Lords of the Fallen News

Dear Lampbearers,

As we continue enhancing Lords of the Fallen based on your invaluable feedback, today’s update brings with it a refined tutorial and onboarding experience, a more exploration-friendly ‘Umbral’ realm, as well as further gameplay improvements and performance enhancements.

Your feedback continues to shape Lords of the Fallen, and is instrumental in helping guide the future of the franchise itself. So, as always, if you’re enjoying your adventures through Mournstead, please consider leaving a Steam review. And as for those yet to brave the worlds of Mournstead, from 6pm GMT (10am PT, 1pm ET, 7pm CET) today, you will be able to get 50% off as part of the Steam weeklong deal!

In light, we walk.
The HEXWORKS team.


[h4]Gameplay Improvements[/h4]
We’ve implemented further gameplay adjustments informed by community feedback and extensive playtesting. It’s rewarding to see our Steam ‘Recent Review’ score rising, reflecting the positive impact of these ongoing improvements, and we’re committed to continuing this journey with your valuable input.

Highlights include:

• Mob Density: Based on your feedback, we’ve fine-tuned certain mob encounters to create a smoother, more immersive combat experience by isolating instances to prevent mobs from stacking up. Returning players may find it worthwhile to start anew, as we’ve added a few fresh surprises along the way! (Original enemy distribution and density can still be accessed via NG+ modifiers.)
  
• Ranged Enemies: We’ve adjusted the perception of certain ranged units to correct instances that felt unfair or unrealistic.
  
• Jumping: Platforming in Pilgrim's Perch has been refined with improved indicators, making jumps clearer and navigation smoother.
  
• PvP Scaling: To elevate skill-based play in PvP, we’ve rebalanced scaling mechanics, particularly where magic-infused weapons and spells are concerned. These tweaks apply exclusively to PvP, so PvE players can continue with their current builds unaffected.
  
• Attack Displacement: Some weapon attacks have received slight adjustments to reduce displacement, providing a greater sense of control while preserving effectiveness and supporting your playstyle.
  

[h4]Enhanced Tutorialisation, Onboarding, and Start-Up Experience[/h4]
We’ve taken steps to further enrich the onboarding experience for new players in Lords of the Fallen, building on feedback from our veteran Lampbearers. We want every new player to feel empowered on their journey, and we understand that some early tutorials may have presented a steep learning curve. Here’s what’s new:

• Improved Lighting in the Defiled Sepulchre: Enhanced lighting and visual adjustments make this initial tutorial area clearer and easier to navigate.
  
• Gradual Umbral Tutorialization: Core abilities like ‘soulflay’ and ‘syphoning’ now have dedicated tutorial spaces later in Redcopse, allowing new players to engage with each feature more gradually.
  
• Simplified First Jump Tutorial: We’ve refined the jump tutorial to be more accessible (hands up in the comments if you cleared it on the first attempt!).
  
• Lightreaper Boss Adjustment in NG0: To clarify the intentional design of this encounter, we’ve removed the Lightreaper boss fight from the tutorial area for NG0 players. Rest assured: the Lightreaper still lurks within Mournstead and will make a return as a surprise in NG+.
  

[h4]A More Immersive Umbral Realm for Explorers[/h4]
Umbral, the parallel realm intertwined with the living world of Axiom, is accessible at any point in the game, offering an expansive world of alternate pathways, hidden treasures, and secrets. We know how much you enjoy exploring Mournstead, and many of you have asked for a more exploration-friendly Umbral realm. Embracing this idea, we’ve made some tweaks to enhance its immersive vibe while preserving its mysterious, challenging nature.

While Umbral remains intentionally hostile, we’ve made adjustments to its sounds, visuals, and enemy spawn curve. Now, the threads (Umbral natives) are slower to detect your presence, allowing you some precious time to explore before the realm’s haunting intensifies. Eventually, the Scarlet Shadow will appear, forcing you to decide: escape or engage in an epic showdown.

These changes make Umbral better suited for exploration while preserving its eerie intensity and challenging atmosphere:

• Dynamic Ambient Sound: Initial entry into Umbral is now accompanied by subtler soundscapes, building in intensity as you remain longer, reaching a crescendo before you must find an exit, or risk facing the Crimson Reaper.
  
