Changelog

Everything that changed on the realm and the launcher, newest first. The short version of each update is in the news.

20 October 2026 — Ancestral Roar and Fill Level

Ancestral Roar now grants its promised Tankard stack when Fill Level is active. The correction applies to all ten ranks. The normal ten-stack cap still applies, and triggered copies of Roar do not grant additional stacks.

This server update is live on Ascension. No client download is required. Please include the spell name and rank when reporting a remaining problem through in-game Help.

20 October 2026 — Guardian Thrown weapons and the Hookshot follow-up

Guardians: Thrown is a weapon skill the Guardian class is meant to have, but the server could drop it when you logged in and return an equipped throwing weapon to you by mail. The skill and the weapon now stay in place after login. Normal race and class equipment rules still apply, and no class gains a weapon skill it is not meant to have.

Hookshot: the Ready marker that unlocks the follow-up used to appear as soon as the shot launched, even on an enemy that was not bleeding. It now appears only after Hookshot hits a bleeding enemy. The follow-up still needs Ready and spends focus. Ready lasts five seconds, and Hookshot’s cooldown is unchanged.

This server update is live on Ascension. No client download is required. Tooltips and client visuals were not changed or checked as part of this update. Please include the class, the spell name and what happened when reporting any problem through in-game Help.

20 October 2026 — Tome of Trades: Fishing speed, stacks and Net Cast

Swift Hands, the buff from the Tome of Trades, now works for Fishing as well as crafting and gathering, and only while a Tome of Trades is actually out. A lingering Swift Hands buff without a summoned Tome no longer speeds anything up. Party members near a grouped player's Tome still share the benefit while it is out.

Stacks: each successful craft, gather or catch adds one stack, up to 25. Every stack cuts a further 3% off the remaining time, so 25 stacks cut a further 75%. The count is kept on the Swift Hands buff, a Net Cast counts as one catch for stacks, and dismissing the Tome resets the stacks.

Net Cast: every catch has a 12% chance to cast a net. A net makes ten native Fishing attempts in total, not ten extra: each attempt uses the normal skill checks, loot tables, fishing pools and quest-only drops, and each pool attempt uses one pool charge. If more items arrive than fit in one loot window, the rest continues on further loot pages, and items not yet shown when you log out are mailed to you.

The server also sends an existing Net Cast animation when a net is cast. We have not yet checked how it looks in the game client, so treat the animation as unconfirmed.

This server update is live on Ascension. No client download is required. The in-game Swift Hands tooltip still shows the older wording until a client patch is published. Please include the profession, the zone and what the buff showed when reporting any problem through in-game Help.

19 October 2026 — Grave March target cleanup and pursuit limits

Grave March (500991) now releases its stored target when the Necromancer dies. Commanded minions stop chasing beyond the spell’s range, and a fresh order works after resurrection. Permanent raised-minion recall is preserved.

This server update is live on Ascension. No client download is required. Please include the spell name and ID when reporting any remaining problem through in-game Help.

19 October 2026 — Ascension mount textures and talent controls

Previously white or untextured mounts now display their textures on Ascension. The correction is live on the realm, and previously affected mounts checked by the player now render correctly, including the golden hand mount while riding.

The required client patch restores the native talent controls and removes the obsolete command adapters associated with errors during talent selection. Existing mount collection and required Aether game components are retained.

To update: close the game and leave the AetherCraft launcher open. It installs the required client patch automatically; launch again after it finishes. Your selected installation, optional-addon preferences and saved settings are retained. If a mount was still untextured in an already running session, fully close and relaunch the game.

This is an Ascension game-patch update for the existing launcher. Further mount reports should include the mount name and whether the problem appears while riding, in preview, or both.

17 October 2026 — Ascension Help menu and required game patch

Escape → Help / Report Bug keeps the original Help menu, character and priority selection, ticket form and conversation view. These screens now submit to Aether support and display player follow-ups and staff replies. Bug Report and Feedback use the same private support route.

Tickets reach the staff Discord and Admin service desk, with assignment, impact and urgency, work notes, direct agent conversations and engineering handoffs. Open tickets remain tracked goals; verified resolution requires notes and evidence. The service desk records the provider and tool activity used for investigations.

