Embers Adrift Adds Its First Raid and Underwater Diving in Forgotten Depths III

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Embers Adrift is celebrating its fourth anniversary with Forgotten Depths: Phase III, a major update that opens the deepest section of the Depths and adds two big firsts for the MMORPG: a raid challenge and underwater diving.

The new area is aimed at level 40+ players and wraps up the Forgotten Depths storyline that began with Phase I and Phase II back in 2023. At the bottom of the zone is a level 50 raid challenge built for more than one group, with a new lockout system that prevents a character from entering again for three days after a successful clear.

  • The deepest part of the Forgotten Depths is now playable, including flooded areas and a new creature type called the Aq’li.
  • Diving lets players swim freely underwater in the new lower-depths area, with underwater movement, breathing, audio, visuals, and suffocation if you stay down too long.
  • Underwater controls include holding jump to rise, crouch to sink, and steering with the camera while holding right mouse.
  • A new 3D navigation system allows creatures to move through open water, alongside rebuilt movement tech for land and water enemies.
  • The update also adds a filmic tone-mapping option, enabled by default, plus an optional Fog Light Scattering setting that is off by default due to GPU cost.

There are some practical quality-of-life changes too. The ember ring exit countdown has been cut from 10 seconds to 5, the “sheathe weapons after combat” slider is back, and the action bar now has an XP tooltip showing current and rested XP. Players can also toggle whether Escape closes locked windows.

On the crafting side, a third profession no longer costs 10 silver, and every crafting profession now has new Utility Slot recipes. The patch also includes performance work around NPC and zone hibernation, humanoid generation, equipment swaps, async loading, and VRAM usage.

Stormhaven Studios says the update fixes several challenge and combat issues, including Ant Hills, Bear Burrows, and Rat Nests keeping players stuck in combat. Players who disconnect or zone during a pending loot roll will now automatically pass, which should cut down on broken rolls.