Category: IGN

While Palworld has enjoyed an enormous launch, there are a number of serious bugs affecting players. Developer Pocketpair said it’s working on issuing fixes, including for players who are unable to enter servers, unable to play multiplayer, and a dreaded lost saved data bug.

In a post on the Palworld Discord, community manager ‘Bucky’ said the developer had received over 50,000 inquiries since the game went on sale on January 19. “We sincerely apologize for the delay in response from our support team,” Bucky said.

Bucky said save data from single-player and co-op “may be able to be restored”, and pointed to a Google Doc with instructions to help. “We apologize for any inconvenience caused,” Bucky continued. “Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.”

Palworld has a particularly nasty bug that may cause the ‘Memory Reset Drug’, which is used to reset character stats, to permanently reduce the player’s capture power. Community manager Kei said Pocketpair is investigating this issue, and warned players not to use the item until a fix was issued.

Palworld has also suffered issues as players flood the servers. Pocketpair said that after concurrents across all platforms exceeded a whopping 1.3 million, the Epic Online Service experienced outages, causing connectivity issues with co-op and servers.

While Palworld is a clear smash hit, it is not without controversy. Last week IGN reported on how some Pokémon fans were taking to social media to point out striking similarities between Palworld’s Pals and the Pokémon themselves. Elsewhere, the Xbox version continues to lag behind the Steam version in terms of key features and updates. Palworld’s enormous launch has seen its servers struggle, too.

Check out IGN’s Palworld Early Access Review in Progress to find out what we thought.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Palworld’s astonishing success swelled over the weekend, with the ‘Pokémon with guns’ survival and crafting game shooting up Steam’s most-played games list and selling millions more copies.

Palworld launched on January 19 in early access form on Steam as well as on Xbox and Windows PC, day-and-date with Game Pass. Palworld overtook CD Projekt’s Cyberpunk 2077 to set Steam’s fifth highest peak concurrent player count with 1,291,967 online at the same time on Valve’s platform. Palworld is currently the most-played game on Steam, ahead of behemoths Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and PUBG. It is just the sixth game ever to hit one million concurrents on Steam.

There are a number of Steam records that go along with this success on Steam. Palworld is now the most-played Japanese-developed game ever on Steam (its developer, PocketPair, is based in Tokyo), ahead of previous record holder, Elden Ring. And Palworld is the second most-played paid game ever on Steam, behind PUBG’s perhaps insurmountable peak concurrent figure of 3,257,248, which was set before the battle royale went free-to-play.

Meanwhile, Pocketpair said Palworld had sold over five million in about three days, with 86,000 copies selling per hour. For context, Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man sold 3.3 million copies in its first three days on sale, Sony Santa Monica Studio’s God of War sold 3.1 million in three days, and Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us 2 sold 4 million in the same time period. Palworld, then, has sold faster than the fastest-selling first-party PS4 exclusive ever in a three-day sales window.

While Palworld is a clear smash hit, it is not without controversy. Last week IGN reported on how some Pokémon fans were taking to social media to point out striking similarities between Palworld’s Pals and the Pokémon themselves. Elsewhere, the Xbox version continues to lag behind the Steam version in terms of key features and updates. Palworld’s enormous launch has seen its servers struggle, too.

Check out IGN’s Palworld Early Access Review in Progress to find out what we thought.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Palworld’s astonishing success swelled over the weekend, with the ‘Pokémon with guns’ survival and crafting game shooting up Steam’s most-played games list and selling millions more copies.

Palworld launched on January 19 in early access form on Steam as well as on Xbox and Windows PC, day-and-date with Game Pass. Palworld overtook CD Projekt’s Cyberpunk 2077 to set Steam’s fifth highest peak concurrent player count with 1,291,967 online at the same time on Valve’s platform. Palworld is currently the most-played game on Steam, ahead of behemoths Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and PUBG. It is just the sixth game ever to hit one million concurrents on Steam.

There are a number of Steam records that go along with this success on Steam. Palworld is now the most-played Japanese-developed game ever on Steam (its developer, PocketPair, is based in Tokyo), ahead of previous record holder, Elden Ring. And Palworld is the second most-played paid game ever on Steam, behind PUBG’s perhaps insurmountable peak concurrent figure of 3,257,248, which was set before the battle royale went free-to-play.

Meanwhile, Pocketpair said Palworld had sold over four million in about three days, with 86,000 copies selling per hour. For context, Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man sold 3.3 million copies in its first three days on sale, Sony Santa Monica Studio’s God of War sold 3.1 million in three days, and Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us 2 sold 4 million in the same time period. Palworld, then, has matched the sales of the fastest-selling first-party PS4 exclusive ever in a three-day sales window.

While Palworld is a clear smash hit, it is not without controversy. Last week IGN reported on how some Pokémon fans were taking to social media to point out striking similarities between Palworld’s Pals and the Pokémon themselves. Elsewhere, the Xbox version continues to lag behind the Steam version in terms of key features and updates. Palworld’s enormous launch has seen its servers struggle, too.

Check out IGN’s Palworld Early Access Review in Progress to find out what we thought.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, the newly titled next video game starring everyone’s favourite whip-wielding archaeologist, is set in the year 1937. But where does that place it in the grander Indy timeline? Well, we know it’s set in-between the Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, the first and third films in the original trilogy respectively. But it’s a little more complicated than just that, with other films and games coming both before and after Dr Jones’ latest adventure. Let’s take a quick look at his story so far, the artifacts he’s already discovered, and the relationships he’s forged (and broken).

What’s Come Before

The first Indiana Jones film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, is set in 1936, but it isn’t actually the earliest chronologically. That would be The Temple of Doom, which takes place a year prior in 1935. Indy’s journey to deepest, darkest India would see him go in search of a mystical stone in order to help a nearby village from a dangerous cult who have been kidnapping their children and practicing black magic.

Along the way, Jones would survive attempts to have his heart stolen by the cult in honor of the Goddess Kali, but would eventually have it taken (figuratively) by Wilhelmina “Willie” Scott in a short-lived romance. Willie would not be mentioned again in the Indiana Jones series, apart from a photograph seen in the 1957-set Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, so it’s unlikely we will see her resurface in the Great Circle.

Indy was seemingly very busy in 1935 though, with video game Indiana Jones and The Emperor’s Tomb also set in that year. Acting as a prequel to The Temple of Doom, it follows Indy as he goes looking for the titular tomb of China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang. It also sees Jones take on what will become an all-too familiar foe for one of the first times: the Nazis.

The Nazis would once again be Indy’s opponents in the race to uncover the Ark of the Covenant in Harrison Ford’s first appearance as Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Set one year after Indy’s Asian expeditions of 1935, he would actually lose the race to find the artifact, but ultimately win by remembering to close his eyes and keep his face. This would lead to the destructive powers of the ark being stored away for safe-keeping in a cavernous government facility.

On this journey Indy would reconnect with Marion Ravenwood, a former romantic interest who would become a current one again after the two get tied up fighting the Nazis in Egypt during 1936. Despite the reigniting of their feelings, the couple wouldn’t last long together, with developer MachineGames confirming that they have separated just before the events of The Great Circle. They would eventually rekindle their relationship years down the line in the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but for now Marion is out of the picture and almost certainly will not feature as part of the game.

What to Expect

That leaves Indy in a particularly lonely place in 1937 when it comes to the beginning of the Great Circle, then. Marion is nowhere to be seen and at this point in his life he’s still estranged from his father, Dr Henry Jones Sr., who he won’t reconcile with for another year yet until the events of The Last Crusade.

