The next major update for Windbound has gone live. There are plenty of new features and content to check out, including The Loathing, Forsaken Enemies, new melee combat moves, new items, and new Challenge Towers.
Below are the full patch notes:
New Features
The Loathing
Kara’s return to the Forbidden Islands has stirred a long-forgotten undead enemy to life… erm… unlife! And where these new Forsaken foes have risen, a supernatural malevolence has bubbled out of the earth, seeping into the sea, tainting the land and corrupting the local wildlife – the Loathing.
Should Kara spend too long in the presence of the Loathing, shetoo will become blighted, suffering from diminishing health until she is overwhelmed. Thankfully, the edible blooms that dot the isles can stave off the full effects of the Loathing, and they can even be combined to create more potent potions and other useful artefacts.
Forsaken Enemies
On the islands corrupted by the Loathing, Kara will encounter a variety of fearsome enemies from the time of her ancestors. Some may even bar her progress to The Crossing.
Forsaken Warrior: Equipped with a short-range weapon that is best defeated using the new parry melee combat move.
Forsaken Trickster: A fast-moving combatant that keeps a safe distance from Kara, dodging melee attacks. Attacks in short flurries of melee strikes which can be countered. Best response is to use the new lunge attack whilst the enemy is charging its ranged attack.
Forsaken Shieldbearer: A slow-moving foe that uses a shield to block attacks. But beware, they also use the shield to perform lunge attacks that cannot be blocked or countered. Vulnerable to the new dodge attack ability.
Klio the Wardancer: A fearsome adversary with deadly melee skills.
Korr the Undefeated: Watch out for an unexpected slam and reinforcements.
Inara the Godslayer: Let’s just say she doesn’t want to be friends?
New Melee Combat Moves
As Kara progresses on her journey, she’ll have the opportunity to learn some new combat moves.
Kara can learn how to Parry incoming attacks and then launch a stinging counterattack on her enemies.
Whilst dodging an incoming attack Kara can launch a Dodge attack on her attacker. Handy when facing an enemy with a shield.
Kara can learn how to launch a Lunge attack, launching her forward with her melee weapon to deal devastating damage.
New Items
Spectral Residue: This substance is all that remains from a defeated Forsaken enemy. Collect enough and it can be used to imbue Kara’s weapons with enchanted abilities, or even help restore health after a challenging encounter with the Forsaken hordes.
Spectral Spear: The enchantment woven into this spear does additional damage to ghostly foes and can shatter the crystal barriers of the Loathing.
Spectral Arrows: The enchantment woven into these arrows does additional damage to ghostly foes and can shatter the crystal barriers of the Loathing.
Spectral Stimulant: Drinking this potion instantly restores a large amount of Kara’s health.
Cleansing Cordial: Removes some of the corrupting effect of the Loathing.
Draft of Divine Defiance: Fortifies Kara against the effects of the Loathing for a long period of time, reducing its impact.
As her journey continues, Kara may find the ancient recipe for a selection of Runes to enhance her abilities whilst she carries them.
Mark of the Scorpion: While the mark is in Kara’s inventory, charging a ranged weapon will slowly drain Kara’s health, but will deal massive damage to the target on a successful hit.
Mark of Punishment: While the mark is in Kara’s inventory, each consecutive melee or ranged attack on a target causes increased damage, but Kara will take increased damage from consecutive attacks, too.
Mark of Patience: While the mark is in Kara’s inventory, dodging or countering attacks will charge Kara’s weapon, dealing increased damage.
Mark of the Martyr: While stored in Kara’s inventory, this mark will take degradation damage instead of her weapons or tools. Once fully degraded, the mark is destroyed.
As Kara learns new melee combat moves, she may also learn how to craft Ancestral Masks to amplify her combat abilities.
Forsaken Mask of Countering: Increases the timing window on parrying and increases damage on counterattacks.
Klio’s Mask of Graceful Dodging: Reduces the stamina cost for dodging while increasing the damage output of the dodge attack.
Korr’s Mask of Mighty Lunging: Reduces the stamina cost for lunge and increases Kara’s melee damage.
But it will take a herculean effort to obtain the ultimate Ancestral Mask – Inara will not give it up without a fight.
Inara’s Mask of Divine Protection: In combat, Kara will manifest a divine shield that can completely negate the damage from a single attack.
New Challenge Towers
From Chapter 2 onwards, Kara may encounter new, more challenging puzzle towers with multiple steps before unlocking.
From Chapter 4 onwards, Kara may encounter towers that are consumed by Loathing and peppered with crystal blockers. Kara must cleanse the tower to unlock it, if only there was some kind of Spectral weapons she could use against the Loathing?
Additional Bug Fixes and Improvements
General
Fixed an issue where the Inventory/crafting menu would not appear correctly in a play session after the playing Free Sailing mode.
Resolved an issue in Photo Mode where the “Less is Maw” that was not appearing.
Fixed an issue in Photo Mode where controls for moving the camera up/down were not always displaying correctly.
Fixed a bug where combat music could repeatedly start/stop as you were running away from an enemy whilst being chased.
Corrected a bug where exiting a menu whilst gliding would cancel the glider and cause Kara to fall from the sky.
Resolved an issue where some shrines appeared to have been visited/collected even when it was the first time the player encountered them.
Fixed an occasional bug where the Plainstalker could be seen doing handstands on tall rocks.
Crafting and Resourcing
Fixed an issue on the crafting menu where unavailable item icons were difficult to read.
Fixed a bug where fires on boats could sometimes not be interacted with.
Resolved an occasional issue where after starting sailing, crafting was not possible on the boat.
Items that can be crafted at fires are now accessible from the normal crafting window. These items will show the fire (or oven or cooking pot) as a required item (like how the hammer is for oil). If the player is standing near the relevant fire, they will be able to craft these items.
When interacting with a fire, the crafting menu now shows the appropriate recipes.
When players interact with a fire, the current items being cooked are shown at the top.
Standing near a fire, the player will now see the available slots to cook.
Ocean Combat, Sailing and Boat
Anchored boat acts as a respawn point. If the player anchors their boat and dies, then they will respawn on their boat when they re-enter the world.
Fixed a bug where de-crafting or repairing the boat could alter the wrong component depending on when the player released the button/moved the camera.
