Complete Patch Notes
Read on for a full list of changes made in this patch, both big and small!
New Features
New Player Character: Ezoan the Technomancer
- Play through the game as the Technomancer, Ezoan.
- Ezoan has been updated since the Prologue preview; his kit is now more "build and spend", focused on generating gravity through spells to deliver high value exosuit moves.
New Dungeon: Lharif's Doom
- Obtain a new side quest in Qadam during Chapter 5
- Complete the new dungeon to obtain new legendary items
- Defeat a challenging new boss - or unlock its true secret
Character Reworks
- Akeno generates SP with his Blade of Elements and now spends SP to cast higher value spells.
- Kiran has been totally reworked; he now starts battle with zero MP and must build into his skills. He has new Damage-based abilities to compliment his Magic, and his Magic spells are generally more accessible. Most of his abilities have been tuned (details below), and he has several all-new abilities.
- Neat's finishers now gain extra effects with higher combos.
- Porphry is undergoing a significant rework still - look forward to our first major patch in the near future!
- Solace's Mana Battery and Overwatch have been reworked to allow Solace to gain and provide more direct benefit while using them.
- Tali can now give Jiji access to a new attack move.
- The Legionnaires Fred and Hudson now begin Chapter 6 with a new skill
Combat Enhancements
- New Enemy: Runner Queen - A terror in the desert who leads her swarm to eviscerate prey.
- New Enemy: Busaiya - A new look for the potted ephemera in the Fire Tower.
- Dodge (previously Evasion) and Regen are now stacking states like Wound.
- Enemy Types: All enemies are assigned a type, which grants them Defense bonuses and other resistances. These are viewable in battle. Enemies don't otherwise resist or absorb damage behind the scenes, unless buffed/debuffed during combat.
Campaign Enhancements
- There are more battles to conquer, items to craft, and loot to find!
- The world has come to life with more animation, characters, wildlife and unique character art for villagers
- The Guhar overworld map has been greatly improved, visually
- Most Fire Tower stages have been revisited with updated appearances and layouts
- The camera perspective has been adjusted for dungeons and other key moments to enhance the mood
- Flavor text has been added to objects throughout the game
Performance Enhancements
- We have added support for more international keyboards, such as French
- Map and combat performance has been improved across the game for all platforms.
- Steam Deck users can select the Performance Graphics preset to enjoy 60 FPS throughout the game (with some exceptions during scene loads or combat turns).
- Uers can also select a Minimal Graphics preset to achieve better performance on lower spec systems.
Warning: The below details may contain minor plot spoilers.
Achievements
- 'So Much Damage' Achievement now requires 500 damage instead of 150
- Achievements unrelated to the main quest and storyline are no longer hidden in the Steam client.
Characters
Akeno
- New cut-scene portrait!
- Blades and Katanas grant the same damage bonus, but Katana now grants MP
- Blade of Elements skills generate SP.
- Cutting Wind, Mudquake, Soothe, Hard Water: Generate SP on use.
- Fire Spirit: Now grants Akeno Regen +2.
- Gale Force, Stonewall, Mudwall: MP no longer required to cast. SP required to cast.
- Phoenix Fire, Tsunami: MP no longer required to cast. SP required to cast.
- Phoenix Song: MP no longer required to cast. SP required to cast.
- Soothe: Bonus spirit now grants Regen +2.
Hudson
- Live Loadout: Remove cooldown; while switching weapons, players now see the current ammo count.
Fred
- Scythe no longer grants HP regen but instead a static HP bonus
Jiji
- New Ability - Lunar Strike: A single-target ability that deals bonus damage.
- Ward is now free, but has a 1-turn cooldown. It is no longer automatically cast on Tali.
Kiran
- New Ability - Determination: Passive talent that grants Kiran a Defense bonus based on his missing health.
- New Ability - Eldritch Strike: Deal critical Slashing Damage to target.
- New Ability - Indomitable: Once per battle, fully restore Kiran's MP and HP.
- New Ability - Knight Run: Cleanse party and grant immunity to negative states for 3 turns.
- New Ability - Soulblade: A powerful strike fueled by mana.
