Fields of Mistria’s days are still short, but its first major update helps

Fields of Mistria’s one big problem is that its day cycle is really quick — time moves fast, and before you know it, it’s 2 a.m. and you’ve passed out in the mines. The big new update released on Nov. 18 doesn’t adjust the cycle at all, but it has one new feature that I’ve found pretty helpful: animal mounts. If you’ve met certain requirements, you’ll be able to unlock a purple horse called Mistmare.

After a windstorm, Hayden will ask for help in finding his weathervane, and while you look for it, you’ll stumble on a new statue. That’s where you’ll unlock Mistmare for 100 essence. There are customization options that’ll come later, but the benefits of Mistmare are immediate. She’s a horse, and horses are faster than humans. You can ride her anywhere outside, which is wildly helpful for getting around Fields of Mistria’s big map more quickly. Again, it doesn’t solve the game’s problem with short days, but I’ve found myself passing out much, much less when I stay too late in the mines; I just jump on Mistmare and rush back to the comforts of my own bed instead of crawling through Mistria at a walking speed that feels like a glacier’s pace when you’re racing the clock.

According to the Fields of Mistria wiki, the length of an in-game day is 12 minutes and 30 seconds of real-world time. It goes by especially fast when you’ve got a lot of animals to tend to; it’s very easy to spend half of the day going from barn to barn collecting eggs or milk, petting the animals, then feeding them. Put that on top of a relatively slow walk speed and you may find little time to do other chores, like watering and harvesting crops, fighting monsters in the mines, or growing relationships with the other Mistrian residents. Mistmare can’t help in a lot of those areas, save decreasing the time it takes to get around the town, but she is helpful for harvesting crops, too: After unlocking Mistmare, you can unlock other abilities by giving essence to the horse statue. Two hundred essence increases your mount’s movement speed by 10%, while 190 essence will give your mount the ability to harvest crops and dig spots simply by running over them. No extra clicks! (Unrelatedly, 205 essence lets you ride any large animal that you’ve got more than five hearts with.)

Overall, Mistmare is a small part of the big update, but one that’s been a perfect quality-of-life improvement that’s made the already exceptional early access game even better. Alongside this adjustment, the big addition is romance: You can now earn up to six hearts with single residents, plus there’s a new, romantic Shooting Star Festival in summer. I’m in spring in my game, so I’ve yet to try out the festival, but I’m also working on romancing March, Celine, and Juniper to invite one of them to join me on the mountain peak. I’ve yet to trigger any new romance quests — I’m stuck at five hearts with all three — but I’ve enjoyed seeing new dialogue while working my way through the seasons.

Fields of Mistria is still in early access, and NPC Studio expects the game to stay there for at least a year. Beyond the big content updates, the studio issues smaller ones that fix bugs and such.