Required Aether modules remain in a managed game patch. Launcher 2.8.21 installs it automatically while the game is closed, keeping the selected installation and saved settings.

17 October 2026 — Launcher 2.8.21

Routine Ascension update checks run in the background without interrupting the launcher. After initial verification, checks read the executable and new or changed manifest files, avoiding repeated walks of unchanged assets.

Managed client updates apply automatically while the game is closed and keep the selected installation. Settings → Verify Files still performs a full diagnostic scan; repairs requested through that screen retain their explicit approval step. A temporarily unavailable update service retries later.

16 October 2026 — Launcher 2.8.20

• Cancel verification: stop an active file check and bypass it for urgent troubleshooting. The bypass lasts for this launcher session and manifest; unverified files may malfunction or behave unexpectedly. Cancel does not approve repairs or record verification success. Use Settings → Verify Files to check again.
• Optional addons: unchecked addons are excluded from full and cached verification. Required game components are managed outside the launcher's optional addon list.
• Play after bypass: the launcher honors the selected bypass without immediately repeating the scan. A game executable and the existing installation binding are still required.

16 October 2026 — Launcher 2.8.19

Settings now opens in a readable, scrollable panel with fixed-size controls at smaller window sizes. Verification and downloads now show file activity, destination, completed and total bytes, data rate and queue position. Hash-cache writes are batched to reduce verification overhead. Choose CRC32 (faster accidental-corruption check) or SHA-256 (stronger check) in Settings. Older manifests without CRC32 use SHA-256; downloaded files always require SHA-256 validation.

Verify Files runs a full local scan. Missing or damaged files require your approval before repair, including at startup. You can postpone or bypass repairs for the current session; bypassing may cause malfunction or unexpected behavior and never counts as successful verification. A missing executable still prevents launch.

Signed-in verification events stream privately to support while the launcher is active. Account profiles retain the latest verification attempt and last successful result for each installation, distinguishing full scans from cached checks. Submit logs remains available. These diagnostics help investigate stalls; the affected Windows installation still needs a fresh run to confirm resolution.

15 October 2026 — Combat Lab and download diagnostics

The public Combat Lab supports 21 CoA classes, 5/10/15/25/40-player scenarios, fights up to 20 minutes, equipment selection, and client-model previews. This is a baseline simulator; excluded mechanics and native-engine parity limits are shown in the lab. Public availability currently depends on the development workstation.

Portal download auditing records request IP, time, file, HTTP result, bytes sent and elapsed time for administrator diagnosis. The privacy policy and terms now describe this logging and planned, opt-in AI-assisted support. Remote support is not yet enabled.

Launcher 2.8.17 — release notes updated 15 October 2026

Launcher 2.8.17 introduced the following changes. Ascension Proton startup uses WoW64, Play detects a missing owned game window where window discovery is supported, and terminal startup paths retire unused login tickets. Another Play is blocked while the launcher owns an active game process. Subsequent installation checks track the executable and changed files while checking required files remain present. Full verification remains available. Linux graphics-driver compatibility still requires a working host graphics stack.

10 October 2026 — Launcher 2.8.16

Disabling AI access removes AetherCraft’s MCP registrations and installed guide from AI assistants. Cached connections cannot open the launcher while access is off. Other integrations are preserved; enabling AI access and assistant setup restores AetherCraft. Restart your agent to refresh its loaded connection list.

10 October 2026 — Launcher 2.8.15

Ascension verifies its installation once and saves the result. Later startup and Play checks track Ascension.exe and newly changed update files, avoiding repeated scans of the full client. Required updates remain automatic; Repair still checks every file. Installation selection and optional addon choices remain saved.

9 October 2026 — Launcher 2.8.14

Realm status, account links and footer text now use dark ink on the bright Ascension artwork. Dark control panels retain light text, and links have readable hover states. The unshaded sunlit background, left-side controls and saved settings are preserved.

9 October 2026 — Launcher 2.8.13

Removed the dark gradient over the launcher background. The sunlit Ascension artwork now retains its full brightness; left-side control panels keep their own readable backgrounds. Installation, sign-in, monitor choice and automatic updates remain saved.

