We’re back once again with yet another Hotfix! We’ve analyzed more and more of your data and made some more changes that should really help to tighten up your experience as you make your journey through Isola Sacra!
Apart from fixing bugs and some performance issues that were reported, there’s also bigger quality of life changes in here like allowing players to carry a much bigger stack size per item. We’ve also fine-tuned some of the level scaling in order to create a smoother leveling experience.
And we’re not done yet, we’re already hard at work on a bigger patch that will add more features to No Rest for the Wicked!
As always, we hope you’re having a great time exploring and fighting your way through Sacra - Here’s the full list of changes:
Performance:
Optimized IK Look and IK Hits
Optimized performance for The Shallows
Optimized Static rune so it no longer causes performance spikes
Quality of Life Improvements:
Enemies no longer spawn in immediately after the Plague is cleansed in an area
Increased the drop rate of Repair Powders
Evasive Combo renamed to Pestilent Recoil
Charged Spells’ descriptions have been changed to emphasize that you should charge them for them to be fully effective
UI:
Improved the Bounties Menu
Exiting Vendor Screens will now go back to the Selection Menu instead of exiting the vendor interaction
Balance:
Rebalanced level scaling of areas after campaign completion:
Shallows, Mariner’s Keep, Orban Glades will be Level 21
Nameless Pass, Black Trench will be level 23
Marin Woods and Lowland Meadows will be level 25
Increased the height you need to fall from to start taking fall damage
Increased Poise of Wands
All dodges now cost the same amount of stamina
Slightly reduced the damage value on “Homing Frost”
Gear:
Quicker Input Queuing for the first attack on Hoar Frost Sickle
Fixed Gear not being able to be repaired when durability hits 0
Loot:
Increased max inventory stacks from 20 to 99
Increased drop rate of gems
Slightly decreased drop rate and value of Fallen Embers
Gordon Tier2 now has Fruit Pie Recipe instead of Dracaena Dumpling Recipe
Rebalanced drop rates at dig spots
Enemies and Bosses:
Slightly rebalanced Falstead Darak
Bounties:
Increased available daily bounties from 3 to 4.
Localization:
Improved translations for multiple items in various languages
Bug Fixes:
Fixed crash and performance hit in Lowland Meadows
Fixed Water Channel Key in The Black Trench not spawning if player is stuck in the old bugged state
Fixed the door to the West Bridge of Mariner’s Keep closing by itself
Fixed Lara forgetting how to walk on the way to the elevator in Weeping Sisters
Fixed kickback on various 1H weapons
Fixed enemies being able to leap in from outside of the player’s camera
Fixed being able to get stuck in certain NPC dialogs
Fixed health bar not updating when Drain Health in Combat enchantment is equipped
Fixed buff icons not displaying remaining time
Fixed deformed model for Torn Colossus
Fixed elemental infusion gems being able to be exalted but not actually be treated as exalted, taking resources and preventing the item from being fully exalted.
Fixed character ledge climbing like they had one too many to drink
Fixed Masterworks background sticking to common items
Some of these quality of life are good, like getting gems to drop more, increased stacks for inventory etc. (I would have went with 30, changing 20 to 99 is insane)
Moon, we beg to stop doing DRASTIC changes, do progressive changes and see player reactions, you can’t just look at a list of player issues and say “How can we remove this from existence forever” the correct approach is “How do we keep the intended feature design in the game without it feeling oppressive to the player?”.
I am worried about the future of the game, these 3 hotfixes have brought needed change, while also dragging the game’s overall quality down with drastic gameplay/difficulty changes.
We’ll see where things land, but I will state that I fear for the directions you guys are heading.
If you think a game that is fighting AI where you can be as patient as you want in combat requires a harder skill set then combat against actual humans that require instant reaction time, decision making, and precision then you are lacking critical thinking. And if you think that someone who will never be able to master or reach an above average level against other humans in a fps isn’t relevant to them coaching developers on what is difficult vs what is bad game design, you really lack critical thinking. Theres a reason why this game isn’t blowing up rn and thats because the game is more annoying than it is fun. Copying dark souls 1 and bloodbourne is not good game design in 2025. Theres a reason why those games are singular in their game design choices. Theres a reason why elden ring is the best game of the franchise and most sold soulslike. I want this game to succeed but it will not be by what these silver csgo players say and what thomas thinks is a “different style” of game.
This is AWESOME. My biggest pain point was accidentally finishing things too early and soft locking myself when everything became so high leveled. Thank you!!
I’m surprised by the stack size increase. I honestly wasn’t experiencing that to its fullest, maybe that’s just me?
If anything I would like to see the number of enemies that drop the basic tier 1 hide to be lowered. THAT’S the only resource I get SO much of lol.
Everything else looks great, but please I do hope that you never lower the difficulty of this game. I like that it’s hard and relish that it’s challenging. I’m sure tweaks here and there will not be the end of the world, but I do worry that this could eventually become something more down the line. The difficulty scaling is fine; just let the enemies pummel me the same way they did even before Breach.
Seriously, please remove the poise-stagger-with-button-mashing nonsense from hotfix2. It’s just silly.
Anyway, onto new difficulty nerfs:
“All dodges now cost the same amount of stamina”
Why ?
On my normal-roll character, stamina cost for rolling practically doesn’t exist now. At standard stamina soft-cap (19) I can roll 11 (eleven) times in a row.
I feel like 99 stacks is TOO MUCH, I feel like this removes the need to use ichor to upgrade inventory, I mean great, is easier, but.. I liked the progression
Following on the last comment, and joining to a common feel: Do not fall into making this game TOO easy, part of its charm is the “soulslike” challenge
I’m not one to be prone to negativity when providing feedback, especially when it comes to this game, perhaps among the top 5 games I’ve ever played (considering it’s gonna get so much better too).
The constant fixes by the team are massively appreciated as always, however I can’t help but be concerned regarding some of the game’s more unique features and ways to unlock/use them progressively getting neutered per game update.
First it was the housing feature which felt awesome to obtain as a reward for finally taking down Darak (dialogue about that being the reward funnily still exists by the way). Housing is immediately available upon entering Sacrament nowadays. Then it was the well-rested bonus and heal upon letting our characters sleep for 4 hours being reduced to instant. Now it is the eventual stat system overhaul/removal, curiously so brought up for the first time not long after the large negative review wave.
There are a couple more which I can’t remember as I’m writing this. My point is, while I’m not one to support gatekeeping, the very unique ways in which some of these features functioned seem to have been sacrificed in order to avoid angering newcomers and/or attract more instead.
This makes me wonder, how much of this particularly unique character of the game is going to be tarnished until we reach 1.0? I hope I don’t sound unappreciative, just never really had a complaint about all these to begin with and quite saddened to see some of them altered/streamlined.
All that aside, keep up the great work Moon, in it for the long run!
Early Access Patch Notes - The Breach Hotfix 3
Performance:
