Top 10 Changes in Enshrouded Update 7: Wake of the Water

Lastest Update: January 15, 2026, Categories: Enshrouded

Keen Games’ next major update brings sweeping gameplay and balance changes, from underwater biomes and weapon revamps to mage reworks and new swimming mechanics. Here are the Top 10 changes, why they matter, and how they’ll impact the future of Enshrouded in Update 7, Wake of the Water.

Coming to Steam on November 10, 2025, Wake of the Water is shaping up to be a massive amount of changes to Enshrouded. The game is still set to release the full console version of the game sometime in 2026. While we didn’t hear any level increases, a new biome combined with weapons, enemies, and balance change, Update 7 is likely to bring a ton of players back to this survival RPG. Let’s breakdown the top 10 changes, and how they will change your gameplay.

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What’s new in Enshrouded Update 7 – Wake of the Water

Below are a quick TLDR on what’s coming to Update 7 Enshrouded with more details below:

New Water Biome: this adds a new area with tons to explore and collect
Swimming & Underwater Exploration: new mechanics relating to swimming and exploring water
New Aquatic and Land-Based Enemies: a bunch of new enemies and things to collect within zone
Fishing and Aquatic Resources: shows fishing a brand new system along with aquatic resources
Water-Based Building: new items to build houses and structures in water
Weapon Stat and Item Revamp: lore weapon crafting with redone stats to match performance
Weapon Durability Overhaul: increased overall durability based on item level
Expanded Loot Pool and Enemy Drops: new weapons and drops
Chest Farming Exploit Removed: no longer can you logout and get chest to respawn
Mage Rework: new spell to help early level mage gameplay

1. New Water Biome

With a new major Update, Enshrouded is delivering a brand new biome or explorable area. What’s been shown from the previews is a massive new tropical region packed with lakes, rivers, waterfalls, and hidden underwater ruins. Since the launch of Enshrouded, the map has expanded substantial, adding not only more area, but materials, items, weapons, and lore. Each new Biome has multiple quests and fun things to do including mechanics that keep players busy. This is important for a early access game to keep the core fans playing the game, crafting, creating, and having fun.

Now only will this expand the map, but new mechanics will be introduced as well which adds more to do in previously explored areas.

2. Swimming & Underwater Exploration

Not only will players get a new biome, but swimming with underwater exploration! Players can now dive, swim, and explore under the surface with new physics and traversal mechanics. This additional will add another layer of complexity to the map with vertical depth. You can fly, traverse ground, and now swim giving you a totally 3D exploration space where interesting enemies or materials can be around every corner.

Swimming will also have new mechanics like oxygen management, possible underwater combat, hidden chest, and more. We don’t know if any new skills will be added, but it might be interesting to see some underwater skills or adjustments to combat for this gameplay. Movement is now truly 3-dimensional, transforming traversal, exploration routes, and potential combat strategies.

3. New Aquatic and Land-Based Enemies

You can expect a bunch more enemies, like amphibious and water-themed foes, including lizard-men and monsters adapted to the new biome. What’s interesting about these creatures is they are shown going from both water to ground fluidly. The developer interview showed some action in the water, but we expect some type of combat. At the very least, these water based lizards have spear they are waiting to chuck at you!

This will change the game in unexpected ways with unexpect underwater ambushes and hybrid enemy behavior, reshaping both solo tactics and group coordination.

4. Fishing and Aquatic Resources

It seems like everyone loves fishing in there game, and the trailers show just this! Now, there are a variety of different fishing games and mechanics and that wasn’t shown yet. Games like the Elder Scrolls Online or New World do a great job with fishing making it engaging vs. a total snoozefeast. In order for Fishing to be impactful to the game, players need to be stimulated and rewarded.

Enshrouded has a variety of different gameplay loops with some players avoding combat others embracing it. Fishing adds another layer of gameplay, materials, and is a fun way to spend time in the game with low stress. We can anticipate new craftable fishing rods, catchable aquatic life, and new recipes.

