Embers Adrift’s July Patch Focuses on Performance, With Extra Scorpions in Grimstone Canyon

Embers Adrift’s July monthly patch is another quieter one for new content, but Stormhaven Studios is using it to clean up performance and prep the MMO for larger roadmap additions still in the works.

The update adds more Stoneclaw Scorpion spawns to Grimstone Canyon, along with additional Stonecoat Extractors, Menders, and Seekers. King’s Potions now include +Mental damage, and several item text issues have been removed or fixed. The full notes are available in the Steam post.

Most of the patch is technical. Stormhaven says it has adjusted vegetation rendering, lowered grass mesh complexity, reduced grass density, removed obsolete shaders, and changed long-distance tree imposters to use instanced batching. Shadow rendering is also now tied more directly to quality settings, which should help reduce GPU strain, especially on lower-end setups.

The team has also upgraded the game to the latest Unity subversion, bringing along related bug fixes and performance work. Other changes include improved visual stability for some props when using dynamic resolution options and adjusted visuals for Halt VFX. Stormhaven is asking players to report any remaining shimmering prop issues.

More optimization work is planned for the coming weeks. The studio is also still working on roadmap features such as guild banks and water-based activities, though this patch is mostly about smoothing out the foundation rather than adding a big new feature drop.