We Who Are About To Die

Released: Nov 14, 2022
Platforms
Last updated: 11 Sep 2026, 22:58 GMT

Updates & announcements

20 posts

06 May 2026Developer post
News: 1.0 Update + Closed Testing starting soon!
Ave Aspirants! It's time for a news update from Aegic Entertainment ! The 3 of us are in the deep-end of the 1.0 Update but I wanted to share some news about the status. It's going to be a bit vague still because it's too soon to really reveal specifics, but I'll tease some scree
Ave Aspirants!
It's time for a news update from Aegic Entertainment!
The 3 of us are in the deep-end of the 1.0 Update but I wanted to share some news about the status. It's going to be a bit vague still because it's too soon to really reveal specifics, but I'll tease some screenshots as well so you can see we've been busy!
1.0 Progress
In general development is going very smooth - we anticipated a lot of time between the last Major Update and 1.0 but we are currently ahead of schedule.
For the 1.0, just like with all other Major Updates, we're not shy about bold & fundamental changes. For the 1.0 we really are taking it up a notch adding a whole new fundamental layer to the game related to Meta-Progression which I will reveal later on, closer to release.
Adding this main new "feature" (really a collection of a bunch of features) was the largest puzzle we had and we're past that puzzle now. We likened it a bit to open-heart-surgery.
Current Status
The current version of the 1.0 is pretty much playable but not complete - not polished and definitely not bug-free yet. We need to still make content, the odd feature or two, update translations, finish controller support, Steam Deck support, and so on. That is to say - we're definitely not done yet.
The 1.0 will bring more than just this 1 mystery feature, there's also - as usual - some complete overhauls, a new backstory, and a lot of new content of all varieties.
For the 1.0 I basically made a list of all the remaining problems in the game and we spared no expense solving them 1 by 1.
One example I can already say is a lot of it focuses on teaching the game. When you played WWAATD for the first time, the game would be extremely overwhelming and large parts of the game even have no info at all. We have completely fixed that and the game really eases you in now piece by piece, making for a way way more pleasant experience when you first start playing.
Lastly - I can honestly say there is no area of the game we haven't touched in some way since the last published update. The Aegic way.
Closed Testing!
Want to help playtest?
We're intending to run a first closed test round soon with a carefully selected group of players (something in the range of ~100 players max.)
If you're interested, join the discord and check the latest annoucement with info on how to apply:
DISCORD
Note, since it's very limited, no worries if you don't get selected. There will likely be other rounds of testing as well and we'll keep your application for those. Keep an eye on the game's Discord / notifications for when we announce more info!
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If you like what we're doing, please consider sharing this update and the game with your friends: we still rely on word of mouth more than anything!
YOUTUBE
NEWSLETTER
DISCORD
As always,
We who are about to die salute you!
Jordy Lakiere
Original post
26 Nov 2025Developer post
WWAATD EA v0.88 Balancing Patch
AVE ASPIRANTS! WWAATD Patch v0.88 is out now! Changelog - Balancing Doubled Max Stamina Recovery (When you take damage, your Max Stamina also goes down, but recovers over time - twice as fast now) Minimum Stamina from Max Stamina damage changed to 60 (from 50) Slightly reduced th
AVE ASPIRANTS!
WWAATD Patch v0.88 is out now!
Changelog - Balancing
Doubled Max Stamina Recovery (When you take damage, your Max Stamina also goes down, but recovers over time - twice as fast now)
Minimum Stamina from Max Stamina damage changed to 60 (from 50)
Slightly reduced the effects of character body physical animation (creating more stability)
Adjusted camera height up a bit (and fixed bugs related to camera height on Vertically Challengd & Giant)
Adjusted camera pivot (aiming up towards the head should be easier and feel more natural now)
Made the AI transition from entering the arena to fighting more smoothly
Improved lighting on Inner City - Market
Bugfixes
Fixed a bug where characters didn't properly enter the battlefield on Draft
Fixed a bug that caused Draft variations / daytime conditions to not trigger (Rain, Sunset)
Fixed a bug that would cause some dialog events with multiple outcomes to not match your choice to the outcome correctly
Fixed a bug where on the Trait Reward (after Elite Fight or Tournament) would have tooltips below the UI instead of on top on Gamepad
Fixed a bug where on the Trait Reward (after Elite Fight or Tournament) you could lose focus with Gamepad
Replaced Zoomin and ZoomOut for gamepad with a ZoomCycle input action (DPAD-UP).
Added missing SwitchStance input action on gamepad (DPAD-DOWN).
Fixed UI glitch where you could not equip a 2h weapon from the aux-slots when you also had a shield equipped.
Fixed various glitches in the career menu with regards to alt-tabbing away from the game.
Shield slots is now marked as unavailable when a 2H weapon is equipped
Award text on victory screen realigned to prevent text overflowing
Battle Panel menu fight button now has correct color on Elite Fights
Fixed Valerius Festival Event giving 0 gold on coin pouch pickup
Fixed Picked up 0 Hanian Callae message
Fixed Reveal All Matches button greying out when it shouldn't
Joridus event option to expand inventory with max inventory slots no longer selectable
Fixed bug where keyrebinds on gamepad didn't show on the gamepad controls overview panel
Fixed a few gamepad navigation issues on the character traits overview panel
Fixed mislabelling on the UI for gamepad legend on the career menu
Fixed a bug causing tooltips to not appear on equipment slots on Gamepad
Fixed a bug causing "item preview" to trigger while on an equipment slot on Gamepad
Fixed a bug causing matches to break during the fight after valerius' gold-pouches event
If you like what we're doing, please consider sharing this update and the game with your friends: we still rely on word of mouth more than anything.
YOUTUBE
NEWSLETTER
DISCORD
As always,
We who are about to die salute you!
Jordy Lakiere
Original post
20 Nov 2025Developer post
WWAATD EA v0.87 General Patch (AI, Balancing, Bugfixes)
AVE ASPIRANTS! V0.87 is OUT NOW! v0.87 is primarily another balancing patch but we also addressed some of the more pressing bugs. From our testing, the difficulty and general flow of the new AI is in a much better spot now. We've added breathing room, new attack movement logic, a
AVE ASPIRANTS!
V0.87 is OUT NOW!
v0.87 is primarily another balancing patch but we also addressed some of the more pressing bugs.
From our testing, the difficulty and general flow of the new AI is in a much better spot now. We've added breathing room, new attack movement logic, and custom code to improve flow of 1vsMany situations and reduce team damage. Additionally, Commoner, Gladiator and Lionslayer now all feel very distinct and the pressure ramps up dramatically as we've scaled the AI's abilities more based on the difficulty setting.
Give it a go and let us know if you agree it's playing better! Best place to do so is on Aegic's Discord (though I regularly read Steam discussions and comments as well!)
AI behavior and Combat balancing changes
AI now hangs back a bit and moves in to attack instead of being in melee range all the time.
Melee range itself is a tad further out, adding breathing space
When not attacking, the AI will default to a slow circling mode
Retreating distance is clamped to max 5 meters from theoretically infinite (just timed out, but sometimes they could retreat very far as there's randomness involved)
In any very assymetrical fights in Gladiator difficulty, usually only two enemies will be "on" you now (previously 3-4). Any more than that will enter "defensive circling", hanging back waiting for their turn
On Lionslayer difficulty it's 3, on Commoner difficulty its now 1 at a time
The turn taking is based on Stamina. Tired characters will fall back and a more energised one will take his place.
The distance at which they defensive circle is reduced to 3.5 meters from 6. They hang around close but not too far (we call this the "Kung Fu circle")
In assymetrical fights the AI has increasingly more bias towards Overhead and Stabs to reduce team damage. Even more bias against left and right slashes (the widest one)
The emergent AI really wanted to surround the player "optimally" on the left and right side, sometimes even wrapping behind, which didn't feel fun. In the most common case of 2 enemies attacking, they will stay more in front of the player now, making it much nicer to fight
With 3 or more on you, the AI will circle you as before, including hard flanks. Lionslayer players beware!
Reduced AI maximum max stamina from 200 to 180. (Player remains at 200.)
Further damage model balancing. Note: AI and player have the exact same damage model (on the normal "Gladiator" mode)
Reduced influence of Stamina on damage output (meaning more damage when tired)
Increased influence of velocity of attack on damage output (More damage at higher skill & raw velocity)
Career & Balancing
Redesigned the Character Trait Collector. Players will gain +100 fame per week per matching Attribute among owned equipment + a -25% Shop Rerolls base cost.
Map generation has been rebalanced. Quite a few small changes but generally speaking, there will be less Inner City maps (Slums, Plaza, Market, Terraces) and more of the others for added variety. Ultra late game maps will also bias more towards middle or later game maps with a small chance to still roll early game maps
Slightly reduced Audience Favor gravitation to "neutral" (meaning actions that give positive or negative audience favor are a bit stickier over time.)
Slight damage nerf on Dormori Daka (primarily with Draft in mind)
Elite Cultivator Cren now has 1 less minion, moved spawning around so he spawns alone at the last wave
Coin King Elite Fight now has 2 less minions in total, removed from his own wave
Rebalanced wooden weapons (the starting / training ones) - generally they have more damage and less durability now
Bugfixes
Fixed a bug where corpses would still animate sometimes
Fixed bug where the new trait Traditionalist would not always run a new culture each run
Fixed a gamepad issue where focus was lost in certain cases after returning from a fight
Fixed an issue for gamepad where the focus was set incorrectly after pressing 'Hide' on the Rank Up reward
Resolved an issue where, after an unexpected exit, returning to an ambush would incorrectly load a standard fight instead of the ambush event.
(Probably) fixed an AI bug on Draft, causing them to pass each other oddly at the start.
(Probably) fixed a bug where on Survival in City Center, some enemies could spawn in the floor and get stuck, never entering the arena
Fixed some missing options when using Reset To Defaults in Game Options
Slight improvement on physics of the Cloak accesory
If you like what we're doing, please consider sharing this update and the game with your friends: we still rely on word of mouth more than anything.
YOUTUBE
NEWSLETTER
DISCORD
As always,
We who are about to die salute you!
Jordy Lakiere
Original post
16 Nov 2025Developer post
WWAATD EA v0.86 Balancing Patch
AVE ASPIRANTS! 1 day 1 patch! The Anniversary Update was released yesterday and met with a lot of kind words and valid feedback - thank you! On Difficulty I've been rebalancing the game (trying to avoid resorting to dumbing down the AI) to match the added difficulty, this patch c
AVE ASPIRANTS!
1 day 1 patch! The Anniversary Update was released yesterday and met with a lot of kind words and valid feedback - thank you!
On Difficulty
I've been rebalancing the game (trying to avoid resorting to dumbing down the AI) to match the added difficulty, this patch continues that.
First - I want WWAATD to be a challenging game, it's part of the DNA of the game - but it has to be hard in a fun way, and not feel 'just unfair', of course. The previous version had the AI very passive and static, so this is definitely an improvement, we just have to finetune it.
There's 3 pretty fundamentally different difficulty modes and a very detailed Sandbox Mode for you to tailor your experience as well. Everyone has different skill levels, time-in-the-game, preferences and so on, so I figure more options helps as we refine the "base game".
New Combat Changes
Balancing a physics based animation driven combat game with a complex damage model is a bit like defusing a bomb, and with a total AI rework, it's like we threw a live grenade into the mix. In many ways we are balancing from scratch so needing a patch (or a few) makes sense - bear with us and keep giving feedback as we finetune!
So tl;dr today I injected some coffee into my veins and got to work to bring you a first patch. Let me know your thoughts on how these changes feel so we can keep making the game better. Best place to do so is in the game's Discord, link at the bottom of thist post (and every post!)
Changelog - Balancing
Impactful
Rebalanced damage model for more consistent damage
Less penalty for bad hit contact point, short hold-time, stamina state and "fumbles" (hitting with back of the weapon etc), damage should overall be closer to stats on each hit
Exact Impact point now counts a bit less vs overall weapon velocity for damage calculation (from 50% to 30%) - this should especially help shorter weapons
Note: the AI has the same changes, as they have the exact same damage model as the player
Increased backwards speed for player a tad
AI movement skill/speed reduced across the board
Light weight status now also gives +10 Stamina skill (along side Dashing and Movement previously)
This should make early game less of a Stamina pain, while also making sure Stamina management is still a part of the game if you equip heavier gear
AI spends a lower extent of time in "retreat" mode recovering Stamina
Reduced the character physics body layer intensity (Should reduce some floppiness, jank, buggy movement, ...)
Weapon weight has a bit less impact on Stamina Cost of attacks - should primarily make heavier weapons (polearms etc) less of a brutal Stamina drain
Increased stamina recovery from receiving damage to 1.5x the damage (from 1x)
Subtle
Increased player base attack speed slightly
Increased camera zoom-out max
Equipment Weight affects AI the same as Player now (was off by a tiny bit)
Rebalanced weight impact so the Stam Regen numbers and color coding UI make more sense
Counters by the AI (when you hit them, usually when they're tired) will now more often be regular attacks vs double attack or dash attacks, to reduce them getting stuck in low stamina as you hit them & reduce glitchy movement
Bugfixes
Clamped the maximum knockback on characters to reduce crazy knockbacks
(Probably) Fixed a bug causing Multicultural to stack up Patron Favor penalties across multiple characters (this will require a new character to take effect)
If you like what we're doing, please consider sharing this update and the game with your friends: we still rely on word of mouth more than anything.
YOUTUBE
NEWSLETTER
DISCORD
As always,
We who are about to die salute you!
Jordy Lakiere
Original post
14 Nov 2025Developer post
CONTENT UPDATE: Anniversary Update OUT NOW! + 30% discount
Early Access v0.85 - Anniversary Update Hello all! Today is a special day in the life of We Who Are About To Die , as well as in my life, to be honest. The game was in solo development for 7 years until Early Access launch, and has been in Early Access for 3 (with wonderful teamm
Early Access v0.85 - Anniversary Update
Hello all! Today is a special day in the life of We Who Are About To Die, as well as in my life, to be honest.
The game was in solo development for 7 years until Early Access launch, and has been in Early Access for 3 (with wonderful teammates for most of that!). Today marks the 10 year anniversary of the project.
The game is also 30% off to celebrate, please help share the word!
I started this project having absolutely no idea that it would come this far, changing my life the way it did and become my full time career. This thing has been with me for the better part of my adult life (I'm 34!) and the way it has evolved - especially the last 3 years - is nothing short of mindblowing to me. If you agree, let me hear some echos in the arena for my team who have been kicking ass! I'm so happy with the fundamental and fearless changes we've been doing since the game became available on Steam.
To me, it feels like I entered the "Indie Arena" and somehow came out victorious. But... no - because we're not done yet. This update, v0.85, will likely be the last before 1.0. At the very least, 1.0 is the next Major Update.
We have some ambitious plans with 1.0 - so it will take a while, but know that it's coming, and it will be the best 1.0 we can deliver. Put simply, you believed in me and my studio, Aegic Entertainment, and throughout this Early Access, I want to make sure you got your money's worth 10x over! I started something 10 years ago and I intend to finish it - gloriously.
I cut together a little gameplay clip to celebrate the 10 years! It's not much, but it's honest work.
Watch on YouTube
Full Changelog
MAJOR - new content & features
Complete AI overhaul
We have completely rewritten the AI from scratch to be much more dynamic and challenging. In short, the AI is more competent and conscious of its environment and especially it's own Stamina! AI will switch between a tired and aggressive state much more clearly. Check out News post "Preview #2" for more context!
We also fixed countless glitches and AI bugs in the process and fundamentally rebalanced the game to go with this AI rework.
CONTENT - New Elites
New Elite: Magistrate Magnus
New Elite: Khor the Warlord
New Elite: Sons of the Scormorii
New Elite: The Coin King
New Elite: Cultivator Cren
CONTENT - New Character Traits
New Character Trait: Rabble Rouser
New Character Trait: Marked For Blood
New Character Trait: Harvester
New Character Trait: Hunted
New Character Trait: Collector
New Character Trait: Shady
New Character Trait: Showman
New Character Trait: Vain
New Character Trait: Eclectic
New Character Trait: Scrappy
New Character Trait: Multicultural
New Character Trait: Snobby
New Character Trait: Traditionalist
CONTENT - New Items
New Item: Linolian Captain Helm (Crested and regular variant)
New Item: Lophosi Temple Guard Helm
New Item: Lophosi Warlod Helm (Horned/Unhorned)
New Item: Owakhan Feathercrest Helm
New Item: Terantian Pitmaster Helm
New Item: Iron Face Mask
New Item: Lionslayer Dome Helm
New Item: Feathered Cast Iron Helm
New Item: Feathered Dome Helm
New Item: Linolian Captain Cuirass
New Item: Hanian Infantry Maille
New Item: Lophosi Furhide Chest
New Item: Linolian Tunic
New Item: Leather Bracer
New Item: Gold Bracer
New Item: Owakhan Obsidian Malala
New Item: Owakhan Kaapha 
New Item: Lophosi Skullclava
New Item: Hanian Chaaka
New Item: Iron Talaschaka
New Item: Linolian Captain's Kromo

