🛠️ Early Access Patch Notes - The Breach Refined
Hey folks,
Here's an early peek into The Breach Refined update launching on 26th June 2025!
After shipping Hotfix 4, our next goal (while working on co-op) was to work on some of the bigger feature requests that all of you sent over.
This Patch represents us diligently working on exactly that - The Breach Refined is a direct response to all your feedback, comments and suggestions!
So without further ado, here’s what we’ve been up to!
⚔️ Important:
If you were in Eleanor’s or Whittacker’s level 2/3 building, you will need it use Continue at Last Whisper on the realm screen so that you can continue playing. Since we removed the old separate indoor area and replaced it with ones within Sacrament that need no loading screen.
⚔️ Performance:
Startup time optimization, it should take a lot less time to reach the main menu
Optimization of updating static entities
Resolved spikes related to spawning certain types of entities
More fixes in Garbage Collector memory allocations
Optimization for leaves falling from trees
⚔️ Quality of Life Improvements:
Attacks and Rune Attacks now have ledge protection
Added the ability to reset tutorials in the Gameplay Settings
Improved and updated older tutorials
Improved ingredients so that the buffs now stack instead of refreshing
Chests can now be assigned carpets with signifiers for what is inside. Easily mark your chests with food, weapons, etc
Fallen Ember UI will now persist after using a Fallen Ember to reroll/add an enchantment, so the item no longer needs to be re-selected each time it is used
When using a Fallen Ember, rings are greyed out to indicate that the item cannot be used to change them
A proper loading screen has been added that will show art of the area being loaded into, and will also provide random hints
Increased the amount of bounties & challenges the player receives per day
Added more bounties & challenges to the game
Standardised the default rune HUD to be the same on both Keyboard & Controller, with the option of returning to the older HUD version
Vendor items will now be organised by their tier/level requirements
Plagued items now have a different UI visual
The Bounty/Challenge circular map indicators now have different colors that match the icon colors within the activity UI
Added an indicator to enemy health bars to show that they are 5 levels or more above the character’s current level and are deemed too difficult to fight
Item drop bag now has a proper model & textures
It now takes much less time to fish at fishing spots
The low amounts of copper currency have been removed from the drop pool of shinies
Added tools and gems to the shiny drop pool
Recipes on the Recipe UI will now show where they can be crafted
Increased the number of basic map markers that can be placed from 12 each to 99 each
The faction present in the current zone is now visible upon an area transition and on the clock HUD area
Bombs & Flasks can now be put into cupboards
Tools are no longer destroyed upon reaching 0 durability
Added HUD indicators for the entrance to interiors where pestilence bosses are spawned
Elevation will now be considered when placing map icons within a certain radius of the player character
All keys now have unique icons
Heat, Cold and Electric damage have been renamed to Fire, Ice and Lightning respectively
Implemented proper animations for Halberd backstabs
Filleter now attacks more like a normal sword, rather than a rapier
The animation for digging has been updated to fit better with the Perfect Strike system
⚔️ Quests:
A Small Mercy (New Quest)
Eleanor will be waiting for the Cerim after they wake up in the Rookery. She has a request for the Cerim and in return for their aid, she will provide various services for them.
The Innkeepers Husband (Updated Quest)
Gordon is now available immediately upon reaching Sacrament, but will temporarily leave Sacrament after Ellsworth’s Speech, whereupon he will need to be rescued
Servant of God (Updated Quest)
Speaker Lucian will now be waiting to speak with players just south of the Sacrament marketplace at the cook fire
All quests will now grant experience upon completion
Quest npc’s have now improved animations when you interact with them.
⚔️ Input:
Improved input and targeting responsiveness
Added ability to change targets during attack windups
⚔️ Areas:
Iona’s Cavern now has proper lighting throughout the zone
Eleanor & Whittaker’s tier 3 interiors are now integrated within Sacrament and now exist in the overworld itself. No more Loading required.
