Smalland Forbidden Monuments Update: Park Biome, Icarus Wings, Leveling Overhaul

The Forbidden Monuments patch for Smalland has officially landed, following the studio's roadmap after Giant's Fall. It is the second large content drop for the game, and it pushes the world outward with a brand new biome, hostile factions, a leveling system that finally gives stats some weight, and a wing slot that turns every armor into a flight-capable rig.

Here is the rundown of what changed and what to look for once you log back in.

A New Map Region: The Park

The headline addition is The Park, a fresh area for the Smallfolk Vanguard to explore. Inside it you will run into new fauna, including the Blue Tit, plus seasonal color variants of older creatures. Push deeper and you will eventually cross paths with the Aether tribe, a new faction that is openly hostile. Treat them as enemies on sight rather than potential trading partners, because diplomacy was not on the design board for these folks.

A new NPC, Malik the Ornithomancer, also joins the cast in this region. He fits the bird theme of the biome and ties into some of the new questing.

Player Leveling, At Last

Progression now goes from level 1 to 100. Experience comes from three main faucets:

• Gathering resources
• Combat against creatures and tribes
• Hitting key beats in the main story

Higher-tier enemies and rarer materials hand out more XP, so it pays to push into harder zones rather than farming low-level bugs forever. Each Smallfolk has four attributes to invest in: Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, and Endurance. The catch is that you cannot pump a stat above your current character level, which forces a bit of pacing instead of dumping everything into one attribute on day one.

Creature Leveling and Tame Stats

The new system is not only for players. Wild creatures now spawn at a natural level, and two animals of the same species can roll noticeably different stats. One ladybug might have more health while another rolls higher Dexterity and speed, which means it is worth checking what you are about to tame.

Once a creature joins your party, it gains experience by sticking with you in the field. The level cap is +10 above your own level. So if your character is sitting at level 53 and you tame a level 53 grasshopper, that pet can reach level 63 and then plateau until you grow. You can also pour points into the same four attributes used for players.

The Icarus Set and the Wings Slot

The new Icarus armor set comes with the Icarus Wings, which unlock an air dash triggered by tapping sprint mid-jump. More importantly, wings are now a separate equipment slot. From this patch onward you can attach wings to any armor in the game, which is great news, except that all existing armor pieces have had their built-in wings removed and need to be recrafted. Annoying, but a one-time cost.

Weapons, Building Parts and Resources

New weapons

• Aetherin Hammer
• Aetherin Greataxe
• Stink Bomb
• Icarus Arrow

New building parts

• 5 Children's Building Blocks
• 12 Chess pieces
• Half stairs for every tier
• 1/3 height walls for every tier
• 1/3 height curved walls for the wood, stone, and metal tiers
• 1/4 size floor pieces for every tier

New resources

• Blue Tit egg
• Stink Gland
• Reishi Mushroom
• Mushroom Leather
• Feather

The smaller wall and floor pieces are a quiet but huge addition for anyone who has wrestled with awkward base footprints in earlier builds.

Tame and Mount Tweaks

Mounted creatures get a real upgrade in this patch. They can now jump and attack while ridden, which closes a gap that made cavalry feel half-baked. A few specific creatures also got attention:

• Grasshoppers can now charge their jump for extra distance.
• Ladybugs drop a gravestone on death, so losing one is no longer a quiet tragedy.
• A ladybug told to leave the party still works as a storage container, which is excellent for stash points scattered across the map.

Quality of Life

A grab-bag of polish lands with the patch:

• Several weapons have faster attack animations.
• Brand new jumping and running animations.
• Sped-up poison antidote animation so chugging cures does not feel like a coffee break.
• A warning prompt now fires when you are about to walk off the edge of the map.

For a quick visual taste of the update before you launch the game, the studio also released a trailer on YouTube.

Forbidden Monuments is a meaty patch, especially for a survival title still in its growth phase. The leveling overhaul on its own changes how every fight and every gathering trip feels, and the wing slot opens room for hybrid builds that did not exist before. Plenty to chew on for veteran Vanguards and new arrivals alike.