Runic instruments can now be crafted using a runic dovetail saw :)

The Faction Siege Warfare patch is now live. We will be scheduling the first siege event in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, faction players can begin preparing by harvesting resources to build siege equipment.

Faction players can now mine catapult rocks inside the Faction Dungeon. These rocks can be loaded into catapults and fired at opposing faction players, siege equipment, and protection towers.

GM Alchemists can apply Greater Poison Potions to catapult rocks to create Poison Rocks. These deal initial damage and release poison that affects surrounding players. GM Alchemists can also apply Greater Explosion Potions to create Explosive Rocks, which leave puddles of fire on impact.

Players can now kill pigs and harvest their corpses. These can be fired from catapults. On impact, they cause affected players to start vomiting and the effect is contagious.

Siege bolts can be looted from monsters inside the Faction Dungeon. These bolts are required to craft siege weapons such as battering rams and catapults.

A new boss has been added to the Faction Dungeon. It drops a Magic Scroll that opens a cache filled with siege bolts, as well as Faction Bless Deeds.

Faction bases now have several ballistas installed. These can be used to shoot at battering rams that are attacking the gate.

Ladders have been installed in faction bases. These provide an additional way to enter and exit the base, allowing players to avoid using the main gate during a siege.

Players can craft Battering Ram Kits. These kits can be used at the siege mechanic inside your faction base to purchase a battering ram. Battering rams are used during sieges to smash open the opposing faction’s siege gate and gain entry into their base.

Important note: Battering rams can only take damage from ballistas, catapults, and player weapons. Magic spells and pets cannot damage them.

When a siege event begins, one faction will act as the Defenders while the other faction or factions will be the Attackers. The defending base will have a force field protecting the siege gates, generated by a Protection Tower.

To breach the gate, attackers must destroy the force field by firing catapult rocks at the Protection Tower and destroying it. Once the force field is down, they can use the battering ram to smash open the siege gate.

Defenders can use Siege Repair Tools on the Protection Tower to keep the force field active. All faction players can use the same Siege Repair Tools to repair catapults, ballistas, and battering rams. Defenders can also use the installed ballistas to attack and damage incoming battering rams.

Mages can summon Water Elementals to extinguish fire puddles, which is very useful when trying to repair the Protection Tower. Up to 5 defenders can brace the siege gate at once. This significantly reduces the damage taken from the battering ram.

Recipes for faction bombs can be found in siege warfare rewards and faction pillar rewards. These bombs can be crafted and thrown at enemy siege weapons to inflict damage.

Special items can also be obtained from Siege Warfare rewards and Faction Pillar rewards, including talismans that reduce catapult reload time and a drum that increases the battering ram’s damage output when played.

If the attacking faction breaches the gate and enters the base, they must locate the Faction Chest. It takes 60 seconds to open the chest. Inside is a Key that functions similarly to a sigil. The carrier of the key cannot fast travel and is visible on the minimap. If the key carrier is killed, the key is automatically transferred to the killer.

The first faction to secure the key and return it to their faction’s Siege Warfare Stone wins the event and receives a chest full of loot. This includes the defending faction if they win.

The event lasts 1 hour. If the defenders successfully keep the attackers out for the full hour, they can open the chest inside their own base to claim victory and receive bonus loot for a successful defense.

The Faction Siege Warfare patch is now live. We will be scheduling the first siege event in the coming weeks. In the meantime, faction players can begin preparing by harvesting resources to build siege equipment. Preparing for the Siege

Catapult Rocks: Faction players can now mine catapult rocks inside the Faction Dungeon. These rocks can be loaded into catapults and fired at opposing faction players, siege equipment, and protection towers. Enhanced Rocks: GM Alchemists can apply Greater Poison Potions to catapult rocks to create Poison Rocks. These deal initial damage and release poison that affects surrounding players. GM Alchemists can also apply Greater Explosion Potions to create Explosive Rocks, which leave puddles of fire on impact.

