Aesir Interactive and NightinGames have released an Early Access Roadmap for The Legend of Khiimori. At the same time, they’ve rolled out the new Daybreak Update. It’s not exactly earth-shattering stuff, but there are some neat new features, solid QoL improvements, and a bunch of bug fixes in there.

As of today, horseback hobby couriers finally know what the developers have planned for The Legend of Khiimori—or at least for the next couple of months. The newly published Early Access Roadmap (see below) lays it all out, while also breaking down the content planned for May and June alongside the Daybreak Update that launched at the same time.

A broader long-term roadmap is set to drop in June together with the third content update, which still doesn’t have a name. Aesir Interactive does point out, though, that plans can still shift during development. As usual, player feedback will probably factor into that too.

What’s coming in May and June

For the next two months, the first roadmap for The Legend of Khiimori promises the following:

May:

• Peaceful Mode
• New animal behaviour for chasing and carrying loads
• Feature: Claiming oases
• System: Horse Taming

June:

• Degradation of Corrupted Zones
• Corrupted animals
• Naraa survival mechanics
• Naraa health bar
• New horse breed
• Cooking and more

The roadmap also mentions ongoing improvements:

• Bug fixes and stability improvements
• Ongoing performance optimisation for a "faster, more responsive gameplay experience"
• Active integration of community feedback into development

So what’s actually in the Daybreak Update?

The Daybreak Update is live now. My personal highlight: horse droppings. 🙂 The game world can now make it even clearer what The Legend of Khiimori is really all about. Sadly, there’s still no official word on whether stepping in the new piles comes with a nice squelch—or whether they stick to Naraa’s boots.

Anyway, here’s what the update adds:

• Hot springs: In cold mountain regions, Naara and her horse can warm up in them and shake off cold effects.
• Bandit caches: More than 60 Bandit Caches are now scattered across the world. You can shoot them down with arrows, and there are even special Rope Cutting Arrows for the job.
• Photo mode: A new in-game Photo Mode lets you take screenshots with all kinds of settings, including filters and exposure length.
• Horse Training changes: The old system, where horses were trained through hardship, has been replaced with a much gentler method following player feedback.
• Dynamic pricing: The Horse Merchant now pays based on a horse’s skill level instead of sticking to fixed prices.
• Horse droppings: Yes, the animal leftovers actually do something—they can be used to craft animal repellent pouches.

Plenty of bugs squashed

The Daybreak Update also takes a pretty thorough swing at the game’s bugs. You’ll find the full patch notes in the same place as the Early Access Roadmap. Here are the biggest changes:

• Numerous bugs across gameplay, missions, world design, controls, and UI have been fixed.
• Weather zones, landscape issues, pathing, and lighting have been improved.
• Missions now work more reliably, including when saving and loading, as well as when showing completed objectives.
• Horse systems have been fixed in a lot of areas, including stable injuries, breeding, selling, movement, and animations.
• The soundscape has been expanded and improved, including new nighttime forest ambience, animal sounds, and updated music.
• The interface has been cleaned up in many places and made easier to read.
• Several visual issues have been fixed, including broken animations and the occasional NPC T-pose.

Right now, The Legend of Khiimori is only available on PC, though the ambitious riding game has also been announced for PS5. There’s still no release date, or even a release window, for that version.