Returning player catch-up
Start with Preludes 16: Of Hook & Hound: released September 18, 2026, with research covering the captured main update and Hotfixes 1–4, reviewed October 8. That single topic contains the full fishing, lure, Wolfpup, Weatherways and Legendary Epithet chapters. The evidence is patch transcription and qualified community reporting, not game-client verification.
Current P16 priorities
- Before dismantling for learning: complete The Steelsinger so Tuvalkane is present. Each Temper needs 10 learning points; a single instance gives 1 and a double gives 2. Earlier dismantles do not count retroactively.
- Before changing a keeper: check Tuvalkane Rank 3, target weapon Level 30, type/Origin compatibility and available Craftwork slots. Each Strike costs 1 Glow + 1 Amber + 1 Faer Lampyrite; Legendary is not required. Follow Temper Striking.
- Before sorting your bags: compare specific Tempers and learning progress, then the base and Craftwork. The 350-capacity purchase fix is separate from the unconfirmed completion of older exemption adjustments. See inventory management for pickup and dismantling boundaries.
- Before your first fight: review combat mechanics for reduced attack magnetization, parry changes and documented unblockable attacks; exact boss telegraphs are not established by the patch.
- Before allocating pup stats: inspect Trained versus Allocated, then hold Add deliberately. HF4 retains training but removes forced starting allocations; the 15-point budget has no ongoing respec. See Wolfpup training.
If you last played before Preludes 15
The earlier Preludes 15: Gods & Ghosts transition still matters for older accounts. Work through the evergreen checks below: reallocate Virtues → check old weapon fragments → review Tempers and Craftwork → unlock trading → revisit Turret Jotar. These are historical catch-up steps, not a statement that P15 is the current version.
Step 1 — Reallocate Your Virtues (Free)
Virtue Lith was removed outright in Preludes 15. Your Courage, Spirit, and Grace split now reallocates free, per loadout, in Arsenal → Virtues — every loadout keeps its own allocation, so an alt setup can run a different spread at zero cost.
Two notes for returning accounts:
- Old Virtue Lith in your inventory no longer has a use — stop stockpiling it.
- Before committing points, open your main weapon's page and check its listed attunement and required Virtue value where documented. Check that entry's source version and review date; missing fields are not confirmed requirements.
The full system breakdown is in Virtues explained.
Step 2 — What to Do With Your Old Weapon Fragments
The most-asked coming-back question, answered straight: do not mass-delete fragments yet. The following is the historical P15 transition reference, not a P16-wide acquisition rule or a guarantee that newly added weapons follow the same star-tier scheme:
- P15's 1–2 star transition: the loot rework introduced fully built weapon drops from enemies, chests and activities, with Craftwork and Tempers previewable before pickup. This describes that transition, not every current weapon's source.
- P15's 3 star reference: fragment crafting remained relevant to weapons such as Marrow's Bane, Gathannan and Seathorn; Purity was described as a whole-drop exception. Check each current entry, including Purity, before treating those historical examples as a present acquisition or crafting instruction.
- Pre-patch crafted weapons were converted to Stock or Noble quality and can still be refined. Hotfix 2 mailed Chaos Chordstones to accounts holding old Stock weapons — check your Dispatches mailbox before dismantling anything.
The safe rule: before deleting a stack or choosing a farm, open that weapon's page and read its individual acquisition method, source version and review date. An older entry is not proof of a P16 recheck. Use farming routes as a starting reference, not a global star-tier acquisition guarantee.
Step 3 — The New Weapon System (Tempers + Craftwork)
Two properties now decide whether a drop earns a bag slot:
- Tempers are a weapon's rolled affixes — attack speed, elemental effects, Smite chance, comparable to totem effects. Preview them on the ground before pickup. An unwanted roll may still teach a useful unlearned Temper after The Steelsinger; check learning progress before leaving it behind, and use the confirmed dismantling paths in inventory management.
- Craftwork is the weapon's build quality. In P16, check specific Tempers and learning progress first, then quality, slot capacity and the weapon base. Don't shard an old favourite the moment something new drops; compare it with your intended keeper and donor needs.
Upgrading a keeper uses Enhance Craftwork, the P16 name for Refine, rather than re-crafting: visit Tuvalkane and review the Chordstone cost before improving its Craftwork. Dismantle returns depend on Craftwork and Origin, not a scrap-only cutoff: the community Craftwork table lists Chordstones for Military and Officer, plus Gossamer Quartz or Ode Graphite for Officer depending on Origin, and Lampyrites from Noble upward. These yields have not been remeasured in-game for this revision; inspect the current dismantle preview before spending a keeper. See Chordstone refining for enhancement and inventory management for pickup and dismantling decisions.
Step 4 — Player Trading (New in Preludes 15)
Face-to-face trading runs at Enclaves and World Trees — both players must be in the same instance, and you initiate with the Trade emote on the Equipment wheel (PC default X + RMB).
- Tradeable: crafted weapons and armour, talismans, Joineries, Runes, Totems, and most resources.
- Not tradeable: Arcs, Founders-exclusive items, account-bound rewards, and quest items — greyed-out rows in the trade window are restricted.
- Account messages: Dispatches lets you view messages sent to your account, which may include attached rewards. The captured patch transcription does not establish player-to-player item delivery across locations or a delivery time; do not use it as a promised remote-trading route.
Every completed trade costs Scutage, a Dracs tax scaled to item value — Hotfix 14 (July 29) cut that burden by 90%, but this historical reduction does not establish every current trade's final tax; inspect the displayed cost before confirming. The first-trade failure checklist is in the Trading guide.
Step 5 — Turret Jotar Siege
The fourth siege of Preludes 15 — a Clan Jotar watchtower, and per community consensus the hardest of the four. What a returning player needs:
- Schedule: roughly a 3-hour cooldown between runs (verify in-client); active sieges list on World Tree Votive Shrines, and the four rotate Mirifuir → Kearnhold → Curlail → Turret Jotar.
- Objectives are randomized — defend the Skylantern, destroy supply caches, or eliminate the Ode commander. You do not need to wipe every enemy for S-rank: complete the objective set and burn the Skylantern.
- Rewards: Grinn and Unsula weapons, runes, and materials including Glow Lampyrite — the siege material that feeds Chordstone casting, which is where your Enhance Craftwork economy starts (Refine is the historical name).
Track it with the Daily Reset tool and boss progression tracker; the full walkthrough is the Turret Jotar guide. Check free capacity before collecting world or siege drops. The captured sources do not establish a universal rule that all siege loot remains unsaved until a Nightfold return. P16 explicitly permits dismantling recently picked-up Inventory weapons before returning there; see inventory management for confirmed paths and their limits, not a blanket save or logout guarantee.
Your First Week Back
- Day 1: Steps 1–2 above, then re-add the Agari loop — world bosses on a 30-minute respawn, tracked by the Agari timer.
- Days 2–3: review your Faction rank and rewards in the factions guide; Favour is Enclave currency, Rank is progression, and Standing stagger is a separate combat term.
- Week 1: run sieges on cooldown to bank Lampyrites for Enhance Craftwork and separate Strike costs.
- After that: review Cogah before retrying. P16 increases enemy levels by 4 after an Agari kill and raises Life scaling above level 30; entering a dungeon no longer resets Cogah World levels. Older starting-level and party-scaling reports are historical, not remeasured P16 difficulty guarantees.
Next steps