Wayfinder

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Wayfinder.

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

This page is rather stubbly and could use some expansion. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue this article?

First announced at The Game Awards 2022, Wayfinder began its life as action RPG MMO developed by Airship Syndicate and published by Digital Extremes, with a soft-launch through the Early Access "Founders" model similar to Warframe's own closed beta. Sudden closure of Digital Extremes' third-party publishing division led to transfer of publishing rights back to Airship¹ - and, a few updates (and maybe a bit of budget/project scope re-evaluation...) later, the studio decided to "preserve the game" by re-launching it as an offline co-op action-RPG²

Development timeline#

• 2022
  • December 6th - First official announcement at The Game Awards 2022; release originally planned for Windows (via Steam), PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series S/X. Release date not specified - the official trailer teases upcoming invite-only Technical Test as "Play It Next Week"³. Official webpage announcement projects tests for December 13th and January 2023, followed by closed beta in "early 2023", Early Access launch in Spring 2023 and full release in "late 2023"⁴
  • December 13th - Technical Test launch, an invite-only playtest under Non-Disclosure Agreement.
• 2023
  • February 23rd - Official Gameplay Reveal trailer is shown at Sony PlayStation: State of Play 2023 event. Xbox platforms are not listed in the trailer as Xbox version is presumably temporarily put on hold. The trailer advertises the game's closed beta planned for February 28th⁵
  • February 28th-March 8th - Closed beta period for PC and PS5⁶⁷.
  • May 24th-29th - Second closed beta window on PC, PS4 and PS5⁸
  • June 8th - Summer Game Fest 2023 Trailer, the game's Early Access is teased as coming "This Summer" ⁹
  • July 27th - Formal announcement for Early Access and the Founder system via the game's Steam page; EA is set to launch on August 15th, then delayed to August 17th
  • August 17th - version 0.1.0.0 launches in Steam's Early Access program¹⁰¹¹¹²; game becomes available for wider public as "Founder Pack" purchase at base MSRP 19,99 USD, with more expensive Founder Pack tiers available and additional microtransactions (in the form of Runesilver premium currency packs) already included; the developer and publisher intent at this time is to launch the game's 1.0 version in Free-To-Play model with optional microtransactions similar to Digital Extreme's own games' business model.
  • November - version 0.1.10.0 launches November 8th. On November 9th Digital Extremes announces closure of third-party publishing division and begins transfer of publishing rights back to Airship Syndicate.
• 2024
  • February 28th - patch 0.2.4.1 is released¹³. The game does not receive further documented patches until version 0.4 (Echoes update).
  • April 8th - official announcement of full Transfer of Service from Digital Extremes to Airship Syndicate¹⁴. The game is temporarily delisted from Steam while Airship Syndicate discusses plans for "major rework"¹⁵ and the game's entry on Epic Game Store is removed¹⁶.
  • May 15th - Official announcement for Wayfinder: Echoes, a paid-upfront offline co-op re-work of the game¹⁷. Early Access re-release date is set to June 11th.
  • May 31st - version 0.4, Wayfinder: Echoes Preview launches on Steam¹⁸. Crossplay with PS5 version is temporarily disabled, offline update for PS5 is scheduled "for a later date".
  • June 10th - patch 0.4.2, official launch of Wayfinder: Echoes¹⁹
  • September 9th - Wayfinder x Critical Role Supporter Pack is announced²⁰. Consisting exclusively of cosmetic items, the DLC is intended as additional source of funding for the game. The announcement also teases plans for future Supporter Pack collaborations adjacent to the studio's "body of work".
  • October 1st - patch 0.6.1, re-launch of PC-PlayStation 5 cross-play²¹. The game receives a steady cycle of updates between 0.4 and 0.6.1, including two major Quality of Life patches (version 0.5 and 0.6.0).
  • October 21st - version 1.0, official launch of full game release and major content update adding a new Wayfinder (Lora), a new Overland (The Crucible) as well as a number of QoL changes, fixes and updates²². The game is largely feature-complete, subsequent updates introduce minor additions, balance changes or bugfixes. Wayfinder x Critical Role Supporter Pack DLC launches on the same date.
  • December 12th - version 1.1.0 adds multiple save slots, Nightmare Mode challenge with its own rewards and new holiday-themed Eventide content²³.
• 2025
  • January 28th - version 1.2.0. Launch of Xbox Series X/S version (alongside full crossplay functionality between all three of the game's platforms). Hardcore Mode challenge is released²⁴.
  • April 3rd - patch 1.2.0e, final update for the game's Steam version²⁵.
  • September 23rd - official mod support is added to the game via Mods.io platform and Steam Branch mods_beta²⁶
• 2026
  • January 26th - Battle Chasers Cosmetics Bundle is released as the final content update provided by Airship Syndicate. The bundle is released through Mods.io/mods branch of the game, rather than as paid or free DLC via Steam²⁷. The release is an homage to Airship's debut title, Battle Chasers: Nightwar and the studio's CEO, Joe "Mad" Madureira's work on the original Battle Chasers comic book series²⁸²⁹.

