Ashes of Creation – Autumn 2025 Alpha Two News You Probably Missed
Autumn 2025 was a turning point for Ashes of Creation:
- Alpha Two Phase III ran as a near-persistent test with daily maintenance windows.
- Major economy exploits were found and punished.
- Crate, caravan, and storage systems were reworked repeatedly.
- The Harbinger Update ramped up on PTR.
- The game was officially announced for Steam Early Access with a full Alpha Two wipe in December. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}
This article stitches together:
- The Discord announcements you posted (day-to-day realm and patch notes).
- The official “General” website news for autumn:
- November Testing Schedule and Livestream Update (Nov 6, 2025) :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}
- Ashes of Creation is Coming to Steam (Nov 14, 2025) :contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}
1. Where We Are in Testing
- Phase: Alpha Two – Phase III
- Context: Phase III is designed as a persistent-style alpha with realms online every day, taken down only for patches and maintenance. :contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}
- Realms:
- PTR: Private Test Realm used under visual NDA for Harbinger, Summoner, and other work-in-progress systems.
Throughout autumn, Intrepid used:
- Alpha realms as the “public” testing space (non-NDA).
- PTR as a focused sandbox for big updates before they hit Alpha.
2. September – Crates, Caravans, and the First Big Exploit
2.1 Niküa Face-Morph Bug Hunt (19 Sep)
The team called for a focused bug hunt on:
“Niküa Faces Change When Moving To Them (or away from them)”
They requested detailed reproduction info:
- Exact character customizations (presets, hairstyles, facial features).
- Armor worn by you and nearby characters.
- Any specific conditions (emotes, mounts, camera range).
Why it matters: this is a typical LOD / mesh / morph bug. Intrepid is setting expectations that testers must provide high-fidelity reproduction steps, not just “it looks weird”.
2.2 Crate Economy Exploit & Account Bans (20 Sep)
A restart accidentally set crate diminishing returns to 0, massively inflating gold from crate runs:
- At first:
- A hotfix was announced.
- Permanent account bans were issued to players who clearly and repeatedly abused the exploit.
- Illegitimate gold and items were removed from accounts that “excessively participated”.
- Initially no rollback was planned.
Later the same day:
- They decided on a rollback to 19:00 server time that day.
- The update that introduced the bug was reverted and scheduled for a future patch.
Community Policy – Steven’s Economy & Moderation Post
Steven followed up with a Community Update:
- After investigation, 22 accounts were deemed to have exploited the bug in an excessive, intentional way.
- Sanctions included character deletions and account suspensions.
- Warning: egregious exploitation can lead to permanent removal at launch and forfeiture of purchases.
Tooling roadmap:
- A player reporting system will be built to provide direct feedback when reported players receive action.
- In the meantime, Customer Support will maintain a knowledge-base article summarizing actions taken during Phase III.
Key takeaway: Alpha is treated as a serious testbed, not a sandbox for “free exploits”. The expectation is:
- Find exploit → report → stop.
- Farming exploits “because it’s just alpha” can cost you the account long-term.
2.3 Update 0.15.17 – Economy Cleanup & Professions (20 Sep)
Update notes around 20 Sep (0.15.17):
- Added lumbermilling recipes for:
- Eddledorn
- Korn’brolach
- Cacao wood
- Fixed Wooden Medium Crates recipe so it’s now craftable.
- Weaponsmithing & Carpentry tools now give correct profession XP.
- Fixed overpriced repair costs at certain vendors.
- Hammer Rest elevators now work more reliably.
- Fixed a bug that let crates sell for more than intended.
Operationally:
- Added daily restarts:
- 06:00 – Lotharia (EU)
- 13:00 – Shol (US)
This is the first visible pass in autumn on:
- Normalizing economic values (crate sell price, repair costs).
- Making professions progress properly.
- Ensuring world traversal (elevators) is reliable.
2.4 Update 0.15.20 – Settlement Wars & Crate Speed (23 Sep)
Patch highlights:
- Fixed basic gatherables that had no interact icon.
- Flowers like daffodils now have consistent coloring across Verra.
- Fixed collision on under-construction buildings in settlements.
- Closed a guild storage duplication edge case.
- Settlement Wars:
- Now have a one-hour spin-up time before combat starts.
- Wars remained disabled in-game while more issues were addressed.
- Crate + mount behavior:
- Fixed mounts bypassing crate speed penalties.