Birch trees in front of the Marin Woods zone entrance have been re-positioned to be more spread out in the area
⚔️ Vendors:
Eleanor can now extract/destroy gems
Extracting a gem from an enchanted item will destroy the item, but will recover the gem for future use
Destroying a gem in an enchanted item will clear the gem slot and preserve the item
Gems can be extracted from non-enchanted items (common or masterwork rarity) without the item being destroyed
Seneschal’s vendor menu - via unlocking “Scavenged Remains” - now has a wide variety of items available, including Fallen Embers, gems, runes gear, recipes, upgrade materials etc
Fellhorn set is now sold by Mira & Meri (Tier 2)
Ironstud Interrogators are now sold by Ilaria
Added map markers to Marin Village vendors
Mira & Meri now sell 5 garments & leather each day
Vegetable Cake recipe added to Gordon’s tier 3 shop
Items sold by Finley now cost 50% less
Resources have been removed from the possible items that Finley sells
⚔️ Systems:
Difficulty Tiers Added
When creating a realm, select from 3 difficulty levels for your playthrough Whether you are a beginner or expert, looking to play casually or looking for a challenge – you’ll have a way to set the difficulty you want.
Difficulty Tiers available:
Path of the Torn
For players who are newer to Wicked or would like a more relaxed experience
Enemy HP is reduced by 20%
Enemy Damage is reduced by 50%
Path of the Chosen
The intended experience for players
This is the default difficulty for existing realms
Path of the Unspoken
For players who are looking for a more challenging experience
Enemy HP is increased by 20%
Enemy Damage is increased by 35%
Enemies have increased Poise
Player XP gains are increased by 20%
Whispers and Fast Travel Reworked
Elder Whispers
Players can fast travel freely via Elder Whispers
Lesser Whispers
Can be upgraded to unlock fast travel per-whisper
Perfect Strike System for Resources Added
Hitting resources with perfect timing speeds up the gathering process
Perfect strikes will result in more loot & more focus gained
Basic ranged attacks now cost stamina
The basic Arrow rune on bows now costs stamina
The most basic spells on staffs/wands now cost stamina (Fire Dart, Fireball etc)
The aforementioned runes that cost stamina also generate focus
Weapon upgrade path changes
Weapons past tier 2 will now all require special resources to upgrade, such as Siren parts or Boar parts
Weapons that are acquired from drops, chests and bounties/challenges now start at a higher upgrade level than before
Innate Character Utility Rune Slots Added
Player Characters will now be able to slot utility runes that are tied to their character and not to items
Up to a maximum of 4 can be set at a time and can be replaced at Eleanor in Sacrament.
Players will start with 2 slots and can add extra slots via Plague Ichor upgrades at The Watcher
Utility runes can no longer be slotted into weapons
Characters will start with a basic “Heal” rune by default
The required amount of kills for summoning the Pestilence Boss has been reduced from 65% to 50%
Experience is granted even when dying to a boss, with the amount granted depending on how much damage was dealt to the boss
Gathering resources now generates focus and grants experience
Wand and Staff runes can now be slotted into either weapon type
⚔️ Character Customisation
Added three new beard customisation options
⚔️ Gear:
Sacrament Guardian set moved to Tier 1
Fellhorn set moved to Tier 2
⚔️ Enchantments:
Enchantments will now show what grouping they belong to, shown as an icon at the start of the enchantment line
Two enchantments of the same grouping cannot appear on the same item, e.g “Damage increased by 3-10%” and “Rune Damage increased by 4%-15%” cannot exist on the same item
Elemental Infusions now have their own grouping and can now be rolled separately from other damage-based enchantments
Groups are: Damage, Elemental, Focus, Health, Stamina, Defense, Speed
Enchantments which do not belong to any of those groups can be rolled without restrictions
Enchantment buffs:
Duration of status effects granted by enchantments increased
Health & Focus regeneration values on enchantments & gems has been doubled
Renegerate Health enchantments now also scale with Healing stat
Regenerate Focus enchantments now also scale with Focus Gain stat
Enchantment Nerfs:
