It’s been a year since we launched Aground in Early Access, and we’ve come a long way. A year ago, the science path ended when you crafted your first fighter escort, and the magic path ended after the fight with the Old One.

Since then, we’ve added spacefaring and end game science path quests and items. And with the update we released today - 1.8.0 - we’ve finally finished end tier magic path quests and items. The journey isn't over yet, but we’ve come a long way and the end is in sight.

The Full Launch is still on schedule for early next year alongside the console ports. Between now and then we’ll be working on:

• Endings - Right now, you beat the final boss and it rolls to credits, and if you continue your game nothing changes. This update will have the aftermath, conclusion, resolution and some post game content (along with editing all the NPC dialogue).
• Backer Planets & Characters - There are 2 side-quest planets and some NPCs designed by kickstarter backers that will be added to the game. These planets will be available to all players.
• Quality of Life Update - There’s a growing list of suggested improvements, tweaks and minor changes that we want to do before the full launch.
• Co-op Multiplayer - Play with your friends & work together to complete quests (no PvP by default, but if you’re okay with cheating and broken mods, you can enable it)!
• Console Ports - Aground will be released on the Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch, and XBox One.
• Translations - We will be translating Aground to several languages for the full launch, once the dialogue/text is more or less finalized.

And of course, the full launch isn’t necessarily the end! We have many ideas for post-launch updates, including the Hybrid/Combined Path!


Update 1.8.0 Includes the Following:

• Added New NPCs - And the quests necessary for you to reach the final boss on the magic path.
• Added Spirit World - A strange new place where the elemental spirits come from.  
• Added Mars - Why is Mars a new planet for the magic path? Only one way to find out!
• Book of Translation - A new spellbook that lets you talk with dragon ships, steal their secrets (and ships) to use against them!
• Tier 3 Spellbooks - You can now cast meteors like shown in this sneak peek gif:
  
• Added new enemies.
• Added endgame magic path equipment.
• Added new spaceships and vehicles.
• Many new cutscenes and the story up to (but not including) the magic path ending.
• Living vehicles can now have their modifier changed at the vine copse.
• There is now a coral farm that you get at the same place as the coral pen that can harvest all wyrm pens and coral pens.
• Added new SFX.
• Familiar efficiency now boosts the farming speed of that familiar when in pens.
• The book of shielding now costs less stamina the higher your spellcasting stat, and blocks all attacks (including spirit attacks).
• Many bug-fixes, tweaks and minor changes!

Thank you for supporting us throughout this year in Early Access, and I hope you’re looking forward to all the future updates, the full launch, and beyond!

Enjoy, and as always, don’t be shy if you have any questions or feedback - we are always happy to hear from our players. And don’t forget to join the social channels below if you haven’t already:

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