- Design intent: with a crate, you move the same speed on a mount as on foot, unless you’re on a mule (crate-specialist mount, not yet in game).
Design shift: Crates are meant to be a logistics activity, not something you trivialize by slapping them on a fast mount.
3. Late September – Guild Storage & Stability
Key events:
- 27 Sep: Maintenance to improve performance going into the weekend:
- Guild Storage disabled due to an item-loss bug.
- Promised fix “next week”.
- Multiple short-notice restarts (especially on Lotharia) to keep realms stable.
- 30 Sep – 1 Oct:
- Maintenance specifically to fix guild storage.
- Guild Storage re-enabled, but:
- You cannot swap an item between character inventory and guild storage into the same slot.
- Workaround: only move items into empty slots in either inventory or guild storage.
Implication: Guild storage is critical for group play, but also high-risk for dupes and item loss. Intrepid is willing to disable it entirely to protect the economy and data.
4. Early October – 0.16, PTR Focus & More Economy Fixes
4.1 Update 0.16 and PTR Use (2 Oct)
- Alpha Two realms brought down at 19:00 for the 0.16 update (up to 3 hours downtime).
- 0.16 brought many fixes tested earlier on PTR – establishing the pattern:
- PTR first, then Alpha Two once stable enough.
- Same night:
- Realms taken down again without fixed ETA.
- PTR brought back up with boost vendors and a Summoner prototype under visual NDA.
4.2 Economy & Reputation Hotfix (3 Oct)
Update notes:
- Excavation kits no longer sell for dramatically more than intended.
- Reduced drop rates of Carphin Emblem and Corrupted Blood.
- Fixed buy orders giving 10× intended reputation.
- Known issue: players can only craft/process one item at a time, with a temporary workaround using matching counts of common vs quality materials in inventory.
Overall: This is the second big wave of economy cleanup:
- Vendor sell values.
- Endgame drop rates.
- Reputation gains from the market.
The economic refactor touches many loops; these bugs/exploits are an expected side-effect of tuning a complex player-driven economy. :contentReference[oaicite:4]{index=4}
5. Mid-October – Crate Persistence & Firebrand World Boss
5.1 Seasonal, Audio & Performance Tweaks (7 Oct)
Update notes:
- Pet health bars removed from raid UI (they were non-functional; will return with Summoner).
- Tweaked audio reverb in some locations so sound is less overpowering.
- Set the entire world season to summer to test if performance improves with a single seasonal state.
They explicitly ask testers to tag performance bugs as:
- Type: Performance
- Sub-Type: FPS
This shows active experimentation with seasonal tech vs performance. :contentReference[oaicite:5]{index=5}
5.2 Crate Persistence Rules (14 Oct)
Major crate persistence change:
- Crates no longer respawn after being:
- Sold, or
- Contributed to construction.
- Crates left:
- On the ground, or
- On a character’s back
will not persist through realm restarts or crashes.
- Crates in storage or vehicles will persist.
Known issue: crate duplication is still under investigation; testers are reminded not to exploit it.
Design result: World-state persistence is now restricted to deliberate safe containers (storage/vehicles), reducing dupes from unowned world objects.
5.3 Firebrand, the Devouring Flame (15–16 Oct)
- 15 Oct: Firebrand re-enabled:
- World boss spawns again.
- Melee attack fixed so it can’t be trivially avoided at point-blank under certain conditions.
- 16 Oct: Firebrand disabled again:
- An exploit involving flying mounts is discovered.
- Boss turned off until fixed.
Bosses are being used as stress tests for combat + movement systems. Intrepid is fine toggling off a big boss quickly if it interacts poorly with unfinalized features (like flight).
6. Late October – Crate Dupes, Guild Crashes, and Restart Policies
- 18 Oct (maintenance):
- Scheduled downtime with no gameplay changes – purely infrastructure and stability.
- Daily restarts re-enabled to prevent realm degradation:
- 06:00 – Lotharia (EU)
- 13:00 – Shol (US)
- 20–21 Oct (extended maintenance):
- Planned 1.5h downtime, extended multiple times up to ~03:30.
- Goal: network changes, moving server workers (SWs) to improve performance.
- After maintenance:
- Some players got permissions denied errors on login; fixed shortly after.
- Shol had deploy issues that were later resolved.
- 29 Oct – 4h maintenance + patch:
- Not the 0.17 PTR-tested major update; instead:
- Fixed a bug allowing crate duplication when moving from vehicle storage → warehouse.
- Fixed a guild storage crash bug.
