Controls card. New characters get a short card on first login: how to free the cursor, open the game menu, satchel, map and journal, and change keys. Reopen it any time from Controls in the Esc menu. Until you first free the cursor, a small hint under the crosshair shows the key.
A weapon on day one. Corin Vale on the Wickhaven quay now opens his arms chest when you take the crab lesson: pick a sword, a sword and shield, a shortbow or a staff. If you already did the crab lesson without one, ask Corin about the chest.
Lights on your character. Hold a Pitch Torch in your off hand: it burns while you hold it, the next one lights when it burns down, and you take it off to put it out (not with a shield or a two-handed weapon). The Belt Lantern has its own Lantern slot on the Gear panel; press N to light it or put it out. Lights you were carrying have been moved into place for you.
Gear on the hotbar. Drag gear onto a hotbar slot (or right-click it and choose Add to hotbar). Pressing the slot equips it; worn gear shows a green tick.
Banks, shops and markets on the map. They show as lettered icons on the minimap and world map, with a Banks & shops layer on the world map.
Dungeon keybinds. Y readies up (and starts the delve from the entrance card), N declines a ready check, Alt+L leaves the dungeon. Change them in Settings > Keybinds.
Camera shoulder. The camera sits closer to centre. Settings > Gameplay has a Camera shoulder offset slider (0 = centred), and U swaps shoulders.
Stat tooltips. Hover any stat in Gear & Stats to see what it does and what it is worth for you right now.
Who's online. The Companions panel and the website show how many players are in the world, and you get an in-game countdown before the server restarts for an update.
Changed
Dodge is on Q by default (X still works). Keys you rebound yourself are kept.
Calmer first session. Fewer pop-ups at once: quest and level-up toasts no longer repeat their banners, a quest step change shows one line instead of three, a finished objective replaces its counter, and level-ups play one at a time. Tips wait for banners to finish.
Shorter Chapter 1. Isolde's first chapter skips the chickens, logs and fletching bench Wickhaven already taught you, and teaches the Lamp-stones and fast travel instead. Corin, Hallie and Nell's lessons can be done in any order.
Health and stamina potions stack three to a satchel slot.
Dungeon bosses have a third less health.
Clearer item text. Item, food and potion descriptions say what the thing is and does; region subtitles, resource examine text and buff tooltips are plainer. Bank notes are now named "Writ of <item>".
The satchel window can be resized, and the loot window can be moved and resized and opens next to your cursor.
The character creator's height slider spans 85% to 115%.
NPC dialogue shows a parchment icon.
Fixed
Big fights run more smoothly: the game no longer bogs down each time graphics quality changes (including the automatic drop in busy fights), and lowering quality mid-fight no longer causes a long freeze.
Coming back to the game after it sat in the background no longer floods the screen with stale effects.
The reconnect screen says "Reconnecting" instead of a misleading graphics message.
The crafting window's amount box can be selected and typed over.
The cursor no longer stays stuck on screen after the party leaves a finished dungeon.
Chat scrolls back to the newest message when you click out of it.
The boss recap window scrolls, so every row can be read.
A dungeon item you can't use can be passed on again by whoever received it in a trade (within the same 10 minutes, to the same party).
A Letter for the Warden no longer advances without the letter. Brother Ansel writes a fair copy if you lose it.
"Install as app" works in Microsoft Edge, and the site explains where to find it if the button stays greyed out.
