The Smith's Work

Improve gear: a new option in Hollis's dialogue opens the anvil, with before and after stats and the full cost in gold, iron and ore.
Tempering +1 to +5: Hollis strengthens the item's own base stats: a weapon's damage by 3% per step, an armour piece's Armour and Health by 6% per step (+15% and +30% at +5). It never fails, never breaks and never goes down.
Forge marks: choose one extra stat from the smith's list and Hollis cuts it into the item. Weapons: Sharpness (critical chance), Raw Weight (damage), Blood Groove (chance to bleed) and Rune Engraving (skill damage). Armour: Reinforced (armour), Padded (max health) and Light-forged (move speed, boots and chest). You choose the stat; its strength rolls within a small range. A mark never repeats a stat the item already has, and it can be replaced later at a rising price.
Temper and marks combine: they are two separate works on the same item, in any order. Temper a blade to +3, mark it, then take it on to +5.
Masterwork: at +5 the item becomes a Masterwork, with a second forge-mark slot and a warm gold glow of its own, with small sparks rising from the blade. Tempered weapons take on a warm sheen of worked steel.
Weapon weight: for 60 gold Hollis can rebalance a weapon. Light gives +10% attack speed; Heavy gives +12% damage and a 5% chance to stun. Neither ever takes anything away, Balanced stays as it is, and the choice uses no mark slot. Your attacks per second on the character sheet show the new speed.
The strike: when you confirm a temper, a mark or a weight, the anvil panel steps aside and the camera moves in on Hollis at his anvil. He strikes three times, with sparks and the clank of the hammer, then the panel returns with the result. Press Esc to skip straight to the result.
Iron scrap: salvaging gear gives iron scrap: 1 from Common items, 2 from Tempered, 3 from Cursed and Hallowed. Salvaging an enhanced item returns half the iron spent on it.
Ore: ore drops from goblins and from the creatures of the mines, twice as often from elites. Only the last two temper steps (+4 and +5) need it. Iron and ore are counted next to your gold.
See your work: an enhanced item shows its +N on its icon and a Masterwork wears a gold frame, in your bag, on your hero and in the stash. Its card on the character sheet shows the temper (for example "Tempered +5: +15% to its base damage | Masterwork"), the weapon's weight, and the forge marks in a FORGED MARKS section of their own.
Drops stay king: an enhanced item never beats a good drop of the same level. Common items can be tempered but not marked; Relics and Uniques can only be tempered. The smith won't touch cursed iron, so cleanse it with the priest first. Jewellery is beyond his craft.
At the anvil: open the Mark tab and Hollis has a word for you: "Choose wisely, and I'll cut the mark."

Skills

Every skill explained: every Berserker and Ashen Priest skill now shows exactly what it does: the damage and its kind (HIT, BLEED or BURN), the area, the duration and the effects, the values for rank I, II and III with your current rank highlighted, and what each Oath changes.
One layout for all: each skill card reads the same way: its type, cost, cooldown and requirement on top, one sentence on what it does, then the numbers, the ranks and the Oaths. The numbers come straight from the game, so they always match.
Glossary on hover: point at a marked word such as Damage, Bleed, Kindle, Ash Field, Stun or Oath and a short note explains it.
Born With: the skills you unlock by level are now grouped as BORN WITH, so "Instinct" only ever means a Berserker passive slot.
Active or passive at a glance: active skills wear a violet frame and a violet type line, passive skills a gold medallion and a gold type line.
Learn in your colours: the LEARN button wears your class colour: blood red for the Berserker, ember for the Ashen Priest.
Stun, not stagger: "stagger" is now called "stun" everywhere in the game.
Live numbers: the damage on every skill card is worked out from your hero as he is right now. Change your weapon, your gear or your ranks and the numbers change with them.
Corrected descriptions: Blood Wind, Red Communion, Ashen Ward, Scorched Earth, Cinder Bolt and the passive rule used to describe things they did not do. They now say what actually happens.

