Big changes are coming to Brighter Shores! The developers have just revealed a major combat rework, removing episode-specific combat professions and replacing them with a single, global combat profession. This overhaul is supposed to make leveling easier, eliminate the frustration of restarting in new episodes, and make progression feel better, but it also drastically changes how combat works moving forward.
One Combat Profession for All Episodes
Instead of leveling separate combat professions for each episode, you will now have a single global combat level shared across all episodes:
- The max level will be 2000 at launch, increasing by 500 per new episode.
- Leveling is now striped across all episodes, meaning you will not be stuck restarting every time new content drops.
- No more resets; when a new episode is added, its enemies will be inserted into your level progression without erasing your past progress.
Personalized Progression – No More Backtracking
One big concern of this update was that adding new episodes could force players to refight old enemies or miss new ones entirely. To prevent this, progression is now personalized:
- No grinding past enemies: foes you have already beaten will not be leveled up when new episodes are added.
- New enemies are placed ahead of your level. This is to make sure you always fight them at the right time.
- Bosses scale dynamically, staying at the right difficulty based on your progression.
The goal of this is to keep combat feeling ‘fresh’, challenging, and engaging, without making you redo content you have already cleared.
How Premium Pass Episodes Work
If you buy a premium pass, the extra episodes will be slotted into your progression just like newly released episodes. This makes sure you do not miss any premium enemies, as they will always be slightly ahead of your level, so you can fight them at the right time without having to backtrack.
How Gear and Crafting Are Changing
With this combat update, gear and crafting are getting big improvements:
- Weapons & armor are no longer episode-specific; you can use them across all episodes.
- Rare weapons and armor can still be infused together to create epics.
- Weapon crafting is expanding: you can now craft up to level 2500 weapons at the Mine of Mantuban, covering episodes 1-5. The devs have plans for crafting beyond episode 6, to make sure that progression stays meaningful.
- Crafted weapons will have a unique trade icon to distinguish them from dropped gear, which will help maintain economic balance.
Also, Obelisks will no longer be used for tuning or infusing gear. Instead, they will serve a new purpose; enchanting profession equipment.
Changes to Crime Dens, Potion Reagents, and More
Several other systems are also being adjusted to match this new combat model:
- Crime Den Raids – Enemy levels will now scale based on the crime den’s level + the weakest enemy in Episode 4, keeping things balanced.
- Potion Reagents – All potion ingredients will now drop from early-tier enemies instead of being locked to high-level ones.
- Leather Offcuts – Brown leather offcuts will now drop from all enemy tiers, and black leather offcuts will be merchant-only.
- New Capes – The old combat capes are being retired and replaced with:
- Episode Capes (earned by leveling every profession in an episode).
- Combat Capes (unlocked at set combat levels).
- Old capes will be refunded at their original price.
What Happens to Your Save?
Because the combat system is being completely reworked, your saves will automatically be converted when the update goes live:
- Your new combat level will be calculated based on the total time spent leveling across all episodes.
- Leaderboards are changing – old episode leaderboards will become “Legacy” rankings, while a new global combat leaderboard takes over.
- Weapons & armor will be scaled up to match the new combat progression, so your best gear stays relevant.
This is one of the biggest updates Brighter Shores has seen yet, completely reworking combat while making it feel better and more rewarding. The devs also stated that they are already working on Phase 2, which will introduce upgrade trees for even more build customization.
The update is launching very soon, so now is the time to get ready for the next era of Brighter Shores!