Pig Corpses: Players can now kill pigs and harvest their corpses. These can be fired from catapults. On impact, they cause affected players to start vomiting — the effect is contagious. Siege Bolts: Siege bolts can be looted from monsters inside the Faction Dungeon. These bolts are required to craft siege weapons such as battering rams and catapults. A new boss has been added to the Faction Dungeon. It drops a Magic Scroll that opens a cache filled with siege bolts, as well as Faction Bless Deeds.

Faction Bases & Siege Equipment

Faction bases now have several ballistas installed. These can be used to shoot at battering rams that are attacking the gate. Players can craft Battering Ram Kits. These kits can be used at the siege mechanic inside your faction base to purchase a battering ram. Battering rams are used during sieges to smash open the opposing faction’s siege gate and gain entry into their base.

Important Note on Battering Rams: Battering rams can only take damage from ballistas, catapults, and player weapons. Magic spells and pets cannot damage them. How a Siege Event Works When a siege event begins:

One faction will act as the Defenders, while the other faction(s) will be the Attackers. The defending base will have a force field protecting the siege gates, generated by a Protection Tower.

To breach the gate, attackers must:

Destroy the force field by firing catapult rocks at the Protection Tower and destroying it. Once the force field is down, use the battering ram to smash open the siege gate.

Defenders can:

Use Siege Repair Tools on the Protection Tower to keep the force field active. All faction players can use the same Siege Repair Tools to repair catapults, ballistas, and battering rams. Use the installed ballistas to attack and damage incoming battering rams.

Additional Mechanics:

Mages can summon Water Elementals to extinguish fire puddles — very useful when trying to repair the Protection Tower. Up to 5 defenders can brace the siege gate at once. This significantly reduces the damage taken from the battering ram.

New Items & Rewards

Faction Bombs: Recipes for faction bombs can be found in siege warfare rewards and faction pillar rewards. These bombs can be crafted and thrown at enemy siege weapons to inflict damage. Special items can also be obtained from Siege Warfare rewards and Faction Pillar rewards, including: Talismans that reduce catapult reload time. A drum that increases the battering ram’s damage output when played.

Winning the Siege If the attacking faction breaches the gate and enters the base, they must locate the Faction Chest.

It takes 60 seconds to open the chest. Inside is a Key (functions similarly to a sigil). The carrier of the key cannot fast travel and is visible on the minimap. If the key carrier is killed, the key is automatically transferred to the killer.

The first faction to secure the key and return it to their faction’s Siege Warfare Stone wins the event and receives a chest full of loot (this includes the defending faction). The event lasts 1 hour.

If the defenders successfully keep the attackers out for the full hour, they can open the chest inside their own base to claim victory and receive bonus loot for a successful defense.

Calling all testers! Help us test the new Resource Map system on Test Center We’ve just added a brand new feature to Test Center: Resource Maps! These special maps will guide you to hidden resource camps full of ore, lumber, or leather across Britannia. We need your help to thoroughly test them before they go live. How to participate:

Log into the Test Center Grab some Resource Maps (they’ve been added to vendors and loot for easy testing) Bring a spyglass and the correct harvesting tool (pickaxe, hatchet, or skinning knife) (Also on the vendor) Follow the guide below to locate and harvest the resource camps

You can find the full Ultima Resource Map Guide in the testing thread. Please use this link for testing feedback and discussion: https://discord.com/channels/369023244038045697/1487976682592800808/1487977711522549822

We’re especially looking for feedback on:

How well the maps guide you to the correct locations Clarity of the map messages Balance of resource quality and quantity Any bugs or confusing steps

Thanks in advance for helping make this system better! Your testing makes a real difference. See you in Britannia!

Have you been looking to spar with your friends safely? Want to practice your combat skills without destroying your best weapons or accidentally slaying your sparring partner? We've added four new Training Weapons to help you hone your skills!

• Training Sword (Crafted via GM Blacksmithy under Swords)
• Training Kryss (Crafted via GM Blacksmithy under Fencing)
• Training Mace (Crafted via GM Carpentry under Maces)
• Training Bow (Crafted via GM Fletching under Bows)

Features:

• Harmless: All training weapons are hard-capped to deal exactly 1 damage, allowing you to continuously hit your target without killing them.
• Fast: They all swing at the fastest possible weapon speed (56), ensuring you get the maximum amount of skill gain attempts per minute!
• Durable: Built to last, they feature a high base durability (70-100) so they won't break easily during long sparring sessions.
• Always Exceptional: These weapons are crafted with care and will always be Exceptional quality.

