Live by the Sword: Tactics

Released: Oct 28, 2022
Platforms
Last updated: 16 Sep 2026, 19:53 GMT

Updates & announcements

20 posts

14 Mar 2023Developer post
Board Builder is now available!
Hello everyone! Today marks a grand day. The day of building! We have finished our Board Builder mode and through another free update are providing it to you all. You will now be able to create a board to do battle on against the AI or against a friend. Let me provide a breakdown
14 Mar 2023Developer post
Board Builder Patch and Balance Changes
Additions Board Builder! Balance Changes Alchemist Blinding Potion Cooldown reduced from 3 to 2. Alchemist Quickness Potion Cooldown removed. Alchemist Sticky Mixture Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3 and Accuracy increased from 88% to 96%. Archer Barrage Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3.
06 Dec 2022Developer post
Winter Update available now! Patch Notes inside.
December Patch Notes Additions Traits! Each of the seven main playable characters now have two traits, which grant the character with a powerful passive effect, which can be selected in place of one of the current six abilities before battle, giving an even larger array of option
11 Nov 2022Developer post
Stat Points and Grand Effects!
Hello! We have been hard at work on the Winter Update coming December 6th! I wanted to share with you all some screenshots of the WIP for our Stat Points and Grand Effects for Adventure Mode The above image shows off investing stat points into a character. Players will be able to
04 Nov 2022Developer post
Friday Update (Winter Update Content)
I wanted to take today to detail more about our Winter Update due for release December 6th. We have updates coming for Story, Adventure and Overall gameplay. Adventure Mode Adventure Mode will see the biggest update with the ability to assign stat points into your characters. The
28 Oct 2022Developer post
Time to save the Kingdom
Hello everyone, The day has finally arrived it is launch day and with it the excitement of getting the game out to you all. So many of you all have contributed to the game in one way or another through the use of the in-game feedback system, this would not have been possible with
14 Oct 2022Developer post
Launch Day Preview and Next Content Update
Hello! We wanted to give you a full list of all the changes going live on release (October 28th) as well as what content is coming next. If this looks great to you please share it with friends! Release Patch Notes Additions Act 3 of Story Mode added! Online Multiplayer Cross-Play
Hello!
We wanted to give you a full list of all the changes going live on release (October 28th) as well as what content is coming next. If this looks great to you please share it with friends!
Release Patch Notes

Additions

Act 3 of Story Mode added!
Online Multiplayer Cross-Play added! Play against random foes from around the world via Steam, Nintendo Switch Online or Xbox Live.
Cross-play for Online Custom Games, which will allow you to face off against your friends regardless of what platform you're playing on, will be added in a future update.
Four new boards added for Skirmish and Multiplayer, with the old "Peaks" board retired.
Gameplay

Panicked Shout no longer affects characters diagonal to the Medic.
Abilities where characters jump forward (Superman Punch, Rush etc) can now target characters on the same height level when the Heavy Feet debuff is active.
Fix for Charged Draw still working with the Bear Hug debuff on the Archer.
Fix for Phase buff also preventing Basic Attacks being used against the Medic.
Fix for Fireball AOE not staying within 1 height difference of the main target.
Fix for Ricochet and Healing Aura retaining targeting information if the action wasn't completed before the player ran out of time for their turn.
Fix for characters which should be killed due to Share Pain damage from multi-hit attacks not dying if there was a miss before the killing blow.
Fix for using a Basic Attack removing the Crotch Kick debuff (Steam only as of writing).
Fixes for some abilities not removing the Crotch Kick debuff after being used (Steam only as of writing).
UI

