Accompanying this patch is a brand new faction - the ancient and enigmatic Briarfolk. While lucky players may have already encountered them in Endless Mode, we're inviting the community to help tell their story - we want to play your version of the Game of Life and Death!
We'll be holding a month-long community modding contest from the 17th of September (closing on the 15th of October) to find our favorite Briarfolk mod. The contest is open to any kind of content - a single encounter, encounter-chain, challenge, companion, you name it - as long as the Briarfolk are a major element within the mod.
What are you competing for, you ask? The winning mod will receive a copy of the Kickstarter-exclusive special edition of Hand of Fate: Ordeals, signed by the team at Defiant. This is a limited run item, folks! It is a thing of beauty, and I'm going to have a hard time parting with it.
Eligible mods will need to be uploaded to the Steam Workshop between the 17th of September and the 15th of October and include the words Briarfolk Community Mod Contest in the Workshop description. We'll be highlighting some of our favorite mods over the course of the competition through our new in-game mod interface as well as on the forums and our Discord channel.
To demonstrate what can be done with the new faction, I've whipped up an example mod called Friend of the Forest. This 3 card encounter chain (with custom blessing) can be included in any modded save and will allow you to face our leafy new foes on the battlefield. The project will also be released alongside the modding tools in a future update for any curious modders wanting to take a peek under the hood. As an added bonus, we've made some big changes to our in-game mod activation UI that should make it easier for players to switch to a mod save and find new content.
Now get out there and show the Dealer how it's done!
Combat Reforged!
We're proud to release our latest update to the game, 1.6.0, which brings a whole suite of changes to combat. Batter your foes, unleash the power of your artefacts and enjoy enhanced manoeuvrability with Hand of Fate 2: Combat Reforged!
Bash Abilities
All armours now have Bash abilities
Bash abilities charge based on number of Defends
While uncharged, Bash causes a brief stun and scales the duration based on the amount of charge
Charge resets when a bash is used
Improved responsiveness of 'bash'
5x existing armour cards now have new tokens to unlock to upgrade them
3x existing shield cards now have new tokens to unlock to upgrade them
Number of Defends to charge bash degrade in combat, similarly to weapon ability charge
Bash Types
Stun Bash: Cause Stun to a single target
Stun Blast: Causes Stun to an area
Knockdown Bash: Causes Knockdown to a single target
Confuse Bash: Causes Confuse, enemies will fight on the player side for a short time
Bleed Bash: Causes damage over time, and slows the enemy attacks and movement
Freeze Bash: Causes Freeze to a single target
Artefacts
Cooldowns on all artefacts have been greatly reduced
Improved the responsiveness of other actions after using an artefact.
Horn Artefacts
Horns no longer lose their charge, instead they have a set number of uses per combat
There is a warm-up after the combat begins until the item can be used
Some items have been slightly rebalanced to accommodate these changes
Cry of Victory (horn): 1 once per combat
Heroes Call (horn): 3 uses per combat
Will of the Emperor (horn): 3 uses per combat
Will of the Northerner (changed from potion to horn): 3 uses per combat
Apprentice Mode
Option to enable/disable in the settings menu
While active, scores are not uploaded for Endless Adventures.
Auto Finishers: Attacking in the direction of an enemy in Knockdown automatically performs the finisher.
Auto Riposte: Successfully defending with Light or One-Handed Weapons automatically ripostes.
Weapon Charge: Weapon charge does not reset when hit in combat
Increased Damage: Weapons deal increased damage in combat
General Combat
Optional enemy health bars - availble in the settings menu (recommended!)
Green and Red attack window consistency
Light (green) attacks can now be evaded
Evade
Player no longer gets stuck when evading into other characters
Evade occurs in the direction pressed
Improved evade distance consistency
Weapon Ability Charge - the number of hits required to perform weapon abilities has been reduced on some equipment allowing those abilities to be used more frequently
Reduced 'stickiness' after defending/riposting - only the riposte autotargets the defender, subsequent attacks can be redirected bashed on input direction
Increased chance of hits causing Knockdown to low health enemies
Dual Wielded ripostes will cause a short stun if the enemy attempt to counter-attack (see Enemy Rebalance)
Increased responsiveness of followup actions after using an artefact
Equipment and Blessing Rebalance
General
Faction Riposte bonuses deal more damage: from 125 to 150%
Faction Bane bonuses deal more damage: from 125 to 135% (Holy is 150%)
The following items and blessings no longer trigger from the Campfire encounter:
Armour of Gluttony
Brigand's Shield
Morton's Magic Door
Plentiful Harvest
Wind's Return (light weapons)
- Weapon Ability: New targeting system for weapon ability
The Peeler (heavy weapon)
- Platinum: This weapon is now Platinum.
