Greetings Fellow Avatars!
Release 139 goes live June 30th at 10:30 AM CDT.
Welcome! The Catnip Games development team marks this monthly release of Shroud of the Avatar with new content and improvements. For Release 139 (R139), we offer the essence of fire.
For those wishing to participate in any community activities, upcoming one-time and recurring community events have been announced! Be sure to also review the Player Guide and Known Issues for additional information on recent changes and upcoming fixes.
News Announcements
Community Updates
Principles and Chaos

It’s that time of year again! Lord British’s birthday is upon us and with it comes reflection on the timeless Principles that shape our world. To celebrate, we’re thrilled to unveil the latest entry in our Ultra Rare series, this time themed around the powerful forces of the Principles and Chaos!
From June 30th through July 11th, when you purchase and claim a qualifying COTO pack in-game, you’ll receive an exclusive set of bonus items (to be delivered by the end of Release 139) crafted to let you proudly display your dedication to the Principles… or your embrace of Chaos!
10K COTO Pack Bonus
A majestic set of standing banners: one bearing the emblem of the Principles, the other adorned with the symbol of Chaos. Perfect for framing your grand hall or courtyard.

6K COTO Pack Bonus
A striking pair of wall flags — one for the Principles and one for Chaos — to bring a touch of virtue (or anarchy!) to your castle walls or cozy home.

All banners and flags gently sway in the breeze, adding life and movement to your lot or Player-Owned Town. Whether you choose to honor the Principles, Chaos, or both, these beautifully crafted decorations will let your guests know exactly where your allegiances lie.
These items are part of our Ultra Rare Series; once this promotion ends, they will never be available again.
Every COTO pack purchase not only rewards you with these limited-edition items but also directly supports the continued growth and development of Shroud of the Avatar. In our recent livestreams, we’ve shared deeper insights into the exciting future of the game; be sure to check out this month’s and next month’s Release Notes for more details on what’s to come.
To qualify, the COTOs must be claimed by logging into the game (online) while the special offer is in place, which is through July 11th, the end of the sales and bonuses period for the release.
Proclaim your principles. Embrace the chaos. Celebrate with us!
New Release Deployment Schedule
During last month’s livestream, we shared lots of details about our ongoing efforts to stabilize and modernize our infrastructure as well as our roadmap for the rest of this year, and even dropped a few hints about what’s coming next year.
One important topic we covered was the impact of our current monthly release schedule on development. Every month, the team must pause active work during ‘lockdown’ to publish a release, which limits the time we have to create and refine new content.
To address this, we’re planning to transition to a quarterly major build schedule, while still deploying critical fixes and smaller updates monthly—or more frequently if needed. Here’s what we’re working towards:
Proposed Deployment Schedule
- Weekly server maintenance on Mondays (start time TBD)
- Minor patch deployments on Mondays, as required
- Release deployments on the last Monday of the scheduled release month (currently still every month, with plans to move to quarterly major releases)
- Developer Release Livestreams to follow on the Friday after each Release (unless a holiday or other conflict arises)
We’d also like to host occasional weekend livestreams and spontaneous work streams when possible!
Why the Change?
Historically, releases were deployed on Thursdays to get new Alpha/Beta content into players’ hands right before the weekend, maximizing early feedback. While this made sense during early development, it’s riskier in a live production environment, since any major issue rolling into the weekend can’t be quickly addressed.
Industry best practice is to schedule updates and maintenance on lower-traffic days, minimizing disruption and allowing the team to respond to issues quickly. Following this, we’ve officially moved the monthly release deployment event to the last Monday of each month. This is just the first phase of aligning our deployment process with our long-term goals.
Infrastructure & Next Steps
Alongside these scheduling changes, we’re actively working on updating and modernizing hardware and virtualizing servers where possible to improve reliability and scalability. We’ll share more details about these improvements, and what’s next, during our upcoming livestream on July 11th.
Thank you for your support and patience as we refine our release process. Together, we’re building a more stable and efficient foundation for the future of Shroud of the Avatar!
Streaming Bundle Inventory Management

As part of the streaming program, each participating streamer should maintain an inventory of up to 50 bundles to give away to their viewers, in accordance with program rules.
We have been monitoring bundle counts and noticed that some streamers currently hold over 400 bundles on their accounts. Please remember: streamers are not allowed to open the giveaway bundles provided by SotA Staff, they should be giving out bundles when they stream and not retaining more than 50 bundles at any time.
Moving forward, we will be strictly enforcing these rules and will only deliver bundles to qualifying streamers whose accounts are within the allowed limit. We understand that participating streamers may also watch other streams and occasionally win bundles themselves. In such cases, bundles received from other players or streamers must be opened upon delivery.
If a participating streamer’s account holds more than 50 bundles, SotA Staff will not deliver additional bundles until the inventory has been reduced. If you win a bundle, open the bundle!
To keep the system fair and manageable for everyone, if these backlogs are not cleared, we may implement an expiration policy on excess bundles.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in helping keep the streaming program balanced and fun for all!
Release 139 Patch Notes
Below are a list of the updates that are live as of Release 139 in the game of Shroud of the Avatar! Polish, additional improvements, and bug fixes are inbound for R140 next month. We hope you enjoy the changes that are live today as of Release 139!
Read more…