One familiar face who can be spotted in the reveal trailer is that of long-time friend and confidant Marcus Brody. A museum curator with a shared passion for archaeology, Brody appears in both Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, so we know that he’ll survive the events of the Great Circle no matter what happens. Also, the Nazis are back to ruin Indy’s day. He loves those guys!

But what will be the objective on Indy’s adventure this time around? The circle itself seems geographical in nature rather than referring to any specific artifact. Here’s what Jerk Gustafsson, game director at MachineGames, says can be inferred from the title in an interview with Lucasfilm:

“A “great circle” is any circle that divides a sphere in half. On Earth, the most well-known one is obviously the equator. But they can exist from any point really, and are used heavily in aviation when plotting your course. It turns out there is a very real and mysterious great circle that is not the equator, but one that connects many of history’s greatest historical sites such as Giza, Easter Island, Sukhothai, Nazca, and many more. Their connection has remained a mystery, and this provides the perfect adventure for our game.”

What’s to Follow

1937 remains a mysterious chapter in Indy’s life for now then, but what we do know is what will happen the following year. The Last Crusade is the next part in Indy’s story after The Great Circle and takes place in 1938. It sees him once again facing off with the Nazis as they race to find yet another lost treasure in the lead up to World War Two, which will start one year later. That treasure is, of course, The Holy Grail, the cup of Christ that is believed to be the source of immortality. It’s an interesting choice of relic for the Third Reich, but it would be Indy who chooses wisely in the end, however, with his Nazi captors paying the ultimate price for their greed.

So, could the Great Circle somehow link to another very famous mythological item in the form of The Round Table from Arthurian legend? Could this very tangential link I’m creating to King Arthur’s Knights and the knight who guards The Holy Grail in The Last Crusade be something that triggers that quest one year later? Probably not, I’m just having a bit of fun with it.

Will the Great Circle end with Indiana Jones confronting a mob boss on a stormy Portuguese coast just like how the first 1938-set scene of the Last Crusade plays out? That’s perhaps a little more likely.

Either way, the early signs of MachineGames’ new Indiana Jones adventure look very promising and – crucially – faithful to the thrillingly adventurous nature of the two fantastic films it is bookended by chronologically. There’s plenty of 1937-set blank pages left to be filled by the Great Circle, then, when it releases later in 2024.

Simon Cardy loves Indiana Jones more than most things in this world. Follow him on Twitter at @CardySimon.

I didn’t always love my time with Another Code: Recollection, but I love that it exists. Nintendo is generally conservative with its remakes, updating the graphics and controls while usually leaving gameplay and story largely unchanged. That’s not the case here, though, as developer Arc System Works took a huge swing with this dual remake, completely modernizing a pair of extremely niche puzzle adventure games with revamped exploration, a new third-person perspective, and a reworked script with decent voice acting. The developers clearly care about Another Code, and it’s awesome to see a huge publisher bring back a small series like this. But even with all of its improvements, Another Code: Recollection falls short of greatness due to lackluster puzzle design and a predictable story that leans too heavily on convenient amnesia tropes.

Another Code: Recollection is a full-blown remake of the 2005 DS game Trace Memory (now known in North America by its Japanese and European name, Another Code: Two Memories), and its Wii sequel, Another Code R: Journey Into Lost Memories, which hasn’t seen a North American release until now. This remake smartly treats these games as two halves of the same story, both following the endearing teenager Ashley Mizuki Robins as she works to uncover forgotten memories from her childhood.

Recollection tosses away the outdated top-down gameplay of the DS original and the strange point-and-click-sidescrolling hybrid of its Wii sequel, replacing both with a modern third-person perspective and fully explorable 3D areas. Think Life Is Strange but for a younger audience: You’ll listen to Ashley’s entertaining inner monologue as you walk around examining objects and locations, talking to characters along the way to learn more about the central mystery and advance the story. It even has some supernatural leanings like Life Is Strange, but its themes are aimed more toward young teenagers compared to its modern adventure game contemporaries.

I finished Another Code: Recollection’s fairly basic story in just over 13 hours , and Ashley is the key element that really makes it work. She’s extremely likable and relatable from start to finish, as she struggles to navigate complex relationships with her family while also dealing with classic teenage clichés like dreams of playing in a rock band. But she also expresses emotional maturity and compassion beyond her years with a genuine desire to take care of those around her. I rooted for her throughout the story, and I really hope we see her in a brand new adventure in the future.

While Ashley soars, much of the overall mystery around her falls flat. There are only a couple meaningful characters in Two Memories’ story, leading to a very predictable outcome that’s heavily foreshadowed the whole way through. Journey Into Lost Memories somewhat avoids this issue thanks to a much larger cast of characters — many of whom have enjoyable side stories that directly weave into the overall plot — but both halves still rely too heavily on tired amnesia tropes.

Most revelations take place when Ashley or another character simply happens to remember something at a convenient time, usually triggered upon entering a new location. Flashbacks occur constantly, and by the end I was exhausted by this haphazard method of storytelling, especially when the twists it’s building to were often unsurprising. The reworked ending of Journey Into Lost Memories is at least a highlight, giving Ashley’s story a stronger, warmer, more emotionally resonant sendoff, but the overall tale seems better suited for a newer audience that hasn’t experienced the twists and turns of every Ace Attorney, Professor Layton, and Life Is Strange like me.

Where Another Code: Recollection really falls short, however, is in its puzzle design. The puzzles have been completely reworked for this remake, and I was hoping for some solid brainteasers that made use of the atmospheric environments in interesting ways. But unfortunately, puzzles feel like a bit of an afterthought here. They come in a handful of varieties, but none of them are particularly exciting. There are scavenger hunts where I had to search around an area for some item I needed to progress, a few puzzles where I had to take a photo and bring it to the right location, and a lot of quick time events where you follow button prompts that appear on Ashley’s Switch-shaped gadget. There are also a couple of motion control puzzles where the gyro controls didn’t work as well as I would’ve liked them to, but thankfully those are few and far between. Puzzles feel more like fetch quests or checklists than actual challenges, which was disappointing, but they are at least all short enough that I was never stuck on their monotony for long.

What makes the underwhelming puzzles even more of a missed opportunity is the fantastic new built-in hint system. You can turn hints on or off at any time in the settings, which is great for folks who just want to bypass the puzzles completely. There are three steps to the hint system: a generic hint, a detailed hint, and finally the puzzle solution. I could choose which of these three hints I wanted to see, giving me the exact amount of help I wanted. There’s also an optional navigation tool that displays an arrow telling you exactly where to go next. But such a great hint system feels wasted when the puzzles are so basic.

Fortunately, Another Code: Recollection is about soaking up the excellent vibes and atmosphere as much as it is about the story or the puzzles. Two Memories’ mysterious mansion is begging to be explored, and Journey Into Lost Memories’ Lake Juliet instantly took me back to summer camp as a kid. I was genuinely sad to say goodbye to that place and those characters when the journey came to an end, as it perfectly captured the feeling of a chapter of childhood coming to a close.

Recollection is also lifted somewhat by its presentation. Conversations are engaging thanks to their unique comic book panel style, most scenes are well voice acted with your choice of English or Japanese dubs, and the piano-filled soundtrack is easy on the ears. Some environments could benefit from a bit more detail, but the cutscenes that play during important story moments almost always look very nice. The new art style also captures the tone of the characters and story very well, and it was exciting to see these long overlooked games remade with such a high level of care.

