Free DLC #4 - Challenge Mode & Patch 1.22

Another few busy weeks have passed, and we’re back with more stuff to enhance the Tainted Grail experience even further for you!

But before getting to that, let us thank you for the amazing reception of our previous free DLC, Merlin’s Tomb! Currently, its Steam reviews are sitting at 98%, and it is heartwarming to see you enjoy it. Seems like even the corrupted Sage himself can’t stop you from having fun. And fun is all that matters! :D

Now, some gamers have… peculiar definitions of fun. And don’t get us wrong, this applies to many of us as well. For those types of people, the more difficult a game gets, the more fun it is. We’ve decided to address this masochistic desire! That said…

Watch our new trailer to see what’s coming:

Challenge Mode is a brand-new way to play for those who crave tough challenge and unpredictability. As you develop your character via various gameplay systems, you also have to choose meaningful debuffs that make the game WAY harder. You can think of it as our own take on the “roguelike” formula; the stronger you become, the harsher conditions you face. Definitely proceed with caution, and prepare for a good dose of suffering! :D

(But really, on a serious note… Challenge Mode is VERY punishing. You will struggle. You will sweat. You will die numerous times. You will feel screwed over by the game. And that’s by design.)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4639800/Tainted_Grail_The_Fall_of_Avalon__Challenge_Mode_DLC/

Now, let’s give you some more details on how all of this works!

Challenge Mode functions as a brand-new difficulty setting. It becomes available only when starting a completely new playthrough (new save file) from Act 1 (skipping the prologue). Once chosen, the Challenge Mode difficulty cannot be reverted.

After you start your Challenge Mode run:

• as mentioned, you skip the prologue and begin in Act 1 (you get basic starting gear, fit for various playstyles);

• you must select a new debuff at the start of the game and at the beginning of each subsequent Act;

• you will also receive an additional debuff every 2 levels when interacting with a campfire, opening your inventory, crafting, or accessing your stash, whichever happens first.

There are a total of 70 unique debuffs to choose from. And they will all make sure you’re on cloud nine! *evil laughter in the background*

Take a look at some of them:

If you reach NG+3 on Challenge Mode, you’ll be awarded a special badge. Difficulty, however, continues to scale indefinitely for NG+4, NG+5, etc.

There’s a dedicated scoreboard available (press “I” in-game)! Just a heads-up: if you use cheat mode, you'll get a "Cheater" sticker slapped permanently (on this save) on your score.

Okay, what you’ve just seen should be sufficient for a worthy teaser! To get a real feel of all the Challenge Mode burdens, we invite you to jump into Avalon and try this mode yourselves!

Well then! We wish you tons of fun with this new mode! Make only good less bad choices, embrace the obstacles you select, push your limits, and prove your Tainted Grail mastery!*

*Disclaimer: Remember, you’re gonna suffer, and you signed for it yourselves.

Fun fact: Challenge Mode came to life thanks to the two greatest Tainted Grail game-breakers known to humanity (or at least to our Discord server): Woe and Daena. Every time we tried new ideas to make the game more challenging, they inevitably found a way to break it again, preferably using shovels or brooms as weapons. We swore we'd eventually find a way to make them suffer, and just like that, the Challenge Mode was born.

They beta-tested this mode themselves, and... it seems like we won. ????

Now you know who to blame.

Along with the challenge mode, we’re rolling out patch 1.22 for the game! As per usual, there are a lot of general fixes and improvements, as well as gameplay and QoL features. Take a look below.

• Added Broc Meala Basket model. It is now available in Broc's shop when it refreshes.

• The horse should now have smooth animations at high framerate.

• Sarras skillpoints are now awarded every NG+ (this should be retroactive).

• Fixed multiple "On Parry do X" talents and items cancelling each other out.

• Updated Duelist Sword item description to better fit what it actually does.

• Increased Duelist Sword Physical Damage gain 0% > 2%.

• Reduced the duration of TPP parry animations to match FPP.

• Reduced camera shakes during TPP shield parry animations.

• Fixed bug causing frozen status to break some NPCs' death animations. 

• Vampiric Riposte now works with Duelist Sword.

• The wyrdstalker is now a lower tier on his first combat appearance (statuses work on this one).