Crafting Requirements:

• Because they are specialized tools, they require a Grandmaster (100) Crafter to create.

• Resource Cost:

• Training Sword & Kryss: 15 Verite Ingots & 15 Iron Ingots

• Training Mace & Bow: 15 Frostwood Boards & 15 Boards

(Note: The Training Bow still requires arrows to fire, just like a normal bow!)

We have deployed a hotfix to address an unintended mechanical issue regarding the Unwavering Stance ability.

Bug Fix:

• Infinite Stat Scaling Fix: Addressed a critical bug where Unwavering Stance modifiers (such as Bastion Bonus, Threat Generation, and Damage Reduction) were permanently stacking on characters when their stance dropped or expired. Instead of safely resetting to base values, the bonuses were unintentionally compounding over time. We have corrected the math behind the scenes so these buffs properly drop off when the stance ends.

Developer Note: We understand that some players may notice a significant drop in their overall tanking stats and survivability after this update. Please know that the previous behavior of infinitely growing, permanent stats was entirely unintended and a bug.

This fix is necessary for the long-term health of the game and ensures that Unwavering Stance functions exactly as its tooltip and design describe, returning encounters back to their intended difficulty.

Attention all faction players! As part of the upcoming Factions Siege Warfare patch, we've pre-released faction mining inside the faction dungeon!

Faction Miners with 80+ skill can now harvest catapult rocks — stockpile them now and be ready for your first siege event! Mining has a chance to spawn Rock Giants, which drop both faction coins and additional catapult rocks. The dungeon now features a new boss: the Ancient Wyrm. Defeating this powerful foe grants a magic scroll that unlocks the weapon cache inside the dungeon. The weapon cache contains essential parts needed to craft siege weapons!

Stay tuned for more siege-related updates coming soon. Make sure your faction characters are trained up and ready for battle!

The Herding skill has been completely transformed! We’ve replaced the manual "Aggression" power with a persistent passive system that empowers your pets just by having the right tools in hand.

🐾 Passive Herding System Players no longer need to manually activate abilities to buff their pets. Instead, your pets are empowered automatically whenever you have a Shepherd's Crook equipped.

• Persistent Empowerment: Simply equipping a crook grants your pets (Tamed, Summoned, Necromancy, and Mage-Summons) significant combat bonuses.
• Bonus Damage: Pets gain up to +35% bonus damage based on your Herding skill.
• Movement Speed: Pets gain up to +20% movement speed, allowing them to keep up with you and their targets much more effectively.
• Visual Indicator: A new Herding Bonus icon will appear in your buff bar whenever your crook is providing these benefits.

📈 Skill Progression

• Passive Gains: We’ve removed the need to "grind" herding manually. You will now gain Herding skill naturally as your pets fight in combat, provided you have a crook equipped.
• Consistent Growth: Skill gain checks occur periodically during active combat, ensuring a steadier path to Grandmaster level.

🛠️ Equipment & Manuals

• Lowered Requirements: The Crook now requires only 40 Herding to use (down from 60), making it accessible much earlier in your journey.
• Veterinary Manuals: Existing traits that previously improved the old "Aggression" skill have been automatically updated to enhance your new passive bonuses:
  • Increased Aggression Damage now increases your Passive Herding Damage.
  • Increased Aggression Duration now increases your pets' Movement Speed bonus.

We are pleased to announce the launch of the new Bounty Hunter Distress System. This feature provides innocent players with a reliable way to call for help when under attack by murderers.

Innocent players who are being attacked can summon assistance in one of two ways. They can use a Conch Shell of Distress, which is available for purchase from the Bounty Hunter Guildmaster in Britain Castle. This option is specifically for players who do not have an active Lord's Boon — you cannot use a Conch Shell if you currently have a Lord's Boon. Alternatively, players can switch their Boon to Distress Call mode. Switching to Distress Call mode prevents the use of Lord's Boon for the next 24 hours.

