Sneak peek at what's coming next. Stay tuned for more details!
Hey folks,
We’re getting close to wrapping up Hotfix #4, and once that’s out the door, we’re going to slow things down a bit to focus on more substantial changes. Patch 1 will be the first of those bigger updates.
This post is a breakdown of what we’re aiming to get into Patch 1—some of it’s polish, some of it’s structural stuff, and a lot of it comes directly from the feedback you’ve been giving us since the launch of Breach.
I just went over some of the internal discussions we had and used ChatGPT to make a nice little summary. This stuff is still subject to change, but I thought it’d be helpful if everyone would get a first idea of what we’ve been discussing internally.
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Realm Tiers (Difficulty Options)One of the bigger ideas we’re testing is the introduction of Realm Tiers—basically a difficulty system. This came out of internal discussions around how Elden Ring hit a much broader audience than previous Souls games, partly because it was more accessible.
We want to give players the ability to pick a tier that feels right for them. This should make the early game less punishing for new players while still allowing more experienced folks to crank up the challenge.
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Native Utility RunesUtility Runes aren’t used too much by players even though they’re incredibly useful! We see a lot of players complaining about running out of food, not even realizing that there are other ways to heal yourself already implemented, so we wanna address that in a cool way.
Here’s what we’re changing:
- You’ll have access to a basic “heal aura” rune by default (bound to RT + X).
- You’ll be able to equip up to 4 utility runes at Eleanor’s that are always available, no matter what weapon you’re using.
- The gesture wheel is moving to Hold Select, and tapping Select will still bring up the map.
This should clean up the whole “utility stick” problem and make utility runes a lot more desirable.
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Free Fast Travel Between WhispersOne of the more common requests: Let us fast travel between discovered Whispers.
So that’s exactly what we’re doing. In Patch 1, you’ll be able to travel freely between all unlocked Whispers, not just the last one you touched. I’ve recently talked about my hesitations about Free Fast Travel and mentioned that it might hurt the ALIVE system, but since the ALIVE System doesn’t have all the features we ultimately want yet, we will make this change for now.
Also, ultimately we will allow players to customize their realms so that we create more of a D&D feeling where players can get a ton of replayability out of playing Wicked with different rulesets each time. I think that’ll be especially cool for Co-Op!
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Gem Extraction at EleanorWe’re adding a way to remove gems from weapons at Eleanor. Currently, once a gem is slotted, that’s it—it’s locked in. In Patch 1, you’ll be able to extract them and try different builds without worrying about ruining a weapon.
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Ledge Protection for Rune AttacksWe already have some ledge protection in place for normal melee combos, but rune attacks still let you fling yourself off cliffs way too easily.
That’s getting addressed. Rune attacks will no longer ignore ledge safety.
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Fall Damage TweaksThe current fall damage formula is pretty punishing. If you drop off something slightly too high, you get chunked hard.
We’re easing that curve so smaller falls don’t hurt so much. You’ll still die from extreme falls (so no cheesing), but the in-between stuff will feel fairer.
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Ranged Gameplay PassA lot of feedback came in around how ranged builds feel punished right now. Having everything cost Focus means you’re constantly forced into melee just to regenerate.
We’re looking at separating that out:
- Basic ranged attacks (bows, basic spells) will use stamina instead of Focus.
- We’ll tune damage and attack speed to avoid ranged builds deleting enemies before they reach you.
The goal is to let ranged feel like a valid playstyle again. This one is difficult and might not make it, but we’re trying our best to address this issue!
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Input Delay FixesSome users have recently reported some Input Delay issues. We’re investigating and will fix that.
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Parry Feedback ImprovementsWe’ve heard that parrying doesn’t feel as satisfying as it could—especially when compared to games like Sekiro or Elden Ring.
This is mostly a presentation issue (VFX, SFX, camera shake), so we’ll do a quick polish pass to make parries hit harder and feel better to land.
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Loot That Matches the ChallengeRight now, loot is fully RNG, even from hard-to-reach shinies. That doesn’t feel great.
We’re marking certain shinies as “special”, and giving them a much better loot table. If something was a pain to get to, it should have a better shot at giving you something good.
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More Weekly Bounties & ChallengesThere are currently not enough weekly quests—and once you finish them, that’s it until the reset.
We’re going to add more weekly bounties and challenges to fill that gap and give players more goals to chase between major content drops.
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Missing TutorialsA lot of tutorials didn’t make it into the Breach update. We’re adding those in for Patch 1 so that key systems are explained properly. That won’t solve everything, but it’s a start.
More comprehensive onboarding is still something we’ll look at separately.
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Better Grinding FlowThere’s been a lot of feedback that farming for resources feels grindy compared to how often you’re actually fighting things.
We’re looking at a few things here:
- Rebalancing drop rates and crafting costs.
- Possibly adding little interactive mechanics (think Paper Mario-style timing events) to make farming a bit more active and fun.
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More Side Content Post-SacramentRight now, when players hit Sacrament, the only next step is Nameless Pass, which is a pretty steep level jump if you’re coming in early.
We want to add something in between—some kind of optional content that helps players level up a bit without just sending them back to old zones.
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Cleaning Up Realm CheesingPeople are still creating fresh realms just to re-farm items they couldn’t find in their main one. That tells us we need to:
- Make loot drops more predictable.
- Make it obvious where to find what (e.g., if you need gems, do this, if you need plague ichor, do that, etc).
Every major activity in the game should be a solid farming path for something specific.
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Housing: Chest Carpets + NamingSmall QoL thing, but useful for decorators:
- We’re adding small carpets you can place under your chests, with icons to help you remember what each chest is for.
- Stretch goal: Allow naming chests so you don’t have to memorize your layout.
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Final NotesPatch 1 is shaping up to be a pretty big one, and most of what’s in here came directly from player feedback—so thanks for continuing to share your thoughts and frustrations. We’re listening, and we’re excited to keep pushing the game forward with you.
Let us know what you’re most looking forward to, and we’ll keep you posted as we lock things in.
— Thomas