Spiral Knights - Recent Update and Quality Assurance

Recent Update and Quality Assurance

4 replies [Last post]

Wed, 05/06/2026 - 22:13

Sylvieon

Greetings knights and Grey Havens onlookers (hopefully)! It's been a while since I've made a wall of text on here about an update.

Today, I want to talk about the most recent Forging Ahead update and the lwjgl changes that came with it.

To preface. I think the changes to forging are GREAT. For a long time, forging has been a bane in new players' side. It would take far too many fire crystals with not the best output of them from farming, to heat up 4 and 5 star equipment while advancing through the Hall of Heroes rank missions. The lower forge chances previously had seemed utterly unnecessary.
With the current update, players have the option to choose either cheaper forges, or chances for double level ups or forge prize boxes. And to me, this is exactly the direction I love to see the game going. Giving options caters to the whole demographic and satisfies everyone. Those who just want to heat quick and be resource efficient, or those who want to try their luck at forge prize boxes.

There is the complaint that with the introduction of cracked, dim and warm forge prize boxes at increased odds, it may become much easier to earn UV tickets from getting forge prize boxes this way. However, rather than speculating, I plan to host a spreadsheet to track forge prize box gain and farm this myself this weekend, so we have actual statistics to determine whether this needs a balance check or not.

Now with praise aside, let's get into the complaint side of things

The lwjgl changes have been well anticipated from the first mention of it semi publicly through Grey Havens staff. Anyone who knows anything about game design can say this is an amazing venture to pursue for the game's sake.
However this recent update seems to have brought many many bugs with it. Such as escape key unbinding, and still not being able to open the options menu, some folks are having even their dash and shield bash keybinds reset. In the first release of this update, some linux users couldn't use the in game chat. The game appears to be stuttering and lagging for some users. I myself have experienced an issue where my game skyrockets to 500ms ping in the middle of one run, and then stabilizes when I restart the party. Forging was entirely broken for a good half hour before the patch, and a bit after as well. Typing / to open chat for a command ends up placing doubled // instead.

The mountain of bugs isn't a new thing too. Escape key has been broken for 2-3 patches, despite patch notes repeatedly saying it's been fixed. We've had two moments where the supply depot had shown promotional prize boxes that haven't actually been released yet for sale.

These issues are of course being promptly fixed, and I don't mean to take away from that.
However I do feel it is a valid request from the community's side to take slightly more time to release patches and double check on these things before releasing the patch to public.
Releasing clean patches without issue only bolsters morale in the coming updates more. While consistent buggy releases tends to raise questions.

Understandably, we are aware Grey Havens doesn't have the most manpower, and it is easier said than done to simply "test for bugs better" as these tend to vary and present differently on different systems, or be hard to catch.
The main requests here are to simply take more time to be thorough, and as a suggestion, it may be a good consideration to involve some of the community in testing as a bit of volunteer work. We have expressed time and time again that we are eager to help out where we can, and implore Grey Havens to capitalize on this.

And it wouldn't be a forum post from me without bringing up communication!
This feedback is of course a lot more tame and civil than the slime casino incident (we don't talk about that) since:
1) bugs are understandable, especially when dealing with lwjgl
2) the fixes have been proactive and quick, with forum posts detailing what's been fixed
3) prior to the update Cronus had appeared in haven and interacted with the community while the forge was broken. It may seem small, but efforts like this go a long way to keep the community at rest and morale high. I think I speak for us all in extending appreciation to Cronus on this effort. Thanks! I'll name my next Gyarados in Pokemon after you.
4) Cleaver had made mentions about the lwjgl update earlier on forum threads as well, so we had some prior notice that this update would come, and bugs are of course to be expected.
But really, more interaction like the above two points or about upcoming updates in general, acknowledging our concerns, or just showing Grey Havens is very much with our community and we are seen goes a long way for the future of Spiral Knights.

I hope I've articulated community sentiment well enough in this post, and that this feedback will be considered and helpful.
Thanks again for the good forge update, and may we be bug free in the future 🙏

Wed, 05/06/2026 - 22:21

Calinou

On the topic of Escape being broken for several patches, it's ultimately not a huge issue, but it can be a bit puzzling when you're navigating menus.
For me specially, this happens virtually at random, where if I launch the game, escape works, but after some time, it doesn't.

