Welcome to Elderfield v1.0.2 and September 23 Hotfix

Quick answer: Install v1.0.2, released September 22, 2026, plus the September 23 Hotfix before troubleshooting mining hazards, nighttime stat loss, fishing equipment, missing nets, or blocked tasks. These are the latest official announcements checked on October 2. The September 23 patch is named Hotfix; the developer did not call it v1.0.3.

Choose the fix that matches your symptom

The official changelog supports the update column. The checking steps are our practical way to isolate a symptom; they are not a claim that every affected save has been tested by this site.

Mining received two different corrections

The September 18 update intended to make mining setbacks less frequent and less damaging. The September 22 patch then addressed hazards becoming more frequent after the debris changes. The next day's hotfix addressed a different layer: battles were occurring too often relative to other outcomes when a hazard triggered.

For a useful comparison, write down both the number of hazards and how many of those hazards became fights. Counting only battles mixes the chance of an adverse event with the kind of event it produces. A short unlucky run is still possible; the announcements do not promise a battle-free mine or publish a guaranteed number of safe swings.

Update before spending a day repeating the same route on an older build. If you are actually blocked by ore access, equipment, or processing rather than hazard frequency, use the Catacombs materials and power guide. A balance patch will not replace its key or tool requirements.

Normal-or-lower sleep stat loss: why older advice was incomplete

v1.0.1 announced the removal of permanent stat loss from bad sleep rolls on Normal or lower difficulty. Some players still experienced it, and v1.0.2 specifically fixes that remaining case. If you read a September 18 guide saying the problem was already gone, the intended rule was correct but its implementation still needed repair.

Check the installed build and difficulty before repeating the sleep test. If a loss still happens after updating, record the stat, difficulty, sleep event, and whether the save began on an older build. Keep a before-and-after screenshot rather than relying on a remembered value from several sessions ago.

This fix is about sleep rolls. A curse, equipment change, or separate Mystery event can also affect what you see on a stat screen. The beginner guide explains the daily routine; the Time to Investigate checklist deals with Mystery interactions and their separate risks.

Fishing and watering: keep the route, update the behavior

v1.0.2 corrects Weird Fish appearance and Lucky Reel's treasure effect. If you were avoiding the reel because it seemed to hurt your results, first update and retest it with the same water and bait. The announcement supplies no new treasure percentage, so a single cast cannot verify a guaranteed reward.

For a failed quest-fish attempt, first check the actual bait pairing. These fixes do not provide a replacement for the bait-location route. Fog Eel still belongs to that route's Lakefront-and-Leech check; the earlier appearance-rate adjustment was an odds change rather than a guaranteed next catch.

The watering change repairs charge-distance timing when watering flowers. If charging behaved differently on flower plots, retest the tool there after updating. This is not evidence that crop growth nights, season rules, or every watering-can range changed. Continue using the farming guide for those decisions.

Lost nets, task hand-ins, and existing-save prices

The tool-protection system introduced in v1.0.1 could fail to replace a lost Bug Catching Net. v1.0.2 repairs that case. After updating, check Primary Storage and the full inventory; the original-shop check applies where the tool had a shop source. Use the tool recovery checklist if the replacement remains missing.

For tasks, the patch addresses unaccepted Job Board requests appearing active and a Cat Toy that could not be handed in. If the journal or hand-in still behaves incorrectly, record the exact task and stage. Do not discard the requested object just because a previous attempt failed.

The patch also makes the earlier Catacombs shop price changes apply to existing saves. Open the live shop panel before following an older shopping budget. A price remembered from launch week can differ from the amount your updated save now asks for.

The September 23 hotfix also repairs the Crusader Greaves recipe requiring itself as an ingredient. If that circular recipe stopped your crafting, update and reopen the crafting panel before planning another material run. Use the corrected panel's requirements; the announcement does not publish a replacement shopping list.

Achievement crashes: retest the connection before replacing files

The developer added a potential fix for a crash when an achievement unlocks while the Steam connection has failed. When that matches your symptom, finish updating, restart Steam, confirm it is connected, and reproduce the achievement trigger with the same save if you can do so safely.

If it crashes again, note the achievement, last visible message, Steam connectivity, and game version. That is more useful than immediately changing Proton, deleting AppData, or replacing the packaged runtime. The launch and crash guide gives the next diagnostic path if the problem persists.

The potential-fix wording matters: the announcement does not say every achievement-related or offline crash is eliminated. A failure before any achievement trigger should still be classified by its actual launch point.

Apply the update without confusing release and guide dates

Finish Steam's download, fully close the running game, and launch the updated installation. Confirm that your shortcut opens the full Steam release rather than an old Demo or copied build. Retest one matching problem before combining several settings changes.

Keep the v1.0.1 update page for the earlier Steam Deck settings, lost-tool system, balance changes, and September 18 task hotfix. It remains useful history even though v1.0.2 is now the update to install.

A page's Guide checked on label records its own evidence boundary. The Current game label tracks the latest release across this site. A patch annotation does not automatically mean we replayed every step of an older guide. This article's sources were reviewed October 2, 2026; its gameplay test suggestions are checks you can repeat in your own save.