The Blood of Dawnwalker confirms first update as 7 gameplay changes on the way

The Blood of Dawnwalker has confirmed the arrival of its first major update which is set to introduce several adjustments to the title’s gameplay.

You may be nearing the end of your first playthrough of The Blood of Dawnwalker, but Rebel Wolves’ debut title is one that encourages replayability.

That’s because you cannot complete every in-game activity within the game’s available time window of 30 days and 30 nights.

Add in the fact that there are branching paths for the vast majority of quests and a respectable seven different endings, and you can see why players aren’t ready to let the game go.

Luckily for us, a sequel is already in development, albeit one that may drop the once-controversial but now popular time mechanic.

In the immediate future though, The Blood of Dawnwalker players can look forward to the game’s first major free update which launches in early October, as reported by Eurogamer.

No exact launch date has yet been provided and only certain features are confirmed at this point, but there’s plenty to look forward to.

Five new features and tweaks in The Blood of Dawnwalker’s October update

A new difficulty option

The Blood of Dawnwalker is set to add a new difficulty option, adding to the pre-existing story, fair, challenging, and duelist. The new mode is actually set to be the easiest mode and will replace ‘story’, taking its name.

The pre-existing story is then set to be renamed, potentially as ‘demanding’. The Blood of Dawnwalker’s directional combat is great when it clicks, but it’s nice to see that there’s an accessible option for those struggling with it.

"We will introduce an additional difficulty level, but an easier one, because many people are asking for a more easy difficulty,” director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz told Eurogamer.

“The story mode which we have right now will be a different difficulty - we will call it ‘demanding’ or something like this - and we will add a new ‘story’ mode which will be even easier for people who don't want to experience the combat, they just want to learn the story and go through the game without this gameplay challenge."

Combat will receive some camera adjustments

The Blood of Dawnwalker has an annoying quirk where if you stun an enemy, your lock-on actually changes to a different enemy. Instead of allowing you to take them down while stunned, the game treats it as if you wanted to just temporarily lesser the number of enemies on your case.

"When I was playing in some of the gameplay reviews, I wanted to stun an opponent and then switch to the other one, but because I was locked on him still, I hit him by mistake and took the stun from him, and that's why we made it switch for the other character,” Tomaszkiewicz began.

He added, “But people complain about it, and in the newest patch we will lift off and we will see,” so you should be able to directly attack stunned enemies. Tomaszkiewicz says it’s something the team will monitor the response to as you’ll only be able to strike an enemy three times before the stun wears off, and there’s no saying how that’ll be received as an alternative.

General performance improvements

Rebel Wolves has already been rolling out small patches to address any performance issues or concerns. This will continue as Tomaszkiewicz said there are too many PC hardware combinations to test ahead of launch.

“We're observing this, we're trying to ask people about the hardware, and we are trying to do the fixes,” he said.

Escaping open-world fights will be adjusted

If you encounter an enemy in the open-world, animal or human, you more often than not become locked into that fight. It is occasionally possible to run away, but many players find themselves soft-locked and unable to step over nearby scenery assets.

By all accounts, devs didn’t spot the issue ahead of launch as they didn’t tend to run away from fights. Us players like to though, so a fix is being applied.

"Right now we're doing the fix where when you run or escape, you will ignore the nav mesh and it will be fluid - it will not be clunky," Tomaszkiewicz said. "We're working on escaping from combat and running in combat and it will be a big change for people."

Animals won’t always instantly want to kill you

Across the open-world, you’ll have to fend off wolves, bears, tatzelwurms (horrid things), and more which become instantly aggravated by your presence. It’s a good way to farm XP but it does become annoying.

Alongside allowing you to run away from certain combat encounters, the update will also make it so that running past enemies using haste or the wolf form is less likely to catch their attention, making for more seamless open-world travel.

Two changes coming to The Blood of Dawnwalker in the future

New Game Plus

The Blood of Dawnwalker’s director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz previously confirmed during a PlayStation livestream that a New Game Plus mode is in development, although revealed that it wasn’t yet ready.

This would allow players to embark on a second playthrough with Coen’s unlocked skills, level, and inventory intact. That would certainly make unlocking alternative endings quicker and easier, plus it would make unlocking the trophy for reaching Level 50 easier too; it’s tricky to do in one playthrough.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Tomaszkiewicz simply reaffirmed the intention to add New Game Plus: “Yes, we are.”

New enemies

Tomaszkiewicz also revealed that the team are looking at ending in new enemy types across the open-world to improve variety.

"There is a chance but I don't want to speak about it yet," he said. "We will have the proper beats with our publishing team and if I tell you more, they will kill me."

It’s true that The Blood of Dawnwalker does have a limited pool of enemies but considering this incredible title was made on a budget of just $40 million, it has enough that the existing pool doesn’t harm the experience. A few more would invigorate future playthroughs though.