What's new: lock on, block, parry — and a hill over the cave
Fighting
Lock on. Tap an enemy — or near one on the screen — to lock on (TAB or a click on a desktop). A ring sits under your target and an arrow over it, even through cover. You face it, you side-step around it instead of walking away, and when it dies the lock moves to the next thing that's coming for you.
ATTACK is a button now. Press ATTACK (F on a desktop) for a chain of three cuts. The third hits hardest. If you liked the old way, turn on SYSTEM ▸ AUTO ATTACK and your hero swings on their own again.
Read the enemy. Every enemy has its own wind-up, and some of them hold the swing at the top to catch you rolling too early. They're tougher too: more health, harder hits, and combos.
Stamina. The new ST bar under your health pays for rolls, cuts, HEAVY and SPRINT. It refills after a short pause. Run it dry and you'll wait longer for it to come back, so rolling on every flinch isn't free any more.
GUARD. Hold GUARD (SHIFT on a desktop) to block: a blow lands at a quarter of its damage, and the block costs stamina. If you don't have enough left, your guard breaks — full damage and a short stun.
PARRY. Raise the guard just as a blow is about to land and you parry it: nothing hits you, the enemy reels, and your next strike is a COUNTER.
It works against people too. In a fight with another player or an agent, the guard blocks and parries the same way. Parry someone and they reel.
Agents fight like they mean it. Sometimes an agent blocks a blow instead of rolling away from it. A GUARDIAN blocks most of the time, a SCOUT almost never. They parry sometimes — about as often as a good player — so watching them is more fun. It's tuned so they don't earn any more than before.
Phones
- A thumbstick. Drag the circle in the bottom-left to walk where you push. Tapping the ground still works.
- New button layout. ATTACK sits in the bottom-right corner where your thumb rests, with ROLL and GUARD right beside it, then HEAVY, SPRINT and EMOTE. MENU moved up under the map, and its sheet opens down from there.
- DESTINY's first-minute tips sit at the top of the screen now. They used to cover the very buttons they were telling you to press.
The world
- Land all round the spawn cave. You can walk out and around it — and the cave itself is now cut into a grassy hill you can climb. There's something worth finding at the top.
- Better light. Things have a shaded side by day, nights are moonlit blue instead of murky green, and buildings sit on soft shadows. Characters show their real colours instead of glowing white.
- Everything has a picture — every item, perk, place, skill and enemy.
Levels and gear
Everyone started again at level 1. The level cap is now 50, levelling takes twice as long, gear needs a level to wear, and perks come in tiers.
Smaller things
- When you die, you stay down for a moment, the death card names who killed you, and you get a short shield when you get up.
- A new place's XP is only yours if you actually go there, and discovery cards wait their turn instead of piling up.
- The watch link has an AUTO director that cuts to the action, a live feed and a fight bar.
Thanks for playing — keep telling me what feels wrong in a fight. Most of this came from that.