Absolver’s previously unveiled Downfall expansion has finally arrived, bringing with it a substantial new PvE game mode, a new combat style, and more (no bo staves though). Below, you’ll find the full patch notes for the Downfall update which is live now on both PC and PlayStation 4.
All of the below information comes courtesy of Absolver developer Sloclap.
Downfall PVE mode
Battle deep in the mines of Adal as a solo warrior or in online cooperative play, collecting Gleam from Prospects infected by Arcell, an Etheran bent on breaking the Fold’s containment.. The more Gleam you capture, the more powerful you become in your struggle to defeat the Corrupted, and even Arcell himself. Each run through the Mines and Temples is a unique path through a variety of challenges and situations, facing upgraded enemies, and three epic boss fights.
This mode is available in the Combat Trials menu to all players that reached the Absolver rank. Collecting Gleam in Downfall runs will allow you to unlock new items in the Essence Shop, as well as the Faejin Combat Style.
Faejin Combat Style
Inspired by Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do, the Faejin Combat Style blends defense and offense with percussive strikes and fluid power. The new approach is a complex style for experienced Absolvers, featuring different defensive abilities that depend on both input and stances. Faejin has 26 attacks for bare hands and wargloves, alongside 15 sword attacks.
This Combat Style will be unlockable in Downfall PVE mode.
New Powers
- Sharp Impact – Bare-hands deal cut damage during 20s
- Unbreakable – A protective barrier coats your body during 5s. Protection level is increased, and enemy attacks don’t stun or interrupt your own attacks. All weapons hitting the barrier break on impact
- Snatcher – A short burst of Tension released from the Shards stuns briefly and disarms your opponent, pulling their weapon towards you
- Shadow Avoid – Enter in resonance with your Tension Shards and avoid all incoming attacks for a short duration. Enemies hitting your Shadow will be slowed down for 2s
You’ll be able to buy these new powers in the Essence Shop once your Gleam Level is high enough.
Schools
Absolvers who have reached the Disciple rank in a school (or who are Mentors of their own) can participate in School Challenges, by equipping all their School Content before heading to 1v1 Combat Trials. All wins representing one’s school count in the School challenges, with individual and collective performances of the schools bringing rewards every three weeks, at the end of the season.
For the occasion, the overall UI of the School system was revisited and we hope you’ll like it!
New Gear
Here are the names of the new sets you’ll be able to purchase from the Essence Shop.
Sets
- Karshi Leader
- Tear Tyrant
- Tear Commander
- Forest Healer
- Adalian Carpenter
- Essence Prospector
- Guide Scholar
- Guide Witness
Weapons
- Tear Tyrant Sword
- Witness Sword
- Scholar Sword
- Arcell’s Sword
- Carpenter Wargloves
- Prospector Wargloves
- Gleam Crystal Wargloves
Our Absolver Mask Design Contest Winner, Ripan Assassin Mask will be available in this patch too.
New Emotes and Intros
Emotes
- Confused
- Mia Dance
- Make it rain
- Rock
- Paper
- Scissors
Intros
- Back Strike
- Warm Up
- Leg Hold
- Duel Start
AI rework
All AIs in Absolver have been reworked, so the changes detailed below will also impact the original NPCs and Bosses in the World!
Non exhaustive list of changes:
- AIs fighting behaviours have been improved
- AIs can now use Powers, they can also use Stagger and Faejin combat styles
- AIs’ movements outside of combat have been improved: they can now use drop-downs and won’t try to attack players above them anymore
Misc
- New loading screen!
- Reward Screens have been updated in both 1v1 and 3v3
- AIs’ health gauge color feedback its difficulty
- Players can now toggle “Switch target on attack” in gameplay options.
- Resilience mechanic has been added. Player will not be interrupted by an attack if his Resilience Level is superior or equal to the attack power level.
- Attack power level is displayed in the attack details panel.
- New ways to earn fragments :
- Earned in rift coins & disks
Debug
Combat
- Revive has been reworked and the issue below shouldn’t appear anymore:
- Reviving player should not become stuck if the revived or reviving player disconnects or is interrupted by hit.
- A bug where you could skip a part of the Absorb to attack faster was fixed
- Advantage frames had an overall debug to improve consistency
- Guarding should be more reactive to player’s inputs
- We also worked on the parried animation to improve the visual feedback indicating the timing when the player can launch an attack after
- Fixed various issues with stamina
- Fixed the bug where the stamina could get stuck at 0
- Fixed the bug where the stamina bonus could be gotten before spending stamina
- Weapons: When dropping your weapon during a fall, the weapon won’t stay floating in the air anymore. It will either fall on the ground, or go back to the last “walking position” of the player if the ground is too far away
- Parry: Feint into parry bug has been fixed. When feinting and quickly parrying, the parry was sometimes made in the wrong direction.
- Shards: Shards sometimes not refilling when sheathing weapon bug is now fixed.
Other
- Overall navigation in the map improved: no more assets missing lights, better collisions
- Character illumination is now better managed, visibility is thus improved in low luminosity areas (like the night 1v1 maps)
- Improved overall stability for both the World and Combat Trials (crashes on some specific PC configurations, infinite loading screens)
- Text typos were fixed
- The character won’t be changing skin color randomly anymore
- Remapping menu
- Fixed a bug where the player couldn’t access the Social Wheel after changing its input
- Players can now switch the bindings to both Analog Sticks on controller
- Fixed a bug where the Wargloves wouldn’t be displayed correctly in the Essence menu
Combat & Balancing
The major balancing changes made are the following:
Absolver Powers:
- Earthquake: Buildup increased from 12 to 15 frames
- Shockwave: Stamina bonus removed
- Heal:
- Effect last 10s instead of 15s
- Damage dealt to HP conversion coefficient decreased from 0.75 to 0.3
- Instant 50 health points and 10 HP/s regeneration have been replaced by 100 “ghost” health points.
- Shield:
- Buildup decreased from 29 to 22 frames
- Recovery decreased from 10 to 8 frames
- Add 1 level of Resilience
- Blunt & cut protection decreased from 40 to 30
- Duration decreased from 20s to 12s
- Silence:
- Buildup decreased from 32 to 20 frames
- Recovery decreased from 10 to 8 frames
- Affect the target and its surroundings
- Exhaust: Exhausted character has almost no stamina refill during 4s
Absolver Combat styles:
- Forsaken: Parried duration decreased from 16 to 14 frames
- Kahlt:
- Absorb active window duration: 6 to 5 frames
- Increase recovery: 4 to 6 frames
- Absorb successful add 1 level of Resilience during 1.5s
- Windfall: Avoided minimum duration is 14 frames for all avoids (side, duck, jump)
- Stagger:
- Increase adv. on hit of Stagger Front (+1)
- Stagger Back doesn’t avoid thrust attacks anymore
Attacks:
- Parry & strike: Parry only high/mid attack
- Avoid active window of avoiding attacks is more consistent and shorter
- Frame data:
- on hit (and on guard) increased
- +1: Knife Hand Strike, Light Thrust, Ram Thrust
- on hit (and on guard) decreased
- -2: Pulmonary Palm, Ankle Stamp, Parry Shove
- -1: Straight Punch, Back Fist, Pushed Elbow, Roll Back Fist, Pushed Back Kick, Rising Slash, Pommel Bash, Back Thrust, Curled Up Uppercut, Body Blow, Tetsuzanko, Liver Knee, Crouching Elbow
- on hit (and on guard) increased