9 October 2026 — Launcher 2.8.12

The golden, sunlit crystal-tower scene now stays on the Ascension launcher and game login screen at every hour. This corrects the snowy artwork selected in 2.8.11. Controls remain on the left; your installation, sign-in, display preference and automatic updates stay saved.

9 October 2026 — Launcher 2.8.11

• Play, account controls, news and Settings move to the left side of the launcher.
• Ascension keeps the daytime background in the launcher and game login screen across clock changes and repeated launches.
• Your selected installation, sign-in, monitor preference and automatic updates stay saved. The game background is delivered through the normal required client update.

Available for Windows and Linux through automatic launcher updates and the current downloads.

8 October 2026 — Launcher 2.8.10: choose your game display

Settings → Game display lets you choose the monitor for the selected game client's next launch. Available for Windows and Linux.

• The selector shows each monitor's name, connector and resolution, including a primary-screen label.
• The saved choice belongs to the game client profile. Ascension and AetherCraft can use different screens. Monitor reordering, launcher updates and restarts retain the choice.
• If the chosen monitor is disconnected, the game falls back to the primary screen. The preference stays saved and is used again when that monitor returns.
• Automatic preserves the game's existing placement. Choosing a screen applies only on the next Play and never moves a game already running.
• Placement keeps the game's resolution and window mode, and does not change the desktop's primary display. If exclusive fullscreen ignores the choice, use windowed or borderless mode in the game.
• Your chosen installation, sign-in and automatic updates remain intact.

Current Windows and Linux downloads, version numbers and SHA-256 checksums are on the Play page. Launcher 2.8.8 and later update automatically while idle with the game closed.

8 October 2026 — Launcher 2.8.9: keep your installation, update automatically

Available for Windows and Linux. This release includes the installation and automatic-update changes from 2.8.8, plus download reconnection in 2.8.9.

• Your selected installation stays selected. Ascension keeps the same saved game folder and source installation across client updates, launcher updates and restarts. An update no longer returns you to installation setup.
• Updates happen automatically. The launcher checks for client and required-addon updates while open and installs them while the game is closed. It checks again before Play. Launcher updates install while idle, with the game closed.
• You control installation changes. Settings → Change installation lets you explicitly choose another installation. If the selected drive is unavailable, reconnect it and retry; the saved choice remains in place.
• Downloads reconnect. A stalled transfer retries after the realm seed returns, with a bounded delay. Verified files, partial downloads and resume data are retained.
• Your sign-in, realm choice, optional-addon preferences and existing installation are preserved. The source installation is only read when copying into the managed game folder.

If your launcher is older than 2.8.8, press UPDATE once to get 2.8.9. Later updates install automatically while idle and the game is closed. Current Windows and Linux downloads and their SHA-256 checksums are on the Play page.

8 October 2026 — Ascension: AetherCrafters and live dungeon watching

Aether now leads public normal Ragefire Chasm parties automatically. A live five-bot party cleared all four bosses in about 10 minutes; watching, leaving, rejoining and safe return were observed in the actual client.

Open Social

1. Choose AetherCraft Ascension in the launcher and let it update your existing installation.
2. Open the main Social control or enter /aethersocial.
3. Choose Spectate, select an available run and choose Watch.
4. Choose AI Players to browse the realm's AI characters and inspect their equipment. Online characters show current gear; offline characters show their last saved equipment.

Friends, Guild and Raid controls remain accessible from the Social hub. The /aetherruns shortcut also remains available.

Real characters and spectator controls

• AetherCrafters has Aether, the level-20 Mage guild master, and four persistent level-20 companions: Warrior tank, Priest healer, Rogue and Warlock. Their identities, guild membership and equipment are retained.
• Aether now uses a female character model. She remains the same character and guild master.
• The new Combat camera chooses clear elevated or side views toward combat and falls back to player-follow when geometry blocks it. Manual follow and free-camera controls remain available.
• Player damage appears in the source class color. The new camera and damage presentation are in live testing.
• The spectator avatar is hidden and excluded from gameplay participation. Leave returns the viewer to the original location.

Current limits

The trial supports normal Ragefire Chasm, one managed run at a time. Automatic startup was verified in an isolated realm and on the live realm, including a fresh party after restart. Sustained repeated-run and camera performance testing continues.

