At the turn of the new year, on January 1, LEGO released a big new Stranger Things set that synced up nicely with the fifth and final season of the show. It’s the Creel House, the large and imposing Gothic manor that played a pivotal role in the endgame. The set is comprised of 2,593 pices and includes 13 minifigures, along with Steve’s car, Will’s bike, and the WSQK radio van. Unfortunately, LEGO Stranger Things: The Creel House sold out almost immediately after it became available and has been unable to purchase – untili now (see it at the LEGO Store).

LEGO Icons - Stranger Things: The Creel House

LEGO Minifigures Included

Buy this set, and you’ll also get 13 minifigures based on characters from the show.

• Will
• Mike
• Lucas
• Dustin
• Vecna
• Mr. Whatsit
• Holly
• Steve
• Nancy
• Robin
• Jonathan
• Max
• Eleven

This isn’t the first collab between LEGO and Stranger Things. LEGO has released a number of BrickHeadz sets of the characters, including a Demogorgon, plus an awesome (but now sadly retired) set called The Upside Down.

And if you're wondering what LEGO sets are scheduled to come out soon, you have plenty to look forward to. There's a new play system called LEGO Smart Play, which is getting eight Smart Play Star Wars sets on March 1. Also out that day are sets based on the upcoming video game LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. And just two days earlier, on February 27, we'll get the first LEGO Pokémon sets. And for Lord of the Rings fans, an awesome display build of Sauron's Helmet is also coming soon.

Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN's board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky.

A sizable Nintendo Direct is expected next month — and potentially as soon as next week, according to one report.

Word of a major announcement showcase comes hot on the heels of two other, smaller Nintendo Direct broadcasts dedicated to The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (held last weekend) and Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream (due tomorrow, January 29).

Aside from those, Nintendo is still to lay out the majority of its 2026 Switch 2 release slate — something fans now expect to find out sooner rather than later. Indeed, noted Nintendo leaker NatetheHate, who correctly reported the Switch 2's big reveal date last year, has leant his weight behind the Direct landing next week, likely on Thursday, February 5.

Speak this week via his podcast, the leaker said he expected this year to feature a swathe of smaller Nintendo IPs, before the long-awaited next 3D Mario platformer finally ground pounds onto Switch 2 in time for the holidays.

This is something that is also widely expected by fans, not least because it has been almost nine years since Switch blockbuster Super Mario Odyssey, but also because Nintendo's 3D Mario team has been conspicuously quiet ever since. While some veterans did assist with Donkey Kong Bananza, many did not — including the company's usual Mario producer Yoshiaki Koizumi.

Will we see a first glimpse of Nintendo's big Mario game next month? So far, no leaker has made that claim. Still, there's a feeling among fans that 2026 will be when it finally debuts, to give the Switch 2 a boost as it enters its sophomore year.

Another major boost expected this holiday will be the widely-anticipated next-generation of Pokémon games, details of which were spilled online last year via hacked information taken from the servers of developer Game Freak. Like Mario, fans expect these to also arrive later in 2026 — which is the 30th anniversary of the Pokémon franchise.

One final expectation among fans touched on by NatetheHate is for Nintendo to discuss more of its plans for Mario Kart World, the Switch 2 launch title it charged $80 for which landed to solid if not spectacular reviews. Many fans have criticized the game's empty open world, and Nintendo has recently begun tweaking parts of it, but there is also an assumption that Nintendo will add major new content to the title over time.

Will this arrive in the form of paid DLC, as with Mario Kart 8? It's possible. But NatetheHate makes the point that pushing the game's total buy-in closer to $100 may ultimately prove unpalatable to Nintendo fans, particularly after many feel the base game is still yet to justify its $80 asking price.

Here's hoping we don't have too much longer to wait until Nintendo does nail down its next major Direct date. Pokémon's big announcement show, meanwhile, is now an annual event taking place on the franchise's anniversary — February 27.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

If it were up to me, I’d watch movies and play games exclusively on a projector. It not only turns any free wall into a cinema-grade screen, but also feels far more immersive than my 55-inch TV. But more often than not, and especially when playing videogames, I reach for the TV’s remote over the projector’s, as it just looks brighter and smoother, no matter the lighting. Xgimi’s new, flagship Horizon 20 Max projector changes that.

The Horizon 20 Max pushes the boundaries of how bright a projector of its size can get. Its triple-laser light engine can project an image as large as 300 inches at a 4K resolution and, more importantly, at an unprecedented 5700 ISO lumens of peak brightness. This means, even against direct lighting, its projection is bright and sharp, unlike other projectors that make you close the curtains in daytime to be at all visible. The rest of the Horizon Max’s hardware is maxed out, too: it’s calibrated for IMAX Enhanced, HDR10, and Dolby Vision, and lets you game at 1ms input lag and 240Hz motion.

How well do these specs translate in real-world conditions? Over the last few weeks, I binged countless movies and played some of the most demanding videogames to find out, and at $3000 , while the Horizon Max is far from affordable, it’s an easy choice for those who are looking for a no-compromise cinematic experience.

Xgimi Horizon 20 Max – Build and Design

The Horizon 20 Max may not look like it, but it’s a hefty projector. Weighing over 16 lbs, it’s a task to pull it out of the carrying case it ships in and set it up on a floor stand. That said, it’s on the lighter side of the spectrum in this category, and its dimensions, also, are fairly compact for its calibre. It features a relatively plain look, which may not seem high-end, but over time, I began to appreciate its refined and clean appearance that’s easy to blend into the rest of a living room’s decor. It’s only available in a single grey finish and comes encased in a leather-like exterior.

Many of its functional elements add further character to the look. The front, for example, is dominated by the Harman/Kardon-tuned stereo speaker grills, while the back features rubberized vents for the cooling fan. Its highlight, though, is that it all sits on an integrated, swiveling stand that makes repositioning the projection a breeze. I also appreciated that the stand has enough friction to remain sturdy at the angle you set and not feel stiff when you try to adjust it.

One glaring omission from the Horizon 20 Max is that there’s no lens cover. Many of Xgimi’s earlier high-end projectors came with a motorized one. Several times, therefore, I ended up cleaning the lens before powering it up.

Other than that, you’ll find a series of ports on the rear, including pairs of HDMI and USB-A slots, another for optical output, and an audio jack. I do wish, though, that Xgimi had included a USB-C and placed the row of ports at the rear bottom instead of the top for better cable management.

The included metallic remote, like previous Xgimi projectors, is a joy to hold and operate. It has all the buttons you’d need, including for launching a custom shortcut, auto-focus, and more. More importantly, the essential ones, like going home or back, are backlit, and thanks to a built-in light sensor, the remote automatically illuminates them in dark rooms. Also fun is the spring-loaded battery tray, which pops out when you press its switch on the back.

Xgimi Horizon 20 Max – Software and Performance

The Horizon 20 Max runs on Android TV 14 and, thanks to its MediaTek quad-core processor and ample 4GB of RAM, it’s one of the snappiest projectors I’ve used. It boots up instantly, and scrolling through the Google TV interface or executing voice commands is smooth, too. The Google TV home screen, where you’ll also find smart TV show and movie recommendations, is infamous for slowing down projectors, but the 20 Max had no trouble there, either.

Similarly, on most projectors I’ve tested, loading files and high-res videos from external storage is often a laggy experience. The 20 Max proved to be an exception here, handling large files without any stutters.

While the Google TV interface it ships with is largely clean and bloatware-free, Xgimi has added a few of its own handy tools. The eye protection mode, for example, automatically pauses the projection when someone passes through its field of view, as opposed to blinding them with lasers. You can also exclusively use this projector as a Bluetooth speaker or connect headphones, courtesy of the built-in Bluetooth 5.2.

In most day-to-day conditions, the Horizon 20 Max remains quiet and cool. However, at max brightness in modes like High Power, its fan does kick in, and you will especially hear its low-pitched thrum when whatever you’re watching isn’t loud enough itself. A couple of hours in this mode can also lead to the projector throwing an overheating warning, but it never shuts down or pauses the projection.

Xgimi Horizon 20 Max – Picture Quality and Speakers

The Horizon 20 Max is the first projector that has convinced me it can replace my TV, and all credit goes to its excellent picture quality. What stands out about the 20 Max is that its output remains consistent throughout conditions and doesn’t appear, for example, washed out in daytime. I don’t have to go through a multi-step process, whether that’s adjusting the image settings or my room’s curtains, to use it anytime other than at night.

The 20 Max’s triple-laser engine produces a bright and vibrant Ultra HD projection in most scenarios. It can push the brightness up to 5700 ISO Lumens, which means visuals look sharp even when played opposite a window. The projector’s software enhancements also actively tune the image’s contrast so that highlights and shadows stay balanced and vivid. Its high contrast ratio also made streaming darker content, like The Batman, appear punchy while retaining its original cinematic nuances.

While the Horizon 20 Max supports the usual picture standards, like HDR10+, it has a few premium, rare certifications, too. The IMAX Enhanced mode, in particular, stood out for me. It only activates automatically for selected, compatible media, and when it does, it can truly upgrade the home cinema experience. It digitally recreates the IMAX quality by further darkening the blacks and switching to a wider aspect ratio to fit more of the otherwise hidden scene in.

With the Horizon 20 Max, Xgimi has improved its suite of image calibration tools, too. In most scenarios, it takes the hassle out of adjusting the projection and intelligently figures out how to avoid obstacles and resize the image to fit a wall or a white screen.

When you do need to take control, there are plenty of options to help you precisely tune it. Two of those stand out: one that’s a first for Xgimi’s home projectors and allows you to shift its lens vertically and horizontally from the settings to reposition the image. Similarly, you can optically zoom in and out to resize it. This meant I didn’t have to physically move the projector to adjust its projection or resort to doing so digitally, which can lead to distortion and quality trade-offs.

In addition, the Horizon 20 Max’s 24W stereo speakers do a decent job of filling the room without making the sound feel concentrated in one corner. I was surprised to discover how clean and rich the audio stays, even at the highest levels, possibly thanks to the integrated deep bass extension. They get decently loud, and I rarely felt the absence of a dedicated home theatre unit.

Xgimi Horizon 20 Max – Gaming Experience

The Horizon 20 Max’s DLP display also makes it an ideal projector for gaming. It supports variable refresh rate (up to 240Hz) and can lower the latency down to 1ms at a 1080p resolution. At 4K, the latency comes up at a still-reasonable 3ms. In my experience, there was minimal screen tearing, and high-res visuals were fluid even after hours of gameplay.

Plus, Xgimi offers a bunch of gaming modes to further boost the projector’s performance, like FPS, RTS, and one called Assassin’s Creed Mode made in partnership with Ubisoft. I had a delightful time with the latter while playing the Ghost of Yōtei, as the projector tuned the picture to enhance the contrast for a more immersive stealth experience.

Since December, we've been seeing (and writing!) headlines discussing the seeming slowdown of Nintendo Switch 2 sales going into the holiday season.

And that narrative feels right, doesn't it? We've seen prices on everything rise this year, and increasing economic uncertainty especially in the U.S. The Nintendo Switch 2 also didn't have a huge holiday game release (my apologies to Metroid Prime 4) to bolster sales through Black Friday and December. It just makes sense that holiday sales were down.

But there's some nuance to this narrative, and not just because so many people seem to be taking this as a sign of doom for the Nintendo Switch 2. So I kicked off the new year by bugging all the analysts I knew for some further context on Nintendo Switch 2's holiday sales: if they were down, why they were down if so, and what it all means for the Switch 2's future.

Did the Nintendo Switch 2 actually have a bad holiday?

Nah.

Were sales slower than they were earlier in the year? Sure. But that was neither shocking nor concerning to any analyst I spoke to.

Manu Rosier, director of market intelligence at Newzoo, described the Nintendo Switch 2's sales thus far as having a strong initial surge of adoption, followed by "normalization." “There are signs of a Q4 normalization versus the launch window, reflecting a shift from launch-driven demand (scarcity, bundles, pent-up interest) to a more typical, steady-state demand mix," he said. This trend was echoed across the globe, with Rosier and several of the other analysts I spoke to all confirming something roughly similar going on in their respective tracked regions across the U.S., UK, and Europe.

Yes, there was a drop off in sales over the holidays from the initial launch surge. As Joost van Dreunen, NYU Stern professor and author of SuperJoost Playlist explains, "The device is more expensive than its predecessors, for one, and went into the holiday season without a clear blockbuster title to incentivize audiences. Don’t get me wrong, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is well worth your time, but it lacks the cache held by Mario and Zelda titles. More so, everyone who was going to buy a Switch 2 at launch has had a chance to do so, especially since Nintendo had been stocking its new console for months prior to its release in anticipation of tariff-related volatility and potential supply chain issues.”

But as every single analyst I spoke to also said, this was extremely expected and normal, and not really an indicator of anything especially concerning. For instance, Circana's annual report on the U.S. games market had the Nintendo Switch 2 as the best-selling console of the year in both unit and dollar sales. It sold 4.4 million units total for 2025 in the U.S., 94% higher than the Nintendo Switch 1 at the same point in its life cycle.

It is worth noting, of course, that the Nintendo Switch 1 launched in March in its release year, while the Switch 2 dropped in June. This means that the comparison point here, seven months into each console's life cycle, includes the holiday period for the Switch 2, but not the original Switch. And it's true that reporting suggests Switch 2 holiday sales underperformed Switch 1 holiday sales in some markets, especially the UK and parts of the U.S. So it's possible in the coming months we see that difference shrink.

Or, maybe not! The Switch 2 has one heck of a lead, and there's a good reason for it: supply. "Switch 2 sales [in 2025] were expected to be more front-loaded than other consoles historically due to the strong rate of supply early on," says Mat Piscatella, senior director at Circana. "Which, of course, is how the Switch 2 has been able to set the record as the US market's fastest selling console ever over the first 6 months in market. You can't sell units that don't exist, etc etc."

Switches 'Round the World

Additionally, the Switch 2's holiday wasn't on the slower side everywhere. In Asia, Niko Partners director of research and insights Daniel Ahmad says the Switch 2 had a good holiday. "In Japan, sales of the Switch 2 during the holiday period were in line with the Switch 1," he says. "Nintendo’s expansion in Southeast Asia is also paying off, with an official launch in the region earlier this year helping drive sales growth. While there is no official release in China, demand for grey market imports is high."

Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of Kantan Games, backs this up too. "In the case of the Japanese market in particular, the numbers are very clear: Switch 2 sold like hot cakes over the holidays."

One reason for that is supply. The Switch 2's initial sales success in the U.S. can be attributed partly to Nintendo ensuring there was an ample supply at launch, which also resulted in U.S. total sales being more heavily frontloaded than they would have otherwise. But the console has been difficult to come by in Japan, Toto says. That was true even over the holiday when supply improved, and he suspects the Japan sales would have been even higher if there had been enough Switch 2s to go around.

Piers Harding-Rolls, games industry analyst and researcher at Ampere Analysis, offered an in-depth take as to why the Switch 2 is in the position it's in right now. For one, the market conditions are different than they were when the Switch 1 came out. Not only is there more stock and fewer massive gamers as the other analysts mentioned, but the Switch 2 is also a "known quantity."

"When the original Switch launched it followed a failing Wii U generation - there was a lot of interest but hype and momentum built up in the run up to the holiday sales at the end of 2017," Harding-Rolls says. "This time around at the Switch 2 launch demand was predictably high because of the success of the Switch. Following a record launch, it’s not surprising that Switch 2 sales have not been able to maintain the same massive sales lead on the original Switch. For the record, Switch 2 shipments in 2025 should outperform the original Switch in 2017 and over a shorter period of time.

"...Then there is the whole macroeconomic situation, less disposable income and higher priced hardware. This may be softening demand to an extent especially as lots of new games are still available on the original Switch."

Put all together, it sounds like there's a lot less cause for alarm(o) than some were making Switch 2 sales out to be.

The Switch in Twenty-Six

But what about the future?

Harding-Rolls continues: "I’m expecting Switch 2 exclusives to become more plentiful in 2026 so this will drive upgrades for those sitting on the fence. Overall, Switch 2 games look pretty strong in 2026 so I remain quite bullish on the performance of the platform this year. Longer-term I don’t expect Switch 2 to outperform the original Switch as there were special conditions - primarily the pandemic - which supercharged demand for Switch later in the cycle and elongated it to an extent."

Everyone else agrees 2026 will be a good year for Switch 2, though with some asterisks related to the broader global market. Toto thinks for the current fiscal year ending March 30, Nintendo will be closer to 20 million units sold than their own forecast of 15 million, contingent on them building a more impressive game line-up. Ahmad predicts that the Switch 2 will sell more than 50 million units by the end of 2027, which would be a similar amount to the Switch 1 over the same time frame. He's predicting a price hike, though, specifically a tariff-related one: "Tariffs were already squeezing margins last year, component costs are increasing rapidly, and we wouldn’t be surprised if Nintendo passes those costs on to consumers in one way or another."

Van Dreunen doesn't think we'll see component-related price changes that would discourage sales, saying that Nintendo has already priced those in and that he expects sales in Japan especially to remain strong thanks to regional discounts and a heavy focus on the domestic market. "If it looks like Nintendo is selling fewer consoles in the US, you can look to the current administration for an explanation."

Memory Goes Boom

But hardware pricing is a pretty big sticking point for James McWhirter, senior analyst at Omdia. He provided a fairly detailed breakdown of what he thinks is coming not just for the Switch 2, but for the entire console market, insofar as hardware pricing increases could eventually price consumers out of new purchases.

McWhirter thinks that the big story for all console hardware this year will be the effect that demand for AI infrastructure is going to have on pricing. In his estimation, about six months ago, RAM in a base PS5 accounted for at least a fifth of the bill of materials. But by the end of 2025, that cost will have risen by at least 50%.

"Suppliers obviously have the upper hand with any new negotiations, so it’s only a matter of time until Nintendo – and Sony and Microsoft – run through their inventory of memory and renegotiate at higher prices," he says. "Any rise in the cost of console hardware will be passed on to consumers via multiple means: directly, or via a mix of increased software, services, peripherals pricing.

"But this comes at a tricky time for consoles – we are of course simultaneously seeing the spending power of middle-income households declining. This leaves Nintendo more exposed as they are keen on transitioning their Switch audience onto Switch 2 as quickly as possible, with no more cross-gen releases on the horizon."

It's not just hardware that's impacted, he adds. He expects the "memory boom cycle" to impact Switch 2 software specifically soon, due to physical games shipping on NAND memory. "The rising cost of NAND memory places upward pressure on the cost of Switch 2 Game Cards. Switch 2, like its predecessor, is still a physical-first platform. When including bundled software, Omdia estimates 57% of Switch 2 games sold in 2025 were at retail."