- Daily automatic restarts removed again.
- 30–31 Oct:
- One-off restart on 30 Oct.
- 31 Oct: daily restarts re-enabled once more as a workaround so service building expansions function consistently.
Pattern: Restart policy oscillates:
- No restarts → daily → removed → re-enabled, depending on how restarts interact with long-lived systems (buildings, services, crates).
7. Early November – Website News + Service Buildings
7.1 November Testing Schedule & Livestream Update (Nov 6 – General Article)
Official “General” news: November Testing Schedule and Livestream Update. :contentReference[oaicite:6]{index=6}
Key points:
- Development Update Livestream:
- Rescheduled to November 14, 2025 at 11:00 AM Pacific.
- Teased a “special announcement” that “needs a little more time to cook”.
- Harbinger Update PTR Focus (starting Nov 10):
- At Nov 10, 2025, 10:00 AM Pacific:
- Lotharia & Shol Alpha realms taken offline.
- PTR brought online with daily updates.
- PTR Visual NDA Reminder:
- You may talk about experiences, but no visuals:
- No streaming.
- No screenshots.
- No captures outside NDA-only Discord/forum sections.
What they’re testing on PTR (Harbinger Update v0.18):
- Harbinger Event System
- Summoner
- Ren’Kai
- Sport Fishing
- Mules & Mounts
- Archetype updates & balance passes
- Artisanship improvements
- Settlements
- Lawless Events
- Crates
- Wars & Sieges
- World Bosses
- Dynamic Gridding
- Large batches of:
- Quest, economy, artisanship, UI, and combat bug fixes
- Exploit & dupe-hunting days with rewards for first-to-reproduce reports
The article explicitly thanks testers and frames this as a major push to close out the year.
7.2 Service Building Fixes & Logging (6 Nov – Patch Notes)
From the same timeframe in Discord:
- Added logging to player characters:
- If you end up in a bad state crossing server boundaries, you can be ejected from the server worker while retaining items/materials.
- Service & support building expansions:
- Should now provide, use, and retain correct expansion points.
- A bug where buying buildings failed incorrectly should be resolved (still flagged “may be bugged”).
- Daily restarts removed again for Shol & Lotharia.
This is part of making settlement infrastructure and dynamic gridding more robust.
8. Mid–Late November – Steam Early Access, PTR/Alpha Windows & /duel
8.1 Ashes of Creation Is Coming to Steam (Nov 14 – General Article)
Biggest autumn website news: Ashes of Creation is Coming to Steam. :contentReference[oaicite:7]{index=7}
v0.18 Harbinger Update + Early Access
- December 11, 2025:
- Harbinger Update v0.18 launches.
- Steam Early Access for Alpha Two begins.
- Full Alpha Two wipe:
- Lotharia & Shol wiped and return for Early Access.
- Additional realms may be added. :contentReference[oaicite:8]{index=8}
- All players (Intrepid + Steam) will play through Steam.
- PTR continues as needed, also via Steam.
Upcoming Testing Windows (from the article)
While focusing on Harbinger on PTR:
- Lotharia & Shol availability:
- PTR testing windows:
- Nov 17–25
- Dec 2–10
- With focused testing, surveys, and rewards for exploit/dupe reproducibility.
These match the Discord announcements about Alpha realms going up for weekends and short windows, then down again for PTR focus.
Steam, Pricing & Refund Policy
- Migration to Steam:
- All users must move to Steam.
- Each Intrepid account links to a unique Steam account.
- Early Access bundle:
- Available from Dec 11, 2025:
- Price: $49.99 USD
- Includes:
- Access to Alpha Two, Beta One, Beta Two
- One month of game time
- Access to (NDA) PTR
- A non-exclusive cosmetic cloak
- From Dec 11–25: 15% discount (≈$42.49).
- Cosmetic items can be bought individually on both platforms.
- The Third Wave Bundle is retired at this time.
- Refund policy alignment:
- For purchases on or after Nov 14, 2025, the refund policy matches Steam:
- Refund within 14 days, with < 2 hours playtime. :contentReference[oaicite:9]{index=9}
Rewards for Testers
- All current Alpha Two testers:
- Receive the Early Access cloak.
- Play from Dec 11, 2025 to end of Early Access and reach level 25:
- You earn an Autumn Guarden mount cosmetic.
- Anyone who played before Dec 11, 2025:
- Receives two titles:
- “Cultist of the Eternal Fire” (Black/Red)
- “Knight of the White Flame” (White/Gold)
- These titles override cloak dye appearance depending on which is equipped.
