Don't Starve Together Cursed Confrontation Part 2 (22 October): Shrouded Queen, Umbral Abomination and the King's Staff

Cursed Confrontation Part 2 lands in Don't Starve Together on Thursday 22 October. It concludes the From Beyond story arc that Part 1 started on 11 June, and Klei says it ships with new skins and a new set of Twitch Drops. Klei's announcement says nothing about servers, so plan to update your dedicated server on the day: the steps are further down.

What's in the update

Klei's 22 October post doesn't list the contents. The update has been on the public beta branch since 3 September, though, and Klei's beta notes are the best guide to what ships. Klei says things "may be changed or retuned" during beta, so read the detail below as the state of the last beta build (16 October), not the final patch notes.

The Ancient Gateway quest

Part 2 picks up where the Shadow arc left off, when you take the Keystone to the Ancient Gateway. Klei's first beta note flags one step you need to know: to complete the next tasks, "you must use the Possessed Atrium to summon Ancient Fuelweaver outside of the Atrium during your search for the required items."

Giving a Possessed Atrium to the Odd Skeleton in the caves also gets a new interaction. At the start of the beta Klei said in-game hints and prompts for this were still to come, so the release build may point the way more clearly.

Shrouded Queen and the Umbral Abomination

Many of the beta changes tune the boss fights. The Shrouded Queen's Swarming Horrors and Grim Harriers start slow and speed up over time, and the Swarming Horrors lose track of you if you hide in the dark. Her barrier now also deflects Willow's Shadow Fire.

The 25 September beta added "the final phase of the boss fight". Once the Shrouded Queen falls, the Umbral Abomination comes next, fought in the Charlie arena:

• It summons all four types of Ink Blight through its portal attack, at different points in the fight.
• Dreadstone Outcrops spawn in the arena and react to players' sanity or enlightenment levels.
• It has its own boss music and a new death sequence.

Beat it and new loot waits outside the Ancient Gateway.

New creatures and gear

Hound Batilisk and Rock Master are new creatures. A Hound Batilisk that latches on to a player drops off if it gets electrocuted, for example by WX-78's Electrification Circuit.

The King's Staff can corrupt chess clockworks into their shadow forms, and corrupt a fissure to force a shadow thrall event. Its corruption decays quicker than in the earlier beta builds and can be cleansed "through a certain method", which Klei leaves you to work out.

The Queen's Torch got a bigger light radius during the beta. It scares off Grim Harriers, Void Masqued creatures, Parasitic Shadelings, Mr Skitts and the Resting Horror, and keeps Obelisks lowered.

Balance changes worth knowing

• Night Light now costs 4 Gold Nuggets instead of 8.
• The Greater Depths Worm does less damage and only knocks back weakly. Feed it active explosives or certain sleepy foods and it's stunned.
• Life steal (Batbat, Bat Hat, Shadow Maul) no longer works on Spider Dens, Bee Hives, Lureplants, Chester or Hutch, and the Bat Hat's own life steal drops from 8.5 to 6.8.
• Craggy Carapace absorbs 95% of damage and has 1050 durability.
• The Sanctum resets along with the ruins, but only once the Umbral Abomination has been beaten at least once.
• The minimap hides areas such as the Sanctum unless you're inside them.

What your server needs to do

1. Back up the world before the update goes live. On a self-hosted server that's the whole cluster folder: the one holding cluster.ini and its shard folders (Master, plus Caves if you run caves).
2. Update the dedicated server once the new build is out. Players' clients update themselves through Steam, and a server still on the old build won't match them: expect it to drop off the server list or turn players away with a version error.
3. Check your mods once both shards are back up. Klei's beta note to modders (build 751350) says this update removes the vault_teleporter, vaultroom, vault_floor_helper and vaultroommanager components and adds virtualroommanager and virtualroomset in their place. A mod that relies on the old ones will break until its author updates it.

Self-hosting? The dedicated server is Steam app 343050:

steamcmd +login anonymous +app_update 343050 validate +quit

If players get a version error after the update, our Don't Starve Together troubleshooting guide covers the usual causes.

What's coming next

• Thursday 22 October: Part 2 goes live with the new skins and Twitch Drops. Klei hasn't given a time (see the FAQ).
• Halloween: our Halloween 2026 server guide covers the DST setting that controls the seasonal event.
• After From Beyond: Klei hasn't said what follows the arc. Don't Starve Elsewhere is a separate game, and our Don't Starve Elsewhere post covers what it means for DST servers.

FAQ

Do players need to buy anything?

Klei calls Part 2 "the next update", and Part 1 was "available for all players". Nothing in the announcement suggests Part 2 is different. The new skins are sold separately.

Does Part 2 wipe my world?

Nothing in Klei's announcement or the beta notes mentions a wipe. The quest picks up from the Keystone and the Ancient Gateway, which players reach in the worlds they already have.

What time does the update go live?

Klei hadn't posted a time when this was written. Part 1's launch post went up at 17:00 UTC (6 PM UK) on 11 June.

Will my mods break?

Some will. Anything built on the removed vault components needs an update from its author. Klei's beta notes give mod authors the release ID R43_SHADOWYDEPTHS for this patch.

Can I try it before 22 October?

Yes. Part 2 is on the public beta, and Klei's forum has the instructions for joining it in the game. For a self-hosted server, the beta is the updatebeta branch of app 343050:

steamcmd +login anonymous +app_update 343050 -beta updatebeta validate +quit

Back up before switching, and move the server back to the public branch once the 22 October build is out.

Running a regular world with your group? Have a look at Don't Starve Together server hosting.

Sources: Klei's 22 October announcement, Autumn Sale and beta post and Part 1 launch post, and the beta notes for test builds 751350, 751622, 752118, 752666, 755194, 756956, 757484, 757748 and 758848.