What about Game Key-Cards, you say? Sure, that would help, but they're controversial…and may not be enough anyway.

"The upward pressure on NAND memory prices mean Game Key-Cards will be here to stay - even Nintendo has begun experimenting with them starting with March 2026's Pokémon Pokopia. A publisher recently suggested Nintendo is introducing smaller capacity Game Cards, but the cost savings they provide may be eventually wiped out in future.

McWhirter expects that all of this will likely impact the "middle market" of gaming, people who purchase consoles sometime after their initial launch boom or general non-enthusiast gamers, may not be purchasing consoles in the same volume that they have in recent history. These are the people that pushed the Switch 1 to global sell-through of 151 million by the end of last year, but he's not so sure they're going to show up for the Switch 2, especially if it gets more expensive. He recalls the Nintendo 3DS, which had extremely frontloaded sales (17% of systems were sold in the first year on the market) compared to the Nintendo Switch 1 (9% in the first year). A similar scenario could happen again.

There are things Nintendo could do to stave that off. Switch 2 hardware bundles over the holiday providing a "soft" discount would help push sales. Regional discounts extended beyond just Japan would also probably work. He also posits a future docked-only Switch 2 Lite that would help reduce component costs and pass that savings on to consumers.

What does all this mean? It sounds like, as has been reported, 2025 was overall a fantastic launch year for the Switch 2, and that energy will likely continue for some time to come. But there are a number of hurdles the console needs to overcome in the next few years in order to maintain that success long-term. Some of them are obvious and manageable by Nintendo now: does it have a strong 2026 and 2027 game line-up, or not? But others, such as tariffs and component costs, are harder to predict and will require deft handling on the part of the hardware maker in order to drive the Switch 2 generation to a comparable level of success as its predecessors had.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Silent Hill fans, make some room in your movie collection. If you enjoyed Return to Silent Hill, preorders are already live for the film's 4K steelbook, standard 4K release, and Blu-ray. At the moment, there is no release date for any of these formats since the film only just opened in theaters, but steelbooks like this often sell out. It's worth preordering ahead of time so you can feel content knowing you definitely have a copy on the way when launch day comes around.

Details on where you can preorder these physical versions can be found below. Alongside a lack of release date, no bonus features have been revealed yet, either. However, once they're announced, we'll be sure to add them to this page.

Preorder Return to Silent Hill Amazon Exclusive 4K Steelbook

While Walmart's 4K steelbook for Return to Silent Hill has already sold out, Amazon's offering its own exclusive steelbook right now. It features quite a creepy cover and comes with the film on 4K UHD and Blu-ray. That's not all, though, as this Amazon Exclusive version also comes with a 4x6 collectible lenticular with Pyramid Head on it, which you can check out below.

• 4K UHD (non-steelbook): Amazon | Walmart
• Blu-ray: Amazon | Walmart

Unfortunately, the film hasn't quite taken off at the box office. Our own review of Return to Silent Hill found that it "isn’t completely without merit. It’s certainly a better follow-up to Cristophe Gans’ original 2006 film than 2012’s Silent Hill: Revelation, one that finds some success drawing on the creepy imagery and sound design of the games." However, IGN's Jesse Schedeen notes that it's "ultimately an adaptation that fails to improve upon the source material or do anything particularly new and interesting."

Even so, if you found you liked it, this is a great opportunity to set yourself up with a physical copy for a rewatch later.

Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.

The director of Resident Evil Requiem has said that the game's female staff members worked hard to ensure hero Leon S. Kennedy "would make anyone's heart throb."

Fans have praised Leon's appearance in Requiem, which sees the rookie cop turned grizzled agent sporting stubble, wrinkles, but still a full head of floppy hair. Online, may have dubbed Leon as an "ikeoji" character — an attractive older man that is also referred to as a "hot uncle" — and it's this definition which has now been put to Requiem's director by Automaton.

"We've spent quite a lot of time polishing Leon's visuals," director Koshi Nakanishi said when asked about Leon's ikeoji status. "Leon has many fans among Capcom employees, and women in particular were pretty strict when reviewing his design.

RuneScape maker Jagex has insisted it will never use generative AI to make content players actually see in-game, in one of the hardest stances on AI yet seen from a video game developer.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Jagex SVP of product, James Dobrowski, said that the UK company is “open” to using genAI for development processes, such as “tooling efficiency.” But he promised Jagex will never use genAI to "drive creativity."

"We've got a pretty hard line stance with the team, which is a commitment that no generative AI will ever be present in any asset that a player can touch, hear or feel,” Dobrowski said. “There will be no generative AI in the game that they experience.”

That rules out the likes of AI-generated art, which we have seen in games such as Call of Duty, AI-generated voices, which we have seen in Arc Raiders, and AI-generated text / dialogue, which, again, we have seen pop up in a number of games.

"Where we are open to the use of AI is in things like tooling efficiency,” Dobrowski continued, “how do we make the way we work more efficient in order to make our staff's lives easier and allow us to produce better content. But we do not want to be using AI to drive creativity." Jagex is even speaking with its external partners to make sure no genAI is being used in “inappropriate ways in any of their work that might filter through to the end game."

The use of generative AI in game development is one of the hottest topics in the industry, and it has sparked a number of controversies. Following the reveal of Divinity at the 2025 The Game Awards, Swen Vincke, boss of developer Larian, met with a backlash after he said the studio was using genAI in various capacities. Larian ended up having to address AI concerns in a reddit AMA in which the studio confirmed a U-turn on some aspects of its use.

Jagex's "hard line stance" is in contrast to the approach of some video game companies that have gone all-in on the tech. The CEO of Genvid — the company behind choose-your-own-adventure interactive series Silent Hill Ascension — has claimed "consumers generally do not care" about generative AI, and stated that: "Gen Z loves AI slop." EA CEO Andrew Wilson, meanwhile, has said AI is "the very core of our business," and Square Enix recently implemented mass layoffs and reorganized, saying it needed to be "aggressive in applying AI." Dead Space creator Glen Schofield also recently detailed his plans to “fix” the industry in part via the use of generative AI in game development, and former God of War dev Meghan Morgan Juinio said: "... if we don’t embrace [AI], I think we’re selling ourselves short.”

Outside of video games, some entertainment companies are banning the use of genAI altogether. For example, Games Workshop recently banned the use of generative AI for the production of its designs and content, a decision many Warhammer fans welcomed.

As for RuneScape, it was in the news recently after a UK court ruled stealing RuneScape Gold was criminal theft in a case that could have wider repercussions for the video game industry.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Last year, IGN broke the news that the wildly popular web series Murder Drones is making the jump to comics, with Oni Press releasing a graphic novel adaptation of the first season. That comic was successfully crowdfunded on Kickstarter, but now it's making its way to comic shops as it sees a wider release in 2026.

IGN can now exclusively debut an extended preview of Murder Drones #1. Check it out in the slideshow gallery below:

Murder Drones is a collaboration between Oni and animation studio Glitch Productions. The comic is written by Wyatt Kennedy (Nights, Marvel United) and drawn by Jo Mi-Gyeong (Eve, Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance). The comic serves as an adaptation of the first season of the Murder Drones animated series.

Here's Oni's official description of Murder Drones:

In the far future on the desolate exoplanet designated Copper 9, the humans are long gone but the robotic worker drones they created to mine the planet’s resources are still hard at work. Together, they have managed to forge their own makeshift society . . . or so they thought until a previously unknown kind of robot - the dreaded “Murder Drones” - are activated by a long-forgotten possibly-eldritch protocol to disassemble any worker that deviates from its original programming. But when a rebellious young worker drone named Uzi forms an unlikely alliance with two disassembly drones—Serial Designations N and V—can they, together, uncover the secrets of their origins . . . and survive the deep twisted horrors awaiting them?

Murder Drones #1 will be released on February 11, 2026. You can preorder a copy at your local comic shop.

In other comic book news, find out which series was selected as IGN's best comic book of 2025, and see which comics we're most excited for in 2026.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.

Developer Hoothanes and publisher 4Divinity have announced The Defiant, an upcoming story-driven, cinematic, single-player World War II-set first-person shooter that sees players take part in China’s War of Resistance against Japan.

Powered by Unreal Engine 5 and created by "a veteran team of filmmakers and game developers," according to its publisher, The Defiant clearly aims to mix things up from the usual WWII FPS fare we've seen a hundred times now. "Missions shift fluidly between stealth infiltration, close-quarters firefights, sniping, urban espionage, code-breaking operations, vehicular combat, and sudden large-scale assaults," 4Defiant said. Check out the first trailer above and the first screenshots in the gallery below.

The Defiant's developers said they're aiming to convey a reverence for history, noting that "weapons in The Defiant are treated as historical artefacts, not just tools" and that the campaign "aims to reframe how the FPS genre approaches history, offering a perspective rarely seen in interactive entertainment." The team added, "The game unfolds across occupied villages, frozen forests, fortified supply routes, and enemy-controlled urban zones, where every environment is shaped by the realities of guerrilla warfare and survival behind enemy lines."

You can wishlist The Defiant on Steam if you're interested.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

Embark Studios’ Arc Raiders and The Finals are suffering from what the studio has described as “extensive, coordinated” Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks.

The attacks were said to be “ongoing” today while the studio battles to mitigate their impact on each game.

Arc Raiders players have been complaining of server issues all morning, with some unable to reconnect to or abandon matches. Some affected players are hoping they will see lost loot return once the issues are fixed. “Was just rubber banding and died because it was of course in front of a shredder, and now stuck on the loading screen while trying to join a new lobby,” said one affected player.

It's unfortunate timing for Arc Raiders in particular, given the DDoS attacks come hot on the heels of Arc Raiders’ Headwinds update, which added a solo vs. squads matchmaking option, a Bird City map condition, and much more.

Meanwhile, Embark said it’s working on a hotfix that will “solve some of the issues and unintended changes” made by the Headwinds update. That should be out later today.

Arc Raiders is one of the biggest games in the world, having sold an incredible 12.4 million copies in just 10 weeks. The enormously popular extraction shooter has seen impressive staying power, too, setting a new concurrent player peak of 960,000 in January 2026. To put Arc Raiders' success into context, the similarly priced Helldivers 2 set a record for the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game of all time by selling 12 million in 12 weeks. Arc Raiders, which launched on Xbox as well as PC and PlayStation, hit the 12 million sales mark even faster. It's done so well so quickly, that it crossed over into the world of South Park with a surprise appearance that was put together in just a few days.

Headwinds is the first of a four-phase roadmap that has content scheduled out through April 2026. Next on the docket is the Shrouded Sky update, which adds a new map condition, Arc threat, player project, map update, Raider Deck, and more sometime in February. Flashpoint will then arrive in March with another map condition and Scrappy update, with Riven Tides rounding things out with a new map and a new large Arc in April.

If this has tempted you into giving Arc Raiders a try, check out our guide to the best settings, find out what skills we recommend unlocking first, and see how to earn loot by delivering field depot crates… or you can just wait for the inevitable TV show or movie adaptation, although Embark says it hasn't been swayed just yet.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D launched in November 2024 and has remained the best gaming processor ever since. So, when AMD quietly announced the AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D, a slightly faster version of the 9800X3D at CES 2026, it seemed like a no-brainer. After all, this new chip takes the successful gaming chip and lifts the max turbo speed by 400MHz, what could go wrong?

Well, it turns out that it’s such a small overclock that it barely impacts performance, and even leads to slightly worse multi-core performance over the original 9800X3D. I’ve spent most of the week testing this processor asking myself why AMD felt the need to even release the Ryzen 7 9850X3D. The only answer I can think of is that it costs slightly more and people are going to buy it just to have a higher number in CPU-Z.

Specs and Features

The AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D is practically the same processor as the 9800X3D, only with a slightly higher boost clock. You still get 8 Zen 5 cores, 16 threads and 96MB of L3 Cache, only now it boosts up to 5.6GHz instead of 5.2GHz. That’s a decent boost, but the real magic of the Ryzen 9850X3D is the same magic that makes the 9800X3D great – the 3D-stacked V-Cache.

Cache is essentially memory that’s built into your processor, and it’s a lot faster than system memory, or RAM. Essentially, the more of it is there, the more efficient your CPU is in workloads that demand rapid access to data – like gaming. What makes AMD’s X3D processors, like the 9850X3D, special is that instead of having it on the same physical layer of the chip as the CPU cores, it’s printed on its own layer.

Not only does this allow the Ryzen 7 9850X3D to have more cache than other processors, but it also cuts down on the latency. Because by having the cache located right above the CPU cores, the data simply has less physical distance to travel. This is why the 9850X3D is a great gaming processor, because it can load more game data at any given time, which leads to better performance, especially when paired with a powerful graphics card.

There’s only one problem, though. The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D already exists with the same exact cache configuration and core layout. So unless you’re playing a game that solely relies on single-core performance – which is becoming rare – you don’t really gain anything by shelling out an extra $30 for the Ryzen 7 9850X3D.

Of course, there is the higher boost clock, but it’s important to keep in mind that the processor will only ever hit those speeds in lightly threaded workloads. In anything that uses many cores at the same time, the clock speeds will even out to a much lower limit in order to control temperatures and power consumption.

Throughout my testing, I found that the Ryzen 7 9850X3D reaches the same peak power of 161W as the 9800X3D. That does mean that temperatures stay under control, only peaking at 85°C, but it does mean that when all the cores are being used, there isn’t much that the processor can do to get extra performance over the 9800X3D.

It is important to keep in mind, though, that because the 9850X3D comes out of the box with a higher clock speed, while keeping the same power consumption and temperatures as the original chip, it likely means it has more headroom for overclocking. That’s not something I test here at IGN, but if that’s something you’re into, this might be the chip to grab.

Performance

Because the Ryzen 7 9850X3D and 9800X3D are so similar, I was expecting the performance difference between the two chips to be small, but I was still surprised by how little that 400MHz boost clock increase matters. Throughout most of my test suite, the two processors were extremely close, trading blows depending on how heavily threaded the workload is.

The most disappointing bit, though, is that despite the higher asking price, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D turns out to be a little slower than the 9800X3D in multi-threaded workloads like Cinebench and Blender. It’s not a huge gap, to be sure, but it’s a gap that, if anything, should be the other way around.

Specifically, in the Cinebench R23 multi-core test, the 9850X3D gets 22,404 points, compared to 23,195 points from the Ryzen 9800X3D. That’s about a 3% lead for the slightly cheaper processor. This is flipped, however, in the single-core test, where the 9850X3D outperforms the 9800X3D with a score of 2208 to 2082. That’s where that single-core boost increase shows itself.

Likewise, in the 3DMark CPU Profile test, the 9850X3D gets a multi-core score of 10186, compared to 10274 from the 9800X3D. That’s another tiny gap in favor of the 9800X3D. But, again, just like Cinebench, the 9850X3D pulls ahead slightly in the single-core test, with 1265 points to the 9800X3D’s 1210.

Blender repeats the multi-core performance pattern. In the Monster workload, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D is able to manage 153 samples per second, compared to 157 from the 9800X3D. That’s a difference so small that it’s within the margin of error, to be fair, but it still leans in the wrong direction for a CPU that AMD is charging more for.

In Adobe, the 9850X3D beats the 9800X3D in Premiere, getting 13773 points in the Puget benchmark, compared to 13025. However, that’s reversed in Photoshop, with the older 9800X3D getting 12929 points, compared to 12167 points from the 9850X3D.

When it comes to real-world gaming, the 9850X3D disappoints again. In Cyberpunk 2077, at 1080p, with the Ultra preset, with no ray tracing or upscaling, the 9850X3D gets 231 fps, compared to 231 from the 9800X3D.

Total War: Warhammer 3 is no different. In this CPU-heavy game, the 9850X3D squeezes 261 fps out of the RTX 4090, compared to 265 fps with the 9800X3D. Another win for the cheaper chip.

I’ve been racking my brain trying to make sense of this performance. I re-ran the tests across the 9800X3D and 9850X3D multiple times, and each time got the same results. There are likely games out there where the 9850X3D does pull ahead of the 9800X3D, particularly in older single-threaded games. But in the games I’ve tested here, the 9850X3D consistently fell short – however small that gap might be.

Even according to AMD’s claims, which you should take with a grain of salt, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D is only expected to boost performance by as much as 6% in some esports games. And, then we’re probably talking about the difference between 300 fps and 318 fps in something like Counter-Strike 2. I don’t think that’s worth the extra $30.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

Shelter will be released in theaters on January 30.

"No man is an island, entire of itself," John Donne once wrote, "every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main." That's certainly the thematic core and literal setup for Shelter, Jason Statham's latest actioner. We know the drill by now: stoic killer, trying to live out his life in peace, but forced to dust off his knuckles and roundhouse kicks when a covert conspiracy knocks on his door.

This time he's playing Michael Mason, a former elite assassin for the British government who’s hiding out on a gloomy island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland with his dog sidekick, playing chess against himself and pencil drawing to pass the time. There's a lot of staring out at the sea and into space, as well as one-sided conversations with his mutt to hammer home his self-inflicted isolation.

That is, until he's forced to save precocious orphan Jessie (Bodhi Rae Breathnach), who's been delivering food to Mason by way of her uncle's trawler. On her way back to shore, her uncle's boat gets caught in a storm, leading to quite a preposterous "save the cat" scenario when he urges Jessie to return in a rowboat against 10-foot waves – seriously bad caregiving, unc! But there is some joy in seeing the former competitive diver battle the sea in a knitted jumper.

With Jessie injured and in need of medical supplies, Mason must re-enter society, where the plot unfolds, and a venerated cast of British actors enters the frame. It shows just how much affection there is for Jason Statham back home that Bill Nighy, Naomi Ackie and Harriet Walters all signed on to this film. Their presence as former MI6 chief Steven Manafort, his replacement Roberta Frost, and Prime Minister Fordham, respectively, does bring some gravitas to his typically low-brow proceedings.

Fordham and Manafort represent the murky machinations of the establishment. The Prime Minister is in hot water over an unethical surveillance system called T.H.E.A., the exact computer program that captures Mason's image and launches a shoot-to-kill operation against him. Manafort wants Mason dead for so-called treacherous desertion, keen-eyed Roberta wants answers, but as much as Ackie, Nighy and Walters can imbue their characters with cool charisma, the hackneyed dialogue fails to meet them at their level.

There lies my main grievance with Shelter. Ward Parry's screenplay might offer a serviceable story in the shadowy spy-thriller genre, but it lacks finesse or depth, instead serving up clichés at every corner. Lines like "Mason isn’t just an assassin, he’s a precision instrument," and "you don't want this life" function as stock dialogue in a script divorced from subtext. Everything is just too on-the-nose, especially when it comes to Mason.

