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Sony Confirms (Officially This Time) Helldivers 2’s Next Premium Warbond, Freedom’s Flame

After Sony itself accidentally revealed the premium warbond Freedom’s Flame for Helldivers 2, it has now made it official alongside an August 8 release date.

The theme for Freedom’s Flame is, predictably, burn damage and survivability, with new weapons, armor, emotes, capes, and skins all set to hit the game next week, Mitch Ayre, Junior Community Manager at developer Arrowhead Games Studios, said in a post on the PlayStation Blog.

As with previous Premium Warbonds, expect Freedom’s Flame to cost 1,000 Super Credits. While you can earn Super Credits from gameplay and the warbond itself, you can also buy them for real-world money. Via the in-game shop, 1,000 Super Credits costs $9.99. Premium warbonds do not expire, so you can work your way through them at your own pace safe in the knowledge their items will remain available.

Here’s everything included in Helldivers 2’s Premium Warbond, Freedom’s Flame

Firepower

Primary:

SG-451 Cookout

Burn, baby, burn! A pump action shotgun that unleashes a burst of incendiary phosphorus pellets at your helpless enemies.

FLAM-66 Torcher

A lightweight flamethrower shooting pressurized fuel through a nozzle into a roaring, open flame. Sounds safe. It isn’t. Watch where you’re standing.

Secondary:

P-72 Crisper

A flamethrower that fits in your pocket for the Helldiver on the go! What will those guys think of next? This lovely compact handgun projects a jet of freedom flames over short distances.

Booster:

Fiery Drop – Firebomb Hellpods

Scorch the earth (and anything else) below as you touch down with attitude and ignite the dropsite.

Armor:

I-09 Heatseeker

Proudly display the burnished blood-red plates that were forged in righteous fire, like the heroes they were wrought to protect — a true vision of democracy.

I-102 Draconaught

Ah, there’s nothing quite like those satisfying screeches as the enemies of freedom burn. Enjoy it all in this 14-cm sheathed silica fiber foam armor with an exclusive tube-to-ear feature.

Armor Passive

Inflammable! Enjoy 75% damage resistance to fire as you run head-first into danger like the unstoppable legend your mum said you’d be.

Title: Fire Safety Officer

You can now call yourself a Fire Safety Officer. Doesn’t come with a certificate.

Skin: Safety Orange

Repaint your Shuttle, Hellpod, and Exosuit in striking Safety Orange.

Capes & Cards

Purifying Eclipse

A heartfelt tribute to the Liberation of Choepessa IV in the First Galactic War, in which so much orbital ordnance was detonated that its sun was occluded by ash for an entire lunar cycle.

The Breach

The final mission of the 361st Freedom’s Flame saw this storied unit deploy into the heart of a Supervolcano in a mission of heroic sacrifice. Triggering a huge eruption, this act of incredible bravery wiped out a massive Terminid swarm. As documented in the bestselling graphic novel ‘The Breach,’ it is available at all good bookshops on Super Earth.

Emotes

Big Stretch, Deep Reflection, and Thoracic Collision Exultation Maneuver Co-emote. If you’re going to win. Win in style.

Freedom’s Flame is set to arrive two days after the Escalation of Freedom update, Helldivers 2’s biggest so far. This update, due out August 6, adds new missions, objectives, enemies, planets, and even a new difficulty mode.

Helldivers 2’s explosive launch across PC and PlayStation 5 in February saw it become the fastest-selling PlayStation game of all time, with an incredible 12 million copies sold in 12 weeks. IGN’s Helldivers 2 review returned a 9/10. We said: “Helldivers 2’s combat feels fantastic, its missions stay fresh and interesting, and its smart progression system doesn’t nickel and dime you.”

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.

Pokémon TCG: Scarlet and Violet—Shrouded Fable, Hands-On Preview

Pokémon TCG: Scarlet and Violet—Shrouded Fable expansion kicks off on August 8, with preorders available now, and we’ve managed to get our hands on the latest expansion.

Based on the Loyal Three and their Moochi-feeding mythical master, Pecharunt, the Shrouded Fable set features some key players of the Pokémon Scarlet & Violet DLC: Hidden Treasures of Area Zero, amongst new additions. It’s a packed set, with Kingdra ex also making a royal splash in the expansion.

As night falls, Pecharunt ex emerges, commanding the Loyal Three—Okidogi ex, Munkidori ex, and Fezandipiti ex—in their evil mission. Meanwhile, Revavroom ex lights up the battlefield as a Lightning type through Terastallization.

Here’s a firsthand look at our highlights from the Elite Trainer Box, Kingambit Illustration Collection, Kingdra ex-Special Illustration Collection, and some standout cards from Pokémon TCG: Scarlet and Violet—Shrouded Fable.

Shrouded Fable Elite Trainer Box Preview

The Pokémon TCG: Scarlet and Violet—Shrouded Fable Elite Trainer Box is an absolute must-have if you’re a dedicated trainer. Everything is neatly organized in a collector’s box with four dividers, making storing and transporting your collection easy. Plus, a Pokémon Trading Card Game Live code card for the set is included for digital pack openings. Still, nothing beats ripping open the included boosters!

Inside, you can find nine Shrouded Fable boosters, all bursting with diverse cards to enhance your deck. This is alongside a foil promo card featuring Pecharunt, a powerful addition to your Dark-type deck and a collector’s gem. There’s also 65 card sleeves centered around Okidogi, Munkidori, and Fezandipiti, all rocking a cool purple and green metallic design, perfect for a new deck build.

Shrouded Fable Elite Trainer Box – What’s In The Box?

  • Nine Shrouded Fable booster packs
  • Full-art foil promo card featuring Pecharunt
  • 65 card sleeves featuring the Loyal Three
  • 45 Pokémon TCG Energy cards
  • A player’s guide to the expansion
  • Six damage-counter dice and a competition-legal coin-flip die.
  • Two plastic condition markers

Kingambit Illustration Collection Preview

The Kingambit Illustration Collection looks stunning! The titled stage two card is hands down the best card art out of the big boxes in Shrouded Fable in our opinion. Kingambit commands respect and overcomes all challengers. This collection is perfect for those looking to strike, slash, and take command in their battles.

The promo card Kingambit we’ve found inside showcases the big blade Pokémon in a menacing classical painting style, alongside foil cards featuring Pawniard and Bisharp completing Kingambit evolution chain for a cool Steel type playset straight out of the box! There’s also four Shrouded Fable boosters, each a chance to find powerful and rare cards, and codes for Pokémon TCG Live.

Kingambit Illustration Collection – What’s In The Box?

  • 1 full-art foil promo card featuring Kingambit:
  • 2 foil cards featuring Pawniard and Bisharp:
  • 4 Shrouded Fable booster packs
  • A code card for Pokémon TCG Live

Kingdra ex-Special Illustration Collection Preview

The Kingdra ex-Special Illustration Collection is another fantastic addition that we love. This collection adds artistic flair to your deck while strengthening strategy with bench-damaging cards, making it a must-have for collectors.