Human joining and replacing bot roles, broader managed dungeons, general open-world quest companionship and ordinary-player-run listings remain unfinished or unqualified. Heroic/Mythic managed AI parties are not enabled; this does not change the realm's existing level-80 Heroic/Mythic Dungeon Finder.

The earlier character-selection connection fix remains installed.

7 October 2026 — Discord: instant ticket replies, tracked suggestions, live server status

AetherCraft's own bot now runs on our Discord around the clock: every ticket and suggestion is answered within seconds, and the server status, changelog and news channels keep themselves up to date.

Tickets

• Confirmed at once, with a number. Open a ticket in #🎫submit-a-ticket and within seconds it says “Received — ticket #N”. That number is your ticket's number everywhere; progress (looked at, reproduced, being fixed, fixed, live) is posted in the same ticket.
• An automated first answer. A first reply usually follows within a few minutes, marked “AetherCraft Support (automated)”. It is built only from public information — this website, the news and the realm status — and never looks at your account or your characters.
• A person whenever you need one. Not solved? Reply in the ticket and a team member takes it over. Lost items or gold, player behaviour, account security and exploit reports get no automated answer at all: they go straight to a person, and exploits are never discussed in public.

Suggestions

• Every idea is tracked. A new post in #💡suggestions is thanked and numbered at once, gets a short automated reply, and carries a status tag — considering, planned, done or declined — that changes as we decide. A 👍 on the first post counts as a vote. A recorded suggestion is not a promise that it will be built.

Server status and news

• #🟢server-status has a pinned board with the current state of AetherCraft, AetherCraft PTR and AetherCraft Ascension — up, maintenance, degraded or down, with the reason and the expected time — and posts a message whenever one of them changes.
• #📋changelog and #📢announcements post every new changelog section and news item from this website as soon as it is published, as well as new launcher versions and planned maintenance.

AetherCraft Ascension channels

• Ascension has its own category, ⚔️ AetherCraft Ascension, with 📢ascension-announcements, 📋ascension-changelog and 💡ascension-suggestions. Ascension news and changelog entries are posted there, and a ticket about Ascension is marked with the realm.

5 October 2026 — Ascension: Salvaging, mining, Aether and Mythic dungeons

A week of updates is live on AetherCraft Ascension: Salvaging as a secondary profession, faster profession progress, ore all over Pale Reach and a mine you can dig out, Aether the AI adventurer, Wrath Heroic and Mythic dungeons in the Dungeon Finder, and a long list of fixes.

Professions and Salvaging

• Faster profession progress. Every skill-up from crafting or gathering gives 3 points instead of 1, and grey recipes still count: every tenth grey craft gives a point. Profession ranks are trained for you as soon as you qualify, and the recipes you are eligible for are learned automatically.
• Book of Artisans. The book now lets you learn a profession or train one you already have, profession by profession.
• Salvaging, a new secondary profession. It does not use a primary profession slot and levels on its own, separate from Mining and Smelting. Characters who already had Smelting start with Salvaging; everyone else learns it from the Book of Artisans. Open it with /salvage or from its card on the Professions page.
• Salvage in batches. Select All, Green, Blue or Epic, exclude the items you want to keep (right-click; remembered), and salvage every marked item with one confirmation. The Professions page has Professions and Secondaries views, and every profession card now looks and works the same way.

Mining in Pale Reach

• Ore everywhere. Hundreds of Copper, Tin, Silver, Iron and Gold nodes across Pale Reach, including several caves. They come back after 2 minutes outdoors and 1 minute in caves.
• Skill pays. Ore and stone yields grow with your Mining skill above a node's requirement: +50% for every 75 points, up to three times as much. Every fresh node has a 2% chance of an AetherDiamond, a new rare material, and a node nobody has mined for a while has better gem and diamond chances — up to three times the gem chance and 6% for a diamond after 20 minutes.
• Dig out Ironbough Mine. The mine is solid rock you can break block by block with your weapon or pick for ore, stone and gems. Plant a claim with the Pneumatic Mining Tool and hire a Kobold miner for gold or Holy Candles: it keeps digging and mails you what it mines. Finishing a cave gives you a personal reward chest. A second mine is open in Westfall, by the Deadmines exit.

