Conqueror's Blade News

The Helheim Battle Pass is now available to purchase from MY.GAMES Market, Steam, and in-game!

The Battle Pass opens up even more rewards to earn on top of the Free Pass. Complete Seasonal Challenges and amass Glory to unlock exclusive Thor and Loki-inspired cosmetics, new Emotes, and many more valuable items to collect.

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 [h2]FREE PASS[/h2]
Conqueror’s Blade is free to play, so you can earn epic rewards without emptying out your coin purse. Highlights include:

• Pour One Out Emote: Whether it's to celebrate a victory or commiserate after a defeat, you can pour one out on the streets!
• Helheim Weapon Chest: Unlock a new themed weapon skin of your choice to show off on the battlefield.
• Legendary Artillery Selection Box: Add explosive mayhem to proceedings with Legendary Artillery!

There are also plenty of Blades, Silver Keys, Chests of Bronze, Treatises, and many more items to be collected as you make your way through the Free Pass.



[h2]BATTLE PASS[/h2]
The Helheim Battle Pass includes all Free Pass rewards, along with exclusive items to make Freyja herself green with envy. Here are a few highlights waiting for you in the premium track of the Helheim Battle Pass:

• Loptr's Hide Hero Attire (Tier 1 - INSTANT UNLOCK): Channel the god of mischief with this Loki-inspired attire, complete with green hues, fur-lined drapery, and an ornate horned helmet.
• Einherjar Unit Attire: Raiders and pillagers needn’t sacrifice looking regal, and the proof is in the blue and gold pudding with this unit attire, inspired by the warriors guided by a Valkyrie host to feast in Odin’s halls.
• Horned Gulltoppr Mount Set: Who said only unicorns could have horns? Your noble steed deserves the best, and that’s exactly what they’ll get with this decadent yet dominating gold and silver ensemble, inspired by the steed of Heimdallr, sentinel of the Æsir.
• Kneel and Flex Emote: Flaunt your newly burgeoning Viking muscles in the tavern with this Emote.
• Bringer of Thunder Hero Attire (Tier 100): Become the god of thunder you were always meant to be (or at least dress like him) in this Thor-inspired getup, fit only for those who have demonstrated true ferocity in battle (and who aren’t afraid of thunderstorms).

 


[h2]SEASONAL STORE[/h2]
Unlock Blades from the Battle Pass to exchange in the Seasonal Store for brand-new and Viking-inspired weapon skins and revel in the rustic magnificence of Northlander design. You can also exchange Blades for Antique variants of attires and weapon skins from Season VII: Wolves of Ragnarok.

• Helheim Weapon Skins: Charge into battle brandishing Viking-inspired weapons such as the Freya's Resolve Spear, the Norns' Fate Musket, and Thor's Wrath Maul.
• Antique Weapon Skins: Equip the hardy weapons of the Northmen with these weapon skins from Season VII: Wolves of Ragnarok, including the Jormungandr Longbow and Fenrir's Fang Longsword & Shield.
• Antique Attires: Embrace the legendary culture of the Northlands with the noble Thegn's Hero Attire and the mighty Odin's Hero Attire.

Get the Helheim Battle Pass now from MY.GAMES Market, Steam, or in-game to start plundering precious loot!

Please be aware that from 7:00 CEST on June 9 (22:00 PDT 6/8), the Conqueror’s Blade servers will be inaccessible. The downtime is expected to last for 8 hours.

Please refer to the Patch Notes for documented changes. Meanwhile, stay tuned to our Discord channel in case of any immediate server updates.

Soundtrack vocalist Julie Elven (Horizon Forbidden West, League of Legends) not only provided us with stunning vocals in the Cinematic Trailer for Conqueror’s Blade: Helheim alongside Colm McGuinness, but was kind enough to sit down with us to talk all things music.



When did you realise you were such a talented vocalist? 

Oh, thank you so much; that's such a nice compliment. I didn't have parents who were musicians or artists; I just grew up with a mom who loved to sing, so in our household, there would always be singing. There was no judgment about the way me and my sisters would sing. I think that it really helps to just keep on practising without having this initial judgment from childhood. Then I developed all of that further and started composing and playing the violin and the piano. 

Do you still remember the first time you sang on stage?

As a kid, I felt it was really easy for me to be on stage, For example, with piano recitals and stuff like that, because, again, I didn't have any judgment about what the music should sound like. But then, after some time and becoming an adult, I became more cautious about how I was perceived on stage, so I had a bit more stage fright. For many, many years, I thought I was more of a studio vocalist, and I didn't see myself as a performer. But then, with time, and singing with different orchestras, and with Hollywood composer James Newton Howard in 2017, you just gain the experience. At one point, I just felt more comfortable performing on stage, but that didn't come naturally. Now I absolutely love it, it's so beautiful to connect with an audience in person. 

