The new teleportation station will NOT work as intended

[Mit_Mit_Mit]

After testing the latest beta, I became interested in the new mechanic that’s supposedly meant to be a temporary reward for completing the current stage of the update.

Here’s the thing: after defeating the huge column-like enemies, the player gets access to a new item - orbs. You can polish these orbs to get something useful - a substitute for purple gems at teleportation stations, so you don’t have to spend 3 purple gems per teleport. Cool! The cost of these structures has always been very high, and since they weren’t particularly useful, they were never very popular among players. This change definitely lowers the barrier to using them, but…

Killing 4 huge enemies with 6,000 HP each for maybe 3 built teleports - and then another 4 of those enemies just to be able to teleport to each of those three teleports about 10 times… I’d rather just walk.

I’d understand if they worked like the shark’s drop - allowing teleportation anywhere on the map without needing to build teleport stations (though even that, considering the enemies you have to defeat, would still be disproportionate to the effort) - but they don’t.

As shortcuts, they might work as intended only in the caves: to the Fuelweaver, maybe the ruins, and back. In all other cases, it's simply too expensive to use such a hard-to-acquire (and hard-to-unlock) item.

In my opinion, it would be way more interesting if these orb teleports could be linked together like in the archives maze - allowing you to build a network of them to key locations. That would finally reduce the heavy RNG dependency of map generation, and give players a new endgame goal: building travel routes to the places they need most.

Given the potential benefit (just the ability to shorten travel time) and the cost (defeating 4 GIGANTIC HP enemies for about 3 teleports) - that would be well worth it, without adding tedious chores, and would provide a decent reward for hard work.

[Waywarbler]

I believe the golems dropping orb fragments is only temporary? We'll get them from somewhere else later on.

On 5/28/2026 at 8:37 PM, V2C said:

What’s to come

• The loot that drops from the new Sanctum encounter in this first release is not finalized.  We have plans to tie those to Portation Orbs, and have another unique loot drop instead.

[Jussatoon]

2 minutes ago, Waywarbler said:

I believe the golems dropping orb fragments is only temporary? We'll get them from somewhere else later on.

Just another instance of someone not reading update posts in their entirety, honestly. 

Edited May 31 by Jussatoon

[Maxil20]

I think its important to note that the source of the orb shards is temporary, and is likely to be swapped out for a different (and hopefully easier) sustainable source (thank you @Waywarbler, was about to post that before I refreshed the page!)

Regarding the current mechanics, I personally really like how they work; a popular request, for a very long time, was a way to reliably point warp torwards any telelocator focus on the map. It feels nice to finally have that idea come to fruition, especially for long term worlds. I also like how difficult building the network is. It shouldn’t be cheap, especially since having a few grants significantly higher flexibility for a given player. Even it’s current worst case scenario (warping to one perma loaded focus via a telelocator staff) can significantly cut down on return trips to a base or certain point of interest you frequent, and I do think the value of that cannot be understated (especially if you also factor Pearl’s own warp into the equation once it’s accessible!)

I do think the current issue, as you mentioned, is the cost to warp to the points of an established network. I do think thats a little too steep at the moment. I would personally remove the association of the broken shards being made into the refined ones entirely, and instead make the warp stones craftable with thulecite/moonrock (and maybe some other third material? The shards are not that big though…). I am specifically mentioning these two resources in particular as they are coveted midgame materials that fall off significantly once rifts start. It would be cool to have a lategame sink for these that isn’t tied to decor that would improve the day to day experience!

[Mit_Mit_Mit]

2 hours ago, Jussatoon said:

Just another instance of someone not reading update posts in their entirety, honestly. 

Before replying to post, you should have done what you're accusing me of - actually read it.

"…new mechanic that's supposedly meant to be a temporary reward for completing the current stage of the update."

I don't know what the final implementation of the Orb mechanic will look like, but what makes you think I can't comment on its current form? I wasn't talking about a future update - I was talking about the current one and how everything works in it right now.

2 hours ago, Maxil20 said:

I think its important to note that the source of the orb shards is temporary, and is likely to be swapped out for a different (and hopefully easier) sustainable source (thank you @Waywarbler, was about to post that before I refreshed the page!)