Aether, an AI adventurer

• Meet Aether. Aether is an AI-controlled character who plays on Ascension and is added to your friends list. Whisper Aether, or type .aetherchat followed by your question, for help with the realm and its systems; .aetherchat reset clears your saved conversation. Ask politely — “Can you play with me?”, “Would you please wait here?” — and Aether joins you, follows, waits or fights beside you, one player at a time. Aether's replies are written by an AI and can be wrong.

Dungeons

• Wrath dungeons in the Dungeon Finder. At level 80 the Dungeon Finder now offers the random Wrath Heroic and Mythic dungeons, not only the Brewfest one.
• Mythic dungeons are populated. Sixteen Wrath dungeons were empty on Mythic difficulty; their bosses and creatures are in place now.
• Joining while in combat, dead or a ghost. Being moved into or out of a Dungeon Finder dungeon now ends combat and brings you back to life at half health instead of failing.
• Private and Public dungeon modes are back on the companion controls, along with the other portrait controls. A Private run fills your group with bot companions.
• Fixes. The realm no longer crashes when you enter the Dungeon Finder or during the Violet Hold. The objective tracker shows the bosses you have already killed, also after /reload. The Reliquary's bolts fly from its orbs. Bot companions no longer cause party-role warnings.

Path to Ascension, Runes and the Collector

• Start Quest works. 183 Path to Ascension guide quests can be started from the Path window, and progress such as level, rank, professions, riding, gear and Dungeon Finder runs is tracked automatically. Not every Path entry is tracked yet.
• Rune rewards. Every tutorial reward you are eligible for can now be claimed once, 25 achievements mail you their Runes of Descension, and your Runes show in the currency tab.
• The Collector now also sells, repairs and opens your personal bank, can sell your grey items for you (you confirm the switch), and can auto-Greed loot up to a quality you choose: Off, Common, Uncommon, Rare or Epic.

World

• Lag fixed. Creatures piling up at the Argent Tournament in Icecrown made the whole realm lag; they no longer pile up.
• Restored NPCs and quest markers. 74 missing NPCs are back in the world, and 17 quests show their objectives on the map again.
• Talent window. A Lua error that could break the talent window is fixed.

Some of these changes come with the Ascension client: the launcher brings it up to date when you press Play. Known issue: some item tooltips still show “Retrieving item information”; this is still being investigated.

5 October 2026 — Launcher 2.8.5 to 2.8.7: players online, realm addon choices

Three small launcher updates since 2.8.4: the realm list shows how many people are playing, AI play finds the game window of every realm, and you decide which optional addons a realm keeps updated.

• 2.8.5 — who is online. The realm status shows each realm by its name, with the number of players online. The status on aethercraft.net shows the same.
• 2.8.6 — AI play with a realm's own client. The optional AI play and the assistant's game controls now find the game window of AetherCraft Ascension too, not only AetherCraft's.
• 2.8.7 — realm addon choices. For a realm with its own client, Settings → “Realm addon updates” lets you untick the optional addons the realm would otherwise keep updating. Your own addons stay as they are, and the required AetherCraft and Ascension addons (with the libraries they need) are always updated.
• Your launcher updates itself at your next start.

2 October 2026 — Realm update: Stormstrike Surge, Black Morass with companions, safer AI play

The AetherCraft realm was updated on 2 October: Shamans get Stormstrike Surge, the Black Morass works with NPCBot companions, the realm frees you from a few stuck states, and the AI that can play your character now watches out for cliffs and holes.

