Blazing Deserts Release

The ‘Blazing Deserts’ DLC for Battle Brothers has been released into the world! Find it on Steam, GOG or Humble Store.

Enjoy!

Update 1.4

With the ‘Blazing Deserts’ DLC comes a big free update that improves the game in many aspects. Below you’ll find a list explaining the most important additions, changes and fixes.

Note that all of this is in addition to the many things brought by the ‘Blazing Deserts’ DLC. You can get it on Steam, GOG or Humble Store.

If you’d like to continue your current campaign with the previous version of Battle Brothers, or continue to play it altogether without the DLC, you can do so as well. Find Battle Brothers in your Steam library, right-click it and select ‘Properties’. Navigate to the ‘Betas’ tab and select the ‘1.3.x’ branch from the dropdown menu. Steam should now update Battle Brothers, and once done, you’re ready to go.

Starting a new campaign is recommended. You may continue your current campaign, but if you do, expect some glitches.

Note that most mods will not work anymore until they’ve been updated by their authors to work with the new version of Battle Brothers. Make sure to remove them, as otherwise the game may not work correctly or crash outright. This includes any language mods.

Changelog

• Added a new player banner as a thank you for your continued support.
• Added combat environments reflecting locations where battles take place. Attacking a bandit camp will now have that camp appear in combat, and likewise will a graveyard or some ruins. Locations may have fortifications like walls and palisades, which you’ll be informed about in a location’s tooltip and the engage dialog.
• Added exploration mode, allowing you to start with an entirely undiscovered map.
• Added toggleable highlighting of any tiles blocked by environmental objects (such as trees) in combat via button and hotkey.
• Added treasure items selling for full value as possible loot for all beasts, old and new, in order to make fighting them a more profitable endeavour.
• Added a line to the tooltip of any items used in crafting to inform you of this fact, as to better differentiate between crafting and loot items, if the Beasts & Exploration DLC is installed.
• Added tooltips explaining in more detail beforehand what is expected of the player, and what the expected rewards are, when choosing between ambitions.
• Added tavern rumors about situations of nearby settlements, including some hinting at the presence of particular beasts, as well as rumors specific to each of the late game crises, and reduced chance of pure flavor rumors slightly.
• Added ‘enter’ cursor to display over locations that can be entered on the world map, like friendly settlements.
• Added better and up-to-date tutorial videos.
• Added ‘-nohwcursor’ command line option for people experiencing issues with their mouse cursors.

