Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader News

…In the darkness between the stars
The weak and the faithless find no deliverance…

Lord Captains!

With the Void Shadows expansion just around the corner, we are proud to announce a major new feature that is coming to Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader for all owners of the base game alongside the expansion:

The Grim Darkness mode.



[h2]What is the Grim Darkness Mode?[/h2]

Often referred to as “Ironman” in other titles, the Grim Darkness mode is the ultimate trial for the boldest of Lord Captains - a challenge for the most experienced, most prepared (or perhaps, most reckless!) players, who wish to truly immerse themselves in the dark and dangerous universe of Warhammer 40,000.

In this mode, you only have a single save, which is updated automatically every time you exit the game. No second chances - you will have to live with the consequences of all your actions and decisions. If your party or voidship are defeated, your Grim Darkness journey will end.

But if you manage to successfully overcome all the obstacles and make it all the way to the end, your feat of strength will be rewarded with the brand new “There Is Only War…” achievement, which will also unlock a special item for all your future playthroughs (surely feels fitting for Abelard, don't you think?):



Amulet of the Indomitable Spirit

Such a trophy can only be worn by one who has fully comprehended an ancient truth — that in the universe there exists only war.

Once per battle, whenever the wearer's wounds drop to 0, they regain 20% of their maximum wounds.

[h2]How to Activate the Grim Darkness Mode[/h2]

When you start a new game, you’ll find a new “Grim Darkness” option under the difficulty settings marked by a distinctive skull icon. When turned on, it will prompt you with a warning about its dangers and if accepted, will enable Grim Darkness rules for the new game. All Grim Darkness mode saves will be marked in the Load Game menu with the same skull icon.

Such a trophy can only be worn by one who has fully comprehended an ancient truth — that in the universe there exists only war.

At launch, the Grim Darkness mode is only available for PC and only for single player, but we plan to expand it to the other platforms and co-op mode later.



[h2]Designing the Grim Darkness Mode[/h2]

In both our previous games, Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, there was a similar mode called The Last Azlanti. The mode earned a lot of acclaim in our community, providing a trial of gaming skill and wits, while also adding a whole new level of emotional investment due to the high risk and reward. We’ve seen many players discussing builds for this mode, competing between each other in beating the games in exotic ways, and sharing their stories of glorious victory (or no less glorious demise!).

We even went as far as hosting a large challenge event for streamers, known as the Last Azlanti Challenge.

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader originally shipped without an “Ironman” mode. But players kept asking us about it, and we also felt it was missing compared to our previous titles, so we always wanted to eventually revisit it.

It took us some time, but we’re finally there! And this time we’ve brought some innovations to the familiar approach. Among them:

• Unlike in the previous games, the Grim Darkness mode is not affected by difficulty - you may now freely switch it or customize it at any time during your playthrough, the same as in the normal game mode. Some would say that this allows the player to abuse the system - but we believe that the players playing this mode are, first and foremost, looking for an honourable challenge. We felt that we rather let you, the players, decide for yourself how you want it played, and adjust your settings to your preferences;
  
  
• The conditions of defeat are no longer attached to the main character falling in battle - you only lose when the whole party or the voidship is defeated;
  
  
• You can now convert the Grim Darkness save into a normal save at any time if you no longer wish to continue playing that mode. Note however, that the opposite is not true and, once made, the conversion cannot be reversed. Converting your game into normal mode will make you ineligible for the “There Is Only War…” achievement or its reward;
  
  
• The moment you meet your demise, you no longer instantly lose the save as it happened in the previous games - instead, you will be offered a choice to either accept your fate and delete the save, or to continue your playthrough, converting your save into a normal, non-Grim Darkness game as described above. This will allow you to finish the story if the death caught you close to the end of the game, but you will no longer qualify for the achievement or reward.

[h2]What’s on the horizon?[/h2]

We are preparing a large exciting event related to this feature. Stay tuned for the announcement!