Shamans: Stormstrike Surge

• Surge. When Stormstrike lands a critical hit, you also cast your best Chain Lightning and Chain Heal at once — free, instant and guaranteed critical. Both reach one extra target for every 500 armor you have, and Chain Heal starts on the most injured group member nearby.
• Storm Presence. The Surge gives you 3 charges for 20 seconds. Pressing a spell with a cast time (Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Lava Burst, Healing Wave, Lesser Healing Wave, Chain Heal, Hex, Ghost Wolf) spends them all on that spell in a quick burst, each cast instant and a guaranteed critical. While Storm Presence lasts, Chain Lightning has no cooldown, your global cooldown is half a second, and every critical hit takes 2 seconds off Stormstrike's cooldown.
• Storm damage. The damage of the Surge and of the burst cannot miss or be resisted and ignores resilience, and it hits heavily armored targets much harder — bosses most of all. Absorb shields, magic immunity and reflection still work, and a reflected bolt can kill you. With several shamans in a group, the armor bonus is shared between them.
• Windfury Momentum. A critical white hit with a Windfury weapon can give you two extra attacks, both critical. The chance rises as your mana drops: 20% below 95% mana, and every time at 35% mana or less.
• Stormcaller's Flow. Your spell damage, healing and attack power rise by four times your out-of-combat mana regeneration per 5 seconds.
• Shaman bots and companions use the Surge too. The new AetherCraft Surge addon shows when Storm Presence is primed and flashes each proc; /surge lists its options.

Dungeons and companions

• The Black Morass works with NPCBot companions. The Time Rifts now open when you bring bot companions — before, the bots were counted as players and the event never started. Old Hillsbrad, the Culling of Stratholme and the Violet Hold no longer count companions as players either.
• Dismissed companions can be hired again straight away.
• The realm frees you from stuck states. Lying dead without releasing for 7 minutes releases you; a Reincarnation or soulstone that did not work shows the death window again; Dungeon Finder companions left without a group are sent away; and Release waits for a boss fight for at most 10 minutes.

AI play

• See what it is doing. If you let the server's AI play your character (right-click your own portrait → “AI plays my character”, or /aetherai on), a chat tab named “Aether Helper” shows what it is trying to do; /aiintent off turns the tab off. A chat window you named “AI” yourself is never touched.
• Careful with cliffs and holes. While the AI plays, it checks the ground along every path, stays away from places where characters fell before and from unfinished areas such as the crypts below Karazhan, gives up on spots where it gets stuck, and if it falls through the world it is brought back to safe ground and switched off. It no longer changes the gear you wear.

Addons

• AetherCraft Insight 5 now also notes incidents — a long fall, falling through the world, getting stuck, a death — from your movement and game state only, never chat. It keeps the 30 seconds before each one, takes a screenshot on your computer (at most one a minute; /aetherinsight shots off turns that off) and sends a short summary to the realm, so we can find and fix bad spots. The realm also notes falls through the world by itself. Only characters the AI plays are ever moved.
• Mass salvage (the salvage tab of the Smelting window, or /salvage): Select All, Green, Blue or Epic, exclude the items you want to keep (right-click; remembered), and salvage any number of marked items with one confirmation.
• The launcher brings the new addon versions the next time you press Play; restart the game to load them.

29 September 2026 — Ascension: rewards, spell ranks and stat bonuses

The following gameplay changes are now live on AetherCraft Ascension.

• Rune reward claims. Collecting The Path to Ascension introductory reward now grants 250 Runes of Descension, once per character. Claims survive relogging, duplicate claims do not award extra currency, and unsuccessful claims show an error. Other tutorial rewards are not included in this fix.
• Abilities keep pace with your level. Learned abilities synchronize to their highest eligible rank and gain new ranks as you level. Removing an ability grant also removes its dependent ranks. Wraithblade progresses at levels 10, 18, 26, 34, 42, 50, 58 and 66, including the previously missing rank 8.
• Strength and Agility. Each gains an additional Intellect × Stamina bonus, calculated before these new bonuses are applied.
• Attack power. Melee and ranged attack power gain an additional bonus equal to average base main-hand weapon damage × Spirit.
• Haste for spells, melee and ranged attacks. Added haste rating equals Intellect ÷ base main-hand weapon speed in seconds × a speed-tier factor: 10 below 2 seconds, 15 from 2 up to 3 seconds, and 20 at 3 seconds or slower. The result is rounded down. For example, 100 Intellect with a 3.8-second weapon grants 526 haste rating. This is rating, not a percentage; its effect depends on character level. No usable main-hand weapon means no weapon-derived attack-power or haste bonus.