• Changed ‘Nine Lives’ perk to also clear any damage over time effects (e.g. bleeding, poisoned) upon triggering, and to give improved defensive stats until the character’s next turn.
• Changed ‘Relentless’ perk to also remove the penalty to initiative when waiting with a character.
• Changed ‘Head Hunter’ perk to guarantee a hit to the head for your next attack after hitting the head of your target once. Resets after your hit connects or if you miss your attack.
• Changed ‘Fearsome’ perk to also carry a penalty equal to 20% of the attacker’s resolve for each morale check triggered by inflicting damage.
• Changed ‘Sword Mastery’ perk to lower the threshold to inflict injuries with the ‘Gash’ skill to 50%.
• Changed ‘Rally’ skill to cost 5 action points to use, down from 6.
• Changed ‘Indomitable’ AP cost to 5, up from 3. The previous cost erased too much the choice between going offensive or defensive and allowed you to have the best of both.
• Changed ‘Adrenaline’ skill to cost 1 AP, up from 0.
• Changed ‘Fast Adaptation’ perk to give +10% chance to hit with each miss, up from +8%.
• Changed ‘Brawny’ perk to reduce the fatigue penalty from armor and helmet by 30%, up from 25%.
• Changed ‘Anticipation’ perk to always give a minimum of +10 to Ranged Defense.
• Changed ‘Knock Back’ skill to have a fatigue cost of 20, down from 25.
• Changed ‘Repel’ and ‘Hook’ skills to have a fatigue cost of 25, down from 30.
• Changed ‘Split Shield’ skill to trigger the ‘Overwhelm’ effect.
• Changed ‘Exposed Ribs’, ‘Stabbed Guts’, ‘Grazed Kidney’, ‘Deep Chest Cut’ and ‘Deep Abdominal Cut’ injuries to have more of an effect, including reducing hitpoints of the victim to certain thresholds if currently above. In essence, those injuries are now a bit more useful for the player to inflict upon enemies, and both the ‘Crippling Strikes’ perk and the ‘Gash’ skill were indirectly buffed this way.
• Changed Ranged Defense levelups to range from 2-4, up from 1-3. Only affects characters generated after this update.
• Changed damage of Scimitar to 40-45, up from 35-45, and increased efficiency vs. armor to 70%.
• Changed damage of Three-Headed Flail to 30-75, up from 21-66.
• Changed damage of Billhook to 55-85, down from 60-90, and efficiency vs. armor of 140%, down from 150%.
• Changed armor efficiency of Polehammer to 185%, up from 175%.
• Changed damage of Reinforced Boondock Bow to 30-50, up from 25-40.
• Changed damage of Heavy Javelin to 35-50, down from 40-55.
• Changed damage of Heavy Throwing Axe to 30-50, down from 35-55.
• Changed Living Tree Shield to regenerate by 10% of maximum durability each turn.
• Changed Undead Trophy to double the wearer’s resolve when defending against fear and mind control skills, and no longer grant complete immunity.
• Changed surrounding mechanics to no longer count stunned characters, or characters armed with ranged weapons, towards the surround bonus.
• Changed zone of control mechanics for actors that are stunned or without skills to actually perform attacks of opportunity (like if armed with a ranged weapon) to no longer exert zones of control.
• Changed ‘Dazed’ status effect to -25% damage, -25% initiative and -25% max fatigue, down from -35% of each.
• Changed ‘Charmed’ status effect to make the afflicted immune to some morale effects, as to avoid odd situations of characters fleeing after the charm has worn off.
• Changed ‘Sleeping’ status effect to last for 3 turns, up from 2. It still can be removed at any time using the ‘Wake Up’ skill.
• Changed ‘Cat Potion’ to be used on the worldmap and give a +20 bonus to Initiative for the duration of the next battle.
• Changed ‘Lionheart Potion’ to be used on the worldmap and give a +20 bonus to Resolve for the duration of the next battle.
• Changed ‘Iron Will Potion’ to be used on the worldmap and give the same effect as before for the duration of the next battle.
• Changed ‘Night Vision Elixir’ to be used on the worldmap and give the same effect as before for the duration of the next battle.
• Changed ‘Second Wind Potion’ to be used on the worldmap and give +4 to Fatigue recovery for the duration of the next battle.
• Changed ‘Berserker Mushrooms’ to be used on the worldmap and give a +25% bonus to damage in melee, and reduce both melee and ranged defense by -15 for the duration of the next battle. Using these no longer carries an additional risk of getting sick, but characters still risk getting sick/addicted from taking too many potions of any kind at once.
• Changed ‘Antidote’ to also give immunity to poison for the duration of 3 turns after use.
• Changed ‘Potion of Knowledge’ effect to last for 3 battles instead of 2 days.
• Changed Geists to no longer have the ‘Anticipation’ perk, but instead have a perk of their own that increases both their Melee and Ranged Defense by small amounts the further away an attacker is.
• Changed the tails of Lindwurms to also exert a zone of control.
• Changed ‘Trade Caravan’ origin to only receive 66% of all renown, up from 50%.
• Changed starting renown of some other existing origins to better work with the new Retinue feature.
• Changed targeting icons for AoE skills to also show up on empty tiles as to give a better idea of the area those skills can cover.
• Changed hotkey for showing/hiding footprints on the worldmap to the ‘F’ key, as to avoid players accidentally hiding footprints by pressing the ‘Tab’ key while switching between applications.
• Changed auto-saves when leaving towns in ironman mode to be faster.
• Changed AI turns to be faster when multiple characters do nothing but move one after the other.
• Changed AI to perform better in various situations.
• Changed lots and lots of minor things for the better.