When a distress call is placed, eligible Bounty Hunters receive a dialog prompt asking if they wish to respond. If a hunter accepts, they teleport to the victim's location after a brief 5-second delay. If the Bounty Hunter successfully defeats the murderer or murderers and turns in their head or heads to the guild, the victim who placed the call automatically receives 20% of the bounty reward as a token of appreciation.

If no local Bounty Hunters are available and the player used their Boon to make the call, the system falls back to the standard Lord's Boon teleport — assuming the player has a bound location set.

To maintain balance, Bounty Hunters have a 10-minute cooldown between accepting summons, while victims have a 5-minute cooldown between placing distress calls.

• Distress Kill Points

To further reward participation, we've introduced the Distress Kill Points mechanic.

Bounty Hunters earn 1 Distress Kill Point each time they successfully respond to a distress call and turn in a murderer's head to the guild. These points acknowledge their vital role in protecting the innocent and upholding justice.

On the flip side, if a murderer kills a Bounty Hunter who has accumulated points, the murderer steals 1 point from the hunter's total. This adds meaningful risk and consequence for both sides, promoting skilled and strategic gameplay.

Players can check their current Distress Kill Point balance at any time by speaking with the Bounty Hunter NPC in Britain Castle.

These points will soon unlock access to exclusive items and rewards available only through the Bounty Hunters Guild and the PK Gear NPC. Stay tuned for more details on what you can purchase as the system continues to expand.

The Bounty Hunters Guild welcomes new members. If you're interested in protecting the innocent, earning rewards for taking down murderers, and building your point total for unique gear, head to the Guildmaster in Britain Castle to join today.

To make high-end gear more sustainable, we've implemented a hard cap of 50,000 gold on all item insurance fees! Even the most powerful runic slayers will no longer bankrupt you when you need to protect them. Existing insurance costs remain as-is, but will never exceed this new 50k limit.

Our blacksmiths and tacticians have been hard at work refining the techniques of physical combat. Today, we are excited to announce a significant update that brings new depth and power to your arsenal, specifically through the Arms Lore skill.

Whether you favor a heavy war hammer, a swift short spear, or a trusty longbow, your knowledge of weaponry is about to become more lethal than ever.

🛡️ The Power of Arms Lore (PvE) Understanding the weaknesses of your foes and the strengths of your steel now grants tangible benefits in battle against the creatures of the world. At 100 Arms Lore, you will now benefit from:

Precision Striking: A permanent +5% Accuracy bonus against all monsters. Devastating Power: A +5% General Damage bonus on every successful hit. Specialist's Edge: An additional +10% Damage bonus applied specifically to Special Attacks. When combined, your special moves and critical hits will deal approximately 15.5% more damage to monsters than a combatant with no knowledge of Arms Lore.

We’ve recently implemented a series of updates to how gear wears down and how repairs work. Our goal is to create a more dynamic world where high-end equipment remains valuable, but eventually needs replacement, keeping our crafters busy and our materials in high demand.

⚔️ Combat Wear (PvE) We’ve increased the rate at which your weapons and armor wear down while fighting monsters. Weapons: Now have a higher chance of losing durability per hit when fighting creatures. Armor & Shields: Now take increased durability loss per hit in PvE.

🛠️ The New Repair System Repairs have been moved to a percentage-based system. Instead of losing a fixed amount per repair, your item’s maximum durability will now decrease by a percentage of its current total.

The Crafting Advantage: High-level expertise matters more than ever. A Grandmaster (GM) crafter will incur a minimal penalty to your item's lifespan, while unskilled repairs will cause a much more significant reduction. Repair Deeds: Deeds still work, but they carry a slightly greater penalty to the item's maximum durability compared to a direct repair from a live player.

💰 Why These Changes? (The Economy) This update is a major boost for the game's economy:

Steady Demand: High-end "Vanquishing" and "Invulnerability" gear now has a finite lifespan. This means players will always be looking to trade for or craft new top-tier equipment. Value for Crafters: Because skill level drastically reduces the repair penalty, high-level Blacksmiths and Carpenters are now more essential than ever. Keeping your gear in the hands of a GM is the only way to maximize its lifespan. Materials Cycle: As gear is retired and replaced, raw materials like Valorite, Verite, and Agapite will maintain their value and importance on the market.

