Tyranny: Tales from the Tiers DLC Released, Bastard’s Wound Announced

I was expecting some Tyranny-releated announcement to come from this E3, however the folks at Obsidian and Paradox have managed to one-up those expectations. Without much fanfare at all, they’ve released a new DLC for Tyranny, alongside a major free update. This Tales from the Tiers DLC expands the base game with new events, stories, and items, while the free part of the update adds the NewGame+ mode, fixes some bugs, and tweaks the game’s balance. You can purchase Tales from the Tiers from the Paradox store, Steam, and GOG right now.

And on top of that, a new expansion was also announced, although without an official release date yet. Titled Bastard’s Wound, it will add a good chunk of new content to Tyranny. Check out this teaser trailer:

And if you’re wondering what these new DLCs are all about, here’s the Tales from the Tiers feature list:

About this Game

Tales from The Tiers expands your journey through the war-torn world of Tyranny, with new travel map events, encounters, and side stories. Outwit hostile ambushes, patronize or plunder traveling merchants, and use your skills to navigate the perils of a land plagued by magical Edicts in a series of episodes that offer new insights, new items, and new challenges on your journey. Whether you’re new to Tyranny or playing an existing savegame, Tales from The Tiers lets you take an even deeper dive into the saga of Tyranny.

Features

• New Travel Events: Random encounters while traveling may lead to new quests, or new events focused on companions and new NPCs
• Expanded Story: Learn more about the people and places of the Tiers with more than 40 vignettes to encounter on your journey.
• New items: Find over a dozen new items and countless new ways to gain loyalty and fear with your companions and the factions of Tyranny.
• More Replay Options: A free patch adds New-Game-Plus mode and character re-spec options for an easier way to explore other plotlines.

And here’s one for Bastard’s Wound:

About this Game

Experience a new chapter of Tyranny, the critically-acclaimed role-playing game (RPG), in Bastard’s Wound, a new expansion that builds upon the game’s compelling story. Tyranny, an original RPG from Obsidian Entertainment, invites the player to make their mark on a world conquered by evil, and the Bastard’s Wound expansion opens up a new area of the Tiers where refugees from the war-torn world have established a haven in secret.

New characters and new stories await players in Bastard’s Wound, including a closer look at the world of the Beastmen, the fate of a refugee settlement, and all-new companion quests featuring three of Tyranny’s most memorable party members.

Features

• A Refuge from Kyros: Players will explore an all-new section of the world, centered around an illegal settlement of those who have fled the devastation of the war. What sentence will you mete out to the stragglers?
• Companion Quests: Learn more about the history and personality of Verse, Barik, and Lantry, in new quests and interactions to earn their loyalty or enmity.
• Loyalty and Service: Bastard’s Wound will arrive alongside a free update to Tyranny, including new voice-acting, expanded content in the game’s third act, and an all-new path to an unseen ending. What fate awaits those who remain truly loyal to Kyros?

You can find the full Tales from the Tiers changelog on the Paradox forums. It’s quite extensive and contains some minor story spoilers, so here’s a relatively brief, spoiler-free, excerpt:

Combat Updates:
Changes to Difficulty

• Enemies on Story Mode, Normal, and Hard now use abilities more frequently.
• Companion AI now uses abilities more frequently on Normal, Hard, and Path of the Damned difficulties.
• Characters on Normal and Hard difficulties will now only gain wounds when they are knocked out.
  • Path of the Damned still grants wounds when characters are reduced to 25% health.
• Enemy AI Targeting has been updated for Hard and Path of the Damned Difficulties.
• Health of enemies increased on Story Mode Difficulty.

Thrown Weapon Skill Removed
Characters using thrown weapons no longer need to level both their thrown weapon skill and One Handed (or Dual wield) skill. Instead they will now use their equivalent melee skill when attacking from range with thrown weapons.

• Throwing skill has been removed.
• Characters will instead use the One Handed or Dual Wield Skill when wielding thrown weapons.
• Any experience previously gained in throwing will automatically be moved to either One Handed or Dual Wield based on whichever of the two had more experience before the game update.
• Melee damage of thrown Daggers and Javelins increased to match melee counterparts.
• Skill trainers that previously trained in Thrown weapons now train in another skill instead.
• Javelin Expertise in Character Creation grants ranks in One Handed instead of Thrown weapons.
• Lawbreaker background now provides a bonus to Dual Wield skill instead of Thrown Weapons.

General Combat Changes

• Finesse Attribute now applies +2 Accuracy per point instead of +3 per point.
• Finesse now applies a flat amount of deflection per point over 10, regardless of what armor is worn.
• Characters wielding a weapon in each hand now gain a base 20% reduction to character Recovery.
• Scales of Mercy: Balance the Scales now applies a flat bonus to hit precision.
• Precision granted by Gloves has been reduced.
• Characters will gain more experience for landing low accuracy attacks, and less for attacks with a high chance of hitting.
• Wounds no longer give a penalty to skills.
• Healing Potions base healing amounts reduced from 35/50/100% to 25/40/75%.
• Increased cooldown on Iron Walker’s Ground smite and made it unusable during act 1.
• Hobbled affliction is now removed at the end of combat.

Gameplay Fixes:

• Movement speed is now returned to normal when removing the Gambler’s Treads.
• Chaotic Descent spells now maintain their Intensity mods when loading a save.
• Artifact abilities will now correctly queue as the next action when selected.
• Fixed a rare issue where the HUD UI would disappear.
• Updated Charge ability to only hit once when using 2 handed spears.
• Updated Hierarch’s Robes to be of Superior Quality when they are first crafted.
• Using the Thrust ability no longer interrupts allies.
• Fixed an issue where some Artifacts were changing their displayed quality when reloading a save after acquiring them.
• Using attack abilities while unarmed will correctly display as a melee ability, rather than ranged.
• Updated the time it takes to travel between locations in various places.