. Linnea will call out instructions based on the current boon, so pay close attention so you know what to do during the fight.

You will improve your chances against the threats found in Frost Escalation by adhering to your active boons and using them to keep your frostbite levels down.

AVATAR ABILITIES

Avatar abilities arrive with Frost Escalation as part of the 1.5.3 update. You will select one avatar ability at the start of a Frost Escalation run, granting you a specific bonus that plays into your ability to lower frostbite for you and your entire hunting party.

This is how each avatar ability will aid you during Frost Escalation:

Avatar of Destruction – Increases your critical strike chance. Your critical hits reduce frostbite for all.
Avatar of Control – Increases your stagger damage. Reduce frostbite for all when a Behemoth is staggered.
Avatar of Unity – Grants a small chance to reduce frostbite when you hit and creates a shield for all party members. Two-second cooldown.
Avatar of Subtlety – You deal bonus wound damage. Reduce frostbite for all when a Behemoth is wounded or has a part broken.

You can further upgrade your avatar abilities over the course of an Escalation run by choosing amps that directly improve your specific ability. These special amps unlock and become available on your run once you choose a starting avatar ability.

FROZEN FOES

The Skaldish bring warnings of deadly Behemoth variants stalking the frozen archipelago, and the fearsome threat lying in wait for any Slayers who traverse the island chain.

DEEPFROST BEHEMOTHS

The harsh biome of Skaldeskar has mutated a number of Behemoth species with powerful frost aether.

Beware the Deepfrost Skarn, with its sharp protective blades of ice, or the Deepfrost Gnasher, with its knack for hurling spheres of snow at unsuspecting Slayers. Before long you’ll also encounter a creature the Skaldish call the “Frostwülf.” Scholars like Dr. Priyani prefer the more precise moniker “Deepfrost Embermane” to identify the creature the Skaldish say can summon aether-fueled minions to its aid in combat.

THE ADVERSARY OF VYLMARK

The true test you’ll encounter in Frost Escalation stirs in a vast, cavernous hollow at the top of the island chain. With jaws strong enough to tear any foe to shreds, Urska will challenge you to use every tool at your disposal to come out victorious.

FROSTY FASHION

Arriving as part of update 1.5.3 is the Realm of Ice Hunt Pass. Here you’ll be able to unlock the striking armour of Skaldeskar, notable for its otherworldly beauty. You can collect both the Frost Shaper and Paladin of Vylmark armour sets by completing the Elite track of this Hunt Pass.

URSKA

Frost Escalation’s keystone Behemoth is the Urska — a nightmare pried from the pages of Skaldish legend. Collect Urska parts in Frost Escalation to forge new legendary weapons and armour. These powerful frost pieces come with a new legendary ability (for weapons) and a new perk (for armour). You can also unlock a full cosmetic variant set through the Frost Escalation talent tree.

LEGENDARY WEAPONS

Facing a Urska in Frost Escalation will unlock schematics for all of its legendary weapons. These high-powered weapons aren’t easy to craft, but the perks are worth the extra effort.

PRISMATIC CELL SLOTS

Each legendary weapon features two prismatic cell slots — universal slots capable of holding any cell you own. Leverage them to fine-tune your build and take on even tougher challenges.

WEAPON BOND

Bond your Urska weapon to another frost weapon to gain its perk (e.g. +1 Conditioning) and unique effect (e.g. After dodging, drop 3 ice mines around you on a 30 second cooldown that deal 300 damage). Weapons must be the same type and element to bond.

LEGENDARY ABILITY

Activating your Urska weapon’s legendary ability will create a frost shield that blocks hostile projectiles for a period of time. Enemies that touch the shield while it is active will take damage and become chilled. This ability can also interrupt.

URSKA ARMOUR

The Urska armour set draws its strength from three built-in perks: Aetheric Frenzy, Guardian, and Cascade — a new perk that generates up to four random collectible boosts when you use your lantern hold ability. Armour schematics unlock when you face your first Urska.

Want to show off your Escalation expertise? Earn 25 talent points in Frost Escalation to unlock the Urska ultra armour — a cosmetic upgrade set with additional fur and ice details.

Read the FAQ on the Urska here.

NEW RUMOURS
Talk to Honest Ozz and discover two brand new rumours. Don the heat of the sun itself by unlocking the Searing Dawn helmet skin from “A Vision of Fire.” If the darkness of night is more your style, complete the “Shadow Boxing” rumour for the Thorns of Dusk strikers skin.

SAINT’S BOND

Ramsgate’s most romantic holiday returns this Thursday with seven weapon rumours and more rewards in Ozz’s shop. Exchange gifts with friends to collect special titles, then group up to gather Hearts of Rage — a limited-time drop from raging Behemoths. Saint’s Bond begins February 11 and ends February 18 at 10 AM PST.

All Shadowtouched and Deepfrost variant Behemoths now have journal entries that unlock upon first encounter. Players who have already encountered these Behemoths will need to fight them again to unlock their entries.

QUALITY OF LIFE

Increased player “stickiness” on Behemoths to make sure players no longer slide while attacking them.

Ozz’s shop now has two separate tabs: Event and Rumours.
Players can now preview all steps in a rumour’s quest chain by talking to Ozz, navigating to the Rumours tab, and selecting “Preview Rumour Steps.”
Pay-to-skip options in rumour quests now makes it clear that the skip is for a single step — not the entire chain.

Improved the UI for the frozen status.
Rumours now have custom quest markers.
Crafting menus will now show which parts you are missing when crafting an item.

Fixed an issue where some players couldn’t launch Dauntless on older versions of Windows after patch 1.5.2.

The Crown of Friendship will no longer appear in your Slayer Links reward pools if you already own it.

