Equipment is not just a stat carrier in Emberville. Weapons and armor level on their own, independently of the character, and levelling a weapon or armor category is what unlocks the game's classes. The studio's framing is that using a sword enough starts unlocking sword specific skills and bonuses, with bows, staffs and the rest working the same way, so a loadout reads as a build rather than a swap.
How Gear Levels
Rule | Detail |
|---|---|
Weapons level separately | Each weapon type carries its own progress, unlocking skills and bonuses specific to it. |
Weapon bound combos | Combos are attached to the weapon, so changing weapon changes the chain available. See Combat. |
Armor levels too | Armor categories level alongside weapons, and both feed the class unlock path. |
Improved by more than levels | Store copy describes skills and weapons improving through levelling, items and the help of rescued villagers. |
Crafted and honed | Crafted items improve as the player levels up, learns skills and collects blueprints and recipes. |
Weapon Types Shown So Far
The studio has demonstrated four fighting styles publicly, and named or shown these types across videos and devlogs.
Type | What has been shown |
|---|---|
Sword | The core melee weapon and the basis of the Knight class, paired with a shield. |
Shield | Carried alongside a sword by the Knight, described as close quarter equipment. |
Bow | The ranged option, matching the arrows style in the studio's combat styles video. |
Staff | The magic option. A 2025 devlog describes it condensing kymia into attacks from a poke to a devastation. |
Axe | Shown in the same devlog as an area of effect weapon with huge arching slashes for clearing groups. |
Fists | One of the four demonstrated styles, covering unarmed and knuckle based fighting. |
How many weapon categories ship is unannounced. A June 2025 devlog named a target of 16 planned weapon categories alongside 13 classes, and hedged it in the same paragraph as ambitious and still being refined. That is a dated design target, not a shipped count.
Items and Loot
The systems behind loot were being wired up through 2025: drop tables, item tiers, rarity bands, damage types and stat rolls, with the studio describing the goal as a pickup whose card shows clean numbers and meaningful affixes and feels fair, surprising and worth chasing. No item names, stat values or rarity tier names have been published.
Blueprints are one route to specific gear. Rescuing the tracker Tolcan is stated to unlock the bestiary, extra quests, clues and blueprints for special weaponry: see Non-Player Characters.
Where Gear Comes From
Four of the crafting professions produce equipment directly: weaponsmithing for weapons, armorsmithing for metal armor, tailoring for cloth and leather armor and accessories, and jewelcrafting for trinkets, rings and necklaces. Gathering skills supply their materials, and the high end recipes sit behind skill levels. See Life Skills.
Inventory and Equipment Screens
Design notes published by the studio in September 2025 describe the equipment layer as covering armor, weapons and trinkets in a vertical layout beside the inventory, built so the inventory and the character sheet can be read together and the player can see exactly what changes when an item is equipped. Those notes are a designer's recommendations rather than shipped behaviour, so treat the layout as intent.
Hands On Notes
The following comes from coverage of a pre release prologue build in September 2026 rather than from the studio, and is not confirmed for the shipping game.
Each weapon was reported as having distinct primary and secondary moves, a point three separate accounts made.
Brass knuckles appeared as an equippable type, with one account being granted a roundhouse kick and a palm strike while levelling them.
Armor was described as sorted into light, medium, heavy and mixed, by a single account.
The same coverage reported loot dropping in visible rarities and the equipped weapon effectively dictating playstyle, which matches the studio's own description of the class unlock path.
At Early Access Launch
Equipment and skills systems are on the studio's list of what is present when Early Access opens on 27 October 2026. Balance is named as an area of work for version 1.0, so gear numbers are expected to change during Early Access. See Early Access.