Dauntless Is Leaving Early Access This Month

Dauntless is finally leaving its early access version behind for the full, official launch of the game this month, developer Phoenix Labs announced on Thursday. The monster-hunting game where players go after massive beasts called Behemoths has been available on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC platforms Dauntless will be playable on its 1.0 version starting on September 26th. With that release comes a new “Aether Unbound” expansion that’ll introduce another Behemoth to fight and more new features.

Phoenix Labs announced the release of Aether Unbound and the departure from early access with a trailer on Thursday alongside a letter from CEO Jesse Houston. Coming within the Aether Unbound expansion is a Tempestborne Stormclaw Behemoth and another Hunt Pass for players to work their way through as they slay monsters and earn rewards.

“A savage new Behemoth, Tempestborne Stormclaw, is devastating the Shattered Isles,” an overview of the trailer above explained. “But the Slayers of Ramsgate don’t stand alone! New allies emerge and bring with them a powerful new way to slay — the Aether Strikers. Get up close and personal and unleash an onslaught of pummeling strikes.”

In the letter from Houston, the co-founder of Phoenix Labs looked back on the past expansions the game’s received while it was in early access and ahead to the future of the game.

“Since launching on console earlier this year, we’ve continuously iterated and improved Dauntless for players worldwide,” Houston said. “In Fortune and Glory, we introduced a brand new game mode – Trials –complete with rewards for even the most skilled of Slayers. With Aether Unbound, we’re expanding the world even more with the addition of the Aether Strikers, Tempestborne Stormclaw, the Bounty system, and more. Aether Unbound celebrates the culmination of the last 5 years of Dauntless development, but it is also the next step in our journey together. We have even more exciting content coming soon this year and beyond. More Behemoths,

This new update will also introduce a Bounty System to replace the weeklies players have been used to pursuing. Players will be able to have four bounties active at once and can obtain more by spending Bounty Tokens.

Dauntless will leave early access starting on September 26th, so look for a full set of patch notes released for the expansion ahead of that date.