BALANCE

We’re keeping a close eye on aethersparks and these are the first steps at addressing the feedback from the community. Due to ongoing player and internal conversations, we’ve decided to make aethersparks an earned-only currency while also increasing their output.

Aethersparks were intended to serve as a reward currency that encourages players to engage with the game in various ways. With Reforged, we wanted players to experience the breadth of Dauntless in a loop. This was to avoid the problem of one endgame activity that players would grind endlessly, and ensure that players are experiencing all Dauntless has to offer. We still believe aethersparks, aetherhearts, and reforging serve this design purpose but this goal is better served if aethersparks exist solely outside of monetization.

Aethersparks are no longer purchasable for platinum.
Aethersparks are now rewarded after every wave of an island event, with the final wave granting the most. Events will now roughly grant the same amount of sparks on average, regardless of the number of waves.
Increased the number of aethersparks in patrol chests.
Increased the number of aethersparks rewarded by island events.

We’re continuing to look at unpopular or underpowered cells to try to bring them into the meta. The goal is to give players more ways to come up with interesting builds that are fun and effective. This week we focused on Adrenaline, which is an interesting mechanic that changes your moment to moment decision making. We found it just wasn’t competitive in terms of damage, so we’re improving it. We also removed the negative effects on our least used cells to make them more viable.

Increased Adrenaline perk damage from 0.3/0.6/0.9/1.2/1.5/1.8% damage for every 10 stamina missing to 0.5/1.0/1.5/2.0/2.5/3.0%.
The Strategist cell no longer reduces your maximum health. Increased the amount of shielding granted from 25/50/75/100/125/150 to 50/75/100/125/150/175
The Engineer cell no longer reduces healing from your flask.
The Mender cell no longer reduces healing from your flask.
The Sprinter cell no longer reduces your maximum stamina.

We’ve also removed the Fireproof, Bloodless, Shellshock Resist, Insulated, and Warmth perks from all gear and replaced them with more useful perks to give players more build diversity options.

Volcanic Helm (Charrogg) now has the Sturdy perk (previously Fireproof).
Fiery Gauntlets (Embermane) now have the Endurance perk (previously Fireproof).
Gnasher Cap (Gnasher) now has the Tenacious perk (previously Bloodless).
Eye of the Swarm (Kharabak) now has the Wild Frenzy perk (previously Shellshock Resist).
Shocking Stride (Nayzaga) now has the Energized perk (previously Insulated).
Feet of Ice (Pangar) now have the Overpower perk (previously Warmth).
Quillspike Boots (Quillshot) now have the Barbed perk (previously Shellshock Resist).
Skraevwing Gloves (Skraeve) now have the Iceborne perk (previously Warmth).
Shrikedown Greaves (Shrike) now have the Grace perk (previously Bloodless).
Lightning Gloves (Stormclaw) now have the Catalyst perk (previously Insulated).

Increased normal Hellion’s star rating from three to four stars on Hades Reach, making it tougher and more dangerous.

The chilled status effect now reduces attack and movement speed when active. Players can reduce the time affected and clear the status by spending stamina (through heavy attacks, sprinting, etc.).

Event currencies have been capped at 500 units.

BUG FIXES

Fixed a bug where switching barrels on the repeaters when using a supply crate would not update the damage until the player swapped to another weapon.

Fixed a bug where Hellion would have discoloured square patches on its tail.

Fixed a bug that was blocking certain island events from granting rewards, including aethersparks.
Fixed a bug where Ironhide Pylons increased damage instead of decreasing it. They had one job…
War pike nodes on the Slayer’s Path no longer apply wounding to all weapon types.

The Surgical Destruction amp will now correctly apply stacks for breaking wounded parts.
Players are no longer highlighted when interacting with the Escalation crystal.
Fixed an issue where Behemoths could spawn in walls. May need further improvement.
Fixed various cases of falling through the environment or getting stuck on rocks in Terra Escalation.
Fixed various cases of missing collisions and clipping issues in Blaze and Terra Escalations.

In the Hunting Grounds, moving quickly from one fight to the next now displays the correct Behemoth in the overlay.
The armour crafting screen now shows gear that has yet to be unlocked.
Player name, title, and guild will now be correctly left-aligned in all cases on the HUD.
Fixed a bug where the downed player icon would not appear over players’ heads.
Fixed a bug where the player would not receive the Message of the Day if a tutorial message was being displayed.
Fixed a bug where the aether vent interaction icon would appear over the end of hunt summary.
Fixed a bug that would leave the “Purchase Rumour” UI visible after purchasing.
Fixed a bug where active Hunt Pass text broke out of its text box in Spanish and Russian.
Fixed various typos and missing words found in quest dialogue.
Holding the button to power surge an already power surged weapon no longer plays the surging sound.
The “Equip” button on the repeaters crafting screen now works as intended.
Exploration merits description has been properly localized in all languages.

Fixed some environmental collision issues with the Trials island. Players should no longer be knocked out of the arena.
Fixed a bug that would make islands with misty atmospheres look very bright and flashy. We apologize to your eyeballs.
Fixed numerous cases of floating bushes, faulty jump vents, clipping assets, and holes for all environments.

Hair and eyes no longer clip through the Wreath of Shadows helm skin.
The Wreath of Shadows helm skin now has the correct default dyes.
Removed collision on the Gone Fishing emote’s bucket. Players can no longer build a stairway to heaven out of buckets.
Fixed beard hair clipping through multiple helms.

Interacting with the Portal Driver now correctly adds the Clear Skies journal entries to the player’s journal.

Severed Behemoth tails will no longer glow when on the ground. They will look more lifeless, as intended. Gross.

Once Phoenix Labs announces the next content drop for Dauntless, we’ll let our readers know.

Source: Play Dauntless

Dauntless Update 1.46 February 4 Is for Frost Escalation 1.5.3