RIFT’s Public Test Shard (‘PTS’) was updated around 9-10th February 2016 with some new weapon skins, dimension ‘Decoration Scratchers’, a ‘heart’ Levitate mount, ‘Rodent’ mount and possible ‘snail’ mount. ~160mb update.
Patch version is TEST-303-150-A-1078935.
Summary:
- New Weapon Skins. ‘Reactor’ weapon skins up on PTS.
- Decoration Scratchers. Random new colored dimension items.
- Rodent, Snail & Heart Mounts. Three new potential mounts in the data files.
- Other Info. Glass/Water building block icons; Celestial Wings icon; and Patron Bonus info.
As always, everything below is subject to change prior to hitting Live and some things included below may never make it to Live release.
New Weapon Skins
There’s a few new weapon skins associated with a ‘reactor’ name.
Two of the skins are up on the PTS to view under Character -> Wardrobe. You’ll need to tick “Show Uncollected” and search for “_” or “reactor” in the 1h and 2h slots.
There’s also 1h_sword_reactor and 1h_shield_reactor.ma files in the latest data, but they cannot be viewed on the PTS yet. There are however two additional skins in the data files that likely relate to the missing wardrobe weapons:
Possible 1h Reactor Shield Skin
Possible 1h Reactor Sword Skin
Given the name ‘reactor’, these skins might be a planned cross-promo with Trion’s title “Atlas Reactor“, which is still in alpha.
Decoration Scratchers
Player Kiwi discovered that Dimensioneers are getting new color-based dimension items, found in new ‘[Color] Decoration Scratchers’. These cost 25 Credits each (22 for Patron) and contain one of a few pillows, carpets and curtains.
These new dimension items are not viewable yet, although Kiwi mentioned that they’ll be coming to Live next week.
Rodent, Snail & Heart Mounts
Three potential mounts were discovered in the data files. Two via skins and one via a feature image.
Rodent Mount
Given its name and looks, the Rodent mount is likely a mouse or rat, although its hind legs seem a little odd.
It comes with some harnesses, a saddle and some blue feather decorations. The ‘Rodent’ name itself is what it is known internally, with a .cfg file having “\rig\asset\mount_rodent_01.nif” in it. It is unknown what its actual in-game name will be, or when it will pop up.
Snail Mount
I wasn’t able to find any model or config files for the below skin so it isn’t 100% confirmed to be a mount, but it definitely looks like one.
There’s harnesses and a potential bedroll as well as an obvious blue shell and parts of the snail’s body in the bottom-right. The left-most purple object next to the shell is likely the seating/saddle.
From the looks of it, this Snail Mount has some kind of large, bony and highly decorative ornament in the top-right and the top-most blue ‘glowing’ objects are likely its eye-stalks.
So, potentially look forward to a snail mount in the future!
Heart Levitate Mount
I’m not sure if this is actually a mount or just Trion’s way of giving a nod to Valentine’s Day. Telara’s own special version of this day – Mariel-Taun Day – has been scrapped since last year (and thus why associated achievements that are no longer obtainable were removed this week).
Below is clearly what looks like a RIFT Store feature image for a Heart-based Levitate mount.
Two large hearts (potentially pulsing), and if you look closely you’ll also notice red petals.
This might explain why there’s a new skin in the data files with a bunch of colored petals.
Could this mean that this ‘Heart’ Levitate mount will have a multitude of colors that it switches through at random?
If this really is a mount, we’ll probably see it pop up on the RIFT Store this weekend (12-14th Feb) in line with Valentine’s Day.
Other Info
Ice, Glass & Water Building Blocks
With this week’s hotfix, ice-based building blocks were added to the RIFT Store for dimensioneers in the form of a new grab bag.
The PTS files still contain icons for both glass- and water-based building blocks.
Look forward to those some time in the future!
Celestial Wings Icon
The ‘artifact wings’ shown off recently when Trion revealed upcoming additions to the game related to artifacts is known internally in the data files as “celestial wings”. They look pretty amazing.
You’ll need to complete the 1400-artifact-set-completion achievement, which will only be obtainable when RIFT 3.6: Celebration of the Ascended hits in early April.
With the most recent PTS Update, there’s now an icon in the data files:
Best of luck in completing all those sets!
Patron Bonus Info
Nothing big, but on the PTS, Gingers has added in a ‘Patron Bonus’ section to quest rewards. More informational than anything else since Patron’s already have bonuses to tokens/currency/etc.
Been a while since the PTS was properly up and didn’t have any version error bugs so that we can really get in there. Not a big update, but a few new additions to look forward to including ‘rodent’, ‘snail’ and ‘heart’ levitate mounts.
For past PTS Updates, click here. You can also find past datamining here.
RiftGrate 
“Two large hearts (potentially pulsing), and if you look closely you’ll also notice red petals.” – Yes the hearts are pulsing.