All in-game text now localized into German, Spanish, French, Japanese and Simplified Chinese. (Brazilian Portuguese coming soon)
Additional support for characters from languages not included in the game added.
The currently selected character in pre-battle character selection is now outlined on the board.
Fixes for character selection and placement in Local Multiplayer.
Speech bubble positioning and sizing improved.
Health bars for non-involved characters now fade away during action animations.
Damage text now stacks horizontally rather than floating upwards from the character.
Damage effect sprites updated to be more visible.
Fix for damage numbers/sprites being hidden by other gameplay UI.
Ability stats are now displayed when swapping abilities in the Adventure tavern.
Fix for the loading text on the initial splash screen always displaying in English.
Fix for Chinese and Japanese language options sometimes appearing blank within the Options menu.
Fix for the Adventure tavern introduction message being displayed twice.
Fix for the feedback window not opening if the feedback button was pressed while the sent confirmation was being displayed.
Fix for the glowing effect used in the Tutorial not disappearing if it was restarted.
Fix for speech bubble character name not updating when changing language (Steam only as of writing).
Various formatting fixes.
AI

AI thinking time halved!
Various AI logical fixes to ensure its decisions are as close to the best legal decision as possible.
AI logic has been improved to always use an action when one is available.
Fix to ensure the AI doesn't use an action to apply a duff/debuff if the target character already has that buff/debuff (Steam only as of writing).
Fix for the AI sometimes cheating when they had the Bear Hug debuff (Steam only as of writing).
Fix for possible AI soft lock if the player ended their turn incredibly quickly.
Fix for the Rougarou AI using Kidnap and then hiding up a tree to avoid being killed (yes, really, this happened).
Controls

Controller vibration added.
Vibration strength is set to 100% by default and can be lowered/turned off in the Options menu.
When using mouse/touchscreen the board cursor is no longer restricted to selectable tiles during movement.
The board cursor is no longer restricted to selectable tiles when an action/item target is being selected.
Flame Wave targeting updated to be easier to use.
Water and obstacle (trees/pillars etc) tiles can now be selected with the board cursor.
Various UI navigation fixes.
Fixes

Various online multiplayer fixes.
Flame Wave animation no longer sometimes clips through the floor.
Fixes for shadows being displayed incorrectly during some attack animations.
Fix for Adventure Map movement and loading still running when the Pause menu was open.
Various visual FX layering improvements.
Various sound effect fixes.
Misc

Initial load time greatly reduced.
Loading time between the Main Menu/Adventure Map and gameplay greatly reduced.
Performance improvements which should result in a better/more steady framerate throughout, especially during gameplay.
Two Wolves removed from "Open Field (Variant)" in Tactician Mode.
In Adventure Mode injuries now have a 20% chance of occurring when taking damage to/while below half health, rather than always occurring when going below half health.
Selected abilities for a character are now stored in all modes (apart from Local Multiplayer) and carry over as the default selected abilities where applicable.
The save file location on MacOS has been changed, meaning that Steam Cloud now works.
Note: Any existing cloud saves from other platforms will be used over existing Mac save files in the old location, but those existing save files will not be deleted and will be used if Mac was the only platform played on.
Resolution settings now included on MacOS.
What's Next

Now that we’ve seen what release day will bring let’s look at our first update post launch. We are aiming to have this out late November, early December.
Traits
Before we get to far into these, I want to provide some definitions that can help sort everything out.
Innate Ability / Trait – This is the ability or trait that classes have no matter what. For example, the Medics Cleanse is an Innate Ability and the Archers Eagle Eye is an Innate Trait. Before we just called these passive abilities but that wording won’t work for what we are going to be adding into the game, especially with new characters on the way.
Have to click to use it = Ability
Always active = Trait
Simple!
We will be adding in 2 traits to all characters in our update. Let’s have a look at some:
(Alchemist)
Newtons Findings – Increases the bonus from Alchemist Stone to +3
(Wizard)
Friendly Flames – The Wizards AOE fire attacks no longer deal damage to teammates.
(Assassin)
Thrill Seeker – Increases the Assassins speed to 8. This means he’ll be the first character to move, he’ll be even faster than the Archer on the turn order.
(Medic)
Hard Slaps – The Medics basic attack increased to 3 damage.
As you can see Traits can really change a character. Traits will be added to the pool that players choose from when customizing a character before a battle. All characters will be receiving 2 additional traits in the update. This means it's possible for a character to have their Innate and 2 Abilities and 2 Traits or Innate and 4 abilities etc.
Example of Trait / Ability Selection
Board Builder (BB)
Board Builder will allow players to create their own boards and upload them to a server. You would then be given a code which you can give to anyone and they can access and download the board for play!
Players will be able to customize the following

