Hostile Takeover was Everything I Feared in a Modern DST Update, a Small Rant

[YouKnowWho142]

I know I'm largely late to discussion on this update, but I wanted to wait to see if my opinion on it would be any different, and it really hasn't changed at all since i first heard about it, if anything it's only gotten worse. I'm sorry if it comes off as me doomposting or contributing to a certain negativity around DST, but I've seen this update become the breaking point for many talented and dedicated DST veterans, and it is sad to say that it has become my breaking point too. Please forgive me in advance for my long post, this comes from a place of passion and not malice and is months in the making.

I've always largely defended DST's current direction. The survival aspect of the game I always found to be inherently easy due to my 1000+ hours of experience, and although survival is one of my favorite genres one of the biggest issues with it has always been that they rely a lot on the mystery surrounding them and learning how to survive. Once you learn how to survive and do it consistently, a lot of survival mechanics can become a chore, and when I introduced the game to friends they'd often become bored after roughly 10 days when it starts to become clear we have so much food and safety that we can no longer die. That is, until I introduce them to bosses. DST became significantly more replayable and also improved its longevity by instead focusing a lot on the combat aspect, giving you an incentive to come back on new runs once you have already mastered the survival aspect to further the mystery through progression. I liked that skill trees gave more expression to characters by letting you have some control over how you play them, and I especially liked the idea of the rifts as a way to refresh worlds and bosses. Host of Horrors was extremely exciting to me, seeing old bosses and mobs come back with new forms along with new world effects is exactly what I wanted out of these updates and was what I was hoping I'd be able to see more of.

After a while though, it became clear that was no longer the focus. Scrappy Scavengers was the first bad omen, choosing to focus neither on lunar or shadow despite still being tied to rift content that was painfully incomplete on both sides, focusing on a boss and some weak items that came with it. It was around this time also that Klei had announced that they'd be taking it slower to have updates focused on higher quality, and that's great! Having less frequent updates gave Klei more breathing room and reduced any time crunch, while also ensuring the players received higher quality content (these will both be important later). It should've been a win for everyone. Staying Afloat was next, which although extremely divisive I didn't have any major issues with. My true issues start with Depths of Duplicity, the first update I truly didn't like. The update promised a fix to the caves and an expansion to the shadow rift content, but then proceeded to fail to flesh out either of them as a result of adding yet another boss and a miniboss. This update I found particularly harmful, as it failed to give the major refresh the caves desperately needed as well as the expansion the shadow rift needed which caused both to feel half baked, which is not a great feeling to have for an update that was supposed to be in the oven for 2 months longer than the previous one.

And then there was the infamous skill tree update for Wendy, Walter, and Wortox. I won't go into much detail due to how much it's been discussed, but an update planned for december was pushed until almost March. For reference, from the release of DoD to the release of this update, it took roughly 6 months, meaning this effectively took 2 update cycles. Almost all of the work done in those first three months was completely thrown out and overhauled, and this update has been noticeably haunting DST even today seeing as the roadmap for the year needed to be delayed to September, the end of the third Quarter. 

Which brings me to Hostile Takeover. To me, this update features everything wrong with rift content that has become present especially recently. Both rifts have always felt half baked since their creation, and the excuse for this is that they planned to get more content over time. I did like Host of Horrors since it focused on adding a unique twist on content that already existed through how the world was altered, making it feel like the world has really seen a sense of progression. Hostile Takeover completely went against everything I liked in previous rift updates, and although I hate to say it, the issue lied mostly with Wagstaff and the game's story overlapping with the gameplay. Instead of taking that unique premise of world progression present with the rifts, the update instead focuses on progressing Wagstaff's story by performing more tasks for him. For how late in the game this is, these tasks are extremely unenjoyable and makes the endgame even more of a slog. I was always patient with Pearl's quests since I knew it built up to something and wasn't too late into progression, but it can easily take the average player upwards of 20+ hours just to get to a point where they have to grind tons of cut stone and scraps and other resources (assuming the average player would even have a chance to get to this point of the game without checking the wiki, which to me is a cardinal sin of survival games). All of this buildup, only for a reused version of the celestial champion to fight? Thank goodness they didn't go with needing enlightened shards for the gestalt catchers which would've meant killing cc upwards of 3 times, but that still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth of the amount of grind that Klei is expecting from players at this point in the game. Aside from that and focusing on the WARBOT, I know it's hit or miss but I really dislike both the WARBOT and the scion. I really, really wanted the lunar content to focus on the lunar aspect of the game, but as it stands the so called "final boss" of the lunar rifts is a robot you built on an arena you created, whose final form is ultimately just a gestalt with a bundle of wires floating around, and while I mean no offense to the designers it just never came off to me as climactic or interesting in the same way Celestial Champion or Fuelweaver ever did. It almost felt like Hostile Takeover was more focused on progressing the story than enhancing the gameplay, which has been a recurring theme in many of these updates.

