It’s our hope that the chill of the creeping winter has treated you well and that you’re enjoying the darker, longer nights alongside us. Here at Stunlock Studios, we have been taking advantage of the darker nights, working more comfortably so that we can focus on the intricate and arcane.
That’s right, here in our crypts, we’re hard at work with the darkest and most horrid magic of all… math! Though we’ll spare you the most painful details, as we are merciful, we’ll instead show you the fruits of our labors. Today, Vampires, we’re going to take a nice bloody bite of one of the most integral parts of the RPG aspects of V Rising. As always, everything we share during development is subject to change.
Let’s talk gear, stats, progression, and of course… blood!
Embracing Your Fantasy
From the earliest days of V Rising development, when players first got their hands on the game, one thing was clear: there was a strong desire to bring your own unique vision of a Vampire to life. What should a Vampire look like? How should they feel? We’ve steadily refined and expanded the game with each update to help you live out that fantasy.
To give you the tools for this, we introduced new ways to express yourself, like adding armor appearances that let you shape your Vampire’s look to match your ideal vision. You can recolor your gear, override the appearance of your current set, and bring your flair to life in a way that feels truly yours. Alongside these visuals, we added “classes” of armor at different tiers, enabling you to tailor your combat stats to fit specific playstyles, whether you prefer the agility of a rogue or the spellcasting prowess of a caster. In this way, your character’s look and gameplay reinforce one another, making your vision whole.
We’re pretty happy with the options we’ve delivered so far, and while wardrobe improvements (especially in the weapon department) may still be on the horizon in 1.1, today’s blog isn’t about appearances.
V Rising is ultimately about the experience of being a Vampire. That experience comes to life not just in how you look but in how you play. With that in mind, let’s talk about combat stats because they’re about to get a massive overhaul.
Compulsively Counting
He’s got a lot on his mind.
We know that some stats ended up being much more powerful than others. There are a few ways to approach controlling those so that they don’t get too out of hand. For instance, one thing we tend to do is keep the amount of potential sources of an ability limited so that you can’t stack too much of it. That approach has worked well in the past, but it’s become harder to manage as we’ve continued adding more abilities, gear sets, and unique pieces of gear.
These stats generally aren’t an issue in the early stages of the game, but as you progress and acquire more powerful gear, they can begin to cause problems. Some stats start to climb very high, pushing the boundaries of mechanics and coming dangerously close to breaking them. Move speed is a big offender here, which can make it all too easy to evade a lot of attacks, both against bosses and against players.
At the end of the day, we have to ask ourselves what we feel is the most important question when it comes to designing our gameplay. Could this be more fun? How we achieve that might require a little bit more explanation, and it’s a lot to take in, so you might want to grab yourself a nice glass of blood wine to settle in.
Step 1. Cap All Ability Statistics
Introducing a cap on ability statistics ensures that no single stat, even the strongest or most desirable, completely dominates your attention. The stats you gain from items will be high enough to let you cap multiple attributes, but you won’t be able to sink all your focus into just one, like movement speed. This opens the door to investing in other secondary stats, such as spell power, physical attack power, or cooldown reduction, without sacrificing overall effectiveness.
For example, even if movement speed feels essential, once you hit its cap, you can prioritize other stats to round out your build. This approach helps build diversity by encouraging you to spread your investment across multiple attributes.
In the example UI below:
Dark red bars show how close you are to reaching the cap.
Bright red bars indicate how far you’ve exceeded the cap.
Hovering over the stat provides more specific details.
The dark red bars in this example UI represent how close you are to reaching the cap, the bright red represents how far over the cap you’ve gone.
Mousing over the stat will get more specific!
Soft Caps vs. Hard Caps We’re implementing caps in two ways: soft caps and hard caps. These determine how bonuses apply and whether further increases are limited.
Soft caps are the first line of defense to keep stats from becoming problematic. You’ll encounter these through long-term sources like gear, potions, passive spell bonuses, and blood types.
Hard caps are the absolute upper limit of what you can reach and are just another safeguard.
Examples of things that bypass the soft cap are temporary buffs like the ones you get from spells. This ensures that abilities and buffs still feel impactful without breaking the game. After all, it wouldn’t be fun to see abilities stop working just because your stats are too good!
Step 2. Make It Make Sense
We’ve broken down stat bonuses at the max level to cap out in very even and expected ways so that it’s easy to break down where you’re getting your bonuses from and, thus, easy to plan out how to get the stats you want. We’ve reworked gear, blood, potions, and passive spell tree bonuses to make it so you can accurately and easily plan out how to cap the stats you want and maybe even be able to do it without making a spreadsheet.
You can make a spreadsheet if you want, though. I know some of you really like making spreadsheets.
Step 3. Give You The Tools
One of the most important parts of this plan is that we’ve enabled you to understand the changes and allow you to mold your build to your liking. A lot of V Rising can make you feel stuck in using a certain legendary weapon, spell, or gear set because you have to adapt to the tools you have. The stats are set this way, so you have to match your play style to fit them. We hope that we can flip that around with this overhaul.
Between the Fusion Forge we mentioned in our last blog that will let you modify your jewels and weapons stats and the changes we’ll be making to armor, blood types, potions, and passive spell bonuses, we’ll be giving you all the puzzle pieces you need to get exactly the build you imagine, which should be a large step in letting you play your ideal Vampire in both PvE and PvP.
A little update on how the Fusion Forge is coming along.
It can be hard to imagine exactly what we mean by that, though, so here’s a little further glimpse into the changes coming.
Blood On The Dance Floor
So. Blood gives stats now.
You’re a Vampire. You should have seen this coming. A 100% efficiency Blood Type should be a major part of maxing out the associated stat, leaving you room to invest in other avenues of reaching your ideal spread.
We’ve also done an all-around overhaul to the blood types! We wanted the blood types (except for Worker Blood, of course) to have applications in battle and give you more options to use in combat. Some of the convenient secondary abilities from the more utility blood types, like Creature Blood and Mutant Blood, have been moved to passive spell options instead. Those have also been reworked, and we’ll get into that a bit later.
