Update 5.0 - The Definitive Edition

Fellow soldiers, it’s time for one last charge into battle! Today we’re releasing a massive update for The Light Brigade: Update 5.0 - Definitive Edition.

This update adds a new biome, three entirely new tarot card sets, a suite of new crystal attachments, challenge and marathon journeys, full run customization, major rendering optimizations, and a huge collection of balance improvements and fixes.

A dense European town destroyed by war. Face off in close-quarters urban combat throughout the foggy, war-torn town of Lebes. Fight through narrow streets, small rooms, ruined buildings, and upper floors built for indoor and multi-level combat. Just don’t get caught out in the middle of the street.

Three new tarot sets add 38 new cards, bringing the game to 99 unique tarot cards with upgrades available throughout your run (we probably should have added one more card...).

• Aspect of Man: Enhances loot, consumables, and money for when you want to loot-max.
• Aspect of War: Enhances damage with critical hits and bleeding for when you want to destroy.
• Aspect of Peace: Enhances healing, and defensive abilities for when you want to survive.

These new crystals let you add thematic effects to every shot, including gaining gold on hit, dealing splash magic damage, restoring mana, and more. This gives you another way to augment your loadout and specialize your playstyle during a run.

• Anima: Adds magic damage.
• Animus: Boosts long-range damage.
• Man: Earns gold per shot.
• Nature: Damages nearby enemies.
• Obsidian: Earns souls per shot.
• Peace: Restores wand charge.
• Sun: Boosts close-range damage.
• War: Adds physical damage.

The new Universe Selector lets you choose alternate routes through the game and access several new types of journeys. Some modifiers are designed for serious challenges while others are just there for fun. Increasing the challenge also increases your Soul rewards, giving you more Souls to spend on upgrades.

Challenge Runs: face remixed biome routes and enemy types.
Marathon Runs: take on extended journeys through individual worlds.
Custom Runs: customize a huge range of modifiers, including: double damage time limits extra loot, wolves only, big head mode, and much more.

As always, community testing and feedback have resulted in a huge number of changes across the game. There are balance adjustments, gameplay improvements, bug fixes, and many corrections to tarot card effects and descriptions. Thanks everyone!

We made major GPU optimizations across fog, terrain, crystals, SSAO, and environment shaders, with especially large improvements on lower graphics settings. You should see fewer framerate dips, and in many cases you may be able to increase your render scale by around 10–20% for improved clarity without losing performance.

We hope you enjoy playing The Light Brigade 5.0 — Definitive Edition.

Full Changelist — 5.0

# CHANGELOG (v744)
* added Steam Frame platform support
* added new world: Lebes
* added new environments and encounters throughout Lebes
* added new music for Lebes
* added the Universe Selector for choosing alternate run routes
* added challenge runs with remixed biome routes and enemy configurations
* added marathon runs for individual worlds
* added custom runs with configurable difficulty, enemies, loot, health, damage, modifiers
* added custom run Soul reward multipliers
* added new Aspect of War tarot cards
* added new Aspect of Peace tarot cards
* added new Aspect of Man tarot cards
* added 8 new crystal attachments
* added an option to always display base-rank weapon visuals
* added a Start Run Again option to the end screen
* added a skip button to cutscenes
* improved rendering performance across fog, terrain, crystals, SSAO, and enviro shaders
* improved high-refresh-rate headset timing
* improved charm, grenade, and bomb-shot balance
* improved key chest availability during long runs
* improved ammo quick-store for Pistolier
* improved Wishing Well selling behavior for held items
* improved weapon donations to include attached trinkets
* improved health upgrades and healing to preserve temporary overheal
* improved Portuguese font coverage for dialogue
* fixed rifles failing to cycle when manual bolt handling was disabled
* fixed Universe Selector unlock and startup state issues
* fixed recovered player Souls being affected by run reward multipliers
* fixed duplicated Wishing Well payouts for grabbed items
* fixed duplicate throwing-knife storage input
* fixed hands disappearing after storing certain held weapons
* fixed Obsidian Kar98k ammo and item configuration issues
* fixed invalid Obsidian weapons entering ammo helper and world spawn systems
* fixed VG1-5 upgrade rarity and visual references
* fixed red-dot and laser-sight LOD references
* fixed phasing and teleporting enemies becoming non-collidable
* fixed enemies remaining invulnerable after blink or crystal-state transitions
* fixed syringe cleanup when use was interrupted
* fixed health potion and canteen effects remaining active
* fixed crystal effects applying damage twice or losing their weapon owner
* fixed crystal Soul and gold rewards using incorrect hit positions
* fixed Nature crystal splash and chained damage behavior
* fixed tarot rewards spawning duplicate cards
* fixed numerous tarot effects, limits, percentages, and descriptions
* fixed summoned effects disappearing when reloading
* fixed wearables sometimes being duplicated
* fixed the Temple crystal ambience playing twice
* fixed Necropolis generation occasionally creating impassable walls
* fixed invalid saved routes failing during run startup
* fixed rare ragdoll failures leaving enemies stuck
* fixed encounter allocation favoring earlier spawn entries

Thank You!

Since the game’s initial release in February 2023, we’ve supported and expanded The Light Brigade through many major content updates and countless smaller updates. Your feedback helped us add new worlds, weapons, abilities, classes, enemies, challenges, and much more.

It has been an honor building this game alongside such an incredible community. Thank you for joining us on this journey and for helping make The Light Brigade what it is today.

If you’d like to stay connected with us and the community, please join our Discord.

Questions?

If you have any questions or feedback, hit us up on Discord, Twitter, or Reddit.

https://www.lightbrigadevr.com/