Other recent updates

• Launcher 2.8.4. The Ascension online indicator now reads and refreshes the realm's health correctly instead of remaining gray.
• Tome assets. The AetherCraft Tome artwork is included in the Ascension asset update.
• Automatic spell learning. Ascension no longer grants or restores Tome of Class Lore; automatic learning remains enabled. Existing copies are retained, and Tome of Trades and the Collector remain available.
• Bag replacement. Inventory relocation fixes are deployed on both AetherCraft and Ascension.

Known issue: Some item tooltips still show “Retrieving item information,” including item 97895. This affects more than Manastorm and remains under investigation; this update does not resolve it.

29 September 2026 — Launcher 2.8: realms with their own game client

• A realm can bring its own game client. When you select such a realm, the launcher keeps its client in a folder of its own — never mixed with your AetherCraft game or with any other install on your computer. You can put that folder on another drive with Browse.
• Only what is missing is downloaded. Files that match are copied from an install you already have; that install is only read, never changed. The rest comes from the realm's own download.
• You can see which realm you are on. The background and the logo change with the selected realm.
• Nothing changes for the AetherCraft realm. Your launcher updates itself at your next start.
• 2.8.1 fixes setting a game up: “Use this installation” no longer closes the launcher (this affected new AetherCraft players too since 23 September), downloads from the realm now start and finish, a client you already play from Steam is found wherever it lives, and large realm file lists are read.

24 September 2026 — Launcher 2.6.6: realm news on the login screen, the game quits at once

• Realm news on the login screen. The news box on the login screen now shows AetherCraft's own news (the same news as this page and the launcher).
• The game closes the moment you quit. The game used to ask Blizzard's retired web servers for news, agreements and updates whenever it started. They never answer, and quitting waited for them — up to half a minute. Every address in the game now points at AetherCraft's own servers.
• Nothing goes to anyone but us. Addresses for Blizzard services the realm does not use now lead nowhere, so the game never contacts them.
• Your launcher updates itself at your next start.

24 September 2026 — Launcher 2.6: AI play on Windows, one launcher at a time

• AI play on Windows. The optional “Let an AI play the game” now works on Windows too, not only on Linux.
• More reliable on Linux desktops (Wayland). The launcher now makes sure the game really has the keyboard before an assistant presses anything, and waits for your approval when your desktop asks whether the launcher may control keyboard and mouse — nothing is sent until you allow it.
• One launcher at a time. Opening the launcher again (or pressing Play in Steam) now brings the open launcher to the front instead of starting a second one.
• 2.6.4: if you use AI coding assistants (Claude Code, Codex, Grok, Antigravity, Kimi, opencode, Gemini), the launcher now gives them a guide to AetherCraft and a connection to the launcher, so you can simply ask them to set up the game or play with you. Switch it off in Settings if you prefer.
• 2.6.1: an assistant can quit the game from any screen, and never presses Enter at the character screen by mistake.
• Your launcher updates itself at your next start.

24 September 2026 — Launcher 2.5: your AI assistant can play with you

• Let an AI play the game (optional). If you use an AI assistant (for example Claude) with the launcher, you can now ask it to play: it sees the game window, reads your health, target and position, and moves, targets, talks, clicks and uses your action bar for you. It only works with the game this launcher started, and the launcher's activity pane lists everything it does.
• How to switch it on. Settings → “Let AI assistants control this launcher”, then either tick “Let an AI play the game” or simply ask your assistant to play — it can switch it on itself. Off by default; nothing changes if you never use it.
• New addon: AetherCraft Agent. While AI play is on it shows a small coloured strip and one status line in the top-left corner — that is how the assistant reads the game. Hidden otherwise; /aetheragent on / off toggles it.
• Linux first; Windows support for AI play follows in a later release. The launcher updates itself at your next start.

24 September 2026 — Sign-in through the launcher, Launcher 2.3.6

Signing in

• The launcher is the way in. The realm now only lets a login through when it comes from PLAY in the AetherCraft launcher. A game started any other way is told, on the login screen, to open the launcher and press PLAY. Nothing changes if you already play through the launcher.
• No account name to invent. Your first PLAY creates your game account for you, with a name the realm picks. You never type it — the launcher signs you in with it every time.
• Older accounts get the same kind of name. Accounts made before this change are moved to a realm-picked name too. Your characters stay where they are, and the launcher carries your game settings (key bindings, addon settings) over to the new name by itself.