- Weapon damages re-balanced; generally, this means Broadswords have a higher Magic bonus than before, while Soulswords have bother high Damage and Magic bonuses than before.
- Bastion: Now grants MP when used.
- Dying Light: Now only deals damage based on Kiran's missing HP; damage overall decreased. MP cost cost decreased to compensate.
- Edification: Now triggers at a lower MP threshold.
- Eldritch Blast: Removed.
- Foothold: Now a passive talent that grants Kiran +30 MP on his first turn.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Now a free action that grants 50% MP for 50% HP.
- Honored Sacrifice: Removed.
- Mana Storm: Now strikes all targets; damage scales with Magic; MP cost scales with number of enemies.
- Mana Strike: Now a purely Magic skill.
- Matyr: Now a free action.
- Quantum Soul: MP restoration bonus reduced to 10.
- Siphon Strike: Damage reduced; MP gain increased.
- Soulchained Shock: MP cost reduced
- Spell Breaker: MP cost reduced
- Steel Hurricane: Now costs MP.
Neat
- No longer sees invalid moves in his skill list during combat.
- Crack now also stuns if Neat has Dodge
- Five Point Palm: Now a combo 4-5 finisher that inflicts Exploding Heart; after 3 turns, the target suffers 30% HP damage.
- Footwork: Now grants Dodge +3.
- Humble Warrior: Now grants Dodge +5.
- Knockout: No longer does bonus damage but inflicts Stun. At Combo 4+, it is a critical hit.
- Naudillon Shuffle: Now grants Dodge +3.
- Proud Warrior: Now grants Regen +3.
- Sigil: Now usable with any combo, but only grants Dodge (+5) at combo 4-5.
- Step In: Now grants Dodge +2.
- Unbreakable Combo: Now only grants 5% Damage bonus per Stage, and only starting at Stage 2
- Uppercut: No longer inflicts Stun but grants Neat a stack of Dodge per Combo. At Combo 4+, it is a free action.
- Water Bend: Now hits every enemy once but no longer wounds. At combo 4-5, it deals double damage.
Porphry
- Axe and Harbinger damage increased
- New Talent - Blood Sisters: Porphry can inflict up to Wound +8 to targets, rather than only Wound +5
- New Skill - Cauterize: Deal bonus damage to wounded targets.
- New Skill - Honor Warrior: Revive all party members.
- New Skill - Insatiable: Whenever Porphry wounds an enemy, she is healed
- New Skill - Trance Warrior: Trigger a berserker rage and deal critical damage for the duration, but take additional damage.
- New Skill - Valdan Fury: Reduce trance by 40 as a free action
- Battle Sense: Now a tier 5 mod that grants ally blessed magic/weapon, whichever is already higher; also grants a blessed ally Dodge +2
- Berserker Rage: Now lasts for 1 less turn
- Carapace Slam: Now a tier 4 ability.
- Cleave: Now a core ability usable at 30-80 Trance that deals 100% damage
- Deep Wounds: Now increases Piercing damage done to target; Porphry also inflicts an additional wound with any skill while using this mod
- Instigate: Reworked; now provokes a single target as a free action, reducing Trance in the process
- Rend: Now inflicts an additional Wound by default
- Serrated Edge: Now affects Rend and Whirlwind instead of Cleave
- Sogruni War Cry: Skill removed.
- Weirbreak: Wound requirement reduced
- Whirlwind: Now a core ability; damage increased, and always inflicts Wound. Usable at 0-40 Trance.
Solace
- Hit points increased
- Assault Rifle: Base accuracy increased
- Sniper Rifle: Damage increased
- Burst Fire damage reduced
- First Aid grants a turn to a revived ally if an ally was revived
- Explosive Grenade: Damage increased
- Knight's Aid: Now grants Regen +4.
- Mana Battery: Now restores MP to ally, then grants Solace a Damage bonus based on the MP restored, which applies to her next Aimed Shot against any target.
- Overwatch: Damage bonus now scales from Solace's Damage, not the target's; Solace can no longer mark multiple enemies by using Overwatch twice in a row; Solace now visibly fires on her ally's target
- Smoke Grenade: Now grants Dodge +3.
