Every Feature Confirmed for Eternal Strands So Far

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home November 28, 2024 3 Views 9 Min Read
Every Feature Confirmed for Eternal Strands So Far

Eternal Strands is the debut action-adventure title for Yellow Brick Games, which was founded in 2020 by BioWare and Ubisoft veterans like Mike Laidlaw (Dragon Age) and Thomas Giroux (The Crew), among many others. This means there are big expectations out of a relatively small studio, but there are advantages to that. Because of a focused idea and the studio’s hopefully well-paced execution, Eternal Strands will be released in Q1 2025 – roughly five years after Yellow Brick Games was founded.




In Eternal Strands, players take on the role of a Weaver named Brynne who seeks to recover her people’s cultural home. She seems to be a descendant of the Enclave, a culture that sealed itself away from the rest of the world long ago. This, according to Eternal Strands‘ description, leaves “a once powerful center of magical wonders” dormant. This implies some degree of fantasy background and lore, which is enticing, but it also approaches art and gameplay in an interesting action-adventure direction. Indeed, at first glance, Eternal Strands‘ artwork feels reminiscent of Immortals Fenyx Rising (a Ubisoft work), but where it seems to truly make its mark is on action-adventure gameplay.


Eternal Strands Gameplay Features

  • Forge Bonds with your Weaver Band who will support your expedition with their skills.
  • Gear Customization
  • Climb Almost Everything
  • The Mantle: Frost, Flame, and Kinetic Magic
  • A True Physics Playground
  • Day/Night Cycle and Extreme Weather
  • Crafting System
  • Genre: Action Adventure
  • Engine: UE5
  • Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
  • Eternal Strands is a day-one Xbox Game Pass release.
  • Release Date: Q1 2025


Weaver Combat in Eternal Strands

As a Weaver, Brynn’s combat and gameplay focus on magical abilities and magical weapons, ones that also gamify the surrounding environment, through an artifact called The Mantle. This Artifact lets Brynn use Frost, Flame, and Kinetic magic against her enemies, burning them, freezing them, or just lobbying something at them. This is what Yellow Brick Games means by a true physics playground. Players are able to use these abilities in conjunction with the environment in combat; for example, Brynn can use kinematic magic to lob a tree at an enemy. In theory, she could light that tree on fire and lob a flaming tree at an enemy. Brynn can also block enemies with walls of ice or use Kinetic Force to yeet enemies off a cliff (which is a gaming classic).


Brynn will need these abilities to survive against enemies, some of which are colossal in size. One colossal enemy shown so far are giant constructs called Arks, upon which Brynn can also climb—gameplay similar to Dragon’s Dogma or even Shadow of the Colossus. It also seems players will be able to combat and climb onto dragons, as one trailer shows Brynn on the back of one. Manipulating the environment, climbing enemies, and combining all of these abilities are at the heart of Eternal Strands. Of course, this style of gameplay needs some progression. Defeating Arks is at least one method players can use to obtain Strands, which can then be used to infuse the Mantle with new magical abilities.

Beyond that, players can customize their gear for the all-important fashion element of Eternal Strands, but these enchanted weapons and armor also make Brynn all the more effective in combat. Players can expect a standard suite consisting of head armor, body armor, bracers, boots, a sword and shield, a two-handed weapon, and a ranged bow. There is also a consumable belt shown to utilize 2-3 items for those all-important heals.


Weaver Exploration in Eternal Strands

All of these features translate into the exploration and world of Eternal Strands as well. Players not only climb the gigantic monsters left behind by the Enclave, but they can climb virtually anything in the environment. Yellow Brick Games has cited Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom as inspiration before, so this is no surprise. But it opens up a huge avenue for exploration when players can do this in conjunction with melting or burning away roadblocks, forming ice bridges, and even throwing Brynn herself with kinetic magic (which sounds super exciting). I just know I am going to yeet myself at an enemy and fall to oblivion at some point.

Furthermore, Eternal Strands features an extreme weather system that is said to affect her abilities. While Yellow Brick hasn’t gone into detail on these features quite yet, it seems safe to assume that it means that fire powers could be stronger in Extreme Heat, but ice powers may be weaker. For now, fans should wait and see what else Yellow Brick reveals about this feature.


Your Eternal Strands Companions?

Joining Brynn is her Weaver Band, a collection of fellow Weavers who keep up camp for Brynn. Not much has been revealed about them yet, such as their story presence and influence, but it seems unlikely they ever join Brynn in the field. They are not Dragon Age: Veilguard-style companions, but a collection of folks supporting Brynn’s journey. There appear to be 5-6 of them, including Oria the bird, a green wolf-like humanoid with tusks (shown to be working a forge), two Tiefling like figures, and at least two human-looking people. One of them also appears to be named Casmyn, though who remains to be seen.

Players will return to camp at the end of Eternal Strands‘ day/night cycle (although it’s uncertain if this is timed or just when players are ready to rest). Doing so will let players craft, forge and reforge weapons, and otherwise interact with these companions.


All in all, Eternal Strands seems to be packed with fun features that make pursuing the Enclave’s mysteries and challenges all the more enticing.

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