Ubisoft is gearing up for its first AAA release of 2024 with Skull and Bones. The pirate-themed co-op open-world action RPG is coming to consoles and PC over a decade after it was originally conceived as an expansion for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.

After six delays across six years, Skull and Bones is finally on the release schedule for mid-February. For those curious about Ubisoft’s pirate adventure, we’ve got everything you need to know about Skull and Bones below.

Skull and Bones Release Date

Skull and Bones will be released on February 16. Those who purchase the Premium Edition or subscribe to Ubisoft+ can play three days early (February 13).

Skull and Bones Platforms and Price

Skull and Bones will be released for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. It costs $70 USD on consoles and $60 on PC.

Skull and Bones Special Editions

In addition to the standard version of Skull and Bones, Ubisoft is offering a Premium Edition for $90. The Premium Edition, as detailed by Ubisoft, includes the following:

• Skull and Bones base game
• Three days early access
• Premium bonus pack: Bloody Bones Captain outfit & Ashen Corsair Ship Set with 11 different ship vanity items
• Two extra missions: The Ashen Corsair and Bloody Bones Legacy
• 84-page digital art book
• Digital soundtrack
• Smuggler pass token (unlocks a battle pass)

Skull and Bones Gameplay

Skull and Bones is an action RPG that can be played solo or with up to two others. Its primary gameplay system is naval combat, though you’ll spend time on land as well collecting contracts and preparing for your next seafaring adventure.

Naval combat appears to be a much more robust version of that found in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Assassin’s Creed Rogue. In Skull and Bones, ships can be customized in great detail to match your aesthetic and practical desires. There will be 10 ships at launch, each with different perks that strengthen specific aspects of your ship, from offense and defense to navigation and smuggling. Within each of those ships, you’ll be able to customize your weaponry, armor, and furniture — all of which affect a ship’s stats. Weaponry includes cannons, ballistae, mortars, rocket launchers, and torpedoes. On the cosmetic side, you’ll be able to customize the color of your ship’s hull; the color, pattern, and emblem of your ship’s sails; and your ship’s figurehead. You can also choose from a variety of pets to keep you company at sea — cats and lemurs are two animals Ubisoft has named.

Smaller, yet notable open-sea gameplay mechanics include a spyglass, which allows you to identify a ship’s rank and loadout from a distance, and flares, which you can shoot into the sky to rally nearby players to your aid. Naval combat is largely PvE, though PvP battles can be initiated by picking up legendary treasure maps.

In addition to doing battle with other pirate ships, you’ll encounter settlements, production sites, outposts, and forts. Settlements can be pillaged or utilized as trade hubs. Production sites are a specific type of settlement where materials and goods can be bought and sold. Outposts are neutral areas where you can repair your ship, buy supplies, pick up contracts, and/or fast-travel. Forts are large settlements of civilized life where pirates aren’t welcome. These areas are heavily defended, meaning the encounters will be among the game’s most difficult. Locations are tiered from 1 to 15; the higher the number, the better the resources (and the greater the resistance).

These different settlements are run by different factions, all of which will track your behavior throughout the open world. Angering a faction can make them hostile, potentially closing off trade opportunities and leading to more combat encounters.

Progression is framed through Skull and Bones’ infamy system. The more you make a name for yourself at sea, the more opportunities you’ll have to improve your ship, accept contracts, and obtain valuable treasure. Once you reach Tier 6 of the infamy rank, the game opens up in a major way, introducing you to a secret smuggling ring called The Helm and granting you the ability to create your own pirate lair and begin your own smuggling operation.

Not everything in Skull and Bones happens at sea. On foot, from a third-person perspective, you’ll be able to explore pirate dens such as Sainte Anne. These are safe zones filled with vendors such as shipwrights and blacksmiths, as well as characters who can turn you on to new contracts or tall tales, which can lead to encounters with supernatural enemies.

While it’s understandable to be skeptical about Skull and Bones given its troubled development, we came away from December’s closed beta impressed. IGN’s Travis Northup said Skull and Bones’ robust ship customization made it “feel like a true naval RPG.”

Skull and Bones Story

Skull and Bones is not a story-driven game even though it exists on the Assassin’s Creed timeline. There’s no proper campaign, no overarching plot to follow. It’s instead a live-service game in which you begin as a shipwrecked captain who embarks on a “rags to riches” journey in hopes of making a name for themselves in the brutal world of piracy. From here out, your gameplay experiences are “the story.”

However, there are narrative elements. Skull and Bones game director Ryan Barnard told IGN there are “pivotal characters” in the world that “will have bits of story and background that you will be able to [learn through] jobs or the contracts.”

Those looking for more story content can check out Dark Horse’s three-issue comic series, Skull and Bones: Savage Storm. Here’s the official synopsis:

A merchant vessel on the high seas is besieged by a vicious crew of pirates, but the fighting is interrupted by a devastating typhoon. When the storm crashes in, it leaves predator and prey stranded on an island somewhere in the Indian Ocean. Discover the mysteries and danger that will betide them all. A gritty story set in the merciless world of Ubisoft’s upcoming pirate game.

Ubisoft also began a tie-in podcast series in 2024 called Gangsters of the Sea (published in the Ubisoft Echoes of History podcast feed). Narrated by Michelle Rodriguez (Fast and Furious), the series explores “the sordid history of the Indian Ocean’s most terrible pirates.”

Skull and Bones Development

Skull and Bones has undergone one of the most tumultuous development cycles in modern gaming. What began in 2013 as an expansion for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag evolved into an MMO spinoff which ultimately became the standalone game Skull and Bones.

It was revealed at E3 2017 with a Fall 2018 release window, though it would miss that window — and many others — due to six delays, ultimately landing on February 16, 2024. In addition to changes in direction, Ubisoft attributes the delays to making too many games at once.

Skull and Bones is the first original game in which Ubisoft Singapore served as lead developer. The studio previously assisted on the development of every mainline Assassin’s Creed game since AC II. Ubisoft Singapore was assisted by the publisher’s studios in Belgrade, Berlin, Chengdu, Kiev, Montreal, Mumbai, Paris, the Philippines, Pune, and Shanghai.

The project has churned through three creative directors, most recently losing Elisabeth Pellen in September.

It was developed using the Ubisoft Anvil engine, which has previously been used to create Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed and Tom Clancy games (with the exception of The Division and XDefiant).

Skull and Bones TV Show

In 2019, Ubisoft announced a live-action Skull and Bones TV series. Set during the Golden Age of Piracy, the Skull and Bones show is described as a “female-driven drama set in the lawless frontier of the Indian Ocean at the end of the golden age of piracy in the 1700s.”

The project is a collaboration between Ubisoft and Atlas Entertainment, which previously helped produce DC’s Wonder Woman and Suicide Squad, as well as SyFy’s 12 Monkeys.

There’s been no update on the series in the five years since its announcement.

Jordan covers games, shows, and movies as a freelance writer for IGN.

The Xbox Developer Direct 2024 was a cornucopia of reveals, footage, and information about what’s coming to Xbox this year. We got a formal reveal of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, a release date for Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga, more information about Obsidian’s Avowed, a surprise appearance from Square Enix with an update on Visions of Mana, and an in-depth look at Ara: History Untold. But fans also spotted something else on MachineGames’ whiteboard: the words Quake 6, right next to the iconic Quake logo. Naturally, they’re freaking out.