Plagued enchantment raw values have been reduced to match the ones on Magical enchantments, but conditional enchantments on Plagued items still have greater overall values
Reduced Lifesteal coefficient from 0.3 to 0.2
Focus Cost and Damage Taken stats now have diminishing returns so stacking them should be less effective
Focus Cost and Damage Taken enchantments are generally weaker
“Frozen Enemy Armor decreased by 25%-50%" decreased to "Frozen Enemy Armor decreased by 15%-30%"
Removed:
Gain x% Health once per Rune Attack
Added:
Gain Health equal to X% of Focus Spent
Gain X% Health on Damage Dealt against Frozen Enemies
Execute Infected Low Health Enemies on Damage Death
Certain keywords in enchantment descriptions are now highlighted and have their corresponding icons displayed beside them
⚔️ Enemies and Bosses:
Updated model and textures for The Lost Huntress
Introduced new attacks for Winged Brood
Improved The Lost Huntress’ hitboxes during the 3-hit combo
Improved Darak’s turn animations
All of Darak’s attacks are now parryable
Polished Nith Screamer’s attack combos
Reduced the damage of Torn Crawler’s attacks
Some Torn Crawler attacks are now parryable
Improved Torn Crawler attack hitbox
Giant enemies now drown at a lower depth
Risen Stalkers now have a more delayed crossbow shot
The Nith faction has a new faction-wide ability that slows players in the affected area
⚔️ Balance:
Fall damage has been halved
The scaling has been changed on the stamina-based runes sold by Ilaria, so that they scale with the player’s level and not with the weapon type
Stamina is frozen for a short window upon quick stepping/rolling
Reduced the drop rate of weapon oils
Elemental status effects:
Reduced Shatter damage on frozen enemies significantly
Infected enemies now have reduced Fire Damage resistance
Attributes:
Investing Focus attribute now also increases your Focus Gain
Increased the amount of Stamina you get per attribute point
Increased the soft cap ceiling on the Stamina attribute
Equipment:
Upgrade level of dropped items have been increased in early- and mid-game
Upgrade level of dropped items have been reduced in late-game
Gear level requirement is now determined based on its tier when dropped
This would apply to already existing gear
Rings have no level requirements anymore
Rings:
Ring of Determination has had its secondary effect removed (Focus Cost decreased by up to 60% based on Missing Health)
Battlecry Ring has had its secondary effect removed (Cannot Lifesteal)
Crow Ring has had its primary effect nerfed (Max Stamina increased by 40%)
Slightly increased the drop rate of gems
Removed experience reward from Bounties & Challenges completion
Plunge attacks now deal Knockdown damage
Slightly increased repair costs
Slightly reduced the damage dealt by Cold Sling
Vial of Poise has been changed to Vial of Defense, which increases poise and reduces damage taken
Weekly bounty enemies have had their level increased slightly
⚔️ Music:
Improved music mix
New music for plagued Areas and Bosses
Improved music system for more robust explore and boss fight performance
Tavern interior coverage
Improved timing of Darak Cinematic music
⚔️ Audio:
Polished SFX and custom VO for new enemy plagued Leader and Female Lumberjack enemies
New haunting enemy voice design for the Winged Brood Boss variants
music Integration and VO for ‘A Small Mercy’ Quest
Music Integration and Mix for Nameless Pass and Quarry Areas
Music Integration and Mix for Plagued Areas
VO support for new out of reach enemy combat behaviour
Bespoke UI SFX for new Fast Travel and Whisper Upgrade Menus
Added new repair powder SFX
Added destructible drum SFX
Added bell SFX to Ashen Tunic armor
Added Balak Taw platform landing impact sounds
Added ambient rope creaks and bridge surfaces to the Marin Woods treetops
Improvements to the Bane Moth attack SFX
Improved Unbreakable Egg SFX
Improved goat, chicken, and other critter audio
Improved Caylen Vista ambience
Updated Stagger SFX
SFX for freezing and unfreezing enemies, and smaller secondary ice shatters
Added enemy weapon parry impact SFX, which gives more satisfying parry responses
Added helmet effect on Cerim vocalizations when full coverage helmet is equipped
Audio coverage for new areas in Sacrament like the new woodcrafter and enchantress shop interiors
Updated to Wwise 2022.1.19.