MINOR - GAMEPLAY
Idle characters' weapons now don't cancel/fumble attacks when you hit them. This should cause smoother combat and less random failures. Only weapons that are actively striking or blocking will interrupt an attack when the weapons clash
The Third Person Camera has been made more immersive. A better angle, dynamic camera movement based on attacks, a minor handy-cam noise, and countless other tweaks
Weight now affects throw speed and spin - heavier weapons slower, lighter weapons faster
MINOR - UI
Item Properties are renamed to Attributes and every item has been assigned logical and new Attributes
New Betting UI: You can now see Bets you took on inside combat, and whether or not you completed or failed them
New Stats Panel: We've rebuilt the entire stats panel and system in preparation for 1.0. This will reset your stats once you make a new character
The Weekly Report Panel has gotten a lot of small visual upgrades and a few more notifications have been merged into it
The loading screen will auto continue now but you can press a key to pause so you can read tips (Actually, we just found a bug with this so it's disabled temporarily, but we will patch it in ASAP)
BALANCING
General boost of player skills, rewards and a ton of other small things, to match the increased difficulty of the AI
Lowered AI max stamina (across the board but mostly affects early game AI)
Player gains (more) stamina when damaged
Player minimum speed at min 0 movement skill slightly increased (~10%)
Player minimum stam regen increased (~5-10%)
Player minimum max stamina increased (~5-10%)
Player minimum throwing ability (accuracy, speed, ...) at 0 throwing skill increased (~25%)
Increased player's regen a bit. Lowered attack speed overall at low skill
Acceleration minimum at 0 movement skill increased about 20%
Slowed down the pacing of combat a bit and overall damage is lowered a bit. Armor effectiveness is now 80%
Movement Speed increased back to 100% when holding attack (from 85%) (AI and player)
Movement Speed slightly increased during strike (120%)
Movement Speed slightly reduced while blocking with weapon
Boosted game-wide match payouts (gold fame) by roughly 10-20%
Increased Damage and improved colission on Strong Hammer
Changed the weight of the Strong Hammer from 1 to 9
Changed speed of the Great Chaka from 0.9 to 0.8
Bugfixes
Resolved an issue where you could accidentally resize the game window in third person mode
Fixed a bug where some Match Bracket lvl's were not rising with the player rank
Resolved the issue where the heartbeat sound kept going after death or on pause menu
Fixed a bug on Grand Tournament and Pit Fights where the player would always start with one less ally than it should on the first round
Resolved an issue where clicking difficulty tabs did not count for rerolls
Fixed broken vegetable particles
Fixed the bug where the player's weapon got removed at the end of a tournament round because an ally picked it up
Resolved the issue where the gold pickup notification in the battle log did not register values over 1000 gold
Various fixes on Alluora events
Fixed/improved the stability of death ragdolls
Minor changes to the career menu character
Fixed stats and tags of various items
Fixed bug where the pause menu was opened behind the weekly report
Resolved issue where the weapon UI pick up is stretched on standalone
Fixed issue where AI gets stuck trying to walk into Draft
Fixed issue where grayed-out major traits had a minor trait background
Fixed issue where gamepad focus would be lost after returning from the pause menu
General performance stabilisations and improvements
Countless more smaller bug fixes!
Minor persisting issues concerning gamepad functionality and focus will be resolved in the next smaller patch
Much more we're forgetting!
If you like what we're doing, please consider sharing this update and the game with your friends: we still rely on word of mouth more than anything.
YOUTUBE
NEWSLETTER
DISCORD
And as always -we who are about to die salute you,
Jordy
Original post
13 Nov 2025Developer post
Anniversary Update: Preview #3! Update dropping TOMORROW!
AVE ASPIRANTS! Welcome back to the third and last Preview on the upcoming Anniversary Update. First, a surprise - eagle eyed gladiators will have noticed the Anniversary for the game is actually ... tomorrow. Well, sharpen your daka's and chaka's: The update is dropping tomorrow!
AVE ASPIRANTS!
Welcome back to the third and last Preview on the upcoming Anniversary Update. First, a surprise - eagle eyed gladiators will have noticed the Anniversary for the game is actually ... tomorrow. Well, sharpen your daka's and chaka's:
The update is dropping tomorrow!
AI Gravitation Points
A quick second dive into the AI!
The AI in WWAATD uses "steering behavior" - basically, the AI doesn't have logic to go from hardcoded A to B to C, they instead have a list of general desires steering their movement every second.
They want to move towards their enemy, away from allies, away from traps, etc. All this gets added up and that decides their movement. It makes for super interesting movement, emergent surrounds and much more - all dynamically.
But, it's a bit too predictable. It ends up being too precise - perfect placement, almost robotic. We noticed once the AI finds an optimal place they don't move that much, and so it kind of made fights more static than before. Not the "combat dance" I envisioned.
To fix this, we've thrown something in the spanner. Introducing the Gravitation Point! There are now invisible balls in each map that can either attract or push away in the AI's steering behavior at a certain strength.
These spheres move around the map slowly and generally push characters around, forcing the duels and fights going on to also move as a whole. It makes for a WAY more lively and dynamic movement in the arena.
We use the reverse - a big map-wide attractor - in the field battle map of Draft, to make sure the reinforcements end up near the middle in a big skirmish.
I thought this was quite a clever fun solution, and wanted to show it off!
Corner-Me-Not
We've also added custom code for the AI to detect and prevent being cornered.
When retreating/escaping, the AI generally moves backwards, but if there is no space to go backwards, it will now take a less-favourable position sideways or even toward the enemy, desperately trying to avoid being cornered.
A cornered enemy will adjust the weights of potential locations (color coded here) based on where it's allowed to go. Here escaping via the rightmost wall is the best option (in this worst case scenario)
CONTENT - TRAITS
In preview #1 and #2 I revealed a bunch of traits with the new Attributes system - but we've also added some new general traits.
Harvester
It's almost harvesting season! With harvester, random enemies can carry pouches of gold, similar to the Valerius event or the Coin King Elite fight. These pouches get knocked off and can be picked up for a meaningful gold bonus.
Rabble Rouser
Reverse underdog? This trait sees the usually-minor-enemies grow up to full blown strength. You better kill quick in Survival matches, and Elite Fights especially need to be very carefully chosen.
Marked For Blood
A quarter of 1vs1's are stacked against you and spiced up. You could avoid duels entirely, or risk the extra challenge.
Hunted
1% chance for an Elite to appear in a random match. Surely... it won't happen to you right? This is a major negative trait alright - it could be nothing, but you wanna make sure you're ready, just in case.
CONTENT - ELITE'S
I showed off 2 of the new boss fights, lets look at the remaining 3!
Magistrate Magnus
Here to pass judgement, the Magistrate, clad in all bronze, is the lead imperial executor and ready to bring down the law, by way of the hammer.
Cultivator Cren
As seen above, it's almost harvesting season, and you're the crop. Cultivator Cren and his workers are a tier 1 boss that will certainly seperate the wheat from the chaff.
Khor the Warlord
The bigger brother of Khunda the Pillager, Khor is Lophosi royalty. He's a fierce foe on his own but with his Palace Guard by his side... Well, you better go into this arena with a lot of respect.
The text is edited in because it made us think of a PS2 era cutscene, hehe.
NEW CONTENT - ITEMS
Wanted to show off the Lorica Hamata inspired armor once more in full Hanian attire!
Here's a new Lophosi fur-padded chestpiece + the new Exalted style cuirass. (Linolian Captain's Cuirass)
A new higher level Linolian Kromo.
A 2-handed Owakhan Kapha.
And some new helms!
All these items are also poured into unit types, including some new ones. Here are some that highlight new gear!
Linolian Captain
Lophosi Palace Guard
General Updates & QoL!
The update contains a lot more changes that don't fit in any particular category. Speed round...
Cinematic Camera upgrades
The Third Person Camera has been made more immersive. A better angle, dynamic camera movement based on attacks, a minor handy-cam noise, and countless other tweaks. This is one of those things that seems minor and is hard to write about, but it has a ton of impact & makes the game really feel very different.
Statistics Overhaul
Some of you know the statistics page was all kinds of broken. We've rebuilt the entire stats panel and system in preparation for 1.0 (tying into Achievements) but figured we'd release it already. This will reset your stats once you make a new character, but ... it will actually work now (hopefully!)
Throwing improvements, weapon weight
There have been countless combat tweaks but on the physics front, the weight of the weapon now determines how it will be thrown. Heavier weapons are harder to throw and feel heavier. Throws have also been improved across the board, to be much more useable and look better.
Betting UI
You can now see Bets you took on inside combat, and whether or not you completed or failed them.
Visual updates on Weekly Report panel
The Weekly Report Panel has gotten a lot of small visual upgrades (with more planned!) and a few more notifications have been merged into it.
Auto Continue / Loading Screen
We heard you - the loading screen now auto continues, no need to press a button. The option in the game options remains - so you can still reverse this if you preferred how it was.
In order to allow you to read tips though (because for many the game loads too quick! This was our original reasoning) there is now a "press [any] to PAUSE" instead.
Performance Stabilisation and Improvements
Across the last months we added lots of little performance improvements and, at least on my machine, the game runs far better. Report in, let me know if you feel the difference!
I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot. And of course, we'd done tons of bugfixes as well - too many to list here.
That's it for Preview #3. The update will drop tomorrow together with a 30% discount! Like what we're doing? Help us out and share the word please!
Want to stay up to date on the game and Aegic's development?
DISCORD
NEWSLETTER
YOUTUBE
We who are about to die salute you,
Jordy
Original post
11 Nov 2025Developer post
Anniversary Update: Preview #2! New AI overhaul
AVE ASPIRANTS! Welcome to Preview #2 of the upcoming content update. (Celebrating the anniversary of the game!) In Preview #1 I gave some info about 1.0 and look at some of the new traits, attributes system as well as some of the new items. Today I'll reveal more content and dig
AVE ASPIRANTS!
Welcome to Preview #2 of the upcoming content update. (Celebrating the anniversary of the game!)
In Preview #1 I gave some info about 1.0 and look at some of the new traits, attributes system as well as some of the new items.
Today I'll reveal more content and dig into the big overhaul this update will have: the AI overhaul (the second one if anyone's counting!)
Total AI Overhaul
After the last Major Update (Blood & Sand) where we massively improved combat and animations, the AI started to fall behind again in terms of quality. For me it was the one big weak link in the game's combat. We set out to overhaul the AI again (staying fearless!) with some specific goals in mind:
To get more movement and lethality in the AI. Make them more aggressive and fix them being static and passive.
Make the AI go between much more clear "tired" and "not tired" states
Bring back some bite - the AI was generally too easy, especially low level
Fixing glitchy stuff like odd movement, failed attacks, jitters, odd repetitive blocks etc.

