Endless Online 0.4.51 : Dev Post
Hall Of Pain
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Dev Post:
After releasing the three new exterior designs for the class hubs in patch 4.50, the next step was to bring their interiors to life. A good amount of effort went into carefully crafting and combining pixel assets to create three distinct, memorable spaces that reflect the
identities of all six classes. Each hub is designed to feel home-worthy of the class it represents. The story inside Aeven Theatre will continue, eventually unlocking the nostalgic and fully remastered Hall Of Pain. It will become the hardest training spot in the current game, featuring new enemies, boss, items, and mysteries things waiting to be discovered.
This dev post will explore what has been made so far..
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Areas: Hall Of Pain ( HoP )
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Introduction
The Hall of Pain has always been one of the most iconic and unsettling places in Endless, and bringing it back require a careful redesign. The goal is not to replace what made it memorable, but to preserve its atmosphere while rebuilding it with more depth, structure, and storyline. The entire map has now been reworked into a more layered experience, with new paths, improved layout and more detail to make it richer.
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Repurposed Story
The HoP originally started as a strange basement hidden beneath Shopbob's Shop. Because of that, it makes sense that this large underground dungeon could also be reached from other places, such as Aeven Theatre. This created the perfect opportunity to keep the HoP recognizable as it was, while adding and redesigning pathways to connect it to the Theatre.
Reworked Maps
One mapping challenge will be reworking all of the iconic maps while still keeping them recognizable. At the same time, the old maps really need more detail and atmosphere to better match the Theatre setting.
Final design
As a result, the HoP is being updated to better fit its new story and setting. While new content is being added, important core threats of the area, such as the Biters, many spikes, and Banshees are preserved where possible. By mixing the original graphics and npcs with new elements, the HoP keeps its familiar identity while creating the all new creepy and painful atmosphere the name deserves.
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The npcs
The familiar npcs that have roamed the HoP are still there, such as the Banshee and the (slightly remastered) Biters (now called Pain Biters). In addition, puppets have been introduced, along with a Puppet Master who could have special npc logic to spawn puppets around the player(s), creating more dynamic and interesting gameplay inside the area.
- Pain Biter
- Banshee
- Puppet Doll
- Puppet Master
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Shuffled paths
The Hall of Pain (HoP) has always been a maze filled with many doors and looping paths, but it's layout was static and always the same. Making it easilly solved with the help of a (web)guide. This patch will introduce a new experimental system that can slightly shuffle the placement of designed warps (gates) at set intervals.
This change could make this area more unpredictable and challenging to navigate, turning it into a true test for the most determined adventurers. At the same time, it also opens up new opportunities for teamwork, as players may work together to identify and track the correct warp paths faster.
More details about this system can be found in the section below.
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The final boss and loot table are still under consideration.
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Npc work
Work on the npc system is coming together. One of the missing npc behaviours was caster behavior for npcs. Work has been done to refactor and redesign npc loops a little to add this new npc behaviour while keeping things unified to keep future npc coding easy.
Caster Role
The new caster behavior makes npcs naturally stay further in the back while reacting dynamically to danger, facing the enemy direction while casting. Furthermore effort has been spend so that npc casters can combine other additional behaviour flags such as panic, flee, support, passive and aggressive. The caster role can also branch further into support, summoner, or offensive caster types, all handled through the same new caster npc loop.
Foundation
Everything remains customizable through Pub Studio 4.51, including mixing various behaviours together and the ability to further attached special states, scripted actions, and override behaviors. Slowly it's becoming a complex npc system with plenty left to improve, but progress should be becoming visible as the Puppet Master will roam the Hall Of Pain..
Puppet Master /example
A nervous figure stands keeping its distance, constantly watching the players around him, while raising more puppets into the chaos. Chat bubbles rapidly appear above his head as he desperately yells about how many puppets he is currently controlling. The closer danger gets, the more unstable and frantic his behavior becomes.