You performed at The Game Awards last year. How did you feel on that world stage compared to other live performances? 

It was such an honour, honestly, it was such a dream come true. This was also my first performance ever in the US. Previously, I've always performed around Europe, in different countries with different orchestras or ensembles, but this was my first performance in the US, and also I needed an artist visa to perform there, so it was an intense, stressful process to get there. Just knowing that it was broadcast to so many people worldwide during a pandemic makes me feel so honoured and grateful that it worked out. It was a very special moment I will never forget. 

We’re familiar with your work on many different video games, are you a gamer yourself? If so, what do you like to play?

At first, I wasn't a gamer myself, at least not a console gamer. Back in the day, I would play the Sims lot, and I played Tony Hawk, but now I've really fallen in love with being a gamer myself, at least a part-time gamer. At the moment, I really love playing Horizon Forbidden West, because I've been a part of it, but also I've been a huge fan of Destiny too, because my partner is a huge fan, so he showed me how to play it, and it's wonderful to dive into these worlds. 



You contributed vocals to the Cinematic Trailer for Conqueror’s Blade: Helheim, a Viking-inspired season. Are you a fan of Vikings? 

I love Viking music. I love this kind of ancient Norse style of music, for example, Wardruna the band and Einar Selvik. In the trailer, there was a part of the song that Colm McGuinness performed that was very warrior-sounding, and it was amazing. 

Your voice, along with that of Colm McGuinness, helps us set the story and atmosphere of the Cinematic Trailer. What do you hope players feel when they listen to that music?

For this specific trailer, we just wanted to feel the power of revenge, because, as I understood it, the attack was like a revenge attack in the cinematic. I think the raw energy of the fight and the warriors was really important, and Colm brought that so beautifully and so presently. I think my part in the trailer was the voice of the revenge, similar to Nemesis, the Greek goddess of revenge. It’s a reminder of what the motive is of the warriors. 

Was this your first time singing with Colm, or have you worked together before?

We've actually worked together before. I just can't say the project yet, because it's still secret, but I met Colm while I was searching for a voice for a certain project I was working on. The composer I worked with said that he wanted to have a male voice in there as well, so I asked around on social media if anyone knew of a very good, Viking-type or Celtic voice, and Colm messaged me. I am so glad that I have found him because he has such unique vocal qualities. It's just insane. His timbre, his technique, and the emotion he brings to the music are incredible. It was really interesting when we both found out that we were both in the Conqueror’s Blade trailer. It was such a beautiful moment. 

You and Colm have a knack for bringing strong emotions out in music. How do you use your voice to tell stories, sometimes even without lyrics?

For example, such as with Conquerors Blade, I was not singing the old Norse lyrics, I was vocalising. These vocalisations—I do them a lot on the Horizon soundtracks and for League of Legends. I think it's so interesting because you actually have to convey the emotion solely through the voice itself because you don't have the lyrics or words, so the voice kind of becomes an instrument, and that always feels very special. I love also singing lyrics, but for the most part, I really love to bring the emotion across with just the voice itself. 

Do you think music is important in shaping stories in video games? 

I think the music is a messenger that brings across maybe the emotions of a character or the atmosphere of the situation of the scene. I think it helps to communicate the emotion to the audience. 

What kind of music do you enjoy listening to? 

I have to be honest. I do love to listen to soundtrack music, but also, there are a lot of other influences in there. I'm a huge metal head, so a lot of metal is on my playlist, but also, I am a bachata and salsa dancer, so there is also a lot of that music in there. When it comes to cinematic music, I love listening to John Williams and all the different composers. James Horner is my favourite film composer. 

Is there anything you’d like to say to your fans and players of Conqueror’s Blade?

I hope you guys enjoy the season! I think there's been a lot of effort, energy and creativity being put into it, and I think it shows. I'm very excited for the Helheim season.

Acclaimed Irish singer, composer, and YouTuber Colm McGuinness (Critical Role) graced us with his vocal abilities in the Cinematic Trailer for Conqueror’s Blade: Helheim, and we thought it only fitting to grab them for a chat about all things music, Vikings, and gaming.

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We really enjoy listening to your songs here at Conqueror's Blade, your voice is just incredible, and you have an amazing following on YouTube. What made you want to become a musician?

Me and my brothers started learning violin when we were teens, but I was a terrible singer all the way through my childhood and my teens. I was awful, I was completely tone-deaf. I also wasn't really sure of where my range was when I was a teen. My voice would start to drop, so I always loved high singers, like Chris Cornell, and kind of like rock singers. My granddad would sing Irish songs when we were small, and I always thought that that was so cool. When I was about twelve, I picked up a guitar, and I was like, ‘okay, this music thing, maybe this is for me’. I would say around twelve was when I wanted to take it seriously.

