Lords of the Fallen News

• New Questline Event: The Way of the Bucket
  
• New Spells Pack #1
  
• Fall prevention when attacking
  
• Improved matchmaking
  
• Umbral ending fix

When time came to do or die, they emerged from their throes,
With meagre improvisations, spreading such desperate blows.
Should you as well seek meaning in these humble souls' disguise,
Don makeshift twin attire and find the one that lies.
Salute, attest and once more show honour to their semblance,
And you’ll amass the sincere gifts of one held in remembrance.
Yet hoard not without measure, show mutual regard,
For greed amongst the downtrodden is seen as truly marred.

Vortex of Torment

Summon a Radiant cyclone which inflicts physical damage and bleed buildup.

The Tolling

Unleash a wave of Radiant magic which inflicts holy damage and is capable of knocking down enemies.

Blistering Salvo

Unleash a volley of infernal darts which inflict physical damage and burn buildup.

Rising Fire

Summon several orbs of fire which explode following a short delay, inflicting fire damage and ignite buildup.

Pallid Bile

Unleash a torrent of Umbral magic, inflicting wither damage and poison buildup.

Septic Heave

Hurl several putrid orbs which inflict physical damage and poison buildup.

• Added additional precalculated PSOs to further reduce micro-stuttering throughout the game world.
  
• Removed redundant collisions only on far-distance assets in the Empyrean Vista. All affected elements are out of the gameplay area.
  
• Improved performance in the level art of the Upper Calrath nobles area by removing cast shadows from numerous assets without any impact on quality.
  
• Optimized the Umbral level in Skyrest Bridge (Rampart and Parapet) by deleting hidden meshes and adjusting camera occlusion and pixel depth in certain meshes.
  
• Second pass to reduce the number of actors casting shadows (small objects and minor details) in the Manse of the Hallowed Brothers. No loss in quality.
  
• Second pass to reduce the number of actors casting shadows (small objects and minor details) in the Tower of Penance. No loss in quality.

• Increased Scarlet Shadow's senses to ensure it acquires the player as a target even in edge cases where it spawns far away from the player.
  
• Linked the Ruiner to a leashing volume to prevent him from leaving the intended encounter area in Lower Calrath.
  
• Added additional collisions for enemies spawning on the floor of Skyrest Bridge.
  
• Filled a missing navmesh hole in one spot of Pilgrim's Perch to improve AI navigation.
  
• Fixed an AI that was not following its patrol in the Manse of the Hallowed Brothers.
  
• A very treacherous NPC now says different things when defeating the player. Still obnoxious, but with style.

• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck near a crystal in Bramis Castle.
  
• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck in Anchor Between Realms.
  
• Fixed an issue where players could get out of world in The Empyrean.
  
• Fixed minor clipping issues on some stairs in Fief of the Chill Curse.
  
• Fixed an issue with a missing wall collision in Abbey of the Hallowed Sisters.
  
• Fixed an issue where players could get out of world in Manse of the Hallowed Brothers.
  
• Adjusted moth walls to prevent players from leaving Otto's boss encounter.
  
• Adjusted the location of a chest to avoid players getting stuck in Forsaken Fen.
  
• Placed blocking volume to prevent the player from jumping on a specific branch in Fief of the Chill Curse.
  
• Fixed issues where players could skip certain areas in Fief of the Chill Curse.
  
• Adjusted a flower bed near the Bellroom Vestige that could cause issues with gameplay.
  
• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck at a rock near the Tower of Penance.
  
• Fixed an issue where players could skip the Pieta boss fight encounter by climbing up the Fire Giant's corpse.

• Improved player character turning animation for turning at very slow speed.
  
• Added a missing base to one of the statues in Abbey of the Hallowed Sisters.
  
• Improved the specular and brightness for several weapons and armors sets materials.

In what I think is a brilliant community-driven move, Hexworks is today releasing a Lords of the Fallen bucket-themed questline as part of its free post-launch roadmap. The quest taps into one of the ways the players have taken off with a small part of the game, similarly to many of the NPCs and weapons in FromSoftware's Dark Souls. There's even a LOTF sale starting soon as part of Black Friday, so if you're here after being interested in the game, now's the time to jump in.

Read the rest of the story...

RELATED LINKS:

New Lords of the Fallen roadmap brimming with incredible free DLC

Lords of the Fallen update adds crossplay, overhauls New Game Plus

Lords of the Fallen's NG+ plans will blow Dark Souls out of the water

• We've successfully completed a custom engine improvement to allow us to use nanite for all Umbral meshes which should mean a noticeable improvement on performance while in Umbral (for the brave few who’ll hang around long enough to notice) This is in addition to our usual overall performance improvements in several areas of the game, specified below in the notes.
  