Regarding the current mechanics, I personally really like how they work; a popular request, for a very long time, was a way to reliably point warp torwards any telelocator focus on the map. It feels nice to finally have that idea come to fruition, especially for long term worlds. I also like how difficult building the network is. It shouldn’t be cheap, especially since having a few grants significantly higher flexibility for a given player. Even it’s current worst case scenario (warping to one perma loaded focus via a telelocator staff) can significantly cut down on return trips to a base or certain point of interest you frequent, and I do think the value of that cannot be understated (especially if you also factor Pearl’s own warp into the equation once it’s accessible!)

I do think the current issue, as you mentioned, is the cost to warp to the points of an established network. I do think thats a little too steep at the moment. I would personally remove the association of the broken shards being made into the refined ones entirely, and instead make the warp stones craftable with thulecite/moonrock (and maybe some other third material? The shards are not that big though…). I am specifically mentioning these two resources in particular as they are coveted midgame materials that fall off significantly once rifts start. It would be cool to have a lategame sink for these that isn’t tied to decor that would improve the day to day experience!

Yeah, I think that's also a good idea - to make them craftable!

[Kacpert25]

2 hours ago, Mit_Mit_Mit said:

I don't know what the final implementation of the Orb mechanic will look like

It's highly likely that you'll need to mine up a portation orb to get orb fragments.

There are 7 of these orbs per Sanctum. So if they have the same drop rate as the current Towers (2-3), you'll be able to get 14-21 per Sanctum.

[Jakepeng99]

5 hours ago, Mit_Mit_Mit said:

After testing the latest beta, I became interested in the new mechanic that’s supposedly meant to be a temporary reward for completing the current stage of the update.

Here’s the thing: after defeating the huge column-like enemies, the player gets access to a new item - orbs. You can polish these orbs to get something useful - a substitute for purple gems at teleportation stations, so you don’t have to spend 3 purple gems per teleport. Cool! The cost of these structures has always been very high, and since they weren’t particularly useful, they were never very popular among players. This change definitely lowers the barrier to using them, but…

Killing 4 huge enemies with 6,000 HP each for maybe 3 built teleports - and then another 4 of those enemies just to be able to teleport to each of those three teleports about 10 times… I’d rather just walk.

I’d understand if they worked like the shark’s drop - allowing teleportation anywhere on the map without needing to build teleport stations (though even that, considering the enemies you have to defeat, would still be disproportionate to the effort) - but they don’t.

As shortcuts, they might work as intended only in the caves: to the Fuelweaver, maybe the ruins, and back. In all other cases, it's simply too expensive to use such a hard-to-acquire (and hard-to-unlock) item.

In my opinion, it would be way more interesting if these orb teleports could be linked together like in the archives maze - allowing you to build a network of them to key locations. That would finally reduce the heavy RNG dependency of map generation, and give players a new endgame goal: building travel routes to the places they need most.

Given the potential benefit (just the ability to shorten travel time) and the cost (defeating 4 GIGANTIC HP enemies for about 3 teleports) - that would be well worth it, without adding tedious chores, and would provide a decent reward for hard work.

You can still use the tele locator staff to teleport to them btw which is way cheaper.

Using the orb just gives you better control of where.

[Mit_Mit_Mit]

3 hours ago, Kacpert25 said:

It's highly likely that you'll need to mine up a portation orb to get orb fragments.

There are 7 of these orbs per Sanctum. So if they have the same drop rate as the current Towers (2-3), you'll be able to get 14-21 per Sanctum.

Maybe, but that's just speculation for now. My issue isn't really with the quantity, but with how they function in their current state.

2 hours ago, Jakepeng99 said:

You can still use the tele locator staff to teleport to them btw which is way cheaper.

Using the orb just gives you better control of where.

To be honest, that's actually the best thing these orbs offer right now, but unfortunately, that doesn't change the fact that:

1. The telelocator staff doesn't work in the caves.

2. Using fewer gems still doesn't make teleports good - it just makes them less of a hassle to maintain.

And the problem with the orbs remains - you can only really use them in a very limited way. Considering the fact that you can simply walk to any point on the map - in their current form, actively using them is just too expensive. You'll spend more time farming them than you'll save by using them.

[Jakepeng99]

54 minutes ago, Mit_Mit_Mit said:

To be honest, that's actually the best thing these orbs offer right now, but unfortunately, that doesn't change the fact that:

1. The telelocator staff doesn't work in the caves.

2. Using fewer gems still doesn't make teleports good - it just makes them less of a hassle to maintain.

These are workable issues, people have already thought of ways to make telelocators work. There are methods to do so.