As you progress into the later stages of the game, you’ll often have your preferred blood type on hand, and we’ve taken that into account. We’ve revisited the availability of certain blood types, when they appear in your journey, and how you acquire them overall. Now that we know you’ll likely want specific blood types more often and more reliably, we’ve made adjustments to strike a better balance. Rare blood types should now be a bit easier to obtain, and you’ll even be able to capture mutant Spitters in Gloomrot to keep a steady supply of Mutant blood on tap. They’ll also make for some particularly nasty servants, something to look forward to!
Who’s a good spitter? You are!
You might find yourself in an awkward position with this rework and the whole stat overhaul. You may want the stats from one blood type but the special ability from another. Thankfully, some of Vardoran’s invaders happen to be skilled alchemists. After drinking their blood, you’ll gain the ability to craft a new station, the Blood Mixer. With this new workbench, you’ll be able to perform brilliant blood alchemy, mixing in bonus effects from other bloods to better tailor your blood type to your build!
To give you an idea of what to expect, these are the general themes of the Blood Types in 1.1:
Worker Blood: Increase resource yield, faster resource mining, higher mount speed, and a chance to instantly destroy a resource node when you strike it.
Creature Blood: Increased health, health regeneration, movement speed, healing received, resistances, and a heal and temporary attack speed boost on Vampire bite.
Warrior: All about weapons and weapon skills, largely focused on giving benefits around weapons and skill cooldowns from your weapons.
Rogue: Much like before, it is focused on improving movement speed, physical critical strike chance, and physical critical strike damage.
Brute: This blood type is still focused on healing and some light physical power like before, but it’s now acquired warrior’s ability to parry, making it the tankier up-close-and-personal blood type.
Scholar: Now one of a handful of spell-focused blood types, Scholar maintains its ability to free-cast spells occasionally but is focused on defensive spell power. In addition, it also resets your spell cooldowns when you use your ultimate ability.
Draculin: Another spell-focused blood type, this one more set on the offensive aspects of spellcasting. It has a small chance of awarding free casts, but it focuses more on spell critical hits and leech.
Mutant: The summoner’s blood! This now increases spell power, summoned minion damage, and the recovery rate of your ultimate ability. It also spawns mutant rats when you cast your ultimate. For all the vampires who dreamed of the ability to control mutant rats, this one is for you.
A potential layout for a mixed Warrior / Rogue Blood. We’re still working on the values, so these are not final.
Equip Yourself With Power
While the general concept of the gear sets will remain pretty similar in terms of getting a bulk of your stats from them, other sources of craftable items will become much more fluid and give you more control over your sources of enhancement. Primarily, this comes in three forms.
The first step is a change to all gear sets, focusing on balancing their stats and equalizing set bonuses. Armor now provides cleaner, simpler, and more even bonuses, making it much easier to see when you’re approaching a stat cap without dealing with messy or uneven totals. As long as you make adjustments in other areas like blood, potions, or individual set pieces, you’ll be able to avoid wasting any of your power by exceeding the new caps.
Each individual change is small, but it adds up.
The second change to itemization will introduce a much wider array of stat buff potions. It will no longer be just the Potion of Rage and Witch Potion for physical and spell power, but we’re also introducing different “Elixirs.” This is a new variety of potions, and you’ll only be able to activate one at a time, but each one is associated with a different secondary stat to fill out your build further.
One potential new Elixir. These numbers may change significantly before 1.1.
The third is mostly applicable during the later stages of the game. Still, as we’ve mentioned with our introduction of the Fusion Forge, we will be giving you the ability to mix and match the stats and benefits of your legendary weapons. This is also going to be true of the Unique Artifacts! While they will keep their specific, unique abilities, the statistics on them are not randomized and can be edited through the Fusion Forge. This should give you a lot more flexibility with your gear. You will no longer have to adapt to the weapon's stats, but now you can make sure your Unique Artifact feels properly legendary and mold it to be your ideal weapon of war.
Two different versions of the Unique Artifact, Apocalypse. We’re still working out the values, but this should give you an idea.
There’s also a third, less statistic-related addition that will mix up the gameplay even more, but we’re saving that surprise for a little later.
It might have something to do with this guy.
Magic In The Air
Your spell passives will be a new and major contributing factor to your character stats. These ancient powers you tap into with the Altar of Stygian Awakening provide many useful bonuses that you can unlock at your leisure for Stygian shards, adding to your overall power.
Now, you can choose which passives to have active at any given time, turning them into a more engaging and dynamic part of your build instead of something you simply unlock and forget. As you gain more spell points, you’ll unlock additional slots for passive abilities, each providing a significant boost to help round out your build!
A placeholder UI element showing the selected passives towards the bottom, between the Blood School Spells and the equipped spells.
A mockup of the new Passives page in your spellbook. The specific ability numbers and effects are still a work in progress.
Here are a few more examples of potential passives. As with the other images, the specifics are still in development.
Schemes Unfolding
All together, we hope these changes culminate in an experience that lends itself to an all-around more immersive, more fun, and more interesting Vampire journey. Through customization, you better get to feel your fantasy come to life! These are, of course, far from the only changes that are coming to Vardoran in the coming update, but we thought you, our most dedicated and interested Vampire, might enjoy a more thorough look into what we’re crafting.
That’s all for now! We hope you found this a fitting meal to get you through this leg of the cold winter season. However, this isn’t the last time you’ll hear from us before winter is out! Keep an eye on our socials for more news in the future, and we’ll see you in the new year.
We’ll be adding a small patch to V Rising today that should only affect your client, not your servers, so there shouldn’t be any issue waiting for servers to update or server restarts necessary to play. The only change should be a graphic on the server list identifying our Trusted Server Provider, which has changed from G-Portal to PocketHost.
The size of the update may appear large, but that's really all that's in it! Image files can be funny like that. So don't be alarmed.