Last Hope (one-handed weapon)
- Cursed Strike: Fixed a bug where the ability was adding +5 Damage per curse instead of +10
- Brimsone: This weapon is now Brimstone.
Armour of Gluttony (armour)
- Food Defence: Defence bonus is now a % increase of current defence value, rather than adding a fixed value, i.e. +30% Defence, not +3, when Defence is 10
- Gain Food: Gain +2 food after any encounter where you draw a gain card. Excludes the Campfire encounter.
Platinum Armour (armour)
- Resist Damage: Reduces damage by 10% regardless of defence value.
- Defence: Defence has been reduced from 30 to 22
The Lord's Diadem (helm):
- Slow Swing: Fixed a large number of instances where the precision gambit would not swing slower when this item was equipped
Chefs Charm (ring)
- Healthy Eating: Life received is reduced from double to +50% (rounded up)
Bullseye (ring)
- Wide Beam: Increases the size of the precision gambit beam even further, same rules apply for multiple zones (see Precision Gambit above)
Mother's Blessing (blessing)
- Blessed: Only gain a blessing if you have more curses than blessings.
Enemy Rebalance
Thieves Counter-Attacks
- Thieves now have a chance to attack immediately after their initial attack is defended
- Riposting the initial attack with a Light Weapon causes stun to the Counter-Attacking enemy, and charges Bash by +1
- The following thieves have been updated: Thug, Silencer, and Assassin
Wraith
- Wraith's now have a warm-up phase before they start casting their drain attack
- During this period the Wraith can be interrupted to prevent the spell being cast
- The Wraith has an offscreen indicator during this warm-up phase
Mages
- Mage's have a warm-up phase before they start casting their magic pool attacks
- During this period the Mage can be interrupted to prevent the spell being cast
- The Mage's has an offscreen indicator during this warm-up phase
Northerners
- The timing window to the first hit of the Retaliate Attack has been increased
- The following Northerners have been updated: Warrior, Berserker, and Tyrant
Endless
Goblin Clips have been removed as Endless Adventure bosses
Goblin Chiefs have been added as an Endless Adventure boss
Escape duration for Clips in the Endless boss fight have been increased
Companions
Patch notes 1.6.0
Combat Reforged (see Combat Reforged post for a complete list of changes )
All armours now have Bash abilities
Cooldowns on all artefacts have been greatly reduced
Improved the responsiveness of other actions after using an artefact.
Option to enable/disable Apprentice Mode in settings
Optional enemy health bars available in the settings menu (recommended!)
Combat balances
The default Precision Gambit beam in the precision gambit has been widened
If more than one zone is touching the beam when it stops, the best zone is chosen, i.e. Huge Success > Success > Failure > Huge Failure
Equipment and Blessing Rebalance
Enemy Rebalances
Goblin Clips have been removed as Endless Adventure bosses
Goblin Chiefs have been added as an Endless Adventure boss
Escape duration for Clips in the Endless boss fight have been increased
Companion damage and power rebalances
Modding UI
Created Mod Menu item to manage installed mods and highlight top rated mods on the Steam Workshop
Removed 'cog' icon from Load Game Dialog.
Select an empty slot in the Load Game Dialog to clone any existing slot, and enable mods if desired.
Mod Tools
Mod tools have been updated to require version 2017.4.2f2 of Unity.
Brimstone Challenges
Previously a few challenges had the ability to be played at a higher difficulty when certain equipment cards were included in your deck. These harder modes are now replayable even after the tokens have been won from the respective items.
Briarfolk Faction
Added Briarfolk faction and accompanying Endless Mode Adventure
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug where enemies could change from light to heavy or heavy to light mid attack
Constant feedback when being hit when vulnerable vs invulnerable
Fixed a number of instances where multiple attackers could attack the player at the same time
Improved transitions to evade
Fixed a number of instances where input was lost transitioning from Armour Break strikes to other actions
Fixed issues with transitioning from Defend to other actions in certain scenarios (input was being ignored)
Fixed a bug where the Ogre could instantly escape his 'stuck' state and perform a heavy (red) attack
Fixed the Blacksmith encounter upgrading defence by the incorrect amount
Please report issues in the bug forum here and we will endeavour to fix them asap. Thank you for all your help so far!
