The Khar-Tib Update is now available!

Hello mates, Baron here! Update 1.3 is now released and this is number 3 of 4 in the series of free Byeth Updates, with the goal being to canonize some of the extended lore of Blade & Sorcery through additional content and maps.

But of course it wouldn't be a Warpfrog release if I wasn't able to tell you that as per usual, the update completely derailed off plan and in a typical pattern of self-flagellation we ended up scope-creeping like crazy. ːsteamlaughcryː

But the good news is that's extra content for you guys!

Welcome to Khar-Tib

The desert nation east of Eraden and across the Khemenet Sea is known for its blazing sands, unorthodox weaponry and unique armour crafting.

Update 1.3 brings canonical lore content from Khar-Tib to the base game, and a couple of new features to boot. This was a fun update for the design team as they were able to work on stuff that was more unorthodox than usual.

Now, let's get into what's new!

Kharese Themed Weapons

All Byeth Updates come with faction themed weapons, and Khar-Tib is no different.

The Kharese make use of the unique resources available in the desert, crafting unusual weapons of bone reinforced steel. This makes Kharese weaponry quite unlike anything else seen in Byeth.

For the first time in Blade & Sorcery, we have a double headed axe.

This labrys inspired weapon has a cool feature in that it can be imbued independently on both sides, so each blade can have a different magical function.

For sword enthusiasts, we have one-handed scimitar and two-handed khopesh-inspired blades, with a Khar-Tib spin.

Both of these weapons have unique bone reinforcements crafted along their spines.

For stealth fans, a new entry to the dagger category is this unusual little dual-bladed dagger.

In larger weapons, we have a war-scythe inspired weapon and dual-bladed staff.

The staff can be imbued with magic on both sides (like the labrys) but it is not a magical staff that sorcerers use, it is just a regular weapon.

Next up, another unusual first for the Byeth updates; a spiked Kharese shield.

The spike can be used offensively, giving the shield some extra function.

Retractable Blade

And finally, a little bonus tweak was added to the current wrist blade in the game.

The blade is visually unchanged, but now it can be activated to extend and retract the blade using the alt-use button.

While holding it with a spell equipped, you can also imbue it in your hand like you can with arrows. So if you had two wrist blades equipped, you could imbue them both in your hands without needing to unequip one hand to imbue the other.

Automatic Crossbow

A brand new weapon category for Blade & Sorcery: introducing the Kharese crossbow!

The crossbow is small and versatile, and can be used single handed as a nice offhand weapon, or with both hands.

It shoots bolts automatically from a top-loader, which is great for speed and convenience, but the top-loader would need to be reloaded once empty. Similar to the regular bow, you can also retrieve bolts from the ground to load back into the crossbow, since the bolts are physical.

The automatic crossbow carves out its own little niche to separates it from the traditional bow and Sentari firearm. It's not as punchy as the larger longbows and nowhere near the explosive power of the Sentari firearm, but it is fast and reliable.

With dual-wielding crossbows, a player could pepper the enemy in a shower of bolts before they even got close.

Kharese Themed Armour

The Khar-Tib update introduces a new armour set. The Kharese make their unique looking armour from carapaces of desert-dwelling creatures.

The armour is a mix of leather, cloth and hard carapace, making it a mid-tier T2 armour.

It will be available in Sandbox and Crystal Hunt mode, appearing in the shop as a T2 item to purchase in the latter.

Kharese Bombs

Another brand new weapon category is being introduced in 1.3: Kharese bombs. The Kharese use a mixture of physical components and crystal dust to craft devastating bombs.

Whereas the Sentari potions were mostly about utilitarian function, the Kharese bombs are most certainly intended for offense.

There are three variants:

Fire Bomb

A proximity-based trigger will detonate the fire bomb and engulf the area in flames, making it a good chokepoint weapon.

As a nice bonus, it can be stuck to things like walls or objects, so you can get a bit creative with your devious traps.

Lightning Bomb

This bomb embeds itself into the target before unleashing electrical mayhem. Similar to electrical imbued arrows, this bomb has an assisted seek feature that enables it to hone in on a target when you throw it.

Gravity Bomb

Throwing this bomb creates a pocket of gravity where all those caught in the vicinity are flung with a springboard effect, including the player. All targets will get launched up in the air, followed by a less elegant landing.

If you are a creative player you could potentially use the gravity bombs for dungeon traversal, such as leaping wide chasms or tall ledges, but be careful!

Khar-Tib Enemies

To accompany the new armour in the game, a new Khar-Tib enemy faction has been added to Sandbox and Crystal Hunt.

In Crystal Hunt the faction can be encountered in their own faction map, or they can be spawned in Sandbox dungeons as one of the selectable factions.

New Khar-Tib Themed Map

Presenting map number 3 in the Byeth series:

The Kharese Fortress is tucked away deep in the desert mountains of Khar-Tib. Now abandoned, the site exhibits evidence of a previous battle.

This ended up being a very large map, with lots of nooks and crannies to explore, as well as climbing and parkour opportunities.

When designing the Khar-Tib environment, it was unlike our other very European-influenced Eraden maps in terms of architecture and art direction, so the team got to go all out in giving this place an exotic feeling.

Interactable Ballistae

A cool feature of the Khar-Tib map is that it contains elements of interactivity.

There are several ballistae dotted around the Khar-Tib map that can be interacted with and fired.

Though slow-firing, the ballista bolt is devastatingly powerful and will easily skewer armoured enemies.

One nice QoL feature is that the ballista will adjust to height, so it should be comfortable for everyone to use in VR.

Traps

Continuing on the topic of interactive elements, the Khar-Tib map also contains triggerable traps which are positioned about the map in strategic areas and chokepoints.

Hitting the activation button will spring the trap and release spinning blades that can sever enemy limbs.

Town Square: Daytime Map

Big dawg is back. The return of a classic!

A daytime version of Town Square has been added, to resemble the map as it was before 1.0 release.

You can now select a day or night version from the mapboard when selecting the map.

When we converted Town Square to the night version for 1.0, we were really surprised by just how many players felt an affinity for the daytime version. This was tricky for us because we had already made deep changes by converting it to nighttime, so offering an alternate version was not super easy because of how the lighting works.

However, with a little work we were able to recreate the map and we are now happy to be able to offer this old version as an option.

Dungeon to Arena Maps

Continuing with the map madness in 1.3, a large new feature is the conversion of many dungeon environments to standalone arena maps!

Ten maps have been converted from Outpost and Dalgarian dungeons, and can be found on the sandbox mapboard under new tabs.

These maps can be played in regular sandbox mode where you can spawn any weapons or waves, etc, but what is also super cool is that they all work with the new Survival Mode from Sentara Update!

That means they will also work perfectly with any modded Survival modes too.

Some of the maps will be very familiar to you as they were selected from the pool of most iconic of the dungeon rooms.

These would be really classic rooms that you will have surely encountered in dungeon runs many times before, such as the Library, etc.

However some of the Dalgarian dungeon rooms may surprise you, as they are much rarer, less often generated rooms.

These would be dungeon rooms like the Dalgarian Senate, Dalgarian Forge, etc.

New Khar-Tib Faction Music