• New lock-on system activated! We've been extensively testing different options, and believe the simpler approach of locking-on to the centre of the screen is the most effective one. So we’ve made this the new default setting, though you still have the ability to switch to other lock-on options in settings, including "Legacy" (the previous default).
  
• The first step of our PVP/PVE balancing split is here, with much more to come in the near future! We can now start independently balancing spells, so today’s update focuses on the most overpowered spells and ranged abilities (based on feedback and internal telemetry) for PVP only - this has ZERO impact on PVE.
  
• By popular demand, we've finalized a complete overhaul to all bosses in the game. It was clear (both from your feedback and our internal findings) that many bosses simply weren’t posing enough of a challenge, so we have rebalanced some behaviors, as well as their hit points and damage output, to ensure they pose the correct level of difficulty at that point in your journey. Please find further details below.
  
• We have integrated the latest version of DLSS3, meaning you can now manually activate the most recent Frame Generation update by using a special command (-DLSSFG). Once we confirm through Sentry that this new FG is stable, we'll activate it for everyone with 40 series by default.
  
• Furthermore, in collaboration with NVIDIA and AMD, we've activated additional data for Sentry reports to gather more details on the remaining hardware that is unfortunately still experiencing some crashes in our game. This will help us pinpoint the issues both quicker and more accurately, and enable our partners to update the GPU drivers accordingly.

• Precision prioritizes enemies that are closer to the center of your screen within a specified maximum limit (enemies on the borders are ignored).
  
• Dynamic prioritizes enemies that are closer to the center of the screen without limits. This is the default option.
  
• Proximity prioritizes enemies that are nearest to the player.
  
• Legacy represents the original Lock-On system from the game's launch.

• We've updated NVIDIA's DLSS3 streamline, but we have not activated Frame Generation by default yet. We'll do so once we secure its stability. To enable it, you can use this command in Steam: Lords > Properties > Launch Options and enter '-DLSSFG.' This will activate the Frame Generation option in your Graphics settings if you are using a 40 series.
  
• In collaboration with EPIC, we've fixed an engine loading deadlock that can happen when using low profile CPUs. Thanks Marn for helping us profile this on his PC!
  
• We've noticed that some players were using ALT+F4 during the ending cinematic, especially the Umbral one, possibly out of concern about not having a way back. We've added an additional failsafe to support an ALT+F4 exit there. However, please keep in mind that you can still choose whether to continue or exit the game after the cinematic, so there's no need to exit the game prematurely. This also covers any potential crash that could happen in that moment (or a power outage!).
  
• We've enabled additional data collection for Sentry reports to gather more details about crashes occurring on specific hardware. This will help us pinpoint driver issues more accurately for NVIDIA and AMD.
  
• We've added a warning when starting the game with Rivatuner activated. We've observed through Sentry that overclocking GPUs/CPUs remains as one of the primary causes of crashes.

• We've made an engine improvement to allow us to use nanite for Umbral meshes. This should result in a noticeable performance improvement while in Umbral. For those who are curious, Umbral meshes require a complex shader that uses alpha masks, camera occlusion, animation support, vertex-animated options, pixel depth offset, and world position offset. None of these were supported by nanite meshes before. Now, once the full transition to Umbral is complete, we can take advantage of nanite technology by selectively swapping meshes depending on their shader needs.
  
• We've implemented a significant optimization for the dread spawning mechanisms, ensuring that being in Umbral should no longer cause performance drops, even when surrounded by Umbral zombies.
  
• Optimization of Umbral levels (Castle's donjon) involved the deletion of some hidden meshes.
  
• Reduced the number of actors casting shadows in Skyrest Bridge ramparts.
  
• Reduced the number of actors casting shadows in Lower Calrath's Alehouse.
  
• Reduced the number of actors casting shadows in the Tower of Penance.
  
• Reduced the number of actors casting shadows in the supply path to the Manse.
  
• Collision optimization was performed in Lower Calrath's Bridge area.
  
• Reduced the number of actors casting shadows in Skyrest's frame area.
  
• Reduced the number of actors casting shadows in Redcopse Village.
  
• Performed a casting shadow pass in Upper Calrath's miner district.
  
• Optimization of Umbral levels in Lower Calrath involved deleting hidden meshes and preventing camera occlusion in meshes far away from the player.
  