Inside you’ll find stunning classic Japanese print artwork and powerful gameplay features from the Kingdra ex promo card, another full playset line out of the box with foil cards featuring Horsea and Seadra, codes for Pokémon TCG Live, alongside a set of five Shrouded Fable boosters. It’s nice to see those included as well.

Kingdra ex-Special Illustration Collection – What’s In The Box?

  • 1 full-art foil promo card featuring Kingdra ex
  • 2 foil cards featuring Horsea and Seadra
  • 5 Shrouded Fable booster packs
  • A code card for Pokémon TCG Live

Our Favorites Pulls From Pokémon TCG: Scarlet and Violet—Shrouded Fable

Kingambit – Illustration Rare

Stats:

  • Type: Dark
  • HP: 180
  • Attacks:
    • [D] Dark Slice (50 damage)
    • [D][C][C] Night Slash (90 damage): Switch this Pokémon with one of your Benched Pokémon.

Rarity: Kingambit Illustration Rare is a literal Pocket Monster. With amazing-looking artwork and two devastating attacks, this card will be very sought after by both players and collectors!

How to Play: Once a player’s Pokémon has put at least 4 damage counters on an opponent’s Bench and active Pokémon, it’s time to bring Kingambit in. Even if there are one or two Pokémon left over under 140HP, Massive Rend will one-shot them.

Fezandipiti – Illustration Rare

Stats:

  • Type: Psychic
  • HP: 120
  • Attacks:
    • Ability: Adrena Pheromone – If this Pokémon has any [D] attached and is damaged by an attack, flip a coin. If heads, prevent that damage.
    • [P] Energy Feather (30 X damage): This attack does 30 damage for each Energy attached to this Pokémon.

Rarity: As an Illustration Rare, Fezandipiti is rare, and it is very playable in dark decks. Expect this one to attract buyers with cash on the hip!

How to Play: Fezandipiti offers a superb blend of offense and defense, making it invaluable in any dark deck. Start stacking Energy on this Pokémon as soon as it hits the Bench, bringing it in to clear out any hush HP active Pokémon with Switch or sacrificing energy for retreating. Make sure to have some Energy Retrievals on hand, just in case!

Pecharunt – Illustration Rare

Stats:

  • Type: Dark
  • HP: 80
  • Attacks:
    • Ability: Toxic Subjugation: As long as this Pokémon is in the Active Spot, put 5 more damage counters on your opponent’s Poisoned Pokémon during Pokémon Checkup.
    • [D][C] Poison Chain (10 damage) Your opponent’s Active Pokémon is now Poisoned. During your opponent’s next turn, that Pokémon can’t retreat.

Rarity: Although it can be found easily in Shrouded Fable Elite Trainer Boxes, Pecharunt’s ability is very powerful and can be used from the Bench. When in play, this Pokémon can cause 7 damage counters per Pokémon checkup, so there is no doubt this card will be seen in players’ decks quickly.

How to Play: Pecharunt is a fantastic Poisoner and can slow an opponent’s game from the Bench. Ideally, you should use another Pokémon to poison opponents and then use Pecharunt’s ability to enhance the poison. Using it alongside Garbador’s “Poisonous Puddle” ability from Rebel Clash would be a fantastic combination from a player’s Bench, allowing an active Pokémon to clean up!

Pecharunt EX

Stats:

  • Type: Psychic
  • HP: 190
  • Attacks:
    • Ability: Controlling Chains: Once during your turn, you may switch 1 of your Benched [D] Pokémon, except any Pecharunt ex, with your Active Pokémon. If you do, your new Active Pokémon is now Poisoned. You can’t use more than 1
    • Controlling Chains Ability each turn.
    • [D][D] Irritating Burst: 60x damage. This attack does 60 damage for each Prize card your opponent has taken.

Rarity: Pecharunt EX is a rare and powerful card, although not as much as its full-art variant. It’s also extremely playable, so it’s likely to be in high demand!

How to Play: Using Pecharunt EX alongside any Loyal Three EX is a winning combination and allows for switching of Dark types once a turn with no retreat cost. In our opinion, this can really slow down opponents, saving Pecharunt EX when you are low on Prize Cards to devastate an opponent’s active Pokémon.

Where to Preorder Pokémon TCG: Scarlet and Violet—Shrouded Fable

Shrouded Fable is busting out all of the usual box sets and booster bundles, this time centered around the Loyal Three of Kitakami, Okidogi, Munkidori and Fezandipiti.

They’ll all be getting EX cards alongside the malicious Pecharunt, looking to shove its cursed Moochi treats into the face of any human or Pokémon it can. Here are all the details you need to secure the your preorders for Pokémon TCG: Scarlet and Violet—Shrouded Fable, releasing on August 8.

We’re always watching the latest Pokémon deals here on IGN, not to mention giving our readers early previews of upcoming sets such as Twilight Masquerade. Stick with IGN for everything Pokémon TCG for the latest.

Christian Wait is a UK-based freelancer for IGN, you can follow him @ChrisReggieWait on Twitter/X.

Elden Ring Patch 1.13 Out Now — Here’s What It Does

Elden Ring developer FromSoftware has released update 1.13 for the game following a period of server maintenance across all platforms.

This second post-Shadow of the Erdtree patch, live now on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and S, follows early July’s 1.12.3 update, which tweaked the Golden Hippopotamus fight, among other things.

Publisher Bandia Namco released the 1.13 patch notes, and there are a few changes worth highlighting. For example, fans are getting excited about this quality-of-life change:

“Changed the default selection of the OK / CANCEL prompt that shows up when using the ‘Spectral Steed Whistle’ while the spectral steed is dead. The default selection position is now OK.”

However, localisation staff removed from the credits are still yet to be added in. The patch notes say:

“In update 1.12, an error was included in the credits of the game. This issue will be corrected in the next update.”

IGN’s Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree review returned a 10/10. We said: “Like the base game did before it, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree raises the bar for single-player DLC expansions. It takes everything that made the base game such a landmark RPG, condenses it into a relatively compact 20-25 hour campaign, and provides fantastic new challenges for heavily invested fans to chew on.”

Elden Ring update 1.13 patch notes:

PvP-exclusive balance adjustments

Equipment

  • Increased poise damage of normal attacks for the following weapon types:
    Light Great Swords / Backhand Blades / Hand-to-Hand Arts / Beast Claws
  • Increased poise damage of dual wield attacks for the following weapon types:
    Straight Swords / Thrusting Swords / Curved Swords / Katanas / Spears / Whips / Fists / Claws
  • Increased poise damage of the Claws of Night throwing attacks.
  • Decreased the backstep invulnerability window when the Fine Crucible Feather Talisman or the Talisman of All Crucibles are equipped.

Skills

Savage Lion’s Claw

  • The second hit of the follow-up attack is now easier to land.
  • Decreased damage animation of the first attack against other players.