On a more general note, this feature is a good example of how we intend to approach the game in future updates. Besides the DLCs, we plan to gradually improve and expand the base game, not only with bug fixes, but also with alterations based on your feedback (which we are really grateful for, by the way!) and by adding brand new content in major updates.

The Emperor protects!

Lord Captain!

It's been over eight months since the game released. During this time, we've turned to you more than once for advice on how to make your journey more comfortable. The post-release survey was one such occasion. An astounding 15241 people took part in it, which, according to our esteemed Lexmechanics' calculations, took them a collective total of 335302 minutes to complete.

We immensely appreciate the effort you're putting into further improving the game. Based on the survey results, we've already fixed numerous “sore spots” such as the behaviour of the cargo interface in the game's third act, or the miscalculated difficulty levels in skill checks. As a thank you for the work you've done, we're going to share the most interesting community perspectives that were reflected in the survey results.

With a passion for all things precise, as is typical of any servant of the Omnissiah, our Lexmechanics have drawn up a report for you that is rich in intriguing correlations and captivating data tables:



Worth mentioning first is the fact that by four months after release, more than half of all survey participants had clocked over a hundred hours in the game. That might’ve been surprising if the player base didn't consist overwhelmingly of CRPG fans.


We knew that releasing a game in the Warhammer 40,000 universe meant submitting it to the scrutiny of demanding critics. A mere 7% had no or only cursory experience with the setting. We enjoy assuming the role of guides on the journey to the dark future, and we are proud to say that players trust us with the job: a whopping 96% of captains had their expectations of the setting's atmosphere met, to the incredible delight of the Warhammer fans among the game's creators. But enough bragging! On to the more fascinating facts, as well as some disconcerting ones.



Regardless of whether a Rogue Trader was a Dogmatic or followed one of the Radical paths, all of them equally disliked loot-related hassles, be it their ship's cargo management or their party's inventory. The organising, the sorting, the tedium of managing a huge number of items, and especially the situations where stolen loot would, upon recovery, return to a bag instead of where it had previously belonged, were things that frustrated our players a great deal. We've fixed some of those problems and are still working on others.

It's worth noting that while most Rogue Traders were torn between Puritanism and Radicalism, 89 among them preferred to altogether skip delving into the value system.



While picking through loot was a mostly unrewarding experience, obtaining it was quite another matter. On average, players gave the ground-combat system 4.3 points out of five, which surpassed the Beta rating for this metric.

57% of participants thought the Lord Captain had been through just the right number of ordeals. Among the rest, opinions were split between those who'd prefer more ordeals and those who envisioned a more peaceful life for the protagonist. Luckily for the Rogue Trader, the well-wishers outnumbered the daredevils nearly two-to-one.

We'd always known that Warrants of Trade were granted only to Humanity's bravest. But this time, they showed themselves to be quite deft as well. Players who opted to skip the character-build part and go straight for the Story mode were satisfied with the challenges they faced. For their part, those who started the game on a higher difficulty level would’ve preferred to challenge yet fiercer foes than the ones they actually encountered. Indeed, the higher the difficulty a player selected, the likelier they were to report a dearth of worthy opponents. Worry not! Our latest major update has made significant changes to the balance of archetypes. Perhaps now the Imperium's enemies will present a serious hurdle in your path.


Speaking of archetypes, in the survey, we asked you lots of questions about your characters' combat abilities. These were the results: over 60% of survey participants got a taste of Exemplar, the third tier in a character's career. Other archetypes available earlier in the game saw yet greater use, with the top spots going to Soldier and Officer, which had some form of involvement in the Lord Captain's adventures in over 90% of cases.
Soldier and Officer also topped the list of audience-favourite archetypes. Great Strategist came bottom of that list, their difficult-to-execute stratagems earning many an indignant comment.


