Warriors!

Once more we’re diving deep into the core of ELDERBORN to make some game-changing decisions. Some of them you will see at the first glimpse (the user interface paying tribute to FPS hall of fame classics) others need to be experienced to be recognized (new player movement and combat control).

The game is now harder and more demanding but also you get greater control over the character's combat style. When you want to eliminate undead with one precise hit, go with the strength. If you feel that movement is too clumsy you now can level up your speed. Want to tank bigger groups of enemies like a berserker? Resilience is there for you. Yes. You get to progress and build the character's attributes the way you want and get the experience better suited to your play style. The changes in this update are extensive, so we encourage you to start over and experience the game in its new flavor from the very beginning (in fact… we'll just wipe out the saved games, so you don't really have a choice. Sorry!)

Some may wonder, what of the City Content Update that was going to be the next in line, according to our roadmap. Worry not! The City is taking its final form as we speak and you'll get to fight your way through its terraces, alleys, and squares soon enough. But the player feedback you were providing us turned our attention towards game mechanics first. And it would be a poor choice of order if we released a new map with the old mechanics, just to rebalance it for the new features soon after. Yes, the City is well underway, but core gameplay takes priority.

In this update we are breaking some of the limits we've put on ourselves at the beginning of ELDERBORN's development and explore the unknown. This makes your feedback even more important than ever before.

• We’ve introduced a graphical interface to make keeping track of your health and other factors easier and to pay a tribute to some old-school metal-hearted shooters we love
  
• Health regen is out by default - do keep track of your health!
  
• Enemy attack can now disrupt your action - be more mindful of their movements!
  
• Hitting your enemies back lets you partially regain your HP loss, and the faster you do it, the more health you get back - strike back quick!
  
• Enemies now drop “essence” and there are "essence cashes" scattered across the environment
  
• Essence fills phials, that you can use to heal yourself
  
• Essence also serves as XP that you can spend it while meditating at the fountains (use the fountain for a second time after saving, to distribute attribute points and unlock skills)
  
• When you die, you drop all the essence you were carrying, but it will remain there and you’ll get one chance to recover it after you respawn at the fountain
  

Each of the attributes that you can develop, comes with a set of three unique skills - active or passive - that will become unlockable after you bring the attribute to the required level. Two first skills are treated as basic, while the third is considered the ultimate skill in the given tree, and requires unlocking at least one of the basic skills in that tree first. That’s a total of 9 skills giving you the ability to shape your character build in line with your play style.

STRENGTH TREE:

• Charge: Find your balance, build up momentum and launch a charge towards your enemies, breaking their stance, staggering, and hurting them
  
• Rip and tear: Reach down towards a fallen foe, rip their head right off their shoulders, and hurl it violently towards another enemy
  
• Stomp: Launch into the air and drop like a bomb on the heads of your foes launching a shockwave as you reach the ground
  

SPEED TREE:

• Essence hunter: Stop wasting time chasing after essence dropped by slain foes - now you pull essence towards you, over distance
  
• Reflect projectile: Time a parry right to knock a projectile launched by the foe out of its path, and right into your closest enemy
  
• Air dash: Even gravity has no dominion over you! Dashing is now possible even in mid-jump or while falling
  

RESILIENCE TREE:

• Too stubborn to slay: When your health drops to zero and you’d normally die, you get one more chance to kill a foe and thus regain full health
  
• Licking your wounds: If your health is very low, find a safe spot, catch some breath, and slowly regain up to 40% of your HP
  
• Barbaric rage: you speed up, the world slows down, and with every kill you regain some health
  

This is an important chapter in the development of ELDERBORN, warriors! The game now has more complexity than ever and it’s closer to what we imagined - the embodiment of modern git good gameplay philosophy wrapped up in single-player, old-school, heavy metal, brutal goodness. We’re getting there - this isn’t even our final form, but it’s significantly closer to our ultimate vision. Your feedback and support means THE WORLD to us now.
If you like what you see, please leave us a steam review.
If you want to give us live feedback and get an insider look at the development - join us on DISCORD!
If you wish to see ELDERBORN grow, please consider following us on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM, and posting about us.

Thank you, warriors, and good hunting!