• Fixed the disappearing of NPC's in the Dreaming before their quests were complete (Theud Act 3) 

• Fixed looping dialogue with Vrell, as well as missing rewards in the Silent Burden quest.

• Now you can talk to Vati and Olwen about One-Eye.

• Fixed dialogue duplication with Brother Ismat when discussing Liliana’s books.

• Fixed flow issues with Vrell during the progression of her personal quests.

• Fixed dialogue duplication with Barlaam when asking about Glyrna.

• A long-standing bug where NPCs would stay in a downed state but could be talked to should be fixed

• Fixed an issue with the Blade In The Shadows quest where you found Arden without Alar's help.

• The flow of the “Wayward Son” quest has been fixed. The objective text no longer spoils the ending.

• Fixed an issue in NG+ where the player could deliver Kvorr’s amulet for the Call of the Wintermoon quest using leftovers from a previous playthrough.

• Fixed an issue with Rueko’s positioning in portal interaction colliders.

• A few minor bugs in the dialogues with Ludger in the Hollow Blessings quest have been fixed. Ludger will now be found on the top floor of the Red Priests' Quarters.

• Fixed when Ulloriaq could get stuck locking the player in conversation.

• A variety of smaller improvements.

• Fixed an issue that caused players who visited exactly 4 tombs to not get the Merlin's Tomb quest.

• Fixed an issue where Alisa could sometimes become stuck on the bed in the Seacoast Manor. 

• Added ghosts' sound effects in Sagremor Castle.

• Reworked audio for Crystal Crawler, Frostgrot Snail, Wight, Dryads.

• Added missing audio in Merlin's Thorn, Ravencrest Executioner, and Frostbitten Sword.

• Enhanced sound effects' bass clarity in the mix.

• A large attenuation and volume pass for NPC dialogues is in progress, so the experience should be more consistent as we go through them all.

• Improved arrow swish sound effect.

• Improved arrow hit flesh sound effect.

• Flying arrow sound is now dependent on the strength of the drawn bow.

• Fixed an issue causing bonfire SFX to be muted.

• Fixed an issue causing wrong SFX to be played when maxing out the skill in the skill tree.

• Fixed an issue causing wrong SFX to be played when spending last skill point.

• Fixed the disappearance of item set slots when you deposited the items to a container or dropped them.

• Added a restart requirement after changing the Compact Widescreen setting.

• Fixed an issue where the quest tracker did not update correctly after collecting the final required item for an objective.

• Fixed an issue where the Spyglass could not be used again after interacting with the Quick Wheel.

• Fixed an issue where accepting rebinding keybind with mouse could start editing other keybind.

• Fixed the game not starting up correctly if you have not played the game since early access.

• \[XBOX] Fixed DLC detection resulting in DLC missing and locked saves.

• Added new setting that allows inverting horizontal camera input.

• Weapons: Star Catcher & Crescent Halberd - custom VFX on critical attack.

• Fix: hero was not equipping weapons after pressing button responsible for Bow's Zoom action.

• Fix: after rebinding Block action, Bow's Zoom action was still bound to the previous key.

• Fix: icon in spyglass tutorial was not updated after rebinding Attack action.

• Fix: it was possible to make all input icons disappear when using controller and mouse at the same time.

• Fixed missing drop models of a couple of items.

• Small tweaks of rendering bounds of gear and weapons that could cause them to not be visible at certain angles.

• Fixed bonfire availability in NG+ prologue.

• It was possible to encounter a softlock during the dialogue with Moe after choosing the option to kill The Song. The bug has been fixed. 

• Fixed the dialogue flow with Nautilume after telling the Swarm of Viridian Wailcaps that you plan to kill her. 

• Added audio to the female Drowned Knight.

We hope the new free Challenge Mode DLC will be as fun as it is painful! Now, go out there and show them who’s boss!

Also, we encourage you to share your leaderboards with the community! After all, suffering is usually better together, right?

Take care, and thank you for all the support up to this day!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1466060/Tainted_Grail_The_Fall_of_Avalon/https://store.steampowered.com/app/4132150/Tainted_Grail_The_Fall_of_Avalon__Sanctuary_of_Sarras_DLC/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3432480/Shards_of_Order/https://store.steampowered.com/app/3551140/Hoarder/