5. Water-Based Building & Traversal Mechanics

We can expect to see dynamic water physics and structures usable over or beneath the surface. This will lead to a whole bunch of new base building opportunities and possibly travel mechanics. If you’ve ever followed Keen Games X post, you will see the most incredible building structures in a variety of environments. Adding water to current and existing house as well as water theme based houses and buildings will be next level.

This will also force players who love base building to go out and explore, trade, and craft new materials need to assemble the latest water builds. The new building blocks and materials will be a creative persons dream and continue to add to the plethora of immersive player creations.

6. Weapon Stat and Item System Revamp

One of the biggest changes is to weapon stats. For example the weapon Ice Coated Daggers currently has zero frost or ice damage. The developers have gone over all the current weapons in the game and are adjusting based on their names, theme, and overall performance. This will also include weapons, rings, and consumables and it should be better suited to match the name and vibe of the item.

Another huge item revamp is that ability to craft previously found lore items. The developers gave an example of the Wailing Blade, a glowing flame weapon that looks amazing. The downside is, it was obtained earlier in the game, and you couldn’t craft or find a higher level version. Thus, one of the coolest weapons in the game remains unusable at end game.

No longer! Now you can craft all of these previously obtained items and they will scale to your current level. We didn’t see from the video if they will have a gem slot, but most likely not. Therefore, we don’t expect these to be meta end-game best in slot, but a great way to have a reliable weapon via crafting as you level up.

7. Weapon Durability Overhaul

One point of feedback that was given to developers over the early access period is weapon durability. Most of the weapons were uniform in terms of durability. Thus, you had a brand new weapon and a end-game legendary needing to be repaired as often.

No more! Durability now scales with item level and rarity, making high-end gear sturdier. This change is helpful giving you more time to explore and engage in combat without returning to repair your gear deep in a shroud lair. One note is weapons you already acquired will not be retroactively changed, similar to gems and weapon stat revamp. Thus, you can expect to re-grind all of these new legendary weapons!

8. Expanded Loot Pool and Enemy Drops

New weapons added to the global loot table, including the Fell Thunder Brute Greatsword and Scavenger Fearsome Acid Cleaver. Enemy drops scale with level and rarity. Players will already have to re-grind previous items to get optimal stats and durability changes. What’s nice is, now you can get some new weapons and hopefully the new biome is an end-game level allowing you to get the best in slot for end game players.

9. Chest Farming Exploit Removed

A massive nerf to gear farming will be introduced in Update 7, chest farming. If you don’t know how this works, currently you can logout and reset the server, which will reset gold chest. End-game players would mark all the chest on their maps and make a quick loop, taking advantage of quick opens and RNG before logging out and rinse and repeat. You can easily get many legendary weapons this way but no more in update 7!

Now the game will remember the chest have been looted and go on a unknown respawn time. This is a big negative considering legendries are harder to get now, especially with gems being introduced and previously acquired weapons not retroactively granting a gem slot. So, expect to re-grind a much more intense pace in order to acquire the best in slot weapons.

Make sure to mark your maps and hit every gold chest as soon as you login to start those timers! And who knows, maybe we will leave our games logged in to figure out the specific respawn time.

10. Mage Rework and Survival Balance Changes

For players who start as a magic user wanting to use the staff, the current game can be brutal. What’s annoying is the spells and that they aren’t eternal and take awhile to get. However, the developers are adding a Fire Bolt spell, quick, single target and fast cast. This will bridge the gap until you get your first eternal spell ice bolt or start crafting more advanced spells

Another change for balancing purposes is health and resource regeneration. Currently, the health regeneration is ultra powerful and the developers are lowering this so you can’t passively heal through everything and avoid using potions and bandages. Moreover, you might expect stamina and mana regen nerfs as well, forcing you to spend more resources, skills, and gear into sustain vs. pure damage. No more infinite dodge? Maybe so!

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