Architect of War · public · first seen
Hello, adventurers!
Update #4 is here, bringing a huge wave of new content to Architect of War!
What's new? A third world, six new maps, 12 new enemies, 12 new talents, a revamped combat system, and plenty of visual, interface, and balance improvements.
Let's dive in!
Explore a brand-new environment featuring its own lobby and a unique musical atmosphere.
This third world now features 5 playable maps, including four entirely new ones and one relocated from another world.
In total, six new maps have been added across the different worlds:
The Black Sepulcher - Broken Falls
Winter's Refuge - Broken Falls
Lost Eden - Broken Falls
The Stone Sentinels - Broken Falls
The Twin Courtyards - Hidden Village
King's Passage - Lake Fort
From sinister dungeons and snow-covered Viking villages to paradise-like oases and imposing medieval fortresses, these new environments offer fresh terrain layouts and strategic challenges to put your defenses to the test.
The arrival of Broken Falls also brings a major overhaul of existing maps.
Almost every map has been reworked, with adjustments to terrain layouts and turret placement locations.
Wave compositions have been revised across all three difficulty modes: Easy, Medium, and Hard.
Starting health and Gold rewards have been rebalanced based on difficulty.
Several environments have received visual improvements and optimizations.
The goal is to provide smoother progression, more varied encounters, and challenges better suited to each difficulty level.
The World 2, the Hidden Village lobby has also received a complete visual overhaul, featuring a redesigned environment that brings a fresh atmosphere and an even more immersive experience!
New foes are appearing across the game's maps, each bringing their own characteristics, strategies to overcome, and unique challenges to complete!
Meet these 12 new enemies, each featuring its own unique model:
Steelguard
Boneguard
BlackIron
Graveguard
Windbreaker
Plagueswift
Windstep
Breezecutter
Gunnar the Uneventful
Hilda Half-Ready
Gromm
Morka
These new adversaries bring greater variety to enemy waves and make battles more diverse.
Existing enemies have also received several adjustments:
Revised stats for certain enemies.
Fixes to special effects, including resistance auras, speed bonuses, and magical silence.
Rebalanced wave compositions and difficulty.
Adjusted certain enemy elimination challenges to better reflect how frequently those enemies appear.
The talent tree is expanding with 12 new abilities to unlock as you progress!
Some are available in the early branches, while others are found deeper in the tree, rewarding players who push their progression further.
These talents strengthen your combat style, improve your defenses, and, most importantly, introduce powerful synergies between different elements.
Combining elements becomes even more rewarding thanks to several new talents:
Cross Necrosis: Combined Blood and Poison attacks permanently reduce enemies' maximum HP.
Cryogenic Overload: Electric damage extends the freeze duration of immobilized enemies.
Thermal Shock: Frozen enemies take twice as much Fire damage.
Toxic Short Circuit: Electricity progressively reduces the resistances of poisoned enemies.
Explosive Hemorrhage: Fire attacks against corrupted enemies can trigger an explosion.
Heat Exchange: Ice attacks against burning enemies launch a Fire projectile toward a nearby enemy.
Deadly Contagion: Lethal Poison kills launch toxic projectiles toward nearby enemies.
Five additional talents complete these new possibilities:
Devastating Combo: The fourth attack in your melee combo deals double damage.
Ramp-Up Fire: Holding down your ranged attack progressively increases attack speed, up to +30%.
Commander's Blessing: Bless a turret to grant it +50% damage or +20% attack speed.
Life Insurance: Blood lifesteal effects guarantee a minimum of 3 HP restored.
Combat Experience: Defenders grow stronger as they eliminate enemies.
Experiment with new combinations and adapt your strategy to the enemies you face!
Player combat is evolving with new mechanics, reworked animations, and more ways to take on enemy hordes!
Unleash a continuous beam of energy upon your enemies!
Hold down your attack to channel the beam onto your targets. Your character automatically enters aiming mode while firing, giving you greater control over your attacks.
Close-quarters combat has also received a major improvement!
Now, four different attack animations chain together to form a combo, making melee encounters more dynamic.
And with the new Devastating Combo talent, the fourth strike in your combo deals double damage!
Thanks to the new interaction system, you can now target and manage your turrets from up to 12 meters away.
Check their stats, upgrade them, or sell them remotely without having to cross the entire battlefield.
Turrets now automatically rotate to face the player during placement, making them easier to preview before construction.