There are moments where Statham reminds us he is more than just an action star, but also a penetrating, emphatic actor. Behind his eyes, he conveys the anger, the menace and growing affection he has for his young ward as they fight their way from Scotland to London. He and an enterprising Breathnach, who was recently seen in Chloe Zhao's Hamnet, share a believable chemistry. Her sparky gumption against his rugged fatalism hints at Léon's Natalie Portman and Jean Reno.

But Léon this ain't, as the movie struggles to bolster Jessie's motivations as to why she'd want to hitch her wagon to Mason's murderous star. And instead of trusting in Statham's silent ability to communicate that internal struggle, of a man let down by his country and brought back to life by a traumatised girl, both are given banal sentences to utter that flatten the emotional core.

Where Shelter does succeed is in the creatively brutal fight sequences laced through Mason and Jessie's journey. Angel Has Fallen director Ric Roman Waugh offers bruising stakes, beginning with an island invasion evoking the ingenious spirit of Home Alone – think boulders and flame throwers – and ending with a claustrophobic nightclub bust-up.

In between, Statham faces off against Manafort's asset Workman (Bryan Vigier), a no-nonsense assassin who, one character quips, is "Mason 20 years ago." Their hand-to-hand combat is punishing, packed with so much brute force and rigor you might worry our hero won't make it out alive. These sequences do rely a little too much on tightly framed close-ups and repetitive moves, but props to the sound department as well as David Buckley's thumping score, both of which maintain that intensity with every kick, punch, stab and shot amplified to formidable levels.

Shelter is certainly a safe action vehicle for Statham, but it could have benefited from more narrative risks.

If you like mandatory co-op games, this one's for you: introducing WheelMates, a new two-player co-op action-adventure where each player controls an R/C car in the house of an eccentric scientist, working together in order to clear challenges and obstacles. It's in development for Steam for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, and it's due out this year.

This is no sim, though. You'll have power-ups like jump boosters, magnet wheels, and grappling hooks in order to help you navigate the house and try to find the scientist homeowner, who's missing. Play in split-screen or online, but you'll need two players. Check out the announcement trailer above and the first screenshots in the gallery below.

The developers at FireVolt cite Re-Volt and classic metroidvanias as inspirations for WheelMates. You'll be able to try it out soon, FireVolt said it's planning a playtest for next month. Wishlist it on Steam if you're interested.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our semi-retired interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

DC Universe chief James Gunn is once again having fun on social media with a cryptic tweet referencing Martian Manhunter.

The tweet, below, includes a picture of a pack of Chocos, DC’s take on Oreos. Fans of DC comics know that Martian Manhunter, one of the seven original members of the Justice League of America and one of the most powerful beings in the DC Universe, is addicted to Chocos, which makes this tweet a thinly veiled reference to the much-loved superhero.

pic.twitter.com/KxmDn4aCxj

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) January 27, 2026

Given Gunn did much the same thing in 2024 and it sparked Martian Manhunter speculation back then, he'll of course have known how fans would react to his tweet, and they haven’t let him down.

Wait a second, are those the cookies that Martian Manhunter loves? Are we getting The Martian Manhunter in Man of Tomorrow????😃 pic.twitter.com/ASYVORZpWe

— S MAN 1978 (@Michael56410712) January 27, 2026

Jon loves his knock off oreos. pic.twitter.com/QKbNJeUa7o

— Andrr (@Andrrerr) January 27, 2026

IT'S THE MARTIAN COMING?!?!?!! pic.twitter.com/wFt3DYdYfM

— Rohan Ochako (@Dakillerbean36) January 27, 2026

The suggestion here is that Martian Manhunter will appear in an upcoming DCU movie or TV show. This year’s Supergirl doesn’t feel like the perfect fit. Could next year’s Man of Tomorrow be the right place for the character’s debut?

By the way, the pictures in Gunn’s tweet appear to show the office Ultraman destroys in Superman, so we’re not looking at Man of Tomorrow set photos here. Or maybe the office was rebuilt and repurposed? At this point, it’s anyone’s guess.

wait.. the office Ultraman destroys in Superman? https://t.co/RYnQJ8v0yP pic.twitter.com/uINs9UgKq8

— Starlight 💫 (twitch.tv/x0starlight) (@x0Starlight) January 27, 2026

Man of Tomorrow is the 2027 follow-up to Superman, and will see Brainiac, played by Lars Eidinger, enter the fray. Indeed, Superman and bitter rival Lex Luthor look set to put their differences aside (temporarily) to fend Brainiac off. Could Martian Manhunter lend a hand?

In previous interviews, Gunn has teased that Man of Tomorrow is “as much a Lex movie as it is a Superman movie.”

Speaking on Howard Stern’s SiriusXM radio, Gunn confirmed shooting begins in April 2026 ahead of the film’s planned July 9, 2027 release date — just two years after Superman came out.

"It's gonna be out in two years, July 9, 2027, which is a relatively short time between sequels, because we knew immediately where we were going," Gunn said.

"And it is a story about Lex Luthor and Superman having to work together, to a certain degree, against a much, much bigger threat. And it's more complicated than that. It's as much a Lex movie as it is a Superman movie. I relate to the character of Lex Luthor, sadly."

"That's the center of Lex for me," Gunn continued. "Three years ago, before Superman came along, he was considered the greatest guy in the world, even with other metahumans and superheroes in the world. And then in one fell swoop, this guy comes in wearing a silly costume, with dimples, and a charming smile, and a great chin, and he's forgotten."

Photo by CBS via Getty Images.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Marvel fans are discussing new rumors that Avengers: Secret Wars could be split into two parts to create a truly super-sized finale to the MCU's Multiverse Saga.

To be clear, the suggestion we could get a Secret Wars Part 1 and Part 2 is far from confirmed — instead, the suggestion here is that this is something Marvel is simply considering. Still, the idea that fans might get even more Avengers over the next few years has many very excited.

Over the past week, word that Marvel was toying with turning Secret Wars into two movies was discussed on the Hot Mic podcast with entertainment insiders John Rocha and Jeff Sneider, and again online by veteran Marvel tipster Daniel Richtman.

Richtman suggested Marvel would make a decision on splitting Secret Wars after seeing how successful this year's Avengers: Doomsday ended up being. Rocha, meanwhile, said a source had told him Marvel was "considering" the idea, while Sneider added that the move would also allow Marvel more runway to ready up its next phase of films due afterwards.

Now, fans are excitedly discussing the idea — but also questioning how exactly this could work, production-wise, with Avengers: Secret Wars set to begin filming later this year. Marvel is no stranger to filming with fluid scripts, but the idea that it would have a large chunk of Secret Wars already shot by the time Avengers: Doomsday debuts this December would still make for an unusual mid-production pivot.

"If they do decide to make this a trilogy, they're going to do that during the production of Secret Wars," riegspsych325 said in a lengthy reddit thread on the subject. "There certainly is a bevy of characters and story arcs that could benefit from this. But it's a choice that'd backfire if they decide too late into the game."

Some fans cautioned that the move felt risky after the mixed response to Warner Bros. stretching the Hobbit films into a full trilogy, when Peter Jackson had initially only planned to make two. Others fans, however, pointed to the successful split of other concluding films in movie franchises such as Harry Potter and The Hunger Games. And, certainly, no one is doubting the extra money this would make for Disney if it released three movies near-guaranteed to earn a billion dollars, rather than just two.

"If they're thinking about making this decision, then they'll likely make it before the start of filming on Avengers: Secret Wars," Pomojema_The_Dreamer wrote. "For that to happen, they'd have to figure out the best place to split one script into two before figuring out how to pay the talent involved... plus how to manage the sheer amount of stuff that they'd need to film.

"They opted to split The Hobbit from a two-parter into a trilogy mid-production and before the first one released, so it isn't without precedent," they continued. "Wicked and Michael are both examples of this happening recently (the latter has yet to be confirmed but is extremely likely). But the decision is likely not pending on reaction to [Doomsday] because I think they know this movie is going to 1) be good and 2) make them all of the money."

One thing's for certain — with an already huge cast for Avengers: Doomsday and the expectation of an even bigger roster for Secret Wars, Marvel has plenty it needs to cram into its upcoming films. As well as big returns for legacy characters like Fox's X-Men, previous Avengers such as Steve Rogers, the current Avengers line-up led by Sam Wilson, the "New Avengers" AKA The Thunderbolts, The Fantastic Four and others, Marvel still has a long list of unconfirmed characters that fans want to see appear.

Fans have enormous expectations for Avengers: Secret Wars as the finale of Marvel's Multiverse Saga. Many see it as having the unique potential to finally unite comic book movie veterans such as Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man and Hugh Jackson's Wolverine on the big screen, elevate TV heroes such as Charlie Cox's Daredevil to fight an Avengers-level threat, answer lingering questions from this cinematic phase such as the fate of Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch, and finally feature more of the MCU's next generation of heroes, such as Hailee Steinfeld's Kate Bishop and Iman Vellani's Kamala Khan. Oh, and it needs to have a cohesive story that deals with Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom.

As well as pay off decades of Marvel nostalgia, Secret Wars is also expected to establish a tweaked version of the MCU, ready for new iterations of the X-Men and potentially other core characters in the decades to come.

"What's compelling about these two new Avengers movies is they're a beginning," director Joe Russo said previously. "It's a new beginning. We told an ending story [with Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame] and now we're going to tell a beginning story. Who knows where we'll go from there?"

Time will tell if Marvel can do all of that without splitting Secret Wars. Until then, Avengers: Doomsday arrives this December 18. Avengers: Secret Wars is currently set to launch a year later, on December 17, 2027.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Helldivers 2's next Warbond 'Siege Breakers' will release on February 3.

As detailed in a recent PlayStation Blog post by Arrowhead's social media and community manager, this Warbond is for players needing "something to smash through [...] towering foe with impenetrable fortifications."

Helldivers 2 Siege Breakers warbond contents:

• Primary weapon: (Redesigned) LAS-16 Trident
• Strategem: CQC-20 Breaching Hammer
• Strategem: GL-28 Belt-Fed Grenade Launcher
• Strategem: EAT-411 Leveller
• Throwable: G/SH-39 Shield
• Armor set: SA-8 Ram armor
• Armor set: SA-7 Headfirst armor
• Banner: Rags of the Fashionable banner and cape
• Banner: Wedgeful Tricorn banner and cape
• Emote: Display of Brawn
• Player title: Bunker Buster
• Patterns: Churned Earth skins — Frv, Shuttle, Exo Suit, and Hellpod

The 250 hours I've logged in extraction shooter Arc Raiders tell you I'm hooked, but last week I read a comment on the game's subreddit that perfectly encapsulated one of its few flaws.

"If the game is about getting good loot, but the good loot is actually bad, what are we doing?"

When you're searching a container, a rare augment – the devices at the heart of your loadout — or epic gun reveals itself in a burst of purple, a catchy jingle, and a big boost to the value of your stash, the place where you hoard and organise your items. But actually using these weapons and augments is far less satisfying.

The rarest guns in Arc Raiders should feel like a glorious reward for all that time you spent hunting blueprints, or for that risky fight you picked with a fellow raider. But the epic weapons are barely better than common ones – and in certain situations, they're actually worse.

There's very little to choose, for example, between the ultra-rare Vulcano shotgun and the Il Toro, which you can find all the time across Arc Raiders' maps. Yes, the Vulcano kills quicker when you spam the trigger. But the Il Toro deals more damage per shot, so when you're dancing on the edge of cover, peeking out and firing before slithering back again, it shines.

There are plenty more examples. The Bobcat, the epic SMG, shreds up close. But so does the Stitcher, which you can get as part of a no-risk free loadout or craft for next-to-nothing in your workshop. The Sticher's "effective DPS", taking into account reload time, is actually higher than the Bobcat's, and against certain shields the Stitcher can kill in one magazine where the Bobcat can't.

And don't even get me started on the Bettina, a weapon endlessly memed the community. Yes, I get that it's for killing Arc, but you need to take eight stacks of ammo for it to be worth equipping. Give me an Anvil or Trailblazer grenade instead.

In a recent interview with GamesRadar+, lead designer Virgil Watkins said that "any given weapon in capable hands should be capable of winning a fight if you're playing smartly". That makes sense. Newer or more casual players shouldn't lose just because they're carrying a worse gun. But this also isn't a team-based shooter that requires perfect balance. When you find something rare, it'd better feel special to use.

It doesn't help that maintaining these weapons is so expensive. Despite being the most polished guns in this apocalyptic world, their durability burns fastest, and repairing them munches through ultra-rare crafting parts. So rather than leveling the playing field, the current status quo actually does the opposite: the only players that can afford the risk of using and losing these weapons are people who, like me, have spent far too much time topside, have found the blueprints of these guns, and have a mountain stash of rare crafting parts ready to go.

In the same interview, Watkins did say "we're definitely a bit off on some of the cost to benefit ratios." It's promising to see him recognise that, and I actually don't think it needs a massive adjustment to fix. If these epic guns were 10% more lethal, 15% less expensive, and wore out 20% slower, they'd feel so much better.

The rarest augments pose a different problem, though. Before Tuesday's Headwinds update arrived, only two out of the six epic augments were strong – the Looting Mk 3 survivor can stop you bleeding out so that you have the chance of crawling to an extraction point with your loot, and the Tactical Mk 3 defensive has a built-in shield recharger for PvP runs.

The other four aren't worth the crafting components once you finally find their blueprints. I've equipped them when I've found them, but never felt compelled to actually make one. The so-called "aggressive" combat augment, for example, regenerates a mere two health every five seconds. On top of that, it pauses for 30 seconds when you take damage, rendering it virtually useless for its one purpose, aggressive combat.

Unlike the weapons, augments don't need a rebalance. They need a total rethink. Top-tier augments should have a defining attribute that enables new playstyles, and Embark knows this: the studio added two new epic augments as part of the Headwinds update, including one that lets you stick a gun in your safe pocket. That's a start, but I think the useless ones need to be culled and replaced by more imaginative ideas. I love the fact that the more common tactical augment deploys a smoke when your shield breaks, and that the level-two looting augment makes you immune to face-hugging ticks. More of that, please.

Clearly, I find Arc Raiders compelling despite this problem with rare loot (and despite its insistence on genAI voice acting). But there's no doubt in my mind that late-game balance is a problem, one Embark needs to get a grip on as new players continue to join and as experienced players, like me, look for reasons to stick around beyond its first few months.

Samuel Horti is a journalist with bylines at the BBC, IGN, Insider Business, and Edge.

Some Fallout fans believe the latest episode of Season 2 of the Amazon show confirms a New Vegas ending is canon, while others believe the showrunners have kept their word and avoided picking an ending.

Warning! Spoilers for Fallout Season 2 follow:

Last month, the creators of the Fallout TV show told IGN that Season 2 avoids making any New Vegas ending canon by taking what they call "the fog of war approach."

Fans of the Fallout video games had wondered how Season 2 might reflect the endings of Obsidian’s much-loved Fallout New Vegas, given the show is canon and is set 15 years after the game.

A quick reminder of where we’re at in the Fallout timeline: the Fallout TV show is set in 2296, nine years after the events of Fallout 4 and 15 years after the events of Fallout: New Vegas. We’ve already seen a debate about which Fallout 4 ending should be considered canon, if any. But what about New Vegas?

Depending on the choices the player, aka The Courier, makes throughout the course of the game, New Vegas can end with victory for the player during the Battle of Hoover Dam, which drives out all factions including Mr. House himself, a victory for Mr. House in which he remains in control of New Vegas and takes over Hoover Dam, a victory for Caesar's Legion, or a victory for the New California Republic.

Fallout fans think ‘The House Always Wins’ ending is now canon after the events of the show. The Ghoul meets Maximus, and he uses the Cold Fusion diode that Maximus stole from the Brotherhood to power up the machine we saw back when Cooper met House in a flashback on the top floor of Lucky 38. The big terminal boots up, House appears on screen and says: "Well hello, old chum."

A lot of people think that confirms "The House Always Wins" ending, which saw House survive. But there are some important points to consider. Until the show actually shows House’s body, there's still potential for all sorts of explanations. Either this meeting between the Ghoul and House, plus whatever happens in the Season 2 finale, pulls the big trick of finally canonising an ending despite the showrunners saying they weren’t going to, or this is, for example, an AI version of House, rather than the weird husk from the New Vegas video game, which would leave us technically still left in the dark about what actually happened.

Fans are already debating the point, with some going so far as to already accepting The House Always Wins ending as canon. Some are even wondering what the point of New Vegas itself was, given the suggestion of a canon ending.

“What was the meaning of the game Fallout NV supposed to be and what was it trying to accomplish if none of the possible actions of The Courier had any lasting impact?” asked one fan. “With the newest episode of the Fallout Tv show, we find out House is alive. So what was the point of playing the game if none of the decisions would have mattered anyway? In the game the biggest consequences are, we get rid of House, give the power of hoover damm [sic] to the NCR, the Legion, or back to the Strip.

“But in the show the NCR is gone, the Legion is disconnected and in-fighting, the BoS is in the middle of a civil war with the East Coast, The strip became overrun with deathclaws. So what’s the point?”

Countering this, some fans have pointed to other explanations for what we see in the show, as mentioned above, but others have insisted that whatever happens on the show, it shouldn’t devalue your enjoyment of the games and how they work.

“The House we see at the end of episode 7 is a digital copy,” another fan added. “It doesn’t matter what happened to the real House’s body, this copy is separate from that. I don’t think there’s anything in the show that contradicts any of the four endings.”

“Seeing the House AI really doesn’t change anything,” said another fan. “The state of the Lucky 38, including a Securitron lying exactly where Yes Man does when you upload him, points strongly towards House’s death as a human at some point.” “I mean House is dead. He just uploaded himself to the Cloud,” joked another.

All eyes are now on the final episode of Fallout Season 2, which, given Season 3 is already confirmed, will no doubt pose just as many questions as it answers. While you wait, be sure to check out IGN’s Fallout Season 2, Episode 7 review.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Sony has released the first PlayStation 5 system update of the year, which includes several new firmware features.

The catchily-named Update 26.01-12.60.00 is available to download today and actually includes a couple of notable changes, beyond the usual vague improvements to performance and stability.

Today's headline addition is the ability to turn on read receipts for your messages, which you can opt into via your Settings menu. With this, you'll allow others to see you've read their DMs. Sony has said it's switching this feature on gradually even if you have the update installed — so don't be surpised if it still takes some time to show up.

