Tip of the day
The base chance to find most Chests is 1/250, which you can increase with better gear and tools.
Devupdates/2025
From Walkscape Walkthrough
In 2025, DevUpdates #17–31 covered the wiki’s move to community-controlled hosting, WalkScape’s first Closed Beta anniversary, and continued preparation for Open Beta. Major releases introduced Trinketry, iOS smart watch support, Travel + 1, Rumours, improved WalkPedia and job tools, and the "Going South" update with Pets, the Mysterious Merchant, Currencies, item-consuming activities, and extensive new content. The updates also documented server and caching failures, step graph and wearable fixes, early-game rebalancing, performance improvements, and the faster content development enabled by reworked internal tools.
Posted on December 19, 2025.
- Released hotfix +596 to address issues introduced by the "Going South" update before the team's holiday break.
- Added ten Rumours, a new item, pet, ability, and additional loot, alongside community translations.
- NPCs in Jarvonia received temporary festive appearances.
Pets and activities
- Corrected pet experience so it is awarded when an action finishes and properly accounts for saved steps.
- Increased pet animation speed and fixed local-time conversion for pet-related timing.
- Adjusted several activities, requirements, and loot tables, including raising the Carpentry requirement for Repair the Bank to match its required saw.
Interface and performance
- Optimised activity listings and rebuilt step bar charts asynchronously to improve performance.
- Increased the minimum interval between processed steps from one to four seconds to reduce performance problems on some devices.
- Fixed issues involving banking quantities, item removal, currencies, activity listings during travel, cooldown charges, and material requirement displays.
Posted on December 16, 2025.
- Released the "Going South" content update, adding major new mechanics and substantially expanding the game's locations, activities, items, recipes, characters, and services.
- High launch demand overloaded the servers for around an hour, with a hotfix released to improve stability.
- Further hotfixes and content-polishing updates were planned before the holiday break beginning December 23.
Major systems
- Added Pets, including Pet Eggs, pet experience, egg hatching, and pet switching through Travel + 1. Pet experience was clarified as separate from skill experience.
- Introduced the Mysterious Merchant mechanic.
- Added activities that consume items through a new input requirement system.
- Introduced Currencies as a separate item type, stored on their own inventory page without using inventory space.
- Added visibility requirements for buildings and displayed location keywords more clearly.
Interface and performance
- Significantly reworked the Inventory interface and improved the presentation of optional crafting inputs.
- Expanded the "While Away" summary to include pet experience and egg-hatching progress.
- Optimised item-stack removal, improving the speed of banking, selling, and dropping items.
- Improved job listings, inventory and Gear Set sorting, World Map route information, and faction reward visibility.
Content
- Added eight locations with isometric maps, 17 activities, 94 items, 39 recipes, seven characters, six buildings, seven services, three shops, ten achievements, and new abilities and cosmetics.
- Added three initial pets, with further pet concepts already being considered.
Posted on August 27, 2025.
- Released an update focused on easier job completion, direct communication with players, and a small amount of new content.
- Included a changelog covering balance adjustments and fixes to travelling, crafting, server connections, and reward calculations.
Job Browser
- Added a Job Browser to the Journal, allowing players to view currently available jobs in one place.
- Shows which jobs can be completed using items stored in the player's bank.
- Required items can be withdrawn directly, reducing the steps needed to prepare job submissions.
In-game announcements
- Added announcements to the hamburger menu, with a red indicator for unread messages.
- The system would be used to notify players about DevBlogs, DevUpdates, and server maintenance.
- Added more detailed loading messages to help identify where connection or startup problems occur.
Content and balance
- Added new localisation, an item, a cosmetic option, loot, and isometric art for Black Eye Peak.
- Adjusted several item requirements and bonuses, including requiring Trinketry for Royal Troubadour gear.
- Reworked Treasure Grabber rewards by increasing its chest-finding rate while limiting its possible chest types.
Posted on July 7, 2025.
- Released update +496, centred on Travel + 1, Rumours, major activity and server reworks, and expanded progress reporting.
- The update was released early in the week to leave time for urgent hotfixes before the team's summer vacation.
- Included a changelog covering new content, interface improvements, localisation, and fixes to step tracking and activity reporting.
Travel + 1
- Added queues for multiple travel actions, gear set changes, and automatically starting an activity after reaching the destination.
- Introduced new travel and activity selection interfaces, including visibility of undiscovered collectibles.
- Crafting queues were planned separately because they required more complex work and could not be completed before the vacation.