Raging Beast

  • Decreased invulnerability window against other players’ attacks.

Blind Spot

  • Decreased invulnerability window against other players’ attacks.

Palm Blast

  • Decreased poise amount generated when charging this skill.

Spell and Incantations

Miriam’s Vanishing

  • Decreased invulnerability window against other players’ attacks.

Knight’s Lightning Spear

  • Increased attack power of the initial lightning spear.
  • Decreased attack power of the spears launched after the first one.
  • Decreased poise damage of all spears generated by this spell.

General balance adjustments

  • Increased damage animation of the Light Greatsword charge attacks against enemies (other than players).
  • Increased the stats & status of the following NPCs that can be summoned in some areas:
    • Needle Knight Leda / Pureblood Knight Ansbach / Thiollier
  • Increased the attack power and damage negation of summoned spirits, excluding the Mimic Tear, when the Revered Spirit Ash Blessing is at [5] or more.
  • Increased the attack power and damage negation of summoned spirits, excluding the Mimic Tear, when upgraded to “+8” or higher.

Armament

Increased attack power scaling when upgrading the following armaments.
Repeating Crossbow / Spread Crossbow / Rabbath’s Cannon

Shield of Night

  • Increased damage negation when blocking physical attacks.

Euporia

  • Increased Holy damage when the weapon has its luster restored.
  • Decreased the number of attacks required to restore the weapon’s luster.
  • Increased the duration of the luster restoration effect.

Golden Lion Shield

  • Increase guard strength.

Golem Fist

  • Added a damage hitbox to the hand portion of the ranged fist attack.

Smithscript Greathammer

  • Increased poise damage of the swing portion of throwing attacks (the projectile is unchanged).

Spread Crossbow

  • Decreased the generated status buildup when used with Bolts that have status effects.

Ailment Talisman

  • After the onset of a status ailment, the status build up (or duration) of said ailment will now also be reduced immediately by a certain amount.

Clarifying Horn Charm / Clarifying Horn Charm +1 / Clarifying Horn Charm +2

  • Increased Focus resistance.

Skill

Savage Lion’s Claw

  • Increased attack power and poise damage of the first attack.

Swift Slash

  • Reduced movement distance when using this skill
  • Extended recovery time.

Overhead Stance

  • Increased attack power against enemies (other than players).

Aspects of the Crucible: Wings

  • Increased attack power.
  • Increased directional control, as well as amount of poised generated when using this skill.

Lightspeed Slash

  • The additional light attacks are now affected by the attack power and ability scaling of the weapon.

Rancor Slash

  • Increased attack power of the vengeful spirits.
  • Increased stamina damage against guarding enemies.

Revenger’s Blade

  • Increased directional control for follow up attacks after a strong attack.

Horn Calling

  • Increased attack power against enemies (other than players).

Horn Calling: Storm

  • Increased attack power against enemies (other than players).

Weed Cutter

  • Increased the speed of attacks.

Romina’s Purification

  • Increased poise value when using this skill.

Red Bear Hunt

  • Increased attack power.
  • Increased poise value when using this skill.

Rancor Shot

  • Decreased status buildup generation when used with Arrows that have status effects.

Repeating Fire

  • Adjusted attack power to compensate for increase in weapon damage

Feeble Lord’s Frenzied Flame

  • Reduced Frenzy status effect buildup against enemies.

Revenge of the Night

  • Increased poise damage and attack power when this skill is used immediately after guarding against an enemy attack.

Spell

Glintblade Trio

  • Increased attack power.

Blades of Stone

  • Adjusted attack power of the first, second and third charge attacks.
  • Increased attack power of the non-charged attack.
  • Increased attack power of the first hit of the charged attack, and reduced attack power of the second and third hits.
  • Increased attack range and attack speed.

Glintstone Nail

  • Increased attack power and improved enemy tracking.

Glintstone Nails

  • Increased attack power and improved enemy tracking.

Impenetrable Thorns

  • All generated Impenetrable Thorns will now track enemies.
  • Decreased attack power and poise damage.
  • Decreased the Hemorrhage status buildup and stamina damage against guarding enemies.

Rings of Spectral Light

  • Increased attack power and Frostbite status buildup.

Vortex of Putrescence

  • Increased attack power and Frostbite status buildup.

Incantation

Minor Erdtree

  • Increased HP recovery amount.

Land of Shadow

  • Improved enemy tracking.

Spira

  • Increased attack speed.

Watchful Spirit

  • Improved enemy tracking.

Divine Beast Tornado

  • Increased attack power.
  • Enemies hit by the tornado will now be launched upwards.
  • The tornado will be less likely to disappear due to collision with the terrain.

Rain of Fire

  • Increased attack power.
  • Reduced the interval between each hit.

Roar of Rugalea

  • Increased poise damage and attack power.

Furious Blade of Ansbach

  • Increased attack power.

Rotten Butterflies

  • Increased Scarlet Rot status buildup.
  • Reduced the interval between damage ticks.
  • Increased attack range.

Ash

Wandering Noble

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Noble Sorcerer

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Nomad Ashes

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Putrid Corse

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Skeletal Militiaman

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Skeletal Bandit

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Albinauric

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Winged Misbegotten

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Demi-Human

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Clayman

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Oracle Envoys

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Man-Fly

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Lone Wolf Ashes

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Rotten Stray Ashes

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Giant Rat Ashes

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Warhawk

  • Increased HP, physical attack power and Fire attack power.
  • Increased Stance status.

Land Squirt

  • Increased HP.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Spirit jellyfish

  • Increased HP, physical attack power and poison status ailment buildup on enemies.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Spider Scorpion

  • Increased physical attack power, poison status ailment buildup on enemies and damage negation except for strike and fire attributes.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Fingercreeper

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Fanged Imp

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Bigmouth Imp

  • Increased HP and Fire attack power.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Gravebird

  • Increased HP and magic attack power.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Soldjar of Fortune

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Archers

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Greatshield Soldiers

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Page

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Vulgar Militia

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Marionette Soldier

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Avionette Soldier

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Kaiden Mercenary

  • Increased HP and physical attack power.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Mad Pumpkin Head

  • Increased physical attack power.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Fire Monks

  • Increased HP and Fire attack power.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Ancestral Follower

  • Increased physical attack power.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Horned Warrior

  • Increased HP and damage negation except for pierce attacks.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Azula Beastman

  • Increased HP and lightning attack power.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Man-Serpent

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Crystalian

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.
  • Increased physical attack power.

Kindred of Rot

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Bloodfiend Hexer’s

  • Increased hemorrhage status ailment buildup on enemies.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Glintstone sorcerer

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Twinsage Sorcerer

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Inquisitor

  • Increased HP.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Godrick Soldier

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Raya Lucaria Soldier

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Leyndell Soldier

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Radahn Soldier

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Haligtree Soldier

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Mausoleum Soldier

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Messmer Soldier

  • Increased Hp and physical attack power.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Stormhawk Deenh

  • Increased HP and physical attack power.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.
  • Increased duration of effect to increase the attack power given to allies.

