Greetings (and welcome!), Aces!
Today, rookie Aces join the ranks - because New Class Skills, Cross-play, Cross Progression, and Console Couch Co-Op (Xbox only) are all here! All at once!
New and deeper gameplay is here alongside our Xbox Game Preview debut—so whether you’ve been brawling since Steam Early Access or you’re hopping in on Game Pass, you’ll find deeper progression, more ways to play, and couch co-op on console (only on console for now) for the first time.
With the new Class Skills system, we’re also delivering a special Limited Time Event: Shiro’s Golden Journey. And hey, if you want to give your thumbs a break from all the Gobo bashing button mashing, why not sit back and flip on a Towerborne Twitch stream so you can grab yourself a Twitch Drop or two, too…
While every player has a full gameplay loop at their fingertips - Towerborne is still in Steam Early Access and Xbox Game Preview; but so far, on our road to the 1.0 launch, we’ve fielded fantastic feedback from our Founders - those of you who’ve chosen to commit to playing and building with us. Keep it coming. Hit us up on Discord. And let’s keep redefining looter brawlers, together.
New Class Skills
Introducing the Class Skills Progression System! As you level up your Class, unlock a huge variety of Skills across 5 categories: Focus Skills, Weapon Mechanic, Moveset, Advanced Combat, and Support. Spend Skill Points to Equip or Unequip Skills on the fly (provided you have the points), allowing for deep customization. Mix and match skills and weapons, blend builds with certain combat tactics for different results. Craft a build that truly suits your playstyle!
Legendary Loot
Prepare for the hunt! We've added new Legendary Weapons for every class and new Legendary Gear items, dropping in Danger Level 5 content, including specific items from Boss Lairs. The powerful Boomguard's set also joins the DL5 loot pool. We've updated substats on many existing Legendaries, adjusted how rarity impacts Class Level requirements, and revamped Aspects – there are now 3 types (Helm, Chest, Weapon) you can equip 1 of each, changing build possibilities (note: Leg items no longer have Aspect slots). Some overly common Legendaries are now rarer.
World Map, Reimagined
The entire World Map has been reimagined for better flow and variety. Discover new Chance Encounters, now with custom map art hinting at their contents and deeper ties to nearby Ventures. Explore updated Venture Danger Levels, tackle the new Mossbosk Venture at DL 5, experience adjusted narratives in areas like the Backhills, and meet two new Umbra: Boshi and Querida! Ace XP rewards for exploration have also been rebalanced and generally increased.
Gameplay & Quality of Life Updates
We've smoothed out gameplay with fixes like improved input buffering (making air attacks after jump cancels more reliable), adjusted Universal Block Break to be faster and allow Jump Cancels, made Powderkeg Punch cancels more reliable, and tweaked Shadow Feint activation. Plus, enjoy numerous UI/UX improvements detailed below!Connecting is easier than ever! The Group Finder now automatically matches you based on Goal and Danger Level. The Social Menu clearly shows friends in-game at the top and indicates players looking for a group. Interact directly with players in the Tower or on the World Map to group up, view profiles, or add friends – including cross-platform Stoic Friends! You can also now participate in Towerborne Twitch drop campaigns and link your Steam and Xbox accounts.
The Details
When it comes to new skill trees (for each class) and a whole lot of map and missions to explore and conquer ... the devil is in more than just the details, it's in playing the game. You'll find a detailed breakdown below of what this update has to offer. But the real magic happens when you feel it come together amongst your friends and foes out in the field of battle.
Gameplay
- General
- Updated Gear Score calculation that includes factors like Class Level and spent Skill Points to give a more accurate result.
- Rebalanced Ace XP rewards for World Map exploration, in general increasing the amount of AXP awarded.
- Reward POIs
- Initial Exploration: 25 -> 60 AXP
- Discovery Missions
- Initial Exploration: 50 -> 90 AXP
- Repeat Exploration: 10 -> 30 AXP
- Encounter POIs
- Initial Exploration: 75 -> 120 AXP
- Repeat Exploration: 15 -> 40 AXP
- Standard Venture Missions
- Initial Exploration: 100 -> 150 AXP
- Repeat Exploration: 20 -> 50 AXP
- Boss Lair Venture Missions
- Initial Exploration: 150 -> 180 AXP
- Repeat Exploration: 30 -> 60 AXP
- Reward POIs
- Updated Class Level Requirements for items to include the item's rarity into the calculation. So that higher rarity items require a higher class level to equip.