Rumours and player activity
- Added Rumours, allowing NPCs to reveal WalkPedia entries and provide gameplay tips, with 51 rumours included initially.
- Locations and activities could now display how many players were present or performing an activity.
- Added daily tips, new profile information, and several related settings.
Progress reporting and interface
- Expanded the "While you were away" summary with completed activities, drop sources, activity and gear changes, item proc information, and consumable use.
- Improved step-loading safeguards and fixed problems involving step graphs and missing return summaries.
- Search now followed the selected language while continuing to recognise English terms.
- Added further content, faction rewards, cosmetics, and groundwork for future isometric location maps.
Posted on June 7, 2025.
- Released update +479 to improve the new-player experience around Disenchanted Forest.
- Included a changelog covering new content and early-game pacing adjustments.
Added
- Added a new location and connecting routes, two activities, a sub-faction, and a job board in Disenchanted Forest.
- Introduced the Rusty chest and new loot, alongside additional character cosmetics.
Changed
- Rebalanced most level 1–10 activities with higher step requirements and lower experience rewards, slowing early progression.
- Removed visibility requirements from several exploration activities.
- Adjusted activity availability, loot tables, and sword and shield crafting requirements and experience rewards.
Posted on June 7, 2025.
- Released update +479 to improve the new-player experience around Disenchanted Forest.
- Included a changelog covering new content and early-game pacing adjustments.
Added
- Added a new location and connecting routes, two activities, a sub-faction, and a job board in Disenchanted Forest.
- Introduced the Rusty chest and new loot, alongside additional character cosmetics.
Changed
- Rebalanced most level 1–10 activities with higher step requirements and lower experience rewards, slowing early progression.
- Removed visibility requirements from several exploration activities.
- Adjusted activity availability, loot tables, and sword and shield crafting requirements and experience rewards.
Posted on June 6, 2025.
- Announced update +478, focusing on critical step-loading issues and smaller interface fixes.
- Improved total statistics displays, including highest 24-hour steps, and allowed crafting materials to be tapped in the crafting view to inspect their details.
- Included a changelog covering cosmetic display corrections, text and layout fixes, improved scrolling on small screens, and updated community translations.
Posted on May 26, 2025.
- Announced version 0.3.0-beta+473, with maintenance planned for May 26 from approximately 15:00 to 16:00 UTC.
- Included a changelog covering smart watch fixes, step tracking improvements, new content, and quality of life changes.
Steps and smart watches
- Repaired step graphs and the 30k step achievement, updating the achievement's wording and adding a highest 24-hour steps statistic to the character page.
- Steps recorded before the engine rework would no longer appear in the updated graphs.
- Fixed fatal iOS errors involving Apple Watch and unintended switching from a watch back to the phone as the step source.
Interface and accessibility
- Added direct WalkPedia access from activities, items, and the current activity's skill button.
- Crafting reward items could be tapped to inspect their details.
- Added a loading overlay to prevent rewards being revealed before the "while you were away" popup.
- Added nine language options, including Thai, Japanese, Russian, and English (US), alongside sprite rendering and interface fixes.
Content
- Expanded the world with a new location, activity, routes, buildings, NPCs, shops, items, and cosmetics.
- Adjusted shop prices and corrected job board, reputation, loot, and recipe issues.
- A submitter comment explained that content descriptions were deliberately kept vague to preserve discovery and community discussion.
Posted on May 2, 2025.
- A server error granted early Closed Beta access to 871 supporters.
- Existing invitations were honoured, and immediate access was extended to anyone who supported before 23:59 UTC on May 2.
- Later supporters would wait for the planned Wave 4 launch on May 15 at 12:00 UTC.
Technical cause
- Wave start and end dates were cached separately to reduce database calls.
- The end date refreshed before the start date, temporarily combining the new end date with the previous start date and making the server treat the wave as already open.
Remaining work
- Limiting early access was intended to preserve development time and avoid delaying Wave 4.
- Step graphs, the 30k step achievement, and iOS smart watch support still needed fixes.
- A hotfix addressing major issues and adding some content was targeted for the same day.
Posted on April 25, 2025.
- Announced iOS smart watch support in update #457, with community testing needed to identify issues before Wave 4.
- Release depended on Apple TestFlight and Google Play approval, followed by an estimated 1–2 hours of maintenance.
- Included a changelog covering new content, localisation improvements, settings changes, and bug fixes.