Improved performance of room-aware object processing
Improved stability of music scene manager
Added new sound for Creep Heart destruction to match animation
⚔️ Cinematics:
Polished Lighting on some cinematics
⚔️ VFX:
Added hit, destruction & liquid effects to Savor Lab bottles
Darak VFX update
Added secondary ice VFX upon shattering frozen enemies
⚔️ Localization:
Added and updated localized text in many places across multiple languages
⚔️ Bug Fixes:
Fixed the Bounties & Challenges screen freezing if giving too many inputs too quickly
Fixed Fallen Embers not getting consumed if the reroll animation was cancelled
Fixed bosses being able to be frozen & knocked back off edges
Fixed the Quickstep queue window being too large, resulting in multiple Quicksteps being accidentally queued
Fixed being unable to jump if characters were touching a wall
Fixed the Bounties & Challenges screen freezing if the reward item icon was selected
Fixed Marin Woods & Lowland Meadows being unable to become an infected area naturally
Fixed Plague Splatter having a much larger AoE than it should have
Fixed Plague Splatter sometimes going through stairs or moving platforms
Fixed Plague Splatter being unable to lifesteal when applicable
Fixed Glimmering Bulwark Unique being craftable
Fixed the vendor refineries not upgrading when their respective Danos Project is completed
Fixed upgraded vendor stall refineries not decreasing the time required to refine materials
Fixed the items in a storage chest disappearing when the chest was picked up
Fixed food buffs not applying while Serendipity Ring is equipped
Fixed Throw Knife’s & Throw Axe’s damage not scaling properly
Fixed being able to burn a higher amount of items than necessary when increasing the plague intensity of zones
Fixed items with the Unrepairable plagued downside being able to be repaired if the item was unequipped and in the inventory
Fixed Health bars becoming visible at the wrong times
Fixed the selection box sometimes disappearing after rerolling an enchantment using a Fallen Ember
Fixed being able to complete the Enchanted Gear challenge by using Fallen Embers
Fixed the camera during The Lost Huntress’ phase change transition
Fixed Boarskin Preacher’s hammer slamdown having too large a range
Fixed the rune selection screen jumping to available runes instantly without first selecting a slot, if the first rune slot was empty
Fixed Echo Knight using his charge attack under the wrong conditions
Fixed Rotwheel dealing physical damage innately, instead of plague damage
Fixed bears not bypassing poise defense when using shielded stance
Fixed not being able to queue arrow shots
Fixed two-handed swords creating a stretched ground decal on plunge attacks
Fixed Wallowing Husk being able to drop Corpse Smeared Blade
Fixed Risen Kindler drowning animation
Fixed various critter drowning animations
Fixed Echo Knight’s tracking being too extreme for some attacks
Fixed The Riven Twins’ sweeping strike missing automatically if players were close to the boss
Fixed various tooltip & functionality issues with Crucible Echoes
Fixed The Shallows appearing infected inappropriately, when Mariner’s Keep was infected
Fixed several fader/lighting/overlapping textures/collision issues throughout the game
Fixed several problems with armor sets (female variants missing, clipping, missing textures etc)
Fixed being able to clip through a wall in the prison area in Nameless Pass
Fixed the enemy factions changing after dying
Fixed the character blurring when using sliders on the character creation screen
Fixed Gordon’s eavesdrop in The Shallows, forcing UI menus to close
Fixed the falling SFX playing when performing a plunge attack from a high enough height
Fixed being able to cast Plague Explosion in the air
Fixed not being able to get up when knocked down while encumbered
Fixed being able to heavy roll, via the use of a plagued downside, while encumbered
Fixed Medium Vial of Poise and Large Vial of Poise having the same values
Fixed the Plagued Ring providing lifesteal when above the “low health” threshold
Fixed missing fire SFX for Alden’s funeral pyre
Fixed Randolph’s salute missing SFX
Fixed the old elevator SFX playing upon killing Echo Knight
Fixed Mire Leech not having hit reactions
Fixed Nith Leviathan’s corpse chunks increasing in size upon shattering
