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After a rocky start with server issues, Wayfinder's Early Access is finally playable for all founders without having to go through long queue times. The game contains over 50 hours of content to chew through in its current state. That being said, the level of polish leaves much to be desired in its Early Access build. Leaving the server stability issues aside, the title still has a long way to go to be feature-complete.
Thankfully, developers Airship Syndicate and Digital Extremes have a transparent roadmap leading up to and beyond Wayfinder's full release. By the time the game comes out of Early Access, we will likely have most, if not all, of these features implemented in some way. Even though these are not game-changing on on their own, together they can really prove the hidden potential of this new MMO-lite.
Note: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's views.
Top 5 upcoming features in Wayfinder's roadmap for full release
1) Mounts
There are currently two open overworld landscapes in Wayfinder: Highlands and Deepwood Holt. The former itself is quite large, comparable in size to Plains of Eidolon from Warframe. On the other hand, Deepwood Holt's lategame Lost Zones are a demonstration of how big the game's procedurally generated dungeons can be.
Early on, the unique locations and gripping visual style of the Highlands keep things fresh. However, this is an area you will backtrack through innumerable times for sidequests, hunting down beasts for their echoes, and engaging in open-world boss events.
While the Highlands has its scattered zipline networks to cut some travel time, the issue is greatly exacerbated in the dull snow-peaked valleys of Reaver Woods. A mount, alongside other mobility mechanics, would help greatly in making things bearable here.
2) Account-wide progression ramps
The difficulty of the average Wayfinder dungeon-delving experience depends on the relative Power Level between the Wayfinder and its equipments against the recommended level of the area.
Currently, the affinity system, accessories, and echoes allow you to drip-feed extra power levels with defensive and offensive stat growth. However, there are other non-vertical avenues of progress that the game will feature during release.
Comparable to Warframe's Mastery Rank, the number of characters and weapons you unlock will give you a sense of account-wide progress with Account Levels. While this is more for display purposes, the more functional benefits can be found in the upcoming Armory Level feature.
Armory Level encourages diversity of playstyle by egging you on to try out new weapons. Each one that you rank to max level (30) will increase Armory Level, which in turn is a power-up for the base capabilities of all the current and future firearms you will use.
3) Awakening and Archetype skills
While Armory Levels make all weapons more viable, the Awakening system is aimed at bolstering the potential ceiling for individual characters and weapons.
Wayfinders and weapons can be crafted as many times as needed as long as you have the materials and diagrams. The Awakening system lets you channel duplicate copies of these into creating Awakening Stones. These can then be added to the original character or weapon to Awaken them, adding yet another way to increase power level.
The added power level comes both as direct stats as well as echo slot and capacity for greater build flexibility. Unlike other ways to increase power level, this is also infinitely repeatable, albeit at exorbitant resource costs over repeat Awakenings.
On the other hand, the Archetype skills add some more mechanical flexibility in how players want to play their Wayfinder. Akin to the Helminth system in Warframe, this adds a new ability slot where you have complete freedom to select between different abilities within the Wayfinder's Archetype.
4) Raids
Wayfinder currently has over a dozen bosses, but most of them are accesssed through Hunts, or individual boss encounters within Lost Zones. Barring some creature minibosses faced in a Huntmaster sidequest, there are only three overworld bosses in the Highlands open world: Night's Maw, Dire Prophecy, and Talon of Pyre.
Save for Talon of Pyre, they are actually easier compared to some of the Lost Zone bosses such as Storm Twins and Dread Legion. Even though they can be tackled by more than three players, they fall short of true raids.
Airship Syndicate is planning to add future content that will be more reminiscent of classic large-scale raids, a staple in MMORPGs. The developer has not shared specifics, but these raids will be Hunts that override the 3-player co-op limit, and may include showdowns against other Wayfinders.
5) Neighbourhoods
Wayfinder's Early Access includes a player home with a handy share of decorative and functional furnisihing options. An Apartment in the Bitter End tavern in the hub city Skylight, the player home is your own personal space that you can rearrange as you please.
The current iteration of the system is quite barebones when compared to what the developers have in store for the future. Rather than a single-player housing, Wayfinder will have small neighbourhoods with both individual player housing as well as shared community space.
Neighbourhoods will likely also be tied to player guilds and guild quests, and also come with a larger player room for you to decorate. This also means more space for artifacts, which directly translates to more power. There may also be crafting furnitures in the future, which will eliminate your need to rely on various scattered NPCs in the Market Row.
