HEXWORKS, a CI Games studio, has launched its latest round of ongoing free content for Lords of the Fallen, this time celebrating one of the community’s favourite – if esoteric – characters. The release of ‘The Way of the Bucket’ follows the recent reveal of HEXWORKS’ 2023 content plan, and forms part of a series of events scheduled throughout the holiday season.

The developers continue to work closely with the title’s growing, passionate community, balancing the game in response to internal telemetry and prevalent user feedback. To this end, enemy density has been extensively re-proportioned throughout the game, with some areas seeing up to 30% fewer foes. Other balancing tweaks include reducing the accuracy of ranged enemies at long distances, and improving enemy leasing so players aren’t pursued as far, thereby reducing overwhelming mob clashes. Additionally, by popular demand, the team has recently finalised a complete overhaul to all bosses in the game to ensure they are suitably challenging at that point in the player’s journey; AI has been significantly improved; many bosses now have additional and more aggressive movesets; plus hit points and damage outputs have been rebalanced.

‘The Way of the Bucket’ includes a new quest featuring the eponymous community favourite NPC, a new corresponding weapon and armour set, six new spells, and a bucket load of performance, stability, and optimisation enhancements. The release comes just weeks after the positively received ‘The Pumpkin Patch’, the first post-launch content drop for Lords of the Fallen.

“Thank you to our dedicated community for your ongoing passion and support while we deliver our packed post-launch content roadmap. Your incredibly positive response to its recent reveal is extremely motivating,” said Saul Gascon, Executive Producer, HEXWORKS. “Alongside the significant progress already made to performance and stability, we’re confident the latest difficulty balancing updates truly nail the sweet spot between challenge and enjoyability.”

“It’s been a little over a month since the Lords of the Fallen’s successful launch, which – considering the tempestuous year it’s been for the wider games industry – is an achievement we are proud of,” said Marek Tyminski, CEO, CI Games. “This year, more than most, has seen the frequent release of extremely high-quality games launched against a backdrop of global macroeconomic challenges that means gamers are having to be much more selective about their purchases than in recent years.”

“Furthermore, as cutting-edge technology continues to outpace older hardware, developers are having to be increasingly diligent when it comes to optimisation across an ever-broader range of devices – something many titles have struggled with throughout 2023. We are proud of the great strides we have already made with Lords of the Fallen, and will continue to work hard to further enhance the game.”