Spawn Points
High Ground
Obstacles (Line of Sight Pillars / Trees etc)
Board Sizes (Boards can reach sizes of 15x15 tiles! Verticality can be increased passed High Ground 2 as well)
Water
Empty Tiles
Theme
Board Items (Flowers / Grass etc)
Example Boards
Another exciting aspect of BB is in the future it will allow you to create encounters, allowing you to essentially make Tactician Mode fights and share them! I can’t wait to see what you all create with this system.
Ranked Online
Ranked Online will allow players to compete in matches in 3v3 or 5v5 settings and move upwards in our rating system. We are planning on resetting ranks every so often. We will share the specifics of how ranks are calculated in a coming update as well as share the images of each rank!
New Classes on the way
I wanted to share the names of the new classes which will start to be added in to the game next year. Their details will be revealed further around the start of next year.

Bard
Berserker
Paladin
Trapper
Siren
Owlcaster
Aether Knight
Geomancer
Necrolass
That was a lot of info, congrats to those of you who managed to finish it. I hope you all are looking forward to full release as much as we are. We have so much content planned and can't wait to get it out there. Thanks again for going on this journey with us and supporting a small studio in our first game. We promise to keep updating, providing content, and not let you down.
-Matt
Original post
13 Oct 2022Developer post
Full Release on October 28th!
Hello Everyone!! Big news today. We are announcing today we are leaving Early Access and fully releasing on October 28th! That is in just two weeks! This release will come with a major patch that will be detailed fully tomorrow. (Bug fixes, Gameplay tweeks, Act 3, New boards, Oh
11 Jul 2022Developer post
Patch Notes for Early Access Version 2564
Gameplay Tile textures have been updated to provide more clarity. Battle music has been replaced with one track for regular battles and one for boss battles. A Thief has been removed from the first two Story Mode battles. Houses have been removed from Story Mode battles. Enemies
Gameplay

Tile textures have been updated to provide more clarity.
Battle music has been replaced with one track for regular battles and one for boss battles.
A Thief has been removed from the first two Story Mode battles.
Houses have been removed from Story Mode battles.
Enemies have been removed from the "Save the Medic" Tactician Mode battles.
The Thief, Pirate and Mercenary Bosses now all have 25 max health by default and the Rougarou now has 30 max health by default.
Misc

Complete refactor! We've combed through the entire codebase and assets and managed to streamline everything a fair amount. As a result a bunch of minor gameplay and UI bugs have been fixed, the AI runs a bit faster than before and build sizes are now 20% smaller!
Note: We've also readded the prompt for our feedback system at the bottom of the screen. If you encounter any bugs or want to leave us some feedback, be sure to press F8 and leave us a message!
Achievements have been added! The game now contains 27 achievements to unlock, of which 19 are currently available, with the last 8 becoming available upon the release of Act 3 of Story Mode.
Note: If you've met the criteria for unlocking any of the achievements already they will unlock in the main menu upon opening the game, except for the achievement for completing a run of Adventure Mode, which will require you to go into Adventure Mode itself.
Mode locks - Adventure and Tactician mode are now unlocked by completing Act 1 and Act 2 of Story Mode respectively, though if you have any progress in either mode they will remain unlocked for now.
The secret characters for Adventure Mode are now also unlockable by playing Story Mode and Tactician Mode.
Support for Steam on-screen keyboard functionality when in Big Picture/on Steam Deck added.
Note: Some new text is currently only available in English in this build. This text will be updated in all languages as soon as possible.
Original post
11 Jun 2022Developer post
Publisher and Console Release!
Today we are proud to announce that Gravity Games Arise has come on as the publisher for Live by the Sword: Tactics. They will be helping us to deliver the best possible game to you all. Because of this amazing news I wanted to share with you some more announcements I hope blow y
29 Apr 2022Developer post
Patch Notes for Early Access Version 2358
Fixes Fix for possible soft lock when entering an Adventure Mode battle with an injured character. Fix for board icons not updating when changing game settings for Local Multiplayer and Online Custom Game.
Fixes