New Changes

• The new update for Tinkerers' clockwork golems is now live!! Blacksmiths can now craft the items that Tinkerers need to build the golems. Tinkerers can also purchase power crystals for the golems directly from Tinkerer vendors. If you are currently logged in at the time of this news, you may have to relog to see the new assets.

Changes

• Players can now purchase a magic hammer from the blacksmith vendor. When this hammer is used to craft weapons on the anvils at the Britain blacksmith, you will get a bonus to crafting a slayer weapon.

• The miniboss Talornia has had its assets and abilities updated.

• Bounty hunters and thief hunters will now be kicked from the guild if they acquire a single murder count and will be unable to rejoin for 7 days.

• The meditation skill now works based of your skills percentage, eg: With 50 meditation skill your meditation will work 50% of the time and 100 skill 100% of the time.

• Reduced the spawn rate of Paragons

• Increased the drop rate of Puzzle Boxes from Paragons

• Implemented a fix for PvE resource/item stealing from Paragons (please provide feedback on whether this issue has been resolved)

• Ocllo: Added a camp of orcish scouts not far from the town

• Ocllo: Added an alligator spawn for tamers

• Added a Thunderstrike pet bonding deed to the Bounty Hunter Guildmaster in Britain Castle.

• The Spider Queen now spawns inside a nest/cocoon; players must blow it open with exploding barrels before they can fight her.

• Ranger Shadow Cloaks can now be blessed.

• Another new and challenging quest for young players in Ocllo: The Eight Seers [https://wiki.shardsofbritannia.com/en/ocllo-quest-seers]

• Ocllo has gained a new quest for new players that encourages them to travel to and from Britain. It rewards the player with a tame horse.

• A magic fountain has also been added in Occlo for young players. They can use it once to receive a free welcome gift.

• The Spider Queen has gained a deadly new ability—she can ignite clusters of explosive barrels to devastating effect. Her defeat now yields far greater rewards! A cunning master of explosives, she uses barrels to protect her lair. Search her remains for abundant materials to craft your own explosive barrels.

• Added a new deco item to the Valorite Cotton Vendor.

• Updated the loot in the magic chests.

• The exploding wells event has been enhanced with new loot, MOBs and effects.

• Player-crafted shields can now be dyed with enamel dye.

• Vendor search stones have been added to all towns, including Buccaneer's Den.

• The bounty hunter's shoulder crow effect when teleporting has been changed to ravens flying. -Rare seeds have been added to tentacle plant loot. -Crafting chance for explosive barrels has been increased to 100%. -The magic water fountain is now permanently located at Brit bank.

• See last month's changes here: https://shardsofbritannia.com/news/changelog-for-january-2026

Newest Changes

• Bounty hunters now receive notifications from Dread Ravens automatically whenever a PK logs into the world.

Changes

• Fixed a bug where crossing bright-colored plants did not produce the correct hybrid colors (e.g., bright yellow × bright blue = green). Note: if you want bright colors, you need to cross two plants of the same normal color (e.g., green × green = bright green).
• Fixed the visual asset of the hexagon fishtank (this fix will require a new version of loudeco, which might take a couple of days).
• Generation 4 plant growth time has been reduced to 7 days (from 10 days). Applies only to newly planted seeds.
• Extended season system with a recovery mechanism for unclaimed rewards from prior seasons
• Fixed issues with Mark spell sometimes not resulting in a cursor target due to auto-target being enabled
• See last month's changes here: https://shardsofbritannia.com/news/changelog-for-december-2025

The louui custom asset bundle is being updated today. This update adds more dynamic window textures or graphics for GUIs, for future updates. Once the update becomes available, your client will automatically download the latest bundle the next time you log in to a character. Please keep this in mind as it may delay your login by a minute or two while the download completes.

Season 7 has officially started! We know some of you were caught off guard by the transition and didn't get a chance to claim your Season 6 rewards. No worries – we're making some improvements to prevent this from happening again.

