The newest public build puts special attention on feel: not merely whether an action completes, but whether it communicates weight, resistance, and progress to the player. Fishing is the clearest example of that work.
A fight carried through the line
Casting begins by holding to aim a projected landing point from the character’s head, then releasing the cast into a valid body of water. The bobber, line, and nearby fish silhouette are visible to other players. Before a bite, the line hangs with a natural droop. Hooking a fish pulls it taut and opens a focused tension display.
A hooked fish now fights in sustained runs, changes direction smoothly, spends stamina according to the pressure on the line, and eventually enters a recovery window. Reeling during a fight gains ground slowly but raises tension quickly. During recovery, the fish stops adding pressure, the line relaxes, and the player has a limited chance to recover tension and close distance before the next run. Pushing tension too far snaps the line; failing to maintain the fight can still let the fish escape.
Rarity changes the character of the encounter. Common catches are no longer over before the player understands the rhythm, while rare fish combine more stamina with shorter recovery windows and stronger pressure. The full catalog now contains 81 fish species with individual rarity and size ranges, including a small chance for an exceptional catch beyond the normal maximum.
Records and mastery
Personal best sizes are stored on the server, establishing the foundation for a future Master Angler leaderboard. The Master Angler achievement is deliberately substantial: discover every fish species, catch 100 Epic fish, and catch 100 Legendary fish.
Preparing the whole game for more players
This release also carries continued work across interface persistence, professions, achievements, inventory and equipment, restoration, NPC interaction, environmental presentation, and server diagnostics. The goal of the next stage is not simply to add more systems. It is to put more players into the same build, observe how the world behaves under real group play, and keep tightening every loop that does not yet feel dependable.
Hex & Hollow is still in active development, but the shape of the experience is much clearer than it was two months ago: arrive through one connected account, establish a character, restore a place, master useful skills, contribute to a community, and leave a persistent mark on the world.