• Reduced the number of actors casting shadows in Lower Calrath's Upper Gate.
  
• Reduced the number of actors casting shadows and removed foliage painted in the landscape that was far from the player and not visible in Redcopse forest.
  
• In the Manse of the Hallowed Sentinels, we conducted a second pass to reduce the number of actors casting shadows, focusing on small things and details.
  
• Reduced the number of actors casting shadows in Lower Calrath's Bridge area.
  
• Reduced the number of actors casting shadows in Upper Calrath's nobles district.
  
• Optimization of Umbral levels in Skyrest Bridge involved deleting hidden meshes and preventing camera occlusion in meshes far away from the player.
  
• Global collision optimization, bug fixes, and improvements were made across the Fief of the Chill Curse.
  
• Umbral optimization in Pieta's arena at Skyrest Bridge involved deleting hidden meshes and preventing camera occlusion in some meshes.
  
• Reduced the number of actors casting shadows in Lower Calrath's smelter area.
  
• Further reductions in actors casting shadows, added extra occluders, and deleted actors inside/behind walls at Skyrest Bridge frame (Passageways/Big Towers/Underbridge/Top Bridge, etc).

• All non-main bosses have received a health boost ranging from 10% to 20%, depending on the player's game progression (less of a boost at the start of the game and a higher boost towards the end).
  
• All non-main bosses have received an overall 10% boost to their damage output, with adjustments made on a case-by-case basis to ensure they provide the appropriate level of challenge.
  
• The Unbroken Promise has received a significant health increase of 18% and a 15% boost in damage output following the behavior enhancement introduced two weeks ago. We noticed that some players were engaging with it, and we felt it needed additional health and damage to match its improved (more aggressive) behavior.
  
• The Lightreaper now has slightly more health, with a 10% increase, to make the final part of the combat more engaging. We observed that players were having fun, but the encounter was just a bit too short.
  
• Following the behavior enhancement of the Sunless Monarch, we found that we were very close to achieving the desired level of difficulty. However, we decided to add a little more health (8%) and increase the damage of its attacks (10%) to truly provide the challenge we intended after last week's overall behavioral improvement.
  
• The Sacred Resonance will now typically use the stairs to descend and will only drop through the hole if there's an opportunity to strike the player.

• Added and adjusted leashing volumes in Revelation Depths.
  
• Improved leashing volumes in the Cistern.
  
• The AI could get stuck due to collisions after using a navlink. The collisions were improved to create a straight angle in the Sunless Skein.
  
• The Abiding Defenders could get on top of the chest in the Manse arena. A blocking volume with "block only pawn" has been placed there, but it still allows the player to open the chest and obtain the loot.
  
• Navmesh has been added to the moving platform to prevent potential cheesing of the Scarlet Shadow in one of Pilgrim's Perch's moving platforms.
  
• Adjusted leashing volumes in the Manse to allow hounds to pursue players a bit further away than other enemy types.
  
• Navmesh improvements have been made in some spots in the Forsaken Fen, and a general Navmesh Pass has been performed.
  
• Adjusted arch/door size in Bramis Castle and made some combat space improvements to help with the fight against the Ruiner. Now it's harder to hide from him. We love cheese, but cheezing with moderation.

• The player was able to soulflay the platform they were standing on under certain conditions. This has now been fixed.

• Fixed an issue with the Lightreaper sword special attack. Now it's reactivated and can be used as intended. Players still have to complete the questline in order to unlock them.
  
• We're are more leniant now when sprinting, so after a roll, you do not need to press "sprint" again, your sprint keeps going (if enough stamina is left, oc).
  
• Fixed an issue where Pieta's Simulacrum spell could shoot through the floor and walls.
  
• Fixed an issue with vigor muliplier runes that could result in unexpected damage output
  
• Pumpskin helmet is now droppable/sellable - we are not sure why anyone would want to do this - objectively makes no sense - but now you can decide to do it, anyway
  
• Buffed the Exploding Bolt decreasing its ammo cost from 10 to 4, and its damage multiplier boosted from 1.9 to 3.8.
  
• Buffed the Shattering Bolt by decreasing its ammo cost from 10 to 4, and its holy damage multiplier increased from 1.9 to 3.8.
  
• Dark Abbess Banner has received probably the biggest buff of all: ammo cost reduced from 15 to 4; physical damage multiplier increased from 0.5 to 1.0; physical burst damage from 2.0 to 4.0; and its fire damage multiplier from 1.5 to 3.0.
  