• Adjusted Enemy Spawn Curve: Enemy appearances are now better paced to create a smoother, gradual build-up of tension.
  
• Increased Delay for Scarlet Shadow: You’ll now have more time to explore before the Scarlet Shadow emerges, enhancing the suspense.
  
• Reduced Vignette Effect: Based on player feedback, the vignette effect has been softened to improve visibility while exploring Umbral.
  
• Clearer Umbral Eggs: We’ve added a special VFX to eggs set to spawn Umbral natives, as we noticed some players had difficulty distinguishing between active and inactive ones.
  

These updates create a richer exploration experience within Umbral, preserving its dark allure and escalating tension for daring adventurers.

[h4]Performance Improvements[/h4]
We’ve implemented additional performance enhancements across several of the game’s more graphically demanding areas, optimising the experience for players with lower-spec computers.

[h4]New Challengers Incoming![/h4]
With Lords of the Fallen now fully harnessing the power of the PS5 Pro, prepare for a fresh wave of cross-players venturing into Mournstead! Be sure to welcome them - whether with a warm salute in co-op or the cold edge of your blade in PvP.


Virtual photographies in this post are courtesy of @RalstonVP - created with the in-game 3D Photo Mode


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1501750/Lords_of_the_Fallen/

Links:
Official Website: https://lordsofthefallen.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lotfgame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/cigames

#DareToBelieve

Greetings Lampbearers!

The barrier between Axiom and Umbral is at its weakest point all year, and the witching hour is close at hand… Happy Halloween!

This time last year, we released our very first post-launch content drop: The Season of the Bleak. A new holiday-themed questline, it tasked daring Dark Crusaders to seek out six hidden pumpkins across Mournstead before overcoming a new seasonal boss… the Spirit of the Bleak! Those that triumphed were rewarded with an exclusive ‘Pumpskin’ helm, the ‘Eerie Armour’ tinct, and an ammunition satchel that provided additional inventory space.



But where were the pumpkins hidden? An ancient bard’s song provided the way forward…

One dwells amidst the company of the celebrated dead,
Another in a lonely hamlet where the streets ran red.
One's to be found where the bitter sacrificed dwell,
Another in a place where an innocent girl fell.
One demands from you a head for heights,
Only then can you face a shadow by beacon's light.
Steel yourself in the garb of one who speaks not,
And hope in that bleak ground your bones do not rot.

As for those of you yet to complete the quest, we’ve put together a handy how-to guide...



Step 1: Defeat the Hushed Saint

To start, you must defeat the Hushed Saint, a challenging boss found in the Forsaken Fen. You’ll return to this location later, so take note. Defeating the Hushed Saint is necessary to reveal the pumpkins across the game world.

Step 2: Locate the Six Pumpkins

Each pumpkin only appears after defeating the Hushed Saint and can be found by switching to the Umbral realm:

1st Pumpkin - Skyrest Bridge: Found near where the Tortured Prisoner is held. Go down the spiral staircase and switch to the Umbral to pass a metal gate on the right. Continue down and take a right to find the pumpkin.

2nd Pumpkin - Abandoned Redcopse: Start from the Vestige of Marco the Axe. Head to the village square with a large tree and hanging bodies, then take a left toward a ruined house. Defeat the two enemies, break the crates, and find the pumpkin behind them.

3rd Pumpkin - Forsaken Fen: From the Vestige of Valade, go through the door on the right to reach a bridge guarded by a Shuja warrior. Defeat the enemy, enter Umbral, and find a ladder on the left. Climb up, proceed to the area with a bonfire, defeat the enemies, and Soul Flay the pumpkin.

4th Pumpkin - Pilgrim's Perch: Starting at the Vestige of Ferrers the Charred, take the lift down to the perch. Head toward the ladder on the left to access a wooden bridge and find the pumpkin underneath one of the platforms.

5th Pumpkin - Fief of the Chill Curse: From the Vestige of Loash, go through the arena and down the ladder to the Fief beacon tower. Climb down and move toward the river. Enter Umbral, walk to the left along the riverbed, Soul Flay the barrier, and turn right to find the pumpkin.