Banished Knight Oleg

  • Increased physical attack power and damage negation against physical attacks.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Banished Knight Engval

  • Increased physical attack power and damage negation against physical attacks.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Bloodhound Knight Floh

  • Increased HP, physical attack power and damage negation against physical attacks.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Black Knight Captain Huw

  • Increased physical attack power and damage negation against physical attacks.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Black Knight Commander Andreas

  • Increased damage negation and guard boost against Holy and Physical attacks.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Fire Knight Hilde

  • Increased Fire attack power.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Fire Knight Queelign

  • Increased Vigor and Faith.

Swordhand of Night Jolán

  • Increased Vigor and Dexterity.

Jolán and Anna

  • Increased Vigor and Dexterity.

Battlemage Hugues

  • Increased physical attack power and magic attack power.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Latenna the Albinauric

  • Increased HP, physical attack power, and magic attack power.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Perfumer Tricia

  • Increased HP.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Depraved Perfumer Carmaan

  • Increased fire attack power.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Omenkiller Rollo

  • Increased HP, physical attack power, and Fire attack power.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Blackflame Monk Amon

  • Increased HP and Fire attack power.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Curseblade Meera

  • Increased HP and physical attack power.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Demi-Human Swordsman Yosh

  • Increased HP, physical attack power, and magic attack power.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Ancient Dragon Knight Kristoff

  • Increased Lightning attack power and damage negation against Physical, Lightning, and Holy Attack affinities.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Redmane Knight Ogha

  • Increased physical attack power and damage negation against Physical and Fire attack affinities.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Lhutel the Headless

  • Increased physical attack power and damage negation against physical attacks.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Cleanrot Knight Finlay

  • Increased physical attack power and damage negation against Physical, Magic, and Holy Attack affinities.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Black Knife Tiche

  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Divine Bird Warrior Ornis

  • Increased HP and damage negation against Physical attacks except Pierce attacks.
  • Will no longer stagger as easily.

Ancient Dragon Florissax

  • Increased Arcane.
  • Increased damage negation against all affinities.
  • Increased Skills and Incantations usage rate.
  • Increased the speed and poise values during some attacks.

Finger Maiden Therolina Puppet

  • Increased Vigor and Faith.

Jarwight Puppet

  • Increased Vigor.

Dolores the Sleeping Arrow Puppet

  • Increased Vigor.

Nepheli Loux Puppet

  • Increased Vigor and Strength.

Dung Eater Puppet

  • Increased Vigor.

Nightmaiden & Swordstress

  • Increased HP and physical attack power.

Bug Fixes

  • Changed the default selection of the OK / CANCEL prompt that shows up when using the “Spectral Steed Whistle” while the spectral steed is dead. The default selection position is now OK.
  • Adjusted the placement of NPC summon signs in certain boss fight areas.
  • Changed the NPC summon signs in certain boss fights to allow the user to summon NPCs simply by pressing the action button once.
  • Fixed a bug where the damage of some normal attacks of the Dark Moon Greatsword were lower than intended.
  • Fixed the physical attack attribute menu display of the “Warpick” weapon.
  • Fixed a bug where some attacks of the “Swift Spear” weapon were different than expected in terms of power, damage motion and hitbox generation timing.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented the “Twinblade Talisman” from affecting the Perfume Bottles weapon type when equipped and used in the left hand.
  • Fixed a bug where the physical attack attributes of some attacks of the Thrusting Shields weapon type were different than expected.
  • Fixed a bug that allowed the use of Arrows / Great Arrows / Bolts / Great Bolts that should not be usable for the following weapon types:
    Light Bows / Long Bows / Greatbows / Crossbows / Ballistas
  • Fixed a bug where the effect of increasing the power of the Incantation “Light of Miquella” of the “Circlet of Light” helmet was not applied correctly.
  • Fixed a bug that caused FP consumption when using the “Unending Dance” Skill while not meeting the ability requirements of the weapon “Dancing Blade of Ranah”.
  • Fixed a bug where the physical attack attribute of some attacks of the “Deadly Dance” Skill was different than expected.
  • Fixed a bug where the physical attack attribute of the “Scattershot Throw” Skill of the “Claws of Night” weapon was different than expected.
  • Fixed a bug where the following Skills did not change correctly when performed with or without FP.
  • Dynastic Sickleplay / Raging Beast / Repeating Crossbow Fire
    • Fixed a bug where a different Rage Art was sometimes performed when following up with a strong attack after using the “Raging Beast” and “Dynasty Sickleplay” Skills.
  • Fixed a bug that caused certain Skills to perform differently than expected under certain circumstances.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented some Spells / Incantations that can be used in the air from being used in the air under some conditions.
  • Fixed a bug that caused the “Golden Arcs” Incantation to generate attacks slower when cast with the left hand.
  • Fixed a bug where the “Rain of Fire” Incantation sometimes did not hit enemies.
  • Fixed a bug where the “Furious Blade of Ansbach” Incantation did not apply Hemorrhage status build up.
  • Fixed a bug where under some circumstances, the move distance when casting some Spells / Incantations was different than expected.
  • Fixed a bug that sometimes interrupted the cast of the “Roar of Rugalea” Incantation.
  • Fixed a bug where the “Cherishing Fingers” magic attack sometimes did not hit.
  • Fixed a bug in the behavior of the Mimic Tear spirit when casting Spells, Incantations and Skills.
  • Fixed a bug where NPCs could be summoned when the maximum number of cooperative multiplayer members had been reached.
  • Fixed a bug that caused some items to display different icons than expected.
  • Fixed a bug where exiting the game or going through a loading screen immediately after defeating “Count Ymir, Mother of Fingers” could make the dropped items unobtainable.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented the player from performing Critical hits on some enemies.
  • Fixed a bug in which some attacks on certain enemies were interpreted differently than expected.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented rune gains when defeating some enemies.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented some enemies from working properly under certain circumstances.
  • Fixed a bug where the Multiplayer area borders were different than intended in some areas.
  • Fixed a bug where the player would spawn in a different place than intended when invading another player’s world
  • Fixed a bug in the map menu that caused some NPC icons in the Realm of Shadow to not display properly.
  • Fixed a bug in the design of the map of Realm of Shadow and the “Map Fragment” icon.
  • Fixed a bug where some cutscenes were not displayed correctly under certain circumstances.
  • Fixed a bug where some sound effects did not play correctly.
  • Fixed a bug where some effects were not displayed correctly.
  • Several performance improvements and other bug fixes.

Steam-only adjustments

  • Fixed a bug where “Anti-aliasing Quality” was unintentionally set to “High” each time the game was restarted.

Correction of end credits

In update 1.12, an error was included in the credits of the game.

This issue will be corrected in the next update.

