Aloft has reached its final major content update of early access before heading into its heavily anticipated 1.0 launch! With that, let's dive into everything we know about the Aloft Discovery and Ancestry update, including all of the new content and changes in its freshly revealed patch notes and the many included bug fixes as we approach true launch.

What's New in the Aloft Discovery and Ancestry Update?

So what's new in Aloft's final major content update of early access? A New Engine First off, Aloft Discovery and Ancestry makes way for a game engine update to Unity 6, which will improve overall visual performance and fidelity along with other optimization and visual changes made in this patch. UI Updates To go along with Aloft's new look via its new game engine, Funcom is also introducing massive UI updates across many menus and items, including cooking, inventory, crafting, and HUD areas. New Islands & Events Aloft Discovery and Ancestry brings some exciting world events to experience across a ton of new unique islands. These include significant weather events like tornadoes, fog banks, asteroid fields, and more, which you can see across 10 new Fresco islands, 6 new Wonder islands, and other unique areas to explore. Progression Updates Aloft's progression system has received significant changes in this patch, including resource flow, the tools required to get certain resources, methods for players to receive important materials like Life Trees, and Tech Tree changes. New Farmable Plants Players who are looking to put their green thumbs to work can find plenty of plants to farm in the new patch, including Coffee, Glasswort, Yellow and Purple Moonblooms, Life Fruit, the newly added Desert's Grace, and more!

Aloft Discovery and Ancestry Update Patch Notes (FULL)

Game Engine

• Updated game engine to Unity 6

UI Updates

• Cooking
• Inventory & Storage
• Crafting
• HUD
• Home Island
• Quest Log
• Machinery
• Upgrade station
• Tech Tree
• Table-Map
• Celebrations
• Sailing
• Debug console
• Bug Report tool

World Generation Updates

• Open world (no sectors)
• Revamped world progression
• More handcrafted islands and structures
• New placement of biomes and islands
• More varied clusters and environments
• Some non-Life Sapling or non-Life Tree islands spawn with an unhealthy ecosystem by default again and can be healed by players
• Added miscellaneous islands between clusters
• Hot areas that require special clothing to prevent heat stroke
• High altitude areas require upgraded floaters and gliders to navigate
• Updated existing islands and fresco islands
• More varied and interesting Lost Beacon destinations
• Unique clusters with snow and Darkwood trees added

New Islands

• 10 new Fresco Islands
• 6 new combat-focused Wonder Islands
• New Unique Islands

New World Events

• Tornadoes
• Fog Banks
• Asteroid Fields
• Loot Debris
• Minable Debris Fields

Progression Changes

• Some resources require upgraded tools to gather
• Arcadium Essence can be obtained through flowers, Frescoes, and Life Sapling islands, and can be fed to the Wind Spirit to attain Insight
• Life Saplings no longer require removing corruption from all nearby islands
• Life Fruits can be found hidden in various locations
• Life Trees now require Life Fruits in order to heal and gain access to their basin
• Healing a Life Tree now requires the destruction of massive chains anchoring it to the ground
• New tech tree structure with different insight thresholds
  • It is no longer required to own all previous technologies to learn further ones in the tech tree
  • Excess Knowledge Points can be infinitely spent to learn miscellaneous decor elements once all tech tree items have been unlocked

New Machines

• Wool & Linen floaters allow islands to sail to higher altitudes
• Wind Vane to change the wind direction at any time with the help of the Wind Spirit
• Buildable Meditation Circles for fast travel
• Dew Catcher that collects clean water over time
• 4 New stockpiles: Well, Pantry, Cabinet, Organic storage

Misc Changes

• Wind direction now shifts over time
• Coffee Plants now drop seeds when farmed
• Rebalanced research steps in the Research Table
• Moonbloom Oil and Intricate Cogs for crafting advanced technologies
• Shallow water does not apply the Wet condition anymore
• Hay is now made from wheat
• Pheasants now eat bird feed
• All Fresco Islands now feature a large structure visible from afar

Cooking

• Meals must now be preserved to be stored in the inventory
  • Different recipes require different preservation materials
• Dirty water can now be boiled on a cooking plate for clean water

Navigation Overhaul

• New Tablemap UI
• Fog of War
• Island Silhouettes
• Improved Spyglass
• New Stormchaser destinations

Wind Warp

• Players can now fast travel from any Meditation Circle in any Life Tree, Life Sapling, or those built by the player.