6th Pumpkin - Hushed Saint’s Arena: Equip the Hushed Saint’s full armor set. Return to the Hushed Saint’s boss arena, and the pumpkin will be visible within a wooden fence. Soul Flay it to summon the Spirit of the Bleak Season.

Step 3: Defeat the Spirit of the Bleak Season Boss

Boss Behaviour: The Spirit of the Bleak Season has a series of melee attacks and a curse effect that can prevent healing temporarily.

Battle Tips: Keep a safe distance to bait out attacks, then chip away at its health. Adding Holy Salts to your weapon will increase damage.

Rewards: Once you defeat the Spirit of the Bleak Season, your Halloween treats will be unlocked, including a the Pumpskin Helm that boosts item discovery rate, the Eerie Armour Tinct, and an Ammunition Satchel that adds to your supply storage.

If you enjoyed revisiting the Season of the Bleak, why not explore the last year of Lords of the Fallen and read our ‘12 Months of Mournstead’ post, let us know what your favourite post-launch content is, or even leave a Steam review?

In light, we walk

The HEXWORKS Team

Greetings Lampbearers,

A little over a year ago we launched Lords of the Fallen, calling upon you to take up the mantle of ‘Dark Crusader’ in our ambitious dark fantasy action-RPG.

As you’ve journeyed across Mournstead and its dual realms of Axiom and Umbral, we’ve worked closely with the Lords of the Fallen community to continue enhancing the experience, implementing a significant number of your suggestions. These include reducing mob density, adding gamepad rebinding, implementing PvE and PvP balancing, and rolling out comprehensive optimization, to name but a few.

Your feedback has been invaluable, and we’re pleased to confirm that further improvements to Lords of the Fallen will be coming very soon.

In the meantime, to mark these past twelve months in Mournstead, we wanted to look back over our shared journey to date...

October 2023 – Season of the Bleak

Firstly, a timely reminder with Halloween just days away, that the permanent otherworldly quest ‘Season of the Bleak’ was added to the game just days after launch. This pumpkin-spiced questline, which tasked players to collect six pumpkins scattered across Mournstead before confronting the Spirit of the Bleak mini-boss, was the first of several added to Lords of the Fallen as part of our post-launch content roadmap, setting the tone for what was to come.

If you’re yet to claim your orange-hued helm, but don’t know where to start, keep eyes peeled for our how-to guide on October 31st.



October 2023 – Post-launch roadmap

Not long after the game’s release, we shared our post-launch, free content roadmap that outlined our plans for the game. In addition to continuing our regular cadence of experience enhancements and quality-of-life improvements, the roadmap also featured a series of new questlines that would be released through to the end of 2023, starting with the aforementioned ‘Season of the Bleak’, and continuing from the middle of November with ‘Way of the Bucket’ (more on that below).



October & November 2023 – Difficulty Balancing

During the early weeks post-launch, we worked diligently to refine the balance between challenge and enjoyability in Lords of the Fallen, based on the feedback you sent. As a result, before the end of November 2023, we’d released more than 25 updates with an excess of 100 enhancements that improved your experience of the game.



These included a reduction in enemy density throughout Mournstead, with the number of mobs decreasing by up to 30% in some of the most challenging areas; a rebalancing of ranged enemy accuracy so players weren’t sniped by Adyr’s forces before they were even spotted; and improving enemy leashing so they wouldn’t pursue you overenthusiastically from one area to another.

November 2023 – Way of the Bucket

The Way of the Bucket questline featured a new armour set formed from some of the many broken pails found across Mournstead, and paid tribute to the self-styled Bucketlord… one of the more unusual characters found in Pilgrim’s Perch. After defeating the sinners (those who had drifted from the Bucketlords’ gospel) and collecting the ‘Pride of the Bucketlords’ items they drop, players could exchange them for armour crafted from the wooden scuttles.



The quest launched alongside a new selection of spells, broadening the arcane options available for Dark Crusaders to exploit.