Notably, the special abilities players deemed to be the most powerful (and perhaps overpowered) were Arch-Militant's Wildfire, Soldier's Rapid Fire, and Assassin's Death Whisper. Operative's Intimidation was deemed the weakest.

When it came to key mechanics, Officer shone once again with their ability to grant an extra turn to an ally. You liked both the mechanics and the spirit of this archetype's abilities.



However, there'd be no point in any of those skills without someone to use them on, now would there? Who among the Rogue Trader and their retinue's opponents emerged as the most popular one, and who as the most detested? Alas, these questions cannot be answered without spoilers. But if you've conquered the Koronus Expanse before, you could probably make a guess, and it would probably be correct.

We don't know what the exact reason was, between the earliness of the encounter, the pesky sniper on the roof, the untiring parries, and the endless attempts to preserve each of the three shuttles, but there's no doubt that Aurora, also known as the Chaos Space Marine, won the hearts of the largest number of Rogue Traders.

Edge of Daybreak and his gang were the next biggest favourite. Forgefiend closes the top three.

Interestingly, most of the negative combat experiences were caused by encounters that involved no bosses or named characters. Case in point, mid-flight battles.



Creating and customising a character is a key aspect of any role-playing game. To make sure no Rogue Trader lacked in individually tailored options, we added over 500 talents to the game! Many players hinted that we might have tried too hard there... Thus 37% of participants would have liked the options to be fewer. The same percentage said the number of options matched their expectations. There were also those who didn't find enough variety, but the former two outnumbered these four to one.

As for the Rogue Trader's Origin, the majority's preference leaned firmly toward Sanctioned Psyker. Voidborn Psyker was therefore the most popular combination, ahead by almost a third of the runner-up, Imperial World Noble.





We've asked you before to share your first impressions of the companions, and the poll results were quite unambiguous: Argenta led in every category! Although she's still a favourite, the Lord Captain has by now had the opportunity to form a more comprehensive picture of their retinue's other members.

This time around, we looked at the following criteria in our companions: interesting story, dialogue, and interactions; mechanical efficiency; best romance; and most attractive. Let's go through these in order.

The Rogue Trader's loyal Seneschal emerged as their most interesting companion. This choice surprised us and would probably surprise Abelard himself! He'd most likely be flattered too.
Pasqal's multifaceted personality also got its fair share of attention.


Owing to her unique origin, Cassia came first in combat efficiency.


Her heart-stealing efficiency put her in the lead as well. And keep this document far from the Inquisition's eyes, for Yrliet and Marazhai were a very close second and third.


Naturally, these statistics would've been incomplete without Argenta taking at least one of the top spots. Her fervour in combat and her zealous smile won over many.


Now what about those who can only be observed from the sidelines? We left this as a free-form question so that participants could name whatever non-player character they wanted as their favourite. After meticulously sifting through over 5,000 comments, we had the following top ten: a Koronus Expanse All Stars according to the heir of House von Valancius.


There's a high likelihood that the vote results might have been altered by an organisation we've been unable to trace.



As the cogitators hum and the Lexmechanics rhythmically count off the figures, the time to part has crept unnoticed upon us. We truly hope you've found it interesting to see these survey results and to learn more about the way you play. We certainly have. Collecting and reading your responses for this article felt like discussing our favourite game with friends! We found it incredibly interesting to hear what aspects of the game you liked the most, where you spent the most time, and which moments delighted you the most. It was an interesting conversation with a lot of takeaways for us regarding the gameplay, your personal preferences, and ways we might improve the game.

As the Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader team, we'd like to say a big thank you to each and every one of you. Your responses, opinions, and ideas are genuinely important to us as we, too, are passionate fans. Seeing your engagement and enthusiasm is what inspires us day to day as we work to bring this universe to life.

That's all for now, but more is on the way: we're already preparing new updates and content which we're sure you're going to like. Follow the news and brace yourselves for more thrilling adventures in the Koronus Expanse. Thanks for being with us, and see you soon, friends!