Tali
- Staves now grant HP instead of MP; wands now come with an MP penalty
- Commune no longer grants MP to the party, only to Tali and Jiji
- Deja Vu: Now functions the way Double Lift used to.
- Double Lift: Replaced by new skill, Lunar Call: Grants Jiji a special state for 3 turns that allows him to cast Lunar Strike.
- Hidden Curse: Damage bonus reduced; bonus damage is now listed in Tali's spell tooltips for affected spells;
- Tarot Pull: Tali can no longer pull the same card twice at once
- Void Kill damage reduced and MP cost increased.
Combat
General
- Combat difficulty has been tuned across the board; enemies have been added to trivial fights and removed from harder fights. Some new encounters have been added to better introduce enemy mechanics; and others are now easier to avoid entirely.
- Oracle's Tear now restores more MP but only to the user
- Blessed Weapon and Magic now grants a 50% bonus instead of 100%; Cursed Armor and Resistance now only increase damage taken by 25%
- Dodge effects (previously called Evasion) are now stacking effects (similar to Wound). Dodge effects can stack up to 5 times, with each stack adding a 15% increase to the Evasion stat. Skills that previously granted various levels of the Evasion status effect have been adjusted to best match their previous counterparts. Please refer to the individual characters' notes for exact changes.
- Elementals now resist Death, Heat and Soul damage from all sources, and no longer resist magical Slashing, Piercing or Blunt damage
- Regen effects that affect Health Points are now stacking effects (similar to Wound). HP Regens can stack up to 5 times, with each stack adding a 5% increase to HP recovered per turn. Skills that previously granted Minor Regen, Regen, Major Regen, etc. have been adjusted to grant their stacking counterparts.
- Stance: Parry has been replaced with Parrying; it is no longer a stance and cannot be dispelled by Blunt damage/Stun/Control.
- Major, Critical and Mortal Wound damage over time effect has been greatly reduced.
Prologue
- Botros Siege Beast: Discharge damage reduced; you can now change party members between fight attempts; base damage reduced.
- Lost Child: Now casts a single target Holy Armor instead of the AoE Holy Aura; no longer uses Unholy Aura
- Unformed: HP reduced; no longer have a passive Regen.
Soul Tower
- Errant Soul, Echo Sync: No longer a free action; takes an enemy's turn.
- Guardian: Base damage, hit points and spellpower reduced.
- Soul Golem: Base damage and hit points reduced.
- Soul Knight: Base damage reduced.
- Soul Scavenger, Drain: Now a Critical hit
- Wild Infection's Burst damage reduced, doesn't have extra shake effects. and doesn't take so long to play
- Youxia: Base damage reduced.
Vistham
- Deso Siege Beast: Combustible Mist is communicated more clearly, dissipates faster, and does not dissipate if the boss dies.
- Dundale: Base damage increased; damage dealt to Stunned party members increased; new ability, Shadow Sting.
- Loose Ember: Can now cast Brand.
- Naga Bloodflight: Can now use Smoke Bomb.
Kido Desert
- Bandit: Base damage increased; now have passive Dodge.
- Dune Runner: Health increased.
- Monument: Sand Fortication no longer used above 33% HP, but instantly grants Echo State.
- Roc: Predation now grants Echo state immediately; Wing Buffet now targets all party members
- Sand Wyrm: Base damage increased; Tremorquake damage increased; health increased. Can no longer be forced out of its tunnel.
- Scorpion, Echo Drain: Will only target units with MP available to be drained and has been reclassified as an Engage skill.
Fire Tower
- Enemy health values generally increased
- Congregation fight difficulty increased
- Forgesmith: Healing Aura is no longer an AoE heal
- Ond Doula: Attack pattern simplified; now immune to Stun and Control
- Stone Watcher: HP reduced
- Vasarach: Health increased; now marks its Devastate target.
- Final Boss: HP reduced, including HP of allies; now casts a weaker barrier at the start of Phase One
Equipment
- Crafting recipes are now unlocked through Party Milestones
- Crafting material distribution re-adjusted to be more even. The total crafting materials dropped by end game remains the same.