This isn't to mention the drops and world effects. Scion's main drop is the celestial jewels, an "upgrade" to the celestial crown that strangely adds a downside through the newly spawning inimical gestalts. In practice, most people either don't insert all the jewels to prevent the nauseating lunacy effect and gestalts or so that they can maintain the color changing abilities of the crown. The only world changes are to accommodate Wagstaff's disappearance following the scion's defeat, meaning there is no meaningful world progression either. Now, it is just a rift update that doesn't actually put any focus on the rifts but rather a centerpiece boss with underwhelming drops and a major grind. The only other additions were quality of life or the trader which was a relatively small feature.

The final nail in the coffin to me was that a Hostile Takeover Phase 2 was ever necessary. It makes both parts feel very rushed, and it really begs the question of what the playerbase is actually getting out of 3 month wait periods between updates if there is no notable quality or quantity increase while updates are still needing to be rushed out. While I still feel this was the healthiest option overall as I'm sure it is far less stressful on Klei to put out an update every month, that wait easily adds to the impact of each update of which every update since they've spaced them out have consistently been the most controversial, most discussed, and in honestly almost least impactful updates for the average player.

At this time, I can no longer defend rift content, or even DST's current direction as a whole. It is easy to tell they're frantically trying to wrap it up so they can patch the holes later down the line, but the consequence to that is that now every new addition feels super undercooked. Every new boss is locked behind so much grind and tedium for so little reward that I have no real incentive to ever want to interact with anything post rift, since I know the only thing the rifts offer are bosses I do not want to fight tied to a grind I don't want to do, especially not more than once which defeats the point of what I enjoyed so much the combat aspect in its replayability. It's a shame that the rifts couldn't focus more on how unleashing those powers would change the world, something that the shadow rifts had started to expand on but the lunar rifts could never follow. This uncompromising survival experience now has more bosses than Terraria, and while I was always fine with bosses it has become way too much and having them consistently be used as the primary focus of every update has only brought fatigue. The extended wait on every update only brings higher expectations that in my opinion has never been lived up to. I really do hope the game is able to slow down after the final From Beyond update and focus on taking a new approach for the game. I have always been more casual with games, i typically avoid game communities since I tend to want to have my own views on a game and how it feels for myself, but even as someone who initially disagreed with a lot of community sentiments I can no longer say that I've enjoyed the game's current focus. 

To be clear, I really don't mean any ill will towards Klei, I think Klei is very talented and hardworking and they've always tried to do what's best for players, otherwise they never would have done things such as all the changes to the skill tree updates. I do think the game is in a very rough and negative state, but even as someone who advocated for the combat of this game I believe it has been taken too far and should be turned instead to the game's core survival mechanics and exploration. I know I am far from the only person to share some of these views, but I wanted to make clear how I view what the game has become. I know this was long winded, but these are thoughts I've been holding for months that I felt was important to share. Here's to hoping for DST's next golden age.

Edited August 24, 2025 by YouKnowWho142

[Curly Bill]

If the direction they are going is revisiting ideas while also adding new items, I'm all for this direction, but I'm not sure if it is the direction or not yet.

 

The TINGLE node completely changes so many interactions in the game and the shock states for all enemies in the game was really huge revisit. MAJOR plus imo; The floater addition, the boat pushing items away so they can be placed. Small things with HUGE implications and I want more of these inclusions in updates.

The 3 month cycle has not seemed to change the size or quantity of the updates, so I'm a bit questionable about it. However a "small" change like giving all enemies shock states is a BIG undertaking in developing, so even though it's like a "small" change, I imagine the development time is a lot bigger. I'm okay with this, IF this is what is happening.

