Greetings, Adventurers! With our 0.21.0 update, step into the lessons woven into a community that arrives soon with Season of Passage. Days of Nature also comes ashore, as well as a new spell, plus a slew of bug fixes and other changes.

 

Season of Passage

New pathways beckon you to tread forward when Sky’s newest Season begins. Experience the memories of four young Spirits in Isle of Dawn, and share in the passages that brought them together as they navigate their way towards community. Join the community around you in turn to uncover the story of the Season as it unfolds through Seasonal Quests.

Each quest is a rite of passage to complete with the Season’s Spirits. They can all be completed independently, but from the second quest onwards, quests are held with large groups of players together, each held at set intervals several times per hour. You can gather in advance with others while the countdown to a rite begins.

Season of Passage begins at 00:00 April 17th and continues until 23:59 June 25th (all times PDT, UTC -7).

The full Season can be enjoyed for free by all players who have progressed through at least Hidden Forest. Season Pass holders will also have the opportunity to unlock additional seasonal cosmetics, including the Ultimate Gifts.

To read more about the Season and get a peek at some of the cosmetics it will offer, see our recent blog post!

 

Days of Nature

From 00:00 April 20th until 23:59 May 7th, Days of Nature is back! Across nearly three weeks of this event, celebrate with a new story and friends in the Sanctuary Islands, and share ways to connect that story with real-world efforts making the waters we all share cleaner and healthier.

Talk to the Nature Guide Spirit in Home to teleport to one of the islands in the Sanctuary area. There you can lend aid to a new Light Creature and follow it across the waves to a location where debris and other darkness from Sky’s other realms has accumulated.

Complete quests to clear out the affected area and earn a bit of Light. These will remain in the game through the Daily Quest rotation after the event ends.

And, like in previous years, 2023’s Days of Nature event will again offer special IAP to support charity efforts focused on real-world ocean cleanup work.

A little more than half of the total list price of items listed here will be donated to The Ocean Cleanup. The remaining amount will cover platform fees and a portion of development. (Platform fees: the amount that all developers are charged for each sale on platforms such as the Apple App Store, Google Play, etc. Development: includes operations, taxes, and post-event refunds.)

  • Nature Glasses Pack: $19.99 (all prices USD)
    • A toggle for these sunglasses can add a bluer tint to the world around you
    • As a token of gratitude in return, 75 regular Candles are included with the purchase of this charity pack
    • $10: donated to charity
  • Nature Sonorous Seashell: $4.99
    • This placeable item has a toggle to play relaxing ocean sound effects
    • $2.50: donated to charity
  • Nature Turtle Pack: $19.99 (returning item)
    • As a token of gratitude in return, 75 regular Candles are included with the purchase of this charity pack
    • $10: donated to charity
  • Ocean Cape: $14.99 (returning item)
    • $7.50: donated to charity
  • Earth Cape: $4.99 (returning item)
    • $2.50: donated to charity
  • Ocean Necklace: $1.99 (returning item)
    • $1.00: donated to charity

 

The sea shell and glasses pack are this year’s new items—they’ll be in the in-game shop menu. Items returning from previous years will be available from the Friendship Tree of Chill Sunbather Spirit who will be walking around the beach where the Nature Guide Spirit is waiting in Sanctuary.

We’re calculating the amount to donate to charity a little differently this year compared to last year. Our hope is that it’s easier to understand in advance the amount of each purchase that will be donated, and allow us to update the community more quickly with the final results. We expect that the overall proportion of proceeds donated to charity should be at least the same as previous years, if not a bit higher.

Players can also choose from several items for in-game currency (IGC) or for regular purchase as souvenirs of the event. (Please note that these are not charity items.)

  • New this year—Nature School Cape: 180 Candles
    • An asymmetrical cape featuring a partially transparent motif
  • Nature Coral Crown Accessory: 20 Hearts (returning item)
  • Nature Turtle Cape: $14.99 (returning item)

The IGC items can be found in the Friendship Tree of the Nature Guide Spirit in Home or in Sanctuary. For those interested in the Turtle Cape, talk to the Chill Sunbather Spirit who will be walking around the Nature Guide’s hangout spot in Sanctuary.

Free trial spells for all cosmetics can be found near the Nature Guide Spirit in Sanctuary, and from the Sleepy Traveling Merchant in Home.

For more details on the event, charity items, and other ways to make a positive impact on ocean pollution, check out our blog post about this year’s Days of Nature event!

[Edit] April 13: Updated quest description.

More Updates

  • A Do Not Disturb spell has been introduced to the game. One per week is available for free. After that, a set number of single spells or a spell “bundle” each month can be obtained from the Spell Shop in exchange for regular Candles. When the spell is active, if a friend tries to teleport to a player through the Friendship Constellations, a dialog box will appear to let them know that the player has used this spell and would prefer to play alone. The friend can then choose whether or not to continue teleporting to the player. Known Issue: An icon indicating a player is using this spell will appear over their avatar’s head when their Friendship Menu is opened, but not when the menu is closed.

Developer Note: With this new spell, we realize it works differently from what some might assume at first glance. Instead of creating a different version of a hard “block,” we’ve tried to account for some of the requests players have sent us to make it easier to spend 1-on-1 time with a friend or perhaps alone, while also keeping a balance with Sky’s core structure as a social game. In the meantime we plan to keep improving this feature in a future update, so we should have more to share before too long.