The Imperium is founded upon death and bloodshed, and maintained only by the further sacrifices of Humanity. There are those for whom death is a way of life, and death cults of many types can be found on worlds across the Imperium. They revel in holy slaughter, dedicating their victims’ souls to Him, offering up blood sacrifices to the God-Emperor so that He might answer their prayers.
The practices of these Death Cults are dark and terrifying. Common folk maintain a superstitious fear of ruthless assassins who specialise in ritual murder, self-mutilation and bloody communion. Vague omens can make these zealots target seemingly innocent people just as easily as obvious enemies of the Imperium.

One such cult lurks within the bowels of the von Valancius flagship. For years, the ascetic and inscrutable servants of the Bloodspun Web have protected the dynasty from enemies aboard the vessel, stalking the threats hiding in lower decks and spraying the bulkheads with the blood of their victims.
Kibellah is a masterful assassin whose talent and fanatical devotion to the Undying Emperor has earned her the title of the Second Spinner of the Bloodspun Web. Since childhood, she has dedicated herself to rigorous training of mind and body, perfecting the art of the blade dance and mollifying her emotions. Kibellah has no desires, only duty; no fear, only purpose. She is the perfect instrument of death, and this undying servant of the Undying Emperor has left the shadows to become the Rogue Trader's personal bodyguard.

Her specialised blades and ritualistic arts are at the Lord Captain's service, as is her sophisticated mind. She recognises the signs sent by the Emperor, even through the veil of mundane reality. Her world is a realm of riddles and blood that interweave and resolve into momentous insight. To that end, she bears the greatest relic of the cult: a sacred deck of the Emperor’s Tarot. The cards speak the will of the Undying One and reveal the names of those who must depart. Every new reading reveals ever more clearly that the greatest moment of her life is at hand. The Immortal Emperor holds an exceptional destiny in store for His servant, who is now ready to step into the future.

Lord Captain!

It is time to fill the ship's log with impressions of your journeys. Please share with us of places vivid and memorable, that have marked your memories the most, in our location survey:

[h3]https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/G3QFYXF[/h3]

Lord Captains!

The Isometric Custom Sale 2024 on Steam has begun. Let’s take a look at the good deals it offers the players!

Please, note that the sale will take place till August 30, so don’t miss the discount!

[h2]Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader[/h2]

Get the Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader game at a 35% discount and dive into adventures of the Koronus Expanse. Claim your Warrant of Trade and become a legendary Rogue Trader!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2186680/Warhammer_40000_Rogue_Trader/

Boost your gaming experience by getting unique in-game items and models, as well as digital add-ons available in Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader - Voidfarer Pack and Deluxe Pack at a 35% discount!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2682670/Warhammer_40000_Rogue_Trader__Voidfarer_Pack/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2682660/Warhammer_40000_Rogue_Trader__Deluxe_Pack/

Get the Season Pass at a 35% discount and unlock access to the first Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader DLC – Void Shadows alongside the upcoming Lex Imperialis DLC!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2687230/Warhammer_40000_Rogue_Trader__Season_Pass/
[h2]
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous [/h2]

Dive into the adventures in the lands of the World Wound and lead the great Crusade! Get the Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous game at a 70% discount. Hurry, Drezen City needs its hero.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1184370/Pathfinder_Wrath_of_the_Righteous__Enhanced_Edition/

Your journey doesn't end here. Three DLCs are waiting for you in the Season Pass 1, which you can get with 70% off.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1694801/Pathfinder_Wrath_of_the_Righteous__Season_Pass/

And that’s not all either. Another three wonderful plot DLCs can be obtained as a part of the Season Pass 2! A ton of fun and content awaits you at a pleasant 50% discount!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2145870/Pathfinder_Wrath_of_the_Righteous__Season_Pass_2/

Note that the discount will be lower if you buy the DLCs separately.