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Engine: Public Boss Encounter / Boss Upgrade
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Puppet Overlord
Deep within the HoP waits the Puppet Overlord, one of the first tier2 public boss encounters in EO built around semi-boss mechanics. The fight also marks a nice step forward of the server npc systems, with a more streamlined pipeline supporting advanced targeting, behaviors, scripting, and combat interactions coming all together in a unified design. * read next section for more details.
Teamwork
The Puppet Overlord introduces a dangerous debuff mechanic that places affected players on a visible countdown. If left uncleansed, the effect becomes punishing and can quickly prolong the entire encounter for all players inside the Chamber Of Pain. Players must pay attention to each other during the fight, coordinating taking out the Adds (4 Puppet Masters) while remove the pupept curse from eachother to keep Puppet Overlord vurnable. The boss encounter is designed to encourage some teamwork rather than simple dps.
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New system: Chained Spawn Control
Upon reaching the Chamber of Pain.. Inside, a small eerie doll whispering strange and unsettling phrases.. Hidden beneath this doll is a silent chained spawn control system waiting for the players to hit (and destroy) the puppet doll. Immediately the Puppet Overlord spawns into the room. Furious over the destruction of its 'creation', the Puppet Overlord erupts in anger, the start of the navoidable Boss Confrontation. From that moment forward, escape is no longer an option, as the puppet masters spawn in, who are in their turn summoning numerous puppet spawns..
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New system: Puppet Debuff
As the confrontation escalates, the Puppet Overlord begins to reveal some of his dark powers... A new status apply system now allow npcs to cast debuffs directly onto players, slowly tightening the Puppet Overlord's control over the battlefield. Players affected for too long may completely lose control.. becoming living puppets under the Overlord's influence. While enslaved, these victims are used as sources for the Puppet Overlord to shield itself from incoming damage. *keep reading for more information about this..
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New system: Interactive Immune
The entire room quickly turns into a struggle for control as the Puppet Overlord begins enslaving players, twisting allies into threats against each other. Survival depends on constantly breaking these effects before they spread, keeping the group from falling apart under the pressure of the fight. Behind the scenes, the new bossbar now reflects this escalation through changes in the boss bar and state indicators such as a big IMMUNE warning, giving players clear feedback while staying embedded in the flow of combat.
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The Artist
To keep a long-standing tradition alive, the Artist has once again hidden himself deep within the Hall of Pain. As before, those brave enough to find him may discover his famous lootbox, rumored to contain rare rewards. This classic secret has been carefully preserved while receiving a various upgrades.
Reaching the Artist
Reaching this secret is not so easy. This time, the Artist's Maze has been equipped with the newly redesigned trap engine (mentioned earlier in this dev post) creating an new challenge for adventurers willing to risk the journey in search of this mysterious creature. Watch your step, solve traps and puzzles, and survive a variety of unexpected obstacles to make your way through the halls.
Upgraded maps
Players will encounter new graphics, environmental details, and puzzle elements that help expand the Artist's character and mysterious background story.
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The final boss and loot table are still under consideration.
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Trap System Rewrite
Old spike tiles
The old spike system was fully removed and replaced with a new standalone trap tile system built for more advanced behavior and future usage.
Upgrading to traps
Previously, spikes were tied directly to the spec layer, which severely limited how much data and logic could be attached to them. The old implementation only supported a few fixed behaviors such as always active spikes, simple boobytraps, and a single animation channel for moving up and down. Expanding the system further would have required increasingly complex workarounds.
What was made
The new trap system turns traps into fully standalone objects with their own data, timing, and behavior control. Instead of being restricted to a single (up/down) animation. Trap Tiles now support 16 channels, allowing more complex patterns, sequences and advanced dungeon mechanics.
Foundation
Because traps are now standalone objects, the system is no longer limited to spikes alone. The same framework can support flames, spears, pistons, crushers, and other trap types.. While sharing the same underlying logic and timing architecture. Each trap also has its own dedicated ID system that can operate independently from timers. This allows future interaction systems where switches, npcs, scripted events, or other game mechanics can directly activate or deactivate trap. The result is a much more options for level and puzzle design.
