Everwind might boast the blocky world design of Minecraft with plenty of crafting and building elements, but until now it’s been much more focused on delivering a survival RPG experience. That changes, if you want it to, with the launch of new Everwind update Winds of Creation, which introduces a much-requested sandbox mode. Alongside this comes plenty of other additions, such as a new exploration guide, another weapon type, more creatures to discover, and a revamped starting zone for the spellcasting Arcanist.
If you’re unfamiliar with Everwind, it’s an open-world adventure that combines exploration, crafting, and building elements with a greater focus on combat, dungeons, and buildcrafting – imagine if Minecraft and Skyrim had a baby. At its center is your flying fortress, a giant airship you build yourself that essentially acts as a mobile base you can use to take all your essentials along, wherever you choose to go. Whether you’re running solo or bringing friends along for the ride, there’s an absolutely packed world to discover and reshape, filled with over 1,000 hand-crafted points of interest that remain fully destructible if you please.
If the limits of survival mode aren’t to your liking, Winds of Creation has the answer. Everwind’s new sandbox mode lifts any of the usual threats and requirements, giving you free access to whatever resources you want and speeding up the pace of both building and breaking down structures. You’re free to fly about at speed, and there are commands you can use to adjust the time of day, change the weather, spawn enemies in, or perform other tests.
“Sandbox mode is a big topic for us,” developer Enjoy Studio explains. “We plan to keep expanding it with new features as the game continues to grow. We know your expectations for this kind of mode are high, and we are doing everything we can to deliver the best tools possible.” That’s just the beginning of the Winds of Creation update, however, as there’s plenty more in here whether you’re more of a survival or sandbox enthusiast, including a fresh faction of hostile human bandits that includes ally-buffing Hornblowers and a Necromancer miniboss.
The starting island has a new structure that’s dedicated to Arcanists, designed “to make their early experience more intuitive.” If you’re more of a melee fan, there’s a set of Wolverine-style claws that are perfect for fast, up-close combat. A device called the Steamer Localizer helps you track down specific points of interest, such as dungeons, villages, boss rooms, and more hidden zones. Extra wildlife has been unleashed, including parrots and vultures (the latter of which can be aggressive at times). New rotten-wood chests have been deposited across the world, meaning yet more treasures to discover as you adventure.
Alongside this comes improved quality-of-life features. Leveling up now restores your health and stamina to full. Your favorite Shields can be displayed on Tool Stands, and item placement has been made smoother. Plants can no longer accidentally be harvested before they’re fully grown. Item icons and enemy names have been given a refresh, with additional clarity on the difficulty of hostile creatures provided through the enemy window.
The Everwind Winds of Creation update is out today, Thursday September 24. Enjoy Studio has already teased more for the future, including features such as inter-ship teleportation, a more involved combo system for combat, and integrated modding support, starting with cosmetics and then rolling out to gameplay mods.