If you're having issues with the game, make sure to take a look at our known bugs and fixes to see if there's a potential solution to get you back into Vardoran as quickly as possible!
IMPORTANT NOTE! Please report any issues you encounter after this patch here.
ADDITIONAL REMINDER! Regularly back up your server saves! Here's how to do it.
Rise, vampires!
Eternally yours,
/Stunlock Studios
SLASHERS OF VARDORAN Winners Announced!
Well, hello there, Vampires.
We’re well into the autumn months, but even as we approach the midway through November, we haven’t completely relinquished our grip on the season of screams! Yes, there’s one more order of business before we finally close out our Halloween celebrations, and that’s the announcement of the winners of the Slashers of Vardoran Art Competition!
For this competition, the challenge we gave to you, our community, was taking one of the V Blood bosses you have lovingly battled for so long and reimagining them with the theme of a horror slasher movie. Judging this contest, we took into account, first and foremost, adherence to the main theme! Whoever best evoked the mood and terror of this beloved genre that is so often enjoyed at the spookiest time of the year. After the theme, we considered overall artistic merit, skill, and creativity.
Speaking of judging.
Meet The Judges!
This year we have six total, three from the community and marketing team, and three from the art team. Introducing…
Johan Ilves - Marketing Director
Johan Wahlbäck - Art Director
Viktor Blomqvist - Senior Concept Artist
Johan Aronson - Senior Concept Artist
Ruth Dominguez - Marketing and Data Officer
Jeremy Fielding - Community Manager
To come to our conclusion, each judge gave their own Grand Winner, Runner-Ups, and an additional 7 Finalists. After collecting all of our opinions, we worked out the strongest picks we had in common. We then ultimately came to a consensus based on the criteria the artists were given, trying to stay as faithful to the rules of the contest as possible.
Special Mentions
We’d like to get into some special mentions to celebrate some of the exceptional talent that, for one reason or another, weren’t included in the top ten finalists. Although some of these didn’t quite align with all contest criteria or submission guidelines, the quality and passion in each entry made them deserving of recognition. We encourage everyone to check out and support these talented artists!
As a reminder, here’s what our amazing roster of Finalists, Runner-Ups, and the Grand Winner will be taking home!
The Grand Winner will receive:
V Rising Vinyl
V Rising MERCH PACK
V Rising Hoodie (of their choice)
V Rising XL Mouse Pad
V Rising Mug
V Rising Key Chain
V Rising Shirt (of their choice)
V Rising CLAN PACK
4 Copies of V Rising for themselves and their closest clanmates.
All current and future DLC to lord over them.
Two Runner-Up Finalists will receive:
V Rising Mug
V Rising Key Chain
V Rising Shirt (of their choice)
Castlevania DLC
Seven other Finalists will receive:
Castlevania DLC
Dracula’s Relics DLC
Sinister Evolution Pack DLC
Now, to the part you’ve all been waiting for!
Finalists
Our seven finalists are artworks that all stood out in adhering to the theme, having striking and unique artistic execution, and speaking to us individually. Some of these really brought the slasher attitude with extreme angles and intensity, some had creative designs and reimaginations of the V Bloods, and some were just a lot of fun. Each of these artworks is, in its own way, great and worthy of recognition. We hope that you enjoy them as much as we have!
These two pieces were in direct competition with our Grand Winner and have earned a special distinction that we just can’t help but write about! In addition, they’ll be able to conquer every fashionable occasion, bottle cap, or contain any sufficiently small and drinkable liquid!
Is he a psychotic showman or something even more dark? Lord Styx the Nightmarshal, as a Clown or Jester-themed slasher, brings an eerie mystique that leaves you both captivated and thoroughly creeped out. The artist’s choice of a stylized painterly touch adds to the mystery, allowing raw brushstrokes to shine and giving the piece a rich, organic feel. It’s not overly detailed, but that restraint works wonders, enhancing the ominous presence of Lord Styx and hinting at the unknown madness lurking within him. A standout piece of evil artistry!
The cold face of death promises your end, Vampire! This portrayal of Vincent the Frostbringer as an undead killer is a truly bone-chilling vision transporting us back to the vintage horror poster era of the 70s and early 80s. A playful combination of warm and cool colors creates a striking contrast, putting our slasher front and center as the subject of our doom reaching out to crush us, the helpless Vampire cowering in the foreground. The digital rendering is thorough and filled with rough, sharp details, and the style feels very intentional in the way it evokes old, nostalgic horror. Truly, you can feel the love put into this piece as much as you can feel the terror!
Grand Winner
This has certainly been true every year up until now, but this year our Grand Winner really is special. A dark horse candidate with a unique take on the theme that we weren’t sure of at first, but really grew on us the more we considered it.
Maja the Dark Savant cast as the victim in a slasher movie? Brilliant. This artwork pays a powerful tribute to slasher classics like Scream, masterfully blending suspense with empowerment. The intense expression of the character on the phone, paired with the lurking vampire in the background, effortlessly captures classic slasher horror tension. The comic-inspired style, combined with cinematic lighting and subtle distortion, creates an eerie, dreamlike quality that pulls viewers into its suspenseful atmosphere. Thoughtful details, from the tattoos and black sclera to the carefully chosen color palette, showcase both technical skill and creativity. This piece is a fresh, modern take on the iconic imagery of the horror genre.
Choosing a winner from so many outstanding entries was no easy task, but this artwork, with its creativity and mastery, captured the hearts of the entire judging committee. We were captivated not only by its beauty but by how perfectly it embodied the theme, and we’re thrilled to award it the title of
Grand Winner in this year’s art competition!
Thank You, Vampires!
This has been yet another amazing competition and every year, you surprise us with your creativity and passion. It was a pleasure to receive your submissions and go through each one, every year, we make an effort to respond to as many submissions as possible and very often have truly lovely, heart-warming interactions with each of you. Despite being a community built on the fiendish and evil machinations of undead masterminds, V Rising has brought us endless kindness from unexpected places, even during the darkest and most terrifying time of the year. Thank you for sharing your nightmares with us once again, and thank you for being so terribly wonderful.