Depicted: twitchy odd behavior of the old AI
To achieve these goals we rebuilt the AI from scratch, which was scary, but turned out very worth it.
Gassed Out
In the last update we vastly improved stamina from a gameplay and visual POV. The old AI was not super aware of its own stamina.
Some Aspirants would never run out of stam, and some would be permanently tired once they got gassed out.
Generally speaking Aspirants are now much more aware of their own stamina than in the past. They still care about the amount of enemies, health, their own personality and weapon type and much more, but Stamina has a higher priority now.
Depicted: a retreating, tired enemy.
The AI will be far more aggressive when full of energy and go into a very passive mode when gassed out. They will then retreat, recharge and go again.
You'll have to keep this in mind and switch between aggressive and defensive as well! The dance of the arena...
Depicted: the counter attack
In the new aggressive state, they unleash attacks after attacks, including combo's, and are generally far better at hitting and being scary - they really go for the throat.
We have elimited all the weird unnecessary pauses and blocks they used to do too, so it can get quite intense. (especially higher level enemies and on Lionslayer mode)
Stamina Rebalance
This all required a dramatic stamina balance overhaul.
Most AI will now go back and forth between energised and gassed out (at varying durations) but it still depends on lots of other factors such as their health or the weight of their equipment (just like the player.) Stamina for both player and AI has seen some general rebalances (mostly providing more, but also playing with the ratio of Max Stam vs Stam Regen.
Watch on YouTube
TL;DR: the simplest way to show is to show an uncut fight!
Difficulty
In the first version of the overhaul it was kind of crazy how competent they were. I've been playing my own game for over 10 years now and I straight up lost 1 vs 1's against low level enemies. We had to tone it down a lot, but I still think the game is more challenging, and we'll have to probably further balance after your feedback.
Balancing in a very complex physics and animation-driven game like this is hard. Very hard. In the previous versions I resorted to making the early-game AI just really slow and dumb, having them barely move and slowly attack at low levels, but it makes the game feel bad and look bad. Obviously, not great.
Instead of making the AI dumber/slower, this time around, we have boosted player skills, rewards and a ton of other small things.
More Control
So as of v0.85, a fresh character will feel more responsive. What was previously 25 skill points is now 0, as a general example.
You can move and react faster, have more stamina and generally get more of a chance to use your hard trained player-skill without being held back by the character's skills. You'll also make more gold and fame to get more gear quicker so you have a chance to pace your meta-game despite the tougher combat.
The lower level AI still has less Stamina, will telegraph slightly longer, unleash attacks a bit slower, and so on, but the overall more competent AI was the opportunity I needed to boost the player and make the whole game feel better.
I can't wait to hear what you guys think. Remember, we have a big Discord for the game and I'd love to hear your feedback when the update drops. DISCORD

TRAITS
In Preview #1, I showed the new Attributes system. Quick recap: we added attributes to each item in the game and have made a bunch of traits revolving around these.