Fixed some projectiles persisting on walls for long periods
Fixed some gauntlet attacks having a misplaced impact visual effect
Fixed Lara moving too fast when trying to catch up
Fixed Risen enemies with shields lacking impact SFX & VFX
Fixed issue with Gloam enemy sounds not firing consistently
Fixed rain being present when inside of Gordon’s interior
Fixed the rotation for Boarskin enemy attacks
Fixed falling through the floor after being crushed by an elevator in The Crucible
Fixed being able to reach the main part of the Black Trench via the alternative side before being on the relevant quest step of Of Rats and Raiders
Fixed the Iona’s Bloom effect rapidly disappearing at the broken cerim statue if the effect was activated when the Potion Seller quest was not active
Fixed three-digit numbers of food and consumables getting cut off in the quick-use menus
Fixed Illuminate rune’s stuttery movement
Fixed being able to move Guard Rend out of his seat by running into him in Gordon’s shop
Fixed an NPC at the Mountain Gate attempting to chop a tree that is already cut down
Fixed the “Arcane Reservoir” echo granting health regeneration instead of focus regeneration
Fixed the unique rings having too low a gold value when sold
Fixed the NPCs post-Ellsworth Speech not leaving the square unless the player is close by them
Fixed music not playing in the lower glade area near Lowland Meadows’ entrance
Fixed being able to climb up a door frame in the ship prologue, and being able to clip through the wall to the other side
Fixed weapon enchantment audio stopping prematurely during certain cinematics
Fixed the “Take x% Damage on Focus Use” plagued downside applying when using Battlecry Ring or Ring of Determination
Fixed “Take x% Damage on Focus Use” not applying when using the unarmed rune
Fixed the physics of some vases in Crucible
Fixed some destructibles not fading properly when the floor under them faded
Fixed Frost Step rune consuming all focus
Fixed both a weapon and a helmet sharing the name “Falstead’s Fury”
Fixed the weapon rewards from Bounties & Challenges not showing the runes in the reward preview
Fixed being able to access a closed-off part of Sacrament by climbing on Ilaria’s vendor stall
Fixed some wrong enemy types spawning inside Mariner’s Keep while infected
Fixed Torn Grubhost’s ragdoll effect
Fixed Barn Spiders’ ragdoll
Fixed being unable to rotate while charging spells
Fixed bounties not getting accepted if the input to accept them was held too long
Fixed bounties not getting accepted if they were attempted to be acquired too soon after navigating to them
Fixed the Torn Wolves respawning too quickly during the From the Depths bounty in the Nameless Pass
Fixed being able to get stuck inside a gap along the wooden spike wall outside of the lumber mill in Lowland Meadows
Fixed being able to get stuck near the hollow trunk near Hunter’s Vale
Fixed being able to get stuck between a chest and the environment in the area above Hunter’s Vale
Fixed being able to get stuck in a gap between rocks in the southern Lowland Meadows, south of Hunter’s Vale
Fixed Two-Handed Halberd backstab animation misalignment
Fixed automatically getting out of a bed/chair instead of it requiring input from the player
Fixed Frost Blade rune being able to drop
Fixed Hard Lock sticking on targets at too long a distance
Fixed Lumber Stack not stacking items to 999
Fixed the Royal Bolein and Bolein Royal armor sets having too similar names
Fixed being able to climb a shelf in the prologue and going into the ceiling
Fixed being able to interact with a dig spot through the wall of a small cabin near the mil in Marin Village
Fixed getting stuck between the rocks above The Shallows waterfall
Fixed the second roll attack on Caretaker’s Ruined Staff repeating if the input was continually pressed
Fixed critters being able to spawn in the environment in Lowland Meadows near the lift to Mariner’s Keep
Fixed The Unbreakable Egg being able to be knocked down without breaking his poise
Fixed being unable to climb on balance beams properly
Fixed Lightning Flash rune’s projectile often missing enemies
Fixed Heal Aura rune not working properly on elevators
Fixed the “Deposit Similar” button in storage chests not depositing all stacks