The tease was first spotted on the Quake subreddit, and speculation for what a new Quake might look like has already started. You can see the logo and title for yourself in Machinegames’ Official Gameplay reveal at about 11:36 in, or in the screenshot below.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is right around the corner, and our month-long IGN First covering the game has revealed tons of new details about its incredible new monsters, systems, and vocations. In our conversations with creator Hideaki Itsuno, we also learned about a number of new features of the NPC systems in Dragon’s Dogma 2, including one that might result in NPCs fighting one another over the player character.

The first Dragon’s Dogma featured a “pawn” system, where players could customize an NPC assistant that would follow the player around the world, fight alongside them, and assist with quests. They could then flesh out their party with two additional pawns borrowed from other people playing online who would arrive with their own skills, personalities, and knowledge of quests they’d done in their respective games. When not in the player’s party, these pawns would fill out the world of Dragon’s Dogma, wandering the roads and towns available to be recruited at any time. It was a strange and unique system that helped the world feel full, if occasionally a bit robotic.

In Dragon’s Dogma 2, that system is back, says Itsuno. But Capcom has had a lot of time and tech to improve on the system since then. Itsuno says he wanted to create “properly detailed NPCs” and ended up with a “ridiculous number of people” in the world, and he’s been trying to build systems where characters behave as if they have goals and are making decisions in the world regardless of what the player is doing. One notable improvement is that now not only can NPCs have affinity for the player as they did in the previous game, they can also feel attached to other NPCs.

“For example, if you find a pair of friends, hitting one will cause the other to get mad at you too. Or if you do something nice for a child, the parent might thank you and like you more as well. That’s what I mean by relationships between NPCs.”

But the relationships between NPCs and players may also be enhanced. Itsuno notes that while the team is still finalizing this feature, it may be possible in Dragon’s Dogma 2 for NPCs to get into fights over the player if they perceive another NPC as a threat.

“A character who grows close to you might come over to your house to play, but if they meet another character there who’s done the same thing, a fight might break out,” he explains. “Personally, we just made the system because we wanted to be able to say, ‘Stop, don’t fight over me!’ It might be best if your readers play through the game while trying to avoid that kind of outcome.”

Along those same lines, we should also expect improvements in character creation and character customization, both for the player and the appearances of NPCs themselves. Itsuno tells us that the game’s character creator has been improved to allow for extremely ridiculous levels of detail and customization, thanks to improved hardware performance since the previous game.

“It’s something I was thinking even when we made the first game,” Itsuno says. “I thought that there aren’t any action RPGs that allow for proper character creation, so my initial goal was to make one that could at least allow you to create the kind of character you wanted to see. While the first game’s character creator is actually limited in a lot of different ways, and I know this might get cut, but we did go so far as to allow for profiles with extreme settings, to the point where you could make something like a character from the popular series Kaiji. Doing that ruins the character though, and so we didn’t make that available to users, but there was enough freedom in the settings to basically allow you to recreate manga characters as-is.

“It’s something we put a lot of work into for the first game, but with better hardware performance this time around, we could add as much freedom to the system as we wanted. The problem is that this means that the act of creating a cool character, or the character that you want to see, becomes no different from doing so with clay. It becomes impossible if you don’t have an understanding of art. You could have your ideal character in mind, but you’d basically need to be an artist to form that character with your own hands, so that’s where we had to begin when deciding how character creation would work.”

Itsuno goes on to talk about improvements in photogrammetry technology, which allows for scanning of real objects in 3D and then creation of in-game graphics that look real, such as with a human face. The team wanted to make use of this, allowing for heavy customization while also letting players who were less artistic make faces that looked good. Here’s the solution they came up with:

“The first idea we had was to scan nearly a hundred human faces, then use those as a base for creating characters. This real-life data acting as our base meant that it would be easy to create realistic faces so long as you don’t apply absolutely ridiculous values to them. The other thing we did was to make it easy to create the base face that you would directly edit. By picking the face that seems the most acceptable among the ones that come up, you’re then given other possibilities based around that face. By repeating this process of picking the best out of a group, you’re able to get pretty close to the kind of face that you like. From there, you can make the final adjustments yourself, which gave us a system where you can do whatever you want while not requiring everyone to be an artist. If you’re able to control truly detailed settings, a perfectionist like myself could spend hours upon hours and still not finish creating a character.”

We have tons more new information about Dragon’s Dogma 2 from our month-long IGN First on the game, including a feature on how pawns specifically are being improved, more on the character creator, and a detailed look at the new Trickster vocation. Dragon’s Dogma 2 debuts on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC on March 22, 2024.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Blizzard Entertainment has posted Diablo 4’s update 1.3.0 patch notes in preparation for its upcoming third seasonal update, Season of the Construct.

It’s a meaty update with changes and tweaks for players across PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X | S. These include new items that should help some Class Skills pack a slightly bigger punch.

“It’s important to us that when a player chooses to fully invest in a Skill, the payoff is immense,” a developer note for patch 1.3.0 says. “In pursuit of this goal, several of our new Unique and Legendary items are targeting Skills that have yet to reach their full potential.”

All Classes are gaining access to the Paingorger’s Gauntlets, Aspect of Adaptability, and Juggernaut’s Aspect items. Meanwhile, the Barbarians are getting two items: Ring of the Ravenous and Aspect of the Sundered Ground. The former, for example, should help out with Rend, as it increases its duration by two-to-four seconds and adds two stacks when Brawling Skills damage enemies.

Druid players are getting the Unsung Ascetic’s Wraps item, which should buff Lightning Storm, as well as the Virulent Aspect, which reduces the cooldown for Rabies when it infects an enemy. Sorcerers can look forward to the new Starfall Coronet and Aspect of Shredding Blades items to bolster Meteor and Ice Blades.

Blizzard was pretty generous with its changes for each Class this time around, but the update also takes aim at plenty of other elements with other adjustments, too. These include increases to Glyph experience in Nightmare Tiers, improved performance, and a more streamlined Skill Tree Respec experience.

In our 9/10 Diablo 4 review, we called Blizzard’s latest a “stunning sequel with near perfect endgame and progression design that makes it absolutely excruciating to put down.” Season 3, the Season of the Construct, launches January 23.

You can see Diablo 4’s full 1.3.0 patch notes below.

CLASS UPDATES

Developer’s Note: It’s important to us that when a player chooses to fully invest in a Skill, the payoff is immense. In pursuit of this goal, several of our new Unique and Legendary items are targeting Skills that have yet to reach their full potential. We’re excited to see what players accomplish with our new Unique items for Barbarian’s Rend, Druid’s Lightning Storm, and Sorcerer’s Meteor. We’re also targeting some pressing issues for each Class. Necromancers with Cult Leader should see their Minions strike a bit harder, Barbarians shouldn’t feel that 3 Shouts are a requirement for their success, and Sorceresses applying Vulnerable with Lightning Spear should open new build opportunities. There are also Class updates to items and Skills that are underperforming, such as the Rogue’s Ranged Unique Items, and the Necromancer’s Golem.

All Classes

New Items

Paingorger’s Gauntlets – Unique Gloves

• Damaging enemies with a cast Non–Basic Skill marks them for 3 seconds. When a Basic Skill first hits a marked enemy, the Basic Skill’s damage is echoed to all marked enemies, dealing 100–200%[x] increased damage.

Aspect of Adaptability – Utility

• When cast below 50% Maximum Resource, Basic Skills generate 3 of your Primary Resource, once per cast.
• When cast at or above 50% Maximum Resource, Basic Skills deal 40–80% increased damage.

