Gaming

New major Fields of Mistria patch out now, adds romance and animal mounts

Let’s get riding!

Nov 18, 2024, 8:30 PM UTC

Image: NPC Studio

Nicole Carpenter is a senior reporter specializing in investigative features about labor issues in the game industry, as well as the business and culture of games.

Fields of Mistria’s first big patch is out Monday, adding romance, dating, and rideable animals to the popular farming and life simulator. It’s developer NPC Studio’s first major update for the game, which was released in early access in August. The game, despite its in-development status, is already quite large — and the first major patch packs even more into the experience.

Alongside romance —which increases NPC heart levels up to six, which is when you can romance a character — Fields of Mistria also has new monsters in the mines (with new cosmetic drops), a new festival called the Shooting Star Festival, a new town cap level, rideable animal mounts, increased skill caps, and a bunch of cosmetic and customizable details.

A few other cute notes: New rainy day music has been added to the game, Hayden’s Farm now has roaming animals, and there’s a mine monster that mimics a treasure chest.

I’m personally most excited that players can ride on animals now, which looks like an increase from the walk speed — helpful given how fast the days can go by! — and automatically harvests crops that are ran through.

What’s next after this update? Per the Fields of Mistria roadmap, players can expect cap levels to continue to get increased, with romance adding up to marriage and kids, as well as more mine and dungeon biomes, quests, festivals, and more. NPC Studio expects the game to be in early access for one year “with regular content updates.”

Here are the patch notes, straight from NPC Studio:

[Highlights]

Romanceable’s Six Heart Events have been added.
Rideable mounts and mount-specific Skill Perks have been added. Note: The “Upgrade Hayden’s Barn” quest must be finished in order to unlock the Mount Questline.
The Shooting Star Festival on Summer 28 has been added.Note: To experience the date aspect of the festival, the “Beautification Project” quest must be completed. To invite a Romanceable NPC, their Heart Level must be 4+.
Two new home upgrades are now available.
21 new Tier 4 Skill Perks have been added (see [New Features] for more details).
A new special type of Request Board request called “Crown Requests” has been added (see [New Features] for more details).
New museum sets and rewards have been added for the Insect, Archaeology, and Fish wings.
Saturday Market vendors (Louis, Vera, and Merri) have new items in stock.
Two new monsters can be found in the Mines - the Essence Bat and the Mimic.

[New Features]

🎮 Gameplay

The Renown level cap has been raised from 50 to 70, with new rewards to obtain.
All skills can now be leveled up to level 45, unlocking 21 new Tier 4 perks: 2 Archaeology, 3 Farming, 3 Fishing, 3 Ranching, 3 Cooking, 3 Woodcrafting, 1 Blacksmithing, 2 Combat, 1 Mining. Some notable highlights:- [Mining] Lost to History: Ritual Chamber rooms can now spawn in the Mines. These rooms contain new collectible items.- [Ranching] The Bell Tolls: Unlocks the Big Bell item, which calls in/out all animals on the farm when used.- [Farming] Sickle Sword: Unlock to use your sword to harvest crops quickly.- [Crafting] Deliberate Debris: Farm debris will spawn 50% less often.
🌼 One new Tier 3 Ranching Skill Perk has been added:- Wind Down: The Mill Time for all mill recipes will be reduced by 10 minutes.
Crown Requests: After achieving Town Rank Sapphire (Lv 50), special Request Board quests called “Crown Requests” will begin appearing once a week. These requests reward more Renown than a regular request.
25 new requests have been added to the Request Board.
Monsters in the Mines each have a rare chance of dropping a new cosmetic item.
Large Barns and Large Coops will now become available to purchase at Ranching Lvl 40.

✨ QOL

🌼 Perks can now be enabled and disabled from the Dragon Shrine menu.
New default hairstyles have been added.
A big stone has been added to the river in the Narrows for easier traversal on mounts.

🎨 Art

Hayden’s Farm now has animals roaming about.
New animal cosmetics have been added to Hayden’s Shop and the Chicken Statue.
The Cottage Garden Decor furniture set has been added to the game. These items/recipes can be obtained as Renown Rewards between Lv 51-60.
The Noble Cosmetic set has been added to the game. These items can be obtained as Renown Rewards between Lv 61-70.

💛 NPCs

You can now level up all NPCs’ heart levels to 6 hearts.
New dialogue has been added for all NPCs.

🔊 Sound

An additional Rainy Day music track has been added

[Updates]

🎮 Gameplay

Treasure Rooms in the Mines now spawn as intended.
🌼 Chestnuts now visually leave a shell behind when foraged, preventing the foraging spots from being mistaken for dig sites.
🌼 Fish now ignore collisions when they are attracted to a lure and will no longer be stopped by running into rocks or corner pieces of land.
🌼 Fishing experience gain has been increased.
🌼 Pond Skater’s description has been updated to reflect that it can be found in all seasons.
🌼The rate of forage and bugs appearing in the Mines has been increased.
Controller Button Mapping: Clicking the Left Stick has been remapped to summon the mount. (prev. used to navigate to the previous toolbar tab).

✨ QOL

The amount of Renown earned per quest is now displayed in the popup upon quest completion and when accepting a quest.
It is now easier to navigate the Skill Perks menu down to view locked perks.
Furniture previews are no longer visible when swimming while holding furniture.
There is now a pop up confirmation when the player upgrades their house.
The game font now supports additional Latin characters.
The Mushroom Cut is now in the Short Hair category instead of Medium Hair.

🎨 Art

Small edits have been made to Juniper’s room, including making Dozy’s bed visible.
Held items now appear above the player’s head gear accessories when the player is facing in any direction.
🌼 It is now possible to place objects on top of Coral Tables from the Tide furniture set.

💛 NPCs