Avowed Anniversary Update has arrived alongside the PS5 release
Marking the first birthday of Obsidian’s Avowed, the game is out now for PlayStation 5, and a meaty anniversary update has been released for the game on PC and Xbox Series X|S. The game is also now available through the regular Xbox Game Pass tier, having originally been tied to ‘Day One’ elligible tiers.*
On a high level, the anniversary update has added three new races that you can create your character as – dwarves, orlan and aumaua – and there’s a new quarterstaff weapon that you can adopt.
While the game wasn’t designed with it in mind, New Game Plus has also been added for anyone that has a save that’s passed the point of no return and beaten the game. Starting over, the only real caveat is that weapon levelling will not persist, but that’s fine because you’ll be nice and mighty in other ways.
And you can show off how mighty you are with a photo mode to capture specific moments while you’re playing.
Avowed was one of the highlights for Xbox and PC gamers last year, though one a little overlooked for launching in February and perhaps not being as broad as some might have liked, following on from the PIllars of Eternity games. “Avowed is an incredible RPG,” we said in our review. “Its vibrant world and stellar cast make every moment a joy to take part in, enhanced by a script that gives equal measure to drama, action and humour. Coming hot on the heels of Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, Microsoft’s software revival is well underway.”
Features and Improvements
New Game+
New Game Plus is now available after completing the main story. This mode is designed to reward mastery, experimentation, and making the all-powerful build.
When starting a New Game Plus save, players will bring along with them:
- All unlocked abilities (with the exception of godlike abilities which are gained through story progression/world exploration)
- All spent attribute points
- All unique weapons and armors—but they are reset to level 1
- All unlocked enchantments remain
- All unique gloves and boots
- All necklaces, all rings, and all trinkets
- Any equipped Common Weapons or Armor items are kept, but they are reset to level 1
The following are removed from the player at the start of a New Game Plus:
- All common weapons and armor that aren’t equipped
- Companions must be picked up via story progression
- Companions keep their talent points and start at level 1
- All resources that had been collected
- Gold
- Upgrade materials
- Enchanting materials
- Food ingredients
- Gold
- All consumables that had been collected
- All potions
- All food
- All potions
- All quest items
- All god totems/trinkets
- Fast travel points/fog of war
- The aforementioned godlike abilities
- To ensure challenge scales alongside player power:
- Enemy stats are increased across the board
- Enemies now have a chance to have modifiers applied to them
Elemental Modifiers
- Fire: Immune to Fire damage and accumulation. Attacks also now deal Fire damage.
- Frost: Immune to Frost damage and accumulation. Attacks also now deal Frost damage.
- Shock: Immune to Shock damage and accumulation. Attacks also now deal Shock damage.
- Poison: Immune to Poison damage and accumulation. Attacks also now deal Poison damage.
- Bleed: Immune to Bleed damage and accumulation. Attacks also now deal Bleed damage.
Physical Modifiers
- Haste: Increased movement speed, attack speed, and reduced cooldown timers
- Glass Cannon: Increased damage dealt and damage received
- Colossal: Increased maximum health
- Life Steal: Attacks restore the enemy’s health by a percentage of the damage dealt
- Crippled: Reduced movement speed and attack speed
- Sturdy: Increased stability making it harder for them to be stunned
- Natural Immunity: Immune to all status accumulations
- Forceful: Increased impact on attacks
- Vindictive: Increased damage dealt based on the amount of health lost
- Attribute stat cap rises from 15 to 30
An important note for those who have already completed Avowed: Since New Game Plus is being added post release and the game was not initially designed with it in mind, a completion save will be necessary in order to take advantage of the mode. You will need to load a point of no return save or later and beat the game to make a proper New Game Plus save.
New Playable Species
Included in the anniversary update is a major expansion to character creation: three new playable species join the existing Humans and Elves.
- Dwarves – The most well-traveled species in Eora, the stout dwarves are known for their great strength and tenacity.
- Orlans – Their two-toned skin, prominent ears, and hirsute bodies all in the smallest size of Kith make them stand outs in Eora.
- Aumaua – Towering, powerfully built, and physically imposing.
Not only do the different species change how you look, the team has also added in stat bonuses for all species adding another layer to character creation.
- Humans
- +1 Might
- +1 Resolve
- +1 Might
- Elves
- +1 Dexterity
- +1 Perception
- +1 Dexterity
- Aumaua
- +2 Might
- +2 Might
- Dwarves
- +1 Might
- +1 Constitution
- +1 Might
- Orlans
- +1 Perception
- +1 Resolve
- +1 Perception
Additionally, players will receive stat bonuses depending on their chosen background.
- Arcane Scholar – +2 to Intellect
- Court Augur – +2 to Resolve
- Noble Scion – +2 to Perception
- Vanguard Scout – +2 to Dexterity
- War Hero – +2 to Constitution
Improved Character Creation
Added new Godlike features, color variants, and presets
Custom Difficulty
For players who want even finer control, Avowed now includes custom difficulty modifiers, allowing you to tune the game’s systems to your preferred experience. These new options are found by scrolling down through the “Game” tab of the settings menu.