Quest Tracking

• Quests can be tracked and untracked in the Quest Log menu to toggle their appearance on the HUD
• Completed quests are listed separately in the Quest Log
• Quest destinations appear on the Table-Map
• New and updated quests

Wind Spirit

• New Companion that follows you on your adventure
• Interact with the Wind Spirit to pet it, exchange Arcadium Essence for Insight, change the wind direction, and restore Life Sapling & Life Tree islands
• Can be dismissed or called back

Ancestral Memories

• Interact with the Life Tree’s orb to enter the Ancestral Memory dreamscape.
• Learn new skills from your ancestors’ past, including:
  • A second hotbar that can be quickly switched to at any time
  • Glider compass that highlights the islands of the cluster and whether they have been explored or not
  • A third personal crafting slot to craft more things on the go
  • The ability to track the position of critters
  • Being able to destroy floating debris with your glider for loot and minerals

Expansion Pouches and Trinket Rings

• Expansion Pouches can be crafted using Sewing Kits and Cloth. Can be used to increase the amount of inventory slots in any category
• Trinket Rings can be found in certain chests. Can be used to add more trinket slots to any tool

Combat Moves

• Corruption Hearts can now be found on heavily-corrupted islands
• Claiming a Corruption Heart grants combat moves and abilities

Survival Conditions

• Negative effects after not eating, drinking or sleeping for a while, which can be removed by eating, drinking or sleeping
• The survival requirements can be adjusted or disabled in the options menu

Running Out of Health

• Anomalies are tarnished
• Defeat from combat causes the Wounded condition, greatly hindering the player
• Can be removed by applying a bandage
• These health consequences can be turned off in the options menu

Tarnished Anomalies

• Anomalies must be gathered before cleansing an island, otherwise they become tarnished
• Tarnished Anomalies can be restored by combining them with reishi mushrooms
• Tarnished Anomalies can be found in certain chests

Treasure Chests

• New chests can be found that require keys to open
• All locked chests’ contents can now be claimed by each player in multiplayer

New Glider Behaviour

• Gliders now require to be deployed for a short moment before being used (off a ledge/height)
• The new glider behaviour can be disabled and reverted to its legacy version in the options menu

New Farmable Plants

• Glasswort
• Coffee
• Brightsun Flower
• Azure Sky Blossoms
• Yellow Moonbloom
• Purple Moonbloom
• Aloe Vera
• Wisteria
• Arcadium Flower
• Life Fruit
• New variations of Moonblooms can also be made by adding pigment to their seeds, allowing them to grow a variety of colours that can be made into decorations

New Tree Species

• Darkwood tree seeds can be found and planted

New Plant

• Desert’s Grace can be found, farmed, and used for green dye

Performance and Stability Improvements

• The game’s RAM usage no longer increases with extended play time, allowing for more stable long-term play
• Improved the way assets and materials load
• Optimized many materials and textures

Graphics

• More light sources can now cast shadows. Can be disabled in the options menu
• Added Screen-space Global Illumination. Can be disabled in the options menu
• Added new texture streaming options in the options menu

Music and Sound

• Main menu music has been added
• A new track can play while sailing

Bug Fixes

• Fixed several cases where Crashed Gliders appeared inside island geometry
• Fixed several cases where hindrances in Life Saplings could not be reached
• Fixed several objectives for quests to ensure they give the intended instructions
• Fixed several cases of floating plants and assets on islands
• Fixed several cases of unintended holes in geometry for islands
• The Helm now stops producing sound if it is destroyed while unstable due to sail damage
• Corruption ambient sounds can no longer be heard in healthy islands
• Table-Map progress is retained when rejoining a multiplayer session
• Flogade Distiller and Brewing Labs now have distinct icons in the build menu
• Fixed several flow issues in the main menu when using a controller
• Jetstream explosives now play their intended ambience and SFX
• Cooking recipes are now available while in creative mode
• Player location is now correctly retained when reloading save files
• Fixed several localization typos
• Petting animals now plays the intended VFX
• Fixed an issue where some islands would spawn too close to each other
• The Field Guide now displays the intended information while on unhealthy Life Trees and Corrupted Islands
• Fixed several instances of assets lacking collision
• It is no longer possible to pause the game while in the inventory screen