Wartales – Harag’s Marshlands Update Now Live

Shiro Games brings us the first major early access content update for their mercenary RPG Wartales. Featuring hours of fresh content, this update introduces a new region for you to explore, increases the level cap, adds new enemies, character building options, items, and more. Here’s the official update trailer:

You’ll find the actual changelog below, but first, you might also be interested in checking out the game’s updated roadmap. And now, the patch notes:

Introduction
Hey there!
We’re super excited and proud to present the first major content update for Wartales, Harag’s Marshlands! This update adds hours of new content and gameplay but beware: the Marshlands are an unwelcoming and dangerous place, teeming with creatures, enemies and environments unlike anything you will have seen in Wartales to date….
Ludern is a particularly hostile land, even by Harag’s standards. Its terrain is rugged and rocky, its forests thick and sinister, its swamps toxic and infested with nightmarish creatures. The War has destroyed its towns and villages, if not the Plague, which has taken hold. It is even said that if the Brotherhood of the Stalkers was born in these lands, it is because the Phantom Pack is more fearsome than elsewhere.
Discover a brand new scenario with new characters, quests and rewards! Harag’s architecture and local culture is very different from what you’ve become accustomed to in Wartales.
The World
Discover this brand new region, its customs, beliefs and mysteries
The level cap has been increased to 9!
Explore a new Tomb of the Ancients
Discover countless new points of interest
Forsaken Villages are newly added places where the player has to choose some members in his group to explore and loot abandoned and plague infested villages:
The selected troop must be as silent as possible, heavy armored companions are not advised
If the group makes too much noise, things might become trickier…
The Marshlands are infected by plague riddens and Hordes frequently roam the land. Try to escape from the huge cohort chasing you!
The Enemies
Fight as yet unseen enemies such as Bears, Giant Mosquitoes or even the mighty Crocswines!
Each enemy faction has a new unit unlocked after reaching level 5 !
Each enemy faction has now a unique passive trait that will make them even stronger (after level 6)
Trackers now have their own faction units with new armor design !
Some animal groups are stronger than before, beware of those!
With the exception of pack leader and Phantom Swarm, it is now possible to tame every type of animal, and yes, even Giant Mosquitoes (though you’ll need a special item)!
Your Group
WIth the level cap increase, we added a new step of specialization (at level 8). Each class will get access to brand new skills.
The animals you tame now have unique skill trees and yes, you can choose to specialize your ponies to fight alongside you!
The daily food consumption for animals has been updated.
You can customize your group appearance by buying a barber’s kit.
Items
With the new regions come a TON of new items, equipment pieces, weapons, recipes…
Depending on the weapon rarity, the UI background will change.
We added new camping gear to be crafted with brand new interactions!
Profession & Activities
The Bard is a new profession and allows you to learn and play songs in taverns.
Missing crafting recipes have been added
Each profession now have new recipes
You can now find wood logs to be cut by your axemen in old and new points of interest
When you change a profession, you should now come back to the highest level you reached in this profession.
Combat
A new Survival battle mode has been added: hold a certain number of rounds
A new Escape battle mode has been added: Reach a specific area to flee the fight while being chased by swathes of enemies
New environmental effect can now affect the course of a battle:
Lightning strike have been added during storms
Rockfalls have been added in certain combat biomes
Balancing
Misc
First Aid has been nerfed: still heals 10% HP but only removes poison, burning and bleeding without affecting other debuffs
Repair kit have been updated : you have more ways to upgrade the quantity of armor they can repair and it is now displayed
Fish is now considered as Meat for meals.
Some forge crafts have their recipe updated
All belt accessories crafted through alchemy require you to be lvl 3 alchemist
Units that were not part of a battle will now gain 80% xp
Crafting an item that unlocks a new recipe now also gives knowledge
Maximum Carrying capacity provided by Constitution is now 20
Leather straps (Belt accessory) give 10% Guard (was 5%)
Poisoned Knife throw price has been largely reduced
Animals should now give more fangs
Components caravans now sell alazar powder
Some Knowledges requirements have been updated
Champions
Alexa Grathan stats have been increased.
Slice and dice (skill Splitter) now deal 80% of Strength (was 100%)
Bloodshed (status Splitter) now is canceled at the end of turn (was round)
You can’t stack infinitely Bloodshed status.
Classes
Willpower of animals globally reduced
Creeper damage reduced by 40%
Health reduced by 50%
Their number in combat increased by 30%
Dagger
Knife Throw’s range has been reduced to 4m (was 8m).
Poisoned weapon (talent) now applies 2 poison instead of 1 when you backstab.
Poisoning (skill Hoodlum) now deals 70-90% of Dexterity (was 60-80%)
Bow
Beast master (upgraded talent) now only heals animals.
Recoil shot (talent) now deals 70-110% of Dexterity (was 40-80%).
Recoil shot (upgraded talent) now deals 80-120% of Dexterity (was 50-90%).
Recoil shot’s range (talent) is now 9m (was 8m)
Barrage’s range (talent) is now 9m (was 8m)
Shot’s range (basic skill) is now 9m (was 8m)
Reinforced arrows (upgraded talent) now increases Critical damage by 35% (was 25%).
Vicious shot (skill Poacher) now deals 50-90% of Dexterity (was 40-80%)
Vicious shot’s range (skillPoacher) is now 9m (was 8m)
Shoot order’s range (skill Sapper) is now 9m (was 8m)
Volley of arrow (skill Captain) now deals 30-80% of Dexterity (was 30-70%)
Volley of arrow’s range (skill Capitain) is now 9m (was 8m).
Sword
Counterattack (upgraded): fix the duration of Inspiration
Slashes (talent) now deals 75% of Strength by attack (was 100%)
Interception (skill) now deals 65% of Strength (was 40%)
Encouragement’s area (talent) is now 6m (was 4m)
Encouragement’s area (talent) is now 10m (was 6m)
Destabilizing strike (talent) now deals 90-110% of Strength (was 80-100%)
Axe
Sentinels stats have been updated
Cutting maelstrom (talent) now deals 35% of Strength (was 50%)
Recklessness (talent) damage bonus reduced from 150% to 100%
Recklessness (upgraded talent) damage bonus reduced from 200% to 150%.
Rampage (talent) now deals 30-45% of Strength (was 30-40%)
Fanaticism (talent axe) now deals 10% of max Health (was 5%) to gain Fury
Mace
Relentless charge (talent) now deals 65% of Strength to units (was 45%)
Armour breaker (talent) now increases damage dealt to armor by 35% (was 25%)
Polearm
Spear throw’s range (talent) is now 8m (was 10m).
Fervent support (talent) now deals 50% of Strength when an adjacent ally is attacked (was 40%)
Fervent support (upgraded talent) now deals 70% of Strength when an adjacent ally is attacked (was 60%)
Rallying shout (talent) now costs 1 Valor Point (was 2)
Bugfixes & QOL
Fixing a major bug causing chances of capture to always be 100% : you should now be able to miss
Occupied point of interest should now be displayed in the questlog
Clearer UI display when fighting an animal group without a leader
Fixed a problem where we could kill all units in the camp
Fixing a bug with prisoners having attribute points to be spent
Training camp now refills their items.
Lighting adjustments in the Vertruse region
New places icons for the map (Fishery, stone circle, big tree, dead tree)
Major perf and memory leaks fixes
Strength now correctly increases Critical Damage, as originally designed.
Many other little things have been fixed/changed