Launcher 2.3.6

• Steam. If you added the game to Steam, pressing Play in Steam now goes through the launcher, so you are signed in. The launcher can set that Steam shortcut up for you in Settings, including shortcuts that start another launcher first.
• Linux. The game runs in Steam's own runtime when Steam is installed, which fixes missing or blank mouse cursors on some systems.
• Knows when the game has started. The launcher follows the game through every program it starts along the way, so it no longer loses track of it.
• Bag rewards: a character that already owns its Loot Portal bags (for example after being moved or restored) is no longer mailed them a second time.
• Your launcher updates itself to 2.3.6 at your next start (PLAY shows UPDATE first).

23 September 2026 — Realm update: Loot Portals, class mounts, dungeons that wait for you

Starting out

• Starter pack once per account. The welcome pack (gold, heirlooms, potions) now goes to the first character on your account, realm-wide, instead of every new character.
• Class mounts on your action bar. A new character finds its class mount on the action bar from the first login, and the chat line says where it is. The mount is still in the Mounts tab (Shift+P).
• Class mounts show their real names. The Mounts tab and the “added to your collection” message now say Aetherborn Tiger, Felbound Dreadsteed and so on, instead of the name of the creature the mount was modelled on.

Bags: the AetherCraft Loot Portal

• A bag every five levels. Every character receives an AetherCraft Loot Portal — a 36-slot bag, soulbound, that cannot be sold — by mail at levels 5, 10, 15 and 20. Characters already past those levels receive the ones they are owed at their next login.
• Bank slots come with a bag. Buying a bank bag slot places a free Loot Portal in it.
• Hard to lose by accident. Throwing a Loot Portal away asks you to type DELETE first.
• The Aether Collector uses them. When your bags are full, loot the Collector picks up goes into the Loot Portal bags in your bank; anything that still does not fit comes to you by mail.

Dungeons

• Leaving puts you back where you came from. Leaving the group, taking the exit portal or using Teleport Out returns you to the place you entered the dungeon from — never a graveyard, never outside the portal. A hearthstone or teleport spell still takes you wherever it goes.
• Death inside a dungeon. Releasing your spirit brings you back to life at the start of the dungeon instead of sending you to a graveyard.
• Boss fights. While a boss fight is on, Release waits (the button says so) until the fight is won or lost — your group can still bring you back. If your spirit is outside during a boss fight, it waits there until the fight is over.
• Dungeons wait for you. If you disconnect, log out, or the realm restarts, your dungeon and everything you have cleared in it waits for you for 24 hours. When you come back, the Dungeon Finder fills your group with companions again. The only exception: if that dungeon itself was changed in an update, it starts fresh and you return to where you entered from.
• New options on the Dungeon Finder eye. Right-click the eye by the minimap: Abandon Dungeon Group leaves and takes you back where you entered; the group leader also gets Disband Group, which ends the run for everyone and sends everybody back. Both ask first. The eye is no longer hidden under another addon's minimap button.

Interface

• Dressing Room: drag to turn. Drag your character in the Dressing Room (and on the Character and Inspect windows) to turn them, and the Dressing Room can no longer be pushed off the edge of the screen.
• Your launcher picks all of this up by itself at your next PLAY.

23 September 2026 — Launcher 2.3 series

• 2.3.3 — AetherCraft Insight. A small realm addon notes Lua errors, and which addon caused them, while you play. Nothing leaves your computer; type /aetherinsight to see it.
• 2.3.2 — tidier, and it stays where you put it. PLAY, news and settings fit the window without scrolling, and the launcher reopens where you left it.
• 2.3.1 — see what the AI assistant is doing. A panel lists every step the assistant takes while AI control is on. On Linux, updates restart the launcher by themselves.
• 2.3 — an AI assistant can help you set up. Off until you switch it on in Settings; works only on your own computer and always asks before anything important.

Launcher 2.1 and 2.2

• 2.2 — updates itself. When a new version is out, PLAY reads UPDATE; press it once.
• 2.1 — one button, Windows and Linux. Sign in with Google and play: no password, nothing to paste. Linux players run the same launcher through Steam's Proton.