Adaptive Difficulty (Experimental): A new optional setting that adjusts enemy strength based on how you are playing. It works in both directions, responding to what you defeat and where you die. Any adjustment also relaxes on its own over time, so the game settles back toward its standard balance once your play changes. It is off by default and can be turned on or off at any time under Game > Game Settings > Adaptive Difficulty.
If you are winning, the game pushes back:
Enemies gain damage, health and break resist, so they hit harder, take longer to bring down and are more difficult to stagger. This does not stop at the standard difficulty. Keep clearing encounters without dying and enemies will scale well past the toughest the game was originally built to be, and they will keep climbing for as long as you keep winning.
If you are struggling, the game gives ground:
Enemies weaken across the same three values, and a cap is applied so that no single attack can take more than a set fraction of your health bar, meaning you cannot be killed outright from full health. These reductions do not apply during Night Mode, which can still be pushed harder but will never be made easier. Currently nothing is displayed on screen when the game adjusts in either direction (we will develop this in the future).
Parrying, Dodging and Ripostes
Consecutive parries with the Infinite Seal now have a wider window into the wind-up animation, allowing a string of incoming hits to be parried instead of only the first one.
Status effects can now be applied to enemies while they are getting back to their feet after a riposte.
Shells
Sariel's Thornfall now works in enclosed spaces and no longer fails outright when it catches a low ceiling.
Sariel's Thornfall now prioritises locked on targets.
Sariel's Thornfall now hits moving targets.
Sariel's Agonize no longer requires full pain.
Sariel's Affliction now shares damage to all cursed enemies and inflicts curse on non-cursed enemies
Genessa's Augmentation has been changed to prevent players from infinite resolve gain and the ability to summon Faithful Doubles infinitely.
Fixed eyes and smoke effects on Genessa's Obsidian Shade.
Weapons, Items and Balance
Improved the logic around Gloom drops on death, making it easier for players to retrieve their lost Gloom.
Grisha Summons can no longer be hit by player projectiles.
Grisha Summons now freeze along with everything else when using Miracle with Smert.
Grisha Summons now perform fewer attacks.
Fragile Tarstones now properly grant Tarcores when they break.
The Gloombound Stone no longer loses durability when recovering Gloom from your own corpse.
Leech stacks are no longer saved and reapplied on top of themselves, preventing potential health exploits.
Improved the Axe & Dagger's running attack animation.
Bosses and Minibosses
Improved collision on the Lost Child, helping prevent the player from getting stuck inside him or being launched into the air.
Enemies
The Harpy's frenzied attacks now correctly connect with the player.
More enemy types can now be summoned by the Cursed Child using the Summoning Stone.
Sheep no longer flicker while standing still.
Bats have returned to the swamp Beacon in the opening region.
Grisha Hunters no longer lose their weapons when you return to their camp.
Story
Ruk no longer addresses Genessa as the Harbinger.
Ruk now appears at map stations when you warp into an overlapping Beacon.
Zhirelle now has something to say about the corruption in Marrow Keep.
Merrick now uses his opening greeting once before moving on, and the Tarforge no longer talks over itself.
Sitting at vistas and on stones now lines up correctly and keeps the player facing the direction they were already facing.
Interface
Smaller Beacons now show their own icons in the Mether's Breath fast travel menu.
Pause menu options now have clearer highlighting, making it more obvious which option is selected.
Damage numbers no longer cap at 999 and can now display values up to 9,999.
Updated the credits.
Audio
The Black Market now has proper ambience.
Fixed voices leaking through walls and effects being audible from too far away.
The drawbridge no longer plays its finishing sound multiple times.
Main menu music now returns correctly after the startup videos.
Raised music levels in several places where they were too low.
Performance and Lighting
Volumetric fog is no longer excessively dense on lower global illumination settings.
The storm cloud and stun lighting effects performance.
Optimised Droeg's explosion effects.
The player lighting rig improvements.
Zhirelle's room now lights the player consistently.
Options, Platforms and Controls
On PS5, opening a system pop-up no longer pauses the game, allowing the screenshot function to be used.
Bugs
Fixed issues that prevented players from using the Citadel Annex Spider traversal.
Fixed issues where enemies stopped attacking the player while caught in a bear trap.
Fixed an issue where the player could become locked out of Baghead's Quest in NG+.
Fixed an issue where players could occasionally fall through the ground when leaving dungeons.
Fixed an issue where players could become trapped inside geometry after riding a lift in a late-game area.
Fixed an issue where ripostes against Droeg could become misaligned due to Grisha Summons.
Genessa's trainer no longer breaks if the first time you approach her is while she is corrupted.
Fixed a boss arena remaining locked after the fight was over, as well as enemies failing to navigate around a central late-game area.
Fixed an issue that could cause Malborn Offspring to become invulnerable if attacked during the phase transition.
Fixed an issue where two cursed enemies could become caught in a loop.
Fixed several issues with blood masks and beards on various shells.
Shell Summon handshake animations are now correctly aligned.
Fixed several collision issues that could cause the player to get stuck in geometry.
Fixed minor timing issues with the Untarnished Seal
Crashes and Stability
Several crash fixes and optimisations.
Localisation
Several localisation improvements and fixes.