Fix for possible soft lock when entering an Adventure Mode battle with an injured character.
Fix for board icons not updating when changing game settings for Local Multiplayer and Online Custom Game.
Original post
19 Apr 2022Developer post
Combat Update
Patch Notes for 2324: - Targeting changed to remove being able to use melee actions diagonally. - In-battle information pop-up added whenever a player first has an injury in an adventure campaign. - Injured health bars added. - Health increased by 1 for all playable characters th
08 Apr 2022Developer post
Long Awaited UI Update Arrives!
It’s officially out, the UI overhaul for Live by the Sword: Tactics. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that this has drastically improved the game, visually and usability wise. Not one bit of the game has been spared from a new coat of paint. Not even our feedback reporti
06 Jan 2022Developer post
Patch Notes for Early Access Version 2016
Fixes Fix for game bugs caused by invalid save files, which included lost progress when returning to the main menu or restarting the game and the tutorial failing to start. Invalid save files are now regenerated to avoid this occurring again in the future. NOTE: The above bug was
Fixes

Fix for game bugs caused by invalid save files, which included lost progress when returning to the main menu or restarting the game and the tutorial failing to start. Invalid save files are now regenerated to avoid this occurring again in the future.
NOTE: The above bug was due to save files not properly carrying over from the demo to the full game. As a result of this fix, demo save files from the previous version of the demo will be regenerated, including those carried over to the full game. This will mean that Story, Tactician and Adventure progress and volume/language/controls settings from the demo will be lost. We apologize for the inconvenience this will cause.
Fix for not being able to use the Spacebar when setting names in Adventure Mode or using the feedback form if that key was assigned to Submit.
Fix for not being able to navigate buffs and debuffs when using keyboard or controller.
Fixes for incorrect Japanese text.
These fixes have also been applied to the demo.
Original post
16 Dec 2021Developer post
A massive Story Mode update is here! Play Act 2 now!
Act 2 available to play as of today! The middle act of the Live by the Sword: Tactics Story Mode is now available, adding more cutscenes and battles which follow on directly from the dramatic conclusion of Act 1. Having uncovered a sinister plot, more will be revealed about our b
05 Nov 2021Developer post
Patch Notes for Early Access Version 1967
Changes & Additions All text previously only available in English (Story, Tactician and Adventure) now fully translated into Chinese, French, German, Japanese and Spanish. "Rest" button now says "End Turn" when the character is at full health. The Poisoned Rest debuff now onl
Changes & Additions

All text previously only available in English (Story, Tactician and Adventure) now fully translated into Chinese, French, German, Japanese and Spanish.
"Rest" button now says "End Turn" when the character is at full health.
The Poisoned Rest debuff now only has an effect when the character is not at full health.
A toggle for displaying the turn transition animation has been added to the pause menu.
Tutorial end questions UI updated to match menu/gameplay styling.
Intro pop-up no longer displayed at the beginning of the Story Teaser 1 cutscene.
Fixes

Fix for story menu navigation not working correctly when using keyboard or controller.
Fix for tiles being displayed as targetable when selecting the Rest button.
Fix for the feather sometimes staying on the tile during the Phoenix Rise animation.
Fix for a soft lock caused by the AI missing a Bear Hug before moving.
Original post
14 Oct 2021Developer post
Patch Notes for Early Access Version 1941
UI Main menu styling updated. Button styling during gameplay updated to match those now used on the main menu. Patch notes for early-access-build (1928) Adventure Mode Adventure Mode is now available! For more details about our biggest addition to the game to date: Adventure Mode
UI