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Detail: shaky health bar
Small gameplay details have also been improved to make traps feel more impactful and responsive. One example is the new shaky health bar effect that triggers when trap damage is taken, adding stronger visual feedback and making hits feel more immediate and noticeable during gameplay..
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Engine: Warp Shuffle System
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What was made:
This new warp shuffle system allows all maps (and their channels) to have random doors and warps, which can be designed directly within the map editor. By randomizing warps at configurable time intervals, it can create a more unpredictable gameplay experience. The system is designed to support random warp behavior while keeping compatibility with existing maps.
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What it's not:
Although this system provides advanced random warp functionality, it is not a random map generator. Creating a full map generator would require an entirely different system capable of overloading a base map with designed chunks of tiles, walls etc.
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About: Medium Quest Pack (4)
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Quest: Dark Secret L20 (daily)
Location : Voidsite WA-1
Reward : Dark Ticket (%)
A researcher near Voidsite WA-1 has found something strange hidden deep in the forest. Between the trees is a secret passage leading to an unknown area. Inside, there is an odd chest giving off a low humming sound.
The researcher was too nervous to go closer and asks you to investigate instead. This way, players who missed the Dark Ticket giveaway now have a reasonable alternative to obtain it as well.
* the dark ticket can be used to obtain the noud buddy.
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Quest: Behind The Curtains L1
Location : Aeven Theatre Basement
Reward : Hall of Pain unlock + 3331 Exp
Quest Giver : ????
After discovering the, a strange caged banshee, the players should figure out what the magician is hiding.. What begins as curiosity now becomes a journey into a wrong and forgotten place deep below Aeven..
'Behind the Curtain' is the quest to unlock and obtain access to the the nostalgic Hall Of Pain (HoP) hidden below the Theatre. Read more about this below..
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Quest: Broken Strings
Location : Hall of Pain
Start npc : Broken Puppet
Required Level : 30
Reward : 133000 EXP + 10 strings
A broken puppet in the Hall of Pain speaks of Puppet Masters who control and break souls. It asks you to destroy 10 of them to weaken their control. The puppet still waits for proof that something has changed..
* Kill Target : Puppet Masters (ID: 888 x10)
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Quest: Thread Beneath
Prerequisite : Broken Strings
Location : Hall of Pain
Start npc : Broken Puppet
Required Level : 30
Reward : 133000 EXP
The Broken Puppet senses something deeper beneath the Puppet Masters. A darker force is controlling everything, but its origin is unknown. You are asked to find and destroy the source.
* Objective : Defeat Puppet Overlord (ID: 889 x1)
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About: L50-150 Baseline Quests
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With the upcoming higher level cap, its important to improve how players can catch up and progress through mid-to-late game content. Patch 4.51 introduces an expanded baseline quest setup up to level 150. That should reward manual gameplay and improving group-based gameplay for mid to high level players: The existing From Ash to Den questline ( introduced in patch 4.43 ) has been expanded from L100 to L150, along with 2 additional baseline questlines that also cover L40-L150.
Hundreds of main story quests already provide strong and story-rich progression up to roughly L50-60. More main quests will be added over time, but with limited development resources it makes sense to start adding long-spanning baseline questlines starting from L40. Creating several long repeating quests so players can continue leveling and grouping together. With multiple baseline quests supporting them to mix and match their adventures.
This approach also ensures that mid and high level players remain compatible, making it easier to group together and progress together. Extending From Ash To Den to L150 supports this idea, keeping all baseline quests within the L40-150 range. The longer spanned quests, also helps reduce the need to create many more separate quests, so development time can be used more efficiently while still keeping good variety for the higher players.