Another new addition today is the ability to jump from Friends Activity directly into a game that a friend is playing.

Today also brings the first PlayStation 4 system update of the year. PS4 system software version 13.04 is available now, though includes no major changes. Full patch notes for the two console updates lie below.

PlayStation 5 System Software Version 26.01-12.60.00.06

• You can now jump directly from the Friends Activity widget in your Welcome Hub to the games your friends are playing.
• You can now turn on read receipts to show other players when you’ve read their messages.
  • To turn on your read receipts, go to Settings > Users and Accounts > Privacy > View and Customize Your Privacy Settings. Under Communication and multiplayer, set Show read receipts to other players on PS5 and PlayStation App to Allow.
  • This feature will be rolled out gradually, and some users will be able to use it when the system software update is released.
• We’ve improved the messages and usability on some screens.
• We’ve improved system software performance and stability.

PlayStation 4 System Software Version: 13.04

• We’ve made some security fixes to the system software.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Terraria 1.4.5 — dubbed the Bigger and Boulder Update — is finally here, and it's welcoming in thousands of new and returning players alike.

According to SteamDB, up until the new update, Terraria averaged around 20-30,000 players at any one time, with the occasional spike in interest when new content dropped over the years.

1.4.5, however, has seen one of the biggest spikes in over a decade, hitting a release day peak of almost 165,000 players on Valve's platform. This is second only to the release of Update 1.4 in May 2020, although that coincided with lockdown, of course, which gave millions of gamers around the world a little more time to play.

The true number of players will be even higher, given Terraria is also available on console and mobile, and 1.4.5 was released across platforms at the same time. The console and mobile makers do not make player numbers public.

"So, 'Bigger & Boulder!', why 'Bigger & Boulder' you ask? Beyond a good bit of additional content, a lot of effort with this update went into rounding out and expanding on existing experiences," developer Re-Logic said in a post on Steam. "Things like making inventory management and crafting easier than ever. We expanded upon secret world seeds - something that we feel greatly expands the replayability/freshness of the game - while also making them more accessible than ever before. We also had a focus on improving things like atmosphere on top of our continual polish/quality of life/balance efforts - which is getting harder and harder as Terraria gets bigger!

"Oh, and you might encounter some new boulders... or existing boulders in new ways. Don't say we didn't warn you!

"As always, we never share everything that is in each update - not even in the "full" changelog. Part of the fun is in the discovery! Good luck and happy adventuring, Terrarians!"

Terraria is pretty old at this point; IGN reviewed it 15 years ago(!), way back in 2011. Even then, though, we thought it was amazing, scoring it 9/10 and writing: "Though on the surface it looks like just another 'me too' indie game seeking to ride the coattails of Minecraft's success, Terraria expands on the familiar sandbox gameplay with a greater emphasis on combat and adventure that proves very satisfying. That's rare indeed."

We have the full — and very long! — rundown of the patch notes below, courtesy of the Terraria forum, but be very cautious, as there may be some unmarked spoilers here!

Terraria Bigger and Boulder 1.4.5 Patch Notes:

Seeds​

• Added the Skyblock seed, where you start out on nothing but a small floating island. It's up to you to build everything else!
• Special seeds can now be combined! Some combinations may have some interesting interactions…
• Added a new seed selection window to the world creation menu, which allows you to easily enable special seeds.
• Added secret seeds.

Items​

• Added 650+ new items.
• Added 9 new whips.
• Added over 60 new hairstyles!
• Added 22 new furniture sets.
• Added 20 new paintings.
• Added Dead Cells crossover content, including: five new weapons, a buff station, a vanity set, an accessory, a loyal pet and a new way to display your items in the world.
• Added Palworld crossover content, including 5 pals and a vanity outfit.
• Added four new transformation mounts.
• Added two new Pylons.
• Added Stress Ball.
• Added Magic String.
• Added Strung Counterweight.
• Added Roller Skates.
• Added Prospector armor set.
• Added Captain armor set.
• Added Jungle Juice.
• Added Torch God's Flavor.
• Added Lucky Clover.
• Added Raven Feather.
• Added Pretty Mirror.
• Added Blackened Fish.
• Added Rock Candy.
• Added Shimmer Gun.
• Added Wall Racer Car.
• Added Acorn Slingshot.
• Added Slime Spear.
• Added Slime Whip.
• Added Super Bomb.
• Added Freeze Bomb.
• Added Mud Ball.
• Added Rainbow Glowsticks.
• Added Toybreaker Brick.
• Added Sharp Spike blocks.
• Added Dull Team Blocks.
• Added Cloud Platforms.
• Added Pink Phaseblade and Phasesaber.
• Added Chlorophyte Visor.
• Added the Mitey Titey, a new tool for placing decorative stalagmites and -tites.
• Added the Portable Kiln, a new tool for placing decorative pots.
• Added some memorabilia from the great Tree vs Axe War of 2023.
• Added decorative Demon/Crimson Altars.
• Added decorative Cobwebs.
• Added Shimmerfall Blocks and Walls.
• Added Magic Shimmer Dropper.
• Added Pink and White Banners.
• Added Heroicis' set.
• Added CRT Monolith.
• Added Retro Monolith.
• Added Bikini, Swimsuit and Swimtrunks.
• Added Lilac Dusk Vanity.
• Added Hallowed Crown.
• Added Welding Mask.
• Added Chicken Bones’ and Kazzymodus’ developer armor sets.
• Gave Skeletron a fancy new hat.
• Added vanity set for Terraria Enthusiasts.
• Added Luna’s Runic Pixie Vanity.
• Added spectating of other players - either via the new Scrying Orb, or by haunting them after being slain!
• Kites and critters can now be placed in the world as persistent background objects. You can place them from the hotbar by right-clicking.
• Mannequins can now hold items and mounts, and pose with those items when hammered.
• Rubblemaker can now place Abigail's Flower, Life Fruits, Jungle Rose, Nature's Gift, Jungle Spores, Glow Tulip, Fallen Logs (that do not attract fairies), Oasis Plants, Water Bolt, and the Terragrim.
• Sandcastle Bucket, Garden Gnomes and Lawn Flamingoes now use the up/down keys to cycle through placement styles (like the Rubblemaker).
• Items that can cycle through placement styles will now only do so if they’re the currently selected item.
• Building items that consume materials (such as the Rubblemaker and the Paint Brush) now show how much material they have available on their hotbar item icon.
• Paladin's shield now displays its range, and feedback when it is used. Getting killed by the Paladin’s Shield now displays a unique death message.
• The Zombie Arm can now be held out, and throws complementary bits and pieces when swung.
• The Paintball Gun now paints Slimes on hit.
• Normal and biome torches can now be converted when placed.
• Conveyor Belts can now carry items upwards.
• When spawning NPCs on Conveyor Belts, the block directly below the belt is now used to determine which NPC to spawn.
• Falling blocks (Sand, Silt, Slush, etc.) will no longer settle on Conveyor Belts but remain in their item form.
• Bricks made from Hardmode ore are now immune to bombs.
• Brown Solution now changes Old Stone Wall and Craggy Stone Walls into their unsafe variants.
• Green Solution now turns safe Jungle Walls into their unsafe variants.
• Demon Conch will now teleport players to the outer edges of the Underworld if there is no valid destination in the middle. It also no longer avoids teleporting you onto platforms.
• Pets and minions can now walk through closed doors and tall gates.
• Placed items that can be used to craft potions (e.g. Bottle, Pink Vase) can no longer be removed by interacting in order to support the new crafting menu filters (they can still be mined as normal).
• The Whoopie Cushion can now be equipped.
• Empty Buckets left out in the rain will now fill up.
• The Beach Ball now bounces off of enemies and villagers.
• Music Boxes now count as vanity.
• Crystal Block now merges with Dirt.
• Yoyo Counterweights will now override the visuals of the Yoyo Bag if placed in a vanity slot.
• Grates with liquid in them can no longer be block swapped.
• Grates with objects on them can now be properly destroyed by merging liquids.
• Gelatin Crystal now glows in the dark.
• Reef Chest now has a more appropriate map color.
• All Living Fire blocks can now be sloped.
• Radio Thing is now placeable.
• Water Gun, Slime Gun, and Portal Gun can now be placed on weapon racks.
• You can now attach furniture to Wooden Spikes if you feel so inclined.
• Items in the world now stop reacting to fluids when being picked up.

NPCs​

• Added Moss Zombie.
• Added Pufferfish.
• Added Orca.
• Added a boss damage tracker that tracks how much damage each player deals during a boss fight. Type /bossdamage in the chat to view the result of the last fight(s).
• Slimes can now contain more items.
• Fish now change direction randomly when they flop on the floor.
• The Martian Saucer is no longer listed as a boss in the Bestiary.
• The Bestiary now properly reflects the incomprehensible nature of the Torch God.
• Villagers now wait a minute to look for a new house after being evicted.

World​

• Lightning strikes can now occur during storms.
• Added new Dungeon entrance variants.
• Cracked Dungeon Bricks now hint at their fragility.
• You can now start a Slime Rain by shimmering a Slime Crown.
• Trees are now converted to and from Palm Trees when using Yellow, Brown and White solution, rather than being destroyed.
• Corruption and Crimson Grass can now infect Mowed Grass, turning it into normal Corrupt/Crimson grass.
• Blooming Blinkroot is now brighter.
• You can no longer attach items to boulders. Rubble and pressure plates will no longer generate on top of boulders.
• Jungle Plants and Vines can now grow on Lihzahrd Brick.
• Cactus, stalagmites/-tites, shells, coral, antlion larva, alchemy herbs and jungle plants now take on the paint and coating of the block they grow on.
• Safe Underground Desert walls now stop you from being considered to be in the Underground Desert.
• The Constant’s filter is now hidden when mixed with other world seeds.
• Falling Stars are now considered as traps - they’re still friendly, though!
• Liquid inside Bubbles is no longer cleared when leaving and rejoining a world.
• The Aether biome visuals are now suppressed when in the Dungeon.
• Boosted nature’s growth on the surface during rainy times.
• Worlds now support up to 32,000 signs, up from 1,000.
• Meteors now avoid Demon/Crimson Altars.
• You can no longer stand on the bottom of the world. We suggest you don't try to, either.
• World Globes can now assign the same forest biome to different parts of the world.
• Improved how liquids merge during world gen, reducing the likelihood of out-of-place liquid patches (e.g. Honey in Granite biomes).
• When two different liquids collide during world gen they now leave less of a mess.
• Living Mahogany Tree chests now always contain Jungle loot.
• Small and medium sand piles now generate in Underground Deserts.
• Newly generated boulder traps now use actuators instead of Active Stone Blocks.
• The max surface height of newly generated small worlds has been lowered to prevent sky enemies from spawning too close to the surface.
• Microbiomes (e.g. Detonator traps) will no longer generate on top of boulder traps.
• Living Mahogany Wands are now guaranteed in every world.
• More boulder.

Wiring & Mechanisms​

• When Chests receive a wire signal they now pick up all nearby dropped items. Great for automated farms!
• Extractinators now process items from nearby chests (up to two blocks away) when they receive a wire signal.
• Timers can now be freely placed without requiring an anchor block.
• Inactive Stone Blocks now share the same restrictions on actuating beneath protected blocks (e.g. Lihzahrd Altar, Mannequins) as actuators.
• Inlet and Outlet Pump items are now immune to lava.

Tooltips & Clarifications​

• Items that interact with wire now have a "Wireable" tooltip. Improved the tooltips of several of these items.
• Items that can be extractinated now have a tooltip to indicate this.
• Reworded the “No stats will be gained” tooltip on items in vanity slots. Vanity items no longer show this tooltip while in a vanity slot.
• Clarified the Inlet and Outlet Pump's tooltips to make clear it can transport any liquid, not just water.
• Bat Bat's tooltip now clarifies it always heals on hit rather than only sometimes.
• Improved the consistency of some set bonus effect tooltips.
• Clarified the Beetle Shell and Solar Flare armor tooltips (functionality unchanged).
• Whips now show their use time in their tooltip.
• Bubbles now have a tooltip to explain their function.
• Actuators now have the "Can be placed" tooltip.
• Removed "Can be placed" tooltip from wand-type items.
• Blade staff now properly mentions that it ignores some enemy defense (functionality unchanged).
• Added usage tooltips to grappling hooks.
• Improved platform tooltips with usage instructions.
• Improved bed tooltips with usage instructions.
• Improved sawmill tooltip to clarify its purpose.
• Clarified harmful blocks tooltips to mention their danger.
• Clarified tooltips of minion slots granted by several sources.
• Improved Solar Tablet tooltip.
• Bug Net's tooltip now mentions it can catch bait.
• Improved some personal storage items' tooltips.
• Personal storage tooltips (e.g. Piggy Bank) now mention their stored coins can be used in shops.
• Improved Gills Potion tooltip.
• Improved Lavaproof Bug Net tooltip.
• Improved immunizing accessories (e.g. Bezoar) tooltips.
• Improved Discount Card tooltip.
• Improved Sandstorm in a Balloon tooltip.
• Improved Flame Waker's Boots tooltip.
• Improved Sandcastle Bucket tooltip.
• Cloud blocks & platforms now mention they prevent fall damage in their tooltip.
• Improved Yellow Horseshoe Balloon tooltip.
• Clarified Brain of Confusion tooltip.
• Improved Sundial & Moondial tooltip.
• Improved Planter Box tooltip.
• The "not enough NPCs nearby" Pylon message now clarifies NPCs need to live near them, not just be near them.
• Added flavor text to the Fertilizers.
• Added flavor text to the Fruit Salad.
• Fixed punctuation issues with several tooltips.

Journey Mode​

• Trashing an item now automatically attempts to research it.
• Researching items now also contributes to the research progress of your online team members.
• Partially researched items now show up in the duplication menu (but can’t be duplicated).
• Duplicating an item now gives only one of that item if you don't need multiple (such as single-use upgrade items).
• Deerclops, Eye of Cthulhu and Mech bosses no longer randomly spawn when the spawn rate slider is set to 0x.
• The difficulty slider now more closely matches the scaling of Expert and Master worlds.

Quality of Life​

• Items can now be crafted from nearby chests! This can be toggled on/off as desired.
• Right-clicking a crafting station now opens the crafting menu, showing only the items that can be crafted at that station.
• When the Goblin Tinkerer reforges an item and gets the best available prefix, a special effect plays and the reforge button is briefly blocked to prevent unintentional further reforges.
• Individual armor set pieces now show the set bonus in their tooltip.
• Pylons now take priority over Wormhole Potions when clicking on either to teleport on the map.
• Almost every item in the game can now stack to 9999, including (prefixed) weapons and equipment.
• Added a “Similar Stack to Nearby Chests” mode, which aside from default quick stack behaviour also tries to put items in chests with similar items (for example, putting Iron Ore with Copper Ore). You can toggle between quick stacking modes by right-clicking the Quick Stack button.
• The housing query now gives visual feedback on the suitability of any queried space.
• Houses no longer require at least one solid, non-platform block to be valid.
• The housing query now indicates when a house is invalid because it does not have a spot to stand on.
• When holding an equipable item in the cursor, usable equipment slots are now highlighted, and others are dimmed.
• Greatly improved how the game handles too many items being on the ground: when the item cap is hit, items now try to stack with nearby items to make room.
• Improved the sorting behaviour of many items.
• Boss bags now appear on the minimap.
• Mining boulders that you are standing on no longer damages you if the boulder has no space to roll.
• When you try to switch to another hotbar slot while already using an item, you will now switch once the item finishes its current use rather than when you stop using the item.
• Improved the indicator for the selected hotbar item when overriding the default selected item (e.g. when using smart select).
• When trying to Quick Stack, there is now a visual indicator on chests that can’t be stacked to because they are in use by another player.
• When assigning a spawn point at a bed fails, you'll now be provided the reason.
• Minion buffs now show how many of that minion you have summoned.
• When you respawn, any minions you had active when you were slain are now automatically resummoned.
• If you are slain while holding an item in your cursor, the item will now be put back into your inventory, if possible.
• Torches now have placement previews.
• Block swapping a platform onto a sloped block will now clear the slope.
• You will now automatically join your last team when (re)joining a world.
• Improved Smart Cursor behaviour when placing platforms, and added an arrow visual to clarify the placement direction.
• Hovering over a buff icon while using an item will no longer interrupt usage of said item.
• Interacting with villagers and items while holding an item on the cursor no longer throws said item.
• Equipment in vanity slots now shows its full tooltip text.
• Quick swapping now supports vanity accessories.
• You can now dismount a minecart by interacting with the track (dismount key still works as well).
• Ropes can now pass through up to five passable blocks (such as Platforms and Minecart Tracks).
• Ropes can now pass through Planter Boxes. You can now also block swap Rope with Planter Boxes if there's already a Planter Box adjacent to it, like you can with Platforms.
• Extending a rope is no longer blocked by objects such as cobwebs and plants.
• Eternia Crystals can now be used from the Void Bag.
• If you are grappled to the ground, you will no longer jump by default when pressing jump. You will still jump if you're holding the Up input.
• When you get hurt, you'll now hear your character's hurt sound, regardless of where the camera is.
• Slain Hardcore player's ghosts now have their names displayed in multiplayer.
• Right clicking any search bar now clears it, and clicking outside the search bar clears focus away from it.
• Emote commands are no longer case sensitive.
• Improved "Frame skip: Subtle" setting to reduce stuttering.
• Servers now save the world when the last player leaves.
• The map now more consistently updates when changes happen in remote sections of the world (e.g. plant growth).
• Camera Mode screenshots now only capture blocks that are fully on screen, which fixes some visual issues.
• Certain visual effects that previously did not appear in Camera Mode snapshots now do appear if the entire snapshotted area is also on screen.
• Camera Mode captures can now capture the space sky and stars if the center of the capture is in space.
• World maps from Mobile Terraria are now supported on PC Terraria.
• You can now join your own servers via Join via Steam.
• Added failsafes to prevent losing save files when failing to save to a full Steam cloud storage.
• Making changes to folder-based resource packs while the game is running now immediately updates the content in-game.
• Added recycle bin support for OSX and Linux.

