Fellowship Keeps Crashing | Fixes and Known Issues

If Fellowship keeps crashing every time you queue for a dungeon or load into the Stronghold, you’re not alone. Since the October patch, stability has improved a bit, but crashes and freezes are still common across both DX11 and DX12. Here’s every fix that’s currently confirmed to work after the latest update.

How to Fix Crashes in Fellowship

The most consistent fixes come from adjusting your graphics settings and clearing cached data. Follow these steps in order to rule out common problems.

Verify game files on Steam to replace any missing or corrupted assets
Switch to DirectX 11 under Launch Options if the game keeps crashing in DX12
Turn off overlays from Discord, Steam, and Nvidia GeForce Experience
Disable third-party FPS counters or recording tools
Lower Shadow Quality and disable Post-Processing until you confirm stability
Delete the shader cache folder in AppData, then relaunch the game
Update GPU drivers, especially for NVIDIA cards released after September 2025

Once you’ve done all of that, restart your PC before relaunching Fellowship. It clears temporary cache buildup that can trigger memory-related crashes.

What Changed After the October Patch

The October 18 update focused mainly on server reliability and reduced the number of dungeon disconnects. However, players are still reporting crash loops during the following situations:

Transitioning between the Stronghold and dungeon entrances
Alt-tabbing while the game is loading shaders
Matchmaking disconnects that force a full crash to desktop
Attempting to rejoin a dungeon after a disconnect
Random “Not Responding” freezes tied to background memory leaks

The developers acknowledged that optimization isn’t complete yet. They’ve confirmed more stability updates are planned over the next few weeks to address loading and memory cleanup.

Quick Workarounds That Actually Help

If your game crashes constantly, try these quick in-game and system tweaks.

Set the game to Borderless Window mode instead of Fullscreen
Close your browser, Spotify, or video apps while playing to free RAM
Avoid running multiple dungeon queues back-to-back without restarting
If using an ultrawide monitor, test windowed 16:9 resolution for stability
Check your antivirus quarantine log and whitelist Fellowship.exe

These won’t fix the root cause but can drastically reduce the number of random crashes per session.

Common Crash Types and What They Mean

Crash during load: Usually shader or asset corruption. Verify files and clear cache.
Black screen then desktop: DX12 rendering issue, switch to DX11.
Freeze after dungeon start: Memory leak or server timeout, restart client.
Instant crash when alt-tabbing: GPU context loss, switch to Borderless mode.

What the Devs Have Said

In their October 18 patch notes, the Fellowship devs confirmed that hotfixes were deployed to reduce loading-related crashes, but further optimization will take time. They’re collecting crash reports from the Steam client and the in-game feedback form, so submitting logs directly helps prioritize what gets fixed next.

Final Blurb

Fellowship is still in early access, and while the new patch made the game more playable, stability is far from perfect. Most crashes come from DX12 rendering issues, shader corruption, or server mismatches. Until the next round of fixes, stick to DX11, keep overlays off, and restart between dungeons for the smoothest possible run.