- Items
- New Legendary Weapons for every class!
- These can drop anywhere in Danger Level 5.
- New Legendary Gear items!
- Each Boss Lair venture now can drop one of these items in Danger Level 5.
- Added the Boomguard's set as new Danger Level 5 venture drops.
- Boss Weapons will no longer roll with any static substats.
- Updated substats on many Legendary items.
- Affected Legendary items: Feral's Bane, The Fumigator, Whimsical Dream, Goji's Echo, Power of the Echoes, The Breezy Knees, Whimsical Aspiration
- Changed the perk on the Trambler's Gear Set to "Flask Uses +1 and Flask Healing +5%" now that the Mender's Flask has replaced the previous Lives mechanic.
- Updated the look of exploding mushrooms spawned by The Fumigator legendary belt.
- Feral's Bane legendary daggers renamed to Crowbo's Bane.
- Aspect Update!
- There are now 3 types of aspects and aspect slots instead of 2.
- The player can equip 1 of each, rather than 1 weapon aspect and 3 gear aspects
- Diamond-shaped Gear Aspects are now Helm Aspects
- Circle-shaped Chest Aspects have been added
- Leg items no longer have aspect slots
- There are now 3 types of aspects and aspect slots instead of 2.
- New Legendary Weapons for every class!
- Balance
- Ace HP increased by 20% across the board. This was done to offset other changes this release that were lowering Ace survivability.
- Somewhat Increased values on various item substats:
- DEF
- DMG Reduction
- Crit DMG
- Bleed Duration
- Burn Duration
- Poison Duration
- HP
- Umbra Ability Duration
- Umbra Cooldown
- Slightly decreased values for ATK substat values.
- Swapped a number of item substats between the prefix and suffix rolling pools
- Moved to Prefix
- Attack
- Umbra Strength
- Moved to Suffix
- Affliction Duration
- Boon Duration
- Bleed Duration
- Burn Duration
- Poison Duration
- Damage Reduction
- HP Regeneration
- Moved to Prefix
Exploration
- Reimagined World Map
- The entire world map has been adjusted to create a better flow and add more variety.
- New Chance Encounters have been added.
- Chance Encounters now have custom art on the world map, hinting at what can be found in the mission.
- Chance Encounters have been updated to better tie into the Ventures that they are close to and add more context to what is happening in that area of the world.
- Certain Venture missions have changed Danger Levels:
- Hollowgrass Steppes is now available at Danger Level 2.
- Dimcap Forest is now available at Danger Level 3.
- Haljaran is now available at Danger Level 3.
- Yxil’s Domain is now available at Danger Level 4.
- Numbers Ironworks is now available at Danger Level 4.
- Mossbosk, a new Venture, has been added to Danger Level 5.
- Ventures narrative updates:
- Certain repetitive moments in ventures have been removed and instead added to Chance Encounters missions.
- Backhills Venture and the area surrounding it has been adjusted narratively. Because of this the anomaly for the Venture has changed.
- Certain Umbra missions have changed Danger Levels and biomes.
- Two new Umbra have been added: Boshi and Querida.
- The Brawler, a new merk enemy, has been added to the game and can be found in missions with their merc buddies in Danger Level 4.
- Quest Reorganization
- A Return to Form now introduces new mechanics like equipable Skills.
- More Primary quests have been added.
- More Side quests have been added.
- Venture quests have been removed and subsumed into either Primary or Side quests.
- Request Board
- The Job Board has been renamed to the Request Board.
- Request Board appearance has been updated.
- More requests are available. Players will see a guaranteed variety of requests daily.
- Four requests will be available daily instead of three.
- During certain events/activities, more requests will be made available, e.g. Golden Week.
- Request rewards have been adjusted.
Combat & Classes
The Class Skills system adds a whole new world of possibilities to each Class. It’s up to you to pick and choose your Skills in a way that best suits your playstyle.
- Class Skills Progression System
- One of the biggest changes to combat comes in the form of Class Skills. This new progression mechanic aims to provide players with a large variety of choice and customization options that unlock as you level up your Classes.