December 2023 – Season of Revelry

As the blood wine spilled over in December, we released the two-part ‘Season of Revelry’. While the first update – ‘Offerings of Orius’ – added six new spells (including the devastating Immolation), additional secret boss weapon abilities, and three new projectiles (Blood Vomit, Explosive Mines, and Frost Worms) the second part – ‘Trial of the Three Spirits’ – unleashed three questlines that on completion would provide new, separate armours as tributes to the gods of Umbral, Rhogar, and Orius.



This concluding part of the Season of Revelry also saw the introduction of new grievous strikes, embellishing each family of weapons with two unique finishes: one for single-handed wielding and another for two-handed wielding. It also saw two extremely popular community requests rolled out: gamepad rebinding, and a Coffer storage box added to Skyrest Bridge, which allowed players to free up inventory space and deposit up to 2,000 items in it.

Oh, and we added a fourth, festive throwable… SNOWBALLS!

April 2024 – Master of Fate

One of our biggest post-launch content drops launched as part of our ‘Master of Fate – v1.5’ update in April this year: the Advanced Game Modifier System. Highly anticipated by the community since the release of the post-launch roadmap timeline, the system introduced the ability to fully customise each playthrough of Lords of the Fallen through six different modifiers and randomisers.



Some, like the pre-upgraded loot option – which meant weapons and shields looted from enemies come pre-upgraded according to player level – supported new players while others, including the ability to reduce the number of Vestiges, increase the mob density, or activate permadeath, challenged even Mournstead’s mightiest!

It's been fascinating to see the community experiment with the combinations of modifiers and randomisers on offer; one particular favourite of ours – activating pre-upgraded loot, randomising loot and enemies, and turning on permadeath, effectively transforms Lords of the Fallen into an all-new roguelite experience… give it a go, if you dare!

With the release of Master of Fate, we’d concluded the epic post-launch content roadmap, delivered more than 30 updates, vastly improved stability and performance, and added an arsenal of new weapons sets, armours, projectiles, and spells that together elevated Lords of the Fallen from v1.0 in October, to v1.5 less than seven months later.

But there was more to come…

May 2024 – Clash of Champions

Boss battles offer some of the most memorable moments in Lords of the Fallen, whether that’s against the grotesque and putrid Congregator of Flesh, the dragon-riding Lightreaper, or even the initial confrontation with Pieta, She of Blessed Renewal. In May, we surprise-launched the ‘Clash of Champions’ update, accessible through Mournstead’s many Vestiges, that would put these bosses front and centre once again.



Featuring two new modes – ‘Echoes of Battle’ and ‘Crucible’ – Clash of Champions unlocked a way for Dark Crusaders to experience their favourite boss encounters again and again, or challenge themselves in deadly boss rush encounters across six increasingly challenging trials.

Unlocked by defeating the bosses listed in each of the separated crucibles in the main game, these trials go from facing three or four bosses, through to the ultimate challenge… The ‘Crucible of the Lords’, which features an incredible 12 bosses in consecutive combat.

Both modes are playable either solo or with a fellow Lampbearer in online co-op multiplayer, with additional rewards – including exclusive armour tincts – unlockable for those skilled enough to run the gauntlet of Crucible’s trials.

We hope you’ve enjoyed the past twelve months in Mournstead, and again, thank you for your feedback during the year. We’ll share more news on those upcoming, new enhancements very soon, but in the meantime, post your favourite moments in the comments below – or even leave a Steam review and let us know.

In light, we walk.

The HEXWORKS Team

Greetings Lampbearers,

Please find below details on today’s maintenance update for Lords of the Fallen.

As always, if you’re enjoying your adventures through Mournstead, we’d greatly appreciate it if you could leave us a review on Steam.

In light, we walk.
The HEXWORKS Team





[h4]Improvements[/h4]

• Optimized multiplayer connectivity for improved performance.
  
• Fixed minor issues.
  

Check out our roadmap here.

In Light we Walk.

Virtual photographies in this post are courtesy of @virtual_koda - created with the in-game 3D Photo Mode


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1501750/Lords_of_the_Fallen/

Links:
Official Website: https://lordsofthefallen.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lotfgame
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/cigames

#DareToBelieve