Adjust player:
- Damage dealt
- Health, stamina, and essence resources
- Elemental status effect threshold
- Health and essence regeneration rates
- Potion and food restoration rates
- Interrupt or knockdown ease
- Second Wind cooldown time
- Carry capacity
- Parry window
Adjust enemy:
- Damage output
- Health pool
- Stun, interrupt, or knockdown ease
- Attack speed
- Elemental status effect threshold
- Aggro threshold
Adjust companion:
- Damage dealt
- Health max
- Elemental status effect threshold
- Aggro threshold
As well as general adjustments:
- Merchant prices
- Equipment upgrade material costs
- Fall damage
- Trap damage
- Item quality damage reduction
Important note: While changing these options will not negate most achievements that you may be hunting down, they will invalidate a Path of the Damned achievement. That achievement must be done without use of the custom game options.
- Photo Mode
Capture your envoy, companions, and the Living Lands from any angle and share your journey. Includes a free or fixed camera, filters, character rotation and toggle, post-process effects, and gradients. Photo Mode is accessed from the pause menu.
- New Weapon
A brand new weapon type is joining the arsenal with the quarterstaff. Designed with the archmage fantasy in mind, the quarterstaff is a new bludgeoning weapon that comes complete with wand style stun finishers. Unleash brutal physical combos along with a fury of spells that would make even Concelhaut jealous.
- New Stun Finishers
New stun finishers added for One-Handed Weapons and Two-Handed Weapons.
- Respawning Encounters
Respawning encounters have been added to Dawnshore, Emerald Stair, Shatterscarp, and Galawain’s Tusks.
New Quality of Life Features
- Players can now change their Envoy’s appearance after character creation via the mirror in the party camp.
- Newly placed workbenches allow players to upgrade gear without returning to party camp.
- All player Backgrounds now have an added attribute bonus.
- Added option to end dream conversations early.
- Powder keg chain reactions now occur with a short delay, instead of all exploding simultaneously.
- Increased max Controller Vibration Intensity (in the Controller Settings menu) from 1.0 to 2.0.
- Added keyboard-based turning in accessibility options.
Improvements to Lighting
- The lighting has been improved across all regions.
- Improved the lighting in conversations.
Graphics
- Updated XeSS to 2.1. Xe Frame Generation, Xe Super Resolution, and Xe Low-Latency mode are now available to more GPUs.
All Bug Fixes
Crashes and stability
- The game should now longer crash after Fog of War has been cleared.
- Addressed an issue causing Barbaric Smash killing blow VFX to remain on the player indefinitely
- Fixed an issue when creating save games that could cause NPCs to be stuck when reloading
Performance and Optimizations
- Resolved an issue where NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency was missing “Off” option while upscaling is disabled.
- Ray tracing is now off by default on Handheld PCs.
- Added Mid Luminance values to HDR settings.
- Various performance improvements.
Animation
- Fixed an issue with the Two-Handed Axe special attack not being aligned while in third person view.
- Companion animations no longer stutter during conversations and exploration.
Audio
- All audio should now play properly when cooking.
Quests & Conversations
- Decals for puzzle in Sallow Steppe should now render properly.
- The camera should behave normally during conversation with Tazaraak.
UI/UX
- Ability and Grimoire Cost Discounts are now shown in the Character tab of the Ledger, as well as the maximum (-90%) available.
- Fixed Tanglefoot’s icon on Player’s and enemy’s HUD.
- New Icon added to help distinguish Flurry of Blows on enemy’s HUD.
- Text should no longer overlap tabs in certain languages.
- Fixed description for several active abilities that were incorrectly labeled as passive.
- Resolved an issue where “confirm override” pop-up was not showing while switching presets in the Extras tab.
- Fixed an issue where Marius’ Hunter Sense disappeared from hotbar after leaving Party Camp.
- Vital bars are showing proper preview values for some skills when upgraded.
- Fixed an issue where “Survivalist” ability did not reflect additional bonuses in UI.
- Blunted hits no longer include blood VFX when “Combat Blood” is disabled.
Combat/Systems Fixes
- Fixed issue where various Area of Effect sources like Arcane Veil interfered with aiming player spells.
- Swinging guillotines in the Garden remain disabled after loading a save.
- Fixed an issue where Yatzli’s Explosive Blast did not break destructibles.
- Some unique weapon enchantments now work properly while Dual Wield Mastery is active.
- Already broken destructibles no longer receive damage numbers.
- Loot now directly drops at the feet of a shattered frozen enemy.
* If you need Xbox Game Pass tiers to be explained for being too complicated, then I suggest writing to your MP and Satya Nadella to complain.
via Steam
