The fourth update is now live! With this update we have replaced the existing tutorial window with a more comprehensive and expansive "Guides" section! This new section will be the source of all information for statuses, effects and mechanics. Together with the updated explanation of mechanics, we are also deploying more bugfixes, QOL improvements and UI upgrades.
The patch notes can be read in detail below.
UI
Updated the minimap for the Church District. The Banquet Street landmark is now placed on the correct street.
The turn indicator visual is updated for better readability.
The tutorial window has been replaced with a more expansive “Guides” tab in the party menu. The areas that would normally open the tutorial instead open up the Guides tab on the relevant category.
The “start combat” button is larger to better accommodate localization.
There is now a question mark next to “use of philosophers stone” difficulty setting that can be hovered to show what the philosopher's stone’s effects are.
A one-time highlight has been added to the “select class” button and “inventory healing” buttons to further emphasise their importance.
Bugs
Fixed Flammen (Dragoon) not properly applying nigredo.
Fixed Pocket Sand (Mercenary) not properly applying nigredo.
Improved the visualisation of the Pyrotechnics (Dragoon) area of effect so it always shows all tiles that will be hit.
Using the fast travel well no longer prevents you from opening the pause menu upon arriving at your destination.
The loading screen is no longer stretched on widescreens.
The Mercy Stroke dagger now drops during the main quest Scouting the Scouts.
The free movement UI no longer vanishes upon entering new game plus.
Players can no longer reach the City Center early, which would result in getting softlocked by the gate back to the Commoner District.
There can no longer be situations where a fifth party member is added, causing issues.
Ogier should no longer be invisible when talking to him in front of the church.
Fixed an issue that could cause the world map toggle button to become unbound.
Fixed an issue that could cause the second Maarten you recruit to have negative HP.
Grand Piers has further strengthened his resolve and properly prevents you from killing him from the back or sides.
Fixed an issue causing tightly packed groups of enemies to freeze up or crash the game when engaging combat with them.
Maarten no longer changes his hair colour at times.
Fixed an issue that could cause generated party members to have mismatching names and visuals.
Quality of life
Autofill for consumable items is now always on by default and only disabled when explicitly disabling the auto fill for a certain slot.
The currently selected unit during the pre combat placement phase is now highlighted white to clarify it’s being moved.
Whenever the game asks you to select your facing before ending your turn, the camera recenters on the currently active character.
The sprint action for controllers has been moved from the left joystick press to the right face button (B on Xbox controllers).
The tab key can now also be used to open the inventory.
Treasure chests now have a glowing material, to make them easier to find.
Balance
The price of molotovs has been increased to 1000 per molotov (from 250).
First Aid (Mercenary) no longer grants experience.
Christiaan’s anchor has been reworked to now maintain damage taken when it is grabbed, making it more reasonable to bring its health down.
The tutorial enemies scale with difficulty settings and NG+ cycle.
Patch 3: Minimap & World Map
Hi Mercenaries!
The third patch is live now! Bringing you a much requested, highly anticipated feature: minimap & world map! No more clueless running around, no more checking of every road sign, now you know exactly where to go with a simple look on the map! Together with the map, we are also deploying some bugfixes, improvements and balance changes. Some classes won't even know what hit them! (looking at you, Duelist).
The patch notes can be read in detail below.
Also, if you enjoy the game, please consider leaving us a positive review. It means a lot to us as devs to read more about your experiences and feedback on the game, plus it helps with the Steam algorithm too!
UI
A minimap has been added to the game, allowing easier navigation within the levels. For players who prefer to play without the minimap, there is a gameplay setting to disable it.
A world map has been added to the game, showing you the various districts you have visited and where you currently are.
Some bosses have had their size in the bestiary reduced so they fit within the screen.
Enemy names in the bestiary will no longer spill out of their windows.
Enemy descriptions in the bestiary will no longer be clipped.
You no longer need to go to the “buy” side of the vendor to sell items lower than row 2 when using a controller.
Mercenary recruitment buttons have increased width to better support localization.
Localization
The russian localization for the quest “a wedding in white” has been updated.
Bugs
Players and enemies will no longer go “off track” and bounce back and forth when climbing on higher combat speed settings.
Weapons that reduce the cost of catalyzing abilities to 1AP now work as intended.
Pressing F12 to take a screenshot no longer pops the weapon tooltip.
Passive abilities will no longer show twice, hiding potential third passives.
Scrolling down in weapon selection when using a controller should now be more consistent and not block the player from scrolling past the first two rows.
Steam cloud now correctly synchronises save games.
Attempting to open your inventory during the unit placement before the final fight will no longer greet you with a white screen.
Using a quarter tree now properly plays an animation and sound.
Combat speed will no longer have a chance to affect free movement animation speeds.
Single gates now also lock your movement during the animation.
Enemies right outside of the merchant guild no longer pop in and vanish when entering the commoner district.
Machteld should now properly spawn for all female characters.
Polished the Spawn Locations in the Graveyard District, City Center, Church District and the Commoner District.
Polished the grass foliage in the Graveyard District.
Fixed an area in the City Center where a player could get stuck between vases and boxes.
Fix the animation for the Plague Doctor’s Beacon of Ain Soph into a more fitting one.