Here's the remaining traits that are designed around these attributes!
COLLECTOR

Collector gives you a shop discount for each matching attribute among items you have. So if you have 5 Outlaw items = 4x the bonus. If you also have 3 Scrappy items, that's another 2x the bonus. In order to help you dig for stuff, shop rerolls are also cheaper!
This trait also counts items in your aux inventory, so you have a reason to ~~hoard~~ collect items.
SHADY
Being shady is a positive trait in Terantia - of course. With these underground connections, Outlaw items are cheaper, and even more so if you happen to be a Villain. Shady + Villain + Criminal run?
SHOWMAN
Showman boosts any "Extravagant" or "Ornate" items. These are usually fancy, beautiful items - helms with plumes and items that choose form over factor - a legitimate choice for Aspirants. With Showman, they are even better at multiplying your fame. Time to show off.
VAIN
The Vain Aspirants prefer to hold on to ornate / extravagant items. You will get 0 gold when trying to sell anything worth holding on to!
That's it for today. I'll post Preview #3 very soon, and by the way, the update might drop very soon after!
Want to stay up to date on the game and Aegic's development?
DISCORD
NEWSLETTER
YOUTUBE
We who are about to die salute you,
Jordy
Original post
05 Nov 2025Developer post
Anniversary Update: Preview #1!
Ave Aspirants! Today the team and I bring you Preview #1 on the next update - we're doing another (regular) update to celebrate the anniversary of the game, as every year so far. Before we take a look, here is some important news about Aegic Entertainment & We Who Are About T
Ave Aspirants!
Today the team and I bring you Preview #1 on the next update - we're doing another (regular) update to celebrate the anniversary of the game, as every year so far.
Before we take a look, here is some important news about Aegic Entertainment & We Who Are About To Die!
BIG NEWS: 1.0 is coming!
First - over the summer I've hired 2 new full time devs, we're now 4 full time devs working @Aegic on We Who Are About To Die. Production has picked up!
This is partially in preparation for the 1.0 release of We Who Are About To Die and for whatever new game after we'll make. (thinking far ahead!)
This next update will be v0.85. It's pretty big but I don't quite want to call it a Major Update. I decided that the update after will (almost certainly) be 1.0. It's going to be a while before 1.0 is ready, even with 4 devs now, so I felt we should definitely release some cool stuff we've been working on in the form of this v0.85 so the game stays active and keeps improving.
Why is it going to be a while before 1.0? Well I can't say much yet - but there's at least one fundamental new feature planned for 1.0 (it's not multiplayer!). This feature adds an entire new phase to the game and to say that it's a lot of work and a big overhaul is putting it lightly.
Throughout this early access I've tried to stay bold and fearless with all the overhauls and design decisions, trying to improve the game to its best form, no matter how challenging or daunting, and that won't change for 1.0.
It's not just that though, we're of course also going to overhaul existing parts of the game, add a ton of content and perhaps scariest of all: debug and polish it all up to standard.
All of those are huge tasks, so bear with me - with Aegic - as we try to work towards the best 1.0 possible. :) Just wanted to let you know... it's coming.
Crest physics... mmmm...
On to v0.85
v0.85 is primarily a content update, but it contains a big overhaul too, I'll talk about that in Preview #2.
Today let's take a look at some new content -
Item Attributes
A few updates ago we introduced the concept of "Properties"- a list of tags at the bottom of each item. This was only used to define the item culture (primarily for the Veteran Aspirant) and we didn't really build it out properly. That changes with v0.85!
In this update, properties are renamed Attributes, and every item has been assigned logical attributes. These range from Cultures (Dormorii, Myrodon, Hanian, Terantian, Lophosi, Owakhan, Linolian) to descriptors like Extravagant (fancy show-offy stuff), Ornate (expensive looking), Military (practical military gear), Outlaw (illegal or bandit-y items), Scrappy (junky rusty weapons), and Civilian (Pickaxes, Pans, Spades..)
Items can have any number of attributes - but they don't do anything on their own.
New Traits
This update will have a bunch new character traits, a bunch of which are centered around these attributes. Here's 5 examples. (I'll show a few more in Preview #2)
Eclectic is a major positive trait that gives you bonus gold every week based on the variety you have - +100 G for each unique attribute! You'll want a wild variety of stuff. This includes auxiliary inventory items, so you have a reason to hoard a bit...
Scrappy is a minor positive that gives you a small bonus skill (to all skills!) for each item equipped with the Scrappy attribute. They are usually not great items, so this trait will lose power over time... but the bonus skill can really help the early game.
Multicultural is neutral - if you have 4 or more cultures across the items you're wearing, you get bonus Favor with all patrons - but every duplicate culture makes the audience harder to win over.
Snobby is a minor negative - higher weekly armor durability decay for each item you equip with Scrappy, Civilian, Military or Outlaw. These items are, after all, below you.
Traditionalist is a major negative trait, where you get assigned a culture (random per character, but Veteran Aspirants get the culture of their subclass). You get a skill penalty to every skill for every item you use that is not part of your culture. Better be selective!
These new traits usually have a dynamic component, displayed in orange.
This new attributes system and the traits around it are going to encourage you to be selective - the most expensive item you can buy will not necessarily be the best anymore, adding extra strategy to shopping / equipment, and encouraging things like sets and so on in a more dynamic way. There are more traits to show, coming in Preview #2!
This update will feature several new Elites (boss fights), here's 2!
New Elite: Sons of the Scormorii
The Sons of the Scormorii are a well known gang in the underbelly of Terantia. The Scormorii were originally a Dormorii clan. Many Dormorii have gotten captured or displaced in the Hanian-Dormorum war, and some end up doing crime in it's larger cities such as Terantia, or indeed, start crime families.
The Scormorii are not afraid of the arena, where they can earn some much needed coin. You may come across the Scormorii boss and some of his "sons", and if you're not careful, you may end up sleeping with the fishes.
New Elite: The Coin King
A rare sight indeed, a legendary figure in Terantia, the Coin King may appear wielding his golden pan, with his many Pouches by his side. Smack him hard enough and some say coin simply falls out of the mythical creature.
The Coin King and his Pouches will carry pouches which drop with coin to pick up in the battle, this fight can be very lucrative indeed if you dare take on the risk...
New Items
Every content update needs more toys! We're adding all kinds of stuff this time, from classic clothing to heavy weapons. The emphasis for weapons is more on 2-handers, which is still a thinner roster than other weapon types, take a look:
And check out this Lorica-Hamata type armor, and a new classic Linolian Tunic.
Finally, what's an update without some helms. Check out these new beauty's!
Lophosi Warlord Helm (Horned and unhorned!), Owakhan Chief Helm and a Linolian Captain Helm (+ a godly level linolian cuirass to go with! not depicted)
Want to stay up to date on the game and Aegic's development?
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NEWSLETTER
YOUTUBE
We who are about to die salute you,
Jordy
Original post
02 Jul 2025Developer post
WWAATD EA v0.81 general patch
A patch with bugfixes and optimisations! V0.81 out now! v0.81 is primarily a bugfix patch, but we also wanted to reintroduce the teeth in the game a bit: Blood & Sand made things a bit too easy! Aside from a small army of bugfixes, in this patch, the AI is generally more comp
A patch with bugfixes and optimisations!
V0.81 out now!
v0.81 is primarily a bugfix patch, but we also wanted to reintroduce the teeth in the game a bit: Blood & Sand made things a bit too easy!
Aside from a small army of bugfixes, in this patch, the AI is generally more competent and active, stamina has been rebalanced and Controller controls have gotten some upgrades.
AI behavior and combat improvements
AI now attacks more frequently, is generally more active.
Fixed a bug that prevented AI from throwing weapons or taunting
Fixed a bug that made AI dashes basically have no effect, reintroducing dash avoids and dash-attacks
Increased chance for AI to throw weapons. (AI now also has a chance to throw and pick up weapons of one tier lower)
Improved AI behavior to reduce erratic switching between blocking and dropping block
AI now has different behaviors to recover from low stamina (less stuck at 0 stamina/gassed out)
Stamina regen is now also based on movement, standing still recovers stamina faster than in movement
Improved Combat controls for gamepad:
Camera movement locks during attacks and eases back in afterward which allows the player to be more in control when locking in an attack
Quick flicks with the Right-joy button (R3) in combination with the Right Trigger (R2) now correctly register the attack direction. Remember that pressing R2 first and R3 second will give you control on the Attack Direction widget
In Classic Mode, we fixed an issue where the player twisted away from enemies when attacking
Improved spear handling a little bit (AI and player)
Improved lighting and reflections on some maps (Some arenas were really dark - may still get improved in some ninja-patches the coming weeks)
Items thrown in the arena are now limited to Sandbox item selection as intended
Bugfixes
Critical
Fixed a crash that occurred when rerolling many times or quickly. We've optimised the system so rerolling is now smoother/faster and more reliable than ever
Fixed a memory leak / increasing lag related to rerolling characters (and possibly long game session)
Fixed an issue where unlocks and permanent buffs reset after reloading the game
Resolved a bug where a difficulty run was replaced by the sandbox default profile
Resolved an issue where abandoning a sandbox run let players access the Sandbox Editor for that profile
Fixed issue where players could abandon a run and still ESC out of the paused menu with the abandon prompt open.
Fixed Unique items and Destructibles (Fancy Bottles etc) having 0 gold value
Fixed broken UI due to localisation on the Dialog Events
Other
Resolved an issue where item icons got stuck to the mouse cursor in Career Menu
Fixed a Gamepad issue preventing navigation to some inventory slots
Fixed an issue where Weekly Report notifications stacked and appeared multiple times
Fixed an issue where Character Trait tooltips wouldn’t disappear.
Optimized tooltip placement for gamepad (Steam Deck esp.)
Resolved a bug where players received the one-armed trait visual after certain rerolls
Fixed extreme physics behavior when standing on the edge of a rotating platform
Finally (hopefully) fixed the issue in Draft fights where veggies were thrown due to the Villain trait
Fixed bugs on The Advantian Arena and Lion’s Roar maps where players could enter the arena early
Item droppers now properly track sandbox item overrides
Fixed the Character Overview screen showing a different backstory icon than the Utility Menu Backstory tab
Fixed a UI bug where hovering over "Allow anonymous gameplay data collection" displayed the wrong tooltip
Fixed a bug where the double dash setting did not save correctly
Fixed a bug where players couldn’t reopen the Trait Overview window multiple times from the Utility menu
Fixed an issue where some destructible items no longer had a shop value
Fixed Alluora's Boy character trait
Fixed issue where certain events had extra line breaks and hidden buttons
Resolved various impossible bets and small bugs related to the new betting system
Fixed/improved physics on Long Cloak and Halfcloak
Fixed the Dormorii Scale shirt, which incorrectly had Hanian properties
Corrected the Raider Chaka, which was incorrectly listed as a polearm instead of a two-handed axe
Many many more, but why waste time keeping track when you can spend that time fixing bugs?
We who are about to die salute you,
Lino & Jordy
Original post
18 Jun 2025Developer post
Blood & Sand OUT NOW!
Early Access v0.8 - Blood & Sand Full Changelog We Who Are About to Die Early Access v.0.8 is here! It's finally time to share this major update with you! We wanted to overhaul combat, add Sandbox Mode and tackle the most common feedback by the community. There's lot to explo
Early Access v0.8 - Blood & Sand
Full Changelog
We Who Are About to Die Early Access v.0.8 is here! It's finally time to share this major update with you!
We wanted to overhaul combat, add Sandbox Mode and tackle the most common feedback by the community. There's lot to explore with the Blood & Sand update!
For more details, check out Preview #1, Preview #2 or Preview #3, or check out this overview video, which is a complete look at all the new stuff in Blood & Sand! (I recommend watching on Youtube!)
Watch on YouTube
MAJOR new content & features
NEW: Sandbox Mode
Sandbox mode allows you to customize dozens of settings in the game, changing it fundamentally, and make a Sandbox Profile to play
Make your own flavor of the game! Make challenge runs and experiment!
NEW: Sandbox Steam Workshop support
Share your Sandbox profiles with other players on the Steam Workshop
Browse and download other players' runs! https://steamcommunity.com/app/973230/workshop/
NEW: Combat - Attack Direction UI
A new UI that shows the possible attack directions
The new UI is context-sensitive based on the weapon type
OVERHAUL: Combat Animations & Physics
We rebuilt the entire character physics and animation systems. No more weak hits and hit reactions.
Every physics ‘state’ is reworked resulting in general physics stability (eg. at low or high FPS as well)
New: Animation based Hit reactions instead of 100% pure physics impulses. Movement and hits are more realistic and fluid
More stable and reliable tired / low stamina: new Stamina-based animation that adds a clear visual cue for a character’s stamina level. Physics will no longer completely take over the character’s body and you can see heavy breathing
New: Pelvis turning during attack, footwork & foot planting resulting in more powerful strikes ("Heavy attacks")
Improved Combat Stance and Idle poses
Performance improvements, better blending and smoothing across all animations
Improved look-at animation (eye contact) and torso bending
Improved death ragdolls
Improved animation reaction on knockbacks (character dynamically balance with their arms)
Soft version of hit reactions play on shield hits too. Based on how you hit the shield, this can create openings
Improved proportions of the characters
Big makeover for the character in the Career Menu
Adjustments to the character general stance and pose for 2H weapons
Many many attack animation tweaks across all weapon types
Countless other physics and animation tweaks
OVERHAUL: Polearms
3 new attacks for Polearms! Left, Left up and Left down stabs have been added to replace the old generic knockback attack
Blunt polearm stabs now act as knockback attack
Polearm stabs update (more correct damage types, stats)
Moved most polearms up the hands, meaning longer reach
Updated tooltips to reflect stance switching and more
NEW: Weekly Report panel
A majority of the post-battle notifications are now neatly grouped into a Weekly Report panel.
Shows an overview of all the match bracket levels + how the player rank affects them
Timeline panel now appears in the new weekly report panel
Betting Overhaul
New: Smart Bets. Eliminates impossible bets
Betting is now integrated in the match option panels
Changed the amount of bets to three bets per match
More user friendly: players will get a warning when switching matches or rerolling and there are active bets
Bets now also payout patron Favor
Increase of the minimum bet payout
Patrons System Improvements
16 new patron events!
Added Patron "Festivals" - special events that also appear on the Calendar. Each run may only have 1 festival
Complete redesign of the Patron UI panels and tooltips providing much more information and clarity about the system
A general rebalance of Favor
MINOR (Content, features, balancing changes)
Weapon Stance Switching
Now players can switch between 1H or 2H stances if the weapon is a weapon hybrid (ie. spear/polearm, or 1H/2H weapons)
Career
2 extra shop slots, 8 total
Rearrangement of the shop layout: Shop reroll button as well as shop-discount and -refund are located the bottom of the shop to fit this change
Upgrade of the resolution of the shop Icons, making them crisper and clearer
FX & SFX
New: Shields now have visible damage states (wood and metal)
Shields now have new damage particle effects (wood chips, sparks)
Better impact particle effects, that also showcase attack direction and impact location (provides gameplay clarity)
Better combat sparks on metal armor and weapon clashes
Better footstep particle effects and sound (dust etc)
Hitting the environment now makes a noise (based on which material you hit)
Much more performant particle effects across the game
Overhaul of the audience thrown items: audience will throw items appropriate for the tier of the player from the entire pool of existing items
Items
New Item: Bronze Lophosi War-Chaka (1H Axe)
New Item: Rusty Spade (Polearm)
New Item: Iron Spade (Polearm)
New Item: Iron Voulge (Polearm)
New item: Great War Mala (Polearm)
New Item: Valkarion (Godly 2H Axe)
New Item: Malathrax (Godly 2H Mace)
New Item: Leather Ringed Lamellar Chest
New Item: Bronze Plated Maille Shirt
New Item: Dormorii Scale Shirt
New Item: Bronze Plated Chest
New Item: Bronze Executor Helm
New Item: Leather Bracers
New Item: Bronze Plated Boots
Other changes
Stamina nerfs damage a lot more (60% to 0% stamina scales from 1x to 0.3x instead of 0.6x)
AI uses more stamina during attacking (because it no longer regens stamina during an attack)
Weapon weight now scales stamina cost per attack a bit. So heavy weapons cost more stamina (on top of the weight calc on stamina regen itself)
Weight impacts AI max stamina more
Overhaul of weapon damage velocity calculation. Weapon velocity stat now has a larger impact
Smoothed Attack Animations and weapon speed & damage stability (avoiding random spikes due to physics)
Impact point velocity of a weapon now matters more (30% to 50% weight of velocity)
You can now get disarmed (same as unwieldy) if you hit stuff under 30% stamina
Light weapon class is now below 3 weight instead of 4
Disabled stab on Hooked Daka's
Nerf on Great Chaka (durability, minor range nerf)
Buff for Seal of Approval Scollo upgrade: (Gain +2 Favor with each Patron after every battle) (before: Gain +1 Favor)
Fundraise maximum values pulled down (300->250, 600->500)
Item droppers will drop less lutes
Camera: Minimum zoom is further
Much more, and many small stat tweaks on many items
Bugfixes
Fixed issue of fire not being able to deal damage to multiple characters
Resolved issue of oil patches not catching fire when characters on fire, other than the player, would walk over them
Fixed issue of player character catching fire when not overlapping the fire
Fixed issue where Draft was possible on veteran aspirant run after killing end boss
Fixed issue in the victory overview panel not showing the correct fame multipliers for the equipment
Resolved an issue where multiple trait prompt messages could go out of bounds
Keys now update on tutorial tips after key-rebinds
Pilums and Throwing Asc's will now correctly break after damage dealt
Fixed a bug where the Senator's Shield would break after one hit
Fixed issue with item spawners keeping spawning destructible items
Fixed issue of draft bets paying out the bet amount, not the cost associated with the bet
Fixed issue where matches would be different when saving and quitting the game in week 1
Hitting environment makes a sound now
Audience is more responsive (fame guage-bugfix)
Fixed a bug where Damage Numbers and Weapon Trail settings would reverse when saving
Fixed some Steam Deck tooltips being offset
Countless more bug fixes!
Thank you Aspirants!
Want to stay up to date on the game and studio's development?
DISCORD
NEWSLETTER
YOUTUBE
As always,
We who are about to die salute you!
Jordy
Original post
08 Jun 2025Developer post
Blood & Sand Update: Preview #3! + Release Date for Blood & Sand!
Ave Aspirants! It's already time for Preview #3 of the Blood & Sand update! We're getting closer and closer to the update release - we'll reveal the release date for the Blood & Sand update at the end of this post! In this Preview, let's dive deeper into the Physics Overh
Ave Aspirants!
It's already time for Preview #3 of the Blood & Sand update! We're getting closer and closer to the update release - we'll reveal the release date for the Blood & Sand update at the end of this post!
In this Preview, let's dive deeper into the Physics Overhaul, Optimizations and more Career changes!
Combat - Physics Overhaul!
Blood & Sand brings a pretty extensive Physics Overhaul. Now I want to preface this by saying, this kind of stuff will still happen:
The game is designed like that! Goofy antics intact.
As seen in Preview #1, Blood & Sand has hit-reaction animations now, where in the past this was a pure (often crazy) physics impulse. This has been made far more subtle and that's what lead me to the physics again.
In the end, I rebuilt the entire character-physics and physical animation systems in the game. I took some time to more properly understand the engine and implemented it this time "as it should be".
This was really worth it - the result is more quality and stable physics in general. Everything feels more realistic and fluid.
FPS and system stability
One major boon from these overhauled physics is that the game is more FPS stable - actually (technically) playable at something like 5 FPS for the first time. This means in general, whether you're playing at 30 FPS or 200 FPS, the physics should behave closer to how they're designed.
Better death ragdolls
There are several ragdoll profiles now, which adds some cool deaths!
death
Better Proportions (again!)
I feel like I do an improvement every Major Update on this, but this may actually be the last time.
The proportions and physics are oddly linked, so it only seemed right. We Who Are About To Die has evolved over the past ~10 years from a fairly cartoony game to more stylised-realistic. The biggest change was the child-like-cartoony-big-head proportions of characters, which have constantly evolved to be more realistic.
Blood & Sand is no different! 'OLD' here is the currently live update.
This time, the character in the Career Menu has also gotten the same upgrade! That one was a few updates behind, and still looked especially cartoony.
The physics are also noticeably better here and so I made them more pronounced!
I've also redone and adjusted some of the animation stuff, like the general stance, and posing for 2 handers:
Just for fun, check out these old version of the proportions (which were already way less cartoony than start of development!)
Image #2 is from the actual Early Access Release!! It really highlights how far we've come already to me.
Better Physical Animations
The physical animations -- where it blends between an "active ragdoll" and animations during combat (after hit etc) have been improved and balanced. Generally speaking, again, movement is more realistic and fluid.
Especially during low stamina, the physics no longer completely take over the body, instead you still maintain decent control but there are more animation driven cue's that a character is out of gas.
To rebalance this, general damage output of a low-stamina hit is lower. (as previously, it relied on floppy arms more). Here it is again from Preview #1:
Optimisations
The engine upgrade we did should come with general optimization improvements. On top of that, characters have seen a decent performance upgrade.
Hand in hand with the animation upgrade, there's a pretty significant animation performance upgrade too across the board.
We've also fixed the super-framerate-y look of distant Aspirants and Audience. Basically, the farther a character is the more animation frames we skip. But in the past, this skipping was harsh like stop motion. Now it's made fluid in 90% of cases. This has the extra effect that we can actually skip way more frames -- it looks much better AND is more performant! It's hard to see well on a GIF, but:
Here's the old version (stop motion harsh frames at different Level-of-Detail). The numbers are how many frames are skipped.
And new, with fluid blending.
Lastly, the many dust, fog and other particle effects in the game has gotten a pass, replacing transparency with a technique called dithering where-ever possible, and redesigning and optimizing some key effects from the ground up.
Again a benefit here is more effects are possible as they are much cheaper, so sandy-arena battles should get way more dusty for example! And this should be a nice boost to FPS and FPS stability.
Career Menu changes
Shop Expansion!
We've expanded the shop with two additional item slots - 8 total now - This means more items to choose from!
To make room for the extra items, we’ve rearranged the layout slightly. You’ll now find the reroll button, as well as shop-discount and -refund info, located at the bottom of the shop.
We’ve also upgraded the resolution of shop icons. They’re now much crisper and clearer, making it easier on the eyes when browsing for new items.
Weekly Report
This update will introduce the Weekly Report panel, a major improvement to the player's post-match experience.
Previously, after a match, players were sometimes bombarded with many panels - battle reward, shop orders, repairs and more. Quite overwhelming. With this update, all of the notifications are now neatly grouped into a Weekly Report panel.
Aside from that, the panel also includes an overview of al the match bracket levels. This is an important mechanic of the game that was previously easy to overlook.
Each match type has its own level. A player's level can be lower than a match’s bracket level, but never higher. When a player levels up, all bracket levels increase accordingly, keeping progression consistent across the board.
The old Timeline panel is also incorporated in the Weekly Report. It still shows upcoming matches and will highlight key events.
The Weekly Report panel can be easily accessed via the button at the top of the Career menu. The ideal place to plan your next move!
This report menu is a first version, we're going to expand and polish it up at a later date.
WANNA PLAY NOW?
CALL #2 FOR CLOSED TESTERS!
If you want to try Blood & Sand ahead of time:
We are currently in the debugging and polish stage of this update and we can use your help! Thank you to the active testers already who have helped a ton and made some really cool profiles! Check out the game's Workshop!
We're launching another round of closed testing - do you want to help out and play this update early?
Join our Discord - write an application in the channel #closed-test-application
RELEASE DATE! SAND & BLOOD WHEN?
I'm pleased to say we're getting there and barring any disasters, want to release Sand & Blood...
>> Wednesday, June 18th, along with a nice discount.
Not long now! Please mark the date and help us have a great update and Sandbox/workshop launch by sharing the news with friends. <3
That's it for preview #3 of the Blood & Sand update!
Want to stay up to date on the game and studio's development?
DISCORD
NEWSLETTER
YOUTUBE
We who are about to die salute you,
Jordy
Original post
04 Jun 2025Developer post
Blood & Sand Update: Preview #2!
Ave Aspirants! Lino here, co-developer on We Who Are About to Die. Like Jordy, I wear a lot of hats: coding, art, design,... The main difference? Unlike Jordy, I usually do my work with pants on! I'll be showing some of my work in this post! For Preview #2 of the Blood & Sand
Ave Aspirants!
Lino here, co-developer on We Who Are About to Die. Like Jordy, I wear a lot of hats: coding, art, design,... The main difference? Unlike Jordy, I usually do my work with pants on!
I'll be showing some of my work in this post! For Preview #2 of the Blood & Sand update, I'm excited to share some of the latest updates to the Career management and combat visual effects, as well as a call for closed testers!
Patrons Upgrade!
From the start, we’ve always intended for Patrons to play a meaningful role during a run. I'm happy to announce that, with the new Blood & Sand update, you can now make more meaningful decisions regarding which Patron to support and see a clearer impact on your gameplay.
The Patron system has seen lots of little broad adjustments. Patron Events are more likely, Favor gain pacing is higher and there are more ways to earn Favor now too. Many of the new features allow you to lean more towards someone specific - building up favor in a strategic way really pays off over the run.
Events
Firstly, we've added 15 new Patron events, bringing more variety to each run. Each Patron now offers a balanced mix of positive and negative events that will trigger based on your Favor standing with them. For example, each patron has an event that increases the likelihood of matches being hosted by them, giving you the opportunity to further specialize as their disciple.
Other events may grant free shop orders, increase bet payouts or even reward (or burden) you with a temporary Character Trait. All this and more is waiting for you to discover!
Festivals
We are also introducing Patron hosted Festivals! These are special positive events, that can occur once per run. There's the Festival of Wine, Festival of Blood, Festival of Masks and the Festival of Fortune!
Each Festival has special effects for the entire week it takes place. After a few weeks of preparation, the city of Terantia will come alive with celebration, decorations, and bonuses tied to the Patron!
I won't spoil all 4, but for the Festival of Fortune for example, Valerius will make sure that gold spills from fallen Aspirants. Even more, Valerius will distribute pouches of coin to the crowd, who will eagerly hurl them toward the Aspirants they hope will succeed!
Betting Overhaul
One major goal of the Blood & Sand update is to address community feedback and to strengthen the weaker systems. Next to other systems that will talk about in upcoming previews, betting has received a complete rework.
Instead of 4 betting options in total (shoved in a menu on the side), I've integrated the betting panel directly into the match option panel, meaning there are now 3 bets per match, and making it much easier to see which bets are possible on which match.
We are also introducing smart bets! Eliminating impossible or nonsensical choices.
Next to an increase of the minimum payout, bets will now also pay out Favor with the Patron hosting the match, which circles around to the Patron Expansion.
I've also redesigned the Patron UI panels and tooltips to show all related benefits and information at a glance. For example, some players might not have been aware that your Patron standing influences match payouts and fundraising. After a victorious fight, it is also clearer how your favor with each Patron changed.
Combat - FX Upgrades and more!
With the new anim & physics updates, it was the perfect time for us to also enhance the current visual effects for combat.
Since shields play such a crucial role in combat, I've added visual damage on the shield itself, which directly indicates its remaining durability.
Above you see the first damage state which indicates a shield durability range of 50%-35%, the second damaged state shows a 35%-10% range and the last one 10% or lower.
A cool side effect of this system is that it also shows on the inside of the shield, so as a player you will also have a visual clue of your shield's durability and know when it's time to search for another shield to pick up!
In addition to drastically optimizing existing FX like environmental dust, we’ve added a upgrade to all combat-related FX - better shield splinters and metal sparks on impact, along with impact effects to clearly show the exact point of your strike on enemies. There is more dust scattered up due to combat, better and clearer footstep FX and SFX and more.
Audience Items
Another noticeable thing is I've overhauled the way the audience throws in items. Before, the items they can throw in were taken from a limited pool of 3 items (low, mid and high tier).
Now, it's fully dynamic - they can throw any weapon or shield in the game (that is buyable) -they just throw stuff that is appropriate for the tier of the player. This effectively means more variety in combat with looted items, and buffed looting via Spoils to the Victor and Luck of the Draw.
WANNA PLAY NOW?
CALL FOR CLOSED TESTERS!
If you want to try Blood & Sand ahead of time:
We are currently in the debugging and polish stage of this update and we can use your help!
We're launching a round of closed testing - do you want to help out and play this update early?
Join our Discord and write an application in the channel #closed-test-application
That's it for preview #2 of the Blood & Sand update! I can’t wait for you to dive in and explore these changes. Let us know what you think!
Want to stay up to date on the game and studio's development?