The Wendy Wortox Walter update. A lot of people didn't like how this went. I personally LOVE that the issues with it had feedback, and it was fine-tuned and fixed. Even though that meant throwing out entire things with entire reworks, I think this is how things should be if it's a big change like that. Plus keep in mind there was like 2-3 weeks of vacation that increased the time it took to finish.

 

I want to hear what others feel though. I'm fine with updates taking longer as long as the quantity and inclusions make up for that time, but it is crazy to think this entire year we have only had TWO-ish updates and it is almost September. Wendy Wortox Walter update (Which is technically supposed to be a last year update) and the Hostile Takerover update (if you're counting part 1 & 2 as just one update, which in my opinion, part 1 was so small in my eyes, i only consider it one update)

I'm curious if the slower pace is all happening due to the Tencent acquisition...

Edited August 24, 2025 by Curly Bill

[YouKnowWho142]

1 minute ago, Curly Bill said:

The Wendy Wortox Walter update. A lot of people didn't like how this went. I personally LOVE that the issues with it had feedback, and it was fine-tuned and fixed. Even though that meant throwing out entire things with entire reworks, I think this is how things should be if it's a big change like that.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad it was fine tuned and altered into what it became. My issue is that even with the additional time the original vision was so flawed that it was almost entirely changed which essentially eliminated any of the time spent on the update up to that point. I couldn’t help but feel that if it was the original monthly schedule or if they discussed what they were working on prior to the beta for feedback they would not have needed to have so much time spent on content that was ultimately almost completely thrown out

i should have clarified that better I think

[lowercase skye]

It really is not that bad. Klei is allowed to put out an average update every once in a while and it's not the end of the world.

[This14Real]

6 minutes ago, lowercase skye said:

It really is not that bad. Klei is allowed to put out an average update every once in a while and it's not the end of the world.

Yeah… they sure make us hope for a better next one.

[Mike23Ua]

I know absolutely everyone hates my opinions: but I can pretty much pinpoint when and where DSTs design took a turn for the worst. I will try & keep this as short of a TL:DR as possible.

#1- Klei’s biggest problem: They’re always in a hurry to move onto new content rather than to improve what’s already there.

Which loops into #2- Overly relying on old weapons & tools instead of giving decent uses to the new ones they added later.

I will give a few examples: Forgotten Knowledges- This was a pretty cool update, it had new areas.. new mobs, a puzzle to solve and overall decent addition: However to reach the sealed archives the player only needs to use a standard boring Pickaxe we've been using all this time on a bunch of other parts of the game already. You know what would have been really cool AF though? If we had to find a way to awaken the metal robot centipedes, and then get those to chase after us before rolling into and smashing open an area that only coaxing the centipedes into could open it.

Klei repeats this same mistake with Shadow Rift Mobs: there’s one that literally lobs explosive grenades towards you…. I mean come on already!

Acid rain fills ponds with Nitre, but instead of needing to coax the shadow grenade lobbing mob into throwing grenades on it: you can use the same tried and true Pickaxe to get the job done.

Don’t even get me started on how Moon Quay should’ve been multiple sets of Monkey Islands filling in the empty areas of the ocean with multiple Monkey Biomes, perhaps these could even be locations stollen treasures (x marks the spot) loot got buried to incentivize exploring the biomes of the ocean?

Finally that leads me to #3- Because Klei has clearly seemed to give up on providing any sort of Survival challenges such as the above intentional coaxing of mobs to help the player mine resources that otherwise: Their tools could not help with.. Klei falls back on the tired formula of new fancy (but still mostly pointless…) boss fights who are in a completely optional arena with some obscure means of summoning them with the ONLY reason you’d ever fight them being A: Bragging Rights, or B: Some OP Tool or Base Structure.

Maybe if your really really lucky: The only reason to fight them will be for their stone sculpture sketch..?

My point? DST stopped being a survival game, and became a boss fight simulator.

[Uedo]

50 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

I will give a few examples: Forgotten Knowledges- This was a pretty cool update, it had new areas.. new mobs, a puzzle to solve and overall decent addition: However to reach the sealed archives the player only needs to use a standard boring Pickaxe we've been using all this time on a bunch of other parts of the game already. You know what would have been really cool AF though? If we had to find a way to awaken the metal robot centipedes, and then get those to chase after us before rolling into and smashing open an area that only coaxing the centipedes into could open it.

