Hot Experimental Update - The Bard

The Bard Enters the Stage!

Welcome to the Grand After Show Party!

On 28th October, just two weeks shy, the bard and the new DLC “The Boglands” will arrive. As a preparation we’ll make the free update available on our Experimental Branch. Aside from the Bard it consists of several smaller changes and improvements, including performance improvements.

Experimental Update: 14th October

Live Update Expected: 28th October

You can join the experimental branch by right-clicking Halls of Torment in your library and then going into the properties. From there: Betas -> Beta Participation -> experimental

The Bard

• Will greet you for an encore after you’ve seen the outro cutscene.

• If you have already beaten the game, the Bard will automatically arrive.

• Along with the Bard there will be a new quest board.

• The Bard’s Mark lets you select a Bard ability with any other character.

Bard Abilities

• The Bard will have six unique abilities.

• Each ability will be unlocked from the start.

• You can unlock additional traits and upgrades through the quest board.

• Each ability has 2 core upgrades and at least one upgrade related to a status effect.

• Bard abilities are synchronized with the three new music tracks in the game.

Metal Power

• When selecting the Bard, you must choose one of the three tracks to play with.

• The beats of the music trigger the bard’s abilities.

• When leveling up, the music becomes more intense.

• It is possible to unlock the new tracks for all other characters.

• On release we’ll add the new tracks to the OST.

Other Changes

• In the “Settings -> Input Methods” a new option “Manual Trait Selection” can be found to change that level up screens open automatically so that they manually need to be triggered.

• Added 6 new artifacts. 3 related to the bard and 3 new generic ones.

• Some artifacts can now be obtained through quests.

• Done a slight rebalancing of the Torment Ranks to have a less drastic increase per level. (Health x1.11 -> x1.09, Defense x1.10 -> x1.09, Movement Speed +1.5% -> +1.0%)

• Changed that Ancient Signets add +50% Damage to specific abilities they apply.

• Added rare Ancient Signets.

• When a PS5 controller is connected, button prompts will swap to match the PS5.

• Improved settings navigation via gamepad.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where pointers to collected objects would be still displayed even if it had been picked up.

• Fixed an issue with discarding items during a run with the gamepad and also selecting marks with the gamepad.

• Fixed an issue where Damage, Health and Force would show the wrong buff amount for shard upgrades.

• Fix: Master’s Vice artifact would not properly reduce the player’s Max Health.

Stay Fresh!

• Chasing Carrots

Update 2025-10-15

First Hot Fixes

• Green Goods Collector should now retroactively complete.

• Meteor Strike should no longer crash the game when picking it.

• Rare ancient signets would unlock the Morning Star upgrades when the base hasn't been taken before.

• Bard's Dance traits would not grant an ability.

Update 2025-10-16

More HoT Fixes

• Hotfixes Part II:

• "Unlimited Power"-Quest will automatically complete if there are enough shards on game start.

• Confetti Canon and Pyrotechnics now respond to the ability opacity setting.

• It was possible to have no items in a "guaranteed new item"-chest.

• > If all common and uncommon items have been retrieved, rare items should now be available.

• Bard music now keeps playing after the lords spawn

• Wall of Death trait would apply -20 Base Damage to everything

• Wall of Death now applies affliction and the stats should now raise properly.

• Added Bard entry to the compendium.

• Flame Strike and Radiant Aura can now destroy breackables.

Bog Fixes (not public yet)

• Crone's plant quests now display proper requirements-

• Telegraphed area of crones bomb plants matches the grow in area.

• Undergrowth and Enlightenment abilities no longer show up in the bard ability pool.

• Disabled the Regeenration Potion, wasn't meant to be in the game.

• Increase death animation speed of bog beetles.

• Other tweaks and balancing notches.