Darkest Dungeon 2’s latest major early access update has arrived, bringing an overhaul to the game’s travel systems, improvements to several key Lovecraftian roguelike game systems, and introducing adorable pets that can help you both in combat and out of combat. The Redemption Road update is the last before Darkest Dungeon 2’s May release date, but in the meantime fans have plenty to keep playing.
By far the most exciting news is the arrival of pets, with ten different pets in five different cage styles. Six of these are used as part of building your stagecoach; for example, Unnatural Owlet gives you a +5% debuff chance for each tinker gear you have equipped. These tags have been added to items, so this one applies to the Explosives Magazine, Blueprint Tubes, Analytical Equipment, DIY Bench, and Trap Kit, for example. The remaining four pets bring “powerful combat effects” to the table.
Routes have been revised to implement more strategic planning on the part of the player. Your stagecoach will now have “wheels” and “armor” tokens that must be manually replenished at an inn or found in certain encounters. Keeping both recharged gives you a nice advantage, while missing will expose you to potential ganks.
There are also new types of roads, which can drain your wheels or your armor tokens, as well as a random event that requires you to urgently repair your car or face a road ambush in which one of your heroes in each turn must focus on repairing the car. to attack. in the fight. This means that you are forced to face raiders at a significant disadvantage.
Stagecoach controls and how intersections work have also been tweaked slightly. Now, if you make a route decision quickly, you can turn without slowing down. However, if you are late, the bus stops at the intersection, giving you time to better choose your route. Developer Red Hook said, “These changes affect the overall traversal feel and will require a bit of adjustment for experienced players,” but added, “We found this to suit the game better.”
There are many more changes in the update, including a host of balance changes. Candle spawn rates have been slightly improved and early game scoring has been increased “a lot”, as the team concludes, “we were a bit too stingy before”. Torch gameplay effects have also been adjusted slightly, with more emphasis on blind chance based on light levels and less on DoT and critical resistances.
The valley region has been “significantly shortened”. There’s a big overhaul to the Loathing system, which will now stack when going through Oblivion Tears or visiting void-affected locations, but will decrease during combat. If your Scorn reaches its maximum, you will have to face the Confession boss which has different effects depending on your choice of confession.
There are also a variety of changes to the loot and economy balance, with reduced prices for Stagecoach items and trinkets and changed shop selections in many locations. The memory system has also been updated “to be closer to our original design goals of directly tying memories to success against faith leaders.”
Darkest Dungeon 2 Redemption Road is now available. For more details and all minor character, monster, and item balance tweaks, you can check out the full patch notes courtesy of Red Hook.
– Game News spoke with Red Hook at GDC about how the team is planning Darkest Dungeon 2 DLC to help fund “do some cool stuff.” We’ve picked out several of the best tactical RPGs for PC if you like to think things through, along with our favorite turn-based strategy games for you to enjoy.