Possible unstable performance fixes

  • For the PS5 version of the game, unstable framerate may be improved by using the “Rebuild Database” option from the device’s safe mode.
  • In some PC versions, Ray Tracing may be unintentionally enabled and cause unstable performance. Please check the Ray Tracing setting in the “System” > “Graphics ” > “Ray Tracing Quality” from the title screen or in-game menu.
  • In the PC version, the message “Inappropriate activity detected” may appear without cheating.
  • To fix this issue, please verify the integrity of the game’s files before restarting the game.
  • App Ver. 1.13
    Regulation Ver. 1.13.1
  • In PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S versions, Regulation files can be downloaded by logging in to the server.
  • If the Regulation Ver. listed in the lower right corner of the title screen is not1.13.1, please select LOGIN and apply the latest regulation before enjoying the game.

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.

Best Video Game Deals Today (July 2024)

Buying new video games, hardware, and accessories for your preferred console doesn’t need to make a massive dent in your wallet. Deals happen all the time for items like these, so you can save money while investing in your favorite hobby. Some of our favorite deals at the moment are on this 3 month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership, which is down to $45 at Amazon, and this incredible all-time low discount on the PSVR 2 (down to $349), but there are plenty more to check out. Whether you play on PS5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, or PC, you’ll find the very best deals listed below. And if you’ve taken advantage of lots of these deals, see our roundup of game storage ideas.

PSVR 2 for $349 (was $550)

Any PlayStation fan who’s curious about virtual reality is in luck. Right now, in addition to launching a huge PS5 game sale, Sony is dropping prices on PSVR 2 to new all-time lows.

If all you want is the hardware itself, you can pick up this bundle that includes the headset, two PSVR 2 Sense controllers, and all the cables you need to play. This is a terrific deal, landing it at $150 less than the price of Meta Quest 3 (see at Amazon).

PSVR2 Horizon Call of the Mountain Bundle for $399.99 (was $600)

The bundle that includes the PSVR2 hardware, along with the flagship title Horizon Call of the Mountain, is also on sale. It costs $50 more than the non-bundle (and is probably worth picking up, imo; check out our Horizon Call of the Mountain review for details).

Best Xbox Game Pass Deals

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate has been discounted at Amazon, providing another opportunity for users to stack their membership at a discounted rate. Amazon has three-month memberships discounted to $45, which is well worth taking advantage of.

Considering the new price of Game Pass Ultimate is $19.99/month, you’re saving $15 with this 3-month deal. This is the best way to avoid the upcoming Xbox Game Pass price hike in September. By stacking these codes you can set yourself up for success to play all of their upcoming releases at a lower price.

Score a Nintendo Switch Lite with Animal Crossing for $159

Walmart still has this excellent deal available, which is worth taking advantage of if you’ve been hoping to get your hands on a Switch console. Right now, you can grab a Nintendo Switch Lite (Timmy & Tommy’s Aloha Edition) bundle with Animal Crossing for 20% off, marking it down to $159.

PS5 Slim Consoles on Sale (Save $50)

Sony’s Back to School Sale on several of their PlayStation products even includes the consoles. The PS5 Slim Disc Edition has dropped to $449.99 from its $500 MSRP and the PS5 Slim Digital Edition has dropped to $339.99 from its $450 MSRP. These deals will all expire on August 3.

Best Physical Game Deals

The summer sale events still have quite a lot to offer gamers. There are several excellent games discounted at the moment that are worth picking up, including incredible discounts on Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart for PS5 and Super Mario Bros. Wonder for Switch. Alongside those, there are several more PS5 games discounted at Amazon right now that are absolutely worth checking out, starting from $30.

More Physical Game Deals:

Best PC Game Deals

There are plenty of excellent deals for PC players to enjoy right now, from newer releases like Dragon’s Dogma 2 to God of War Ragnarok preorders for PC. More importantly, you can also score an excellent deal at Fanatical right now on Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. There’s no better time to journey to the Realm of Shadow. You can check out even more of our favorite PC game deals below.

More PC Game Deals:

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Alienware RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming PC for $1499.99

Do you prefer to play on a dedicated tower? Navigating the options online can be quite the ordeal. Desk space, portability, and price point are often factors in the decision. However, there are some great PC deals that pop up every now and again that are worth jumping on. One of our favorite deals at the moment is on this Alienware RTX 4070 SUPER Gaming PC, which is available for $1499.99. To see even more PC deals, check out our roundup of the best gaming PC deals.

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Perfect PS5 2TB SSD for $105 at Amazon

SSD prices have been rising in 2024, making now the perfect time to buy with significant discounts available. This is one of the best deals on a 2TB SSD post-Prime Day: Amazon is offering the TEAMGROUP MP44Q 2TB SSD for just $104.99. It, unfortunately, does not have a heatsink so you’ll have to invest in one, but you can easily do that here for under $10. It also offers transfer speeds of up to 7,400MB/s read and 6,500MB/s write.

Our Favorite Micro SD Cards for Switch and Steam Deck Are On Sale

The best Switch or Steam Deck SD card should be fast, reliable, and as future-proof as possible. That last one is important, as it was recently revealed a Switch successor will be announced within the fiscal year. Therefore, you’re going to want to opt for the latest in SD card tech, which is a micro SDXC UHS-I U3 A2 V30 memory card. That’s a lot of random letters, so to save you a bit of time we’ve left our top suggestions and deals just below for your convenience. To see even more SD card deals, make sure to check out our roundup of the best SD card deals.

More SD Card Deals

Our Favorite Power Bank for Steam Deck is Discounted Right Now

Some excellent power banks are discounted at the moment that are perfectly portable and packing plenty of power to keep you going. In particular, the fantastic Anker 737 Power Bank is down to $109.99. This is a great discount on a reliable power bank that likely won’t last long, so grab it at this price while you can!

Select Xbox Controllers Down to $44

There are quite a few discounts on Xbox controllers right now at Amazon. While not as low as they were during the two-day Prime Day sale event, they’re still worth picking up at these prices. The Robot White, Shock Blue, Velocity Green, and Carbon Black controllers have dropped down to $44, but you can see even more controller deals below.

More Xbox Controller Deals

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Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.

Activision Secretly Turned Off Skill-Based Matchmaking in Call of Duty as an Experiment; Players Hated It

Pop into the Call of Duty subreddit on any given day, and you’re almost certainly going to trip over a few people complaining about SBMM, or skill-based matchmaking, and how it’s ruining Call of Duty. But according to a recent study by developer Activision, getting rid of SBMM would be far, far worse for the game as a whole, and it’s got the data to prove it.

In a 25-page white paper published last week, Activision reveals that it actually conducted an experiment in 2023’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 where it reduced SBMM for some of its players, resulting in more players quitting games or not coming back to the game for more sessions.

Matches Made in…Heaven?

