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Patch Notes1 min read

Bellwright Our Second Anniversary! Patch Notes (23rd April 2026)

Bellwright hits its second anniversary and Donkey Crew is marking it with a sweeping update that touches everything from early-game narrative to NPC behaviour.

Nathan Lees
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Two years in, and Donkey Crew isn't slowing down. Bellwright's second anniversary update lands today, and the scope of what's changing is bigger than a typical maintenance patch. The studio is overhauling the early-game narrative, which has been a friction point for new players since launch, so this one should matter if you've ever bounced off the opening hours.

The building system is getting the most visible additions: a planning mode and the ability to connect roads to the main network to support travel signs. NPC behaviour is also being reworked, with a new food diet system and squads that actually move together reliably. These are the kinds of systems that quietly make or break a colony sim, and I'm glad they're being addressed properly rather than patched around the edges.

Donkey Crew also confirmed that console ports for Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 are in active development alongside a dedicated servers feature, so the roadmap is packed. If you want to try the new systems before the full release, the changes are live now on the Preview Branch via Discord instructions from the studio. Here's everything that changed.

Full Patch Notes

The second year of Bellwright is coming to a close - it's time to pause, take a step back, and reflect on all the hard work and the progress it's led to... Just kidding, no time to lose! There is so much more that we still want to add and (as you keep telling us) so much more that you still want to see. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

As cliché as it might be, all of us at Donkey Crew genuinely feel that we wouldn't be here without you and your support, which is as undying as Lord Ashbourne before we fixed him constantly respawning. If not for your vocal feedback, bug reports, Steam reviews, and discussions on Discord and Reddit there would be no Bellwright in its current form, and surely no grand plans for its future. It's hard to describe how much joy it brings us to watch you play it, talk about it, and (especially) suggest it to someone in a random Reddit thread, so thank you once again for giving Bellwright a shot.

With formalities behind us, we can finally get into the real reason everyone is reading this post - pulling back the curtain on development. At this very moment we're working on two major things at the same time - releasing Bellwright on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5, and preparing a huge update that aims to significantly improve performance and the whole experience of playing the game. Actually, three major things if you count dedicated servers...

Same as we've been doing before, you can expect more detailed posts about the upcoming changes going forward until release, but if you absolutely cannot wait even a second longer, you can try the new update right now on the Preview Branch.

Early game narrative is being overhauled, building system is getting new tools like a planning mode and ability to connect your roads to the main network to support travel signs, NPCs are getting a food diet system and reliably move together in squads, and a lot more goodies are already there, many of which were suggested by you.

Head to our Discordto find the instructions for the Preview Branch, and in the meantime, let us know in replies what were your favorite changes from the last two years!

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Written by

Nathan Lees

Gaming journalist and founder of XP Gained. Covering patch notes, breaking news, and updates across 160+ games.

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