- New craftable accessories are now available at all tiers.
- Crafting cost for armor, helmet and shields increased.
- Base weapons are no longer craftable or reforgeable
- Tower Dust crafting requirements for tier 2-5 weapons, armor and accessories have been generally increased
- Battle Harnesses: Now grant a bonus to MP.
- Body Armors: Initiative penalty eliminated; grants immunity to Wounds; defense reduced.
- Capes: Now grants Damage bonuses; no longer grants additional MP or Defense.
- Kidonian Helmet: Defense reduced
- Mage's Contingency: No longer grants Curse immunity
- Plate Armors: Tower Dust crafting requirements for tiers 2-4 have been reduced; Initiative penalty reduced; Defense bonus reduced.
- Ring of Jordan: Text clarified to better indicate that it grants bonus Item uses per encounter, not per turn.
- Shields: Tower shield defense increased
- Tunics: Evasion bonus increased.
- Wing King's Cloak: ATK/MAG bonus reduced
Exploration
- Game now autosaves after looting an item, i.e. treasure chest.
- Emerald Woods: Added a shortcut for Neat players.
- Fire Tower: Except for one sequence, players can now backtrack out of the dungeon. The point of no return has been moved to the final encounter.
- Fire Tower Creche: The second spawning pod is in a new location to encourage exploration. (The original location was also very easy to miss.)
- Qhaphet: Players can now sprint in town.
- Soul Tower, Excavation Site: Players can now loot better gear from the bottom of the shaft
Quest
Prologue
- Improved cut-scene and level design for the Forge
- Amara is now known as Naariyya
- Players are now warned before entering points of no return for the sub-bosses.
Prologue
- There is a new encounter in the Turbine section
Soul Tower
- Porphry and Ezoan now have dialogue to confirm the miners have been saved, as Tali and Neat already did.
- Soul Tower: Logistics treasure encounter difficulty has been reduced
- Soul Tower: Tower objects cast reflections on the Tower floor more consistently
Vistham
- Boss battle cut-scene extended
Fire Tower
- Brand new level design for the final area
UI/UX
- Players are now prompted to set basic options when they start a New Game - including Difficulty, Graphics Settings, and other useful details.
- The Options menu now comes with a "Save & Exit" button - handy!
- More "weakness" and "resistance" pop-ups have been added to communicate extra damage taken/dealt
- Player character skills that target another ally will now always default to highlighting the caster first. Rules have been added to prevent accidental casting of abilities when they would take no effect on the target
- The Equipment menu can now be accessed directly from the camp sequence.
- Forfeit Battle in combat is now called "End Battle", and explains the consequences to players more clearly before they confirm.
- You can now modify equipment across the entire party in Chapter 6 even when split up
- The Options Menu can now brought up by pressing the Menu button while in combat.
- Even more equipment, state and skill tooltips have been updated to clarify effects, particularly those granted bonuses from other items like accessories or skill mods.
- Player's facing is now saved when swapping active parties
Bug Fixes
Achievements
- Adjusted the triggers for the Well-Acquainted achievement to trigger properly and consistently
Characters
- Legendary achievement will now properly trigger for all crafted legendaries
- Echo Circlet: No longer unlocks an achievement
Characters
- Examine can now be used on any target even while under a taunted effect.
- Akeno, Elemental Flux: Effects no longer drop between battles.
- Akeno, Gale Force under the effects of Air Spirit will no longer damage Invincible enemies.
- Fred: Blood Pool HP recovery ratio on is properly set to 25%
- Fred: Blood Burst's critical damage properly scales off of Fred's Magic Attack.
- Hudson, Dedication: Fixed bug where critical damage values were being displayed in tooltips even if Dedication was equipped.
- Hudson, Reload-Out: Animation plays properly
- Kiran, Edification's effect triggers as long as Kiran has the MP requirement before using the skill; previously, it would only work if he had the required MP afterwards.
- Kiran, Martyr: No longer occasionally removes Provoked from enemies who were already Provoked
- Solace, Flanking Fire: Now properly usable under passive Stealth effects
- Solace, Snipe: Tooltip now properly indicates that Snipe grants 2 Grit, not 1.