Currently, Activision says the way matchmaking works in Call of Duty is by taking into account a number of factors. Top priority is player connection quality and the time it takes to enter a match, but other factors including skill, platform, recent maps and modes, and other things are considered too. And skill itself is a complex equation that takes into account individual match total kills, kill/death ratios, and kills/deaths by enemy ratios (to ensure players can’t drop their skill levels on purpose by self-killing). Skill levels are recalculated after every match, and Activision says it’s constantly trying to find a happy balance of ensuring players aren’t seeing wild swings in where the game thinks they’re at, but also to adjust quickly if a player’s having an off day or trying out a new loadout. In short, it’s skill calculations and matchmaking are finnicky processes, but Activision is doing the best it can.

In the study earlier this year, Activision ran a “deprioritize skill test” where the developers decreased skill’s importance in matchmaking in the algorithm, but did not shut it off entirely. It ran the test for 50% of its North American playerbase for a two-week period in early 2024, and the results are… pretty conclusive!

In Figure 3 we can observe the percent difference in the number of players returning after 14 days between the treatment and control groups. With deprioritized skill, returning player rate was down significantly for 90% of players. The 10% of highest skilled players came back in increased numbers, but in aggregate, we see meaningfully fewer players coming back to the game. This effect may appear small, but this change was observable within the duration of the test. This will compound over time, just like interest, and will have a meaningful impact on our player population. This is a concern for all players, including the top 10%, as if this pattern is allowed to continue, players will exit the game in increased numbers. Eventually a top 10% player will become a top 20% player, and eventually a top 30% player, until only the very best players remain playing the game. Those original top players will become increasingly likely to not return to the game. Ultimately, this will result in a worse experience for all players, as there will be fewer and fewer players available to play with.

While single-digit percentages might not seem like a lot, given the sheer volume of participants over a relatively short period of time, this is a fairly significant difference in drop-off. What’s more, Activision expects that based on other studies it has done over time, this would compound. If left unchecked, the lowest-skilled players would disappear at higher rates, meaning only players of higher skill levels would remain. Maybe that sounds great for the higher-skilled players, but in the smaller pool of players, those who had previously been mid-level would now be the lowest-skilled, and would themselves start to drop off at higher rates. Basically, it’s bad news for player retention all around, and retention is necessary to keep an online game alive.

Skill Issues

The paper details other data as well, including a similar survey where Activision tightened the skill constraints in matchmaking and saw inverse results: higher-skilled players dropped off at higher rates, but lower-skilled players stuck around more frequently. It also saw a higher rate of “blowouts” (when one team wins a match with a significantly higher score than the losing team) when skill was deprioritized, which players find less fun, and lower kill-per-minute rates with lower-skilled players. Basically, when SSBM was turned down low, the vast majority of players had less fun, and didn’t come back to play the game more as frequently as when SSBM was on.

In response, players have expressed skepticism about the study. Some point out that the algorithm is too aggressive and shouldn’t recalculate skill after every single game, while others point out that a matchmaking system based on wins/losses would be better than the numerical system Activision uses. It’s a controversial subject, one that online gamers and Call of Duty players in particular have been debating for years. Much of it boils down to, it’s fun to win and less fun to lose, and losing a lot feels exceptionally bad. Should players who are very good at the game be rewarded by being allowed to win a lot against random pools of players, or should games like Call of Duty try to balance the experience by pitting players against others of relatively equal skill so everyone wins and loses a roughly equal amount over time? Activision, at any rate, is erring on the side of keeping more players playing Call of Duty for longer.

You can read the entire white paper here for some fascinating data on how Call of Duty matches players against one another, and there was another paper from back in April that examines the impact of matchmaking based on ping.

In our review, we gave Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s multiplayer a 6/10, saying it “reheats and reserves the same multiplayer from Modern Warfare 2 with some extra maps and tweaks as garnishes.” And Activision just dropped its Season 5 update last week, with a long list of balance change and improvements for that multiplayer mode.

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

Best PS5 and PlayStation Deals Today (July 2024)

The big Prime Day sale event may be officially over and done with, but there are still quite a few discounts lingering around. We’ve gathered up some of our favorite PS5 deals below, including all-time low prices on PS5 Slim and PS5 Slim digital, and the first (and best) ever deal on PSVR2 which is $200 off. These deals scratch the surface of what’s available now though. Below, you can also find other deals on everything from consoles to SSDs and even information on where to buy a PS5 now.

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PSVR 2 for $349 (was $550)

Any PlayStation fan who’s curious about virtual reality is in luck. Right now, in addition to launching a huge PS5 game sale, Sony is dropping prices on PSVR 2 to new all-time lows.

If all you want is the hardware itself, you can pick up this bundle that includes the headset, two PSVR 2 Sense controllers, and all the cables you need to play. This is a terrific deal, landing it at $150 less than the price of Meta Quest 3 (see at Amazon).

PSVR2 Horizon Call of the Mountain Bundle for $399.99 (was $600)

The bundle that includes the PSVR2 hardware, along with the flagship title Horizon Call of the Mountain, is also on sale. It costs $50 more than the non-bundle (and is probably worth picking up, imo; check out our Horizon Call of the Mountain review for details).

Best PS5 Video Game Deals

Amazon has an excellent sale going on at the moment on a variety of PS5 games. Some are discounted all the way down to $30, including Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Horizon Forbidden West, Returnal, and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, but there are a few more on sale that are available at slightly higher prices.

Marked down to $40 are The Last of Us Part II Remastered, God of War Ragnarök, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition, and Gran Turismo 7, while Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is enjoying a nice $20 discount to $50. Many of these are limited time offers as well, so grab ’em while you can at these lower prices!

Perfect PS5 2TB SSD for $105 at Amazon

SSD prices have been rising in 2024, making now the perfect time to buy with significant discounts available. This is one of the best deals on a 2TB SSD post-Prime Day: Amazon is offering the TEAMGROUP MP44Q 2TB SSD for just $104.99. It, unfortunately, does not have a heatsink so you’ll have to invest in one, but you can easily do that here for under $10. It also offers transfer speeds of up to 7,400MB/s read and 6,500MB/s write.

PS5 Slim Consoles on Sale (Save $50)

Sony’s Back to School Sale on several of their PlayStation products even includes the consoles. The PS5 Slim Disc Edition has dropped to $449.99 from its $500 MSRP and the PS5 Slim Digital Edition has dropped to $339.99 from its $450 MSRP. These deals will all expire on August 3.

PlayStation Portal Back In Stock

Best PS5 Headset Deals: 33% Off the HyperX Cloud Gaming Headset & More Deals

There’s no shortage of PS5-compatible headsets. If you’re constantly having to turn down the volume when you play, you might want to pick up one of these, then you can listen to your games as loud as you darn well please. And if you’d like to see even more options that are worth buying, check out our collection of the best gaming headsets.

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How to Trade in Your Old PlayStation Consoles

If you’re looking to trade in your old PlayStation consoles, you can do so at select retailers in-store and online. Often, the most widely available retailers are GameStop and Best Buy. However, you can also trade your used devices online at retailers such as Amazon and Microsoft.