Juggernaut’s Aspect – Defensive

• Gain 0.75 –1.25 Armor, but your Evade has 100% increased Cooldown.

Item Updates

Ring of Starless Skies

• The unique power has been changed.
  • Previous: Casting a Core Skill reduces Resource cost of your Core Skills by 12%, up to a maximum of 40%. Resets upon using a non–Core Skill.
  • New: Spending resources reduces your resource costs and increases your damage by x10% for 3 seconds, up to 40%.
• Offensive Aspect of the Expectant
  • Damage bonus now has a 5-second duration to be used.

Melted Heart of Selig

• All Stats increased to 2x normal value.
• Core Skill Damage changed to Movement Speed.
• Damage While Healthy increased to 3x normal value.
• Unique Power Changed
  • Previous: Gain 30 Maximum Resource. In addition, when you take damage, drain 3 resources for every 1% of life you would have lost instead.
  • New: Gain 60 maximum Resource. 75% of incoming damage drains 2 Resource for every 1% of Life you would have lost instead.

Overpower

• Overpower attacks now gain +1% damage, down from +2%, per 1% of your Base Life you have in Fortify.
• Overpower attacks now gain +1% damage, down from +2%, per 1% of your Base Life that you have in bonus life above your Base Life.

Barbarian

New Items

Ring of the Ravenous

• Rend’s duration is increased by 2.0–4.0 seconds. Damaging enemies with Brawling Skills applies 2 stacks of Rend’s Bleed. This effect can only occur once every 4 seconds per enemy.

Aspect of Sundered Ground – Offensive

• Every 25 seconds, Upheaval is guaranteed to Overpower and deals 10–20% increased damage. This timer is reduced by 4 seconds when Upheaval Overpowers a Boss or an Elite enemy.

Skills

Charge

• Base damage increased by 900%, from 0.25 to 2.50.
• Enhanced Charge terrain impact damage increased by 150%, from 0.6 to 1.5.
• Power Charge no longer requires a terrain impact to reduce the cooldown of Charge, and now charging a boss will reduce the cooldown by 6 seconds.

Leap

• Base damage increased by 30%.

Passives

Brute Force

• Overpower damage decreased from 15% to 8% per rank.

Walking Arsenal

• Duration of each weapon bonus increased from 8 to 10 seconds.
• Additional damage from having all bonuses increased from 15% to 20%.
• Having all bonuses now also increases attack speed by 20%.

Unconstrained

• Berserking damage bonus increased from 60% to 100%.

Gushing Wounds

• Bonus bleed amount increased from 115% to 140%.
• Overpower explosion damage increased from 70% to 85%.

Weapon Expertise

• Expertise leveling has been cut by 50%.

Paragon

Marshal Glyph

• Now reduces the cooldown of every non-Shout skill by 4 seconds, instead of every other Shout skill by 1.2 seconds.

Item Updates

Resource Aspect of Echoing Fury

• You now generate 6–10 Fury per second while any Shout skill is active, instead of 2–4 Fury per second for each Shout skill active.

Offensive Aspect of Limitless Rage

• Damage bonus now has a 5-second duration to be used.

Veteran Brawler’s Offensive Aspect

• Reduced bonus damage per stack from 15%–20% to 6%–8%, up to a reduced maximum bonus of 225%–300% to 30%–40%.

Offensive Aspect of Ancestral Charge

• Reduced bonus damage from 75%–125% to 20%–30%.

Offensive Aspect of Encroaching Wrath

• Reduced bonus Weapon Mastery damage from 82–100% to 40–60%.
• Damage bonus now has a 5-second duration to be used.

Ring of Red Furor

• Damage bonus now has a 5-second duration to be used.

Druid

New Items

Unsung Ascetic’s Wraps

• Lightning Storm gains 1 additional strike each time it grows. Lightning Storm Critical Strikes cause lightning to strike twice, dealing 10–20% increased damage.

Virulent Aspect – Utility

• When Rabies infects an enemy, reduce its cooldown by 0.3–0.6 seconds. This cooldown reduction is tripled when infecting Elites.

Skills

Enhanced Rabies

• Maximum damage bonus increased from 30% to 60%.

Lacerate

• Cooldown reduced from 45 to 35 seconds.

Prime Lacerate

• Changed functionality: Lacerate hits Heal for 3% Maximum Life, increased to 6% on Critical Strikes.

Cataclysm

• Twister damage increased from 23% to 46%.
• Lightning damage increased from 77% to 95%.

Supreme Cataclysm

• Vulnerable duration increased from 3 to 6 seconds.

Passives

Mending

• Additional Healing received increased from 5% to 6% per rank.

Thick Hide

• Fortify gained increased from 6.4% to 10% per rank.

Unrestrained

• Control Impairing Effects duration reduction increased from 3% to 5% per rank.
• Increased benefit while over 50% Fortify reduced from tripled to doubled.

Natural Fortitude

• Fortify gained on Shapeshifting increased from 1.4% to 2% per rank.

Bestial Rampage

• Required Shapeshift duration reduced from 2.5 to 2 seconds.
• Attack Speed bonus increased from 25% to 30%.

Spirt Boons

Prickleskin

• Thorns increased from .15 to .6. (from 1,194 to 4776)

Gift of the Stag

• Maximum Spirit increased from 10 to 20.

Avian Wrath

• Critical Strike Damage bonus is now Multiplicative instead of Additive.

Paragon

Tectonic

• Bonus Lucky Hit Chance increased from 15% to 20%.

Poise

• Barrier increased from 5% of Maximum Health to 15%.
• Duration increased from 4 to 6 seconds.

Wilds

• Passive Companion damage bonus increased from 80% to 120%.

Item Updates

Aspect of the Blurred Beast

• Previous: While dashing, Shred seeks out Nearby Poisoned enemies instantly dealing 70–100% of the Poisoning damage to them.
• New: While dashing, Shred seeks out Nearby Poisoned enemies and deals 20–40%[x] increased damage to them.

Aspect of Metamorphic Stone

• Boulder Spirit Cost reduced from 50 to 40.

Aspect of the Unsatiated

• Spirit Generation and bonus damage increased from 20–30% to 30–40%.

Aspect of Retaliation

• Bonus damage reduced from 20–40% to 20–30%.

Necromancer

New Items

Mutilator Plate

• You are Blood Lanced, and when Blood Lance would deal damage to you it instead Fortifies you for 1–2% of your Maximum Life and has a 5% chance to form a Blood Orb. Blood Lance deals 10–20%[x] increased damage.

Shattered Spirit’s Aspect – Offensive

• Casting Bone Spirit also launches 18 Bone Splinters in all directions, dealing 200–400%[x] increased damage and generating 6 Essence per enemy hit.

Skills

Iron Maiden

• Damage increased from 0.2 to 0.3.

Horrid Iron Maiden

• Bonus damage increased from 20% to 30%.

Corpse Explosion

• Lucky Hit Chance reduced from 40% to 25%.
• Base damage increased from 50% to 70%.
• Blighted Corpse Explosion damage decreased from 110% to 95%.

Blight

• Damage over time increased from 80% to 95%.

Sever

• Initial damage increased from 66% to 75%.
• Return damage increased from 21% to 25%.

Bone Spirit

• Damage is increased by 4% per Essence spent casting Bone Spirit, up from 3%.

Dreadful Bone Spirit

• Now restores 30% of your Maximum Essence, instead of a flat 30 Essence.

