As expected, this week brought big news for both EverQuest and EverQuest II, we got new roadmaps, some new content, a patch that has updated the game pretty substantially, as well as some overall news for The Year of Darkpaw, so let’s start with what I think is some of the most exciting news for the franchise….some new real life merch!

YEAR OF DARKPAW

The first treat from this slew of news was the release of the Year of Darkpaw artwork.

Darkpaw Games partnered with PC Gamer to release both the roadmaps and artwork exclusively, which was a brilliant idea considering PC Gamer has 3.1 million followers on X  and 3.8 million followers on Facebook.

And the artwork is stunning. It features characters and epics from both games, with two dragons in the sky, presumably Nagafen on the left for EQ, and Darathar on the right for EQ2.

EQ landmarks dominate the left side of the landscape while EQ2 landmarks appear on the right. 

A faint wispy image of the Darkpaw logo appears in the clouds. It really is a beautiful piece of art. 

And NOW you can own that art! New Swag was announced for the Darkpaw Swag store.

The artwork can be ordered in poster form, or as a large gaming mousepad, similar to their beautiful EQ2 mousepads that I’ve ordered multiples of in the past from the Swag store. 

Great quality and they are huge!

Two new shirts are also available, one for EQ and another for EQ2, both with Year of Darkpaw logos on them! 

I’ve provided a link to the Darkpaw Swag Store in the description of this video!

Also as a part of Year of Darkpaw, The anticipated Anniversary Tower has now opened up in EverQuest.

The tower, accessible in the Northern Desert of Ro contains 11 floors, and is adorned with artwork from throughout Norrath.

The roadmaps confirmed that each month, new content for the Anniversary Tower will become available, requiring you to complete a key, that will unlock a Heroic Adventure. 

January’s key brings you into the Desert of Ro, to fight a few creatures, rebuild the key, and then enter the tower for a few mobs to kill.

The tasks and mission give Timeless Tokens, and the new merchant is now available in the Tower as well. 

New items will unlock each month and become available, as well as providing previous months free item that you can get for logging in and going to the marketplace.

And speaking of Timeless Tokens, if you previously did the Collection in Blackburrow, that will now retroactively reward your tokens.

EQ January Patch

It was all a part of the January EverQuest Patch.

Also within that patch, Direct X 11 is now live.

I admit i saw enhanced visuals and performance in many areas, but there do appear to be some glitches for some, including some issues with outdated graphics drivers or graphics cards.

In addition, the gamma settings were removed from EQ options, and replaced with a Vision slider.

However, there appear to be players having some gamma-related problems, with the game appearing to be too dark. 

Another big quality of life adjustment in the patch? The addition of Pet Inventory commands, allowing you to see a full list of the gear a pet has, including the ability to destroy that item if needed!

And that’s just the JANUARY patch and Year of Darkpaw news!

EverQuest Roadmap

The roadmap has even more new information to add!

Of course, most of the information was as expected, including new content for the anniversary, the expected return of all the holiday events, as well as the expectation of EverQUest releasing the 31st expansion at the end of the year.

And there was the confirmation that each month, we’ll see new item giveaways for Year of Darkpaw, along with Anniversary Tower content of new quests, heroic adventures and collections. 

But there were a couple of big highlights from the roadmap as well.

First, as teased exclusively on the EverQuest Show in October, an EQ Swag Store is expected in March for the 25th anniversary! 

For now the Swag Store contains lots of EverQuest 2 items, now the newly added Year of Darkpaw items, and soon enough, real life EverQuest items will be available for purchase!

We also got a confirmation that, like the last several years, the next TLP will be launched in May, with the ruleset still to be announced, probably in March or April, based on previous years.

A potential Sever Merge is slated for July, with Thornblade potentially merging into Mischief, using the wording here from the roadmap.

A volume 2 to the EverQuest Soundtracks is on the calendar for February to be added to the streaming services.

From our previous update, Laurion’s Song and Night of Shadows music was added in early January to Spotify, Pandora, Amazon and iTunes. 

A footnote to the EQ roadmap mentions ongoing server performance improvements, continuation of the New UI engine conversion, and anti cheat improvements throughout the year.

EverQuest 2 Roadmap

For EverQuest 2, the roadmaps and ongoing Year of Darkpaw tasks also provided plenty of excitement and content.

Starting in May, a new TLE Server Beta will open, but according to the roadmap, this is not a TLE like Varsoon. This will be a different experience. More details will be announced soon! The Server is expected to launch in June.

As in the EQ roadmap, A Volume 2 soundtrack for EQ2 is expected for EQ2 music in February to the same streaming services.

Game updates 125 and 126 are scheduled for April and August respectively. And in February, EQ2 will get it’s own AMA thread, as EQ1 has, which is up right now.

The API port to Direct X 11 for EQ2 is expected in May and the 21st expansion arrives in November along with the 20th anniversary of EverQuest 2.

While you wait for all of these exciting events, why not get in game now and enjoy the newest Ballads of ZImara raid in Zimara Breadth. 

Crested Expanse raid launched earlier this week, as well as the arrival of the new Avatar for Masquerades of Divinity, part of the Year of Darkpaw in-game tasks.

E’ci has appeared in Everfrost and if you want a complete breakdown of the Masquerades of Divinity, our EverQuest Show contributor Yavete has provided a complete breakdown of the events, tasks and quests on EverQuestShow.com.

Roadmap Teases

And of course, with all of the information and roadmaps released, there were a few cryptic teases.

For EverQuest, the roadmap announcement was concluded with “Stay tuned as we map out this stellar year.” Unsure if the word stellar is a clue to what’s ahead.

But in EQ 2 the clue was a little less subtle, concluding with “It’s time to Return to our roots.”

Not Included

What was not included in the roadmaps, were real life event announcements, such as a celebration or fan event.

And even though there aren’t official announcements, I’m confident that real life events (plural) will be a part of The Year of Darkpaw.

So, to make sure you get updates of those events, be sure to subscribe to The EverQuest Show Channel right below the video, and ring the bell so you’ll receive notifications when new episodes are dropped, as well as our weekly news updates of This Week in EverQuest.