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About:High Baseline Quests (3 REPS)
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Upgraded Quest: From Ash to Den
Location : Dragon Path / Dragon Den
Span : L40 - L150 *UP
Reward : 30000 EXP
Ash stands at the edge of the Dragon Path, warning that something unnatural has taken hold deep within the den. Dragons have been acting aggressively, crawling deeper into corrupted tunnels where they no longer behave like themselves. Players have to make a small travel, with some danger, to reach the Dragon Den and eliminate 10 of these big dragons.
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New Quest: Hall Pass
Location : Hall of Pain
Span : L40 - L150
Reward : 33000 EXP
A missing assistant who once worked in a theatre claims he followed the magician through a hidden passage behind a bookshelf. What began as curiosity turned into a trap, leaving him stranded deep inside HoP. For this quest the player has to make a small travel through randomized pathways, spikes and kill 12 Banshees.
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New Quest: Stolen Dreams (Combo)
Location : Nightmare Prison
Span : L40 - L150
Reward : 20000 EXP (40K combo)
Batmaso's astral projection reaches out from beyond the Dreamworld with a desperate plea. The Bogomen have been abducting Twinkles and imprisoning them inside strange pods where their dream energy is harvested. The player must rescue 20 captured Twinkles before their dreams fade away forever and return to Batmaso's Projection for a reward.
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New Quest: Bogo Nightmare (Combo)
Location : Nightmare Prison
Span : L40 - L150
Reward : 20000 EXP (40K combo)
An escaped Twinkle reveals the truth behind the nightmare prison. The powerful Bogo Supremes oversee the harvesting of dream energy, control the prison and maintain their grip over countless captured Twinkles. To weaken their influence and strike back against the nightmare, the player must hunt down and defeat 8 Bogo Supremes before returning for a reward.
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The idea is that all baseline quests and future baseline quests are small, repeatable tasks involving a short but slightly risky journey from and back to a nearby quest giver. The objectives of these quick runs should be a more random encounters, featuring enemies with slightly more advanced behaviors. Examples are: dragons using area-of-effect attacks or puppet masters near the Banshees summoning random enemies to assist them. Combined with increased experience rewards, this mid-level setup should encourage and reward manual/grouped gameplay.
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Idea/Todo: Another future idea is to expand the bounty board by increasing experience rewards per bounty, introducing a wider variety of targets and objectives, and adding progression-based features such as unlocking higher-tier contracts over time. Since bounties rotate and are reshuffled daily, this system would further encourage and reward consistent manual gameplay. Expanding the overall diversity of available bounties would also give players more meaningful choices in what to do each day, focused on rewarding and encouraging manual/grouped teamplay.
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About: Nightmare Expansion
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Expanding the Nightmare
The Nightmare (aka Bad Dream maps) are a unique theme in classic EO, holding more potential than the single map that could never been fully explored.. In the remastered EO, the area is turning Nightmare into a much larger and more immersive experience with more background. As players descend deeper into the nightmare they will explore the new Dream Prison, new enemies and more of the story behind the Bogomen. This expansion also introduces two new baseline quests that tell some of the story and offers more variantion to the baseline level up setup.
Among the new threats lurking below are the Bogo Supremes, powerful overseers responsible for maintaining control over the prison and its dream-harvesting operations. These elite enemies introduce new debuffs that players will need to learn and adapt to. *more details about this in the next section.
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New debuff: Stained
One of the new abilities used by Bogo Supremes is Stained. Empowered by the dream energy harvested from captured Twinkles, the Bogo Supremes are capable of projecting fragments of nightmare directly into a player's mind. When afflicted with Stained, players become briefly distracted by these disturbing visions, causing attacks to occasionally miss their target. While a single application is usually manageable, repeated exposure can quickly become disruptive during combat. The effect serves as a reminder of the power the Bogomen have gained from their dream-harvesting operation, turning stolen dreams into a weapon against those who oppose them.
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Areas: Classhub Interior - Den Hideout
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Den Hideout
Rogue and Archer Classhub
Hidden within the forests of Aeven West lies the secluded hub for rogues and archers, designed around the concept of a concealed thieve's hideout and improvised black market. Nestled in a natural depression in the terrain, the area is intentionally hidden off the main paths of West Aeven, far from prying eyes and any form of authority.