UI Changes​

• Greatly overhauled the crafting window, added a search bar and filter tabs.
• Added a special Banner Menu. Whenever you gain a banner it is no longer placed directly into your inventory but stored in this menu, where you can retrieve it at will. This does not affect any previously earned banners.
• The character creation menu now lets you choose the type and pitch of your hurt sound. This is also available through dressers.
• Added outfit preview buttons to character creation.
• The character creation menu now shows a confirmation prompt when trying to exit without saving.
• The character creation menu's tab icons now have hover tooltips.
• Various tips are now shown during character creation.
• The world creation progress bar’s accuracy and messages have been improved.
• When generating a world with a random evil, the progress bar is now neutral to avoid spoiling which evil is being generated.
• Your players and worlds are now sorted by most recently used (favorites still come first), and any freshly generated world will appear at the top for ease of access.
• Added marker icons for previously visited and newly generated worlds in the menu.
• Quick trash settings can now be changed while in a world.
• Improved Pylon overview in the map.
• Shops now have a visual indicator showing how NPC happiness is affecting prices.
• The Savings display now caps the amount of Platinum Coins to 999, to prevent overflows.
• Coins in inventory now animate when gained and when spent.
• The defense counter now has a tooltip showing how much damage it effectively blocks. Its appearance now changes based on world difficulty.
• Homeless NPCs now have a Housing dialogue option instead of Happiness, containing instructions on how to build a suitable house.
• Reordered the NPCs in the Housing menu so they now appear in their approximate unlock order.
• Improved offscreen team member indicators on wide screens.
• Overhead chat and multiplayer nameplates now also appear above the player in reverse gravity.
• Added tooltips for the Team and PVP icons.
• Faraway villagers will now move smoother on the minimap.
• Players are now hidden from the world map while slain.
• Map icons now match the map's transparency.
• When renaming a character with the virtual keyboard, the original name is now prefilled.
• The Packet Stacks menu (F8) now has an instruction on how to close it (we've all been there).
• Added a new FPS diagnostics view, which can be toggled with F7.
• The FPS display (F10) now also shows your UPS (Updates Per Second).
• Added an error message for when the Host & Play server fails to start.
• Added sounds when passing over most interface buttons.

Gamepad Improvements​

• Added icons for Playstation and Nintendo Switch controllers. They can be toggled in the Keybind menu.
• Using any ruler option on gamepad now allows the cursor to reach the entire screen.
• If you are locked on to an enemy using a gamepad, the Rod of Discord/Harmony will now teleport you to your cursor rather than to said enemy.
• Improved the housing menu's gamepad support.
• Improved gamepad hints for the Journey menu and the Bestiary.
• Improved the in-game settings menu accessibility for gamepad users.
• Prioritized Drop and Transfer hints on gamepad when holding an item on the cursor.
• Items crafted via Quick Craft now temporarily highlight their item slot.

Art & Visuals​

• Added Villager Portraits!
• Added sunrise and sunset visuals!
• Added nighttime aurora effects to the Snow biome!
• Added new backgrounds to various biomes.
• Fish now visually appear in the water while you are fishing.
• Added new ambient insects and falling rubble to the world.
• The Barrel and Trash Can now have opening and closing animations.
• The moon now properly obstructs stars behind it from view.
• Polished Moon Lord.
• Polished many banner sprites.
• Polished the existing pot sprites, and added a few new variants.
• Polished Lihzahrd Temple content.
• Polished the Demon Altar, Crimson Altar, Shadow Orb and Crimson Heart (both the background item and the light pet) art.
• Polished Trophies and Weapon Racks.
• Polished Bars, Bar Stools and Banquet Tables.
• Polished Hanging Skeletons and Catacombs.
• Polished Hornets.
• Polished Ancient Manipulator.
• Polished Fire Imp, Imp Staff and Imp minion.
• Polished Baby Slime minion.
• Polished Alchemy Table, Imbuing Station and Bewitching Table.
• Polished the various Cloud blocks and walls.
• Polished spider stalactites.
• Polished sand piles.
• Polished Sea Horse cage.
• Polished Fairy Log.
• Polished Drill Containment Unit buff icon.
• Polished Jim's developer set.
• Updated some of the credits scenes art.
• Updated Chlorophyte Dye's glowmask.
• Updated the Blood & Gore dust filter to be more accurate.
• Painted Mushroom furniture lighting now matches the paint's color.
• Shroomite Plating Wall lighting now matches the paint's color.
• Improved Influx Waver projectile’s visual animation.
• Improved the Step Stool animation.
• Equipping the Ghost Shirt will now show the player bare legged.
• Spectre Pants and Cenx's Dress Pants no longer draw shoes underneath, like other robe-bottom pants.
• Added mining dust to (Large) Bamboo Blocks.

Audio​

• Added new boss music for King Slime, Eater of Worlds, Queen Bee, Skeletron, the Twins, the Destroyer, Skeletron Prime and the Lunatic Cultist.
• Adjusted the Eater of Worlds' digging sound.
• Updated thunder sound effects.
• Added a sound effect for when the player is starving on The Constant worlds.
• Improved sound for item trashing.
• Sonar Potions now play a sound cue when you hook a fish.
• Added audio feedback to several buttons in the inventory.
• Added new sounds for drills and chainsaws.
• Added a new sound for Lilith's Necklace.
• Added a splash sound when catching a fish.
• Reduced the loudness of the Flameburst Tower.
• Added a fuse sound to bombs.
• Added a reel sound to kites.
• Added a new sound for the Flintlock Pistol and Musket.
• Added a new sound for the Leaf Blower.
• Added a new sound for the Unicorn on a Stick.
• All sounds now pan/attenuate consistently regardless of game resolution.
• Added a configuration option ("TitleMusic") that allows you to choose which music to play on the main menu: "Current" (Journey's End), "Old" (original), "Console" or "Random".

Localization​

• Added Japanese, Korean and Traditional Chinese localization.
• Implemented a great deal of community contributed suggestions and improvements to our German, Spanish, French, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian and Simplified Chinese localizations!
• Improved localizations to support variants for composite content, like prefixes.
• You can now use English chat commands regardless of what language Terraria is set to.
• Renamed Heavy Work Bench to Heavy Assembler, as it does not function as a Work Bench.
• Renamed Crimson Bunny Kite to Vicious Bunny Kite to match the NPC.
• Renamed Martian Brainscrambler Banner to Martian Brain Scrambler Banner to match the NPC.
• Renamed Meteor Toilet to Meteorite Toilet for consistency with Meteorite furniture.

Performance/Modding​

• Improved performance around many parts of Terraria. Most notably around trying to achieve frame rendering stability, and reducing small freezes.
• Folder based resource packs are now hot-reloadable. Changing most content in the folder will make Terraria attempt to reload it instantly! This should dramatically help iterating on localizations/art changes quickly!
• Introduced several new systems to replace previously hard-coded logic. (e.g. Wings, Armor sets, Fishing, Horizons, NPC chat commands, and more have been made easier to check and modify/replace).
• Included a new interactive world gen debugging tool (available through modding), and improved world generation’s determinism and consistency.
• Included a suite of internal dev commands for modded use (available through modding). These are primarily aimed at debugging content in different situations, such as multiplayer.

• Fixed an issue that caused certain weapon projectiles that perform multiple updates per frames to have a lower hit cooldown than intended. In practice, the DPS of almost all of these weapons is unaffected by this change, with the exception of the Deadly Sphere Staff: its damage has been increased to compensate (overall DPS remains the same).

• Now launches a bone projectile when striking an enemy.

• Attack speed increased by 12.5%.

• Can now only have spear-type modifiers.
• Attack speed increased by ~17%.

• Can now be thrown by releasing the attack button mid-swing. The weapon will embed itself in the ground and will continuously damage any enemy that touches it. Can be recalled by pressing the attack button again.

• Now has a 50% chance to inflict the Confused debuff.

• Range increased by 66.67%.
• Bolt damage increased from 150% of weapon damage to 160%.

• Can now be thrown by releasing the attack button mid-swing.
• Attack speed increased by ~13%.
• Now has 7% critical strike chance.

• Can now be thrown by releasing the attack button mid-swing.
• Can now be autoswung.
• Now inflicts Bleed, dealing 12 damage per second.
• Attack speed reduced by ~8%.

• Is now a melee weapon.
• Now deals damage in an area.
• Damage increased from 20 to 32.
• Attack speed increased by 20%.
• Projectile speed increased by ~70%.
• Knockback reduced by ~43%.
• Now has a 5% chance to inflict the Confused debuff on enemies.
• Now inflicts the Tipsy debuffs on players and villagers.
• Now has a ~70% chance to not consume Ale on use.
• Sell price increased from 1 Silver to 25 Silver.

• Striking an enemy now briefly increases the weapon’s damage by 12% to a maximum of 50%. This extra damage decays at a rate of 30% per second.

• Confused debuff chance increased from 90% to 100%.

• Stars that spawn when the cursor is on or directly above/below the player now have their direction randomised rather than always falling to the direction the player is facing.

• Synergy increased by 100%.

• The explosion on hit now uses local immunity rather than global immunity. In practical terms, this means a struck enemy can now be damaged by both the explosion and attacks from minions and sentries at the same time.

• Now inflicts Bleed, dealing 12 damage per second.

• Damage reduced from 41 to 39.
• Range increased by 20%.

• Velocity decreased by ~12%.

• Lifetime increased from 8 seconds to 16 seconds.
• Velocity increased by ~13%.

• Lifetime increased from 10 seconds to 30 seconds.

• Damage increased from 16 to 40.
• Can now strike villagers, dealing 1 damage.
• Hitting an enemy or villager will cause them to drop a small amount of copper coins.
• Sell price increased from 50 Silver to 2 Gold.

• Now creates an explosion upon hitting solid blocks that damages nearby enemies.
• Now has a 33% chance to inflict the Confused debuff.
• Now pierces enemies.

• Now spews 1 to 3 fire projectiles when thrust.

• The beam projectile can now penetrate once, and bounce up to 3 times.

• Damage increased from 38 to 43.

• The orb projectile is now reflected by Shimmer.

• Tapping the attack button now throws the Paladin Hammer out much farther (it can be recalled in flight by pressing the attack button again).
• Now creates an explosion that damages nearby enemies upon hitting a solid block.
• Now applies the Broken Armor debuff, reducing defense by 20.
• Damage increased from 90 to 100.

• Now inflicts Hemorrhage, dealing 100 damage per second.

• Now creates an explosion upon hitting enemies or solid blocks that damages nearby enemies.
• Now has a 33% chance to inflict the Confused debuff.

• Fixed the alternate fire projectiles being considered ranged projectiles. They now use the player’s melee critical strike chance rather than the ranged critical strike chance, and can inflict debuffs from Flasks and the Magma Stone.

• Now has an alternate weapon mode in which it behaves like a flail. You can freely switch between modes by right-clicking the item. The original version has been renamed to Flairoon.
• Bubbles from both modes now bounce once.
• Bubbles from both modes can now apply the on-hit effects from Flasks, the Frost armor set and the Magma Stone.

• Shroomite Helmets now apply their damage bonus to ammo as well as weapons. To compensate for the increase in overall damage, their damage bonus has been reduced from 15% to 12%. Overall, this slightly buffs most ranged weapons.
• Several weapons that would be too strongly affected by this change have been adjusted to compensate:
  • Piranha Gun: damage increased from 38 to 40.
  • Elf Melter: damage increased from 53 to 57.
  • Sniper Rifle: damage increased from 185 to 200.
  • Aerial Bane: damage decreased from 39 to 38.
• Magic Quiver now applies its damage bonus to arrows as well as bows.
• Fixed an issue that would cause weapons that use non-standard ammo (e.g. gel) to deal 1 less damage than intended. This affects the following weapons: Star Shooter, Super Star Shooter, Sandgun, Flamethrower, and Elf Melter.

• Lifetime increased by ~33%.
• Can now be auto-reused.

• The harpoon can now be retracted by letting go of the attack button.
• Can now penetrate up two enemies before retracting (upon hitting the third).
• Now inflicts Bleed, dealing 12 damage per second.
• Projectile speed increased by ~36%.

• Critical strike chance increased from 7% to 8%.

• Now has a 6% critical strike chance.
• Projectile speed increased by 20%.

• Firing the Revolver just as it comes off cooldown now gradually increases its attack speed (up to 100%) and critical strike chance (up to 20%). Does not work with autofire.
• Base critical strike chance removed (was 5%).
• Knockback increased by 12.5%.
• Buy price increased from 10 Gold to 15 Gold.

• Fixed Hellwing Bow being much more inaccurate than intended when not using Wooden Arrows.

• Main projectile now pierces up to one enemy. Cursed fire no longer pierces.
• Now requires a Mythril/Orichalcum Anvil to craft.

• Damage reduced from 10 to 7.
• Now display a visual effect when splitting.
• Now requires a Mythril/Orichalcum Anvil to craft.

• Max bounces/penetrations reduced from 6 to 4.
• Damage is now reduced by 15% on every terrain bounce.
• Dart now instantly rotates when bouncing.
• Now requires a Mythril/Orichalcum Anvil to craft.

• Can now be used while submerged in lava.

• Damage increased from 29 to 36.

• Now inflicts Hemorrhage, dealing 100 damage per second.
• Will now re-fire Piranhas that have returned to the player as long as the attack button is held.

• Now inflict their debuff in PvP.

• Will now ensure their arrows do not spawn inside blocks and be immediately destroyed when firing parallel to the ground.

• Damage increased from 44 to 60.
• Candy corns now use local immunity frames, meaning that a single enemy can now be damaged by multiple candy corns (and other sources of damage) at the same time.
• Lifetime reduced from 10 seconds to 5 seconds.

• Damage increased from 65 to 85.

• Damage increased from 31 to 38.
• Chance to save ammo increased from 50% to ~67%.

• Mana cost reduced from 7 to 6.

• Damage increased from 17 to 20.
• Projectiles now grow larger, deal more damage and penetrate more enemies with distance.

• Now react appropriately to lava.

• Can now be used while submerged in lava.

• Projectiles now grow larger, deal more damage and penetrate more enemies with distance.
• Now has no mana cost when the Meteor Set is equipped.

• Now pierces up to 2 enemies, up from 1.
• Damage reduced from 35 to 30.

• Projectile speed increased by 25%.

• Damage increased from 32 to 35.

• Initial projectile speed increased by ~31%.

• Now bounces on platforms.

• Increased maximum note speed by ~50%, and reduced minimum note speed by ~60%.

• Added new Summon prefixes!
• Mana costs have been removed.
  • Any existing summoning weapon with a mana cost reducing prefix (e.g. Mythical) will receive a random new prefix upon loading the world.

• Recipe cost increased from 6 Flinx Fur to 10 Flinx Fur.

• Now require a Mythril/Orichalcum Anvil to craft.

• Now has knockback when attacking.

• Removed 25% tag damage penalty.

• Damage increased from 40 to 55 (DPS unchanged, see Global Mechanics section for explanation).

• Different whip tags can no longer stack with one another. Hitting an enemy with a whip now clears the effect of any other whip that is active.
• Whips now use varying arcs when swung.

• Damage increased from 27 to 29.

• Damage reduced from 165 to 160.
• Tag critical strike chance reduced from 12% to 10%.

• Damage increased from 100 to 110.
• Tag effect damage increased from 10 to 15.

• Damage reduced from 180 to 170.
• Multihit penalty increased from 10% to 20%.

• Now grants 4 defense.
• Now reduces trap damage by 50%, and caps it at 300.
• Now reduces trap debuff duration by 50%.

• Armor pieces now have a shimmer loop.

• Now also removes the mana cost of the Laser Rifle.

• Now grants immunity to burning blocks.

• Now requires a Mythril/Orichalcum Anvil to craft.

• Helmets now apply their damage bonus to ammo as well as weapons. To compensate for the increase in overall damage, their damage bonus has been reduced from 15% to 12%. Overall, this slightly buffs most ranged weapons.

• Now applies its damage bonus to arrows as well as bows.

• Damage increased from 80% of yoyo damage to 100%.
• Velocity increased by 100%.

• Now increases max yoyo lifetime by 50%.

• Spores now use static immunity frames, meaning that a single enemy can now be damaged by spores and other sources of damage at the same time (but not multiple spores).

• Now has a visual effect that allows both the wearer and other players to see if they are near or in range.
• No longer triggers when allies take damage from non-enemy hazards.
• No longer triggers on instant kill effects (e.g Dungeon Guardian).
• Self damage can no longer be dodged.
• Self damage no longer generates immunity frames.
• Will now only proc every 0.67 seconds.

• No longer trigger when taking damage from non-enemy hazards.

• Now also applies to the Nurse’s healing service and the Stylist’s hairstyle shop.

• Now functional while in vanity slots.

• Can now fully negate fall damage, rather than only reduce it to 1.

• Now extends the distance you can fall without taking damage by 10 blocks.

• Now extends the distance you can fall without taking damage by 20 blocks.

• Now grants immunity to burning blocks.
• Now grants lava vision and increased jump height when swimming in lava.
• Water walking is now disabled while mounted.

• Fixed the Basilisk’s innate double jump being overridden by double jump accessories (e.g. Cloud in a Bottle). They now stack as intended.

• Can now dig falling blocks such as Sand, Silt and Slush.

• You can now use Pylons during boss fights and invasions.
• Shimmer invincibility no longer applies to bosses, invasion enemies or the Torch God. You cannot hide!

• Can now teleport to platforms.

• Now also drops Unholy Arrows on Crimson worlds.

• You can now dash through Deerclops’ legs using a Shield of Cthulhu or Solar armor (previously you would collide with it).
• Fixed Shadow Hands appearing on top of non-targeted players in multiplayer.

• Hand movement when slamming is now a bit smarter, avoiding an issue that caused it to fly off-screen.
• Can no longer be dodged by accessories when enraged during daytime.

• Can no longer be dodged by accessories when enraged during daytime.

• Fixed Duke Fishron transitioning too quickly from its final ram attack to the Cthulunado/Bubble Circle in phase 2 (does not affect Expert+ difficulty).

• Firing rate reduced by 25%.
• Bullet speed reduced by ~30%.
• Firing range reduced by ~10%.
• Accuracy slightly decreased.

• Firing rate reduced by 12.5%.
• Arrow speed reduced by 12.5%.
• Arrow damage reduced from 80 to 70.
• Firing range reduced by ~20%.

• Firing rate reduced by 12.5%.
• Bullet speed reduced by ~20%.
• Bullet accuracy decreased.
• Cannonball charge time increased from 1 second to 3 seconds.
• Interrupting the Pirate Captain while he is charging his cannonball attack now reduces the charge time by 0.33 seconds, to a minimum of 1 second. Once he fires a cannonball, the charge time will reset back to 3 seconds.
• Cannonball speed increased by ~40%.

• Expert+ health scaling reduced from 100% of base health to 85%.

• Critters, regular Mimics, Lost Girls, Slimes, Gnomes and Bound NPCs are now affected by Conveyor Belts.
• Antlions can now spit Sand while on Conveyor Belts.

• Spawn chance from Jungle plants reduced by 25%.