For Conqueror’s Blade: Helheim, you sang ‘My Mother Told Me’, a song that originated in Old Norse. Have you spoken the language before?

I will be completely honest; Google Translate is fantastic. And I watched a lot of videos on the pronunciation because I had done a cover of it a few months back, and all of the Norwegian people were very polite in their criticism of my pronunciation. So this time around, I had a bit more of a head start. I can't speak old Norse. I was in Norway years ago, and I learned enough, like ‘thank you’ was ‘takk’, and they say ‘hei hei’ when they're saying hello. So I had that.

What do you think the story behind ‘My Mother Told Me’ is, and what did you want to deliver with the song?

Well, it's interesting because it's from an old poem about a seven-year-old who killed someone. He was destined for conquest. It’s about, you know, striking fear into the enemies and their territory that you're about to sail up into. So I think the whole thing is like ‘oh, imagine you're on the sea, you hear this coming from in the mist’. So that is kind of like a good visualisation.

And people love Vikings! We know you’ve performed other Viking-related songs, including ‘If I Had A Heart’. Are you a big fan of Vikings, and if so, what made you a fan of the culture?

So Viking culture in Ireland is really big because they kind of took over the country for a while. The town where I'm from was actually named by Vikings, and they named it after a salmon jumping up the river, so the translation of the town is Salmon Leap. And you'll see a lot of big port cities in Ireland, like Waterford and Dublin. There's still a big, historical Viking influence there, so you learn a lot about it growing up in Ireland. But they are just cool, aren't they? It's kind of funny, because when I've gone to Scandinavian countries, they're kind of like, ‘oh, you have red hair. We had it first. We gave you guys gingers, you know’. But I studied it in college as well. One of the subjects I took was Viking studies. It's just a really cool history, and it's very similar to Irish history too.

We made a great cinematic trailer for Conqueror’s Blade: Helheim that saw the Northmen set sail across the sea for new lands to battle in. You’ve previously recorded songs for TV and film – did you find it different working on something video games-related instead?

I've worked as a composer on a game in the past, but a lot of my performance stuff has been for TV, films, and web series. Video game music, as you know, is so grandly different. It's not linear, and it is more of an immersive kind of experience for the player. It's so cool, because the fanbase of it, they're a lot more passionate, I guess, in this sense.

Do you consider yourself a gamer?

I am just above casual. I used to think I was a big gamer nerd when I was a kid, and then I went to America for the first time, and they're like hardcore. They have the big gaming PCs, the conventions. And I was like, ‘okay, maybe I'm as big into this as I thought I was’. But this year, I've had a lot more time to actually play games a lot more. My favourite game is still Pokémon, the second-gen - Pokémon Gold. I'm a big Pokémon boy.

As a musician, what kind of songs do you listen to? Which tracks are on your most-played list?

I got really into folk music over the last few years. It was really over the pandemic, but I got back into Irish folk like The Dubliners. But a lot of my playlist, even my running playlist, is all like, Aerosmith, Mötley Crüe, Kate Bush - it's a lot of 80s stuff.

What do you do in your spare time when you’re not making music?

When I'm not making music, I'm probably researching music libraries. I'm running a lot more, and I'm gaming a bit more this year. We'll see if I can build more on those things.

Thank you for your time, Colm. Best wishes and thanks from the whole Conqueror’s Blade team to you and your fans! Stay handsome!

Stay handsome!

Helheim approaches, and if you can’t wait to start your journey into this Viking-inspired update on June 9, you can watch an exclusive preview ahead of time!

On June 6 from 17:30 CEST / 08:30 PST, tune into the official Conqueror’s Blade Twitch channel for a glimpse of all the content that Conqueror’s Blade: Helheim has to offer with your Community Manager hosts Bluntcast & KT_Peridot.

• See the beginnings of a new saga, inspired by the Viking age.
• Check out the fearsome fighters from the Northlands you can recruit—the noble bodyguards of the Huskarls and the elite warrior faction of the Varangian Guards.
• Feast your eyes on new Battle Pass rewards such as Hero Attires, Emotes, Weapon Skins, and more.
• Learn all about the new reworked maps: Broch Eastray, La Grande Gloire, and Heilung Fjord.
• … And much more!

As a special treat, tune in to the official Conqueror’s Blade Twitch channel again on June 7 at 17:30 CEST / 08:30 PST to watch our Community Managers face off against Content Creators in a few pre-season friendly battles!

Once the official Preview Event stream is over, you can join your favourite Conqueror’s Blade content creators as they discover everything Helheim has to offer. Be sure to follow some of the channels below to receive notifications when they go live.

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