Hello, Taernians!
We know you have a lot of questions about our plans and you’re eager to find out what 2025 will bring to Broken Ranks. As promised, we have an updated roadmap for you, which will give you an idea of the direction we’re heading in.
The infographic below will highlight the areas we intend to focus on this year.
Below, you’ll find a more detailed breakdown of the points from our plan.
Rage Bar
The percentage-based system in Broken Ranks sparks extreme emotions - some people love it, others hate it. We know it can be frustrating, so for a long time we’ve been thinking about how to turn that frustration into something positive. That’s how the idea for a feature initially called the “bad luck bar” was born.
How does it work? We want every unlucky situation in combat to generate a new resource that players can use to perform an additional action. What do we consider “unlucky situations”? Currently, these include:
- The player’s missed attacks,
- Attacks that hit the player despite having a low probability.
Of course, there will be a certain limit - not every failed action will be classified as “unlucky.” The worse your luck, the more points you generate, and the faster the bar fills up.
As for the additional actions, their final form hasn’t been approved yet, but we plan to introduce three new passive skills focused on three areas:
- Additional attacks – executed in a special turn.
- Enhanced defense – increasing the player’s defensive capabilities.
- Better rewards – increasing the value of loot after defeating an enemy team.
You’ll have access to all three skills during combat, and their strength will depend on how much they’re developed. We’ll reveal more details closer to the update date.
Act 4 – the continuation of the main storyline
A development of the plotlines unfolding in the occupied Thalia. You’ll have the chance to look straight into the heart of Utorian evil.
Challenge Arena
This is intended to be a new in-game mechanic aimed at providing a profitable challenge for every level range. Currently, Broken Ranks lacks a proper incentive to take risks and push the limits of defeating bosses - where coordinated teamwork and optimal use of a wide range of skills are key. Usually, the most profitable approach is mass-farming weaker enemies that pose little threat while guaranteeing steady gains. The birthday event in The Dive, which you already know, served as our prototype for this type of mechanic. We wanted to see if you’d enjoy this type of gameplay, and it turned out you did. Therefore, it’s time to implement it into the game permanently! We’d like this mode to appear periodically (probably every few days) and offer very attractive rewards.
Pet System Rework
Pets have remained one of the few mechanics in the game that have barely changed since the days of Taern. With the equipment rework and the introduction of higher skill levels, pets have fallen far behind player characters. Their functionality, available skills, strategies, and survivability in tougher instances have become increasingly inadequate as the game has evolved.
With the mobile version fast approaching, the time has come to finally revamp the pet system. The rework aims to:
- Restore pets' usefulness, especially in solo gameplay at higher levels,
- Expand character progression options,
- Make it easier to assemble a full party.
However, one key principle will always guide us: it should always be more beneficial to team up with another player than to rely on a pet.
Additionally, we’ll be testing ways to give players more control over their pets’ actions. Stay tuned!
New High-Level Boss and Zone
Our last top-tier boss, Sidraga, is about to celebrate its second anniversary. After such a long time, it's clear that it no longer poses a significant challenge for the most dedicated players. Despite the unwavering (and recently even growing!) interest in this instance, we’ve decided that it's high time to design new challenges for our strongest players.
For a while now, we've had plans for a large endgame zone located beyond Beirn. We’d like to introduce new enemies, bosses, quests, and fresh content for level 140+ (or maybe even higher! 😉). However, creating and implementing such an area is a massive undertaking that would take at least a year. On top of that, we're still working on expanding the midgame content in the Hvar Wastelands and developing the mobile version of the game.
That’s why, instead of building an entirely new, vast zone, we’ve decided to deliver high-level content more quickly. We will create a single boss that will be a real challenge for the strongest characters on the server. However, rather than adding it to an existing location, this boss will have its own dedicated instance in a brand-new, unique zone near Beirn (yes, that means no more snow! 😀). We've already finished the brainstorming phase, and we’re getting more and more excited about this project!
Additionally, alongside the boss, we want to introduce a new mechanic that will affect character power progression. Our goal is to ensure that you feel a real sense of growth for your heroes, as that’s one of the most satisfying aspects of our game. This way, we’ll be able to continue working on future content while keeping you engaged - after all, having a new goal to strive for is what keeps the game exciting!
That being said, this is just a tentative plan, which may - and likely will - change over time. We've mentioned before that our idea drawer is always overflowing… 😉 Plus, you all keep providing us with fantastic suggestions, and not every game is lucky enough to have such an engaged community. That’s why we’re leaving some flexibility in case we decide to implement ideas that aren’t currently on our radar.
If anything changes, we’ll update the plan so you can stay in the loop about everything that’s happening.
And what about the mobile version?
You’ve been regularly asking about it, so we’ve decided to get back to you soon with some updates. In February, we’ll publish a separate update plan specifically for the mobile version. Before anyone gets too excited - we won’t be announcing a release date just yet, but we will share our next steps in the development process.
Thank you for being with us, and see you on the trail!