Additionally, selling a turret before it has been used now refunds 100% of the Gold invested, including upgrades, provided it was not built during an active wave.
This gives you more freedom to experiment with your strategies before the battle begins!
Certain turrets now gain new capabilities through their relics!
The Groundbreaker: When its corresponding relic is active, you can now place its spikes directly on enemy paths through the turret interface.
Vanguard Foundry: Its relic also allows you to position defender spawn zones directly along enemy paths.
These new interactions give you more freedom to organize your defenses and make the most of your turrets' abilities.
Several turrets have been adjusted to improve their effectiveness and overall balance throughout the game.
Revised costs, damage, and stats for certain turrets.
Adjustments to defenders summoned by the Vanguard Foundry, including their damage, costs, and spawn distances.
Improved damage information for The Groundbreaker's spikes and Blood Reaper turret effects.
Fixed several behaviors involving summons, attacks, and relic effects.
Turret interfaces now provide clearer information about stats enhanced by active relics and Leader bonuses.
These bonuses are also reflected in your inventory's stat displays, giving you a better overview of your defenses' actual power.
The Power Shop features a brand-new interface, designed to make selecting and using powers more intuitive.
Browse your available powers, check their details, and easily identify the keys assigned to activate them.
Many menus have been completely redesigned with a refreshed art direction, smoother animations, and better-organized information.
Several major interfaces have received a visual overhaul:
Main Menu: A modernized layout and more intuitive team management.
Inventory: Visual improvements and new quality-of-life features.
Talent Tree: A redesigned interface to accommodate the new abilities.
Map Selection: Improved presentation of worlds, maps, and progression.
Achievements and Challenges: A complete interface overhaul with new features to help track your objectives.
From the Main Menu, you can now also open your inventory directly by selecting a slot in your team loadout, making it quicker to adjust your lineup.
The main in-game interface has also been reworked to improve readability during combat.
The presentation of information, powers, and various combat elements has been revised to make everything more accessible and intuitive.
The defeat screen and the end-of-game Reward Wheel have also received a visual refresh.
Other interfaces have been updated to better match the game's fantasy atmosphere:
In-Game Settings: A new presentation inspired by the fantasy setting.
Library and Bestiary Chests: A redesigned interface with more detailed item information.
Items and Powers: New icons and illustrations to make rewards and abilities easier to identify.
Difficulty Levels: New illustrations representing the different challenge tiers.
Several improvements also make navigation and information easier to understand:
A new option allows you to simplify enemy health bar displays.
Shield bars now reflect enemies' actual shield status, while their HP remains visible.
Relic history in the pause menu now features improved navigation.
Conflicting key bindings are now clearly indicated.
New tutorials guide players through certain interactions, including turret repairs and remote turret selection.
The goal of this overhaul is simple: make the game easier to navigate, clearer to understand, and more comfortable to play, for both newcomers and experienced players!
Several turrets now feature new visual effects, making attacks more spectacular while improving combat readability.
Temporal Anti-Aliasing (TAA) has also been implemented across all maps, alongside color grading adjustments to improve the overall look of the environments.
The new world features its own music selection, accompanying you as you explore its different environments.
New sound effects have also been added, while some existing ones have been reworked.
Several game systems have been optimized to improve performance and overall gameplay smoothness.
These optimizations include:
Time management and certain in-game events.
Experience orbs.
Offensive detection systems for certain turrets.
Player attacks.
Various maps and environments.
Additional adjustments have also been made to improve gameplay comfort and ensure more consistent mechanics.
Numerous issues have been fixed throughout the game, including:
Fixed dead enemies sometimes continuing to block player attacks.
Fixed health and shield bar display issues in certain situations.
Fixed certain Steel Eye projectiles not producing their impact effects correctly.
Fixed summoned defenders sometimes failing to respawn after upgrading certain relics.
Fixed several behaviors involving special enemies and their effects.
Fixed certain interactions and notifications that could interfere with interface navigation.
Fixed various positioning, display, and functionality issues on certain maps.
And many more smaller fixes and improvements to make the experience more stable and enjoyable!
With a third world, six new maps, 12 new enemies, 12 new talents, and a revamped combat system, this fourth update marks another major milestone in the development of Architect of War!
Thank you all for your continued support, suggestions, and feedback!
Good luck on the battlefield, and see you soon for more adventures!
| Depot | New manifest | Previous manifest |
|---|---|---|
| 4634941 | 2020806554058509268 | 2546200697338201314 |