 

 

You need to defeat CC, you're talking about content that already exists. Archives are great imo, especially the revisit in the post-game.

[SilverSpoon]

That's why about Wendy Skill Tree I told and told to the Forum boys to stop violently inquisitio toward criticism, because it's a slider into community and developer spoil. The result of doing so is uncooked of Wendy's skill tree compared to Walter and Wortox.

And so in the end, "Hostile Takeover" was a uncooked, anticlimactic, and most importantly, rushed update, despite being the end of the Luna quest. And Forum boys still violently inquisitio toward criticism of it.

Unless we change, DST's next golden age will not come.
 

Edited August 25, 2025 by SilverSpoon

[cybers2001]

The past 3 updates definitely weren't for me. Depths of Duplicity fell so short of my expectations that I took a break from the game, and I don't really play Wortox, Wendy, or Walter...

[Swiyss]

5 hours ago, YouKnowWho142 said:

since I know the only thing the rifts offer are bosses I do not want to fight tied to a grind I don't want to do

This is very true, and it seems we HAVE to wait some more development to actually feel great to play in these later stages without the constant feeling of "now what" or "for what reason" creeps at the back of my head. But I also hope it's not only time that will fix things, but Klei resilience and creative standards that I trust TO THIS DAY since they went out to make a cute electrification animation for each monster in the game in the last update.

It's just a matter of time until the developers realize these small problems that turns out are very real and big ones. We definitely need more and more gameplay and testing to fully point out which issues are causing these un-fun end-game experiences.. For me at least..

3 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

If we had to find a way to awaken the metal robot centipedes, and then get those to chase after us before rolling into and smashing open an area that only coaxing the centipedes into could open it.

that sounds super super cool. I wish this was a thing now

[Radicaljoe]

In klei's defense, the first half was rushed because they had some contract with steam to release an update on that week correct?

However, I am somewhat disappointed the second half did not improve on the issues and complaints people had about the first half. I love the electric gates, I like the glass cutter being made worthwhile and useful. But Scion and the loot is still preeeety womp womp stinky. Not to mention the loss of Pearl's island.

[Edible Coal]

7 hours ago, lowercase skye said:

It really is not that bad. Klei is allowed to put out an average update every once in a while and it's not the end of the world.

just because is ok doesnt mean we should just accept them

[Hungry French]

8 hours ago, YouKnowWho142 said:

Следующим было обновление Staying Afloat, которое, несмотря на крайнюю неоднозначность, не вызвало у меня серьёзных проблем. Мои настоящие проблемы начались с обновления Depths of Duplicity, которое мне действительно не понравилось. Обновление обещало исправить ситуацию с пещерами и расширить контент теневого разлома, но в итоге ни то, ни другое не было реализовано из-за добавления ещё одного босса и мини-босса. Это обновление показалось мне особенно вредоносным, поскольку оно не принесло ни столь необходимого обновления для пещер, ни расширения для теневого разлома, из-за чего и то, и другое казалось недоработанным, а это не самое приятное ощущение для обновления, которое должно было готовиться на 2 месяца дольше предыдущего.

Look at DS cave's lol.

Although they looked cooler before the Mega Update.

 

Edited August 25, 2025 by Hungry French

[Mike23Ua]

4 hours ago, Uedo said:

You need to defeat CC, you're talking about content that already exists. Archives are great imo, especially the revisit in the post-game.

No? You do not need to activate the Centipedes and force them to smash into anything.. you can actually walk on the edges of the area and avoid waking most of them up entirely.

What are you talking about?? No where on the Wikipedia does it say anything about needing to force the Centipedes to use their Roll attack to smash into stuff.

I wanted Klei to cleverly use “Wonkey Curse” so the player had to intentionally become a monkey in order to safely enter hostile monkey controlled territories they would otherwise be attacked and most likely killed within &/Or: An exclusive trading economy that requires you disguise as Wonkey to Trade.

Similar to how wearing Bandit Masks in Hamlet allowed you to steal things without being remembered & attacked later.

