Envoy effects now actually work

3 August 2026

Ten of the twenty buffs and debuffs your envoys could receive were doing nothing at all. They appeared on your envoy, they were described in the interface, and they changed no outcome in the game.

Both halves shipped together on purpose. Turning on the punishments while leaving most of the rewards switched off would have quietly made the game harder, which is not a fix. Almost everything below came from a player report, so please keep sending them.

improvedreducednewreworkedremoved

Six buffs now work as described

  • improved
    Terrain Attunement
    WasAppeared on your envoy and did nothing
    NowExploring into the terrain you are already standing in costs no resources
  • improved
    Keen Senses
    WasAppeared on your envoy and did nothing
    NowA better chance of finding lore fragments
  • improved
    Wanderlust
    WasAppeared on your envoy and did nothing
    NowTravel range extended by 2 tiles
  • improved
    Ancient Blessing
    WasSaid all Cultural Influence was doubled, and did nothing
    NowCultural Influence from first discoveries is doubled

    It only ever applied to first discoveries, so the description now says so.

  • improved
    Treasure Sense
    WasAppeared on your envoy and did nothing
    NowYour next exploration is guaranteed to find a resource cache
  • improved
    Scholar's Epiphany
    WasAppeared on your envoy and did nothing
    NowYour next lore fragment is upgraded a tier

Debuffs

  • reduced
    Exhaustion
    WasAppeared on your envoy and did nothing
    NowExploration takes 50% longer
  • reduced
    Paranoid
    WasAppeared on your envoy and did nothing
    NowCannot explore beside another player's land
  • reduced
    Cursed Relic
    WasAppeared on your envoy and did nothing
    NowLore fragments found are downgraded a tier
  • reduced
    Heavy Footing
    WasSaid diagonal travel cost triple instead of double, which the game does not track
    NowTravel takes 25% longer

    The old wording described something that could never have been felt.

  • reduced
    Frostbitten, Heatstroke and Swamp Fever
    WasClaimed to block exploring as well as travelling, and blocked only travelling
    NowBlock both, as they always said they did

    Swamp Fever now checks your whole route rather than just the destination. Your envoy routes around a swamp where a way exists, and tells you when one does not.

Quality of life

  • improved
    More usable space on phones

    Page margins have been narrowed on everything except the map, giving your cities, envoys and empire more room.

  • improved
    One button to reach your envoy
    WasThe envoy list had its own row of action buttons that duplicated the map, and the two could disagree about what was possible
    NowA single Go to Envoy button that takes you to your envoy on the map, where every action lives
  • improved
    Travel onward after checking out of a hotel

    The checkout screen was a dead end. It now offers to send your envoy straight on to its next destination.

  • improved
    View a city while your envoy is staying there

    A checked in envoy now offers a link to the city it is visiting.

  • improved
    Mastery choices say whether they stack

    Foundation, Cradle, Mentor and Teaching all reach beyond the city you choose them in, but they do not all combine the same way. Mentor and Teaching stack across cities. Foundation and Cradle do not, so a second city choosing them adds nothing. Both the choice screen and the reference tooltip now say which.

Under the hood

  • reworked
    Envoys are identified consistently everywhere

    This removes a long standing source of confusion between an envoy's home city and where it currently is. You should not notice anything, which is the point.

Fixes

  • Your envoy no longer refuses to move without saying why.

    If a debuff blocked a journey the button simply did nothing: no error, no message. Sending an envoy home to a city on a snow tile while Frostbitten was the report that found this, and there was a second version of the same fault on planned multi stop routes. Both now name the effect that is in the way.

  • Blocked tiles are greyed out before you pick them.

    Terrain your envoy cannot enter is shown as unreachable on the travel map instead of looking like a valid destination.

  • Your envoy's effects are listed by name.

    The map panel said "1 debuff" without saying which. It now names each effect and explains what it does.

  • Collection amounts match the range shown.

    The range was worked out separately from the actual collection and had drifted, missing several bonuses. Both now come from the same place. Where remaining natural resources will hold your yield below the range, it says so.

  • Storage warnings read properly.

    Large numbers are grouped, so it reads 11,666 rather than 11666.

  • Daily streak now breaks when it should.

    A missed day correctly ends your streak. It had continued to display as active until your next claim, which made a lost streak look alive.

  • The homepage no longer scrolls sideways on phones.

    The headline was slightly too wide, which let the whole page drift left and right.

  • "Name Removed" no longer overlaps your envoy's level.

    On tablet sized screens the rename prompt ran across the level number. The envoy row now gives the name enough room at those widths.

  • Zoom speed on the world map follows how far you actually scroll.

    A single mouse wheel click is one comfortable step, and a small trackpad movement is a small movement. Both used to leap most of the way across the zoom range.