• Can now drop items in Hardmode again, but can not drop Souls or Biome Keys.

• Spawn chance increased by ~17%. Now more likely to spawn for lucky players.

• Spawn chance increased by ~17%.
• Golem Head drop chance increased from 10% to ~33.33%.

• Now has a 80% higher chance to spawn if there’s chum in the water.

• Now drop Gel.

• Can now spawn on Ice and Snow blocks outside of the Snow biome.

• Spawn chance reduced by ~25%.

• Spawn chance reduced by ~33%.

• Can now tolerate slightly windier conditions.

• Can now arrive even when there are no available houses. Only one will arrive per day, and they will leave if they do not have a house by nightfall.
• Villagers now take priority over Town Pets when respawning.
• Can now attack enemies while talking to players.
• Defeating a boss now also gives each villager a 1.5% attack speed bonus.
• Now also gain stat bonuses from defeating King Slime, Deerclops and Duke Fishron.
• Will now avoid Stinky players.

• Increased defense from 15 to 30.
• Increased health regeneration by 500%.
• Increased arrow damage from 8 to 12.

• Dryad’s Ward defense bonus to other villagers increased from 6 to 10 in Classic difficulty, 10 to 15 in Expert and 14 to 20 in Master.
• Defeating Queen Slime, Duke Fishron and Empress of Light now boost the damage of Dryad's Ward by 15% each (same as other Hardmode bosses).

• Villager count requirement to move in increased from 14 to 20, to account for Town Pets & Slimes.

• Increased defense from 15 to 30.
• Increased health from 250 to 500.
• Increased health regeneration by 900%.
• Increased attack rate by 200%.
• Increased knockback resistance from 50% to 75%.

• Tombstones can now be broken three times as fast (no change on For The Worthy worlds).
• Ghost spawn chance from breaking a Tombstone reduced from 50% in all difficulties to 12.5% in Classic and 25% in Expert (Master unchanged).
• Ghosts that spawn from broken Tombstones now only care about their initial target. Once said target is slain, they will attempt to flee.
• Ghosts no longer pick up money on Expert+ difficulty.
• The Peace Candle now reduces the boosted spawn rates of Graveyard biomes by 33%.

• Newly generated Mythril, Orichalcum, Adamantite and Titanium ore patches are now the same size as Cobalt and Palladium patches.
• Windy days and Rain now only occur when there is a player in the world with at least one Life Crystal consumed.
• Rain is now less obscuring while a boss fight or event is ongoing.

• You can now blockswap blocks that are touching lava.

• All multi-hook grappling hooks can now have multiple hooks in flight, rather than just one.
• When jumping from a grapple, you now jump the full height rather than half.

• Velocity and range increased by ~7%.

• Axes with higher axe power now have a higher chance to get extra wood when cutting trees.

• Can now cut large Jungle plants.

• Now automatically replant harvested herbs.
• Now only yields extra seeds and herbs from mature herbs if used to harvest them, rather than as long as it’s held.

• Axe power reduced from 150% to 125%.
• Now automatically replant harvested herbs.
• Now only yields extra seeds and herbs from mature herbs if used to harvest them, rather than as long as it’s held.

• Now only drops Hardmode ores when in Hardmode.

• Now douses torches, campfires, and most other light sources.
• Wet debuff now gives immunity to On Fire!, Hellfire and Burning debuffs.

• Now ignites torches, campfires, and most other light sources.
• Slimed debuff now doubles damage from On Fire!, Hellfire, Cursed Inferno, Frostburn, Frostbite and Shadowflame debuffs.
• Slimed debuff duration reduced from 25 seconds to 3 seconds.

• Now has a slightly bigger area of effect.
• Now converts walls, and also purifies Hallow blocks and walls.

• Now have a slightly bigger area of effect.

• Venom Dart Traps now require a Mythril Anvil to craft.
• Cannons are now fired by using torches rather than ammo. They can also be fired using a wire signal (cooldown is shared between cannons). Cannonballs are now a decorative item.
• Snowballs fired by a wired Snowball Cannon now deal damage. It shares its fire cooldown with the cannons.
• Lihzahrd Flame Traps now inflict the Hellfire debuff.

• Using all three lava fishing enablers (Hotline Fishing Hook, Lavaproof Fishing Hook, lava critter bait) will now give you an additional bonus when fishing in lava.
• You can now gain the Fishing Power bonus of sitting from any chair, not just toilets.

• Flying a kite now grants the High Spirits buff, increasing movement speed, mining speed, placement speed and luck.
• Kites are now automatically deployed when AFKing for more than 3 minutes.

• No longer makes you fully invisible on your own client, so you can better see what you are doing (you are still fully invisible to other players).
• Getting hit while invisible now reduces the remaining buff time by 1 minute rather than removing it outright.

• Now reduces the time to answer a call of nature by 75%.
• Now can also affect villagers (via the Ale Tosser), granting a 10% damage, defense and attack speed boost.

• Now reduces your luck.
• Can now be removed by water.

• Now increases Villager happiness by 10%.

• Now gives immunity to On Fire!, Hellfire and Burning debuffs.

• Now doubles damage from On Fire!, Hellfire, Cursed Inferno, Frostburn, Frostbite and Shadowflame debuffs.

• Now grants Well Fed (tier 1) instead of Plenty Satisfied (tier 2). Duration unchanged.
• Recipe cost increased from 10 Pumpkins to 15.

• Healing increased from 20 to 30.
• Potion Sickness duration decreased from 60 seconds to 45 seconds.

• Potion Sickness duration decreased from 60 seconds to 40 seconds.
• Now resets the player’s hunger in The Constant worlds.

• Buff now only applies to melee items and projectiles as intended.

• Defense bonus increased from 6 to 8.
• Damage bonus increased from 20% to 25%.
• Now increases villager health by 250 each.
• Now grants a 20% attack speed bonus (stacks multiplicatively).

• No longer drops Bacon.

• Drop chance from Mother Slime, Snow Flinx, Undead Viking and Armored Viking reduced from 2% to 1%.

• Drop chance from bat enemies reduced from 1% to 0.5%.

• Drop chance from Salamanders, Crawdads and Shellies increased from 4% to 6.67%.

• Drop chance from all bats reduced from 0.4% to 0.33%.

• Drop chance from Snow Flinxes increased from 2% to 4%.

• Drop chance from the Tavernkeep reduced from 16.67% to 12.5%.

• Drop chance from fishing increased by ~33%.

• Now available as a drop when fishing in the Dungeon.

• Can now also drop from pots in the Cavern layer.

• Drop chance from Enchanted Sword Shrines increased from 2% to 3.33%.

• Drop chance from Rock Golems increased from 10% to ~33.33%.

• Now drops from both Lamia variants at the same rate (2.5%).

• Now drops from the Empress of Light in a stack of 3, up from 1.

• Now drop from Ogres.

• Now has a ~3.33% chance to be dropped by King Slime.

• Can now be crafted at a Heavy Assembler (the crafting station formerly known as Heavy Workbench) in Graveyards.

• Now also sold by the Steampunker in the Jungle after Golem has been defeated.

• Can now be crafted at Lihzahrd Furnaces from 10 Lihzahrd Bricks.

• Pink Pearl drop chance from Oyster increased from 1.33% to 2.5%.
• Black Pearl drop chance from Oyster increased from 6.22% to 7.5%.
• White Pearl drop chance from Oyster increased from 12.44% to 15%.

• Replaced the ore and bar drops by Hellstone and Hellstone Bars respectively.
• Now have a 5% chance to contain Hellforges.

• Now have a 50% chance to contain Dungeon Bricks.

• Biome Fishing Crates now have a chance to contain paintings from their biomes.

• Now replaces Suspicious Looking Eyes in Ice Chests.

• Now crafted at a Work Bench rather than chairs with tables (these are no longer used for any crafting).

• Can now also be crafted at Living Looms.

• Can now also be crafted at Fountains.

• Now require 15 gems to craft, up from 10.

• Recipe cost increased from 3996 Wooden Arrows/Musket Balls to 9999.

• 1 Worm Tooth now makes 20 Arrows (up from 5), and 1 Vertebrae now makes 10 (up from 5). Wooden Arrow cost increased to match.

• Now requires an Anvil to craft.

• Now require a Mythril/Orichalcum Anvil to craft.

• Now require a Mythril/Orichalcum Anvil to craft.

• Can now also be crafted using Glowing Mushrooms and Gel.

• Can now also be crafted from Golden Carp.

• Can now also be crafted from Owl.

• Can now also be crafted from Ebonstone, Crimstone and Pearlstone.

• Recipe now crafts 2 Stink Potions, up from 1.

• Now sold by villagers regardless of how happy they are (there do still need at least 2 other villagers in their vicinity).

• Now also available from the Traveling Merchant when King Slime or Deerclops have been defeated.

• Buy price reduced from 10 Gold to 5 Gold.

• Buy price increased from 10 Gold to 15 Gold.

• Buy price reduced from 1 Platinum to 50 Gold.

• Buy price reduced from 1 Platinum to 75 Gold.

• Now sold by the Zoologist at 3% Bestiary completion, down from 10%.

• Now has a 10% Bestiary completion requirement to buy from the Zoologist.

• Now sold by the Zoologist at 25% Bestiary completion, down from 35%.

• The Dryad now sells all of the Planter Boxes without any boss requirements.

• Now sold by the Dryad in pre-Hardmode (the Hallowed trees still have a Hardmode requirement).

• Now sold by the Goblin Tinkerer in pre-Hardmode.

• Sell price increased from 1 Silver to 25 Silver.

• Sell price increased from 50 Silver to 2 Gold.

• Sell price increased from 2 Gold 50 Silver to 7 Gold 50 Silver to match the Molten Charm.

• Sell price increased from 5 Gold to 9 Gold.

• No longer sold by Steampunker.
• Sell price reduced from 2 Gold to 40 Copper.

• Now also sold by the Mechanic in Graveyards.

• Now also sold by the Painter in Graveyards if the Mechanic is present in the world.

• Reduced the amount of Larvae placed during world generation.
• Gem blocks are no longer replaced with Crispy Honey during world generation.

• The passive mining boost now also applies when using block swap.

• Pre-Hardmode Mimics now have a 5% chance to drop Flare Guns and Extractinators.
• Katana and Keybrand are no longer swapped in progression.
• Depth-based quest fish are now easier to catch.
• Ocean Biome Crates are now less common, allowing a more balanced distribution of the other Biome Crates.

Crashes & Major Issues​

• Fixed several multiplayer crashes involving furniture.
• Fixed a rare crash when placing torches in multiplayer.
• Fixed a rare magical crash involving Unicorns in multiplayer.
• Fixed a crash involving painted cacti and the minimap.
• Fixed a rare multiplayer crash involving animated trails.
• Fixed some crashes involving sounds.
• Fixed a rare crash involving snails. Yes, snails.
• Fixed a multiplayer crash involving faraway villagers.
• Fixed a Pylons multiplayer crash.
• Fixed a freeze caused by spawning NPCs when most of the world has been wiped of blocks.
• Fixed a lighting crash caused by running the game at a very high resolution.
• Fixed crash involving Enchanted Sword Shrines.
• Fixed a few crashes related to display modes.
• Fixed a server crash caused by loading a world of a newer version than the server.
• Fixed a crash involving the Flying Dutchman in multiplayer.
• Fixed a crash caused by leaving a multiplayer world and joining a singleplayer world.
• Fixed crashes involving emotes.
• Fixed a crash caused by resizing the window while waiting for Host & Play to start.
• Fixed a crash on iOS when toggling Fullscreen.
• Fixed crash involving Dressers and merging liquids.
• Fixed the -join launch parameter reverting all player files to their backups when launching the game.

Player​

• Fixed spawning code not clearing spawn properly.
• Fixed cases where respawning would consider passthrough blocks as solid.
• Fixed some projectiles not applying their debuffs in PVP.
• Fixed PvP debuffs scaling with difficulty.
• Fixed Journey Mode's Pickup power ignoring Pickup speed boosts.
• Fixed the Slimed debuff not showing its duration.
• Fixed being unable to pick up a dead player's items if they haven't respawned yet.
• Fixed a bug where quick buff could consume non-consumable items if used when you have no buff items in your inventory.
• Fixed quick mounting a minecart track always grappling the track even if there are solid blocks in the way.
• Fixed some mismatches between Torch God's Favor and the current biome detection.
• Fixed minecarts having a smaller hitbox when traveling in liquid.
• Fixed Hardcore player ghosts contributing to enemy health scaling in Expert+ difficulty.
• Fixed information accessories still showing their info on Hardcore player ghosts.
• Fixed block swap's speed not matching the player's best pickaxe.
• Fixed certain buffs not being synced properly when joining a server.
• Fixed grappling hooks not being synced properly when joining a server.
• Fixed certain debuffs being removable via right click.
• Fixed the Lucky Break achievement not being granted if you are Stoned.
• Fixed the Matching Attire achievement not unlocking when quick-equipping vanity.
• Fixed Smart Cursor placing Palm Trees too close together.
• Smart cursor now properly reacts to changes in item placement range when placing blocks and walls.
• Torches are now properly placable on platforms when Smart Cursor is on.
• Fixed Smart Cursor not targeting the blocks directly below the player when mining if the cursor is close to the player's feet.
• Biome calculations are now based on the position of the player rather than the position of the camera. This means that using Binoculars or Scopes no longer changes the player’s biomes.

Items​

• Fixed the Magic Conch not always teleporting you onto solid ground.
• Fixed the Staff/Axe of Regrowth breaking Flowering Vines.
• Fixed Battle Potion and Mechanical Worm returning Crimson materials when shimmered on Corrupt worlds.
• Fixed Chest Locks being usable on Dressers.
• Fixed Spectre Paint Brush and Roller being usable when there is no paint in the inventory.
• Fixed the Presserator placing actuators in empty blocks when placing certain objects over existing objects (e.g. Antlion Egg).
• Fixed Queen Spider sentry's eggs and baby spiders not being able to fall through platforms.
• Fixed certain cases of Paladin's shield overdealing and underdealing damage.
• Fixed the Paladin's Shield deflecting instant kill damage from the Dungeon Guardian, Skeletron and Skeletron Prime.
• Paladin's Shield buff can no longer be cleared by right-clicking.
• Fixed the Zapinator's tooltip still showing a mana cost in its tooltip when using Meteor Armor.
• Fixed Water Candles not being holdable underwater, despite being placeable underwater.
• Fixed Gas Traps not working in singleplayer when autopause is on.
• Fixed the Vampire Knives, Scourge of the Corruptor and Shadowflame Knife firing inaccurately at high melee speeds.
• Fixed Binoculars being able to see further than intended on high resolutions.
• Fixed Wormhole Potion not teleporting you to the right position if both you and the target are mounted.
• Fixed the Robbing the Grave achievement not being triggered by the Shadow Jousting Lance.
• Fixed extremely rare cases of items staying in the inventory despite having a stack size of 0.
• Fixed Life Drain and Resonance Scepter's knockback in PvP.
• Improved the reliability of certain quick projectiles, like the Heat Ray.
• Fixed Stellar Tune's having a limited range on gamepad.
• Fixed Stellar Tune's "no line of sight" damage penalty not applying to PvP.
• Fixed Brown Solution converting certain stone walls to dirt walls.
• Fixed Green Solution converting jungle walls to stone walls.
• Fixed Drills, Chainsaws and the Chlorophyte Jackhammer being one tick slower than they should be.
• Fixed the Spider Staff’s spider minions sometimes getting locked up during movement.
• Fixed Temple Keys being consumed from every inventory the player has instead of just once, when attempting to unlock the Temple Door.
• Fixed Teleporters sometimes failing their initial use in multiplayer.
• Fixed items from Fishing Crates, Treasure Bags and Presents never having prefixes.
• Fixed Shield of Cthulhu's first dash after joining a world not hitting anything.
• You can no longer blow up the Snake Charmer's Flute's snake. You monster.
• Fixed items getting stuck in weird states after being thrown into certain Shimmer pools.
• Fixed releasing critters in reverse gravity not releasing them at the cursor.
• Fixed jousting lances having an asymmetrical hitbox when attacking.
• Fixed Vortex Beater, Phantasm, Phantom Phoenix and Celebration MK2 dealing contact damage.
• Improved Portal Gun teleportation stability in multiplayer.
• Trash items are no longer immune to lava.
• Fixed Water Gun projectiles being destroyed when getting near water.
• Fixed the Shiny Red Balloon & tinkers sometimes reducing total jump height, for example when in water.
• Fixed Hive Pack's Giant Bees being instantly slain by Shimmer.
• Fixed boomerang weapons getting locked out when thrown off the edges of the world.
• Clinger Staff is now properly usable on top of Planter Boxes.
• Fixed Red's armor and the Fairy Bell rarely allowing you to have two fairies at once.
• Fixed flails breaking at high melee speed.
• Fixed rapidly switching between projectile firing weapons (e.g. Starfury) allowing you fire more projectiles than intended.
• Fixed certain mounts being slowed by certain accessories.
• Fixed Purification Powder converting mowed grass into unmowed grass.
• Fixed synchronization of the Charged Blaster Cannon in multiplayer.
• Fixed being able to sell back items purchased with Defender Emblems for their full buy price in coins.
• Fixed synchronization issues involving Fairy Glowsticks.
• Fixed an issue with the Dirtiest Dirt's behavior.
• Fixed rare cases where Yoyo Counterweights would fail to appear.
• Fixed the Archery Potion’s damage bonus not being reflected in the damage tooltips of arrows.

Bosses, Invasions & Events​

• Fixed some inconsistencies between loot dropped directly by bosses in Classic difficulty and loot obtained from Treasure Bags in Expert+.
• Fixed invasions not being properly synced in multiplayer.
• Fixed boss minimap icons not animating smoothly when far away.
• Fixed cases where two Eye of Cthulhus would appear at once. You were definitely just seeing twice.
• Fixed the Eater of Worlds not being considered a "danger" for certain mechanics such as the Pylon Network despite being the literal Eater of Worlds!
• Fixed an issue where Deerclops could get stuck into an infinite falling loop when teleporting.
• Deerclops' Shadow Hands now avoid spawning on all players, rather than just the primary target.
• Fixed Skeletron Prime's Laser not firing properly.
• Fixed Skeletron Prime's Bomb explosions appearing in the wrong position in multiplayer.
• Fixed Empress of Light's Ethereal Lances sometimes not spawning in the correct position.
• Fixed enraged Empress of Light's contact damage being dodgeable on Don’t Dig Up worlds under certain circumstances.
• Fixed spooky cases of the Pumpking disappearing in the middle of the fight, never to return.
• Fixed Flocko and Krampus not being counted as part of the Frost Moon.
• Fixed Dark Mages and Ogres almost always arriving from the left portal in tier 1 and 2 Old One's Army events. They will now randomly pick a portal.
• Fixed an asymmetry in Lightning Aura’s minimum placement distance during the Old One's Army event.
• Fixed Old One's Army being affected by Shimmer.
• Fixed Martian Saucer increasing the player’s respawn time in multiplayer.

