Today is a big day for Moon Studios’ action RPG No Rest for the Wicked. The stunning fantasy game has been available on Steam Early Access for over three months now, and while updates were initially brisk, they’ve now slowed down considerably.
This is intentional, as the developers are well into the development phase and the focus has shifted to developing bigger features rather than fixing smaller but significant issues that arise post-launch.
This is the first recent update released after the shift in focus.
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The Crucible update introduces some new content to the game, along with some major tweaks to the mechanics. As the name suggests, this update focuses on No Rest for the Wicked’s final event, the Crucible.
The flow of the mode has been completely changed and is now more roguelite-style. The update triples the number of random rooms you can encounter, changes the look of the rooms, adds a new Echoes system, and introduces new vendors.
Echoes are a system that lets you customize your runs. It’s a series of buffs, debuffs, and modifiers that you can choose from, effectively letting you specify certain types of builds within the Crucible. This is to increase the variety of runs in the mode. Echoes can be activated using Traces, a new currency dropped by enemies.
The Seneschal is a new Crucible vendor where you can use Gloamseed (also dropped in the Crucible). The vendor sells Fallen Embers, refines resources, and can also upgrade your weapons. What’s even more interesting is that the Seneschal can even unlock features in the Crucible.
The latest update also introduces a new enemy faction: The Gloam. Currently, you’ll encounter them in the Crucible, but future updates will expand their reach to other parts of the world. You’ll know you’re fighting one of them because they’ll emit bioluminescence, a result of the plague they’ve been infected with.
If you’ve played No Rest for the Wicked but never tried the Crucible, you’ll be happy to know that you can now access it earlier. It’s now accessible after accepting “Spoken & Unspoken” from Elsa, which can be done after completing the first campaign mission.
In addition to the Crucible, this update also includes major adjustments to combat. Thanks to new visual effects, combat is now more dynamic and better shows the power of each blow. This even extends to mechanics, as you can now freeze and crush enemies, tear them apart, and rip them to pieces (depending on the weapon used).
Not only that, but the update also expands many areas of the game, adds new areas, and adds stray animals to pet! Additionally, thanks to all the performance updates the game has received, No Rest for the Wicked is now Steam Deck verified.
Moon Studios has revealed that they will soon release a more detailed Early Access roadmap, which is something they have been looking forward to for a long time. The first major update should add co-op mode, but we haven’t got any details on the timing yet.