V Rising's 1.0 changes to PvP, endgame and armour detailed ahead of spring release

V Rising remains on track to reach 1.0 in the second quarter of this year, in what finance people call Q2 but I like to call Aprilmayjune. The latest developer blog post goes into detail on some of the new features coming for the full release and in particular its changes to PvP, higher tier weapon and armour, and vampire fashion.

V Rising is about building both the strength of your individual vampire and of your home castle. Currently, endgame PvP battles often focus on Shards, which are buildings inside your castle that provide buffs. You can get them from PvE by fighting bosses, but also steal them from other players.

That's changing, because come 1.0 shards won't be buildings anymore, but necklaces. They'll provide the same effects, but by choosing to wear it and gain its buffs, you'll also be risking other players defeating you in PvP and stealing it (on PvP servers, at least). You'll also need to replenish its energy via events that happen in V Rising's new final zone.

"It’s our hope that this encourages a more active and exciting experience for everyone while also providing interesting perks and innovative gameplay for Vampires who like to play it a bit more friendly," says the blog post. "You might not like PvP, but you probably DO like a novel piece of gear with exciting abilities!"

The update will also bring sweeping changes to armour and weapons, with a new highest tier for endgame players to work towards, but also more variety within every second tier of armor that lets you specialise your character around the combat archetypes of brute, warrior, rogue and scholar. You'll also be able to change the appearance of armour sets with different colour combinations.

When first announcing the 1.0 release, Stunlock also mentioned upgrades to their engine, and there's examples of the new lighting for 1.0 in the post.

Ed had a lot of fun surviving as a bloodsucker both solo and with friends during his V Rising early access review last year. We've also got a V Rising beginner's guide if you're interested in getting started playing now - although by the sounds of it Ollie will have to update that soon to account for all the new changes.