Dauntless Reforged Review

I know this blog post is a bit late and a lot of the hype about the new update has died down but I've been struggling with some new features and wanted to give them a chance before I wrote about them.

What's Important?

• Migration

• Gliders

• Rumors

• Hunting Grounds

Migration

I wanted to wait a while to post this because I know there has been a lot of backlash on Reddit over the new update. I recognize that the migration system was far from perfect, but luckily I got through relatively unscathed and could afford to reforge all the equipment I use. However, I do see a massive downgrade in the amount of upgraded equipment I own, this simply doesn't bother me. I am not going to discuss migration on the blog until the next update tries to improve it.

Gliders

I purchased every glider upgrade and I still drop out of the sky very quickly which I find frustrating. The handling on the gliders is also pretty irritating so I basically only use them to move in a straight line. And if you touch a tree of a floating rock you immediately fall to the ground.

I think the ones available in the platinum shop are a touch lame, especially considering the price, but I expect to see more gliders available soon so don't rush to buy any. I was hoping to see a glider on this Hunt Pass, but if they don't end up being on future Hunt Passes then I hope we at least get them for events.

Rumors

I know I talked about rumors in my last blog post, but my opinion has changed slightly now that I've worked on them more. I like all the rewards for rumors, but the quests themselves can be very annoying. I assume this is an effort by Phoenix Labs to make players spend Platinum (which I have been). The requirements for some of the rumors, like the Sporestruck transmogs, include dealing specific types of damage that need specific builds and almost all of them require you to be in an Escalation. And on top of all that there's some that force you to use terra weapons against terra behemoths so you're even more underpowered. I understand why most of them aren't solo or team but please stop making me use weapons I'm bad at or don't have upgraded.

Hunting Grounds

The new island maps are beautiful and the addition of tons of jump jets makes them relatively easy to navigate. I like the idea of Hunting Grounds, but I don't like playing them very much. The events are good, but the overall experience is not as good as escalations because Hunting Grounds feels very static. You fight the same four behemoths with the same loadout over and over again. In escalations there is more variety in behemoths, the buffs are dynamic and different every run, and the keystone behemoth feels like a hard-earned victory. Hunting Grounds feels like doing the same thing over and over again.

Citations:

Phoenix Labs. (2020). Dauntless Roadmap. Retrieved October 23, 2020, from https://playdauntless.com/

All images are from the Dauntless website and are only meant to serve as placeholders. The final appearance of these features is not being portrayed.