New game plus
Difficulty is no longer reset to easy upon starting a new game plus cycle.
You can now adjust difficulty settings before starting a new game plus cycle.
Balance
Experience gains are reworked to not give all of the experience to the unit executing the action, splitting a part of it between party members. Higher level units will gain less, while lower level units will gain more. Additionally, overall experience gains have been slightly reduced.
Revamped most random encounters throughout all chapters in order to have a more logical spread in terms of enemy count and difficulty.
Massively buffed Benedict so he’s no longer a pushover for your optimised party.
Throwable items scale with unit level, keeping their damage relevant later in the game.
Duelist and Rogue now gain less agility per level to reduce initiative snowballing. As compensation for this change, the Duelist gained better stamina scaling and the Rogue gained better strength scaling.
Units left in the barracks will scale up relative to the level of the lowest level member in your party to keep them relevant and not forcing you to train a level 1 unit.
Area of effect skills grant more experience to keep them in line with other skills.
Shout abilities no longer follow line of sight rules.
Bleeding damage has been moderately reduced.
Mercenary stat growth has been improved, with strength growth going up to C and stamina growth going up to B.
Specific ability changes
Blade flurry only applies one stack of humor (was one per hit).
Visceral thrust only applies one stack of Rubedo (down from two).
Brutus damage significantly reduced.
Inspiring shout also removes a random humor stack from affected allies.
Pocket sand applies a stack of Nigredo and the experience to unlock it permanently has been significantly reduced.
Rightly end no longer applies humor stacks, but deals significantly more damage.
Blunt side only applies a single stack of Nigredo (down from two).
Execute only applies a single stack of Albedo (down from two), but deals moderately more damage.
Snipe only applies a single stack of Nigredo (down from two).
Multishot applies double humor stacks if it critically strikes.
Glass cannon applies two stacks of Rubedo (up from one).
High powder shot applies two stacks of Albedo (up from one), but deals moderately less damage.
Flammen now also applies a stack of Nigredo.
Bottle o’ rum removes a random humor stack from the user.
Stomach punch applies two stacks of Rubedo (up from one).
Disarming strike removes two action points from the target (up from one) and deals slightly more damage.
Sweeping strike reduces hit targets’ movement points by three for one turn.
Kidney shot applies two stacks of Nigredo (up from one).
First aid heals slightly more.
Patch 2: UX improvements
Hi Mercenaries!
Our second update is live! This patch involves improvement to the localization (German, Russian and Simplified Chinese), bugfixes, general improvements to the gameplay and UI upgrades. Also, no more potato chip sounds!
To everyone who is waiting for the mini map, this will be coming in the next update!
The full patch notes can be read below:
Localization
German, Chinese, and Russian localization have all been entirely revised, generally improving the quality of translation.
Certain text blocks, most notably in the difficulty window and journal are now localized.
Bugs
Oliver, the vendor in the merchant guild, will no longer tell you to go both west and east to reach the harbour.
Maarten will no longer get himself stuck on a raised surface during either tutorial combat.
Fixed a hidden wall in the Graveyard District behind the Church.
Fixed a hidden wall in the Shipyard District, near the docks, that prevented the player from looting a chest.
Fixed some collision on the walls in the Graveyard District, which allowed for the player to surf on them.
Fixed an issue in the Harbour District where the player was able to walk off of a pier and get stuck on the water.
Fixed an inconvenient collision issue in the Harbour District where the player could not completely walk in between two objects at the cranes at the docks.
Fixed the Male Sewer Rat Tunic so the head doesn’t clip through it anymore at the top.
The mouse cursor should no longer randomly appear when using a controller.
The main menu version number now shows the correct number.
Skipping the intro cinematic after the Black Legend logo has appeared no longer causes it to get stuck on screen.
The Wedding in White sidequest will no longer send you back to fetch the scythe you already have after charging it. This change will also automatically complete the uncompletable fetch quest for anyone who was affected by it.
Improvements
The spawn location of one of the White Wives in the Harbour District has been moved so she will not get stuck behind a wall.
Some minor graphical and clipping issues have been resolved and improved in the Graveyard District.
Sprinting speed has been increased.
Status effect icons have received an update to improve clarity.
UI
Unlocking a class now presents you with a popup, more clearly indicating when new classes are unlocked and telling you where you can change classes.
The pause menu now explicitly shows you a save button which is disabled if your difficulty settings don’t allow in-combat saving.
Units can now be healed from the mercenaries overview window, by using the icon next to their details (top face button on controller).
Reworked controller navigation for the mercenaries window to support the new healing system and no longer cycle through mercenaries.
Improved the visuals for the Status Effect icons, so they are better visible.
The event log has received updated visuals to make it stand out a bit more.
The “select class” button has been widened to improve readability.
Quest-relevant trinkets without effects will now show their description in their tooltips.
Status effects icons in the bottom bar are larger to stand out more.
Sound
Dog type enemies don’t silently take attacks anymore, whining whenever they get hit or get killed.
Dog type enemies have gotten rid of their potato chips eating habits.
The Warcry ability now has a sound effect.
New game plus
Tutorials no longer show again when starting new game plus
Key items are removed from the inventory on new game plus, so certain quests will no longer be automatically completed and you can’t just pass through all locked gates.
Hi Mercenaries!