Enemies​

• Fixed "[Enemy] has arrived!" messages appearing in the chat in worlds with lots of active enemies.
• Fixed a spawn cap exploit involving Antlion Larvae and Bees.
• Fixed a rare bug where worm-type trails could attach to other enemies.
• Fixed Big Mimics not turning hostile when damaged by lava.
• The Bird Banner now properly applies to normal Birds, Blue Jays, and Cardinals.
• Fixed destroying a Slimer’s wings increasing its kill count.
• Fixed the Golem sometimes spawning with multiple heads in multiplayer.
• Fixed a rare bug where a second bound version of an NPC could spawn at the same time the first one is rescued.
• Fixed NPC buffs not being synced when a player first joins a server.
• Fixed spiders sometimes managing to clip through solid blocks! Aaaah!
• Fixed Crimson Pigrons uniquely being incapable of entering water.
• Fixed rain enemies spawning in the wrong places on Don’t Dig Up worlds.
• Fixed Wraiths and Hoppin' Jacks not spawning in the right places on Don’t Dig Up worlds.
• Fixed certain Crimslime variants not counting towards the Gelatin World Tour achievement.
• The Nurse can no longer remove Brain of Confusion's Mindtrick buff. She was slightly confused there.
• Fixed multiplayer issues involving Antlion's sand balls.
• Fixed web spitting spiders spitting webs at slain players.
• Fixed Spiked Slimes maintaining their focus on players that they've slain.
• Improved walker enemies' ability to jump on platforms.
• Fixed walker enemies jumping endlessly on platforms, when at the same elevation as their target.
• Fixed rare cases of NPCs being perpetually wet, making the bees very sad.
• Fixed Jungle and Spiked Ice Slimes sometimes spawning inside of blocks.
• Fixed worms with picked up coins not respawning properly in Expert+.
• Fixed some Snow biome NPCs being unable to spawn on Red Ice.
• Fixed Corrupt and Crimson enemies not spawning correctly on Lesion and Flesh blocks.
• Fixed For The Worthy and Journey mode scaling issues.

Villagers​

• Fixed cases where the Dryad would forget how to do math when asked about the world’s infection status.
• Fixed the Skeleton Merchant having broken behaviour in liquids. Additionally, he can no longer spawn in liquid.
• Fixed Skeleton Merchant ignoring a player's Shadow Candle and appearing anyway.
• Fixed the spirit of Christmas preventing NPCs from being killed when falling out of the bottom of the world.
• Fixed villagers not dropping their party hats if slain during a party.

Blocks & Furniture​

• Fixed Platforms and Planter Boxes not framing properly when next to Echo (coated) blocks.
• Fixed Aetherium Brick not blending with Dirt.
• Fixed Teleporters not breaking objects above them when they are broken.
• Fixed being able to place items in Weapon Racks/Item Frames while you are using them.
• Hallowed Mowed Grass no longer spreads paint when it grows.
• Fixed closed doors breaking objects in their way when interacted with even if the door is blocked.
• Fixed Christmas Trees not properly breaking objects when placed by block swap.
• Fixed placed Garden Gnomes having incorrect minimap labels.
• Campfires and torches are now properly limited to their water resistant variants when block swapping them underwater.
• Fixed certain hanging objects like Boulder Statues not breaking when their anchor blocks are block swapped into platforms.
• Fixed being unable to place Moss on a single, isolated block.
• Fixed being unable to place Ash Grass on a single, isolated Ash block.
• Fixed platforms other than wood not being considered solid surfaces in certain cases.
• Fixed being able to block swap solid blocks onto platforms that players are standing in.
• Fixed acorns not being plantable on Ash Grass.
• Fixed Crystals, Holiday Lights and Exposed Gems being placeable on the "wrong" side of sloped blocks.
• Fixed cases where breaking one cage would break another adjacent cage.
• Fixed Gem Trees breaking when moss spreads beneath them.
• Fixed being able to step on a Weighted Pressure Plate twice.
• Fixed auto-paint and auto-actuation failing when using block swap to switch similar items, such as one chest for another.
• Fixed being unable to place more rope on an already very long rope in multiplayer.
• Fixed Water Sensors being triggered by Shimmer.
• Fixed being able to toggle half of a hanging lantern in multiplayer.
• Fixed Honey Blocks slowing you down too much in reverse gravity.
• Fixed certain block interactions happening multiple times at low FPS, such as putting items in Item Frames.
• Fixed being able to craft items while using a Mannequins or Hat Rack.
• Fixed Hanging Brazier/Pots instantly breaking when hanging them under a platform/block combination.
• Fixed Bubbles being actuatable by timers.
• Fixed vines not considering mowed grass a valid anchor, making them liable to spontaneous decomposition.
• Fixed Land Mines and Geyser Traps spawning projectiles twice in multiplayer.
• Fixed unsafe Fossil Walls being considered suitable housing material.

World​

• Fixed biome music and backgrounds not having the same priorities, causing mismatches in certain biome combinations.
• Fixed Meteorites not fully syncing in multiplayer when landing.
• Fixed Meteorites not clearing slopes, paints and coatings when generated.
• Fixed Hardmode ores retaining paint when generating over painted blocks.
• Fixed certain Pyramid pots having broken map colours.
• Fixed Palm Trees not inheriting the paint and coating of their root block when growing.
• Fixed Palm Trees, Bamboo, Seaweed and Sea Oats not being coated when growing on a block with Illuminant Coating.
• Fixed certain tree branches dropping acorns when they're above grass blocks.
• Fixed Sakura and Yellow Willow trees not converting properly.
• Fixed Celebration worlds flagging the initially spawned villagers as unlocked.
• Boulders now properly interact with Shimmer.
• Fixed rare cases of trees growing through solid blocks.
• Fixed darkness damage applying incorrectly while the screen is panning in The Constant worlds.
• Fixed luck incorrectly affecting damage from cutting Cactus in The Constant worlds.
• Fixed grass and desert wall infection spreading asymmetrically.
• Fixed Ash Trees dropping regular wood in certain cases.
• Lily pads can now properly grow above Mowed Hallowed Grass.
• Fixed lily pads losing their paint when floating up or down.
• Fixed Crimson Plants not counting as Crimson blocks.
• Fixed grass spread synchronization in multiplayer.
• Fixed the underground to cavern background transitions not matching with Depth Meter values.
• The Dryad now counts Lesion and Flesh blocks as Corrupt/Crimson blocks on Don’t Dig Up worlds.
• Fixed Living Tree leaves burrowing into Sky Lakes and drinking all the water. Save some for the fish!
• Rain now only stops Fireblossom from blooming if it’s growing in a layer that actually experiences rain.

World Generation​

• Fixed several minor world gen issues.
• Fixed boulders sometimes generating without a surrounding trap.
• Fixed boulder traps sometimes generating without a boulder.
• Fixed honey patches appearing outside of the Jungle (such as in the Underworld).
• Fixed several liquid merge issues.
• Fixed rare cases of Sky Island chests not containing their paintings.
• Fixed boulder traps overlapping and breaking containers in rare situations.
• Fixed extremely rare cases where Minecart tracks would manage to get into the Dungeon and Temple.
• Fixed campfires sometimes generating too close to the dungeon.
• Fixed rare cases of Temple chest loot appearing inside Mushroom chests.
• Fixed a minor bug with liquid cleanup during world generation.
• Fixed underground cabins attempting to generate outside the world.
• Fixed traps in the Jungle Temple sometimes generating without a pressure plate.
• Fixed Spider Stalactites and Honey Stalactites/-mites not generating.
• Fixed Living Wood chests at the surface containing underground loot.
• Fixed Living Wood chests appearing outside of Living Trees.
• Fixed exposed gems and crystals generating on boulders and closed doors.
• Fixed rare cases where Not The Bees worlds were missing an ocean.
• Fixed cases of Underground Desert pressure plates appearing over other objects.
• Fixed several chest loot items not appearing with prefixes.
• Fixed a rare case where a new world could start at night. Spooky!
• Fixed rare failures to place jungle plants during generation.
• Fixed cases of the Dead Man's Chest boulders spawning over other valuables such as Life Crystals.
• Fixed the wrong kind of pots generating in the Underground Desert.
• Fixed the Dungeon's guaranteed Shadow Key always being placed in a Biome Chest. Shadow Keys no longer generate in Biome Chests at all.

UI​

• Fixed favorited ammo sometimes being affected by quick stacking.
• Fixed being unable to navigate the inventory when placing chests on gamepad.
• Fixed the Create World menu showing the wrong world size preview image when initially opened.
• Fixed the resource pack info scrollbar overlapping the textbox.
• Fixed the main menu sometimes being upside down when quitting a world with reverse gravity active.
• Fixed the back button in some menus backtracking all the way to the title screen instead of the previous menu.
• Fixed the game falling back to the default hotbar hotkeys (1 through 0) rather than the assigned hotkeys while an item is being used.
• Fixed quick stack to nearby chests taking items from ammo and hotbar slots in certain cases.
• Fixed some NPCs in the Bestiary appearing in the wrong size.
• Axe tools now get sorted properly when sorting.
• Fixed dyes not getting sorted when sorting.
• Fixed NPCs appearing incorrectly in the Bestiary on "For The Worthy" worlds.
• Fixed some oddities with the hover range of Chest menu buttons.
• Fixed death markers being invisible in the overlay map.
• Fixed rare cases where UI elements would overlap when the player has the maximum amount of accessory slots.
• Fixed the Metal Detector not always highlighting the most valuable treasure.
• Fixed the Stopwatch showing wrong values when moving through Shimmer.
• Fixed the DPS Meter not taking NPC defense into account in some cases.
• Fixed items potentially being picked up into the cursor when opening Chester, the Money Trough or the Void Vault portal at high UI scales.
• Fixed Bestiary kill counts resetting to 0 on multiplayer when getting very high.
• Fixed the cursor icon flickering when hovering over the minimap buttons.
• Fixed the Guide forgetting his initial 'help' text in certain cases. He only needed a bit of help, that’s all.
• Fixed the Guide's help text on grappling hooks not checking for all hook types.
• Fixed the world’s edge not matching up with the minimap’s edge.
• Fixed certain hairstyles potentially not appearing in the Stylist's shop menu.
• Fixed scrolling through the Stylist's hair window also scrolling through your hotbar under certain zoom settings.
• Fixed repeatedly sorting sometimes causing items to leapfrog over each other.
• Fixed the incorrect error message displaying when trying to join a server with an incompatible character.
• Fixed shops showing incorrect gamepad hints.
• Fixed the cursor icon not always indicating when you are about to trash an item.
• Fixed multiplayer chat not drawing above Hardcore ghost's heads.
• Fixed Void Vault and Defender's Forge icons overlapping in the savings display.
• Fixed exiting the virtual keyboard on gamepad also closing the Journey menu.
• Fixed the mouse cursor rendering incorrectly when certain menus are open.
• Fixed certain chat commands converting their input to lowercase.
• Fixed mouseover text appearing when hovering over certain buttons that have items behind them in the world.
• Fixed gamepad navigation in the villager housing menu when there is only one column of villagers.
• Fixed teleporting causing erratic minimap patterns.
• Fixed map pings persisting between worlds.
• Fixed Quick Use deleting items when used while an item is already mid-use.
• Fixed the Esc key not working for anything but chat on Mac/Linux.
• Fixed the game overlaying the cursor for the rest of the session when the mouse is disconnected and then reconnected on Mac.
• Fixed the Ruler's distance display scaling with World Zoom rather than UI Scale.
• Fixed being unable to quick-unequip the Master Mode accessory on Steam Deck.
• Fixed quick-crafted coins on gamepad immediately converting back to their original denomination.
• Fixed the player being dismounted when opening the Bestiary on gamepad.
• Fixed the "Take One" action on gamepad not working for single items.
• Fixed the Smart Cursor icon rendering in the fullscreen map on gamepad.
• Fixed the Smart Cursor visual extending beyond the player's functional range in extreme situations.
• Fixed Smart Cursor's direction lock being asymmetrical.
• Fixed a visual issue with the achievement unlocked notifications.
• Fixed house assignment not working correctly in reverse gravity.
• Fixed D-Pad cursor snapping not working in reverse gravity.
• Fixed moving the map not respecting mouse input at certain resolutions.
• Fixed a duplicate gamepad hint that appears when hovering over the minecart equip slot.
• Fixed other player's names showing when hovering over them while they are invisible.
• Fixed the gamepad hints for accessory slots in Master Mode being incorrect in certain cases.
• Fixed gamepad's virtual keyboard breaking on lower framerates.
• Fixed kites responding to mouse clicks when trying to click interface buttons.
• Bed and Spawn map icons are now properly centered.
• Fixed player chat text going offscreen when resizing the game window.
• Emotes are now correctly removed when players are slain.

Camera Mode​

• Fixed the sky not appearing correctly in captures during rain.
• Fixed the Aether biome's background stars not appearing properly in snapshots of underground areas.
• Fixed certain background elements not appearing in their correct place in camera captures.
• Fixed blurry backgrounds in high resolution camera captures.
• Fixed Monoliths not properly working with camera captures.
• Fixed camera captures sometimes not having transparent backgrounds when backgrounds are disabled.
• Fixed large world snapshots with lots of furniture crashing in certain circumstances.
• Fixed the screenshot area being affected by UI scale.
• Fixed water artifacts appearing in snapshots.

Visual Issues​

• Fixed the Tax Collector's Suit's scarf being visible when you are transformed into a Werewolf or Merman.
• Fixed Starlight's animation not pausing when the game is paused.
• Dungeon Guardian now properly emits effects when attacked.
• Fixed several items not matching the player's stealth when held out.
• Fixed drinking Biome Sight Potion not producing particles.
• Fixed some stalactites/-mites having the wrong break dusts.
• Fixed the leaf burst from a growing tree not using the tree's paint.
• Fixed the Hellfire Treads' and Terraspark Boots' effects not being affected by dye properly.
• Fixed Xeno Staff minions not displaying attack dusts on remote clients.
• Fixed Queen Slime's projectiles not having the same default brightness as her minion's projectiles.
• Fixed brightness flickering when entering a surface Glowing Mushroom biome.
• Fixed cases where the camera would move very fast instead of transitioning to black when teleporting.
• Fixed the game not using a black fade transition when switching from tracking view (golf ball, FPV Goggles) to Binoculars.
• Fixed certain backgrounds having their treetops slightly cut-off.
• Fixed the Flesh Grinder not rendering properly.
• Fixed rare visual errors with Martian Dye.
• Fixed various plants ignoring certain paints.
• Fixed some furnitures not properly reacting to coatings.
• Fixed tree shake effects playing twice in multiplayer in certain cases.
• Fixed certain mounts making bubble effects appear in the wrong position underwater.
• Fixed NPCs rarely sliding instead of teleporting after using teleporters in multiplayer.
• Fixed regular and wooden minecarts animating in reverse.
• Fixed Brain of Cthulhu sometimes rendering incorrectly in phase two.
• Fixed certain items being offset incorrectly when used by mounted players.
• Fixed visual glitches from Magic Missile-type weapons on certain graphics cards.
• Fixed certain cases where liquid would incorrectly draw, especially near Bubbles.
• Fixed some visual issues with sleeping in a bed.
• Fixed the Pigron mount's idle animation not being used.
• Fixed Jellyfish Jar placement previews and glowmasks being skewed.
• Fixed Jellyfish Jars not creating extra bright light when the Jellyfish is glowing.
• Fixed placement preview issues with Placed Signs, Tattered Signs, Arrow Signs, Item Frames, Switches and the Announcement Box.
• Fixed the alchemy herbs placement preview not being accurate.
• Fixed visual glitches with child safe gores.
• Fixed the mana gained effect from the Magic Cuffs appearing twice for other players.
• Fixed certain wings unintentionally being visible when grappled to a surface.
• Fixed the Eyebrella spawning rain while the fullscreen map is active, causing a burst of rain when you close the map.
• Fixed Christmas Trees not properly attaching to the ground.
• Fixed main menu sometimes showing watery ripples.
• Fixed some chandeliers not emitting sparks.
• Fixed small visual oddities with Chain Knife and Knife Guillotine.
• Fixed yucky cases where Stinkbug Blockers would appear incorrectly.
• Fixed the Crystal Dart projectiles not properly rotating when bouncing.
• Fixed some issues with the Crystal Serpent's visual effects.
• Fixed some interactions between glowing blocks and complete darkness.
• Fixed Shadowflame Apparition's... appearance?
• Fixed certain visual effects that track players incorrectly tracking velocity.
• Fixed Orange Stained Glass appearance in the Underworld.
• Fixed the Gold Water Strider not emitting sparkles.
• Fixed Truffle Worm losing its glow effect when escaping from players.
• Fixed certain wings not becoming fully invisible when entering stealth (e.g. Shroomite).
• The Inner Tube now correctly gets affected by stealth.
• Fixed stray white pixels appearing around Pigrons and the Pigron Mount.
• Removed a white pixel in the Demolitionist and Tavernkeep's spritesheets that appears when they fall.
• The main menu will no longer skip a moon phase when cycling through the days.
• Players will no longer show their failed attempts at using mana consuming items, when they don't have enough mana, in multiplayer.
• Fixed clouds moving excessively at low framerates.
• Fixed distant clouds stuttering when moving vertically.
• Fixed lava emitting water particles when a player gets out.
• Fixed framing issues with Crystal Shards interacting with half-bricks.
• Fixed Ash Plants and Lilypads not reacting to paint.
• Fixed paint not working properly on Sunflowers.
• Fixed Chlorophyte Partisan's projectile being visually cut off.
• Fixed Shiverthorn not glowing in the dark.
• Fixed blood disappearing quicker than intended.
• Fixed players respawning with honey particles after being slain in honey.
• Fixed scaling artifacts on Eater of Worlds' segments.
• Fixed visual issues with Rocket Boots when mounting/swapping loadouts mid-air.
• Fixed the Glass Slipper's sparkle effect being visible when the accessory isn’t.
• Fixed certain visual effects not functioning correctly in reverse gravity.
• Fixed several pets changing directions or going invisible when entering flight from standstill.
• Improved Caveling Gardener's direction when standing still.
• Fixed visual issues involving player's overhead chat, nameplates, reverse gravity and high latencies.
• Fixed the background suddenly disappearing at high altitude in certain circumstances.
• Fixed the glowmasks of certain dyes.
• Improved Obsidian Skull Rose and Molten Skull Rose compatibility with various armor pieces.
• Fixed certain furniture items not emitting their effects properly in Retro Lighting.
• Fixed certain coats appearing incorrectly when the player is sitting.
• Fixed visual issues when sitting while wearing some specific leg items.
• Fixed Shimmer animations breaking when under the effect of a Hunter Potion.
• Fixed a visual issue with the Graduation Gown.
• Fixed a visual issue with the Fallen Tuxedo Pants.
• Fixed a visual issue with the Desert Spirit.
• Fixed inconsistencies in the item directions of minecarts, chairs, and beds.
• Fixed Fishing Rods jittering when moving horizontally.
• Fixed Spears jittering when moving over slopes.
• Fixed framing issues caused by block swapping Glass.
• Fixed vines disappearing when their anchor block is hammered.
• Fixed an issue with sloped glowing blocks.
• Fixed a variety of enemies animating slower when walking to the left.
• Fixed Snowfall Block drawing liquids behind it.
• Fixed Headless Horseman's NPC's Pumpkin projectiles having upside down shadows. Spooky!
• Fixed Truffle's glow not fading when shimmering.
• Fixed Hades Dye not working properly on certain pets and mounts.
• Fixed a lot of projectiles drawing twice.
• Fixed the Mechanic being offset by a single pixel when sitting, which someone somehow noticed and made a Reddit post about! Thanks!
• Fixed Echo coated blocks drawing black artifacts in certain cases.
• Fixed Chlorophyte Dye's glowmask being in the wrong place at the right time.
• Fixed Oozed debuff still producing visual effects on slain players.
• Fixed waterfalls flowing upwards in certain cases.
• Fixed certain visual effects appearing incorrectly in multiplayer at high latencies.
• Fixed Moon Lord floating to the left in multiplayer in its final moments.
• Fixed cut-off rendering on Retro Lighting at high resolutions.
• Fixed a framing issue with exposed gems.
• Fixed certain wings not blinking when the wearer is damaged.
• Fixed the Vortex Helmet using an incorrect glowmask.
• Fixed an issue with the Flesh Chandelier's animation.
• Fixed Team Dye not applying properly to Minions, Pets, Light Pets and Hooks.