And on the topic of involving the community, for example I would be eager to help with testing why the issue described above happens at all! I've lived with it for a little while, so I wouldn't mind doing some testing to identify patterns or similar things. I agree that involving the community not only uplifts spirit, but it can be a huge helper for more niche or strange bugs to be resolved efficiently, instead of hacking away at them with minimal data.

Thu, 05/07/2026 - 02:27

Thats-Rough-Buddy

"With the current update, players have the option to choose either cheaper forges, or chances for double level ups or forge prize boxes. And to me, this is exactly the direction I love to see the game going. Giving options caters to the whole demographic and satisfies everyone."

The old system already had options. The reward structure simply changed from "spend less and risk getting nothing" to "spend more for the chance to win more", which reduces loss aversion.

"There is the complaint that with the introduction of cracked, dim and warm forge prize boxes at increased odds, it may become much easier to earn UV tickets from getting forge prize boxes this way"

UV tickets becoming easier to earn can only a good thing, no spreadsheet nonsense needed. That's the developer's job anyways if it affects monetization negatively, not you as a player.

"The main requests here are to simply take more time to be thorough, and as a suggestion, it may be a good consideration to involve some of the community in testing as a bit of volunteer work."

Definitely keep filing bug reports for your personal issues. Having a community test server might be good as well like the old days to make sure issue regression doesn't happen like that double "/" glitch.

Thu, 05/07/2026 - 05:21

Fallen-Feces

guh???

I genuinely don't understand why people would complain about UVs being easier to obtain unless they were upset they can't charge exorbitant amounts for a weapon with near perfect rolls anymore. I agree with Thats-Rough-Buddy's assessment on the topic wholeheartedly. The vast majority of players benefit from them being cheaper. No change is needed here.

Edit: It's worth saying that it would be odd to have them be cheaper only because of an indirect buff to how you can get them. This was probably accidental for sure, but if this were changed I very much want to see the UV system reworked to be less frustrating for less obscenely wealthy players at the same time. 20k crowns takes a good while for the average person to collect and it's all too common for it to result in nothing of value if spent on a UV (and that's just for single UVs).

Thu, 05/07/2026 - 09:30

Sylvieon

Uv tickets

I feel you're misunderstanding my point here, I'm not complaining about more uv ticket drops myself. I'm just parroting what I've seen people express concern about. That uv tickets being too common by this means would affect the uv market.

Personally, I doubt this happens and view it as an exaggeration to how easy it is to get uv tickets this way. Hence why I want to experiment and get field data on it. So no one is left speculating on what effects this may have on the economy. I wish to see whether this is just exaggeration/fearmongering from people, or if this method really is as broken as they claim.

Even if it's perfectly balanced with no effects to the economy, let alone being a problem, it's also worthwhile just to serve as a reference of if this is a valid method for people to farm UV tickets if they're looking to uv their equipment, or better off just getting crowns and buying them the old fashioned way.
In any case, statistical data does zero harm and is more constructive to the community than hearing people fearmonger or complain, so I think very much "yes spreadsheet nonsense needed". And I just like statistics as a field :)

And of course as nice as more accessible uvs are, it should also be within limits so as to not make buying through Punch directly obsolete.

It's also worth noting that if uv tickets are more common through this way, it could hypothetically also lower the value of the uv tickets players resell through equinox/solstice prize boxes.

So far from observation since making the initial post here though, forge prize boxes seem at least uncommon enough that there shouldn't be too much of an effect on the economy due to it. So, yay! Balance.
However I do still want to determine whether it's better to spam forge on sewer stash for tickets from prize boxes, or just buy tickets directly. Or even just buy forge prize boxes people sell in general.

My point being, again, that I don't oppose the easier availability of uv tickets, but that there's still good info to be gained in stress testing this a bit.

Also to Rough's line about them already having options, I'm aware. My phrasing was more so just appreciation for the approach that was taken to resolve the difficulty in heating equipment that new players face. It's a great solution, much better than simply a flat cost reduction or increasing crystals drop rate. A really good step was made here and I'm all for it.

If you'd read, this post was entirely appreciation for the forge update and calling it good. Feedback doesn't always have to be complaints, it's good to inform devs where they did well too, what updates were well received. The complaint portion was purely about the bugs repeatedly being introduced with each patch, which I hope they find a solution for. Hopefully one day we have an update with zero new bugs 🙏

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Recent Update and Quality Assurance