Maligast

A harder fight: Maligast has 60% more health, deals 25% more damage, and casts and swings faster.
His escort: every 5 seconds Maligast calls a wraith to his side, at random a Mourning Light, a Choir Zealot, a Choir Bellsinger or a Drowned Cantor, up to four at once. A Cantor at his side sings a weaker Dirge than its kin on the Red Moor. They appear beside and behind him, never at the door, and all of them vanish the moment he falls. His escorts drop no loot.
You stay where you stood: after his defeat and the finale, your hero remains where he stood in the cathedral instead of being moved outside.
Map of the Red Moor: Maligast drops the map on the floor at his body: a green key item with a green column of light and a sound of its own, shown as a rolled parchment. Right-click it to chart the Red Moor on your minimap and map; until then the Red Moor shows as UNCHARTED. In co-op every hero gets a map of his own, once per character.
Already beat him? Heroes who defeated Maligast before this patch have the Red Moor charted automatically.
Co-op finale: in co-op the finale plays for every hero in the party, and Act One counts as completed for every hero who is on the quest.

Ashenmoor

The town rebuilt: the tavern, the healer, the smithy, the houses, the wall towers and the cathedral are replaced by new, far more detailed models.
The forge corner: the smithy now stands on the north side of the street with its front to the square. Hollis works at his anvil in the forge bay, lit by the hearth, and every strike rings out with a new anvil sound and a burst of sparks.
The cathedral door: walk up to the cathedral and the right-hand door of its great entrance creaks open inward and slams against its stop; step into the doorway to enter. Once the door stands open, the red marker over it fades away.
Walkable steps: the cathedral door can be reached on foot again, straight up the steps.
Mist over the cathedral: a slow mist wraps the cathedral from its windows upward, and the lit windows glow through it.
A sharper cathedral: the cathedral is rebuilt in separate, far sharper pieces, from its spires and rose window to the carved portal, and its stained-glass windows glow warm through the mist.
New ground: fresh gravel and new cobblestones in the streets, and the bright and dark bands across the square are gone. The mud at the gates now sits flush with the road.
Twice the puddles: many more puddles in the streets of Ashenmoor and along the roads outside town, with dark wet edges, gathered in the ruts and low ground.
Puddles react: they splash when you run through them, with small ripples that stay inside the puddle.
The south gate: heavy new gate leaves, one shut and one standing open.
New braziers in the town square and at the gates.
Wind: market canopies and banners move in the wind while their posts stand firm, and the town's fires follow the weather.
Fires: the town fires burn fuller, with smoke of the right colour, and the torch posts and braziers now burn with a new living flame, made from the fire of your own torch.
No more foil: stones, walls and props across town no longer shine like crumpled foil.

The Wild Lands

Bones and skulls: the bone piles and skulls on stakes across the Blood Fields, the Cursed Swamp, the abandoned village and the cathedral are replaced by new, far more detailed skulls and bones.

Characters

New high-detail looks for everyone you talk to, in the world and in their conversation portraits: Maud at the tavern, Captain Dunstan Crane with a new spear, Hollis at his forge, Brother Anselm, Gerthe the healer and Corvain.
Sharper portraits: conversation portraits are rendered at full quality, with softer light on face and shoulders.
Armour that fits: 38 armour pieces are refitted to the body that wears them, so they sit closer and cut less into the skin.
Helms and beards: some helms now hide or trim your hero's beard instead of letting it poke through the visor.
Hands that hold: your fingers now close around every hilt and haft, a two-handed fighter's free hand opens when it leaves the haft, and the Ashen Priest's free hand shapes each spell.
Ashblood armour: the male chest piece no longer shows a pale patch under the shoulder; the armhole is lined with dark leather.