Acolyte’s Decompose

• Previous: You and your Minions deal 10%[x] increased damage to enemies being Decomposed.
• New: Every 1.5 seconds, Decompose makes enemies Vulnerable for 4 seconds.

Initiate’s Decompose

• Previous: Decompose Slows enemies by 50%.
• New: Decompose Slows enemies by 50%, and if you channel Decompose for at least 1.5 seconds, you gain 30%[+] Movement Speed for 5 second after ending the channel.

Dreadful Blood Mist

• Previous: Blood Mist Fortifies you for 0.5% of your Maximum Life each time it hits an enemy.
• New: You gain +10% Critical Strike Chance for 4 seconds after Blood Mist ends.

Bone Prison

• Friendly players and Minions can now freely pass through Bone Prison walls.
• The functionality of Enhanced Bone Prison and Ghastly Bone Prison have been swapped.

Enhanced Bone Prison

• Enemies inside of Bone Prison are Vulnerable.

Ghastly Bone Prison

• If an enemy is trapped by Bone Prison, gain 25 Essence, plus an additional 5 per enemy trapped.

Dreadful Bone Prison

• Previous: Fortify for 8% of your Maximum Life for each enemy trapped by Bone Prison.
• New: Reduce your active cooldowns by 0.5 seconds for each enemy trapped by Bone Prison, up to 3 seconds.

Passives

Ossified Essence

• Now displays the current bonus on the tooltip.

Book of the Dead

Golem

• When Golems finish casting their active ability, they will first try to target a new close enemy before reverting to their previous target.
• Blood Golem and Iron Golem
  • Basic Attacks now hit enemies in an area around the main target.
• Bone Golem
  • Active ability now grants the Golem Thorns equal to 70% of your Armor for the duration of the Taunt.
• Bone Mage
  • Upgrade now Fortifies based on your Maximum Life instead of Base Life.
• Skeleton Priest
  • Healing increased from 25% to 40% over the 8 second duration.

Paragon

Cult Leader Legendary Paragon Node

• Previous: Your Minions deal 15%[x] increased damage for each Minion type you have active.
• New: Your Minions deal 10%[x] increased damage for each 20%[+] of Attack Speed Bonus they have.

Golem

• Additional Bonus changed from 25% Health to 25% Damage.

Item Updates

Aspect of Swelling Curse

• Previous: Bone Spirit deals increased damage based on distance traveled, up to 15-25%[x].
• New: Bone Spirit’s Critical Strike Chance is increased by 15–25%[+]. Your Maximum Essence is increased by 2 for each enemy hit for 15 seconds.

Torturous Aspect

• Previous: Enemies afflicted by your Iron Maiden have a [15–25]% chance to be Stunned for 1 Second when they deal direct damage.
• New: Iron Maiden is now also a Darkness skill and deals Shadow damage. Enemies afflicted by your Iron Maiden have a [15–25]% chance to be Stunned for 1 second when they deal direct damage.

Rotting Aspect

• Chance to spawn additional corpses increased from 30–60% to 50–100%.

Hulking Aspect

• Chance to reduce Golem’s active cooldown increased from 2–5% to 4–10%.
• Chance to spawn a Corpse increased from 1.0–2.5% to 2%–5%.

Rogue

New Items

Beastfall Boots

• When you cast an Ultimate skill, your next Core skill consumes all of your energy and deals 0.5–1.5% increased damage per Energy consumed. Using a Cooldown restores 5 energy.

Resistant Assailant’s Aspect – Defensive

• Breaking Concealment grants +10% Resistance and Maximum Resist to all elements for 4 seconds. Killing an Elite enemy reduces Concealment’s cooldown by 6–10 seconds.

Skills

Blade Shift

• Damage increased from 16% to 20%.
• Duration increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds.

Fundamental Invigorating Strike

• Vulnerable now applies while you are below 85% Energy, up from 75% Energy.

Enhanced Caltrops

• Previous: Enemies takes 5%[x] increased damage from you each second they are in Caltrops.
• New: Enemies in Caltrops take 10%[x] increased damage from you, increased by 5%[x] each second.

Rain of Arrows

• Cast time reduced by 15%.
• The first wave of arrows now hits closer to the player.

Cold Imbuement

• Chill amount now increases by 5% per skill rank, up from 2.5%.

Blended Cold Imbuement

• Removed the Critical Strike requirement, and increased the Lucky Hit chance from 20% to 35%.

Mixed Poison Imbuement

• Previous: Lucky Hit: Poison Imbued skills have up to a 30% chance to apply double the amount of Poisoning damage over time.
• New: Lucky Hit: Poison Imbued skills have up to a 30% chance to reduce Poison Imbuement’s cooldown by 2 seconds.

Forceful Arrow

• Vulnerable duration increased from 3 to 5 seconds.

Enhanced Penetrating Shot

• Previous: Penetrating Shot deals 10%[x] increased damage per enemy it pierces.
• Now: Penetrating Shot has a 10%[+] increased Critical Strike Chance. If Penetrating Shot damages at least 3 enemies, gain 10%[+] Critical Strike Chance for 5 seconds.

Improved Penetrating Shot

• Previous: If Penetrating Shot damage at least 3 enemies, your next Penetrating Shot has 20%[+] increased Critical Strike Chance.
• New: Penetrating Shot deals an additional 10%[x] increased damage per enemy it hits.

Passives

Close Quarters Combat

• Amount of Damage vs Crowd Controlled bonus conversion percent reduced from 40% to 10%.
• Attack Speed per stack increased from 10% to 15%.

Precision

• Previous: Critical Strike with Marksman Skills grant you Precision. You gain 4%[x] Critical Strike Damage per stack of Precision, up to a maximum of 20%[x]. When you reach maximum Precision, your next Marksman Skill is guaranteed to Critically Strike, and deals 40%[x] increased Critical Strike Damage, then consumes all stacks of Precision.
• New: Each Marksman skill cast grants 1 stack of Precision, or 2 if it has Critically Struck. When you reach 6 stacks, your next Marksman Core or Ultimate Skill is a guaranteed Critical Strike that deals x50% increased Critical Strike Damage, consuming all stacks of Precision. This damage is further increased by an amount equal to x15% of your Critical Strike Damage bonus.

Chilling Weight

• Previous: Chilled enemies have their Movement speed further reduced by 10/20/30%.
• New: Chilled enemies have their movement speed further reduced by up to 10/20/30%, and you gain 5/10/15%[x] increased Chill effect.

Concussive

• Previous: After Knocking Back or Knocking Down an enemy, you gain 4% increased Critical Strike Chance against them for 4 seconds.
• New: After Knocking Back or Knocking Down an enemy, you gain 4% increased Critical Strike Chance for 4 seconds.

Paragon

Leyrana’s Instinct

• Previous: When Inner Sight’s gauge becomes full, you gain 100%[+] Dodge Chance for 1.5 seconds.
• New: When Inner Sight’s gauge becomes full, you gain 100%[+] Dodge Chance for 2 seconds. Your next 3 Core skills deal additional damage equal to 20%[x] of your Core Skill Damage bonus.

Item Updates

Bladedancer’s Aspect

• The orbiting blades can now hit each enemy 2 times, reduced from 3.

Developer’s Note: This change was made to properly match the visuals of 2 rotations around the player.

• Previous: Twisting Blades orbit for a short time after they return to you, dealing 10–15% of Twisting Blade’s return damage per hit. Based on the distance the blades returning, the orbit damage increases up to 20–30% of the return damage.
• New: Twisting Blades orbit for a short time after they return to you, dealing 20–30% of Twisting Blade’s return damage per hit.