Wearable support and testing
- Initially allowed all wearables and health-sync apps, with a later whitelist planned because some sources lacked sufficiently detailed data for reliable anti-cheat checks.
- Requested compatibility reports identifying the wearable, syncing apps, reproduction steps, and relevant Apple Health step-data screenshots.
- Opened a wearables forum channel on Discord for testing feedback and device reports.
- Submitter comments clarified that only one step source could be active at a time, avoiding a competitive advantage from combining sources. Players could switch sources through settings at any time.
Settings and localisation
- Reworked in-game settings, resetting existing settings to their defaults.
- Improved language selection and added a preferred grammatical gender option for supported languages.
Wave 4 preparations
- Critical wearable issues were the immediate priority.
- Fixing inconsistencies in the steps graph was the remaining task before Wave 4 once wearable support was stable.
Posted on April 1, 2025.
- An April Fools' post presented a fictional UI redesign built around a single terminal-style menu.
- Login would take place through the terminal, with character creation and customisation displayed using ASCII art.
- The redesign was a joke rather than a confirmed interface change.
Posted on March 25, 2025.
- Released +435 with WalkPedia improvements, quality of life features, and fixes intended to resolve the remaining Trinketry update issues.
- Development focus was shifting from post-update support to smart watch integration.
- Included a changelog covering a new activity, translations, balance adjustments, and interface and rendering fixes.
WalkPedia improvements
- Added skill pages showing progression statistics, unlocks, and short guides explaining how to begin training each skill.
- Skill pages could be opened directly by tapping skills in the Character view.
- Added links within text to supported WalkPedia pages, allowing players to inspect referenced items, activities, skills, and locations directly from requirements and descriptions.
- A submitter comment proposed adding guides for core mechanics before the next beta wave.
Clearer item and service information
- Redesigned service icons with visible tier indicators.
- Displayed item keywords in item views and WalkPedia, making it easier to identify equipment that satisfies requirements such as light sources.
Posted on March 17, 2025.
- Announced Trinketry as WalkScape's tenth skill, with the update planned for March 18 at around 12:00 UTC.
- Players were not expected to lose steps during the update.
- The content was built rapidly using the new development tools, demonstrating faster content creation even before the tools were fully finished.
Trinketry
- Trinketry uses a new service, the Trinketry Bench, which would be scarce in Jarvonia but more common in the Grand Duchy.
- The skill was designed to be demanding to level, requiring substantial material gathering and offering relatively low experience per step.
- Some existing rings, amulets, and other items were converted into new items. Any that were no longer equipment would be unequipped and removed from gear sets.
Posted on January 19, 2025.
- Celebrated the first year of Closed Beta, reviewing major releases, community growth, and lessons from development.
- Closed Beta participation grew from 752 players in Wave 1 to 24,683 in Wave 3.5, with 47,290 registered accounts and over 8.1 billion steps walked.
First-year development
- Reviewed additions including Friends, WalkPedia, the Adventurer's Guild, Achievements, Consumables, Syrenthia, and translations.
- Android pedometer troubleshooting consumed several months before Google's Recording API resolved the main reliability problems.
- Community funding enabled myzozoz to join as a second developer, expanding the team's development capacity.
- WalkScape received the Best Indie Game audience award at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki.
Engine and development tools
- Growing content complexity and a larger team exposed limitations in tools originally designed for one developer.
- The nearly finished engine rework reorganised the code, introduced multithreading, and improved server capacity.
- Reworking internal content tools was the next technical priority to make content creation faster and more reliable.
- Wave-based access helped manage customer support and marketing demands, leaving time for development between waves.
Open Beta and funding
- Open Beta was the main goal for 2025, with Trading, Combat, Quests, further quality of life improvements, and better development tools still needed.
- Hiring a third developer was desired but unaffordable. Not a Cult reported first-year revenue of approximately €62,000 and profit of €2,000.
- Submitter comments described a planned free-to-play region with subscriptions for later areas, although the extent of free access remained undecided.
- Discounted subscription pre-orders were being considered to help fund the transition from voluntary support to Open Beta.
- A submitter comment clarified that the Jagex agreement concerned trademark use and did not give Jagex control over WalkScape's business decisions.
Posted on January 7, 2025.
- Announced the migration of WalkScape Wiki from Miraheze hosting to a more powerful server set up with the wiki community.
- The move would give the wiki community full control over customisation.
- Maintenance was expected to last 2–3 hours, but a submitter comment confirmed it finished much sooner than anticipated.