Wayfinder: Echoes - notable changes during transition to offline model#

To do: Document this section.

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Changes to Venomess' Reward Tower#

To do: Document the (small) visual differences between all the different images of Founder's Season 1 tower shown in archived material and its current in-game appearance. It's not much, but it's a sign something was still changing even as Airship posted about the system on the game's official website.

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Planned and unreleased content not found in game files#

Details on future plans for pre-Echoes MMO version of Wayfinder are scarce. While there is some accessible material (archived from Wayfinder's now-defunct official website via Wayback Machine) related to pre-Echoes Founder's Season and Founder's Pack systems, it mostly relates to the planned Founder's Season/Pack 2 content which appears to have been overhauled and successfully implemented as free content included with Echoes update. Notable points of interest include:

• Planned third Founder's Season and Reward Tower - illustrated with a small vignette posted on the game's official website³⁰.

The graphic is blurred towards the right-most edge and low-resolution as-is, making the details difficult to read. The character shown does not seem to match any of the known/released Wayfinders - it does not appear to be Lora (released with update 1.0, shown off at the earliest through in-game artwork featured circa version 0.5) and the image may be an unrelated placeholder.

To do: Rip Battle Chasers: Nightwar files and/or find corresponding Battle Chasers comic book panel for comparison because I *swear* that artwork looks like a quick-and-dirty recolor of the graphic used for Calibretto's "Guardian's Song" Ability from Nightwar (which is most likely a cropped panel from the comic itself, thank you Joe Madureira).

• Heroic Wayfinder variants - in the release version of the game, the only Wayfinders to receive a unique Heroic variant are Kyros and Niss. While Heroic Niss Wayfinder variant was implemented as non-monetized, in-game unlockable upgrade to regular Niss Wayfinder in the final release of Echoes, the initial developer and publisher intent may have been to release more Heroic variants of Wayfinders as microtransactions, in parallel to Prime warframe/Prime weapons monetization system found in Digital Extremes' Warframe.
  • Do note that there is currently no direct confirmation whether Heroic Niss was planned to be exclusive to a paid DLC package rather than unmonetized upgrade, and if this decision was altered in response to Heroic Kyros becoming officially unavailable to a sizable number of then-current and all future players with the removal of microtransactions and Founder's Pack upgrade DLCs during transition to Echoes. Similarly there appears to be no firm information on whether the players would have been offered the option to acquire any of the Heroic variants through in-game activities (similar to current implementation of Heroic Niss and in line with the "free-to-grind" model found in Warframe) at any point in the game's lifespan as an MMO.

To do: Continue researching this - maybe something was mentioned in Reddit AMAs, official Discord announcements, social media posts or other internet ephemera, Atma.gg sadly does have its share of blindspots. Can any comments be obtained directly from the developers, or would it be covered by NDAs? Also check for any unused content in the game files (leftover Premium store text strings, visuals, filenames, file metadata etc.) that might shed light on planned implementation of Heroic Niss and other variants, and document accordingly.

References#