Why Early Access?
- Intrepid’s reasoning:
- Ashes is designed as a reactive world; testing at scale is core to development.
- Early Access lets them:
- Get continuous community feedback.
- Iterate on settlements, economy loops, combat, events, etc. in real time.
- Move from Alpha Two → Beta One → Beta Two → full release when they’re confident in quality and content.
8.2 PTR Focus, /duel Tournament & Content
While the website focuses on schedule and Steam, the Discord logs show on-the-ground events.
/duel Tournament & Video Contest
- Announcement of a 1v1 /duel tournament on PTR:
- Alpha Two testers only.
- One main character per participant.
- Tournament date: 21 Nov 2025, 21:00.
- Parallel video contest:
- Players submit gameplay videos.
- Top 10 videos + tournament winner receive a future mount cosmetic.
- Winner:
- Video submission deadline extended to 25 Nov 2025, with up to 2 submissions.
This event:
- Tests the /duel feature under load.
- Generates PvP footage & hype for future marketing.
8.3 Alpha Realm Windows & Epic Outage (Late November)
- 10 Nov: Alpha realms taken offline to focus on Harbinger PTR tests (as per the general article).
- 15–17 Nov: Shol & Lotharia online for the weekend, then taken offline again at 19:45 on 17 Nov.
- 26 Nov: Alpha realms scheduled back online:
- Planned 20:00, actual closer to 20:30.
- Shortly after, players hit stuck loading screen issues.
- Root cause: an Epic services outage impacting login.
- Same day:
- Some players start logging in successfully.
- GMs help restore mayors and allow citizens to re-pledge so node storage access can be restored.
- 2 Dec 2025: Alpha realms scheduled to close at 19:00, with PTR and a new update coming online again.
This matches the article’s testing windows and confirms the hybrid PTR/Alpha cadence ahead of the Harbinger v0.18 release and full wipe. :contentReference[oaicite:10]{index=10}
9. What Autumn 2025 Really Changed
9.1 Alpha Is Now “Serious Testing”, Not “Just for Fun”
From bans to knowledge-base sanctions and reporting-tool roadmaps:
- Intrepid treats exploit abuse as long-term account risk, even in alpha.
- They’re formalizing:
- Player reports → CS tools → feedback.
- Public transparency about actions taken (articles, knowledge base).
You can enjoy the game, but if you find a bug:
- Reproduce it.
- Report it via
/bug or forums.
- Stop using it.
9.2 Logistics & Storage Are Core Game Pillars
The sheer number of notes about:
- Crate diminishing returns
- Crate value exploits
- Crate persistence rules
- Crate dupes between vehicle + warehouse
- Guild storage disable/enable/crash fixes
…makes it clear that Ashes’ economy is meant to be driven by logistics and risk, not just static vendor prices.
This autumn locked in key assumptions:
- Crates should:
- Move slowly.
- Be vulnerable.
- Be the domain of caravans and future mules, not just mounts.
- Storage systems must be:
- Dupeless
- Stable
- Auditable
9.3 Backend & Network Tech Are Maturing
Invisible but critical work:
- Dynamic server worker layout changes.
- Adding logging around cross-boundary issues.
- Aggressive adjustment of daily restart policies.
- Dedicated maintenance windows with no player-facing notes.
This autumn was less about flashy features and more about ensuring that:
- Settlements, service buildings, and node upgrades survive long sessions.
- Cross-server travel doesn’t strand players.
- The infrastructure can handle Early Access scale.
9.4 The Harbinger Update & Steam Early Access Are the Next Chapter
By the end of autumn:
- The Harbinger Update v0.18 is clearly the centerpiece of winter:
- Harbinger Event System.
- Summoner + Ren’Kai.
- Lawless Events, Wars & Sieges.
- Crates, world bosses, dynamic gridding, and more.
- With Steam Early Access:
- Everyone converges on one platform.
- There’s a clear test → feedback → refine loop until full launch.
- Early Access is explicitly framed as testing, not a finished product, with wipes and instability expected.
For anyone following the project from the sidelines, most of these changes were buried in Discord and niche news articles. Autumn 2025 is the moment where:
- Systems (economy, logistics, settlements) stop being tech demos and start being live, tuned, and punished when abused.
- Testing structure (Alpha vs PTR vs Early Access) solidifies into a predictable cadence.
- The game steps out toward a broader audience via Steam.