What's New:

• Season Countdown Timer – A new countdown display in the Challenge System window shows exactly how much time remains in the current season, so you'll never miss the deadline again.
• Grace Period – Starting today, players with unclaimed rewards get 7 days after each season ends to claim them. Your prior season rewards will remain available during this grace period.
• Note: these changes will be available after the daily restart on Jan 2nd at 9am UTC

Season 7 Reward Additions:

• Shadow Leather Equipment – New armor pieces and shields
• Dragon Dyes – Swamp, ice, and fire variants for your pets
• Decorative Items – New birdcages, masks, and fishtanks
• Rare Plant Seeds – Banana plant, carnivorous plant, dragon tree, and more

For Season 6 Players: If you had unclaimed Season 6 rewards, a hotfix will deploy later today. After tomorrow's daily restart (Jan 2nd @ 9am UTC), log in and your Season 6 progress will be automatically restored – just open your Challenge System window and claim your rewards!

Santa has made his escape from Frostfang's Cave! Unfortunately, behind him, the cave has crumbled and become inaccessible. Santa is now parked at his workshop and will be trading for candy for the rest of the holiday season! He will be working on responding to the letters you all wrote him. Thanks for participating!

UPDATE: Santa has sent replies to all of the letters you sent him and for those who sent letters, you can expect to see a wrapped gift box in your bank box with a handwritten note directly from Santa!

We've deployed a minor update to the Shards of Britannia Launcher. Please make sure to close the launcher entirely (check next to the clock, in the system tray, for a SOB Launcher icon, right click it and choose Exit) and re-open it to receive the updates. This will ensure you have the latest update.

UPDATE on CDN Issue: We've been informed that the Brail CDN server has been updated now and you should be able to load the game like normal.

⚠️KNOWN ISSUE: Some users in certain regions are experiencing stale cache issues with our CDN provider, causing their SoB launcher to downgrade each time they try to upgrade it to the latest version. This issue is causing a mismatch with the game when loging in and it will cause a popup warning before ejecting you from the game. We're investigating and hope to have it resolved as quickly as possible. We're very sorry for the inconvenience and we appreciate your patience through the rough patches!

Looking For Group (LFG) System

Finding other players for activities just got easier! The new LFG system lets you create and browse group listings for dungeons, boss hunts, PvP, treasure hunting, crafting, quests, and more.

How to Use:

• Type /lfg to open the LFG window
• Browse active groups or create your own listing
• Set your group size (2-40 players), activity type, and optional scheduled time
• Choose between Open (instant join) or Approval Required (you review requests)
• Use /lfg followed by a message to chat with other LFG users

Key Features:

• Timezone support: Set your timezone in Settings to see scheduled times in your local time
• DST automatically applied for supported timezones
• Staff events are marked as Featured and last up to 7 days
• Regular listings expire after 12 hours to keep the list fresh
• LFG chat channel connects you with other players looking for groups

Discord Integration: (coming soon)

• LFG chat messages are now relayed to Discord and vice versa
• Stay connected with the community even when not in-game

Guidelines:

• You can create up to 3 active listings at a time
• 10 minute cooldown between creating new listings
• Your listing automatically closes when the group reaches maximum size or expires after 12 hours
• Staff events are identified with a special Featured marker

Journal Updates

The Journal has received an update with improved logging reliability and expanded action tracking throughout the game.

Accessing the Item Log

• Right-click on your character to access the Item Log option
• or use your Journal hotkey to open the full Journal interface and click the Item Log button

New Item Log Tab

• Tracks your item activity: pickups, drops, looting, equipping, crafting, purchasing, trading, and more
• Shows where items came from and where they went (your backpack, a container, a corpse, or the ground)
• Click any entry to open a detail view with more information about the item and its history

New Controls & Settings

• Added a Recent Items button to quickly view recent item activity with options to locate or pick up items
• Added a Filters button to toggle which log categories are shown (Combat, System, Item, Chat)
• Added Window Width setting (small, medium, large) to adjust the Journal's width alongside the existing height option

Display Improvements

• Journal text now wraps properly when entries exceed the visible area
• Timestamps now display in 12-hour format with AM/PM