Vanaheim: The Drowned Coast
A first look at a new Water realm, Rán's net, Frithiof's Ring, and the enemies waiting beneath the tide.
Beyond the fertile heart of the Vanir’s homeland lies a coast claimed by the sea. Broken causeways lead through drowned halls. Old kings still keep their oaths, and Rán gathers what the tide takes.
Vanaheim is taking shape as RuneShift’s fourth realm, following Jotunheim. It brings a Water-affinity hero, a new active relic, six regular enemies, a realm boss, and a hidden Echo encounter. This is a look at the current development build, shared early so your feedback can help shape what comes next.
The realm: a slower tide
Normal hazard: Slow Drift
In the current build, runes take 25% longer to fall into place. The intent is a different rhythm as the board settles and new matches line up.
This is still an open design. We're considering whether Slow Drift gives the coast enough character, and whether it feels interesting to play around.
The Water runes are contested
Some enemies mark Water runes while preparing a cast. When the cast finishes, surviving targets are consumed to damage you. Clear the marked runes in time to weaken the attack; clear them all and it fizzles.
That creates a choice between keeping Water for your own plans and denying it to the enemy.
A full route through the coast
The map leads through combat, shops, treasure, and mystery encounters to the Drowned King. Normal and Hard clears, bestiary progress, and Rán's hero achievements are already part of the development build.
Rán, keeper of the drowned
Affinity: Water. Ability: Drowned Harvest. Passive: Rich Catch.
Rán is built around arranging a large simultaneous clear. Her net gives you a short window to work on the board and decide when the catch is ready.
Cast, arrange, haul
- Drowned Harvest. Cast the net: a wave sweeps over the board, turning some runes into Water.
- Build your catch. Combat waits while you rearrange the held board. Free swaps are allowed, including moves that don't immediately make a match. Ready matches stay in place and glow.
- Haul the Net. Tap again to clear every ready match together, or let the timer haul it automatically.
Each connected island of matching runes earns its own combo. Two separate Water islands of 10 and 15 runes score a 10-rune combo and a 15-rune combo. Join them along an edge to earn one 25-rune combo; diagonal contact doesn't connect islands.
Rich Catch
Larger connected combos earn a greater damage bonus and help charge her ability. The current passive triples the combo bonus portion of damage; it does not triple the entire hit.
Damage from the net's haul does not refill the net, so the payoff must be built up again.
Current test values: a 6-second arranging window, a 40% Water-conversion chance, and free swaps enabled. The conversion chance is a particular tuning question: we want enough manual setup to make a huge catch feel earned. These values are provisional.
Frithiof's Ring
A legendary active relic, charged by combos.
In RuneShift's telling, Frithiof broke his ring into five pieces to bargain for his crew. Rán reforged it with gold from the deep, leaving every fracture visible. The sea forgets no debt.
The rejoined ring keeps those five uneven seams as part of its design, with emerald running beneath the gold knotwork and along its inner band.
Build to 100%, then choose your moment. Combos of four or more runes add 1% per actual rune cleared: a four-rune combo adds 4%, a five-rune combo adds 5%, and so on. The ring uses one refillable meter, with no consumable charges or gold cost.
Activating the ring grants 5 seconds of invulnerability. During that window, each damaging match deals damage as though it contained three extra runes:
| Actual match | Counts as, for damage |
|---|---|
| 3 runes | 6 runes |
| 4 runes | 7 runes |
| 5 runes | 8 runes |
Those extra runes affect damage; they aren’t extra blocks cleared from the board. The ring cannot gain charge while its effect is active. Once the protection ends, real combos can start filling it again.
The choice is when to spend it: save the ward for an incoming attack, or use its brief damage window when you have good matches ready.
With Rán, the ring also changes how you arrange the catch. Normally, joining matched islands earns a larger combo bonus. While the ring is active, each separate island receives its own three extra runes, rewarding a spread of smaller matches. Build one great catch, or break it into as many valid islands as you can before hauling.
You can also save the ring for the lull after the harvest. Once the haul and its cascades finish, boosted normal-match damage helps recharge Drowned Harvest faster. Spend the ward on this catch, or use it to reach the next one sooner.
Who waits on the coast?
Vanaheim has six regular enemies, each with its own idle and attack animation. The current roster is vulnerable to Earth and Lightning and resists Fire and Water. Health, damage, and encounter pacing are still being tuned.
Use the play buttons to inspect their motion. Animations stay still until you choose to play them.
Reef Crab
A barnacle-armored scavenger of the tidal flats. A small coastal threat with a sharp pincer snap, ready to close on anything the sea leaves behind.
Tide Wisp
A drowned lantern-light drifting inland through the mist. Its watery body curls and flicks forward to send a tide bolt toward you.
Drowned Raider
A raider returned by the sea, still clutching the axe that sank with him. He attacks with a quick chop while keeping his round shield close.
Tidecaller
An old voice calling beneath the surf. Her Undertow cast marks Water runes and turns the surviving targets against you. Clear them before her chant finishes.
Brineguard
A veteran of the king's guard, burdened with salt-heavy armor and an oath that survived its owner. A large shield and a heavy mace give this fighter a more imposing silhouette.
Sea Wyrm
A deep-water serpent coiled beneath the causeway. Alongside its lunging bite, Riptide threatens marked Water runes, testing whether you can break up your plans to deny its cast.
The Drowned King
A sea-lost king still rules the ruined harbor. His anchor drags across the stones, and the tide answers his command.
Vanaheim ends in a solo boss encounter. His regular attack is a full two-handed anchor swing, with an overhead windup and a low, heavy follow-through.
For King Tide, he raises and holds the anchor while gathering power from marked Water runes. Clearing those targets can turn a dangerous cast into a fizzle. The final fight builds on the Water-denial lesson introduced by the Tidecaller and Sea Wyrm.
A hidden encounter, two rewards
The Echo of Rán is a net of shadow wearing the sea-queen's face. Its Drowned Tribute cast turns marked Water runes into another threat.
Defeat the Echo to unlock Rán. Find and defeat it again on a later run to unlock Frithiof's Ring for future runs.
Rán cannot encounter her own Echo, so another hero must make that return journey.
What is in place, and what is still open?
The realm map and battle art, Rán’s splash and combat animations, her net ability and passive, the reforged ring and its ward effects, the enemy roster, the boss, and the Echo reward sequence are all implemented in the development build.
Still open: Slow Drift’s final design, Rán’s Water-conversion rate, enemy and relic balance, realm-specific music, a realm-clear rune skin, and a distinct Hard-mode hazard. Hard currently uses the shared difficulty scaling. There is no announced release date for this update.