Some retailers will offer you cash for your used goods, while others may provide you with a gift card that can be used in-store and online. This is a great way to offload your old gaming gear and get some money that you can put towards a newer console and games.

While trading devices in at retailers will often net you the lowest amount for your used consoles, there are also online marketplaces such as eBay, Craigslist, and OfferUp that may fetch higher prices, but you’ll often be responsible for packing and shipping costs, or be required to meet someone in person for the transaction, the latter of which poses its own risks.

With how expensive gaming is getting in 2024, we’re trying to save you as much money as possible on the games and other tech you actually want to buy. We’ve got great deal roundups available for all major platforms such as Switch and Xbox, and we keep these updated daily with brand new offers. If you’re trying to keep costs down while maintaining your favorite hobby, stay tuned for more incredible discounts.

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.

The WD Black C50 1TB Expansion Card for Xbox Series X|S Is on Sale Today

Amazon has dropped the price on the officially licensed WD Black C50 1TB Expansion Card for Xbox Series consoles. Right now it’s only $129.99, an 18% off price drop from its original $150 MSRP. It’s currently $10 cheaper than the Seagate model. The C50 is one of the best SSDs for the Xbox, which isn’t surprising since your options are pretty limited.

WD Black C50 1TB Expansion Card for Xbox for $129.99

The WD Black C50 expansion card is essentially a 1TB NVME SSD encased in a specialized Xbox-compatible shell. Unlike the more complex PS5 SSD installation process, which involves opening up the PS5 to access the SSD slot, the Seagate expansion card simply plugs into its dedicated port on the back of the Xbox.

This expansion card offers the same speed as the internal SSD, ensuring that you won’t sacrifice performance or encounter extended load times as you might with a regular USB drive. With a 1TB expansion card, you can double the storage on your Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S Carbon Black Edition console, and triple the storage on your OG (white) Xbox Series S console.

In contrast to the PS5, there are no alternative methods for adding high-speed storage to your Xbox console. Your options are limited to either the WD or Seagate expansion cards, underscoring the importance of seizing a good deal when one becomes available.

Looking for more Xbox accessories? Check out the best Xbox deals today.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian Adventures Board Game Review

When it comes to the best Star Wars board games, you have a lot of great choices. The Queen’s Gambit, for instance, recreates the multi-front finale of The Phantom Menace. Star Wars: Rebellion captures the breadth of the original trilogy in a three-hour epic. The Mandalorian Adventures is the latest tabletop take on Star Wars, and it’s shooting for a somewhat smaller scope. This new release is content to capture several key moments from the first season of The Mandalorian, presenting these encounters as 40-minute firefights with color, tension, and a minimal amount of overhead. Just like the show upon which it’s based, this is a splendid slice of Star Wars that packs some new surprises while managing to call back to the spirit of the franchise.

This is a very straightforward and approachable game. The Lord of the Rings Adventure Book Game immediately comes to mind, as the structure here is similar. Play is focused around a spiral-bound book that forms the board. Each new scenario moves on to a subsequent page, allowing for quick setup and minimal storage space. While there is a main rulebook, missions themselves introduce new rules and tweaks that are printed alongside the map. It’s a relatively seamless experience to work through the book and internalize the additional details.

The core system is simple and surprisingly interesting. Players cooperate to take down game-controlled foes and accomplish the scenario objective. You can choose between characters such as Mando, IG-11, and Greef Karga. Each possesses their own unique deck of cards and abilities. On your turn you perform two actions, but the effectiveness of each action is variable and depends on the card you play. So, if you play a four-strength card to move, then you will move four spaces. A two-strength card to attack means you inflict two damage, and so on. Some cards include special ability text that offers additional benefits. This system is interesting because it’s a blend of a straightforward two-action turn with variance in action points. Furthermore, the way enemy response plays off this card system is splendid.

These action cards are played in slots on the board. All of the cards any player spends to move go into the “move” slot, for instance. Once one of the slots receives a total of five or more strength total, the enemy phase triggers and a card is drawn. This emphasizes the strength of the game in presenting tense and nuanced systems with the absolute minimal amount of rules weight. It enforces timing constraints and facilitates discussion between players, because you may hold off on throwing down that powerful card so that one of your buddies gets to go before the enemies trigger.

This is a very straightforward and approachable game.

This tension is important, as it’s the primary source of drama. All damage is set by the power of your attack card or the activation card drawn for the enemies. No dice are rolled, so the dynamism is entirely encapsulated in the card play. This works to increase the speed of the game and achieve that brief playtime at the expense of a more nuanced combat system. That makes sense, as this game is aimed at less experienced players as well as dedicated hobbyists.

Despite the relative simplicity, Mandalorian Adventures has an almost puzzle-like feel. The difficulty, while able to be tweaked, is formidable enough that it requires thought and discussion on how players will approach their turns. Often, you will use what information you have in combination with gut instinct to formulate a plan. Analyzing the board state is essential to success.

One of the most intriguing aspects is in how it bridges the gap between those two levels of players. Each scenario is standalone, as this is not a campaign game. However, it wants you to engage the missions in order on your first playthrough. This is because there is an accompanying deck of cards that gives you step-by-step instructions on what to play next. It’s a key component in introducing new rules in bite-sized pieces, rules that you can then apply to all games going forward. New content is also added to play and the system adjustments are considerable. By your fifth session, the game will have grown quite a bit in density, but it will have been an effortless journey.

In addition to this large deck of cards, there are two full-sized envelopes. They contain additional ways to play or modify existing scenarios. Once you have finished revealing everything, you will have numerous ways to enjoy the game. It’s an interesting concept, one indicative of publisher Unexpected Games’ design philosophy. They presented a similar approach with their debut title, The Initiative (see at Amazon). That game also presented new content during the course of play and shook up expectations.

This methodology, of breaking up the experience into a gradual arc of play, and then throwing in several optional modules to re-experience existing scenarios, is very effective. One such example, mentioned in the game’s core rulebook and hence not technically a spoiler, is the inclusion of a traitor mode of play. This is a set of cards where players are given a randomized loyalty with the chance of one character being a traitor to the group. This is excellent as it touches upon the themes of trust and honor present in the television series. You can add these cards into any existing scenario to spice it up. This mode is completely optional and not the standard way to play. In fact, it’s probably best to hold off on this until you’ve played several sessions, as the traitor mode is somewhat fragile and can result in uneven plays. Yet, when it comes together with a perfectly timed reveal, it’s wonderfully cinematic.

There’s a good deal of depth here in exploring the system and additional content. It manages to elevate the experience, achieving a status above the comparably mellow Lord of the Rings Adventure Book Game. The Mandalorian Adventures is not likely to supplant Star Wars: Rebellion or Imperial Assault for fans of those more robust and weighty titles, but it’s a surprisingly devious game that captures a solid amount of tension with simple and interesting systems. It is very flexible, supporting solitaire play or even multiple participants sharing characters by shuffling all of the cards into a single deck. This really is a stellar box that offers much more than appears on the surface.