Audio​

• Terraria no longer fails to launch when it fails to detect an available audio device.
• Fixed item use sounds from remote clients not playing properly in Multiplayer in specific cases.
• Fixed Shadowflame Apparitions, Parrots, Pirate's Curse, Scutlices and Martian Saucers not playing their invasion music if they're the only enemy left.
• Fixed waterfall sounds being anchored to the player rather than the camera.
• Fixed certain sounds playing twice when switching between menus.
• Fixed the item pickup sound not always being centered.
• Fixed Betsy's scream being audible throughout the whole world.
• Fixed some sounds playing multiple times on the gamepad’s virtual keyboard at low framerates.

Localization​

• Fixed several IME issues.
• Fixed references to mouse buttons in loading tips not being localized.
• Improved line wrapping of text for some languages.
• Fixed Green Cap, Ivy, and Jim's Cap not dropping when the game is set to certain languages.
• Fixed Old One's Army, Pumpkin Moon, and Frost Moon having an extra colon in the numbered wave text.
• Fixed the Drax's outdated name in several languages.
• Fixed some errors in the Princess and Pirate's dialogue.
• Fixed the Steampunker's party dialogue.
• Fixed a typo in Goblin Tinkerer's happiness dialogue.
• Fixed Celebration MK2's projectiles having no localization.
• Fixed some of the Tax Collector's dialogue being inaccessible.
• Fixed several punctuation issues.
• Fixed some inconsistencies with the credits localization.

Miscellaneous​

• Terraria no longer fails to launch if a resource pack fails to load properly.
• Fixed several certain exploits.
• Fixed an incompatibility with Terraria 1.0.6.1 saves.
• Fixed some input issues when using AZERTY keyboard layouts.
• Fixed a rare "Lost connection" issue for slower clients.
• Fixed the "language" option from the dedicated server configuration not working.
• Fixed the “autocreate” option from the dedicated server configuration not working if used out of order.
• Fixed the dedicated server’s “-world” argument crashing when the world doesn't exist, even if “-autocreate” is also used.
• Improved menu related stability when joining friends via Steam.
• Fixed an issue where uploading a player to the Steam Cloud when a player with the same name already exists there could delete that player’s minimap data.
• Fixed updating a published Workshop item resetting its publicity to Public in certain cases.
• Fixed some incorrect default values when opening Terraria for the first time. This caused hardware RGB to not function.
• Fixed being unable to join your own Host & Play server after having previously connected to a server using a different port than 7777.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

A number of high-profile video game developers have defended Highguard amid an online backlash during the game’s launch.

The free-to-play “PvP raid shooter” was the big new game reveal at the end of last month’s The Game Awards, but developer Wildlight then went dark until the January 26 release date in a bid to channel the successful shadowdrop of Apex Legends back in 2019.

At launch, Highguard hit a peak of 97,249 concurrent users on Steam — a significant number for any new game launch on Valve’s platform — but at the same time Wildlight has had to contend with a “mostly negative” user review rating. Meanwhile, Steam concurrents have fallen, and Highguard has slipped out of the top 100 most-played games list on Valve's platform.

Chief among the criticisms from players is that the size of the map feels too big and empty for a 3v3 competitive shooter. You’re able to summon a mount to get about faster (the mounts are one aspect of Highguard that players seem to universally like), but some believe a 4v4, 5v5, or even 3v3v3 mode would have been a better fit.

There are also complaints about the resource-gathering phase of each map, which involves what some are calling boring mining and loot farming. The gist here is there is too much downtime and a lack of excitement, although players seem to be enjoying the raid phase of each match, where combat is concentrated. There is also criticism of the design of the playable characters, Highguard’s art direction, and a lack of content — as well as performance problems particularly on PC.

Through it all is a feeling that Highguard perhaps suffered from being the “one more thing” reveal at The Game Awards, where it might have better managed expectations in a slot earlier in the show. Wildlight staff have indicated they originally planned a true Apex Legends-style shadowdrop for Highguard, but The Game Awards chief Geoff Keighley asked the team about featuring it at the end of the show. Keighley has subsequently suffered a backlash of his own, with some feeling Highguard’ position in The Game Awards’ running order overly hyped the game.

Opening X this morning! pic.twitter.com/NQXGvOvjYL

— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) January 27, 2026

Now, developers from the likes of Baldur’s Gate 3 studio Larian as well as Fortnite maker Epic have hit out at the discourse surrounding Highguard, and the internet’s capacity to “hate” on video games at launch. Developers like Cliff Bleszinski of Gears of War fame, Epic executive Mark Rein, and Larian boss Swen Vincke spoke up against, in particular, negativity from critics.

“I don’t like people s****ing on things others have created,” Vincke tweeted. “Putting something out into the world makes you vulnerable, and that alone deserves respect, even if you dislike the creation. It’s easy to destroy things, it’s a lot harder to build them. The best critics understand this. Even when they’re being critical, they do their best not to be hurtful."

Vincke went on to suggest a Metacritic-style scoring system for reviewers, based on how others evaluate their criticism. “I like to imagine it would encourage a bit more restraint,” he said. “The harsh words do real damage. You shouldn't have to grow callus on your soul just because you want to publish something.”

He continued: “And yes — I get that if people are charging money, you want to know if it's good or not. But reviewers can just say — I didn't enjoy it or I don't think it's well made or I don't think it's worth the money they are charging. That's enough. No need to get personal for the sake of some likes.“

And in a follow-up post, Vincke added: “What I'm trying to say is that most creative souls are sensitive souls and those sensitive souls are the ones that care the most. When they check out because they can't handle the vitriol, we all lose because what's left are those that don't care. The effect the words have on those sensitive souls may not be underestimated. You don't want them to lose their idealism and love of players.

“There's other ways of dealing with player exploitation. Not playing the games is probably the best one. You don't have to verbally hurt the people behind the game to express your disdain. If enough people stop playing the games that don't respect players, those in charge will get the message and change course soon. There's enough other games there.”

Cliff Bleszinski, whose own live service shooter LawBreakers was a commercial failure, leading to the closure of his studio, asked: “When did it become trendy to hate on a new game? Been seeing it more and more in recent years. It's exhausting.”

“It’s downright horrible,” Mark Rein, vice president and co-founder of Epic Games, commented. “Especially a FREE game from a new studio. Just so sad. This is a hobby for people, they should approach with joy not hatred.”

The reality is that Wildlight faces an uphill challenge turning online sentiment about its live service shooter around, and the studio will be particularly concerned by Highguard’s Steam user review rating, which remains ‘mostly negative.’ Currently, 37% of the 19,439 user reviews are positive; Wildlight plans to continue to update Highguard with various patches, and has announced its 2026 roadmap of content.

Meanwhile, Keighley responded to one person on social media who asked if he had a financial stake in Highguard’s success. “lol absolutely not,” he said.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Ubisoft's next change following last week's major company reorganization will be a price increase to its Just Dance+ service.

As Ubisoft tightens its belt across the company, its Just Dance+ streaming service will become more expensive whether you purchase access via a 1 Month Pass, 3 Month Pass or 12 Month Pass.

In a blog post to fans of its veteran music franchise, Ubisoft says it has re-examined the costs of running Just Dance+ over the past few months and come to the decision that price rises were necessary to ensure it remains "meaningful and sustainable for players."

As a result, a 1 Month Pass will increase in price from $3.99 to $4.99, while a 3 Month Pass will rise from $9.99 to $12.99. Finally, a year-long pass will cost $29.99, up from $24.99. These changes will be applied from April onwards.

"Just Dance+ is built around music, and that comes with some important truths," Ubisoft wrote. "Every song available in the service relies on licensing agreements that evolve over time, and these conditions directly affect what we can keep, renew, or add to the catalogue. Taking this into account, we’ve had to make a few adjustments to ensure the service can keep growing in the long run."

Upcoming content coming to Just Dance+ includes songs from the franchise's 2023 and 2024 Editions such as Toxic by Britney Spears, Drivers License by Olivia Rodrigo and Walking on Sunshine by Katrina & The Waves. A new Wonder Tales pack inspired by the Melosia Realms Danceverse will arrive this spring. Another new track, 360 by Charli XCX, will arrive later this year.

Last week, Ubisoft announced it had cancelled six games and delayed many more as part of a strategic review of its ongoing portfolio. Two of the company's development studios were confirmed to be closing, while layoffs were confirmed at three more. At the same time, Ubisoft confirmed more of its plan to carve up its portfolio into Creative Houses.

Just Dance will sit in the company's "Creative House 5" unit focused on family and casual gaming, which will see it sit alongside Uno, Hasbro, Idle Miner Tycoon, Ketchapp, Hungry Shark, and Invincible: Guarding the Globe.

"We went through a thorough review of projects across December [and] January, with the current market evolution in mind — which is consistently more selective," Ubisoft's chief financial officer Frederick Duguet told IGN at the time. "You've seen the last quarter showing a never-before-seen level of competition. Competition and selection is here to stay."

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Capcom has dropped another Monster Hunter Wilds patch that aims to improve optimization for "Steam-specific processes" and address the game's long-standing PC issues.

"After receiving user reports, our internal testing confirmed that CPU load could increase around the Support Desk at Base Camp or the Grand Hub," the developer wrote in the patch notes, below. "This is due to claimed content status check processes to notify the player if there is unclaimed content in the Support Desk, as indicated by an exclamation point (!)."

The notes go on to confirm that this issue — which causes frames to drop only in the Base Camp and Grand Hub, depending upon if you have any "unclaimed content" — is "an unintended bug and will be resolved with this update."

Monster Hunter Wilds Title Update 4 — which ushered in a long list of gameplay and balance changes, as well as CPU/GPU improvements, load reduction, and the optimization of "PC-specific processes and addition of options and presets to reduce processing load" — arrived last month. Its development roadmap, detailed in December, hoped to address the myriad issues impacting the PC version.

"We'll follow this up in January with a PC-specific update with even more improvements, and are looking into further optimization for implementation in the February content update," the team explained at the time. "We're committed to making Monster Hunter Wilds a great experience for all players. Thank you for your patience and continued support."

However, last week, one player believed they had discovered that PC performance was dictated by the number of DLCs a user has. As de_Tylmarande explained it: "More DLC = more FPS." The tech-savvy Reddit user uncovered what they believed was a “bug in the code they need to fix” and shared their findings with the Monster Hunter subreddit. Shortly after sharing their theory, the redditor updated the post to report that Capcom had "replied," and was "already looking into and it will be fixed." Which is where Patch 1.040.03.01 comes in.

The developer now insists that "the number of DLCs you own does not affect" performance, but claimed content status check processes does. Applying the latest patch should, according to Capcom, resolve it, though.

"To further improve stability and performance across all platforms, additional improvements will be implemented in the Ver. 1.0.41 update on February 18," it said.

"I don’t have a direct comparison of my old settings on old vs new patch yet, but I can now run full ultra settings at 1440p and it drops to 55fps at worst, usually more like 65-80 though," reported one player. "Comparable to what I was getting with balanced FSR and minor settings optimization before. So basically enough of an improvement that I get a free resolution upgrade. I’d say I’m happy with it, very acceptable smooth 120fps with framegen and it looks incredible at full res. And the high res texture pack is finally fixed. 7600x/7900xt."

Conversely, someone else wrote: "Played for a bit. Framerate went from an avg of 45 to about 52 at 1080p with quality FSR with a mix of high, and medium settings. I played around a little more and moving most settings down didnt really impact things much IMO. I know some people are having a better experience, but the game still just doesn’t look good for the performance it’s asking. Hoping the other performance patch coming next month will help out further."

"Cool, they are updating the game to address the issues people have expressed concerns about since launch, I'm sure there are several people out there who have been waiting for fixes before hopping back on, I wish I had waited [because] at this point I'm a bit jaded and reluctant to even hop back on," added another player.

Here's the full patch notes, which you'll need to install if you wish to access DLC or online play:

Monster Hunter Wilds update 1.040.03.01 patch notes:

Required Space

Approx. 2.0 GB (With High Resolution Texture Pack: Approx. 31.0 GB total)

Note: Due to revisions to the High-Resolution Texture Pack, a re-download of approximately 31 GB will be required, resulting in an overall reduction of about 45 GB compared to the previous version.

Video Driver Version

Please update to the following driver versions to ensure the most stable experience possible.

– NVIDIA GeForce: 581.57 or newer

– AMD Radeon: 25.9.1 or 25.9.2

Note: Some issues have been identified with AMD Radeon drivers versions 25.10.2 and higher.

Note: This information is subject to change at any time due to factors such as NVIDIA and AMD support availability.

Major Additions and Changes

• Improved CPU/GPU processing specific to the Steam version.
  • Reduced shader warming processes performed outside the shader compilation screen to lower CPU load.
  • Adjusted texture streaming to improve visual quality while reducing VRAM usage.
  • Adjusted the High Resolution Texture Pack to reduce VRAM usage and overall package size.
• Added a CPU tab to the Options menu, allowing players to adjust settings related to CPU load.
• Added new categories to the graphics settings, along with new settings for existing options.
• Adjusted graphic presets and added a confirmation window to automatically update your settings on first launch after updating.
• Expanded the Volumetric Fog setting in the graphics options from two levels to five. The previous "High" setting has been renamed to "Highest," and "Low" to "High," with three new lower options—"Medium," "Low," and "Lowest"—now available.
• Fixed an issue where a warning dialogue incorrectly indicated that the AMD Radeon driver was outdated when using driver version 26.1.1 or later.

Bug Fixes and Balance Adjustments

• Fixed an issue where system load could increase around the Support Desk at Base Camp or the Grand Hub due to claimed content status checks.
• Adjusted Variable Rate Shading behavior so it is forced off during upscaling to maintain proper effect visuals.
• Fixed other miscellaneous issues.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

A collectible statue apparently due for release alongside the unannounced Assassin's Creed: Black Flag remake has popped up online.

Ubisoft is yet to make its Assassin's Creed: Black Flag remake official, but the game's arrival has long been expected following a constant series of leaks. Now, fans have seemingly gotten a first look at merchandise for the game, in the shape of a new statue designed by collectible maker Pure Arts.

The lavish design features Black Flag hero Edward Kenway sat on a treasure chest that's spilling gold coins, leaning back against his ship's wheel, a cutlass and pistol in each hand. The statue is then topped off by a large billowing flag featuring the game's logo: the Assassin's Creed sigil with a skull in the middle.

⚠️ LEAK BLACK FLAG REMAKE ?

Un gars sur Vinted vend une toute nouvelle figurine de Edward Kenway et prétend qu'elle sortirait cette année.

En sachant que le remake de Black Flag était censé sortir dans moins de 2 mois, serait-ce la figurine officielle du jeu ? pic.twitter.com/ctVWiavA6c

— j0nathan (@xj0nathan) January 27, 2026

If Ubisoft has made any change to Kenway's character design for its remake, there's no evidence of it here. That said, any alteration to the now-iconic pirate assassin's look would have been a surprise.

What is curious, though, is how this statue has seemingly come to light. Unboxed and with no mention of its origins, the item was reportedly listed via used clothing resale app Vinted. Numerous fans spotted the item pop up, including notorious Assassin's Creed leaker j0nathon, who quickly realized this was not a statue that had been publicly released already.

The item's listing states that it is 35cm tall and features a 20cm width, and due for release in 2026. A detailed close-up of the statue's base shows logos for Ubisoft and Pure Arts, with a copyright mark registered for 2026.

Last year, Pure Arts hinted it had something in the works for Black Flag, and suggested this would surface in the not-too-distant future as "there is something going on." Reports detailing the remake have since suggested that the game has gone through substantial changes to modernize its visuals and gear system in line with more recent franchise instalments. Another report has also claimed that the game will also no longer feature any content outside the Animus, with extra pirate missions added instead.

Perhaps the most notable confirmation of the project came from Edward Kenway's own voice actor, who initially teased the project before later suggesting he'd been told by Ubisoft in no uncertain terms to stop talking. Finally, last month, the game popped up on the PEGI European ratings board website revealing what looks to be its final title: Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced.

Ubisoft itself previously said it would release an unannounced game before the end of its current financial year on March 31, though this launch has now been delayed into the coming financial year (ending March 31, 2027) due to the company's major recent reshuffle of teams, projects and studios.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social