And to our contest winners, expect an email from us shortly!
To keep up with community events, V Rising news, and more, visit our socials below! We’d love to hear more from you!
We hope you’re enjoying the fall season. After all, it has everything a Vampire could ask for. The spirits are active, the dead are rising, and with the coming cold and darkening skies, it is becoming more and more tempting to take a seat in your most extravagant armchair by the fireplace flame with a nice glass of blood-red wine. Allow us to give you one more reason to settle in with a little something to read while you get comfortable.
Today, we bring you a dev update. It’s been some time since the full release of V Rising, followed shortly by its launch on the PlayStation 5 just a month later. During this time, we've reviewed the outcomes of 1.0, addressed bugs, and are now well underway in preparing for our next major update.
That’s right, the dark summoning of patch 1.1 has begun! We’re sure you have questions, of course. What does an update look like after 1.0? What are we building for the future of V Rising, and why? Well, we aren’t going to be giving away all of our secrets, but you’ve been patient and have certainly earned a good glimpse of what is to come. Keep in mind that everything you read here is subject to change.
Let’s get into it!
The Painting Is Never Complete
There’s this saying among artists that the painting will never be complete. You can always keep adding brush strokes, adjusting it, and polishing your artwork in pursuit of perfection. You decide when it is finished when you stop painting. In the same sense, we're not ready to put down the brush just yet. There’s still more we want to create and share with you, whether you’re a longtime supporter from Early Access or a newly awakened Vampire joining the adventure.
You’re fangtastic.
V Rising has been a true labor of love for us, allowing us to indulge all our dark desires and craft a Vampire journey that fully embraces the power fantasy of seizing control of your wicked destiny. With careful thought and your invaluable feedback, we believe we've found the path to enhance the experience without losing sight of what makes V Rising unique. Version 1.1 will focus more on expanding rather than altering the core experience, giving you more of what you already enjoy, along with a few exciting surprises.
Taking Control
Overall, we've received plenty of positive feedback on the progression from start to finish. While there are always minor issues we could spend endless hours refining, we'd rather focus on the results of something we first experimented with in the Secrets of Gloomrot patch and expanded upon in the 1.0 update. That is to say, random drops.
When we initially introduced random drops, the idea was to add an extra layer of excitement to the loot you’d earn from slaying mobs. Mixing up what you could get from enemies and chests was meant to inject more variety into each playthrough, creating unique moments from player to player and save to save. This is something that players were asking for after having a little taste with book formulas and the unique scythe recipe that Kriig (a.k.a. The Undead General, who wasn’t a V Blood at the time) had a chance of dropping.
+6 spell power, my beloved.
We first introduced this mechanic with legendary weapons and spell jewels, then expanded on it with the unique artifact weapons available in Mortium. While this added exciting new layers to gameplay, it also led to some frustration among more experienced Vampires who know exactly what they're after. Instead of feeling excited when receiving a weapon or spell jewel, there's some disappointment when it’s not what they need. We totally understand, and it makes sense to feel that way!
This brings us back to something we touched on earlier in the blog: how do you improve V Rising for everyone? Some players have suggested removing the randomness entirely, but while that would simplify things, the randomness also brings benefits. It creates new possibilities that push you to play adaptively and strategize your next move. The solution might lie in adding a new feature we're tentatively calling the “Fusion Forge”.
The idea for the Fusion Forge is to give you a crafting station later on in your playthrough that allows you to combine different items together and take the best parts of each of them. For us, this is the best of both worlds between getting to pick what you want and still having to get the ability or stat in the first place. You won’t have to land the weapon with all the exact perfect stats or get the jewel with exactly the spell modifications you need. All you need is a few jewels with the mods you're after, allowing you to fuse them into the ultimate jewel of your dreams.
Very rough placeholder UI! Building our perfect axes.
But that’s not all we’re considering based on your feedback! We’re also looking to give these endgame weapons more unique appearances, giving those weapons a more specific artifact feel. Following are a few examples of potential concepts for the new looks of weapons.
Some concepts for potential new looks!
Risk-Free Murder!
One thing many players have been asking for is a consequence-free method of engaging in Player vs. Player combat. V Rising gives you countless spell loadouts and weapon combos, each with unique abilities, but testing these endless combinations has always been tricky without a controlled environment. If you wanted to test out a build, you would have to go out in the world and try it out in the field, where you might not get to try it in the conditions you’re looking for. There’s also the manner of weapon and gear durability. Dying repeatedly in PvP can end up getting very costly very quickly, which is a big risk to take if you’re not looking to grind to pay for your experimentation.
We’re currently looking at adding two potential ways to engage in consequence-free PvP! One major benefit is that it will let you play around and experiment more without risking your gear, only your pride.
The first method is a free-form method: Dueling.
With Dueling, you can initiate a fight with another Vampire by challenging them anywhere in the world (with the potential exception of POIs to discourage players from dueling on top of enemy bosses where things could get a little silly). The two Vampires battle one another, and at the end of the conflict, when one player’s health drops to 0, the Duel is over. Both players' health reset to where they were before the match began, undoing all the damage that resulted from the conflict. The Duel system even recognizes damage you took from outside participants and lets it stick, so sorry in advance to those of you who were already planning to use Duel Flags to achieve immortality.
Will you?
How do you avoid people interfering? Uh, duel somewhere safe!
Speaking of safe duels, let’s talk about our second concept…
Arenas
“Arenas” offers a more robust and controlled PvP experience. The concept is to designate a specific area within your castle in which organized bouts can take place. This would involve an Arena Station, a new type of structure you can build in your castle to define the boundaries of your arena. You'd also have flags to let Vampires assign themselves to different teams, creating a structured and competitive environment for epic duels and team fights.
The current effects, assets, and UI are placeholders. Define your arena.
You can then set up the parameters of the contest on the Arena Board then begin the contest. Dropping to 0 HP temporarily puts you in a downed state, which you can step out of by removing yourself from the contest. Once all combatants but one team are downed or removed from the contest, the winner is declared, and everyone is reset back to the HP they were at when the battle began.