Where to Buy

Save 25% Off the Stonemaier Expeditions Board Game for a Limited Time

Today, Amazon is offering the Stonemaier Expeditions board game for only $63.50, a 25% discount from its original $85 MSRP and the lowest price we’ve ever seen for this 2023 release. This is a limited “Lightning Deal” that will expire when a certain number have been sold.

Stonemaier Expeditions Board Game for $63.50

Stonemaier is no stranger to the board gaming world. They’ve produced some excellent games like Wingspan (and its spinoff Wyrmspan), Scythe, and Viticulture. Expeditions was released in 2023 and it is the sequel to Stonemaier’s popular Scythe game. It takes place in the same mecha-industrial setting as Scythe, but with complete different game mechanics and goals. This time around, there’s more of an emphasis on exploration over warfare with a more horror feel. Scythe is a very complex board with many moving pieces, and Expeditions is no different. Check out our Expeditions review for more details.

Looking for options? Check out the 17 best board games to play in 2024.

Throne and Liberty’s Beta Is Fun But Doesn’t Do Enough to Stand Out

I’ve done my time in major MMOs like Final Fantasy 14 and World of Warcraft, but outside of that I’ve only dabbled in the various other forms this subgenre can take. So when I say that Throne and Liberty isn’t quite rising to my past experiences with massively multiplayer dungeon-diving, loot-grinding, and boss-slaying, it’s an opinion coming largely from a “normie.” That said, both FF14 and WoW have big expansions launching the same year as this, NCSOFTs Guild Wars 2 follow up, and though its world is beautiful and its combat grows into a compelling and active ballet of skill interactions, the largely boring story and repetitive quest design I experienced in my 10 or so hours with the Open Beta makes me worried for Throne and Liberty’s chances at unseating the kings of the genre.

It is a great-looking game, though. The character creator lets you customize your avatar with some commendable levels of detail. And no matter what you put together, the end result will look fantastic, and shows no signs of the sort of player character uncanny valley that some games suffer from, where the overall quality of your PC is lower than the handcrafted NPCs from the developers. The world is pretty stunning, too. Once you see the huge flying whale for the first time, you’ll go quite a few hours before you see something that majestic again, but the environments you’ll travel through on your journey are rich in color and detail. I really loved the swampy forest overrun by spiders and the colorful plains with giant wild birds that are Definitely Not Chocobos. Even better, all of this runs remarkably smoothly. Becoming your own mount and morphing into a wild cat to sprint through cities or fast traveling from location to location loads lightning fast and in real time no matter how many people are on screen.

You’re going to do quite a lot of traveling from place to place, guided around by a completely unremarkable story about magically blessed youngsters growing into warriors of destiny, and the various factions in the world of Solisium that want to use them for their own gain. I didn’t get too far into it – only around chapter 5, which is halfway through the available content at the time – but none of it stood out as compelling. Thanks to a reliable narrator that recaps important parts of the story I did soon after doing them, I found myself skipping through much of the bland dialogue in non-cinematic exchanges.

The bulk of the quests both on the main path and side missions are pretty run-of-the-mill MMO fare.

The bulk of the quests both on the main path and side missions are pretty run-of-the-mill MMO fare. You’re gonna be collecting pieces of the local wildlife to make a potion, find missing people, do a stint as a mail carrier, etc. There’s a steady pace of new things to learn and do as you go along, but Throne and Liberty treating the main story as an elongated tutorial gave me a bit of anxiety about how to use all of the random stuff I was getting as rewards, to the point where I was very conservative with how I spent any loot because I didn’t what to spend it on upgrading something if I was only going to learn that I could have spent it on something else in the next couple of quest phases. Every region of the map has its own specific side tasks, which are worth completing for their rewards even if you aren’t usually the type to make sure all of their boxes get checked. These are more likely to feature more interesting missions or puzzles to solve than the main quest, but there’s plenty of “kill X of Y” here, too. I didn’t get to see too many of these myself, but I chatted with a few folks in my travels who described some more complex platforming missions in instances that I definitely wanted to try out myself.

You’ll do a great deal of fighting on your journey, of course, and its active combat is Throne and Liberty’s standout feature. Players aren’t restricted by classes. The pair of weapons they choose to wield determines what abilities are available to them. Similar to NCSOFT’s other big MMO, Guild Wars 2, fights require lots of positional awareness, and skills have lots of synergies with one another both within and across weapon types, and encourage lots of trial and error to figure out the best combinations for getting the most out of them. Every weapon has an auto attack pattern and can parry enemies’ big attacks so long as you hit the button prompt just right, and each weapon has their own set of follow-up attacks that take great advantage of the opening you made. This mechanic seems ancillary against smaller foes, but against bosses and other strong enemies, defense is a must if you’re going to make it out of their clutches alive. Mastery of it was an absolute must in the Bloody Palace-style boss rush mode where you face off one-on-one with tough foes that have lots of power and small margins for error.

I used the greatsword and the staff, giving me lots of power and health in melee and also some escape tools and long-range magical options. I used them mostly to charge into close combat, blast all of my abilities, then use a magical freezing cloud to leap me away from enemies and blast them with fire and lighting bolts until they closed the distance. These abilities have more direct synergies, too. Greatsword players have access to a skill that can stun targets, and can follow it up with another skill that does bonus damage to stunned foes. The staff can put burning conditions on your opponents, and a second bigger fire spell will do more damage to enemies with burning stacks on them. Late in the beta I experimented with some cross weapon synergy with other weapon options like the wand, which focuses on debuffing and healing, with some promising results.

Most of the stuff I got up to like big world events where I had to race other players to collect the most macguffins from orcs, or smaller, more simple fetch quests, rewarded me mostly in money and gear upgrade materials. . It’s a double-edged sword, because though much of the source of your ever-growing power outside of your characters leveling up also comes through leveling up your gear, but a lot of that gear is bland and boring through much of your climb. I was around the mid-to-late 20s in level when I logged off for the last time from the beta, and I had only picked up two different swords – neither particularly impressive in looks or stats. Armor was a bit more dynamic, but I had almost no connection to the loot I was grabbing at all outside of making the numbers go up. I can’t speak to how that shakes out towards the higher levels, where one would expect equipment to get more exotic, but trudging there means that the only things you’re slaying are bad guys.

Overall, I certainly enjoyed most of my time with Throne and Liberty. There are big, late-game things that I want to come back and participate in, like large-scale PVP battles between guilds and raid dungeons. The story and quests won’t upend any long-standing MMO conventions. The inner voice that usually commands me to make sure every task that can be done must be done very quietly let me skip through slow dialogue and turn a blind eye to many menial side tasks. I never skipped an opportunity to fight, though. The parry system mixed with the joy of discovering sick skill combos across the various weapons available to you was by and large the most fun I could find in my time with it, and might be enough for me to come back to test my mettle against the cream of the crop when Throne and Liberty finally launches in September.