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NEWSLETTER
YOUTUBE
We who are about to die salute you,
Lino
Original post
26 May 2025Developer post
Blood & Sand Update: Preview #1!
Ave Aspirants! Since the last update, we've been working non-stop - there's a lot to update you on, so let's jump right in. We're now Aegic Entertainment ! I'm very proud to be introducing you to our studio. It has been 10 years in the making. It's been a crazy journey, from solo
Ave Aspirants!
Since the last update, we've been working non-stop - there's a lot to update you on, so let's jump right in.
We're now Aegic Entertainment!
I'm very proud to be introducing you to our studio. It has been 10 years in the making. It's been a crazy journey, from solo dev in my underpants to game studio (in our underpants).
I'm glad to finally have a name now too. https://aegicentertainment.com/ (We're also hiring!)
Want to keep up to date, join our discord here and subscribe to our newsletter (No spam, only big announcements and giveaways etc!)
The next Major Update: Blood & Sand!
Some amazing news I can share first is we've designed most of game all the way to 1.0 now. We're very much in the end-game now. Sandbox Mode is part of a larger plan related to 1.0 as well. We've also brought WWAATD up to the last viable engine version which should provide stability.
The next update, v0.8 is Blood & Sand, introduces many overhauls across both combat and career, and brings the long awaited Sandbox Mode! We've been cooking with this one. Aside from generally polishing things, these are the goals we had for this update:

Big focus on Combat + add Sandbox mode (Blood & Sand!)
Design the rest of the game till 1.0 so it all fits in a larger plan
Address common feedback + tackle all weaker features/aspects (unify the game's quality)
>>> For Career that is: Patrons, Betting, Notifications (Redesigns, reworks and overhauls)
>>> For Combat: Hit impacts and reactions, physics stability, Polearm design (Redesigns, reworks and overhauls)
>>> Fix big gaps in the equipment arsenal and content
>>> Fix visually jarring elements and optimization issues (Low framerate characters, expensive FX etc)
Sandbox Mode
What is Sandbox Mode?
I've been looking forward to making Sandbox Mode for about 6-7 years. Personally super excited it's almost ready.
My vision as a game designer is that games are ultimately a toy - the magic is interaction. So I had the idea to let players mess with the game on a much deeper level. Why not expose all the endless variables in the code? What if the player could adjust things the game to their liking? A bit like modding, but made super convenient - so anyone can do it. AAA studios might freak out about how players could easily break the game, but well, in this case it's on you! The settings are ultra flexible including all the hazards that come with that.
Sandbox will allow people to make their own flavor of the game, make challenge runs, tweak things they don't like and generally experiment.
How does Sandbox Mode work?
In short, you can create Sandbox Profiles with your own custom settings.
Settings go from 50+ base variables in the game (Max HP, stamina, costs, match frequencies, pacing, difficulty pacing, ...) to toggling traits and items, to starting gear, toggling backstories and more.
Open this image to get a sense for some of the options.
Infinite Runs!
Want a 1HP run? More Stamina? Go for it. Dislike Peg-leg, hate 2 handers? Disable them. Want a duels only, high item cost, negative traits only, no heals run? Go nuts.
The amount of possible runs is infinite.
I've done the rudimentary math: 10^233. There are more builds than atoms in the universe. In fact, if you build a new Profile every nanosecond for every atom since the dawn of time, you wouldn't make a dent in this number.
Workshop Support!
You can then even share your Profile with other players on the Steam Workshop . Or of course, browse and test other people's crazy run designs. More on that and a much more in-depth look at all the options, in a later Preview!
Sandbox mode is a scary feature to make. It was a huge and very complicated amount of work, diving deep into the game's core, and we're hoping for people to experiment and share cool challenges on the Workshop or via our Discord. Fingers crossed it was worth it! As usual, if people love it, we intend to expand it and listen to the community about how they want it expanded. Your feedback shapes this game.
Combat Changes
The update is named Blood & Sand - Sand for Sandbox, Blood for the vast combat related overhauls. Check it out:
New Combat Attack UI
We've completely remade and drastically improved the combat UI. It's also context-sensitive based on the weapon type. This UI is way more intuitive and I hope it primarily helps new players figure out the attack dragging mechanic.
Animation Overhaul
The animation systems in the game have seen major changes:
One common feedback we got a lot was that hits feel weak - sometimes it feels like "punching in a dream". I tackled this problem from both sides: hits and hit reactions.
Animation Overhaul - Pelvis turning, footwork & foot planting
First, because of an ignorant technical mistake ~10 years ago when I was a clueless whippersnapper, it was very hard to add decent pelvis and foot rotation to attacks. I've tried to patch this a few times over the years, but I've finally managed to crack it by using a few clever tricks together to circumvent the problem.
Now characters rotate on their attack-readying and then turn into a strike - including pelvis, knees and foot-work! Bonus of this approach is its completely dynamic, so it even changes per weapon type etc.
Here's 2H swings, notice the legs especially:
Here's it is on 1H swings:
You have to play to properly understand the huge impact (ha!) on the game - the game-feel and power of a hit - is through the roof.
This has gameplay implication: WWAATD's damage model is physics-based, so the added rotation actually adds velocity aka damage to an attack.
It also gets more or less intense based on weapon/attack type and current speed. It's maxed out if you stand still - now you have a reason to plant your feet, because you'll do a much more powerful attack. Essentially, this feature adds emergent "Heavy Attacks".
Animation Overhaul - Hit Reactions
Hits also felt bad - in large part due to a lack of proper hit reactions. So far, they were a simple physics-impulse (did that because of solo dev - limited time).
Now we've added actual animation-based hit reactions, but as usual, in a very dynamic way.
Characters will turn and respond in several ways based on the attack impact location. They also use their arms dynamically to balance when they got knockback (in any direction). Even shield impacts get this effect, hitting a shield barely did anything in the past. This is all layered together to get satisfying reactions.
Here's some longer, higher quality video previews on the new combat feel, OLD vs NEW:
Watch on YouTube
https://youtu.be/dF7aOQ1lX1E
Animation Overhaul - Stamina
Stamina was another common point of feedback. There's no clear visual cue for the character's stamina level, and on low stamina, you get very floppy and unwieldy. Decent in theory but not fun in practice. Now, low stamina is a more animation-based state relying much less on pure physics, and there's a dynamic breathing layer added to the animation on top of the sound.
Animation Overhaul- Many more tweaks
The entire animation system has seen performance improvements, vastly better blending and smoothing, I've improved a huge amount of the attacks, fixed look-at animation (so character keep eye contact much better - does more than you think!) and so on.
It's really just too much to tell.
And that's not all for Combat changes, there's a lot more. There's new & improved FX, a complete Phyiscs rework, a Polearm Overhaul, Weapon Stance Switching, and so on. I'll expand on those in the next Previews!
Patrons, Career & more!
It's not just Sandbox + Combat, we also worked on the Career side - including expansions on the Patrons and Shop, overhauls on things like Betting, Post-Battle Notifications and more.
Blood & Sand, as every major update, will also have new content, performance improvements and general improvements here and there across the entire game. It's a big boy.
Join us on the next Previews when we dive into these topics!
Please let us know in the comments what you think. Which feature are you most excited for? What sandbox profile do you want to make? Are you interested in testing this update ahead of release?
Your reactions are extremely motivating - let us know!
Want to stay up to date on the game and studio's development?

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NEWSLETTER
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As always,
We who are about to die salute you!
Jordy
Original post
22 Dec 2024Developer post
CONTENT UPDATE: WWAATD EA v0.73 OUT NOW! +30% discount
Ave Aspirants! For the holidays, here's our last present of the year to you - a new update: new content , general game-improvements and bug-fixes! . The game is also 30% off for the Winter Sale! Before we get into it, I want to take a moment to reflect on 2024 and thank everyone
Ave Aspirants!
For the holidays, here's our last present of the year to you - a new update: new content, general game-improvements and bug-fixes!. The game is also 30% off for the Winter Sale!
Before we get into it, I want to take a moment to reflect on 2024 and thank everyone for standing by the game and by us: thank you. It has been an incredible year of massive updates and I feel like the game has been absolutely transformed this year. I'm really happy with the our progress and how far it has come, and that we've still been making bold choices and overhauls in development. It's been a long year with many all-nighters!
The Animation Overhaul and the Character Traits system are my personal highlights, both from a player and developer POV. The Spectacles Update in particular was record breaking and it has been so satisfying & assuring to see that the work we put into this game is absolutely rewarded - the reception continues to be beyond my wildest dreams.
I'm coming up on year 10 of development (might have already passed it, not 100% sure!) personally and still not tired of it at all. If you told me I'd go from a no-programming-skills, solo dev, no-big-hopes situation to thousands of players & a full time career with a team 10 years later, I'd never believe you! I'm very grateful to be given this chance.
I can't wait for 2025 and to show you what we have in store for the game! Best wishes to all of you!
New Arena!
A new arena has emerged in the heart of Terantia. Located at the base of the stairs leading to the great temple, combatants are forced to face off on the city terraces.
New map variation
In this new variant, the Grand Plaza is scattered with oil patches and fire pots. Use the terrain to your advantage by igniting your enemies.
The fire system in the game has been upgraded to go with this new variation!
Throwing a fire pot ignites a fire upon impact, spreading flames to any connected oil patches nearby. When the fire pot lands, it leaves ashes on the ground, while ignited oil patches create fading ashes. These fire pots can now also be thrown into any map by the audience.
Additionally, here's a new interactive trap that players can kick over.
Floating damage numbers and weapon trails!
We've added a weapon trail to the player swings, trails will be default on from now on:
We've also added floating damage numbers, this is default off. You can turn it on in the Game Options.
Destructible Objects mini-Overhaul
Destructible objects like barrels and boxes' mass now plays a role. Characters and players can now be pushed back by physics objects. (before, they were massless and would fly off if you ran into them with zero resistence.)
Sound effects have also been improved. On-hit sounds and floor-based sound effects have been added, so interactions like a barrel bouncing in mud now sound like a wood impact combined with mud. Particle effects have been introduced for hits and destruction, enhancing the visual feedback when props are broken.
Here's a Before and After:
Kick Improvement
Previously, when it comes to the destructible objects, kicking was handled purely by leg physics, but it now uses a curated forward impulse for more consistent behavior.
Objects moving at high velocity (after a kick for example) now explode on contact and knock back and stun characters on impact.
New Hanian Infantry Armor (Classic Roman legionary set!)!
Fitting with the last update, a classic Roman "Lorica Segmentata" armor was added. About time!
These armors have been added to many Hanian units as well.
Note: currently the names for these and everything else new in this update that has text will be english only. We'll update the translations later!
New 2H swords
We've added the long awaited Godly 2 Handed Sword - Clavadir and a Unique 2 Handed sword for the Elite Legate Dividus !
Audience item drops overhaul!
We revamped the system behind the items thrown into the arena by the audience during fights. Weapon throws will now be more varied, as the selection is drawn from all weapons & shields available in the shop. The throws will also be more randomly aimed and better balanced for the player rank.
And more!