Aspect of Stolen Vigor

• Previous: Each stack of Momentum Key Passive Heals you for 0.04–0.08 Life per second.
• New: Each stack of Momentum Key Passive Heals you for 0.04–0.08 Life per second and grants you 5% Damage Reduction.

Icy Alchemist

• Previous: Lucky Hit: Damaging a Chilled or Frozen enemy with a Shadow Imbued Skill has up to a 75% chance to release an explosion that deals 0.3–0.48 Cold damage to the target and surrounding enemies, Chilling them for 25%.
• New: Lucky Hit: Shadow Imbued Skill have up to a 75% chance to release an explosion that deals 0.3–0.48 Cold damage to the target and surrounding enemies, Chilling them for 25%. If they were already Chilled or Frozen, increase this damage by 100%[x].

Toxic Alchemist

• Previous: Lucky Hit: Damaging a Poisoned enemy with a Shadow Imbued Skill has up to a 75% chance to create a toxic explosion that applies 0.15–0.2 Poisoning damage over 5 seconds to the target and surrounding enemies.
• New: Lucky Hit: Shadow Imbued Skills have up to a 75% chance to create a toxic explosion that applies 0.2–0.3 Poisoning damage over 5 seconds to the target and surrounding enemies. If the enemy was already Poisoned, increase this damage by 100%[x].

Windforce

• Lucky Hit Chance increased from 20%–30% to 30%–40%.

Skyhunter

• Inherent affix changed from Damage to Distant Enemies to Critical Strike Damage.
• Critical Strike Damage affix value increased by ~100%. This does not apply to the inherent Critical Strike Damage Affix.
• Effect updated to reflect changes to the Precision Key Passive.
  • Previous: The first direct damage you deal to an enemy is a guaranteed Critical Strike. If you had maximum stacks of the Precision Key Passive when you cast the Skill, gain 20–30 energy, this can only happen once per cast.
  • New: The first direct damage you deal to an enemy is a guaranteed Critical Strike. When you consume Precision casting a Skill, that Skill gains x10–30% increased Critical Strike Damage and you gain 20–40 Energy.

Eaglehorn

• Previous: Penetrating Shot has a 30–80% chance to fire an arrow that bounced off walls and scenery. Damaging 5 enemies with Penetrating Shot will cause your next cast to make enemies hit Vulnerable for 3 seconds.
• New: Penetrating Shot makes enemies Vulnerable for 3 seconds. Every 4th cast bounces off walls and scenery and deals 20%–40%[x] bonus damage.

Sorcerer

New Items

Starfall Coronet

• Meteor now has 2 charges and a 11–6 second Charge Cooldown instead of a Mana cost and drops 3 additional meteors around the target. Meteor’s Enchantment effect and Enhanced Meteor drop 1 additional meteor.

Aspect of Shredding Blades – Offensive

• Ice Blades’ chance to apply Vulnerable is increased by 20%[+] and the Vulnerable duration is increased by 4 seconds. You gain 15–25%[x] Vulnerable Damage.

Skills

Ball Lightning

• Enhanced Ball Lightning changed to have its attack rate increase with attack speed, up to 25%.

Blizzard

• Mage’s Blizzard condition to be cast while over 50 mana has been removed.

Lightning Spear

• Critical Strikes now apply Vulnerable for 3 seconds.

Paragon

Searing Heat

• Fixed an issue where the Critical Strike Chance bonus was not properly applying.
• Critical Strike Chance bonus increased from +10% to 12%.

Elemental Summoner

• Conjuration damage bonus increased from x3% to x5% of the total amount of your Bonus Damage with Fire, Lightning, and Cold.

Burning Instinct

• Amount of Intelligence required to gain x1% bonus Burning Damage reduced from 75 to 25.

Item Updates

Offensive Aspect of Shattered Stars

• Meteorite damage has been changed to be 20–30% of the casted Meteor’s damage.

Staff of Lam Esen

• Increased Charged Bolt chance to be attracted to enemies from 30–50% to 40–60%.

Iceheart Brais

• Chance to unleash a Frost Nova when enemies die increased from 11–20% to 21–30%.

GAMEPLAY

End-Game Activities

• Helltide will now be active every hour on the hour, with a 5-minute gap in between. Helltide will be active 55 minutes of every hour.
• So players can more consistently acquire Distilled Fear, we’ve reworked how Distilled Fear is collected from Nightmare Dungeons.
  • Players will always gain a Distilled Fear after completing a Nightmare Dungeon of at least Tier 30.
  • Every 10 Tiers after Tier 30 there’s an increasing chance for additional Distilled Fears to be rewarded.
  • Completing Tier 90 Nightmare Dungeons and beyond will always grant 3 Distilled Fears.
• The Purified Sigil reward for completing a Nightmare Dungeon will now always grant a Sigil 1 Tier greater than the Nightmare Dungeon just completed.

Items

• Scrolls of Escape
  • Now will populate in the lost items stash if the player missed one that was dropped.
  • Stack limit increased from 20 to 99.
  • Appear as Legendary so that they are harder to miss when dropped on the ground.
• The chance for Scattered Prisms to drop when defeating an Elite Monster has been reduced.
• Scattered Prisms can now be acquired from Legion Event Chests.
• The Material cap has been increased from 99,999 to 999,999.
• Treasure Goblins spawned while fighting Avarice now have the same loot potential as normally encountered treasure goblins.
• World Tier III and IV World Boss weekly caches can now drop Unique Items.
• The increased cap for Item Power on drops from World Bosses has been adjusted.
  • Previous: +100 to min, +100 to max
  • New: +65 to min, +25 to max

Developer’s Note: World Bosses are intended to reward powerful loot for your level. With this change, at a high level, players will see maximum Item Power gear from World Bosses at higher levels.

• The Item Power ranges for items dropped by end-game bosses, such as Varshan and Zir, have been decreased for Rare and Legendary Items. Unique Item Power has not been changed. Examples (note that the current range for Unique Items was previously the range for all items):
  • Varshan in WT3 (Level 55)
    • Unique Item Power Range: 675-750
    • Rare/Legendary Range: 650-725
  • Grigoire in WT4 (Level 75)
    • Unique Item Power Range: 850-925
    • Rare/Legendary Range: 800-875
  • Beast in the Ice (Level 85)
    • Unique Item Power Range: 900-925
    • Rare/Legendary Range: 850-925
  • Duriel remains unchanged (always drops 925)
• Nightmare Dungeon Item Power scaling has been adjusted to more consistently drop high Item Power loot in high Tier Nightmare Dungeons. Examples:
  • Monsters at level 100
    • Legendary Item Power Range
      • Previous: 820-925
      • New: 845-925
    • Rare Item Power Range
      • Previous: 785-925
      • New: 810-925
  • Monsters at level 125
    • Legendary Item Power Range
      • Previous: 845-925
      • New: 910-925
    • Rare Item Power Range
      • Previous: 810-925
      • New: 885-925
• All monsters above Level 144 (Nightmare Dungeon Tier 90+) now are guaranteed to drop 925 Item Power gear.

Miscellaneous

• Potion count will no longer be reset after dying and being revived by another player.
• The Hatred’s Chosen syphon effect is no longer based on Lucky Hit.
• The Greed Shrine effect also now will drop additional Gold after the effect expires. The amount of Gold dropped is determined by how many enemies were killed while the Shrine buff was active.
• Uber-Unique Items can now be unlocked as transmogs.