Inside the Den are makeshift tents, rough market stalls, scattered crates, and supply barrels that together should create a bustling, yet secretive, base camp. The space is intended to feel a bit shady where deals are made, information is exchanged, and skills are refined, away from the public eye.
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den hideout preview
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Areas: Classhub Interior - Stronghold Barracks
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Stronghold Barracks
Warrior and Paladin Classhub
The main building of the barracks serves as the class hub for Warriors and Paladins. Here, their leaders gather to discuss and plan strategic operations. The space is designed to feel strong and battle-ready, reflecting the discipline and unity of both classes.
Inside, the building also functions as an armory and training hall, where Warriors and Paladins refine their skills and prepare for battle. A large war table dominates the center of the room, giving the space a commanding presence. Together, these elements create a powerful atmosphere fitting for both Warrior and Paladin life.
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stronghold barracks preview
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Areas: Classhub Interior - Magic Academy
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Magic Acamdey
Mage And Pries Classhub
The Magic Academy interior is designed to reflect the distinct shape of the exterior, creating a recognizable space that feels connected to the outside. This alignment helps ground the environment while clearly defining its role as a place of for for both mages and priests.
The hall-like layout with diagonal walls guides movement through the space, giving the structure a spacious feeling while maintaining clarity. Arcane elements, training spots, and subtle decorative details are placed throughout, reinforcing the purpose of the area as a dedicated environment for studying and practicing the art of magic..
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academy preview
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Guidelines: Shadow Guide UI
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What was added:
Shadow Guide moderation UI has been extended with a Guidelines (rules) section, allowing all players to view the current Shadow Guide guidelines set by the Shadow Master himself.
Rules are server-side and live-updatable for some flexibility and rapid adjustments. This improvement hopefully helps streamline player moderation systems in EO and supports a more efficient administrative workflow overall.
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The Shadow Guide system (player moderation) is still in its early stages and is currently being test-run to evaluate how it works in practice. At the moment, the system is not perfect, and additional checks and balances will still be needed. Adding Shadow Guidelines will hopefully provide more clarity about what it means to apply for and serve as a Shadow Guide.
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Steadily, the world has been rebuilt, and it is good to see classes slowly taking shape as the needed support, like maps and npcs, have been added step by step. Nearly all nostalgic classic areas have now been carefully remastered, bringing the old world back with new depth and atmosphere. With only Vulture Island and the Apozen Boss Lair remaining, the foundation of the old world is almost 100% complete. But with more detail and things to explore than before. From here, development can shift more toward richer gameplay and stronger class/skill identity for the future.
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About: Overlayer/Radar Npcs
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What has been made:
Patch 4.51 introduces a small update to the Overlayer and the new Radar V2 system. Until now, players and npcs shared the same indicator styles on the radar. While functional, this often made fast identification difficult during crowded encounters or high activity areas. With Patch 4.51, both entity types are now visually separated on the radar for improved clarity and faster recognition. Players and npcs will each use their own distinct icons, making it easier to understand surroundings at a glance without losing important combat or interaction awareness.
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About: Screenshots ( Website Update )
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To provide a up-to-date representation of the game, the screenshot page has been updated on the website. Including a few new ones of the continents that been added over time.
The updated screenshots highlight this progress, giving new players a clearer impression of the scale, diversity, and atmosphere of the game.
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About: Level Up! / LevelCap removed
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For quite some time, the level cap has remained frozen while the world continued to grow. The world needed enough areas, quests, and rewards to properly support higher gameplay. With the Hall of Pain, new quest chains, public boss encounters, class hub expansions, remastered areas, and additional progression it is time to change that.
Patch 4.51 will also lift the long-standing current level cap. Level progression can begin moving forward again, in a much more developed and open-ended level system and world. Giving players new goals long after reaching previous limits. More details and balancing information will follow, but after being frozen for so long, this should be a great oppertunity to start leveleling again and move forward !