Steel yourself! Combat is getting an update in Hand of Fate 2!
Big changes are coming to Hand of Fate 2's combat next week! This update is designed to empower players of all skill levels, whether they're fresh to the Game of Life and Death or tyrant-toppling champions.
The most exciting change is the expansion of our bash ability. Previously limited to disrupting shielded enemies and cracking armour-plating, bash will now knock back and stun all enemy types, and can even be charged up (through successful blocking or taking damage) with more powerful effects. Subsequently, our shields and armour sets have received an overhaul to allow for fun new combinations - freeze your foes, knock them to their knees for easy takedowns, or even batter them into temporarily joining your side.
Artefacts have also undergone a generous reworking, with many of them upgrading to a more versatile "uses per combat encounter" system. This should make artefacts a much more viable deckbuilding choice, and ought to encourage players to more frequently bring their powerful abilities to bear in combat.
Under the hood, we've made improvements to player character responsiveness and evasion, addressing a number of issues from sticky animation transitions to unreliable dodge vulnerability. We've also looked over enemy behaviours and added increased tells to certain enemy attacks to ensure players are never unfairly blind-sided. Finally, new situational health bars have been added to basic enemies, which should help overwhelmed players quickly determine the order in which to dispatch their foes. Health bars can be toggled in the options menu, but once you turn them on you may not want to go back.
This patch also introduces a long-requested feature: the return of Hand of Fate's Apprentice Mode. The new mode, available in the settings menu, is designed for players more interested in the deckbuilding/narrative side of the game and less into the fighting. When activated, Apprentice Mode automates combat maneuvers like ripostes and finishers while increasing player damage output. It also stops weapon charges from resetting during combat, ensuring Apprentice players are able to access their powers more frequently in a melee.
For a complete breakdown of the changes, check out next week's patch notes. An in-depth list of changes will also be made available as a sticky post in the steam forums.
That's not all we've got planned for this update! Next week we'll have a very special announcement for the modder and mod-enthusiast community, so stick around.
Patch notes 1.5.6
Fix Portal Creature bug.
Fixed issue where challenge unlock requirements did not correctly update.
Fixed issue where certain vibration effects would play even if vibration was disabled.
Fixed issue where disconnected controller prompt could appear behind other dialogs.
Fixed various issues with loss of selection when claiming Additional Content.
Fixed minor text bug in Sea Dog Hali utility.
Please report issues in the bug forum here and we will endeavour to fix them asap. Thank you for all your help so far!
Patch notes 1.5.5
Fixed issue in companion deckbuilder which could cause loss of selection
Devourer now gives endless points for removing a single item.
Improved performance on some encounters that use a large quantity of cards
Added sorting to shops
Stop cards that come out of a token cutting into each other.
Fixed bottom left menu not appearing in deckbuilder on first load.
Magnetic Turtle properly returns your equipment now.
Fixed Female player tunic colours being incorrect
Added pendulum preview to modding editor.
Fix some unlocalised Hubie text
Ensure selection is correctly resumed after closing an Addon Feature Item on the Challenge Map
Please report issues in the bug forum here and we will endeavour to fix them asap. Thank you for all your help so far!
Patch notes 1.5.4
Revealed Hubie dialog option in Burning Building encounter.
Improved some Korean localisation.
Fixed Dealer hat in Twitch.
Fixed 'dev dungeon' in the modding project.
Fixed ‘shard editor’ in the modding project.
Please report issues in the bug forum here and we will endeavour to fix them asap. Thank you for all your help so far!
Patch notes 1.5.0-1.5.3
1.5.3
Fix for player becoming unresponsive when fighting armoured enemies.
Fix for replaying with same companion.
Fix some localisation problems reported on the google sheet.
1.5.2
Added traits to the Hali encounter.
Fixed Hubie's Slippery trait.
1.5.1
Fix for portal creature.
1.5.0
Outlanders and Outsiders
Please report issues in the bug forum here and we will endeavour to fix them asap. Thank you for all your help so far!
Outlands & Outsiders DLC is now available to purchase!
The first piece of paid DLC for Hand of Fate 2, Outlands & Outsiders, is now available for purchase! It's time to answer the call of the Mournful Wastes!