Blood and Effects

Blood looks like blood: the fountain, the blood river, combat, skills and the waters of the Red Moor all share one new dark crimson blood, and the fountain gleams under a warm light of its own.
Matte blood on the ground: blood splatters no longer mirror the night sky like silver.
Dark blood mist: blood spray, the crest and gathering of Blood Wind, Blood Nova, Brand Burst and the wave of Blood Moon Roar now rise in dark, soft mist, and the Blood Wind trail runs darker.
Blood Moon Roar no longer bursts into a bright yellow-orange ball.
Clean kills: slain skeletons no longer leave grey, chrome-like stains on the ground.
No more white puffs: about seventy effects that showed white puffs instead of dark smoke or dust are fixed: hits, dust, shockwaves, spells, venom, webs and loot beams.
Softer warning rings: enemy attack warnings are one soft, feathered band instead of hard neon rings.
Warm hits: struck enemies flash a warm ember colour instead of plain white.
Blood Infused enemies finally show their crimson aura, eyes and mist, and warn of their swings in blood red.
Sundering Blow leaves a clean, dark crack in the ground instead of a pale square.
The spitters' blood beam no longer draws an orange disc or floods the ground red.
Swing trails: the mist behind your weapon swings is cleaner.
No pale squares: ground marks no longer flash a light box the first time they appear.

Sound

The blood river bubbles, churns and gurgles beneath the bridge.
The anvil: a new ringing anvil strike for Hollis's hammer.
Hollis speaks when you choose a forge mark.
The map: the Map of the Red Moor lands with a sound of its own and shimmers where it lies.

Ashen Priest

Funeral Bell: burning enemies inside the Bell's circle are bound to it by arcing chains of ember that pulse as it drinks their burning, over a swirl of dark ash. As it drinks, the cracks in the Bell glow hot. Toll it and the chains strike out at every bound foe. An empty Bell tolls dull: kindle your foes first.
Breath of Ash chokes casters: an enemy caught mid-spell by Breath of Ash loses the spell. An elite can't be interrupted again for 6 seconds, and bosses can't be interrupted.

The Broken Fortress

A full pass over the depths: every sconce, torch and banner sits on its wall, archways carry real torches, candles are new and detailed, cages stand on the floor and lanterns hang from proper brackets, all on all four levels.
Brighter depths: the fortress is lit more clearly, so the dark corners are no longer pitch black.
The lever works: the lever on the first level now throws its handle when pulled.
Out of the walls: two enemies that stood inside the walls now stand in the room.
No more being stranded: the broken bridge on the third level no longer drops you onto ground with no way back, and a hero who drops from a ledge or bridge to a floor with no path back is returned to safe ground.

Act II (Early Access): The Drowned Choir

A new enemy family: floating wraiths now haunt the Red Moor, and their hymns must be stopped.
Drowned Cantors sing the Dirge of the Deep, a slow spell that tears away nearly half your health. Two Dirges together can kill. Interrupt it, stun it, hit the singer hard enough to break it, or get out of its sight. A Cantor you stop falls choked and takes extra damage.
Mourning Lights drift beside the Cantors; when one dies, its flame streams into the nearest singer and hurries its hymn.
Keening Widows blink across the marsh, wail in a deadly cone and mend their sisters, and the rare Precentor's Shade sings a canon of its own.
Hands, not axes: the Choir Zealot, the Choir Bellsinger and the Pilgrim now raise their hands to cast instead of swinging an axe, and the Zealot's beam pours from its hands.
Soft, cold light: the wraiths glow in soft, drifting mists instead of hard flashes, and their ranged shots are pale soul motes.

Act II (Early Access): The Red Moor

New ground: the Red Moor's ground is rebuilt. The striped pattern is gone, and a new ground surface breaks up the repeating look and soaks soft fields of blood into the earth.
Blood water: the deep marsh pools stand dark crimson, and the orchard ponds and salt pools carry the new blood water.
Lush marshes: a family of nine marsh plants now grows across the Red Moor: reeds with broad leaves and cattails, bulrush, dead reeds, tall wet grass, tussocks, pale salt grass, sedge, moss and pebbles. Their blades bend and move with the wind, and they grow in natural clusters instead of walls. The Salt Barrows stay sparse and pale.
Dressed marsh: stakes, root tangles, stumps, a ward stake and great bulrushes now stand among the reeds of the Red Moor.
Smoother on high settings: the Red Moor runs faster on Epic, with lighter fog and upscaling costs.
Old Harrow: the ruined city on the Red Moor now stands in stone: a great gate in its western wall, a domed palace, a market arcade, a great hall, a hospice cloister, a cistern wellhouse, a water gate, hooded saints and a run of aqueduct arches.
Charted or not: until you carry the Map of the Red Moor, the Red Moor's minimap reads UNCHARTED. Waystones, markers and your own position still show.

