The Hand Torch
- Press F to take out a Torch and light the dark around you, and press it again to put it away. On a controller it is D-pad Up. You can change the key in Controls.
- While a torch is out, your hero holds it high with its own idle, walk and run.
- A torch burns for 4 minutes of lit time. In its last 30 seconds the light dims, and when it burns out the next one you carry catches by itself.
- Putting a torch away keeps the time it has left, so you light the same torch again next time.
- Attacking, using a skill or going Berserk puts the torch out at once. It keeps the time it has left.
- While the torch is out, a two-handed weapon goes on your back and comes back to your hand with your first swing. A one-handed weapon stays in your hand, and the shield is hidden.
- You can carry up to 10 torches, the burning one included. Every hero starts with 3, and so do heroes made before this update.
- Underground, in the depths and the mines, a chest holds a torch half the time and 4% of slain enemies drop one, while you carry fewer than 10. Walk over a torch to pick it up.
- Hollis the blacksmith sells torches one at a time, for 10 gold or twice your level in gold, whichever is more.
- Arrive in a depth or the mines with no torch at all, and you are given one as you arrive.
- A lit torch stays lit when you take the stairs or travel. Dying or loading a game puts it away.
- A new slot beside the draught and the Shadow Portal shows how many torches you carry and glows while one burns. A thin bar on its edge shows how much of the lit torch is left, and turns red in its last 30 seconds.
- If your saved controls already use F for something else, the torch starts without a key and its slot shows "-". Give it a key in Controls.
User Interface
- The Nordic Wolf Studios logo now plays while the game starts. You can skip it.
- Settings > Audio now has five volumes: Master, Music, Sound effects, Voice and Ambience. Voice and Ambience start where your Sound effects volume was, so nothing sounds different until you change them.
- Settings > Video has a new Brightness option. It starts at As Authored and goes from -1 to +3, to lift the dark a little on a dim screen.
- The main menu has a CONTROLS button, so you can change your keys before you play. The main menu's OPTIONS button is now called SETTINGS, like the screen it opens.
- If the licence check fails when you press START GAME, a panel now shows the reason with RETRY and BACK, instead of one small line under the buttons.
- Important banners such as LEVEL, QUEST COMPLETE and YOU DIED no longer replace each other: one that arrives while another is showing waits its turn, so QUEST COMPLETE no longer hides a level-up. Opening the pause menu no longer clears a banner; it is still there when you resume.
- Messages about what you just did now show on the open panel instead of behind it: not enough gold, salvaging, dropping an item, and the answers from the skill tree and Marks.
- The world dims behind the character sheet, and name tags and health bars no longer show through it.
- The character sheet's footer shows the controls for what you are playing with: B Close and Y Map on a controller, the mouse and keyboard line otherwise.
- The locked off-hand slot beside a two-handed weapon now shows just the lock. Hover over it to read why.
- When no quest is tracked and the next chapter is waiting, the quest tracker now tells you who to speak with in Ashenmoor.
- The quest tracker now names the area of a quest's next objective when there is room and you are not already there, and says how many more quests are tracked when they do not all fit.
- Inside a depth, the pause menu now tells you that the Shadow Portal keeps the depth as you left it, that taking the stairs or saving out refills it, and that you resume in Ashenmoor.
- Pressing the draught key with no draughts left now says so, and reminds you that the healer in Ashenmoor refills them.
World
- The village houses are rebuilt at full detail, with real thatch, stone courses and beams and much sharper textures.
- Many of the overworld's trees are replaced with new, more detailed ones.
Items & Loot
- Hangman's Rope Belt on a female hero: the pouch and noose now rest against the hip instead of floating, and no longer poke through clothing.
Controls
- The Shadow Portal now has a controller button: D-pad Down.
- Keys and clicks no longer act during the opening scene. Escape or Start still skips it.
- The full map now takes every click: clicking on it no longer walks your hero, and attacks, skills, dodges, the Shadow Portal and sheathing no longer go off behind it.
- Berserk can no longer be raised behind the character sheet, the map, the opening scene or a town panel.
- Opening the map during a conversation or in a shop now closes that panel first.
Bug Fixes
- Chest lids now sit on their chests and swing open from the back.
- Chests in the depths now open their lid as well, instead of the whole chest tipping.
- After a NEW GAME, chests keep the way they were placed and their lids are closed.
- A quest chest could come back unclickable after a NEW GAME or a character switch. While its quest is live, it is now always shown, clickable and lit.
- Continuing a saved game no longer teaches you skills you have earned but not yet learned. An earned skill waits for a Blood Mark, as intended. Skills you already know stay yours.
- If a save cannot be loaded, because a newer version of the game made it or the file is damaged, CONTINUE now tells you so, and the game does not save over it unless you choose NEW GAME for that hero.
- Dialogue and text fixes.
- The Broken Bridge waystone now stands on the near bank, where you can reach it and link it to the other waystones.
- The great wolf of the Forest of Ash could stand on a steep slope out of reach. His den is now on level ground nearby.
- The town's ground no longer turns grey on DirectX 11 graphics cards.
Known Issues
- Rarely, the game can close by itself just as the studio logo ends at start-up. Start it again; a fix is on its way.