User Interface and User Experience

• New settings have been added to allow navigation in the world with full Keyboard controls—including movement using the W-A-S-D keys—instead of your mouse.
• Bonuses from keywords, such as Berserking, now also denote whether any associated damage bonus is additive or multiplicative.
• Event Timers are now displayed on the world map.
• The visual effect for being Chilled will now visually increase in intensity to denote how close the Chilled character is to being Frozen.
• The default button bindings for Mount actions have been adjusted to be more intuitive on controller.
• An additional stash tab is now available to be purchased in-game with Gold. Maximum stash tabs available are now 6.
• The icons for the Helltide Chest of Mysteries and Living Steel Chest have been updated to make them more visually distinctive from the other chest icons.
• The button for confirming Gold amount in the trade interface on controller has been changed to Yor Triangle on console. This will allow pressing A or X on console to bring up the virtual keyboard to manually enter Gold amounts when trading.
• We have introduced a new way for players to approach reworking their Skill Tree.
  • Players can now refund whole paths orSkill clumps whilst seeing a preview of it all.
  • Players can also see how many Skill points will be refunded to them and how much Gold it will cost in advance.

Developer’s Note: he new Respec options allows players to easily refund or re-add their Skills in a flexible way. Our goal with these additionsis to make purchasing and refunding Nodes less time consuming while encouraging players to experiment more.

BUG FIXES

Accessibility

• Fixed an issue where the Screen Reader did not read the quantity of a consumable in the action wheel.
• Fixed an issue where subtitles for dialogue and lorebooks could not be turned off.
• Fixed an issue where the Screen Reader could malfunction when repeatedly opening a vendor’s services menu.

Gameplay

• Fixed an issue where player attacks could still be suppressed when some of their character’s body was outside a Suppressor Field.
• Fixed an issue where effects that increased Max Life by a percentage (such as an Elixir of Fortitude) did not account for certain other Max Life bonuses, such as granted by an Affix on equipment.
• Fixed an issue where the Drowned Sea Hag could spawn an excessive number of minions.
• Fixed an issue where the Echo of Lilith could still attack the player after being defeated during the second phase of the encounter.
• Fixed an issue where the Umbral aspect could grant large amounts of resources when using crowd control Skills on Structure enemies.
• Fixed an issue where various Skills and effects, such as Devouring Blaze, did not consider Staggered bosses as Crowd Controlled.
• Fixed an issue where the Butcher could stand in place if the player stood near a Resplendent chest.

Barbarian

• Fixed an issue where the Bone Breaker legendary paragon node didn’t have a buff indicator.
• Fixed an issue where the guaranteed overpower from the Earthstriker aspect could trigger on Basic attacks.
• Fixed an issue where Charge cast by Ancients spawned by the Aspect of Ancestral Charge did not trigger explosions from the Brawler’s aspect.
• Fixed an issue where Hammer of the Ancients was dealing more damage than intended due to the bonus from the Violent upgrade also being applied even if the Furious upgrade was chosen.

Druid

• Fixed an issue where the tooltip for Envenom displayed its damage bonus as additive, when it was multiplicative.
• Fixed an issue where Enhanced Ravens wasn’t increasing Critical Strike Chance to enemies hit.
• Fixed an issue where the Dire Wolf’s Aspect did not specify that it also made Grizzly Rage function as a Werewolf skill.

Necromancer

• Fixed an issue where the bonus from the Ring of Starless Skies could get removed when the Aspect of Gore Quills was activated.
• Fixed an issue where Shadow and Bone mages did not cast Blizzard when the Coldbringer aspect was equipped.
• Fixed an issue where Blood Mist could fail to activate while under the effect of a Bandit’s Smoke Bomb.
• Fixed an issue where the Splintering Aspect would scale more than 2x when used on a two-handed weapon.

Rogue

• Fixed an issue where Tibault’s Will increased the cap for combo points.
• Fixed an issue where returning Twisting Blades while using the Bladedancer’s aspect were applying full Poison Imbue Damage, instead of the expected percentage of damage detailed in the Aspect’s description.
• Fixed an issue where the Paragon Glyph Snare did not benefit Smoke Grenade when it is considered a Trap Skill by the Explosive Verve aspect.
• Fixed an issue where Gorger enemies could still target Rogue players under the effect of Concealment with their stun attack.

Sorcerer

• Fixed an issue where various powers and effects that are granted by evading, such as the unique powers of Esu’s Heirloom and Flickerstep, did not work properly when using the Teleport Enchantment.
• Fixed an issue where the bonus evade charges granted by The Oculus didn’t increase when upgrading the Weapon at the Blacksmith.
• Fixed an issue where Ball Lightning was dealing far more damage than intended.

Developer’s Note: Ball Lightning was dealing an unintended amount of damage because of its Enhanced upgrade. This bug fix returns the amount of damage done by this Skill to intended quantities.

• Fixed an issue where the Static Surge legendary node would trigger from automatic casts of skills, such as the Chain Lightning enchantment.
• Fixed an issue where Ice Spikes would instantly explode when casting Deep Freeze with the Frozen Tundra aspect equipped.
• Fixed an issue where the buff from the Battle Caster’s aspect could unexpectedly fall off.
• Fixed an issue where the Protection passive did not take into account any bonuses to Barrier generation.

User Interface and User Experience

• Fixed an issue in the Season Journey menu where hovering over aspects rewarded for completing a chapter of the Season Journey could sometimes not display the name of the Aspect.
• Fixed an issue where the minimap icon for indicating the Stash has new items (i.e. recovered lost items) only displayed when close to the Stash.
• Fixed an issue where the Creatures of Night incense had an incorrect tooltip.
• Fixed an issue where certain stats would not display for all Classes in the character details window, such as Damage with 2-handed slashing weapons would not display for Necromancers.
• Fixed an issue where pressing X or Square on console would confirm the salvage of a Legendary or Unique Item.
• Fixed an issue where controller navigation in the Vendor buyback menu could malfunction.
• Fixed various instances where the minimap was inaccurate.
• Fixed various instances where Quest Pins and Objectives were inaccurate.

Quests and Dungeons

• Fixed an issue where progression through the Flooded Depths could get broken if a ladder traversal was skipped with Teleport.
• Fixed an issue where the Animus Urn in the Bastion of Faith could be skipped by using Leap or Teleport.
• Fixed an issue where progression could be blocked in Uldur’s Cave if all enemies were killed before destroying the second barricade.
• Fixed an issue where some enemies were not marked on the minimap during the Slay All Enemies objective in Nostrava Deepwood.
• Fixed an issue where elites encountered that transformed from initially harmless people could respawn after being defeated.
• Fixed an issue where the Tomb Lord boss in the Shifting City could teleport outside of the boss arena, which would cause the fight to restart.
• Fixed an issue where there was no Healing Well in the Conclave.
• Fixed an issue where the Battle Hardened nightmare dungeon affix could grant Damage Reduction even if the player was above 90% life.
• Fixed an issue where the Sealed Penitent’s Cache quest didn’t properly grant rewards for completion.
• Fixed multiple instances where the Final Straw quest could not be completed properly.
• Fixed an issue where the Quest Objective wouldn’t update when entering the Cellar during the Acts of Atonement quest.

Miscellaneous

• Fixed an issue where upgrading a damaged item at the Blacksmithwould further lower the item’s durability.
• Various stability, visual, and performance improvements.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.

Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.