• We've discovered a bug in which Hallowed Triptych would make all holy damage sources delivering unintended additional stagger damage. For example: from 10 intended stagger damage, would be delivering 11 or even 13 in some cases. This has been corrected. As now the bug is corrected, we can increase the Hallowed Triptych's stagger by +10%

• We've seen quite a few questions on how passwords work for multiplayer, so we've decided to add a visual HUD indicator when password is on. For COOP, will always remain there until you manually delete the password. For PVP, now it fades away after 2 minutes, so you can understand that you'll be matchmaked for PVP with "anybody" from that point-on not just with people with password.
  
• Added additional information when disconnecting from multiplayer sessions.

• Fixed an issue with a navmesh in the mysterious (very angry) knight arena.
  
• Adjusted moth walls to prevent players from leaving the boss encounter with Ursula, Infernal Enchantress and Otto.
  
• Adjusted moth walls to prevent players from leaving the boss encounter at a bridge near a big castle.
  
• Adjusted moth walls to prevent players from leaving the boss encounter in the Fief of the Chill Curse
  
• Improved several collisions in the canyon in Deep Forest.
  
• Fixed a collision issue where the player could fall through the world in the Smelter zone
  
• Fixed several collisions to prevent players from skipping a big part of Redcopse Village.
  
• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck close to walls near the Vestige of Bloody Pilgrim
  
• Adjusted collisions near the swamp road to prevent projectiles to get stuck mid-air
  
• Improved collisions for better navigation at Lower Calrath's Bridged area.
  
• Added collisions to several Umbral wall pieces in the Beacon Tower in Deep Forest.
  
• Adjusted collisions to prevent players from accessing the bridge edges in Fief of the Chill Curse.
  
• Improved collisions for better navigation at the start of Fief of the Chill Curse.
  
• Adjusted collisions to prevent players from skipping an area in Manse.
  
• Added a blocking volume to prevent players from skipping the Forsaken Fen.
  
• Fixed several collisions to prevent players from skipping Ursula's encounter.
  
• Fixed an issue that allowed players to skip a large part of Bramis Castle by killing a Rhogar Architect in long distance near the Sundered Monarch encounter.
  
• Fixed an issue where players could die immediately after respawning in Umbral near the Bringer of Silence encounter.
  
• Fixed several collision issues in the canyon in Deep Forest.
  
• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck at certain crystals in Bramis Castle.
  
• Fixed an issue where the player's character could clip through stone walls in Bramis Castle.
  
• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck while exploring the area near the lava river in Bramis Castle.
  
• Fixed an issue that allowed players to reach the forge area of Lower Calrath by jumping from a broken bridge near the boss arena.
  
• Fixed a collision issue with certain wooden planks in Pilgrim's Perch.
  
• Fixed an issue with a stuck Bringer of Stilness that prevented him from moving and attacking in Lower Calrath if the player was at a specific spot.
  
• Improved navigation, collision and camera clipping in the Fief's Beacon Area, Bramis Castle and Upper Calrath.
  
• Fixed a collision issue where the player could fall through the world in Manse Cellar.
  
• Fixed several collisions for beds and stairs in Manse Leprosarium.

• Improved lighting by adjusting contrast and monochromatic look of the area between the Forsaken Fen's vista and the Shuja Hamlet.
  
• Improved lighting on the Supply Route to Manse.

• Fixed a visual glitch with the Crimson Rector outfits.
  
• Fixed visual glitches that could occur while turning in place.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Hallowed Knight belt shadow was wrongly cast.
  
• Fixed an issue where a black cube was displayed in Defiled Sepulchre.
  
• Fixed an issue with a lightreaper cutscene that could occur when fire was cast on it just before the cutscene triggered.
  
• Fixed a visual glitch with incense burners that had Nanite enabled.
  
• We've fixed an issue when calibrating HDR in-game and at the same time changing PS5's native HDR output was changed.
  
• Fixed broken amphora materials in Abbey of the Hallowed Sisters and Empyrean.
  
• Fixed visual glitches with the Abiding Defender and the Sin-Piercer outfits.
  
• Added an option to deactivate Umbral distortion effects by popular demand.
  
• Fixed an issue where the left-handed holstered weapons were not properly aligned with the right-handed holstered weapons position on the character's back.

• Fixed an issue where lock-on could overlap with tutorial messages in very rare occasions.
  
• Added catalyst spell power stats to the inventory tab.
  
• Further improvements to the UI when completing a crimson ritual.

• Added sound effects for the Conflagrant Seer's Crystal Straight spell.
  
• Improved the sound effects for player stabs.