I accidentally plucked a few flowers from a garden playing hamlet DLC once and those Pig Guards would attempt to unalive me anytime I came back around.. that is behavior and Non-Boss fight related Challenges: That DST is Missing.

[Waywarbler]

I actually liked Depths of Duplicity? Is it weird that I think the shadow rifts feel more fleshed out than the lunar rifts, even with no bosses? The shadow rifts have much more impact on the world, and it's a shame that the lunar rifts have concluded without catching up in terms of how much they change the world. (It's also a real shame cave biomes went completely untouched, other than, I guess the atrium tentacle set-piece can spawn in two of the less interesting ones now?)

I wasn't too interested in the Wendy, Walter, & Wortox skill tree spotlight, mainly because I'm more interested in content updates, but I feel almost as though the brutal beta period for that one has caused things to fall behind schedule. Both phases of Hostile Takeover seemed to suffer from this, releasing in differing states of unfinished. (lunar buzzard )

I'm a bit biased towards bosses honestly. I was pretty hyped for phase 1 and really enjoyed it (although I didn't play much after beating WARBOT in my long world). Phase 2 I wasn't as hyped, but I can't deny how much more impact it's had on the game compared to phase 1. Phase 2 actually got me interested in starting a whole new world just so I could appreciate the changes more in a non-endgame setting.

I'm really excited for the conclusion to the shadow rifts, but also... I'm looking forward to this arc just being finished, and to whatever they have planned beyond From Beyond.

10 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

Klei repeats this same mistake with Shadow Rift Mobs: there’s one that literally lobs explosive grenades towards you…. I mean come on already!

Acid rain fills ponds with Nitre, but instead of needing to coax the shadow grenade lobbing mob into throwing grenades on it: you can use the same tried and true Pickaxe to get the job done.

None of the shadow rift thralls shoot explosives. I guess there's the little crawling bomb the Fused Shadeling drops upon death, but that's more of a little damaging pop. It doesn't do anything to structures. You might(?) be able to use Rasp to destroy the nitre ponds, although I haven't tested that.

Also... it's just nitre. I'm not sure if people bother with the nitre ponds already. If it had the additional hassle of having to wait until the rift/an outcrop spawns close enough so you can lure the thralls into mining the ponds, that'd be way too much for some nitre. Would you prefer if they had to be sliced with the shadow reaper?

[Dwight34]

13 hours ago, YouKnowWho142 said:

I've seen this update become the breaking point for many talented and dedicated DST veterans

That's every single update for the "veterans", they're never happy anyway, and unhappy people always speak way louder than happy people.

12 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

#1- Klei’s biggest problem: They’re always in a hurry to move onto new content rather than to improve what’s already there.

That's fair though, I'd really like an update to reinforce base content that's lacking, especially biome and cave-wise. My biggest issue currently, as someone who really likes spending time in the caves, is how much post-rift caves are punishing and tedious, with Acid Rain happening so often and for so long, huge boulders dropping from the ceiling and never despawning (I advocate for those becoming shadow-infused and so despawning after a while, and having a small chance of giving you dreadstone when mined), and the blobs from the sky that just appear way too much and destroy the nightmare fuel economy to a stupid degree. It's pretty dumb that without any cheese of any kind, just playing the game normally, you can get 200 nightmare fuel in a few minutes. It also removes all their ambush factor if they spawn in every single narrow path, they can't surprise you because you never have time to forget them.

[Uedo]

3 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

No? You do not need to activate the Centipedes and force them to smash into anything.. you can actually walk on the edges of the area and avoid waking most of them up entirely.

What are you talking about?? No where on the Wikipedia does it say anything about needing to force the Centipedes to use their Roll attack to smash into stuff.

I wanted Klei to cleverly use “Wonkey Curse” so the player had to intentionally become a monkey in order to safely enter hostile monkey controlled territories they would otherwise be attacked and most likely killed within &/Or: An exclusive trading economy that requires you disguise as Wonkey to Trade.

Similar to how wearing Bandit Masks in Hamlet allowed you to steal things without being remembered & attacked later.

I accidentally plucked a few flowers from a garden playing hamlet DLC once and those Pig Guards would attempt to unalive me anytime I came back around.. that is behavior and Non-Boss fight related Challenges: That DST is Missing.