Main menu styling updated.
Button styling during gameplay updated to match those now used on the main menu.
Patch notes for early-access-build (1928)
Adventure Mode

Adventure Mode is now available! For more details about our biggest addition to the game to date: Adventure Mode has Arrived!
Story

Captured Thief now walks off the board not holding their knives.
AI

Fix for possible soft lock due to AI using Flame Wave incorrectly.
Fix for possible soft lock due to AI targeting another character first with Ricochet whilst having the Taunted debuff.
Fix for AI not correctly checking for a height bonus.
Speed improvements.
Fixes

Fix for possible soft lock caused by knockback.
Fix for being incorrectly able to use Superman Punch/Rush/Leap Slash whilst having the Stonefeet debuff.
Fix for Share Pain sometimes appearing as usable after an ability has already been used.
Changes

Each Pirate now has different Grog which provides them with different effects. These can be encountered in all modes with the Pirate, including existing Story and Tactician battles.
"Knife Throw" removed from the beginning of each Thief attack name where relevant.
Misc

Character speech bubble positioning adjusted.
"Fast Mode" toggle removed.
Bag 'em & Tag 'em bag placement on some characters improved.
Original post
09 Oct 2021Developer post
Adventure Mode has Arrived!
Adventure Mode is available for play as of today. We've taken our core gameplay loop of the tactical battles within the game and implemented them in a new way. Now instead of playing through a Story Mode or solving difficult fights in Tactician Mode, you'll be expected to recruit
10 Sep 2021Developer post
Patch Notes for Early Access Version 1805
Tactician New set of ten Tactician battles now available - variants! Alongside adjusting enemies and available units, the ten existing Tactician battles have been reimagined with new modifiers to contend with, making going for those glorious gold medals even more of a challenge.
Tactician

New set of ten Tactician battles now available - variants! Alongside adjusting enemies and available units, the ten existing Tactician battles have been reimagined with new modifiers to contend with, making going for those glorious gold medals even more of a challenge.
Overall medal now awarded for each set of battles in Tactician Mode.
Character Balance

Barrage and the Thief Lord's Knife Juggle now have separate accuracy rolls for each hit.
Fixes

Fix for Superman Punch, Rush, Leap Slash and Leap abilities being broken by Blinded debuff.
Fix for soft lock that could be caused when a projectile hit an enemy one tile away.
Fix for black lines appearing between tiles since the previous update.
Fix for selectable tiles not being displayed after some actions in certain situations.
Fix for the wrong tiles being displayed as being available to move to after missing a Charged Draw.
Fix for highlighted tiles disappearing when selecting Flame Wave target using keyboard or controller.
Fix for Brawler returning to previous position if the pause/cancel button is mashed after a missed action after a move and first action.
Fix for action zoom in and rotation not happening if board rotation was started just as an AI controlled action began.
Fix for walking being quieter after playing the tutorial and some cutscenes.
Fix for board being shown again within the black border when playing in aspect ratios beyond 4:3 and 21:9.
Fix for tiles still being highlightable when in the move confirmation screen.
Misc

Accuracy percentages now displayed in the stats for each action.
Prompt to skip now displayed at all times during story cutscenes, with the wording for how to skip improved and the amount of time input needed to be held to skip reduced.
AI speed improved.
Improvements to arrow flight during Snipe and Charged Draw.
Delay after a Cannonball hits the ground reduced.
UI sizing improvements.
Original post
06 Aug 2021Developer post
Tactician Mode Update
This is our second major update since Early Access launch in late June. We are committed to continual improvements of the game as well as adding in content in a timely manner. We hope you enjoy this new game mode! Tactician Mode - Tactician Mode has been added! Launching with our

Updates & announcements

Gameplay

Misc

Fixes

Fixes

Changes & Additions

Fixes

UI

Patch notes for early-access-build (1928)

Adventure Mode

Story

AI

Fixes

Changes

Misc

Tactician

Character Balance

Fixes

Misc