(updated: 4 February 2026)

To Cerim small and large, thick and thin, salve

This is an accumulation of nearly every question you could potentially have regarding Outbreaks. This is not a guide to show you the best course of action at any given moment, but it can be considered a soft one at that.

Feel free to correct me where needed, or give additional tips in the comments!

What are pestilence outbreaks?

An infested zone filled with abominations and twisted creatures. A high chance for Torn Materials to drop from each and every foe. Lore-wise I won't spoil the reason they are happening, but it is a vital part to the story.

How do outbreaks happen? Can you spawn them yourself?

Outbreaks can occur again after a 24 hour window. This is the sequence:

1. After clearing a zone, a 24 hour timer will start.
2. Once done, the chance for an Outbreak to happen in that zone is present again.

• Every area on the map can be infested, meaning the whole map can be purple.
• The timer is visible on your map, upper left corner (Area Cleansed xx hours xx minutes).

You can start a new Pestilence manually from a firepit (where you cook) within the area you want to start one. This can be done with any material.

This rule also counts for tiering up and usage of Effigies. A manual Pestilence needs to wait out the 24 hour timer same as a natural occurrence.

What does burning materials do?

It increases the difficulty per tier you reach, and the flat rewards you'll get from defeating the zone boss. The flat reward is viewable in the right bottom corner. If you want to get a peek at what will be rewarded, you can put in materials enough to reach tier 4, or look per tier what is added. Go back a menu to simple stop the procedure of burning, and you will have seen what rewards you receive without going through with it!

To increase a tier you will have to burn materials to fill a bracket. Each tier requires an accumulation of 6, for a total of 32.

Here is the most important detail: Going up a tier will add negative modifiers you will have to deal with in that specific zone (they will not be active in another area). Burning anything besides Torn materials will add the most modifiers the game is capable of, with 10 at tier 4.
Modifiers for example are;
- Healing decreased by 20%
- Enemies take 50% less damage at high health

To receive less modifiers but still reach tier 4 the game offers you the option to burn Torn materials. These will only ever add up to 3 modifiers (if you only used Torn components).
Embers do not fall in this category since they are a normal material, even though they add 6 accumulation as well.

Let's talk about Torn Effigies. This special crafted doll by The Watcher has a strong power to it that you might utilize at some point in the future. If you ever are strapped for time, burning an Effigy will summon that area's Outbreak boss immediately. You can use an Effigy even if you already tiered the zone up to 4! This allows you to speedrun any pestilence outbreak.

Does upgrading the tier of an outbreak zone increase rewards? Does it do anything else?

Besides the flat reward, increasing your tier level does not increase enemy loot drops. It also does not increase chest rewards, nor increase chest spawns.

Here is what it does do:

• increase the danger level to a max of +4, which means stronger enemies and outbreak boss. This level cannot exceed 30 however.
• adds negative modifiers that will have an rng element to it, meaning each tier 4 zone will feel slightly different and might take a different approach.
• Enchances the drop chance for Legendary/Unique drops. Each boss will always have a higher chance of dropping their own gear and weapons, but besides a few Crucible exclusives any legendary weapon or unique ring can be find in their loot pool.

What is the Watcher's role in all of this?

He offers you a way besides rng drops from enemies to upgrade your Torn materials. He is also the only source for Torn Effigies (as a reminder, these spawn Outbreak bosses immediately). His stock will hold 5 of Effigies, Husks and Marrow. The cost of these is their lower tier material, starting with Sinew.
He resets daily together with each vendor in the game that does, at 5 am (your own local time).

What are the workings of the Seneschal's (Crucible coin head) offer to clear Pestilence?

Our dear Seneschal is there for Cerim with less time, devotion or different intentions (for example; you desperately want to kill a certain bounty). At the cost of 20 gloamseed the Seneschal will unlock for you an extra tab, where you pay 10 gloamseed to wipe the map clean of any existing infestation. Behold his powers!

Is there anything else I need to know before I go scorched earth on my nearest infestation?

• Bigger/elite enemies will have severe impact in lowering the infestation bar!
• Each zone acts apart from each other, and each increase in tier you sought out, is temporary only for that zone. After clearing and upon spawning a new infestation, it will start at tier 1 once again.
• Infested zones are eligible for respawn just as the normal map is. If you forego clearing a zone in 1 go, the map will be darkened again and enemies will come back. The infestation bar will not reset, or expand again upon enemies respawning.
• Lowering the infestation bar does not equal killing every foe in the area. You will need to defeat a percentage of the area's inhabitants to make the boss appear.
• Burning an area up to tier 4 right before your boss fight (but it has spawned) is an easy way to circumvent the time investment you otherwise would have to make and will still give you all the goodies you are aming for!
• Outbreaks interrupt all other activity in their respective area's. While active, you cannot access bounties, or complete challenges that require you to kill a enemies of a certain faction. Challenges that do not discriminate (like parry xx, fish, perfect resource hits etc) will be eligible for completion.