You're being oddly specific - You simply want to have centipedes wake up and smash things? Go to the archives one time. Ta-da.

The walking on the edges is a crazy thing to say, since the centipedes can spawn within the tile radius, there is no promise that what you've said is even possible. It would be so unlikely that they spawned in a way where you can do that.

Also, walking on the edges of webbing was fixed, I feel you're conflating the too. 

I think you're also kinda revealing how little you've done it, if ever.

7 hours ago, Radicaljoe said:

In klei's defense, the first half was rushed because they had some contract with steam to release an update on that week correct?

Kleifest? The event where they just organise announcements and put discounts on their games? 

Doubt steam cared to be honest.

[lowercase skye]

23 minutes ago, Uedo said:

The walking on the edges is a crazy thing to say, since the centipedes can spawn within the tile radius, there is no promise that what you've said is even possible. It would be so unlikely that they spawned in a way where you can do that.

What Mike's referring to is an intentional mechanic, I think, I've done the same on almost all my archives visits. The sentry posts that wake up the sentrypedes have a very small range, so if you walk on the edges and break your way through walls, you can navigate through the entire archives without waking a sentrypede. It's a pretty cool little stealth segment, very akin to using the Pig Bandit's mask to avoid the aggro of dangerous mobs! I like it a lot.

[Uedo]

50 minutes ago, lowercase skye said:

What Mike's referring to is an intentional mechanic, I think, I've done the same on almost all my archives visits. The sentry posts that wake up the sentrypedes have a very small range, so if you walk on the edges and break your way through walls, you can navigate through the entire archives without waking a sentrypede. It's a pretty cool little stealth segment, very akin to using the Pig Bandit's mask to avoid the aggro of dangerous mobs! I like it a lot.

Ah ok, I guess they need their range increased then - I tried to do this a minute ago and didn't seem to have the same luck! Not once across 3 sentrypedes *shrug*

[SilverSpoon]

8 hours ago, Radicaljoe said:

In klei's defense, the first half was rushed because they had some contract with steam to release an update on that week correct?

1 hour ago, Uedo said:

Kleifest? The event where they just organise announcements and put discounts on their games? 

Doubt steam cared to be honest.

The Klei fest 2024 was on June 21, 2024, but the major update for that "Staying Afloat," was on June 28, 2024, so if there was no contract renewal or anything from this year,  there was no need to time the major update for Klei fest. Anyway, I haven't been able to confirm why they rushed update to the day of Klei Fest this year.

[Uedo]

1 minute ago, SilverSpoon said:

The Klei fest 2024 was on June 21, 2024, but the major update for that "Staying Afloat," was on June 28, 2024, so if there was no contract renewal or anything from this year,  there was no need to time the major update for Klei fest. Anyway, I haven't been able to confirm why they rushed update to the day of Klei Fest this year.

We're talking 2025.

That's kinda my point - I think in their wording they said something about needing to get something out for steam before kleifest. 

What they meant was they had forecasted that this would be done before Klei-fest, so whether it was ready or not, they pushed it out. It'll be around internal expectations, nothing to do with steam - I agree with you

[Jakepeng99]

15 hours ago, YouKnowWho142 said:

I know I'm largely late to discussion on this update, but I wanted to wait to see if my opinion on it would be any different, and it really hasn't changed at all since i first heard about it, if anything it's only gotten worse. I'm sorry if it comes off as me doomposting or contributing to a certain negativity around DST, but I've seen this update become the breaking point for many talented and dedicated DST veterans, and it is sad to say that it has become my breaking point too. Please forgive me in advance for my long post, this comes from a place of passion and not malice and is months in the making.

I've always largely defended DST's current direction. The survival aspect of the game I always found to be inherently easy due to my 1000+ hours of experience, and although survival is one of my favorite genres one of the biggest issues with it has always been that they rely a lot on the mystery surrounding them and learning how to survive. Once you learn how to survive and do it consistently, a lot of survival mechanics can become a chore, and when I introduced the game to friends they'd often become bored after roughly 10 days when it starts to become clear we have so much food and safety that we can no longer die. That is, until I introduce them to bosses. DST became significantly more replayable and also improved its longevity by instead focusing a lot on the combat aspect, giving you an incentive to come back on new runs once you have already mastered the survival aspect to further the mystery through progression. I liked that skill trees gave more expression to characters by letting you have some control over how you play them, and I especially liked the idea of the rifts as a way to refresh worlds and bosses. Host of Horrors was extremely exciting to me, seeing old bosses and mobs come back with new forms along with new world effects is exactly what I wanted out of these updates and was what I was hoping I'd be able to see more of.

