Bellwright Reveals First Major Content Update With Patch Notes

Bellwright's Forestry Update is the first batch of new content for the hit early-access game.

By Ricky Frech - May 27, 2024 05:49 pm EDT

2024 has been chock-full of big early-access survival games, including mega-hits like Palworld and Enshrouded. Fans of city builders also got some medieval flair when Manor Lords launched last month. Sitting in between those two is Bellwright, a medieval-themed survival game that launched into early access late last month. Since launch, Bellwright has received several small updates, ironing out various bugs and improving the base version of the survival game. However, today the developers at Donkey Crew finally dropped the first major content update, giving players access to forestry for the first time.

By using the new forestry building, Bellwright players can create a sustainable wood source, meaning they won't need to expand as deeply into the forest. The team has also added a new area called the Staging Ground where players can gather companions before setting out on a long journey. When you assign a companion to it, they'll automatically stock up on equipment, cutting down resource management. Donkey Crew has also added new Tier 3 buildings and several important gameplay updates.

Below, you'll find the full patch notes for the Forestry Update. Bellwright is available now on PC.

Bellwright Forestry Update Patch Notes

(Photo:
Screenshot of a windmill in the middle of a forest in Bellwright.
- Donkey Crew)

After a long month of improvements and bug fixes, Forestry Update – the first of many content updates for Bellwright is finally here!

Forestry introduces a building where you can grow saplings and use them to replant nearby forests, allowing your settlements to have a sustainable source of wood instead of having to create new outposts deeper and deeper into Karvenia.

Staging Ground is another exciting feature – a gathering place to prepare your companions before journeying further. Companions assigned to it will automatically stock up on food, equipment, and arrows from nearby storages, significantly improving resource management.

Tier 3 buildings received plenty of tweaks and improvements as well. Notably, an overhaul for Windmill and Bakery, with the goal of creating a simple and consistent source of food for all of your workers.

Bakery will now be able to feed every one of your villagers with higher bread output, while Windmill and Thresher will produce significantly more flour and grains. On the other hand, new dishes added to the Inn provide useful status effects for players and soldiers like increased experience gain and higher combat attributes.

Many remaining gameplay issues have also been addressed. For example, most weapons, armors, and some buildings like Drying Rack will no longer require villagers with professions to research them. It was a common complaint that equipment needed to fight the brigands was only unlockable after liberation.

We considered different options like making brigands easier to kill, but ultimately decided that removing profession requirements from some of them would solve the issue without changing the rest of the gameplay.

Additionally, food items that don't regrow including meat and cooked dishes had their spoilage times increased as many of you have suggested, and Villagers will finally be able to navigate properly around Tier 3 buildings, use ramps and walk on wooden platforms without issues.

Changelog

Updated after Preview Branch

Forester

Added Forester, where players and NPCs can grow saplings and replant forests.
Added Tree Seeds that drop when harvesting saplings and young trees, and can be bought from herbalists.

Staging Ground

Added Staging Ground, where players can assign their companions to it; they will stock up on food, equipment, and arrows from nearby storages and await further orders at its location.
Added food slider setting to squad menu to specify how much they should bring when commanded to Staging Ground.
Added Food Bag, allowing players and NPCs to store food in a separate container instead of the inventory.

Tier 3 Improvements

Overhauled Bakery gameplay loop to allow for consistent bread production that feeds the town, requiring larger wheat fields to support it.
Increased Bread output in Bakery from 1 to 8 per craft; all other recipes from 1 to 3.
Changed Grains recipe in Thresher to 10 Wheat -> 30 Grains, effectively keeping the same balance, but reducing the time it takes for NPCs to carry resources.
Increased Flour output in Windmill from 1 to 5 per craft.
Increased Grain requirement per flour from 3 to 6, effectively making the recipe 30 Grains -> 5 Flour.
Reduced Flour crafting time in Windmill from 5 min to 2.5 min.
Changed Windmill worker job category from Cooking to Crafting.
Changed Wheat category from Food Ration to Resource, so they don't store it in Food Cellar.
Changed Windmill to require a worker to reflect much higher crafting efficiency.
Fixed various floating decorations in the Windmill.