- Each Skill has a Skill Point Cost associated with it. However, spending points is not a permanent action. You are able to Equip or Unequip Skills however you like, provided you have enough points to do so. There are five main categories to customize: Focus Skills, Weapon Mechanic, Moveset, Advanced Combat, and Support.
- New! The Mender’s Flask
- The concept of Lives has been removed from the game. It is now replaced by the Mender’s Flask. Pressing Up on the d-pad will allow the Ace to heal 40% of your health. In solo play, reaching zero health will now result in Defeat.
- It will be possible to improve various aspects of Healing as you progress through the game.
- By default, the max number of Mender’s Flasks is 1.
- Interacting with a Shrine refills the Mender’s Flask by 1.
- Defeating LTs provides a guaranteed Mender’s Flask drop.
- Run towards the Flask to pick it up.
- The concept of Lives has been removed from the game. It is now replaced by the Mender’s Flask. Pressing Up on the d-pad will allow the Ace to heal 40% of your health. In solo play, reaching zero health will now result in Defeat.
- Focus Skills are no longer locked to specific weapons. Instead, Focus Skills are unlocked via leveling up the Class of your choice. This means it’s now possible to mix and match your favorite Light and Heavy Focus Skills!
- Weapon Mechanics have been greatly expanded thanks to the new Skill system. Some of the new Skills provide small tweaks or improvements to existing mechanics, while others provide all new opportunities that drastically change the way you play.
- The Ace’s Standard Moveset can also be expanded with new Skills. You’ll be able to perform air evades, recover quickly when launched, or even perform wake up attacks after being knocked down.
- Advanced Combat is where you add new moves, modify existing moves, or apply unique perks to your Class. Some of these are pretty wild, so please look forward to checking them all out!
- The Support category is where you can modify your Class to do things that help you when times are tough. Need more Mender’s Flasks? Want to help heal your party? Want to survive a devastating attack that normally would lead to defeat?
General
Due to the new Class Skill system, there are a lot of changes under the hood that may not be listed here. Instead, some of the bigger highlights will be shared. However, it’s worth noting that general gameplay should feel much improved even if it’s not specifically called out.
- Fixed an issue across all gameplay that prevented inputs from being buffered correctly when pressed very quickly. This should result in air attacks to be performed more reliably after jump canceling an Evade.
- Rising Recovery is now a Skill that unlocks at Level 5. This action allows you to quickly rise from the ground by pressing Jump or Evade.
- Universal Launchers are now gated by Skill progression and unlocks at Level 7.
- Focus Meter gain, Weapon Meter gain, and Break Bar damage has been rebalanced across the board for all 4 Classes.
Class Updates
- Sentinel
- Valor has been redesigned
- Valor now becomes available at Level 8
- Valor is now activated by pressing LT+RB (or C on Keyboard)
- The following Skills can now be performed while airborne. These attacks also reset your combo counter, allowing you to perform more airborne attacks!
- Radiant Guard
- Steady Strikes
- Shield Rush
- Crownbreaker
- Activate Valor
- Valor has been redesigned
- Pyroclast
- Jump Heavy Attack now staggers enemies instead of causing a ground bounce unless Sear has been activated
- Universal Block Break attack has been adjusted so that it’s easier to use reliably. It’s faster now and allows for Jump Cancels on hit.
- The following Skills can now be performed while airborne.
- Sear Activate
- Blazing Roar
- Rockbreaker
- Powderkeg Punch now reliably can be canceled into after a Dodge Roll
- The following Skills can now be performed while airborne.
- Standing Ovation
- Relentless Barrage
- Additional moves can be unlocked via Skill progression
- Shadowstriker
- Shadow Feint’s diagonal dagger toss can now be activated by holding the Up or Down direction. This was previously activated with slight diagonal directional inputs, which resulted in accidental diagonal Shadow Feints.
- Shadow Striker now starts with 1 bar of Weapon Meter instead of 3.
- Deathrattle no longer poisons by default
- The following Skills can now be performed while airborne.
- Sunrise Shrapnel
- Silver Strikes
- Lightning Step
- Additional moves can be unlocked via Skill progression
Umbra
- Querida
- Honeypot
- Querida sets a trap that detonates on enemy contact. Once detonated, a swarm of bees attacks the enemies for 10 seconds. You can place multiple Honeypots down provided you have enough charges to do so.