After a while though, it became clear that was no longer the focus. Scrappy Scavengers was the first bad omen, choosing to focus neither on lunar or shadow despite still being tied to rift content that was painfully incomplete on both sides, focusing on a boss and some weak items that came with it. It was around this time also that Klei had announced that they'd be taking it slower to have updates focused on higher quality, and that's great! Having less frequent updates gave Klei more breathing room and reduced any time crunch, while also ensuring the players received higher quality content (these will both be important later). It should've been a win for everyone. Staying Afloat was next, which although extremely divisive I didn't have any major issues with. My true issues start with Depths of Duplicity, the first update I truly didn't like. The update promised a fix to the caves and an expansion to the shadow rift content, but then proceeded to fail to flesh out either of them as a result of adding yet another boss and a miniboss. This update I found particularly harmful, as it failed to give the major refresh the caves desperately needed as well as the expansion the shadow rift needed which caused both to feel half baked, which is not a great feeling to have for an update that was supposed to be in the oven for 2 months longer than the previous one.

And then there was the infamous skill tree update for Wendy, Walter, and Wortox. I won't go into much detail due to how much it's been discussed, but an update planned for december was pushed until almost March. For reference, from the release of DoD to the release of this update, it took roughly 6 months, meaning this effectively took 2 update cycles. Almost all of the work done in those first three months was completely thrown out and overhauled, and this update has been noticeably haunting DST even today seeing as the roadmap for the year needed to be delayed to September, the end of the third Quarter. 

Which brings me to Hostile Takeover. To me, this update features everything wrong with rift content that has become present especially recently. Both rifts have always felt half baked since their creation, and the excuse for this is that they planned to get more content over time. I did like Host of Horrors since it focused on adding a unique twist on content that already existed through how the world was altered, making it feel like the world has really seen a sense of progression. Hostile Takeover completely went against everything I liked in previous rift updates, and although I hate to say it, the issue lied mostly with Wagstaff and the game's story overlapping with the gameplay. Instead of taking that unique premise of world progression present with the rifts, the update instead focuses on progressing Wagstaff's story by performing more tasks for him. For how late in the game this is, these tasks are extremely unenjoyable and makes the endgame even more of a slog. I was always patient with Pearl's quests since I knew it built up to something and wasn't too late into progression, but it can easily take the average player upwards of 20+ hours just to get to a point where they have to grind tons of cut stone and scraps and other resources (assuming the average player would even have a chance to get to this point of the game without checking the wiki, which to me is a cardinal sin of survival games). All of this buildup, only for a reused version of the celestial champion to fight? Thank goodness they didn't go with needing enlightened shards for the gestalt catchers which would've meant killing cc upwards of 3 times, but that still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth of the amount of grind that Klei is expecting from players at this point in the game. Aside from that and focusing on the WARBOT, I know it's hit or miss but I really dislike both the WARBOT and the scion. I really, really wanted the lunar content to focus on the lunar aspect of the game, but as it stands the so called "final boss" of the lunar rifts is a robot you built on an arena you created, whose final form is ultimately just a gestalt with a bundle of wires floating around, and while I mean no offense to the designers it just never came off to me as climactic or interesting in the same way Celestial Champion or Fuelweaver ever did. It almost felt like Hostile Takeover was more focused on progressing the story than enhancing the gameplay, which has been a recurring theme in many of these updates.

This isn't to mention the drops and world effects. Scion's main drop is the celestial jewels, an "upgrade" to the celestial crown that strangely adds a downside through the newly spawning inimical gestalts. In practice, most people either don't insert all the jewels to prevent the nauseating lunacy effect and gestalts or so that they can maintain the color changing abilities of the crown. The only world changes are to accommodate Wagstaff's disappearance following the scion's defeat, meaning there is no meaningful world progression either. Now, it is just a rift update that doesn't actually put any focus on the rifts but rather a centerpiece boss with underwhelming drops and a major grind. The only other additions were quality of life or the trader which was a relatively small feature.

