Age of Reforging v1.30a Major Update & Daily Deal -30% off — Age of Reforging: The Freelands News

Hey, Reforgers!

With update v1.30, we've reached a major milestone on our roadmap: all 10 main companions now have affinity dialogues and personal quests. We've also added extensive companion interjections throughout story missions, with your choices directly affecting their affinity. Every decision you make will get a real response from your party.

This update also brings new scenes, a new boss, new side quests, expanded equipment recipes, and a range of bug fixes and balance adjustments. Full details below:

🛠️Age of Reforging v1.30a Major Update

New Content

Added dedicated affinity dialogues and personal quests for all 10 main companions. Pay close attention to what your companions have to say!
Added over 300 story interjections for the main companions throughout various quest dialogues. Choices you make during story moments will now increase or decrease their approval ratings.
Added a new castle scene and dungeon to the Devil's Labyrinth region, along with a major new quest and a unique boss encounter.
Added a new side quest tied to "Xuanji" and the "Xuanhuo Art." You can meet her in the Devil's Labyrinth region.
Added a new creature, the Tiger, found primarily in the Twilight Wetlands. Beast Tamers can capture it as an animal companion.
Added a new legendary weapon.
Added 36 new amulet and ring recipes, available from jewelry merchants (randomly restocked).

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue where enemies would immediately re-engage the player after being evaded on the world map.
Fixed an issue causing Key NPCs to display at incorrect heights.
Fixed an issue where taming an animal during a quest scene could cause mercenary quests to become stuck and unable to be completed.
Fixed an issue where taming animals did not unlock the corresponding bestiary entries.
Fixed an issue where NPC vs. NPC combat on the world map would not end correctly.
Fixed an issue causing incorrect outcome calculations for NPC vs. NPC combat on the world map.
Fixed an issue where guards were not spawning on the world map.
Fixed an issue where no prompt was shown when players attempted to gift an NPC more than once on the same day.
Fixed the issue where players could exploit hidden slots to exceed the allowed number of participants in arena matches.
Fixed issues that may prevent the Spring and Summer Seasons and the grand game from functioning properly.

Quest Fixes

Desolate Fort:

\[Disappeared Young Villagers]

Fixed an issue where killing Katus after the relevant quest stage was triggered would not advance the quest.
Fixed an incorrect description in the English version stating that Katus was located inside an outbuilding.

Improvements

Added fixed-stock fabric of all tiers to the material shop in Golden Harbor.
Reduced the weight of arrows and crossbow bolts.
The doctor's interface in towns can now display and treat injured members of your caravan.
Improved the skin tone options in character creation. The available colors now look more natural and realistic.
Removed the non-functional "Body Hair" option from character creation (a scrapped development-stage idea that was not properly hidden after the game's release).

Balance Adjustments

Food stored in caravan inventory will now spoil at 50% of the normal rate. Food stored in town warehouses will no longer spoil.
Enemy levels have been rescaled from the original 1–30 range to 1–50, better reflecting player progression throughout the game. Enemy difficulty has not increased proportionally: early-game enemies remain roughly unchanged, mid-game enemies are approximately 3–5% stronger, and late-game enemies are approximately 10–15% stronger. This is intended to give players a more meaningful level reference and preserve a degree of challenge in the late game.
Added a new NPC hero interaction: if you are wanted by a town on the world map, an NPC hero squad may now set out to track you down and bring you in.

About the Castle Management System

[p align="start"]Beyond the updates listed above, we've also been developing a large-scale Castle Management System. This system evolved from the Arena Management System featured in Blackthorn Arena, and was originally planned to launch alongside this major update. At this point, most of its features are actually already complete.

[p align="start"]However, as development progressed, we gradually realized that this base-management gameplay has many issues that can't be easily reconciled with the game's existing role-playing systems. Since the current RPG systems are already highly complex, these issues aren't merely functional tweaks. They represent structural conflicts that touch the entire logic underpinning the game. For example:

Once the player enters the castle-management phase, how should time pass in the game world?
Companions serve both as staff who can be assigned and managed within the castle, and as party members who join you on adventures. How should the game switch between these two roles, and how do we prevent them from conflicting with one another?

[p align="start"]

[p align="start"]These questions don't just affect the castle system itself. They could further alter the pacing of the existing RPG gameplay, the way characters are deployed, and the operating logic of the entire game world.

[p align="start"]As a result, even though the core features of the Castle Management System are largely complete, it does not yet form a complete, self-consistent gameplay experience with a positive feedback loop. Adding it to the game in its current state could disrupt the established rhythm of adventuring, further complicate the game's overall structure, and give rise to more potential issues and bugs.

[p align="start"]After multiple rounds of internal testing and evaluation, we've ultimately decided to hold off on releasing the Castle Management System for now.

[p align="start"]This does not mean the system has been cancelled. On the contrary, we'll be investing more time to keep refining and polishing it, resolving its conflicts with the existing role-playing mechanics, and building more genuinely playable content around castle management. Only when it's no longer just a collection of working features, but a complete, self-consistent system that meaningfully improves the overall game experience, will we officially present it to you.

[p align="start"]As things currently stand, the earliest it might release is in the second half of this year, alongside our next major update. The exact timing will still depend on how development and testing progress.

*Statement: We've used AI tools to redraw the game's existing loading screens as well as the portraits of the main companions. They now look significantly more polished, and you'll notice these clear, positive changes the moment you launch the game.

[p align="start"]We understand that many players may have concerns about AI being involved in game development. We promise to introduce AI into our production with great caution, and to remain transparent with all of you. We will only use AI to refine and polish our existing artwork, and we will never let AI take part in the "core creative work."

[p align="start"]We believe AI is an advanced tool, and the gains it brings in efficiency and quality are enormously helpful to a small independent team like ours, with players benefiting as well. At the same time, we firmly believe that the true soul of a game always lies in creativity, emotion, and the creator's self-expression. We will never abandon our original vision for the game just because we've adopted AI tools.

🏷️ Daily Deal -30% Off

Age of Reforging: The Freelands is 30% off as a Daily Deal!

⏰ Sale runs: July 24 - August 7, 10:00 AM (PST)

If you or your friends haven't yet set foot in the Freelands, now's the perfect time to start your adventure at the best price!

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If you encounter any issues or have any suggestions during testing, please don't hesitate to leave feedback in the Community Discussion (replies to this post) / Discord. Every piece of feedback you provide drives us forward!

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This announcement was written and published by the developers/publisher of Age of Reforging: The Freelands on Steam; it is mirrored here unedited for readability, with full credit and a link to the original above. © the respective rights holders. Rights holder and want it removed? Email us — we take it down promptly.