Added new unique recipes to Inn that have status effects useful for players.
Increased Warehouse storage volume from 2500 to 6500.
Increased Big House NPC capacity from 5 to 7.
Added 4 Foraging Racks to Foraging Lodge.
Moved Apiary from Tier 2 to Tier 3, as it can't be researched this early and honey has no use before Tier 3.
Increased Sage requirement in Honey from 3 to 5 to reflect the change in Apiary tiers.
Replaced Cured Rope with Rope in Coal Burner recipe to fix a Resin deadlock.
Removed smithing requirement when crafting at the Workshop to remove Iron Hammer deadlock.

Fixed NPCs getting stuck on or trying to walk under wooden platforms and ramps of Tier 3 buildings.
Fixed some NPC interactables in Tier 3 buildings not being accessible when a building is placed on extreme hills.
Fixed various issues with decorations in Tier 3 buildings; wrong collision set up and locations, resulting in flying or clipping.
Fixed fast travel in Town Hall spawning players on top of the roof.
Fixed Mashed Potatoes and Beetroot Jam not being possible to craft by players.
Fixed floating fences and flowers in Lodge.
Fixed Lumbermill being possible to be built partially inside hills.
Fixed Apiary map icon using meat.

Gameplay Improvements

Increased spoilage time for food that doesn't regrow; this includes meat, cooked dishes, and special raw food like Cloudberry.
Removed and adjusted NPC profession requirements for researching Tier 2 equipment in Toolmaker and Weaver Hut.
Changed metal helmets crafted in Weaver Hut to Toolmaker.
Added stock up command for companions to be available on any single stockpile similarly to Staging Ground; they will only stock up from that stockpile.
Made it possible to destroy saplings growing in forests by hitting them with a weapon.

Fixed book reading and other status effects sometimes get stuck when loading the game after sleeping.
Fixed Knowledge Book loot never dropping One Handed books; thank you to our modders for finding this issue.
Fixed Rabbit Traps sometimes not being accessible by Trappers.

Brigands Headquarters

Improved and extended the final quest after.
Added unique dialogues to Lord Ashbourne when.
Removed incorrect lines from Lord Ashbourne outside of dialogue.
Significantly improved NPC navigation in Headquarters, allowing for much smoother combat with big armies.
Blocked unfinished areas that aren't supposed to be accessible yet.
Fixed some wooden walkways and the balcony not being accessible by NPCs.
Fixed various other issues by spreading our or grouping closer together decorations.

Combat

Added new down block animation for two handed weapons.
Increased the size and duration of blood particles to make them more prominent.

User Interface

Added the word "Broken" to broken items when searching for deliveries and for storage management in stockpiles.
Added warnings to the Research Desk screen to show missing requirements for research.
Added new category to stockpile storage management for Knowledge Books, quest items, Old Coins, and animal trophies.
Improved various alignments and positions of various screens and menus.
Added words "Highest" and "Lowest" when selecting priorities to make it clearer.
Made clicking on Specify Amount in storage management enable the associated item if it was disabled.
Made disabling an item in a storage management also disable the associated amount rule.

Text and Localization

Updated all localization to new and changed text.
Improved and fixed Ukrainian, Polish, and Russian localizations.
Updated Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese localizations.

Fixed wrong spelling of Bradford in some posters.
Fixed wrong text being voiced by NPCs in some instances of dialogue.

Various Fixes

Fixed rare issue on save files in late progression that would load for 10 minutes or more.
Fixed crash when Rabbit Traps would get assigned to a settlement twice.
Fixed Communication Breakdown quest failing if you kill bandits without talking to them first.
Fixed working animations not playing for NPCs when using some Tier 2 buildings.
Fixed hidden containers on NPCs when bags are equipped and items are stored, but not visible; was previously fixed, but required reequipping the bags. Now it's fixed automatically
Fixed hidden containers on NPCs when bags are equipped and items are stored, but not visible. Previously required to reequip the bags, but is now automatic.
Fixed shooting corpses giving Archery experience and lowering trust on mutilating animal corpses.