From Stunlock Studios comes the latest update to their Early Access title V Rising, a vampire survival game featuring PvE and PvP action in the same realms. The update, titled Secrets of Gloomrot, adds new regions for high-level vampires, changes many of the mechanics to make it more player-friendly in public servers, and allows for a new building system featuring levels and new territory features.

V Rising is a survival crafting game similar in genre to games like Rust, Minecraft, or Sons of the Forest, but played in the top-down style of Diablo. The goal is to grow your territory, build up your castle, and make pets of the local human population as you grow in power and strength either solo or in multiplayer servers. These servers can play with PvP between teams or be PvE only, but the official servers wipe every few months as a reset in progress negates potential brutal snowballing by clans. Part of the fun is being a powerful vampire that grows more powerful as they drink special blood and coerce servants to do their bidding, and this update only adds and improves the already stellar gameplay loop.

Some of the largest changes include a new region called Gloomrot, a plethora of new enemies and abilities to fight them with, and the aforementioned level features for castles. Building up instead of out allows epic towers and large castles, instead of sprawling single-story complexes. Updates to various UI elements will also allow easier understanding of various features in the game, and finding bosses aka V Blood to fight for new abilities has gotten easier with a new menu as opposed to a specific building. Tooltip layouts have also been improved to focus on better readability, and various changes to quests and combat have made for a more seamless and approachable start to gameplay. The V Rising world has also improved, with new territories in familiar regions and unique trading hubs.

While there is a lot listed here, that is merely scratching the surface of this voluminous patch. Find the full patch notes here, and check out V Rising on Steam Early Access now. Watch the update’s launch trailer below and let us know your thoughts in the comments!