- Honeypot
- Boshi
- Vermicelli Vortex
- Boshi summons a swirling soup around the Ace that deals damage repeatedly for 12 seconds.
- Vermicelli Vortex
Enemies & NPCs
- General
- Enemies have been adjusted so that the differences in tactics between DLs 1-2 and 3-5 are more significant. Additional attacks will unlock at later DLs, making these enemies pose a larger threat as you progress later into the game.
- Updated the Tower Guard player companion so they have their own move set with three attacks and a unique weapon.
- Enemies will not perform any evades or wake-up attacks until DL 3 and above.
- Fixed various bugs that resulted in enemies being put into an unresponsive state when blocking or having their Break Bar broken at specific moments in gameplay.
- Enrage Adjustments
- Red visual tells have been added to enemies about to Enrage to signify that an Unblockable Attack is about to occur.
- Animations for Enrage have largely been universalized so that the timing can be learned easier by observing enemy behaviors.
- Scrub and Average tier enemies that get Enraged by LTs no longer have reduced reactions while Enraged.
- Enemies will begin Enraging starting at DL 4, the following enemies have been adjusted accordingly based on this new rule:
- Gobo Tormentor will Enrage starting at DL 5.
- Elite Paragon will Enrage starting at DL 4, prev DL 5.
- Pangojira will Enrage starting at DL 4.
- Trufflebulb will Enrage starting at DL 5, prev DL 4.
- Elite Fungobo will Enrage starting at DL 4, prev DL 3.
- Elite Crowbo will Enrage starting at DL 4, prev DL 5.
UI & UX
- General
- Quests have moved to their own tab in the Character Panel.
- Tutorial pop-ups now have supporting images.
- New icons for empty gear slots in Loadout.
- Improved font display on certain labels for Chinese Traditional, Chinese Simplified, and Japanese character sets.
- Remappable Keybindings
- Go to Settings -> Controls to reassign any action to the keys or buttons that feel best for you. All combat controls other than movement can be remapped at this time.
- Squad Goals
- Group Finder improvements
- It’s now easier to find Groups and play together! Instead of choosing from a list of available Groups to join, players can now select a Goal and Danger Level to start their search. The Group Finder will automatically put them in a Group that fits their parameters.
- Improved Social Menu in a variety of ways
- You can now see which of your friends are actively playing Towerborne
- Friends who are in-game are sorted to the top of the Friends List.
- Players who are looking for a group now have an icon indicating this over their Ace’s head on both the Tower and World Map
- Players can now leave their Group directly from the End of Mission recap screen. Group Leaders can also kick a member from their Group on this screen.
- Players can now interact with each other on the Tower and World Map through the Player to Player interaction menu. Simply run up to an Ace and press the interact button while near them! This allows players to more easily group up, add friends, view profiles, and more.
- You can now add cross-platform friends as Stoic Friends.
- Group Finder improvements
Product & Platform
General Platform Improvements
- Players can now participate in Towerborne Twitch drop campaigns
- Players can now link their Steam and Xbox accounts
- General performance improvements
- World map is now more performant when fully explored
- Grouping stability improvements
Live Events
- Golden Week limited time activity will be live from 4/29 to 5/13
- Join a new NPC companion on his golden quest, fighting side-by-side through a series of activities with more than one surprising twist
- Associated curio of themed cosmetics will be available during the same window of time
Product
Players will now get Downtime messages that are localized for timezone and in supported languages.
- Store
- The Towerborne Store is now Live!
- The store contains a selection of cosmetics items and Curios for you to purchase.
- We’ll look to add more items for you with each monthly update.
- The store will only ever feature Cosmetic and Convenience items, and will never contain any items linked to player power.
- Curios
- Shiro’s Stash (Available 4/29/2025 - 5/13/2025)
- Wild Treasures
- Shaman’s Selection
- Founder Rewards
- Gold: Petalhead Fox skin
- Silver: Bloom sticker
- Xbox Exclusive Rewards
- Viridian Vault (Game Pass Curio)
- Curio Core
- Store Content
- Belfry Bucks
- Tengu + Belfry Bucks Bundle
- Antler Assault Bundle
- Twilight Sellsword Bundle
- Spirit Coil Bundle
- Upcycled Pylon Bundle