Vault Hunters Update 15: Release Date, Talents, Abilities, Objectives, SMP, & More

We recently caught up with BisectHosting partner Iskall85, the developer of the Vault Hunters modpack (and accompanying SMP), to learn more about the modpack's newest release - Vault Hunters Update 15! Here, we'll cover everything you need to know about Vault Hunters Update 15, including its release date, new features to expect, and more with Iskall himself!

Vault Hunters Update 15 Release Date (LIVE NOW!)

Vault Hunters Update 15 finally has an exact release date after delays, and that's Tuesday, August 6th. Check out everything the update has to offer now! This update is a precursor to the final Vault Hunters 3rd edition update, update 16, where the full end-game progression and content will be released. But that doesn't mean it's one to skip! In fact, with some awesome new systems, objectives, items, abilities, and more, Iskall recommends VH update 15 for players looking to return, reset, or even start up new with Vault Hunters -"The most important thing with update 15 is that this is a great time to reset. It's a great time to start fresh. The systems are there; we aren't changing the base systems. You're going to be able to play at a pace where, when update 16 comes with content at level 100, you aren't going to be missing out."

New Features Coming in Vault Hunters Update 15

According to Iskall, "Update 15 is the biggest Vault Hunters update since update 9". With new objectives, talents, abilities, and game systems - it's not hard to see why.

New Talents

Update 15 introduces 10 new talents to Vault Hunters, massively expanding options for players. With new talents come new build concepts and new ways to approach clearing vaults in your journey to rise to the top. These include:

• Blazing - Gain 2% movement speed when killing a mob. This effect can stack and lasts for a duration of time (scaling based on how many talent points you've spent on it).
• Arcana - Gain 20% mana regeneration when killing a mob. This effect can stack and lasts for a duration of time (scaling based on how many talent points you've spent on it).
• Lucky Momentum - Gain 1% lucky hit chance when killing a mob. This effect can stack and lasts for a duration of time (scaling based on how many talent points you've spent on it).
• Frenzy - Gain 2.5% attack speed when killing a mob. This effect can stack and lasts for a duration of time (scaling based on how many talent points you've spent on it).
• Treasure Seeker - Gain increased item rarity while being above 80% health.
• Bountiful Harvest - Gain increased item quantity while being above 80% health.
• Prime Amplification - Gain increased area of effect while being above 80% health.
• Purist - Deal extra damage based on the amount of Scrappy armor pieces you wear.
• Discipline - This ability has no official description just yet. Per Iskall, this talent is meant to be "...a benefit based on a low mana pool. One that looks at the base mana pool, and the more max mana you have, the worse this talent is."
• Hunter's Instinct - Killing a mob grants a small chance of having their death cause your Hunter senses to trigger, revealing all POI's in a radius around the killed mob.

New Abilities 

Update 15  introduces 2 new abilities to Vault Hunters 3, including the following:

• Ice Bolt - Summon a small Ice Bolt dealing no damage but chilling mobs hit for a duration of time. This ability has 8 levels.
• Hunter (rework) - Highlights all POI's in a radius for a duration of time. POI's include all chests, coins, gold altars, and objective points. This ability has 1 level, and no longer has specializations.

New Objectives

Update 15 includes 2 new main objectives to the game, bringing the total up to 5. These include:

• Bingo Cards - This objective type tasks players to complete different challenges laid out in a random bingo card. To be successful, players must complete a full row or column of these challenges, making which you target and how you approach each vault into its own strategic battle. When describing this objective, Iskall said, "...it's so addicting. In fact, it's so addicting that while I was working on development, in-between my family vacation that I've been on, I had to get out my laptop to play some bingos every day. It's a real dungeoncrawler objective, you want to do better every time."
• Boss Objectives - This objective type tasks players with killing specific bosses. This objective is returning to Vault Hunters after being "...recreated to better fit the game," per Iskall.

New Items

While unique items were once slated for Update 15, Iskall has decided to push their release back to Update 16, stating, "We could've rushed unique items for this update; we have about 18 ready, but I think we'd rather release 30 really well-balanced unique items in a couple of months instead." These items would have static rolls, making them valuable chase items that can help complete builds.

Vault Hunters SMP Season 4

With launch still to come, no Vault Hunters 3 Update 15 info is fully official just yet, and details are subject to change leading up to launch day. If you want to see some of these new systems, talents, and abilities in action, though,  you can check out Season 4 of the Vault Hunters SMP, which will be played on the update well before its launch. It also includes new members like Martyn from Yoggscast, and exciting returning faces like 5up, CaptainSparklez, and plenty more!