Neverwinter opens the test server for Module 33.5: monoliths, nightmares and 999 stacks

Neverwinter has opened the test server for Module 33.5: Monoliths of Madness, the content drop the team is aiming to release in early September. This is not the final patch: it's a preview meant for players to break things ahead of time and report what's off. Read it with that in mind — the studio itself notes that a good chunk of the numbers is still under balancing review.

Even so, there's plenty to poke at: a campaign that recycles four older zones with new quests, a second combat enchantment slot, and the quality-of-life fix the game has needed for years — inventory stacks of up to 999.

The preview is live on the Mimic and Lurker shards, and on PC only: no console test this time. It started Wednesday, August 5 after maintenance, and the team is collecting feedback until Tuesday, August 18 at 7:30 AM PT. The links for leaving comments go up in the announcements channel of the game's official Discord.

The explicit ask is that feedback focus on four fronts: the Monoliths of Madness campaign, the item stack increase, the new offense and defense enchantment slots, and the rewards coming with the module.

The new campaign sends players back to Menzoberranzan, Northdark Reaches, Narbondellyn and Dragonbane Vale. Each week one of those zones becomes the main stage and hosts the new quests; while it's active, the game downscales characters so the content doesn't clear itself. It's the obvious answer to a classic problem in an MMORPG over a decade old: entire zones nobody visits because they sit twenty modules below current gear.

The starting point is Protector's Enclave, talking to Master Arcanist Viorel Amakiir. One detail that helps latecomers: if you haven't finished the original campaign tied to the active zone, you can progress both at once.

The daily and weekly challenges feed two progress tracks at once: your own and a global one. The objectives are the usual suspects — Heroic Encounters, named encounters, skirmishes, a specific dungeon or trial — plus one native to this module: purifying corrupted altars.

The zones were reworked to include corrupted altars that summon powerful enemies. Any critter in the zone has a small chance to drop a Nightmare Fragment; three of them let you spawn a Nightmarish creature at one of the smaller monoliths, and killing it purifies an altar, hands out rewards and returns a bigger fragment. Collect three of those and the monolith coughs up something considerably nastier, with better loot. Regular enemies also drop Shards of Madness, traded for Warden's Marks to spend at the event store.

The existing Heroic Encounters in each zone didn't escape either: they now carry the monoliths' influence, so you'll be moving, cleansing disease and dodging meteorites while you finish them. And every few hours The Nightmare (tentative name) spawns — a zone-wide target that asks for a crowd and, on top of currency and global progress, leaves behind an hour-long damage buff.

The least flashy change is probably the most cheered. Stack size goes from 99 to 999 for Epic Collar Choice Pack, Genie's Gift, Potion of Healing Rank 10, most Coalescent Motes, Overloads, Preservation Wards and Stronghold Vouchers, and Black Pearls. One caveat: existing stacks don't merge on their own; you drag one onto the other or hit the sword button, and bind statuses still prevent mixing what can't be mixed.

The other systems change touches character building: from this module on you can equip two combat enchantments, one offensive and one defensive. On the Enhancements tab, the Utility slot moved into the old Combat slot to make room for the two new ones, and whatever you had equipped is automatically placed into one of them. It's more power across the board, sure, but also an extra layer of decision on builds that had been stagnant for a while.

The preview also shows off future loot. In the upcoming Battle Pass: the Laughing Void artifact plus the Voidbound Belt and Voidbound Necklace. In the upcoming lockbox: the companion Encore, the Feathered Virtuoso, and the Abyssal Star Angler mount.

The Monoliths of Madness event hands out its own through progression: the Abyssal Spider mount and the Burning Hope artifact via global progress, the legendary companion Staring Cat of Uldunn-Dar via personal progress, and assorted epic Renewed armor pieces, rings and shirts/pants split between progression, corrupted altars and a merchant.

Anything economy-related is explicitly flagged as non-final: currency dropped by regular enemies, hunt bosses and world bosses, plus the content tied to the event, are all still under balancing review. Which means if something feels stingy or broken in the preview, that's exactly the kind of thing the team wants to hear about before September.

For a game past its thirtieth module, the bet here is interesting: instead of one more new zone, revive four the playerbase left behind. If the downscaling works and the rewards hold up, it's a cheap and elegant way to make the world feel inhabited again. If not, it'll be four empty zones with new altars in them. The next two weeks of testing should give the answer.