  • We’ve updated the kind of objects that social spells like Message Boats, Shared Spaces, and Shared Memories cannot be placed close to. These include the Return Shrine in Home, Winged Light, Social Light spots like the pool of the polluted geyser, the broken bridges in Hidden Forest, Dark Plants, Candles, and Shard Eruptions. We also updated the distance around closets in which Shared Spaces and Shared Memory spells can't be placed.

  • As mentioned above, the sunglasses mask that comes with the Nature Glasses Pack has a toggle to add a blue tint to what you see. We wanted this feature to be inclusive of other existing glasses-type items, so the Season of Sanctuary sunglasses and Days of Feast goggles have a similar toggle that can be enabled when worn.

 

Improvements and Bug Fixes in this update include:

Highlights:

  • Avatar able to move while forging Candles or Hearts.
  • Added more music sheets to the music sheet challenge rotation in Harmony Hall.
  • Cutscenes for reliving Spirit memories should be skippable, as well as most of the cutscenes in the Daylight Prairie Village area.
  • Fix for a bug that in certain cases would cause a player teleporting to a friend to appear in the beginning of a level instead of where their friend is.

 

Want to know more about some other fixes in this patch? Find further details below!

 

General Fixes and Improvements:

  • [PlayStation] Fixed cases of Crab Courier achievement being awarded instantly.
  • In order to improve new player experience, Return Shrines in the levels that take players back to Home have been removed. The return option in the emote and settings menus remains unchanged.

Developer Note: What we saw over time was that these shrines would confuse new players. They’d try them out but then be sent back to Home without expecting it, which could be pretty disorienting. The other two return methods should still handle all Home return needs well, though!

  • Added a prompt to open doors in the Secret Area accessible from the Vault of Knowledge for players on console or using controllers.
  • Updated which prompts are given selection priority when using a controller.
  • Player won’t be damaged by rain if they are in a cutscene or otherwise not in control of the camera.
  • During hide and seek, players are no longer teleported to the ground when the hider is found while flying.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause players to be blown back into the Wind Paths when entering from Hermit Valley in Valley of Triumph.
  • Smoother entrance from Wind Paths to Isle of Dawn and Daylight Prairie.
  • Fixed a bug allowing Crab Rock Trick and Candle Trick spells to be active at the same time.
  • Fixed cases of teleport spells not teleporting friends handholding the player who activated the spell.
  • When using a controller, using the fireworks icon with the fireworks now immediately launches fireworks instead of entering placeable mode.
  • The Mischief Cat does have anger issues, but we had a conversation with them about respecting boundaries—specifically Shared Space boundaries. Now, players outside a Space this cat is placed in aren't affected by it.
  • Fixed a bug that caused avatars to put their candle away when performing certain actions.
  • Shared Space spells cannot be placed in bounds of a Shared Space shrine, to prevent the player getting stuck when doing so.
  • When placing the Days of Love Gondola, it now remains as it’s positioned until exiting edit mode.
  • Fixed a bug allowing the STAR pin effect for the playfight emote to be offered to strangers and friends who have lost all light.
  • When using the Manta pin STAR feature, the call effect can be used from a less restrictive distance.
  • Fixed a bug that could force the effects of teleporting items on other players. A confirmation menu now appears for a player to accept or decline being teleported by object such as the Little Prince Asteroid Jacket cape or Wings of AURORA cape.
  • Various fixes for haptics.
  • After an eventful few months, the rock decided that a peaceful picnic might be exactly what they needed. They found a picturesque spot near some ruins, where children and spirits played in a field of flowers. Friends spent time together eating treats and sipping tea, while the butterflies brought joy to everyone around them. With a happy sigh, the rock decided to stay a while longer before setting out on their next journey.

 

Graphics & Visuals

  • Removed certain text in the final sequence of Eye of Eden, since its message has been communicated through other aspects of the game.
  • Fixed missing glow on an NPC in one of the areas of Eye of Eden.
  • When strangers’ avatars are unlit, the silhouette of the capes they’re wearing while a shadow will appear as the standard cape shape, regardless of the shape of the specific cape being worn. (This is similar to the way that the shape of hairstyles isn’t seen until lighting up another player.)

Developer Note: We hope this will encourage more equal treatment of all players without making judgments before even meeting a fellow Sky kid.

  • Fixed the Season of Remembrance crab and manta plushies being extremely bright in some cave areas.
  • Icon above players outside a Shared Space you're in changed from teleport icon to exit icon.
  • Reduced the distance at which the join hint for a Shared Space will appear.
  • To exit viewing a Shared Space, the previous confirmation dialog has been updated to a button press.
  • Avatars using carry (piggyback) emote no longer misaligned when entering the Wind Paths from another level through cloud tunnels.
  • Head and hair accessories scale properly when using Huge and Grow spells.
  • Players can jam with Spirits in Harmony Hall as long as they want without being disrupted by things like errant camera angles.
  • Camera angle is no longer too close to the ground when opening the Friendship Tree of a Traveling Spirit, when the Spirit is lower than the player.
  • For extra super stealth, when using the Candle Trick spell, visual effects from emotes no longer appear above the terrain.
  • Fixed Ultimate Gift pot hat from Assembly that made it seem to wave in the wind.
  • Fixed Ultimate Masks from constellation Elders not appearing lit when viewed by other players.
  • Fix for text not rendering on some Android devices.
  • Translation corrections for French and Japanese.
  • Credits updates.
  • Crash fixes.

 

 

Please refer to this page for known issues ongoing or introduced with this patch: Known Issues Patch 0.21.0.


As always, we look forward to hearing your feedback, and encourage you to join us in that discussion on our official Discord server at discord.gg/thatskygame!