The current effects, assets, and UI are placeholders. Team overview at the Arena Station.
The current effects, assets, and UI are placeholders. 2v2v2v2 in an arena playtest!
The current effects, assets, and UI are placeholders. Vampires preparing for the match to begin.
The current effects, assets, and UI are placeholders. Edvard won’t let me back in from the death circle.
Overall, Arenas allows much more casual, structured PvP, even in PvE realms. Many players have told us they’d love to engage in friendly bouts with their clanmates just to test things out, and we believe this system will not only make that possible but also make PvP more accessible to everyone. Our data shows that less than 1 in 5 players have ever died in PvP, meaning a huge portion of the community has yet to experience the thrill of it! Some players have said they’d jump in if it were less risky, so this could be the perfect way for more of you to get hooked on PvP. May the Vampire gods protect your Vampire souls once that happens!
Our goal in V Rising is often to put the tools in your hands to make your own fun, and we think this helps serve that purpose!
Speaking of fun, there’s even more to look forward to!
A New Land Awaits!
If you thought the map of Vardoran was complete, you’re sorely mistaken! We’re going to be filling out the land with another region to explore with its own faction and theme to immerse yourself and get lost in. We want to give you somewhere new with space to build your castle and indulge in a unique style.
The theme of this mysterious zone? We’re going to hold onto that juicy little tidbit for now. Feel free to speculate.
What new land beckons just north of Silverlight?
This new biome will introduce an invading faction of enemies! Just like in the last two major updates, there will be a fresh breed of foe unique to any other that’s come before them, with different methods of combat and lore. The time will come to rise against this new threat, and you will be able to claim their dark secrets for yourself!
Concept art for a potential new faction unit.
Expect a deadly new gauntlet of V Bloods, each guarding ancient technologies and techniques, some so powerful, we can’t reveal them just yet. Face off against a fearsome Shardbearer, a foe truly worthy of the title. If you can endure the ultimate battle, you’ll claim a new devastating shard and unlock a legendary item recipe, securing your place as the undisputed Vampire Lord of Vardoran.
And that won’t be all!
It’s too early to share everything we’re working on, but rest assured that we’ll have even more to share as we continue development. As always, we’re incredibly grateful for your patience and unwavering support as we work to bring you exciting new content. For a bunch of blood-sucking predators, you are, as ever, some of the most kind and wonderful people.
Peace out for now!
Speaking of which, last call to our amazing artists! Don’t forget to enter the Slashers of Vardoran Art Competition before submissions close tonight! Get them in before 11:59PM GMT! We want to see you unleash your creativity, as every year is an absolute treat during a season rife with tricks!
The Haunted Nights Castle Pack is also available on Steam and the PlayStation 5 until November 16th! Grab them while you can!
To keep in contact and remain ever watchful, follow us on our socials below! While you’re at it, if you have any pressing questions about V Rising, its future, or its development, drop by an “Ask Me Anything” interview with our Community Manager, Jeremy! You can find it on the Exputer Forums starting November 11th at 14.00 CEST!
Today, on October 21st, 2024, the Legacy of Castlevania Premium pack will receive a FREE update that coincides with Steam’s upcoming Castlevania Fair! In collaboration with Konami Digital Entertainment (KONAMI), V Rising will celebrate all things Castlevania by expanding on our Legacy of Castlevania Premium Pack with some stylish additions.
Perfect Your Palace: New Castle Decor
With this new wall paneling, beautiful gold and blue doors, and…for the first time ever, a new fence option for the discerning Vampire, you’re free to express your elegant and refined taste.
Luxury Wooden Wall Panels
Gold-Lined Stained Glass Windows and Door
Brand New Metal Fencing
Four Perfect New Paintings
Dressed To Kill: Two Legendary New Cosmetic Outfits
Don two impeccable new outfits in the style of iconic Castlevania characters!
In the style of Shanoa, the powerful warrior from Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. A blue and black gothic dress with dark flowing fabrics, dark metallic accents, and mysterious markings.
Included:
Shanoa’s Gown
Shanoa’s Leggings
Battle against the tide of Sorrow in the simple perfection of Soma Cruz’s timeless style! Wearing the coat, high-neck black shirt and silver chain, sleek blue slacks, and high boots of the protagonist of Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow.
Included:
Soma Cruz’s Coat
Soma Cruz’s Boots
Soma Cruz’s Leggings
Complete Your Castlevania Look
If you already own the Legacy of Castlevania Premium Pack, you'll get access to all the exciting new content when it's added on October 21st! If you don’t own V Rising or the DLC yet, there’s even more reason to act: it's part of a new exclusive Castlevania GAME BUNDLE, offering 10% off the entire bundle! Get the exciting Castlevania Dominus Collection together with V Rising, and Legacy of Castlevania DLC in one ultimate package.
The Shadows Of Autumn
With the dark months upon us, there’s plenty to get excited for around V Rising!
Check out our HALLOWEEN ART COMPETITION for an opportunity to get your hands on the limited edition V Rising Vinyl and other wicked merch perfect for the spine-tingling time of the year!
More information on our next steps for V Rising is looming just around the corner as well! To make sure you’re the first to hear the news, check out our socials linked below.
We’re going to be making a few changes to V Rising today to squash a pesky UI-breaking bug, and also add some new items to an already existing DLC pack in preparation for an upcoming event! We’ll be posting more on that in just a few hours. For now, here are the changes in today’s patch.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Please make sure you have updated your client! You may experience crashing issues if you do not update your client.
Changes in this patch, which should go live soon, will include:
Removed the ability for players to name themselves from a certain range of Arabic shorthand codes.
These codes cause the UI to break when encountered in a player name.
Any players who currently have names with these codes should display as “aaaa”, which will no longer cause UI issues.
Added new items to the Legacy of Castlevania Pack! More details on this will be revealed later, but if you want a preview, they should be available now!