Effect: Level Cap removed (gain levels and stat points again above the current max level cap)
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About: Exp Deflate L50-80
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A small change is planned for the early leveling experience. The first experience bump, which currently starts at level 50, will be deflated. In practice, this means the first EXP bump will be pushed back and will now start at level 80 instead. As a result, leveling from 50 to 80 will become easier than before.
With the addition of so much new low-level content up to level 60, this is a great time to help newer and returning players reach the higher levels more smoothly, while keeping the long-term progression of the game intact.
Does this affect existing characters?
No. All characters will keep their current level, stat points, skill points, quest progress, equipment, and other progression. Absolutely no progression will be lost. Characters below level 80 will benefit from the easier leveling curve and may gain additional levels automatically. Characters level 80 and above will remain at their current level.
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About: Rebalancing Bounties and Events
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Bounty Board Reward Rebalance
The Bounty Board is receiving a substantial reward increase for both Eons and experience. While the overall experience gain goes up, it is important to maintain balance during the early game. By scaling the bounty rewards from level 30 to 40, Main Quests will remain a balanced and important part of progression throughout the early levels.
These changes are intended to encourage active manual gameplay and teamwork. Since Bounty Board objectives daily rotate and share progress across entire maps, hunting alongside other players should now feel very rewarding and worthwhile.
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Event Exp Improvements
Event rewards have also received a boost, with experience gains now increased by up to 2x. While the overall experience rewards have been increased, the reward scaling has also been extended from level 30 to level 40 for the same balancing reasons.
The goal of this change is to keep Events important and to encourage players to continue participating in manual events together. By offering stronger rewards and extending their relevance.
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This is how that looks..
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UI: Quest Progress Popup
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Small details do matter in the overall feeling of a game. Like the Quest Complete Popup introduced in Patch 4.48
What was made
A new Quest Progress Popup system has been added to provide more immediate feedback for certain quest objectives. When players complete a required kill or collect objective, a small line will now display this event directly inside the gameview for a few seconds.
When an objective is completed, the small line briefly shows a checked completion line at the bottom screen, making clear that the requirement has been fulfilled. This reduces the need to constantly open the quest window to verify current progress.
While the Quest Complete Popup highlights the final reward, the Quest Progress Popup complements it by providing feedback throughout the quest itself, making progression feel clearer and more responsive.
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About: Double Exp Weekends (JUNE)
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To celebrate the removal of the level cap, all weekends throughout June will feature DOUBLE EXP. The classic experience event returns, doubling all monster kill rewards and making every hunt far more rewarding.
This gives new players an opportunity to catch up a bit and returning players to get back into the action. Whether starting a new adventure, leveling an alt, or chasing the newly unlocked progression, doube exp is here to help you do it.
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- Aeven Bank and Theatre are swapped back places.
- Bounty board: +1 mission each day
- Bounty board: exp and eons reward doubled
- Cores move from generic to core material item group
- Map Events: exp and eons reward doubled
- Map Events: additional Event Coins reward
- Mini Games: improved exp rewards
- Frost plate, hat and boots frame fixes.
- Frost Core Pieces added to 'Core Rush'.
- Frost Bow has been added to Bigfoot.
- Frost Plate craft changed to casual textile.
- Dropping items under npcs is no longer possible
- Player emote face/bubble seperation
- Lights proximity control
- Yeti bracer frame fix
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About: Your feedback needed
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Not everything can be fully tested in advance, and that's why your input is important:
There are a lot of changes moving toward more manual gameplay, and your feedback is needed to help balance the new baseline REP quests against each other. Active players are encouraged to report their average EXP per hour while completing the different quests, so their exp rewards can be balanced to their final values properly.
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Update patch 4.51 is planned to release this week (15-16th June) 2026.
Thanks for playing Endless Online we are glad you are here. You can find a list of contributers here
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