Awakening update’s mechanics and monetization spark irritation among Dauntless players

The ‘Awakening’ update for Dauntless has not been warmly received by its players. Across Steam user reviews and social media, changes to weapons, armor, monetization, and game progression have been heavily criticized.

At this time, Steam’s user reviews for the game are “overwhelmingly negative”. Numerous veteran players have taken to the platform to voice their grievances about the recent patch change.

Major points of contention include the reduction of weapon variation, the discarding of cells removed from gear, the need to use a new weapon token currency to obtain new weapons, and changes to the armor upgrade system. Additional dissatisfaction arises from the new twin pistols available through a limited-time paid battle pass and the introduction of lockboxes.

One player described the situation as “another game subsuming to corporate greed” in their review, going on to mourn the perceived death of Dauntless.

The backlash to the ‘Awakening’ update prompted an open letter to players from Phoenix Labs, the game’s developer defending their recent changes. Their defenses included:

• A belief that experienced players will quickly progress through the introductory quests.
• A counter that players who engage with the new weapon upgrade changes enjoy them.
• Guaranteeing that players can accumulate enough weapon tokens to unlock weapons without needing to spend money, as long as they regularly complete weekly challenges.
• The reintroduction of FOMO battle passes, clarified as a move made for the game’s overall wellbeing. They also assured that hunt pass weapons would not implement a pay-to-win structure.
• A defense of the optional nature of lockboxes.
• A wait-and-see stance on potential adjustments to the new cells system as more players experience it.

In response to the feedback, a few concessions were made. These included an update granting all players who joined before the ‘Awakening’ update three weapons that were previously only available through tutorial completion. Phoenix Labs plans to introduce a feature that allows weapons to be “test-driven” before spending weapon tokens. The developers also pledge to continue to fix bugs, improve performance, and launch a new patch on December 19th featuring additional fixes and the opening of the Frostfall holiday event.

Despite the developer’s attempts to clarify their decisions, player responses remain largely negative. Many are responding by stating they are leaving Dauntless, while others call the open letter out for percieved deceit and suspect future monetization schemes.

All these factors have resulted in an apparent dip in player numbers, many expressing doubts in Phoenix Labs’ ability to course-correct or choosing to wait for the release of the new Monster Hunter game.

One player referenced recent news of Phoenix Labs’ acquisition by a cryptocurrency company, stating sarcastically “Good job Blockchain Rug-pull Labs, you’ve really Big-Things-Coming’ed us!” in response to the mysterious nature of the buyout.