Embers Adrift has a new update out for November 2026. Standard Gaming says it wanted to release some queued fixes sooner rather than later, but the patch goes further than that. Bulletin boards now track completed tasks, combat hit reactions have been reworked, UI windows stay where players put them, and frame rates should improve slightly.
Bulletin boards and combat feel
Bulletin boards now remember which tasks each character has completed, even after logging out or changing zones. Until now, that history reset whenever players left a zone, so the same task could come up again and again while others never appeared. With this update, a board won’t offer a task that has already been turned in until every other eligible task of that type on that board has been done. After that, the board starts over with the full list.
Hit reactions also work differently. They used to be all-or-nothing, but now how much a creature flinches depends on the hit:
- Critical strikes trigger the full reaction.
- Heavy hits and abilities land harder than auto attacks.
- Glancing blows and damage over time cause lighter reactions.
- Each reaction plays at a slightly different speed, so repeated hits don’t look identical.
A player’s own attacks will now always get a reaction from the target. Reactions to other group members’ hits are still spaced out, so a creature fighting a full party won’t flinch nonstop. The developers call this one step toward making combat feel weightier and plan to keep working on it.
Interface, performance and fixes
Movable windows now save their position relative to the nearest screen edge or corner instead of a fixed distance from the center. Windows should stay put when players change UI scale, resolution or window size, rather than drifting or ending up off-screen. Existing layouts convert automatically on first login, and Reset Position still sends a window back to its default spot.
On the performance side, the interface does less work for windows and nameplates that aren’t visible. The sky’s ambient lighting and reflections now update a few times per second instead of every frame. Vegetation draw lists are prepared more efficiently, and grass effects around distant resource nodes stay off until players get close. On macOS, a Steam status check that ran every frame and occasionally caused stutters has been fixed. Players limited by their CPU can expect a modest gain of a few percent, and more optimization is on the way.
The update also includes these smaller changes and fixes:
- A new High Resolution Night Sky option that sharpens the star map at the cost of extra VRAM.
- More descriptions for settings throughout the options menu.
- Fixed rock LOD popping in Grizzled Peaks.
- The self icon panel now collapses again once enough buffs and debuffs wear off.
- Zone line visual effects show up again.
- Players who time out no longer appear online to friends and guildmates until they log back in.
- Fixed an error when leveling a crafting profession with a bank-material recipe selected. The crafting window now also refreshes when items move in or out of the personal bank, so material counts stay accurate.
Source: Embers Adrift official news.