• Fixed rare issue with game speed on very long campaigns.
• Fixed potential crash when in a three-way fight with Alps and other enemies.
• Fixed issue with temporarily invisible Alps when getting knocked back and receiving damage at the same time.
• Fixed potential crash with bleeding Lindwurms as they retreat from the map.
• Fixed potential crash with AI use of Three-Headed Flail.
• Fixed characters devoured by the Kraken rising as Wiedergängers when fighting it during the undead crisis.
• Fixed fatigue cost reduction of named items not applying to ‘Reload’ skill of crossbows.
• Fixed ‘Lunge’ skill potentially moving a character onto a tile they can’t attack from.
• Fixed ‘Riposte’ skill sometimes not working against Unhold attacks.
• Fixed rare issue of armor and helmets not dropping even though they’re named items and should be guaranteed to drop.
• Fixed rare issue with ‘Reset Equipment After Battle’ function losing items.
• Fixed wolf gained via event having incorrect stats.
• Fixed issue with a particular twist of the ‘Siege’ contract.
• Fixed retreating from fight with bounty hunters in ‘Drive Away Brigands’ contract not removing the robber baron’s head.
• Fixed ‘Big Game Hunt’ contract potentially pointing to regions that neither Lindwurms nor Schrats are native to, or to regions undiscovered by the player.
• Fixed potential crash with the ‘Investigate Cemetery’ contract.
• Fixed potential crash with ‘Barbarian King’ contract.
• Fixed pathfinding issue where characters would move through zones of control when they shouldn’t.
• Fixed hate/fear trait events not firing properly.
• Fixed guaranteed building spawns across the map not always working.
• Fixed multiple pieces of text appearing one after the other at game over screen, instead of just one.
• Fixed various minor issues.

Blazing Deserts Preview, Part III

Welcome to the final part of our preview video series on the upcoming ‘Blazing Deserts’ DLC. This time we take a look at the new throwable pots and primitive firearms coming to Battle Brothers, and fight an army of the mighty city states. If you missed earlier installments of this preview series, you can find the first part here and the second part here.

The ‘Blazing Deserts’ DLC will release on August 13th for the price of $14,99 or your regional equivalent. You can already wishlist it on Steam right here land on GOG here.

Blazing Deserts Preview, Part II

Welcome to the second part of our preview video series on the upcoming ‘Blazing Deserts’ DLC. We continue with a look at the new retinue feature and the ‘Manhunters’ origin, and fight a few nomads at one of their desert camps. If you missed the first part of our preview series, you can find it here.

The ‘Blazing Deserts’ DLC will release on August 13th for the price of $14,99 or your regional equivalent. You can already wishlist it on Steam right here land on GOG here.

Blazing Deserts Preview, Part I

Welcome to the first part of our preview video series on the upcoming ‘Blazing Deserts’ DLC. To kick things off, Jan will take you on a quick tour through the extended world map, the town screen of the city states, the Gladiators origin and the arena feature.

The ‘Blazing Deserts’ DLC will release on August 13th for the price of $14,99 or your regional equivalent. You can already wishlist it on Steam right here land on GOG here.

Dev Blog #144: Even More Smaller Things

Polishing the ‘Blazing Deserts’ DLC continues as we take a look at another potpourri of smaller additions and quality of life improvements coming with the release on August 13. You can already wishlist the DLC on Steam and GOG. Let’s take a look!

Exploration Mode

A new and entirely optional way to play your campaign is with a map that is unexplored in the beginning, save for your immediate surroundings. You’ll have to discover the lay of the land and uncover every settlement yourself, as everything is hidden by thick fog covering the map at the start.

If you’re into exploration, this could make for an interesting and fresh campaign. It’s only recommended for experienced players that know what they’re doing, however, as exploring the map as you go adds some difficulty to keeping your men alive and well, and contracts may send you to settlements that you’ve never been to and that you have to find first.

Terrain

As you probably know by now, the ‘Blazing Deserts’ DLC adds several new types of terrain. But if you’ve ever wondered from afar what terrain a particular enemy camp sits on, fret no more. The game will now tell you in the tooltip of camps what terrain your men would be fighting on, without having to first engage the camp. That’s even more important as the combination of terrain and fortifications is about to change the dynamic of battles thanks to objects like palisades making it onto combat maps!

Events

Events are the spice of life, and the ‘Blazing Deserts’ DLC adds plenty of new ones both for your travels south and the interaction between characters. Observe a fire juggler in the city states, discuss astronomy with southern scholars, find cultists of Davkul doing something sinister in the desert, and have your men get sunburn. All events are illustrated with new art like that below.

Achievements

Can’t do a new DLC without new achievements! A total of (currently) 12 new achievements to unlock await the completionists of you, as you can challenge yourself with defeating powerful new opponents, doing trick shots with a Handgonne, winning arena bouts, and more. Can you guess what other achievements there are based on the icons?

Supporter Edition

As with our previous DLCs, we’re again also offering a Supporter Edition for those of you who want to support us above and beyond in working on Battle Brothers. As a thank you, you’ll be given a special player banner that appropriately reflects the wealth, craftsmanship and culture of the south and its people!

You can wishlist the Blazing Deserts Supporter Edition here on Steam.