There will be more V Rising news to be spooked about later this month! Happy Halloween!
We highly recommend restarting the game to ensure you get the latest version.
If you're having issues with the game, make sure to take a look at our known bugs and fixes to see if there's a potential solution to get you back into Vardoran as quickly as possible!
IMPORTANT NOTE! Please report any issues you encounter after this patch here.
ADDITIONAL REMINDER! Regularly back up your server saves! Here's how to do it.
Rise, vampires!
Eternally yours,
/Stunlock Studios
ART COMPETITION: SLASHERS OF VARDORAN
Fear is in the air, Vampires! Can you taste it? With the month of Halloween upon us, it’s time for Stunlock Studios to put out the call for yet another bone-chilling art competition!
This year, we’re celebrating the vibrant personalities of the deadliest of Vardoran with a new theme: SLASHERS.
SLASHERS OF VARDORAN
This year’s theme is dedicated to the spirit of the gory flicks that fill our theaters and haunt our dreams during these cool autumn days… but with a little V Rising twist! We want you to take one of our many iconic V Bloods and reimagine them in the spirit of this seasonal horror movie staple! For some characters like Goreswine with their rotting pig head and rusty blade, and Tristan who really is a horror movie villain for Vampires, we fully expect to see those familiar faces. However, we hope you check the whole roster and get a little bit more creative! Speaking of which, they don’t have to resemble any currently existing horror movie characters. Just make them properly horrifying!
Let’s get Beatrice the Slayer out of the way now.
I’m sure the gears in your twisted minds have started turning, but I’m sure you’re wondering how you can go about expressing yourself? What mediums are you limited to? Feel free to submit your vision by any visual means you prefer, as long as it was made by you. Your work must have been made, in its entirety, by you. That means we do not allow tracing or AI assistance. Illustrations, movie posters, animations, 3D sculpts, live-action videos, whatever you can think of!
The full rules for submissions can be found here:
Your submitted work should contain at least one V Blood character from V Rising, with a theme centered around Horror Movie Slashers. Communication and execution of this theme will be a primary factor in judging submissions.
The image dimensions can be a maximum of 2000x2000 pixels.
You can illustrate everything by hand, use digital processes, photography and cosplay, photography and video, or 3D modeling. All mediums are welcome!
Submitted art should be created by you, and only you. Please submit evidence of your process in the form of a layered original image file or a video time-lapse of your process to verify authenticity.
Let’s agree that 15 MB is the max size of the final product provided for images. This size limit does not apply to the evidence of authenticity, but please try to be reasonable in your sizes for those as well.
Videos should be no longer than 120 seconds and must be linked as YouTube videos. Alternatively, videos can be sent in their entirety in a QuickTime, .mov, or MP4 file format to the contest email.
You can portray blood and violence (of course), but please avoid nudity and sexual violence.
You can submit up to three entries, but we highly suggest creating one fantastic entry.
Sharpen your fangs and pencils! You have until 11:59 PM GMT on Thursday, November 7th, to send in your entry to contest@playvrising.com. Please include your full name (optional) and a social media or art station URL so we can credit you for your work. By submitting artwork to us, you will permit us to share it second-hand.
Prizes
The Grand Winner will receive:
V Rising Vinyl
V Rising MERCH PACK
V Rising Hoodie (of your choice)
V Rising XL Mouse Pad
V Rising Mug
V Rising Key Chain
V Rising Shirt (of your choice)
V Rising CLAN PACK
4 Copies of V Rising for you and your closest clanmates.
All current and future DLC for you to lord over them.
Two Runner Up Finalists will receive:
V Rising Mug
V Rising Key Chain
V Rising Shirt (of your choice)
Castlevania DLC
Seven other Finalists will receive:
Castlevania DLC
Dracula’s Relics DLC
Sinister Evolution Pack DLC
PLEASE NOTE that receiving physical prizes requires that you can receive shipping from us! If you cannot receive shipped items, we cannot get these items to you, and you will not be able to collect your prizes.
For those of you who enter the art competition, let us see you flaunt your submissions on your socials! Also, don’t forget to tag us! We would love to signal boost your work!
Winners will be announced and contacted on Thursday, November 14th!
RETURN OF THE HAUNTED NIGHTS
With the onset of this terrifying time of year also comes the return of the much beloved Haunted Nights Castle Pack! This ENTIRELY FREE seasonal DLC will be available on Steam and PlayStation 5 to be claimed from October 16 to November 16 and then go dormant once again. Please keep in mind that after you claim this pack, it will become available to you permanently, so you won’t lose access to it when the season is up.
The Haunted Nights Castle Pack contains the following:
Haunted Nights Stained Glass
Haunted Nights Web Drapes - Pillar
Haunted Nights Web Drapes - Wall
Haunted Nights Web Drapes - Window
Haunted Nights Carpet
Haunted Nights Floating Gourd
Haunted Nights Gourd Lantern
Haunted Nights Standing Mirror
Haunted Nights Small Stash
Haunted Nights Wall Decor
Haunted Nights Coffin
Haunted Nights Skull Candles
Haunted Nights Laughing Pumpkin
Haunted Nights Grinning Pumpkin
Haunted Nights Wailing Pumpkin
Get into the Halloween spirit.
Deck out your dank dungeon.
Feel the dark splendor of the spooky season.
While you have this DLC, all items unlock and become available in-game to be crafted as you become worthy of crafting equivalent equipment.
Get it before the season is out!
More to come!
We’ve got even more to talk about this month: good news and updates on the development of V Rising. Stay tuned and follow us on our social media to be among the first to know about all the lurks in the depths of the Stunlock Studios crypts!
Yesterday we patched V Rising with a small update to the Continue function in the main menu. You should now be able to see the name of the server you’re connecting to before choosing to connect to indicated over the button on the main menu. This is a relatively small change, but we’re just letting you know what we did so you aren’t too spooked by an unexplained update.
There will be more V Rising news to be spooked about later this month! Happy Halloween!