Items and Interface

Cleansing: the priest's cleansing now blesses an item with a stat from your own class's pool, not always Health.
One look for every button: every button in the game is now one flat colour with its frame, without the two-tone band: menus, shops, the anvil, the stash, dialogue answers, the co-op screens and the skill pages.
Sharper skill pages: rings, icons and Instinct claws on the Blood Tree and the Priest's skill page are razor-sharp at 1440p and 4K.
Clearer ritual descriptions, including what a cleansing blessing gives.
Clicking out of reach: clicking a chest, character or item that stands just off the walkable ground now walks you to the nearest spot in reach instead of doing nothing.
The cathedral door shows a hint when you point at it.

Video Settings

Three pages instead of one: Settings > Video is now split into Display, Rendering and World & Camera. Every row explains in one line what it does, and every choice is kept when you restart the game.
Display: Graphics quality sets every quality at once (Auto runs the benchmark, and it shows Custom as soon as you change a single row). Resolution lists what your monitor can show. Display mode switches between fullscreen and a window. Vertical sync locks the frame rate to your monitor to stop tearing. Brightness lifts the dark a little for a dim screen, and Colour lets the world be Grim, Natural or Rich.
Frame rate cap: limit how many frames a second the game draws, or leave it unlimited.
Rendering: choose the upscaler (TSR or TAA), the upscaling mode from Native to Performance, and the render scale, the share of pixels drawn before upscaling. Lower is faster.
Each quality on its own: Shadows, Textures, Effects and Post-processing each have their own setting. Textures are held to what your video memory can carry.
World & Camera: View distance, Foliage, Reflections (water, wet stone and polished metal) and Global illumination (light bouncing off walls and ground) each have their own quality.
Switch the camera effects on or off: motion blur, depth of field, film grain and bloom can each be turned on or off.

Co-op and Online

Enhanced items in co-op: tempered, marked and Masterwork items, iron and ore are accepted when you bring your hero online.
Blessings in co-op: items blessed with the new class blessings are accepted online.
Your own map: the Red Moor stays charted for each hero on every server once he has used his map.
Maligast's escort is the same for everyone in the party.
Smooth in the cathedral: online, movement inside the cathedral hall is smooth for every hero; no more rubber-banding.

Bug Fixes

The cathedral door could not be reached by clicking; you now walk up the steps.
An invisible staircase in the cathedral is visible again, so you no longer walk into what looked like empty air.
The mines chest (Chapter III) can be reached and opened again.
The red chapter light no longer floods the cathedral door, and the red ENTER marker no longer floats over an open door.
Cleansing no longer always gave Health.
Bleeder's Cut no longer deepens your other bleeds while it is not equipped in an Instinct slot.
Blood and smoke: fixed white puffs, silver blood, pale boxes under first-time ground marks, grey stains under slain skeletons, the bright ball of Blood Moon Roar and the blue disc in the fog near the Ruined Fortress.
Puddle ripples no longer spread beyond the edge of the puddle.
Rubber-banding in the cathedral hall in online games is gone.
The Broken Fortress: the first-level lever moves, the candles sit on their stands, and the third-level bridge no longer strands you.
Iron Vein Falchion: your hero now closes his hand properly around its grip.
Sword and shield: fingers no longer stick out past the hilt or poke through the front of the shield.

Known Issues

More characters will receive new high-detail looks in later updates.
Act II remains in Early Access.
The golden light in the cathedral doorway is switched off for now; it returns in a coming update.