Improvements to the training section. Decimal points have been removed and we added some QOL-fixes, making it easier and more straightforward to track progress when training specific skills.
Characters and players now turn their head towards their target, making them look less stiff. They did this once upon a time but it was lost during the locomotion overhaul, added back in now.
Full Changelog

New items: Hanian Infantry Armor (Chest & Arm armor)
New item: Clavadir (Godly 2H)
New item: Legate Dividus' Daaka
New Arena: City Terraces
New Arena Variation: Grand Plaza oil/fire variation
New weapon trails
New floating damage numbers (enable in game options)
Added rain scenario to Grand Plaza maps
Fire pot & Fire system improvements
Destructibles now have mass & better physics
Kicking destructibles into character stuns them now
Audience item dropper mini-overhaul
Training system improvements and tweaks
Bribing system improvements and tweaks
Knockbacks in general have been slightly increased
Starting weapons for Veteran Aspirant have been given balancing tweaks, they are all now Sturdy tier.
Bugfixes

Fixed some issues with character damage physics, things should work a bit better hopefully.
Fixed characters T-posing on death where they are cut in half.
Added translations for the repair notification window.
Fixed skinning issue on the head
Fixed incorrect weight on backstory character selection screen
Fixed armor overview displaying wrong items sometimes
Fixed accidental double stamina buff on Slave
Heirloom now mentions Unique tier items too
Fixed an issue where the death screen always displayed "sewerrat" incorrectly next to the rank.
Fixed an issue on the graphics options screen where some text would go out of bounds.
Fixed an issue where the pegleg trait incorrectly triggered during the intro sequence when using a gamepad.
Fixed an issue where focus was lost when re-entering the pause menu after visiting the game options when using a gamepad.
Fixed an issue on the loading screen that prevented entering the match when changing the game options during loading.
Possible fix for AI that stops working (Not 100% sure, it's hard to replicate)
Fixed an UI-scaling issue on the Victory Screen for the Chinese language.
Fixed noticeable UI scaling issues when entering the main menu.
Fixed an issue where weapons with the fragile item trait would not break when thrown on the ground.
Fixed an issue where training sometimes did not work correctly for a new character.
Fixed an issue where no items were thrown in the Stadium Ballista variant when the Brawler trait was active.
Fixed an issue in the Ambush event where the ambushers would appear partially inside the ground.
Fixed an issue where bribing certain Patrons did not work as expected.
Fixed an issue where certain events incorrectly granted patron favor to certain patron(s).
Fixed an issue where the Farerdaka could not be picked up in combination with a shield in third-person mode.
Players no longer need to exit and re-enter the game to see their Battle log preference applied
Happy Holidays everyone!
We who are about to die salute you,
Jordy
Original post
25 Nov 2024Developer post
WWAATD EA v0.71 small patch/hotfix
Gladiator's Revenge v0.71 changelog Ave Aspirants, 0.71 is here: a small bug-fixing patch! Bugfixes Fixed an issue where players saw a debug backstory Fixed issue where you couldn't claim victory on Condemned after your target week has passed Fixed an issue where passing Baegar a
Gladiator's Revenge v0.71 changelog
Ave Aspirants,
0.71 is here: a small bug-fixing patch!
Bugfixes

Fixed an issue where players saw a debug backstory
Fixed issue where you couldn't claim victory on Condemned after your target week has passed
Fixed an issue where passing Baegar as Veteran Aspirant without defeating him would trigger victory condition
Fixed an issue where you could roll Condemned and switch to a lower difficulty mode
Fixed an issue where item rank-up rewards could fail
Fixed incorrect sounds on bronze scale arms & leg armor
Fixed an issue where windows would jump when navigating from options to start in the main menu.
Resolved an issue allowing the pause menu to open during loading tips and the game to continue.
Corrected a problem where the HUD did not automatically set gamepad icon keys.
Adjusted the loading screen to prevent showing the key-formatting when using a gamepad.
Fixed an issue where the music from credits would continue playing when closing it rapidly after opening
Disabled trap movements during intro sequences to avoid navigation issues. Should be a step closer to fixing the issue of enemies waiting at their gates
Fixed the "Hold loading screen until key pressed" option automatically re-checking itself
Resolved the issue of being able to skip the loading screen before the continued message appeared
Fixed the issue where ballistae did not deal damage anymore
Fixed issue on Impatient Crowd 4 minutes. 'Crowd wants to go home' msg appeared at the start of the fight
Fixed an issue with bribing which mixed up the Patron's favor being used + made the chance estimation more logical
Balancing: Quelli Daka got a small damage buff
Fixed Scollo upgrades scale issue (flickering)
Fixed Veteran Aspirant subclass traits listed as 'nan'
Probably missed a few!
We who are about to die salute you,
Jordy
Original post
23 Nov 2024Developer post
MAJOR UPDATE: Gladiator's Revenge Update OUT NOW! + 40% discount
Early Access v0.7 - Gladiator's Revenge Full Changelog This update celebrates the 2 year anniversary and doubles down on the gladiator theme of the game by introducing new backstories as well as many new items (50!) and unit types that fit this theme. In addition to that, the gam
Early Access v0.7 - Gladiator's Revenge
Full Changelog
This update celebrates the 2 year anniversary and doubles down on the gladiator theme of the game by introducing new backstories as well as many new items (50!) and unit types that fit this theme. In addition to that, the game has also finally been translated to 11 languages and we've overhauled the loading screen to provide tips as you play!
NOTE: Due to a change in the way the save game is structured, this update will reset your current live character and roll a new one. Your options and meta progression (Victories, stats, settings, etc) will not be reset though.
MAJOR new content & features

NEW Backstory: Veteran Aspirant An accomplished gladiator coming back to the arena to finally take revenge and claim his place as Grand Champion of Terantia! This backstory comes with 3 subclasses, each hailing from a different culture and trained in a different style of combat.

The Dormorian
The Terrantian
The Myrodonian
NEW Backstory: Condemned
Sentenced to fight in the arena until death, the Condemned starts without earthly possessions and only has bad luck and negative starting conditions. This backstory is now the ultimate challenge in the game! The Condemned has to be unlocked by winning a run in Lionslayer difficulty and is only available to play in that difficulty!
NEW: Localization
Added support for 11 languages. You can select your language in the Game Options via dropdown. Added languages:
French
Italian
German
Spanish
Brazilian Portuguese
Polish
Russian
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Japanese
Korean
(Note: localisation will be refined more and more over time!)
MINOR (Content, features, balancing changes)

NEW: Loading Screen Tips

Reworked all loading screen tips
Combat tips are shown before combat and career tips before career management
Removed now redundant info from tutorial
Removed Combat Tips section on the battle menu
NEW: Item Properties

Items can now have multiple properties that identify them as from a culture or a weapon subtype
Item properties can be requirements for effects from backstories and character traits
Item properties have been applied to both new and existing items
NEW: Unit Types

15+ New unit types added to increase enemy variety at each bracket level
Many of these units are linked to the 3 new gladiatorial styles from the Veteran Aspirant backstory, and give a more classic gladiator feel throughout the game at all difficulties.

New Item: Rusty Tridi (Trident)
New Item: Hooked Tridi (Trident)
New Item: Dormorian Tridi (Trident)
New Item: Maelstrom (Godly Trident)
New Item: Terantian Carver (Claw)
New Item: Terantian Cutter (Claw)
New Item: Terantian Slasher (Claw)
New Item: Eagle's Talons (Godly Claw)
New Item: Rusty Flagga (Flail)
New Item: Flaggorath (Godly Flail)
New Item: Hooked Daka (Bronze, Iron)
New Item: Hooked Pukku
New Item: Old Small Shield
New Item: Dormorian Short Shield
New Item: Dormorian Reinforced Shield
New Item: Curved Terantian Shield (Exalted, Ornate)
New Item: Leather Curved Terantian Armguard
New Item: Small Myrodonian Shield
New Item: Myrodonian Copper Sunguard
New Item: Myrodonian Sunguard
New Item: Dormorian Finned Helm
New Item: Terantian Helm
New Item: Terantian Aspirant's Helm
New Item: Feathered Myrodonian Helm
New Item: Hanian Guard Helm
New Item: Dormorian Fishnet Shirt
New Item: Leather Cuirass
New Item: Scale Armplate (Padded, Leather, Bronze, Iron, Exalted)
New Item: Scale Legplate (Padded, Leather, Bronze, Iron, Exalted)
New Item: Padded Armplate
New Item: Padded Legplate
Other changes

Armor Balancing: Together with all the new items, a bunch of adjustments have been made to existing armor. This should provide a more equal distribution of items across rarities and more options to choose from at each stage of the game!
Former Soldier

Starting weapons have higher durability
Has more Drafts planned in his Calendar
Match re-rolls are now a bit cheaper
Bugfixes

Hit reactions are now also affected, include armor damage taken. Hitting well-protected enemies should feel more impactful!
Fixed another cause of NPCs not entering the arena on the Grand Plaza
Fixed and tweaked countless small UI issues (primarily to fit longer Localisations)
Many, many more!
If you like what we're doing, please consider sharing this update and the game with your friends: we still rely on word of mouth more than anything.

YOUTUBE
NEWSLETTER
DISCORD
And as always -we who are about to die salute you,
Jordy
Original post
22 Nov 2024Developer post
Gladiator's Revenge: Preview #4!
Dear Aspirants! Time for the final preview on Gladiator's Revenge before releasing it tomorrow, November 23rd , along with a Daily Deal discount! Gladiators Revenge: Preview 4 Loading screen Tips The loading screen has been overhauled. You now have to press a key to continue, and
Dear Aspirants!
Time for the final preview on Gladiator's Revenge before releasing it tomorrow, November 23rd, along with a Daily Deal discount!
Gladiators Revenge: Preview 4
Loading screen Tips
The loading screen has been overhauled. You now have to press a key to continue, and a Tip will show. We have many tips written out that we sorted in two categories, Combat and Career Management Tips. (and they also all come in 11 languages now!)
The tips are more or less in order starting from simple mechanics and gameplay tips to more complex concepts. Every loading screen you automatically see the next tip, or you can cycle back and forth manually. When you enter battle, a combat tip appears and when you go back to the Career menu you get a management tip!
The tips in the battle screen have been removed and a bunch of unnecessary info in the tutorial has been cut. This is a major first step in streamlining the tutorial of the game so it's less front-heavy!
The Condemned
Last time we introduced the second backstory, Condemned. It has seen some more updates (making it even harder!) which you'll have to find out the hard way, and we have some custom art:
Since the Condemned is specific and late late game content (unlocked after a Lionslayer win, only in Lionslayer) we went a little crazy with it to give a distinct flavor!
Items & various!
We've added many small tweaks, improvements, balancing changes and UI improvements.
Better Hit Reactions
A "small" but very impactful change is that we discovered damage absorbed by armor also negated the physics hit effects. This was an accidental/unforeseen result of the physics/damage system. So in the late game with extremely strong armor, units would basically stop reacting to hits, which just feels bad to play. This has been changed so now if you do 5 damage to a character but 45 damage to their armor, they will still react closer to as if they took 50 damage. It's extremely noticeable and the game feels way better throughout, but especially against high tier opponents.
UI adjustments
We have some larger things like a backstory screen cleanup to small things like item tooltips now having a tier colour border!
Items now have a Properties section where we can list additional properties some Character traits need (bouncing board for more potential features later!)
Items galore!
Some more items have been finalised and we've also expanded the Veteran Aspirant subclasses to use these - same for the many new unit types.
Check out this Leather Cuirass and new Padded Armplate!
Would you say you're hooked?
All told, this update adds 50 new items, all of which are more classic gladiator gear, transforming the overall feeling of the game for sure.
Update on Steam Deck support
We've also quietly been working towards Steam Deck support. We had hoped to get full support in on this update as an extra surprise but that didn't work out.
Status now is, the game has gone from totally unplayable (maps didn't load, game freezes etc) to what should be fully playable now.
We still have a lot of QoL and UI problems to fix, which should be next, but in theory the game is playable on SD officially and we're hoping to get this verified by Steam so we go from "Unsupported" to "Playable"! The next and last step ("Verified") is our goal ASAP after that, but there are still some tricky technical challenges involved to get to proper support, so I can't give an ETA just yet. Just wanted to give an update on the status and plan!
Want to stay up to date on the game and studio's development?

Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/8PEutcdwf5
Sign up to our long-term newsletter: https://subscribe.jordylakiere.net/Newsletter
Subscribe on Youtube (video previews coming later): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWNMvD_XLJ3unATX8O7aWJg
Thank you for your support these past 2 years, from the bottom of my heart! <3<3

As always,
We who are about to die salute you!
Jordy
Original post
14 Nov 2024Developer post
WWAATD Anniversary + Gladiator's Revenge: Preview #3 + release date!
Dear Aspirants! Time for another preview on Gladiator's Revenge as well as a release date reveal ! Hint: it's very soon! Today marks the anniversary of We Who Are About To Die! 2 years ago today I released my 7-year-solo-dev project. It was an absolutely life-changing experience.
Dear Aspirants!
Time for another preview on Gladiator's Revenge as well as a release date reveal! Hint: it's very soon!
Today marks the anniversary of We Who Are About To Die! 2 years ago today I released my 7-year-solo-dev project. It was an absolutely life-changing experience. Since then, we're now a game studio -- over 15 people have worked on the project by now, and we've added countless features and refinements to the game.
Special thanks to the core teammembers: Lino & Yosha who have now been working hard on the game full time for over a year and a half now. Show some love in the comments everyone! <3
Here's a (very condensed) list of highlights from the EA development so far:
* Content Update v0.16: Desperate Politician, Blacksmith's apprentice, map variations, new gear, new weapons
* Content Update v0.17: Godly gear, many items, combat and physics refinements
* Combat Controls Update: Third Person Mode, Controller Support, Throwing Overhaul, Lionslayer difficulty, Smart Shop, Items
* Anniversary Update: Godly tier items Map variations, updated blocking system, combat tweaks
* The Spectacles Update: Animation overhaul, AI overhaul, Audio overhaul, Survival, Bosses, Tournaments, Field battles ..., New map, new gear
* Content Update v0.45: Field battle update, new faction, new gear
* Champion's Journey: 50+ Random Character Traits, Timeline, Weight overhaul, Skill overhaul, New maps...
* Gladiator's Revenge: Veteran Aspirant, Condemned, Localisation into 11 languages, overhauled tutorial tips (loading screen), new items and units, ...
* ???
It's been an incredible journey, and we're deeply grateful to everyone who has contributed to shaping the game into what it is today (because you really, really have), and what it will become in the future!
Gladiators Revenge: Preview 3
New Backstory: The Condemned
On top of the Veteran Aspirant, Gladiator's Revenge has a second new Backstory! The Condemned. The condemned is a challenge backstory which you must first unlock.
To unlock it, you have to first win a backstory to unlock Lionslayer difficulty, and then win a backstory on Lionslayer.
The Condemned is simple: you start with no equipment, no skills, no gold or fame, no perks whatsoever. On top of that, legacies don't work, patron's dislike you from the start, negative events are more likely and you get only neutral and negative traits. Lastly, you can only play it on Lionslayer difficulty.
The win condition is to simply survive for a certain amount of weeks. Good luck!
For the fans out there, this is partially inspired by Soulslike "Wretch"/"Deprived" type characters!
New Equipment!
The Gladiator's Revenge Update brings an array of new content, featuring items inspired by classic gladiators. Expect to see more variations of flails, tridents, and claws, along with a wide selection of new shields.
New Unit Types!
Of course with all this new gear and lore we added unit types to the game as well!
The 3 Veteran Aspirant subclasses, Myrodonian, Dormorian and Terantian now also show up throughout the entire game as enemies.
In the game so far we had a generic "Worthy Aspirant', 'Professional Aspirant", the old "Myrodonian", and other gladiators like the 'Aspired'. These are now replaced & expanded, so "Worthy Aspirant" is split up into the 3 new classes, each having a Worthy variant. We also have a Professional, Champion and Aspired variant, totalling 12 units. On top of that, we have added a new unit called a Bonecrusher. (mid-late game iron armor, heavy mace)
NOTE: some of this equipment is work in progress.
Gladiator's Revenge When?!
I'm glad to announce Gladiator's Revenge is going live November 23rd, along with a Daily Deal and discount of 2 weeks following it!
Closed testing and Language testing LIVE NOW!
Thank you for all the Testers who responded last time to the call for testers!
A first closed test is going live today on the Closed Test branch
Want to help? We can use any kind of tester - we are still missing some testers especially for Chinese (traditional and simplified), Korean and Japanese. If you can help out and want earlier access to this update, please consider joining the closed test!
If you speak any of the new languages fluently or have a good eye for bugs & balance (playing in English) please join our Discord (http://discord.gg/8PEutcdwf5).
Language testing applications can go in the channel #loc-test-application write that you want to help & on which language(s). Regular closed testers can apply in #closed-test-application
Here are the languages again:
French, Italian, German, Spanish, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Japanese
Thank you!!
---
Want to stay up to date on the game and studio's development?

Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/8PEutcdwf5
Sign up to our long-term newsletter: https://subscribe.jordylakiere.net/Newsletter
Subscribe on Youtube (video previews coming later): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWNMvD_XLJ3unATX8O7aWJg
Thank you for your support these past 2 years, from the bottom of my heart! <3<3

As always,
We who are about to die salute you!
Jordy
Original post
05 Nov 2024Developer post
Gladiator's Revenge: Preview #2!
Dear Aspirants! Time for Preview 2 and more details on the new backstory: Veteran Aspirant! In this backstory you are a Veteran fighter with an already established career as an Aspirant . You are hellbent on revenge after an Aspirant called Baegar was the only one to defeat you,
Dear Aspirants!
Time for Preview 2 and more details on the new backstory: Veteran Aspirant!
In this backstory you are a Veteran fighter with an already established career as an Aspirant. You are hellbent on revenge after an Aspirant called Baegar was the only one to defeat you, knocking you off your throne and becoming Aspired before you. Your only purpose in life is to defeat Baegar the Aspired.
When you roll the backstory you also roll one of the 3 subclasses at random and the associated backstory's traits, the equipment loadout and starting skills will adjust based on the subclass. 3-in-1!
The Dormorian
The Dormorian is a trident-wielding class originating from Dormorum. To facilitate progress in this class we've added a full set of Tridents and Helms across all tiers of the game specifically tailored to the Dormorian, on some of some unique chest armor.
Notice the new Character Trait Dormorii Training, which we also have for the other cultures -- more on that later!
The Myrodonian
The Myrodonian is an overhaul/expansion of an already existing unit in the late game. This is a Myrodon-inspired class of Aspirant, known for their majestic Myrodonian Helm, trusty flail and armguard. Again, we've added Flails to the game across all tiers so you can enjoy your unique Flail damage bonus as the Myrodonian the entire playthrough, if that's what you want.
The Terantian
A local Aspirant class, the Terantian is a more standard roman-inspired class with equipment more reminiscent of the military - save for the "Claw" or glove type weapon he wields, of course. And you guessed it, we've added claws to the game across all tiers!
As mentioned in Preview 1, the general direction of this update was also to add more classic gladiator gear, so we've added a lot of items in this direction. Here's a selection of new stuff (note not everything is pictured here at all! We'll dissect the new item roster a bit more in a future post.)
Armor balancing overhaul
Along with the new items, and in order to design all the new gear, we ended up doing a mini-balancing overhaul on armor. Especially arms & legs have had fairly large changes.
We've used a more data-oriented approach for this this time, and found out the armor in the mid-game was fairly thin and we had a lot of conflicts (items with nearly identical stats) overall. The armor in the game now all occupies a more unique space and there's a much more even spread stat-wise.
Check out these graphs which shows Durability / Armor mapped out per item on arm-armor for example:
Language Testers needed!
Thank you for all the Testers who responded last time to the call for testers!
The upcoming translations are well underway, I wanted to ask one more time for testers as we gear up for a closed test of these translations!
We need testers who are native speakers/readers in these languages so we can ensure we get the best possible localisations of the game out right away!
If you speak any of these languages fluently and want earlier access to the update, please join our Discord (http://discord.gg/8PEutcdwf5) in the channel #Loc-test-application write that you want to help & on which language(s).
Especially the bolded languages with their own alphabet will need extra testing (and may be harder to find) so if you speak any of those languages please consider helping out! Thank you!

French
Italian
German
Spanish
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Traditional Chinese
Simplified Chinese
Korean
Japanese
Want to stay up to date on the game and studio's development?

Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/8PEutcdwf5
Sign up to our long-term newsletter: https://subscribe.jordylakiere.net/Newsletter
Subscribe on Youtube (video previews coming later): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWNMvD_XLJ3unATX8O7aWJg
As always,
We who are about to die salute you!
Jordy Lakiere
Original post
22 Oct 2024Developer post
Gladiator's Revenge: Preview #1!
Dear Aspirants! I almost can't believe it, but we are quickly coming up on the second anniversary of the Early Access launch of We Who Are About To Die! The game has grown a lot , and we aren't done. To celebrate the anniversary we are releasing a Content Update in November - one
Dear Aspirants!
I almost can't believe it, but we are quickly coming up on the second anniversary of the Early Access launch of We Who Are About To Die! The game has grown a lot, and we aren't done.
To celebrate the anniversary we are releasing a Content Update in November - one I'm personally very excited for! The game will also have a Steam Daily Deal discount on November 23rd.
Gladiator's Revenge
The theme of this update is very simple: we want to add some really classical feeling gladiator content, with a heavier inspiration from ancient Rome itself.
It's long overdue we gave players more ability to dress up and roleplay as your favorite real-world gladiators. Of course, all of this content has still been designed so it still fits the game's lore, cultures and general vibe.
Backstory: The Veteran Aspirant
We will reveal a lot more details about this in the following Preview Posts, but Gladiator's Revenge will add a brand new backstory: Veteran Aspirant (Professional Aspirant has been renamed Trainee Aspirant to avoid confusion)
In this backstory you assume a Veteran who already has an established career as an Aspirant, and is hellbent on revenge.
One very unique aspect of this backstory we can already reveal, is that it has 3 subclasses.
These subclasses are: The Dormorian, The Myrodonian & The Terantian.
When you roll the backstory you also roll one of the 3 subclasses at random and the backstory's traits, the equipment loadout and starting skills will adjust based on the subclass. 3-in-1!
More info on these in future posts!
Translations are coming to the game! Testers needed!
We're happy to announce we're working on finally bringing We Who Are About To Die to other languages than English. The 11 languages are listed below. (note this could get expanded later)
For this we need testers who are native speakers/readers in these languages so we can ensure we get the best possible localisations of the game out right away!
If you speak any of these languages fluently and want earlier access to the update, please join our Discord (http://discord.gg/8PEutcdwf5) in the channel #Loc-test-application write that you want to help & on which language(s).
Especially the bolded languages with their own alphabet will need extra testing (and may be harder to find) so if you speak any of those languages please consider helping out! Thank you!

French
Italian
German
Spanish
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Traditional Chinese
Simplified Chinese
Korean
Japanese
Want to stay up to date on the game and studio's development?

Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/8PEutcdwf5
Sign up to our long-term newsletter: https://subscribe.jordylakiere.net/Newsletter
Subscribe on Youtube (video previews coming later): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWNMvD_XLJ3unATX8O7aWJg
As always,
We who are about to die salute you!
Jordy Lakiere
Original post

Updates & announcements

Ave Aspirants!

1.0 Progress

Current Status

Closed Testing!

Want to help playtest?

AVE ASPIRANTS!

Changelog - Balancing

Bugfixes

AVE ASPIRANTS!

V0.87 is OUT NOW!

AI behavior and Combat balancing changes

Career & Balancing

Bugfixes

AVE ASPIRANTS!

On Difficulty

New Combat Changes

Changelog - Balancing

Impactful

Subtle

Bugfixes

Early Access v0.85 - Anniversary Update

Full Changelog

MAJOR - new content & features

CONTENT - New Elites

CONTENT - New Character Traits

CONTENT - New Items

MINOR - GAMEPLAY

MINOR - UI

BALANCING

Bugfixes

AVE ASPIRANTS!

The update is dropping tomorrow!

AI Gravitation Points

Corner-Me-Not

CONTENT - TRAITS

Harvester

Rabble Rouser

Marked For Blood

Hunted

CONTENT - ELITE'S

Magistrate Magnus

Cultivator Cren

Khor the Warlord

NEW CONTENT - ITEMS

General Updates & QoL!

Cinematic Camera upgrades

Statistics Overhaul

Throwing improvements, weapon weight

Betting UI

Visual updates on Weekly Report panel

Auto Continue / Loading Screen

Performance Stabilisation and Improvements

AVE ASPIRANTS!

Total AI Overhaul

Gassed Out

Stamina Rebalance

Difficulty

More Control

TRAITS

COLLECTOR

SHADY

SHOWMAN

VAIN

Ave Aspirants!

BIG NEWS: 1.0 is coming!

On to v0.85

Item Attributes

New Traits

New Elite: Sons of the Scormorii

New Elite: The Coin King

New Items

V0.81 out now!

AI behavior and combat improvements

Bugfixes

Critical

Other

Early Access v0.8 - Blood & Sand

Full Changelog

MAJOR new content & features