New: Ser Edric Cinderholt, the Forge-Oath, takes Ser Corwen’s place in the Trials. His flamberge catches fire below 60% health and burns red below 30%.
New: Dame Ilse fights with a gilded chain-whip.
New: Ser Mordaunt is redrawn, with ghost knights at his side. At half health he drags you into the Hall of the Unsworn.
New: Ser Oswin is redrawn in all three of his forms.
New: a new app icon.
Changed: the first Oath rank is the Forge-Oath (was the Shield-Oath).
Changed: Ser Mordaunt fights in the Vigil.
Changed: before level 60 a set piece tempers to your level like any other item, for no sigils. From 60 it can be tempered up to the finest piece of its set, for sigils.
Balance: Ser Mordaunt’s Unsworn Hush at half health: you deal 25% less for 10s.
Balance: Dame Ilse wields Kingsfall (was the Blademoot).
Fixed: Velka and the Headsman no longer slide across the floor.
Fixed: the lettering no longer turns “fi” and “fl” into other letters, as in “fighter”.
Fixed: with two weapons, Lucky Silver’s coin is flicked from an empty hand: the second blade is put away first.
New: Old Marrow and the Iron Widow are redrawn, with new blows and falls.
New: the Trials show the way. The big button offers a waiting boss when you are ready, each boss shows what beating them gives, and "Not ready" says what to improve.
New: after a first kill, compare each legendary with what you wear before you choose.
Changed: every boss has a new description.
Fixed: the swap button on your nameplate opens your characters.
Fixed: a fallen boss stays in view after the fight.
New: a chest rolls its rarity on a stone drum before it opens; each band is as tall as its chance. Hold to see the odds, tap to hurry.
Changed: the wolf, hawk, warden, thrall, spectral blade, wisp and imp are redrawn: lit by the arena, with new movement. The wisp lights the fighters around it; the imp spits fire.
New: the game opens on the character select: each character stands in its gear with its level and tier, the last played is chosen, and Play goes into the arena.
New: Apps: up to two more characters a season, in slots of €2.99 each; a slot is bought once and kept for every season after.
New: each character keeps its own gear, gold, energy, ladder place and pass progress; nothing passes between them.
Changed: Characters in Settings opens the character select, in place of the list.
Changed: the Chain Quay is sharper: the ship stands out against the sunset, the water glitters and ripples, the fight is on wet oak boards in lantern light, and the crew at the rails are larger.
Changed: Greywood Clearing is clearer and more detailed: the mist stays in the far forest, the great oak is gnarled and mossy, and the clearing is hand-drawn grass and flowers.
New: in Greywood, the hunt's followers sit in tiers on the bank, and a cooking fire and a brazier light the fighters.
New: a main theme, played by an orchestra, with its own version for the menus, the Gauntlet, victory, defeat and each of the Pit, the Undercroft, the Chain Quay and Greywood.
New: fight music builds as a fighter nears defeat; crits land with drums and brass.
New: every arena has its own background sound: crowd, wind, water, forest or crypt.
Changed: all sound effects are real recordings: blades, armour, spells, the crowd, the chest, the Smith and menus.
New: Greywood Clearing rebuilt as the King's Hunt on a misty morning: a vast oak with the royal hunting stand, huntsmen, a falconer and hounds, woodsfolk on logs and boughs. Horns sound and crows burst from the oak for the kill and big crits.
Changed: the Old Stag runs out of the mist at the treeline.
New: the Chain Quay rebuilt at fighter scale: the prison ship moored alongside with her crew in the rigging, the harbour falling away to the light-tower, the water at the quay's foot. The crew cheer and ring the bell for the kill and big crits.
Changed: the ship's broadside now fires from a gunport on the painted ship.
Changed: Break is a button beside Equip, Keep and Sell, no longer behind "…".
Changed: the Gauntlet always has its own button on the Arena screen; it no longer takes the place of Fight or Expedition.
Fixed: the Ladder tab opens Friends when you were last on Friends or a friend request is waiting.
Fixed: adding a friend from an invite link opens Friends.
Changed: the Smith is redesigned around the anvil. Five benches (Break, Reforge, Temper, Sigils, Masterwork), the item and its result shown before you commit, one button with its cost.
Changed: the Undo notice after a sale or a break shows at the top of the screen, clear of the Fight button.
Fixed: Apps: sound and music come back after switching to another app and back.
New: signing in to an account you already have can bring this device's character into it. Cosmetics, titles, passes and purchases combine; nothing is counted twice.
New: Settings shows your Account ID, with a Copy button, for support.
Fixed: sign-in errors on the website are shown instead of failing silently.
Fixed: after signing in, your characters and settings appear without restarting.
New: tap a buff or debuff under a fighter's health bar to see what it does, its stacks and where it came from. The fight pauses while the card is open.
New: loadouts can be renamed, replaced with your current gear and deleted.
Changed: the Hero tab is redesigned. Gear sits around your character; each stat opens a breakdown with its formula and your numbers; Gear effects are grouped by source; titles are picked from a list.
The Undercroft rebuilt at fighter scale: the crypt wall and its arch onto a passage down, five galleries of hooded watchers who stand and raise their tapers for the kill and big crits, a corona of candles over the fight, tombs and ossuaries.
The Hero screen and the Wardrobe show the hero before the Undercroft's arch.
Chests open as they are worth: Common in 0.7 s, Rare cracks once, Epic strains and flashes. A Legendary comes in chains: tap three times to break them.
Equip shows the change ("+9% Offense") and lights the slot; selling flies coins to your gold.
