Dauntless Patch 1.5.5 notes bring private Hunting Grounds to the Shattered Isles

For a while now, Dauntless’ Hunting Grounds have been a place where intrepid hunters could step away from the usual progress to freeform patrol for Behemoths and grind up on materials for precious gear. However, it was an open thing and anyone could join in. After quite a bit of feedback and asking for an option to make the Hunting Grounds a bit more intimate, Phoenix Labs has delivered. Players can now run private Hunting Grounds trips as of the Dauntless Patch 1.5.5 notes. There’s also plenty more where that came from just below.

Dauntless Patch 1.5.5 notes

Dauntless Patch 1.5.5 was teased on March 9 and launched just recently on March 11 with accompanying notes. The topline of this latest update is a big change to the Hunting Grounds, allowing players to take their trips to this particular style of expedition private to their hunting party if they want. You can even go solo if you so desire. That’s not all though. Stability fixes on disconnections and quality-of-life improvements have also come to the game. You can catch the full patch notes below.

Private Hunting Grounds

Thanks to player feedback, you can now choose to start a private hunt on any Hunting Grounds island. A private hunt will allow only the Slayers in your current party onto the island, even if that’s just you. Get out there and face the Shattered Isles alone or with your closest friends!

Player Disconnect Fixes

We’ve implemented the second round of fixes to reduce player disconnects. Last patch we reduced disconnect rates by 75%, and this patch should improve this number even further. We will continue to improve performance across all platforms.

Quality of life

Gameplay

Player projectiles now pass through the ice wall from Urska weapons’ legendary ability.

Audio

Added another variation of the frost biome music. Entering a frost biome will randomly select one of the two variations.
Torgadoro, Agarus, Shrowd, and Urska’s mastery cards now play their Behemoth roar SFX when selected.

Added new quick chat options that let you call out your Frost Escalation avatar. Remember to call dibs!

Trials

Behemoth starting positions are now always fixed on the Island of Trials until players enter the arena.

Balance

War Pike

Reduced warm-up time on the war pike’s Concussive Payload animation.

Gameplay

Decreased Gruk-gruk damage by 50%.

Bug fixes

Performance

Improved performance in Escalation hunts across all platforms, especially Nintendo Switch.
Implemented the second round of fixes to reduce player disconnects.
Temporarily removed Koshai and Sporestruck Embermane shock visual effects to fix crashes on Nintendo Switch.
Fixed a crash on PC that occurred when opening the Slayer’s Path menu.
Fixed a crash on PC that occurred when interacting with the Middleman.
Reduced memory consumption across all platforms.

Gnasher

Deepfrost Gnashers are now the same size as Flameborn Gnashers. Deepfrost Gnashers will no longer feel insecure.
Deepfrost Gnashers’ shoulder slam moves now apply damage consistently.
Adjusted the area of effect for Deepfrost Gnasher slam attacks to more accurately sync with its animations.
Lesser Gnashers no longer have a “?” icon stuck on the compass during some encounters.

Gameplay

Urska weapons’ legendary ability no longer causes frost Behemoths to be chilled.
Teleport attacks, such as the Malkarion weapons’ legendary ability, will no longer cause a Behemoth to retreat and heal when hit.

Environment

Players will no longer get stuck floating in the air when jumping onto a ledge.
Fixed various cases of broken geometry collision across all Hunting Grounds.

The dye category for “Heroic Behemoths” has been renamed to “Behemoths” to better reflect that these dyes can come from non-heroic Behemoths.
It is now clearly communicated in the quest tracker if a current quest requires you to return to Ramsgate.
Quests that require players to slay a Behemoth multiple times will now display the proper objectives in the quest tracker.
If a party disbands in the Hunting Grounds, players will no longer see each other on their compasses.
Fixed a bug where the wrong message would display for players who were blocked from buying tonics due to not having the proper requirements.
Fixed a bug where the ironhide pylon had an incorrect text description.
You will once again see a popup screen when a weapon is reforged that shows its current level and the number of aetherhearts gained.
Fixed a bug where the quest “From the Embers” would highlight every weapon in the crafting screen, not just the Embermane weapons that satisfy the quest requirement.
Frost Escalations now properly count for quests “Escalation Game” and “The Apex Predator.”

Audio

Slayer’s Path nodes now make a sound when unlocked.
Combat music will not switch randomly while fighting more than one Behemoth in Escalation.

Ramsgate

Removed all traces of winter from Ramsgate, including Max’s reindeer horn. Until next year …
Added the proper Urska helmet to the forge’s armour display.
Replaced the Paladin of Vylmark chest piece at the forge’s armour display with the new version introduced in 1.5.3.
Increased the scale of the sigil on the Paladin’s Beacon fabric.
Reduced the interaction range for Arkan Drew and moved him further from the Lantern Attunement Device’s interaction range. No one puts Arkan in the corner … Except us.

We’ve spoken previously with Dauntless developer Phoenix Labs about its extensive roadmap of plans for the game. Be sure to check out that video if you missed it, but for the time being, enjoy private or public Hunting Grounds hunts at your leisure in Patch 1.5.5!