If you're having issues with the game, make sure to take a look at our known bugs and fixes to see if there's a potential solution to get you back into Vardoran as quickly as possible!
IMPORTANT NOTE! Please report any issues you encounter after this patch here.
ADDITIONAL REMINDER! Regularly back up your server saves! Here's how to do it.
Rise, vampires!
Eternally yours,
/Stunlock Studios
V Rising 1.0 Hot Fix #9
Hello Vampires.
We’ll be patching V Rising today at 11:00 CEST. (EDIT: The patch did not go live at 11:00 CEST due to technical difficulties, but will be updated later today once they are resolved.)
Rising from our crypts once more to bring you a heavier hotfix, today’s patch includes a massive triple-digit grab bag of general, UI, and bug fixes, as well as a hefty dose of game balance adjustments.
We highly recommend restarting the game to ensure you get the latest version.
This update brings the following fixes:
General Fixes
Increased the strength of haptic feedback by 60%.
UI Fixes
Fixed stuttering that can occur when scrolling through the player list on servers with a lot of players.
Fixed stuttering that can occur when using the map with a gamepad.
Fixed an issue where the selection options would extend outside of the screen space in the social menu on servers with a lot of players.
Made it easier to see which server ruleset is selected in the Game Settings Ruleset tab.
Fixed an issue where players could get an inconsistent ordering of clan mates in the HUD.
Fixed an issue where players would sometimes not show in the clan HUD.
Fixed an issue where the tooltips on weapons would show incorrect information after the weapon had been unequipped when playing on a gamepad.
The Host game and Join game buttons are no longer visible when reading the Server Info in the server list.
Added gamepad UI optimizations.
Fixed issues with scrolling in the merchant UI while using a gamepad.
Fixed some layout issues in the Castle Heart menus when using a gamepad.
Fixed an issue where the Vampire Powers menu would forget what a bear is when playing with a gamepad. (Don’t ask.)
The Emote wheel is no longer displayed as empty when riding a horse.
Improvements were made to the feel of the V Blood menu when playing on a gamepad.
Fixed a rare “range exception” error that could occur when using a gamepad in the build menu.
Fixed UI issues that would occur when playing with HDR enabled.
Optimized the performance of health bars.
Fixed the selector being stupid and not showing the last items in the character creation menu if the selector was placed in a row with no additional items.
Fixed the “sun is rising” text getting stuck on the screen when teleporting to Dracula’s throne room.
Fixed an issue where the difficulty filter could not be selected with a gamepad in the dedicated server list.
Bug Fixes
Prevented accidental double taps when opening the map with a gamepad. This stops the map from opening and then immediately closing.
Fixed issue where adaptive triggers would stop camera input when playing with Controller Layout 2.
Fixed an issue where the navigation could break when swapping between the social menu and the systems menu with a gamepad.
Fixed an issue where navigation would become unresponsive when pressing the D-pad when editing settings with a value input.
Made the Tutorial System more optimized to help lower-end systems.
SYSTEM messages no longer display two timestamps.
The brightness slider on first startup is no longer affected by framerate issues.
Fixed a bug where the client would use the next parameter if provided with an empty value for saveFileName.
Fixed some issues with the pathfinding for the map marker guidance that would lead players down the wrong roads.
Fixed an issue where options were not properly saved if an autosave was occurring just as the option was changed.
Fixed an issue where the aim previews for the Great Sword would sometimes lock up.
Pressing Esc no longer closes the whole Private Game Setup when trying to deselect a text input field.
Fixed the missing walk animation for the Vampire Cultist when the unit is engaged in combat.
Fixed the Aim Preview for Ice Block to work properly when targeting allied players.
Fixed a performance issue with the bombs from the Gattlers and Zappers.
Improved the performance of the lightning strikes in North Gloomrot.
Improved performance of AI units to make the game run smoother.
Improved performance of bushes.
Sentry Officer Servants now bring their turrets with them when going on a mission.
Optimized the occlusion culling for animators
Servants now properly find their way home after a mission even if the castle was relocated while they were away.
Spells can now be properly thrown through archways in hedges.
Fixed some clipping issues for vampires with long hair.
Updated the visual effect on the EMP Bomb explosion to be more performant.
Improved the performance of several Frost and Storm spells and abilities.
Improved the performance of the Slashers’ Elusive Strike.
Fixed performance issues with Meredith the Bright Archer’s abilities.
Fixed performance issues with Quincey the Bandit King’s abilities.
Fixed performance issues with Matka the Curse Weaver’s abilities.
Fixed performance issues with Terrorclaw the Ogre’s abilities.
Improved how the game handles LODs to improve performance.
Improved performance of rendering characters.
Carriages no longer sometimes leave their colliders behind after being despawned.
Player characters can no longer move through collision when already in collision and SpellControlled.
Timers on buffs now properly update the time formatting when changing language.
Text on the arrow waypoint now updates when changing language.
Fixed a problem where the animator would be activated when the unit is in ragdoll state.
The vampire no longer sometimes turns white when dashing through lightning beams.
Fixed a number of bugs which could make parts of the vampire turn invisible when dashing to exit a shapeshift.
Fixed a crash that could occur when visual effect materials were incorrectly destroyed.
Fix for ledge jumping with bat form.
Chess boards now have the correct layout of black and white squares.
Fixed a bug where cooldown reduction on equipped Jewels lost their effect on server restart, until the Jewel was re-equipped.
Fixed the issue of not being able to set an empty value for AutoSaveSmartKeep via the command line parameter (-saveSmartKeep) by now allowing a value of "-".
Balance Updates
While we were looking at changes to make for this balance update, we reached out in a few public and private discords to get some community feedback on the most pressing issues related to PvP in the game right now to get the best idea we could do to alleviate current frustrations.
With that in mind, the changes we’re making are restricted to numbers adjustments to spells that needed a little tuning down like the defensive counters and buffs, but just as importantly some others that need a little boost to help make more options viable.