Shop: slot, item level and verdict on every row; buying takes two taps. Smith: shards as gems, tap a lit one to fuse.
Sets: missing pieces shown in the set's colour, tap one to see where it drops. Codex: a grid by slot, with the Reliquary milestones on top.
Gauntlet: the rounds as a tower with each prize, the stakes on the buttons, the King's Eight as portraits. Ladder: tier crests and portraits; new tier colours.
Season: cosmetic tiers as cards. Store (when open): in the Shop tab, with exactly what each offer contains.
New characters: one-screen creation with swatches and dice for a look and a name; the age is asked at the gate; a gaoler shows the way; the first fight is about 12 s.
Apps: the ad for energy shows only once ranked fights are spent.
Hub: notices as chips under your name; a Today strip (Ranked, Gauntlet, chest, refill time); your tier and points to the next one; the main button always offers the next thing to do, or when fights come back.
Tabs open as you play: Bag (first item kept or level 3), Shop (80 gold or level 4), Smith (first Rare or level 5), Ladder (after 3 fights). Badges show bag upgrades, a full bag, a restock and friend requests.
Compare: your item and the new one side by side, the 4 stats that change most, Equip and Sell always on screen, Break under "…". The first three chests show only the verdict and Equip.
Bag: rarity shown by corner marks too, item level and an upgrade mark on each item, sort by slot, rarity, level or upgrade, a dot on new items.
Fights: effect names appear under that side's plate, numbers over the fighter who was hit, at most two at a time per side. Crits gold, heals green, blocks grey. Larger health figures.
Spoils: XP, gold and rating count up; a card shows damage dealt and taken, the opponent's edge and one thing to improve. New banners for a level-up and a new ladder tier.
Fights fill the screen on every device. Apps: fights can be played sideways.
The Pit is repainted as a full arena: upper stands, the king's box, the near crowd. The other nine arenas keep their old painting for now.
New: a 1.25 s opening camera move, inside the versus card. The crowd rises for the kill and for crits over 1/8 of max health.
Crowd's Favourite: the spoils appear after the thrown roses and coins land.
Ranked: a real opponent is matched only within 8% above or 15% below your real power, otherwise a bot. After 2 losses in a row the next opponent is a bot. Search range: 250 rating (was 600).
Two-handed weapons and staves: both hands grip the weapon.
Bag: sell all Common, Uncommon, Rare or Epic items at once, or Sell all (Common to Epic). Legendaries, set pieces and loadout items are never sold this way.
Friendly bouts: unlimited.
The screen no longer zooms when a text field is tapped or pinched.
New: 22 legendaries, each with unique art. Caster weapons: The Branding Iron, The Forgemaster's Poker, The Imp's Cage, Shacklefrost, The Rimeglass, Shatterpoint, Stormdrinker, The Pit Bell, The Gaoler's Keys.
New armour, trinket and off-hand legendaries: Diadem of the Last Coal, Bloodprice Wraps, The Vanishing Steps, Mask of the Pit Judge, Coat of a Hundred Bouts, The Gaoler's Mantle, Epaulets of the Drowned Admiral, Grips of the Last Arrow, Anchor-Chain Greaves, The Headsman's Coin, Idol of the Chained God, The Ledger of Debts, The Twin Moons.
16 existing legendaries redrawn with unique art; 10 reworked (Eye of the Maelstrom, Heartstone, Earthshakers, Shroud of the Ninth Star, Visage of the Iron Saint, Crown of the Phoenix, Codex of Ashen Kings, Rimeshard, Aegis, Ninefold Shot).
New effects: Brand (+damage taken), Shackle (−damage dealt), Leech (heal for a share of damage dealt), Execute (bonus damage below an HP threshold), Afterimage (absorbs the next blow), Echo (spell repeats at reduced damage), Charge (releases after N hits).
New sets: Ashen Warcaster (heavy, wand + shield), Cindersong (fire staff), Winterwatch (frost staff). All set bonuses retuned and limited to the builds they are for.
Fighters fall three ways now, by the blow that ends it: thrown off their feet, pitched onto their knees and face, or crumpled where they stand.
Hair is redrawn: combed locks, a real hairline, warmer grey and white, and long hair that swings.
Now and then the arena joins in: the ship at the Chain Quay fires, the Pit's crowd throws a bottle, the Emberforge flares at a fire spell. Rare, and never the blow that ends a fight.
Spells break on the body where they strike and splash back the way they came.
The preseason starts over: every captive begins again at level 1. If you fought in it before, the title "First in Chains", a tattered banner and a gilded nameplate are yours.
The Gauntlet: once a day from level 10, five fights in a row, each harder than the last. After any win, take your winnings and leave, or fight on for more. Lose and you keep half. The fifth is one of the King's champions, who pays in a piece of the set you are nearest finishing.
The King's Eight wait above Kingsguard, one of every kind of fighter, each with a legendary of their own.
At level 60 the Smith masterworks an Epic or legendary past your level, one item level at a time, up to 70. Chests from the top of the ladder reach past level 60 too.
Loadouts on the Hero screen: keep up to three sets of gear and put one on with a tap. What a loadout wears cannot be sold or broken by accident.
Tap a stat on the Hero screen to see what it does and what a little more of it would give you.
Set pieces lean toward the sets you are nearest finishing, and the arena tells you when your collection holds enough for a bonus.
Legendary and set effects show in their own colour as they go off, and after each fight a card shows what your build did.
Rivals are matched to what your gear really does in a fight, not only its level: fights are closer, and the top of the ladder holds up.
Rare shards fuse three to one. A second copy of a legendary can be broken for its shards. The season pass pays each tier at the level you reached it.