The final nail in the coffin to me was that a Hostile Takeover Phase 2 was ever necessary. It makes both parts feel very rushed, and it really begs the question of what the playerbase is actually getting out of 3 month wait periods between updates if there is no notable quality or quantity increase while updates are still needing to be rushed out. While I still feel this was the healthiest option overall as I'm sure it is far less stressful on Klei to put out an update every month, that wait easily adds to the impact of each update of which every update since they've spaced them out have consistently been the most controversial, most discussed, and in honestly almost least impactful updates for the average player.

At this time, I can no longer defend rift content, or even DST's current direction as a whole. It is easy to tell they're frantically trying to wrap it up so they can patch the holes later down the line, but the consequence to that is that now every new addition feels super undercooked. Every new boss is locked behind so much grind and tedium for so little reward that I have no real incentive to ever want to interact with anything post rift, since I know the only thing the rifts offer are bosses I do not want to fight tied to a grind I don't want to do, especially not more than once which defeats the point of what I enjoyed so much the combat aspect in its replayability. It's a shame that the rifts couldn't focus more on how unleashing those powers would change the world, something that the shadow rifts had started to expand on but the lunar rifts could never follow. This uncompromising survival experience now has more bosses than Terraria, and while I was always fine with bosses it has become way too much and having them consistently be used as the primary focus of every update has only brought fatigue. The extended wait on every update only brings higher expectations that in my opinion has never been lived up to. I really do hope the game is able to slow down after the final From Beyond update and focus on taking a new approach for the game. I have always been more casual with games, i typically avoid game communities since I tend to want to have my own views on a game and how it feels for myself, but even as someone who initially disagreed with a lot of community sentiments I can no longer say that I've enjoyed the game's current focus. 

To be clear, I really don't mean any ill will towards Klei, I think Klei is very talented and hardworking and they've always tried to do what's best for players, otherwise they never would have done things such as all the changes to the skill tree updates. I do think the game is in a very rough and negative state, but even as someone who advocated for the combat of this game I believe it has been taken too far and should be turned instead to the game's core survival mechanics and exploration. I know I am far from the only person to share some of these views, but I wanted to make clear how I view what the game has become. I know this was long winded, but these are thoughts I've been holding for months that I felt was important to share. Here's to hoping for DST's next golden age.

I completely agree, this is a big post but every word was worth reading. Probably the best complaining post so far. Hostile Takeover Part 2 was the best update we got in ages ironically that left meaningful impact. They need more survival challenges like the ruins and ect, they are way more fun than bosses.

Edited August 25, 2025 by Jakepeng99

[SilverSpoon]

8 minutes ago, Uedo said:

We're talking 2025.

That's kinda my point - I think in their wording they said something about needing to get something out for steam before kleifest. 

What they meant was they had forecasted that this would be done before Klei-fest, so whether it was ready or not, they pushed it out. It'll be around internal expectations, nothing to do with steam - I agree with you

What I mean is that last year’s update was just an example, and there was no need to time it with Klei Fest like this year. But yeah my English is good old crap.

It would be a sad if Klei had chosen to release it at Klei Fest... It was blatantly WIP at the time of release, and parts of it are still unfinished now.

[Uedo]

26 minutes ago, SilverSpoon said:

What I mean is that last year’s update was just an example, and there was no need to time it with Klei Fest like this year. But yeah my English is good old crap.

It would be a sad if Klei had chosen to release it at Klei Fest... It was blatantly WIP at the time of release, and parts of it are still unfinished now.

No, no you're fine - I getcha, It's too warm and i'm very tired, was probably me just not understanding something obvious haha

[-Variant]

A lot of my gripes were well summarized here.

I'm glad the Depths of Duplicity update was mention, that one seriously hurt. For it being a cave update, it didn't really tackle any of the caves problems.

It's super depressing seeing the amount of older folks leaving due to this update. A few great modders decided to call it quits on this one specifically, which is a beyond painful motivation hit.

Also uh, still don't like Scion at all. Not one bit. Love Warbot though, my beloved. Just wish... the drones were... good. Ahaha....