Some motivations for changes are as follows:
We received a lot of feedback that the Whip is too strong due to its attack speed and overall damage compared to other weapons that are harder to aim. Even though the whip overall has the lowest DPS(damage per second), we increased the primary attack’s cast time to make it slightly more reactable while also lowering the DPS. This will bring it more in line with other weapons.
In general, defensives have been pretty oppressive. We’ve tuned down the numbers on some of the shields and defensives provided. There are other issues with strengths on defensives that can’t solved with a simple numbers adjustment, but this will have to do for now!
Void is omnipresent in raiding when combined with scholar blood, having a large radius that it’s very difficult not to get value out of in narrow hallways when used excessively by many Vampires at once. We’ve reduced the radius to make it a bit easier to dodge and a bit harder to get value out of when used in large groups.
Many projectiles and targeting offensive abilities have had their damage tuned up to make them more competitive options compared to defensive spells.
There’s been some rebalancing in the frost school, off-setting some of the frustrating nature of the freeze setups by increasing the shielding the freeze gives a player, which should soften the blow of the first guaranteed hit they receive when being broken out of their frozen state.
Some underutilized ults have gotten some buffs!
Right now we’re starting work on the next update, and in that we’re going to be able to do more of the things we weren’t able to do now. For instance, we’re aware there are concerns in pvp around how much offensive utility directional shields have, but there’s no way to adjust them properly without changing their functionality significantly, which we’re restricted from doing in a minor patch such as this.
We’re also working on some fun systems that you can look forward to that are targeted at pvp lovers, like the much requested duel system.
Until then, please enjoy these adjustments that should make it a bit more fun to murder your fellow Vampire over, and over, and over again.
Weapons
Whip
Increased cast time of the primary attack to 0.5s from 0.45s and tweaked movement speed on cast.
Blood
Blood fountain
Increase damage done from 75% to 90%
Reduced cast time from 0.5s to 0.4s
Crimson beam
Increase damage done from 250% to 275%
Blood rage
[Jewel] Reduce spell mod shield from 40%-60% to 30%-45%
[Jewel] Reduce shield duration from 4s to 3s
Chaos
Aftershock
Increase damage done from 130% to 140%
Void
Reduce radius from 3.2 to 2.2
[Jewel] Reduce cluster bomb radius from 2.2 to 1.6
Reduce time to impact from 1s to 0.8s
Reduce knockback distance towards center from 2 to 1
Unholy
Unholy skeleton summons
Drastically reduced dynamic collision size against players
Improved accuracy of skeleton apprentices projectile cast
Illusion
Changes to jewels spawning Wisps
[Jewel] Increase speed of wisps
[Jewel] Reduced lifetime of wisps from 22s to 10s
[Jewel] Reduced healing from each spell mod wisp from 30%-60% to 30%-50%
Wisp Dance
Increase recast projectile damage done from 100% to 110%
Spectral wolf
[Jewel] Increase the number of bonus bounces from 1 to a range of 1-2.
Mosquito
Increase damage done from 100% to 120%
[Jewel] Change spell mod wisp move pattern to shoot out from the center a bit stronger to make it harder to quickly catch all 3 wisps.
Made players only capture 1 wisp when hugging the mosquito as it explodes.
Wraith spear
Reduced cast time from 1s to 0.8s
Reduced travel distance from 5 to 4 units
Reduce damage from 170% to 160%
Canceling the cast now sets the cooldown to 50% of full cooldown
Phantom aegis
Reduce shield absorb value from 200% to 180%
Frost
General
Increase absorb value from 50% to 65% of the frost freeze buff.
Ice nova
[Jewel] Increase damage done to chilled and frozen targets from 25%-40% to 35%-50%
Crystal Lance
[Jewel] Increase damage done to chilled and frozen targets from 30%-60% to 40%-70%
Frost bat
Increase damage done from 110% to 115%
[Jewel] Increase impact blast area damage from 20%-40% to 40%-60%
[Bug-fix] Fixed impact blast effect size to better match hitbox
Cold snap
Reduce shield absorb value from 100% to 80%
Reduce freeze duration from 2.5s to 2s (1.25s -> 1s vs players)
Veil of Frost
[Jewel] The jewel perk now applies a 3s Freeze, down from 4s. (2s -> 1.5s vs players)
Ice Block
Now shields for 500% of your spell power, up from 450%.
Now deals 150% initial magic damage, up from 100%.
Arctic Leap
Now deals 225% magic damage up from 200%.
Storm
Polarity Shift
[Jewel] Increase damage of travel start and travel end lightning nova triggers from 25%-50% to 40%-60%
Ball Lightning
[Jewel] Increase Detonate early spell mod damage from 25%-50% to 40%-80%
Lightning Curtain
Increase damage dealt per tick from 25% to 30%
[Jewel] Reduce shield gained by passing through the wall from 40%-60% to 30%-50%
Lightning Typhoon
Now gain a 125% fading haste, up from 100%.
Now occurs over a duration of 4s, up from 3.5s.
V Rising Steam Free Weekend
Vampire Hordes Abound!
Darkness descends on Steam as V Rising will be available to play for free starting Thursday, September 12th at 10:00 AM PST/1:00 PM EST/5:00 PM GMT and will continue to be available to play for free until Monday, September 16th at 10:00 AM PST/1:00 PM EST/5:00 PM GMT. For this limited time, anyone with a Steam account can dive into the dark, gothic Vampire adventure of V Rising!
Never has there been a better time to take a bite out of your unsuspecting mortal friends and infect them with a love for Vampire mayhem!
Should you be taken in by our midnight allure as millions before you, there has never been a better time to make the experience everlasting! Play beyond the free weekend with V Rising 30% off on Steam and all cosmetic DLCs 20% off starting September 12th and lasting until the 24th! Just one more tempting reason to embrace the dark delights of the Vampire lifestyle.
Darkness Descends
As summer sets and the shadows grow deeper in 2024, things have begun to stir in the shadows here in the Stunlock Studios crypts. Look forward to hearing more from us this fall. In the meantime, check out our socials below to keep up with V Rising news!
