The developers of Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen have updated their roadmap for the remaining year of 2025 and provided a first glimpse of the new zone that the team is currently working on.
What are the plans for Pantheon? There are still 2 major updates planned for Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen this year:
- In November, the Silent Plains region will receive a new area featuring the Wildbloods, where you can follow a new storyline. There will also be high-level content for the dungeon area in Black Rose Keep, which premiered on September 10, 2025. Additionally, there will be ability adjustments for Wizards and crafting quests for levels 1 to 10.
- For December, the developers are planning an expansion of crafting quests, the introduction of mounts, as well as taming and updates for the village of Demith.
The Early Access trailer for Pantheon:
“Oh my, an underwater area”
What else are the developers planning? In March 2025, the developers did state that major changes like new classes and zones would not arrive on the live servers until 2026, but at least the southern region of Badia de Cara found its place on the roadmap for this year.
It is now clear that this new region will also celebrate its release in 2026. The developers explain on the official website pantheonmmo.com:
It is very important to us to get this gameplay right. We have all firsthand experienced the problems and difficulties that some other MMORPGs have faced in their water areas. However, we have also seen what other games that focused on this type of experience could achieve, and we are confident that we can provide an engaging and entertaining experience that makes Terminus a fully realized world. To give this project the attention it deserves, we have postponed the release of Badia de Cara to 2026.
Wait… underwater areas? Yes! Badia de Cara is a zone that will take you not only to islands but also into the ocean. So, you can expect content that you must navigate while swimming underwater. What that might feel like has been illustrated years ago by the underwater zone Vashj’ir from WoW: Cataclysm.
The developers’ quote shows that they are aware of the challenge. Underwater gameplay often feels bad because the character is less mobile, negatively impacting travel and combat. Additionally, many players struggle with orientation in 3D space.
There are good reasons why Blizzard has put various planned underwater content on hold after the experiences with Vashj’ir.
How is the community reacting? How popular underwater zones are among many MMORPG fans is demonstrated by a current discussion on Reddit regarding the roadmap update.
- In response to the question of when the Bard class is coming, Rathisponge sarcastically replies on Reddit: “Sorry, buddy. Mounts and taming have higher priority. And the underwater zone too. After all, people LOVE these.”
- Spikeybear writes on Reddit: “I know many games have something like this [underwater zones]. However, people usually avoid this content. I have my doubts that Pantheon can pull this off. If you jump into the water right now, there’s a good chance you won’t even swim, but that the character just strikes a T-pose.”
- Syphin33 cannot believe it on Reddit: “Oh my, an underwater area – I can’t even imagine how much time and resources they will waste on such a feature that really isn’t needed at the moment. There are other things that should be worked on before underwater content. The game barely works above water, for crying out loud, no one likes underwater areas, man… Fix the things above first.”
Many other players agree with Syphin33 and state that there are still numerous issues that urgently need to be addressed for Pantheon to have a solid foundation to properly present underwater content. One example: you can apparently die from falling damage in water.
What else do I need to know about Pantheon? When MeinMMO reported for the first time on Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen in May 2016 it was already clear that the new online role-playing game by industry veteran Brad McQuaid (EverQuest, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes) aims to target fans of classic MMO experiences for the PC, with a focus on PvE group challenges.
The Visionary Realms team has remained true to this mandate over the years, even as the leading industry veteran passed away in November 2019 at the age of just 50. This old-school approach was initially well-received by many players of the Early Access version. Pantheon plays out almost like a modern EverQuest: A new, proper PvE MMORPG has launched on Steam, has 80% positive reviews, and the number of players is rising
