Artifice: War Tactics now includes the following:
- 2 Islands: Aziera and Mycella.
- 5 Battle Modes: Vanquish, Ambush, Escort, Retrieve and Rescue.
- 6 Champions: Zephyr, Pyromancer, Ranger, Berserker, Pathfinder, and Blood Fury.
- 8 Enemy Types: Sellsword, Bowmen, Terrodon, Siege Breaker, Shaman, Death Cap, Shroom Knight, and Shroomancer.
- 2 Bosses: Xo’Azora and Queen Mycella.
- 61 Items: Attack, Defense, and Utility.
- 3 Biomes: Snow, Desert, and Boss Arena.
- Biome Hazards: Sandworm (Desert) and Snow (Frost Wraith).
- Champion Trait and Ability upgrades.
Balance Changes:
- Concussive blast upgrade reworked with a new status effect “Winded” that disables the target’s overwatch for 1 turn.
- Frost Wraith now repositions at the start of player turn.
- Sandworm and Frost Wraith now attack after every overwatch trigger rather than at the end of all of them.
- Double move (Ember Bomb) is now a self-casting ability.
- Updated Biome hazards spawn Logic. Hazards no longer spawn in the same grid twice.
- Reworked Multiple Champion Abilities:
- Zephyr: Swapped Eagle Eye with Pathfinder’s Dual-Watch ability.
- Ranger: True Strike replaced with Armor Chink.
- Pyromancer: Cauterize replaced with Cleansing Flames and Fire Bomb replaced with Napalm.
- Berserker: Rampage replaced with Cleave.
- Pathfinder: Swapped Dual-Watch with Zephyr’s Eagle Eye ability.
- Blood Fury: Splinter Bomb replaced with Sacrificial Edict and Assassinate.
- Added turn timer trigger in Retrieve mode. Turn timer begins only after retrieving the artifact.
- Sandworm now inflicts bleed, but damage is reduced by 1.
- Reworked Frost Bite (now does Armor Negation).
- Updated the XP reward logic.
- Removed Burn, Poison, and Bleed resistance stats and replaced with a unified Resistance stat.
- Reworked stats for all enemies and champions.
Polish and Tweaks:
- Added a highlight on the hover for any interactive objects or NPCs – such as Artifact, Biome hazards, etc.
- Implemented partial controller support.
- Toggle has been replaced with press and hold to inspect characters during gameplay.
- Material pass for Theosus statue and other environmental props.
- Added Ember Bomb explosion particle effect.
- Added a highlight effect on hover for all characters.
- In-game character panel with detailed stats, equipped items, and previews of their traits and abilities.
- HP stat now shows both the current and maximum HP values.
- Improved AI responsiveness (reduced delays).
- Visual polish updates on the World Map.
- Province details now show up for all captured provinces.
- Captured provinces are indicated by a green outline on the World Map.
- New sprite animation in the Main Menu.
- Updated animations for all Zaha’Ryn enemies (Terrodon, Siege breaker, and Shaman).
- Updated trait, ability, and stat icons for multiple champions and enemies.
- Updated Frost Wraith’s idle animation.
- Minor HUD improvements.
- Removed injured state animations for all champions.
- Updated the trajectory of casting on a targetable ability.
- Added an animation for when a Jazis shard is consumed.
- Updated the Tutorial Flow.
- Added a turn timer below the turn start banner.
- Added Defeat text prompts for all battle modes.
- Improved Character Selection, Move, and Overwatch UX.
- Tooltips now appear on Threat and Opportunity tiles.
- Added a visual indicator (blue zone) in Retrieve Mode to interact with the Artifact.
- Hovering over a threat tile (indicated by red exclamation mark) now shows trajectory lines to the corresponding enemies with overlapping overwatches.
- On hovering over a move tile, crossed-sword icons may appear over one or more enemies to indicate attack opportunities.
- Updated Portrait videos for all characters.
- Snow Level visual updates.
- Added a fog of war effect for new provinces on the World Map.
- Updated particle effects for Abilities and Traits.
- Added a desaturation effect to the HP bar for champions and enemies after moving and setting an overwatch.
- Added a “Level Up” text prompt in the victory screen for all Champions when gaining experience.
- Updated Input Icons.
- Added Buffs on Mini HUD.
- Updated the cursor with a crosshair when casting on a targetable ability.
Fixes:
- Martyr’s Rite no longer heals the target.
- Removed the Secondary Objective from Boss Battles.
- Fixed Snow Level and Shade LOD issues.
- The execute modifier no longer triggers on Boss characters.
- Targets now react to Siege Breaker’s attacks.
- The Raider’s attacks are now triggering as intended.
- Player stats now update correctly when equipping items with a negative HP stat value.
- Provinces revealed post-victory are no longer assigned identical battle modes.
- Primary and secondary rewards no longer appear for provinces revealed post-victory.
- Miscellaneous minor bug fixes.