- Tali: Commune's animation will skip over allies with no base MP.
- Tali: Hidden Curse's damage bonus for Catastrophe is no longer mistakenly included in the critical hit bonus damage calculation
Combat
- Generally, enemies have been re-sorted on the battle screen to be more easily selected with a mouse and to ensure state, name and HP values are always visible.
- Fixed a bug where fractional damage could be shown when breaking a barrier effect
- Bandits, Smoke Bombs: Fixed Smoke Bomb's animation to play on the active battler and not the center of the screen.
- Council Boss: Mechanics now work correctly and are better communicated.
- Guardian: Now performs his attack patterns correctly;Enrage dialogue will no longer play when defeating it and the Soul Golem simultaneously.
- Karpi: Attacking Karpis with a Blunt or Stun after they emerge from their shelter state will no longer play a stance dispelling animation
- Naga Cleric: Invincible now also prevents negative status effects
- Neat, Step In: No longer occasionally removes Provoked from enemies who were already Provoked
- Ond Doula, Cultivate: Now properly removes Wounds from heal targets
- Ond Glottis will no longer cast Harmonize if its partner is defeated
- Sandwyrm: Belly will properly disappear after completing digestion and defeating the consumed ally.
- Scorpion, Drain: Now properly removes Wounds from user
- Wild Infestation self-destructing will no longer trigger its on-death Burst abililty
- Final Boss: Fixed bug where one attack was not scaling properly from the correct stat
- Final Boss: Fixed bug where splash damage from one attack was not occurring correctly, even though the animation was playing
- Final Boss: Fixed bug where one attack missing the primary target would prevent the splash damage from occurring.
Equipment
- Witch's Hat: Can no longer be disenchanted (and therefore permanently lost)
Exploration
- Objects and NPCs will no longer spontaneously teleport while transitting stages.
- Terrain passibility issues further cleaned up; terrain should look more predictable passable or unpassable, and players shouldn't be able to climb over stuff they aren't supposed to.
- Jiji can now access all of his hidden items in Chapter 6
- Porphry's broken Soul Tower pillars no longer remain on-screen afterwards
- Fire Tower, Bridge: Encounters now trigger separately; previously if you triggered one, the other would auto-start as well.
- Guhar Camp, Neat: During the Emerald River camp scene, Solace now actually prepares the fire before going to talk to Neat, instead of from afar after their conversation
- Fire Tower, Turbine: Gargoyles can no longer trigger combat from a distant ledge
- Kidonia: Fixed a bug where you could walk on the water by the Qhaphet bridge
- Qadam, Militia HQ music now longer resets the loop as you explore
- Soul Tower: Destructible Soul Tower pillars no longer leave their tops behind during and after animations
- Soul Tower: Jumaia the Miner can now be properly be found in the Barracks after saving her in Chapter 2 but prior to completing the quest
- Vistham: Bandits in the townhouse now properly see the player to start an encounter
Quest
- Chapter 1: Players can no longer skip the chapter boss by leaving Emerald River after the bridge is restored but before the boss is defeated
- Chapter 1: You no longer see two Solace's after the Cedarspur fight
- Chapter 3: Player can no longer sequence break by interacting with Vistham Northgate before defeating the boss
- Chapter 3: Vistham Liberation side quest now also requires finding all survivors
- Chapter 3: You can no longer collect a duplicate reward from Legionnaire Johnston for liberating Vistham
- Chapter 3: Mayor Suhail no longer rewards player for liberating Vistham when all the naga are defeated if there are still refugees to save
- Chapter 4: Exiting Wind Canyon to the east before defeating the Sandwyrm will no longer allow for unintended progression across Armin Range on the overworld, skipping the Sandwyrm
- Chapter 6: Canceling the Alpha/Beta control button for the first time will not trigger the ensuing dialogue and party swap functionality
UI
- Changing a keybind no longer clears keybinds previously using that key; this prevents players from accidentally making "Select" or "Cancel" unusable
- Typos, grammar mistakes, and word wrap errors fixed throughout