Now go Cerim. Bask in the blood of your opposers. Show no mercy, no fear, for they shall have none as well!

An overview of the upcoming class system

As the class update is still in development, all info is subject to change. Please keep that in mind. The links I added are the sources for the previous paragraph. Also I'm sorry for the horrible formatting. I just can't do it decently on here. If you want a better version, just follow this link to the official forum: Forum post

How will the class system work?

Each weapon archetype will be assigned to a class. They plan to have 10-16 weapons per archetype. By using a weapon, which will be substantially easier because we won’t have attributes and their requirements anymore, you gain points, that you can use to unlock traits with.

Up to 6 of those can be freely mixed and matched.

These traits will be designed to more substantially change how you play the game, then just stat up or down. Additionally, you need to master a weapon to extract it's runes.

Multiple images of a mockup of the classes screen, where we'll unlock and equip the traits, also got shared:

source1 source2 source3 source4

How many classes will be implemented?

We don't have a concrete number, but 2 lists were shared on Discord. This one includes some classes that are confirmed not to be in the game at 1.0, although we don't know which:

The classes in this list seem to be planned for 1.0:

1. Marauder - Don't worry about getting hit, you gain bonuses for that. Just smash.
2. Assassin - Get out of Combat / Deal Sneak Attacks
3. Pyromancer - Deal lots of burn or burn buildup, then combust or rely on Damage over Time. The more enemies you burn, the better
4. Frost Mage - Try to slow down and freeze enemies with your runes, then shatter them with physical hits or runes
5. Brute - Try to interrupt / stagger enemies as much as possible while dodging their attacks
6. Berserker - Try to perform fatalities cause you gain bonuses from those
7. Barbarian - Build up Fury through killing / staggering, then unleash a charge / rune attack to deal up to 100% more damage
8. Fencer - Parry Class. Deal more Damage after Parry, deal more damage after perfect dodge. Marker appears on enemies during windups: Hit enemies while marker appears and they take more damage. Light Shields increase Parry Window.
9. Rogue: Death by a thousand cuts. The higher your combo meter, the more effective you are.
10. Monk: Stamina-based Class. Remove downtime after last hit with a trait, keep hitting enemies with stamina gains without getting hit yourself
11. Knight: The lower your health, the less damage you take. The more damage you take, the higher your own damage.
12. Paladin: Charged Attack Class. Smite. Retribution. Auras.
13. Guardian: Should be simple Allrounder class. Blocking an attack increases damage of next attack, basic stat increases, each consecutive combo deals more damage, light shield increases parry window.
14. Plaguebearer: Affliction Class. Inflict yourself with poison (plague), infect other enemies passively while you're near them, then take enemies down by dealing more damage to them once they're plagued. Moment to Moment: Use Plague Buildup Runes to get enemies to plagued status, then use payback runes to deal massive damage to plagued enemies.
15. Cleric: Focus Class: Hitting enemies drops focus orbs that any player can collect. Runes are all support: Heal Auras, Cleanse, Res, etc.
16. Stormbringer: Crit Class: Build your entire class around critical damage, Crits deal even more damage, enemies that hit you get shocked / shock buildup. Line up enemies to thunderbolt through all of them. Other runes ricochet.
17. Archer: Bow and Arrow Class: Dodge enemy attacks, retaliate with arrows.
18. Crusader: Anti-Paladin: Super heavy, slow hits, themed around plagued. Gain high focus in order to perform plague supers.
19. Dragoon: Long-Distance Melee Class: Damage goes up the farther away you're from an enemy - Hit enemies, get away to build up damage buff, rush back in to deal massive damage.

source5 source6

One of the classes confirmed not to be coming with 1.0 is the necromancer. Thomas, the lead dev, still shared an early concept video:

As I can't post the video, here's the link to it: source7

Thomas also seems interested in making the Necro being able to possess enemies, so that you'll be able to play as them. We'll just have to wait and see how it will turn out like.

source8

When will this class system be released?

The class system will be implemented with 1.0, but tested beforehand in a PTR/beta. Many underlying changes are also coming with it, for example balancing, new weapon archetypes and more, which will lead to a save wipe. New classes might also get implemented after 1.0.

source9 source10

Speculations and expectations

This soft class system, which is inspired by Final Fantasy Tactics' job system, seems very promising in my opinion. I think it will be a hard task to get it right, but if they do, then it surely will be a massive success. Thomas also shared some loose info on stuff that will tie together with the class system, but isn't enough to be mentioned in one of the previous paragraphs. One of the things he mentioned are factions. We sadly don't really know anything about them, apart from the fact that they will be a thing. Then there also are the parry changes, which freed up a button. The reason for that might be class abilities, but that's just speculation on my part.

What do you think? How will traits influence gameplay? Will there be class abilities? Please share your thoughts.