Producer Pomona Presents: Auto Hunt Update

Offline auto hunt is fast approaching, Descendants. Testing looks great from our side, and we’re happy to say that we are planning on a February 14th launch of the feature! There will be a new game client update available in app stores over the next 48-72 hours. This client update, 7.10.1, prepares for the offline auto hunt feature. On the 14th, there will be scheduled maintenance and when we come back up on that day, everyone will need to be on the new client and the feature will be live!

Here are some answers to some commonly asked questions:

Is there a new type of auto hunt item required to use this new feature?
Nope! This feature will work for all existing auto hunts. We wanted to ensure that auto hunts work as expected for everyone who uses them and this is the best way for us to do that.

Will the game recognize you as online when offline?
No, this feature only affects how auto hunts work and does not affect your online/offline status.

Will there be additional stress on servers?
With the load testing we were able to do, we saw very little to no meaningful impact on server load. That being said, we are trying to prepare for the unexpected and if server stress becomes too severe we do have a way to roll back the feature if needed. Additionally, we have removed the mass amounts of mail that you normally get while auto hunting - now mail will not send if you have a successful auto hunt. Mail will only be sent if the conditions that sent mail before are met that would stop auto hunt, i.e. if you fail to kill a monster, or if you fail to eliminate a stronghold or Den of Thieves target. This is in an effort to reduce the amount of calls needed between the server and your game which helps with server load.

Will there be an increased scarcity of monsters/targets?
We see that the vast majority of players using auto hunt buffs are already trying to use them as an offline item. Phones are left plugged in and running all day and all night - and folks are surprised when the item stops due to a myriad of potential causes. Many reports we’ve seen have been some version of “I was sleeping and my auto stopped, what happened?”. So to our point: we don’t believe that many more accounts than now will be auto hunting at any given time. What’s more, this works towards our goal of improving fair play by leveling the playing field for those who cannot or would not leave their devices running overnight.

It is still in our development plan to increase the spawn rate of level 50 monsters, and ensure the world map spread of all monsters is coherent as well. We will be monitoring the release of offline auto hunt to see just how much the rate needs to be increased based on data instead of just our feelings. We’ll be accepting feedback on changes you feel are needed like always.

Will farm accounts ruin the game now?
We are taking measures to improve monitoring to crack down on unfair or suspicious gameplay on our side. We’ll be publicizing a more strict fair play policy in the near future to back up those investigations with swift, decisive action.

That’s it for now folks! Please be on the lookout for a game update in your app stores soon, and if you have any questions for me I’m all ears!

Happy hunting,
Pomona

P.S. This article was edited to remove an update about removing the ability to stack auto hunt items. That change was quickly reverted based off of feedback and is no longer accurate, so it was removed from this page.