It is the tip of the highway for Highguard, which is ready to go offline on March 12, slightly over a month after its notoriously rocky launch. However the skeleton crew of Wildlight Leisure builders nonetheless engaged on the sport are releasing one ultimate update–and it seems to be to be the most important one but, introducing account development, a talent tree, a brand new weapon, and a brand new playable Warden, all set to reach tonight at 4 PM PT / 7 PM ET.
“For our ultimate patch, we would wish to thank everybody who has performed and remains to be taking part in Highguard,” Wildlight shared in an article posted to X. “Despite the fact that we’re shutting the sport down, we’re excited to provide our remaining gamers one final huge replace to maintain you entertained over the weekend. Thanks once more for taking part in with us. Get pleasure from!”
When an X person responded to the post questioning why the replace is being launched now, slightly than throughout the sport’s launch, Wildlight founder, studio head, and sport director Chad Grenier replied with a little bit of perception.
“If you’re out of money and time – it’s a must to launch a sport with the runway you’ve accessible and hope gamers will follow you post-launch,” Grenier explained.
Titled “The Farewell Tour,” the submit does not embody patch notes however does embody an in depth breakdown of how the sport’s new options work. Account development will see gamers stage up their accounts by taking part in matches and incomes XP. Every time a participant ranges up, they will earn talent factors that may be exchanged for distinctive skills through the talent tree. The account stage cap is at the moment set to 100, although it is unclear how a lot XP is required to achieve that cap, or if it is even potential to take action earlier than the sport goes offline subsequent Thursday.
“The Ability Tree is designed for gamers to construct out their upgrades in 4 distinct playstyles,” Wildlight shared. “Every department has quite a lot of choices for gamers to select from, with 2 tiers of energy on all small nodes.”
The aforementioned 4 playstyles featured within the talent tree are:
- Raider: “For gamers seeking to be unstoppable throughout Raids, together with some buffs and skills targeted on basic fight effectivity.”
- Harvester: “For gamers who want to improve their Vesper acquire and the facility of their Warden Axe.”
- Treasure Hunter: “For these gamers who like to loot.”
- Protector: “For gamers who get pleasure from defending and retaining the crew collectively.”
Gamers haven’t got to stay to 1 playstyle and might combine and match skills and buffs from completely different branches of the talent tree.
The most important new addition to Highguard is Koldo, the latest playable Warden, who’s successfully Highguard’s model of Alphonse Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist: a soul trapped in a extremely cool swimsuit of armor.
“Koldo was found on Highguard,” Wildlight defined. “A misplaced soul from lengthy earlier than the continent disappeared, trapped inside a swimsuit of armor, he searches for solutions to his previous. Koldo makes use of the facility of his soul to guard his allies.”
Koldo’s skills are listed under:
Passive: Guardian Angel
- Defend any pleasant orbs round you from destruction.
- Robotically deploy your protect when reviving allies.
Tactical: Soul Defend
- Deploy a protect for you and your allies.
Final: Battle Cry
- Koldo raises a normal that creates a protecting dome. He can choose up and carry the usual, and drop it once more at will.
- Being contained in the dome offers allies sooner well being regeneration.
Curiously, it appears Wildlight wasn’t required to launch the replace. In line with artistic director and design director Jason McCord, Highguard’s ultimate replace was a labor of affection.
“That is our ultimate replace and it is huge,” McCord shared on X. “Props to the skeleton crew at Wildlight for wanting to complete it and ship it to our remaining gamers, even when it solely will get performed by a couple of thousand individuals. They weren’t requested to. They requested if they may end it up and get it on the market.”