Heroes of Hammerwatch II Celestial Ruins Expansion is Out Now!

The first full expansion for Heroes of Hammerwatch II is finally here.Wield holy power and venture into the heavens to prove your worth, as you try to curry favour with a pantheon of cruel, ageless gods.

Earn the gods’ blessings and return again, and again for a higher challenge. This post game expansion also introduces the Priest as a playable class, which focuses on support and survivability. Fans of the first Heroes of Hammerwatch may recognise the Priest, however, its vastly expanded move set and three new subclasses will make mastering it a whole new challenge.

The Priest class will be immediately available upon purchase of the expansion, however, the Celestial Ruins is recommended for high level players and can only be accessed once the chapel is built by interacting with the statues at the altar. You can also enjoy new trinkets, sets, and pets as a part of this expansion too. Starting from this evening, you’ll be able to save 60% on Heroes of Hammerwatch II and 20% on the Celestial Ruins expansion for a limited time. Don’t miss out!

To coincide with the release of this expansion, we also have a free update for current players that brings new content, as well as providing fixes, improvements, and minor balancing changes.

Learn more about this latest expansion and the free update 👇

Patch Notes

Priest Class

The Priest has heard the cries of his subjects and has returned to Hammerwatch! A close range spellcaster, who can survive even the toughest battles and support the other heroes during combat, the Priest initially focuses on debuffs and life steal for the party.

The Priest will eventually be able to specialise in three different sub-classes:

• Divine Light - Brings divine punishment to enemies through powerful beams of holy light. More damage focused class that brings the pain.

• Crusader - Focused on being the true leader of the team with mighty boons and a summoning ability to bring extra support to battles.

• Flagellant - A melee focused sub class that turns enemy damage back onto themselves. Deals thorn damage, while generally being a tank for the party.

Weapons

Two new weapons are added to the arsenal.

• The Scepter - Attacks with Smite, bringing holy light for big damage.

• The Lantern - Shoots off a multipurpose beam which damages enemies, but brings salvation to other heroes by healing them if they are hit by the beam instead.

Please note that the Priest and the new weapons use Focus as the primary stat for their power, so optimise accordingly!

Survival Mode

Defeat hordes of enemies and build up Spirit Favor in order to summon a new Spirit Boss in Survival Mode, based in the Chapel of the Celestial Ruins.

Five new Spirit Bosses await the heroes in new maps designed to challenge even veteran players. Scavenge epic loot, with difficulty scaling and Boons to introduce new combos for hero classes to access!

Spirit Boons

Boons that unlock after defeating the new Survival missions in the Chapel. Defeat the same Spirit Boos across difficulty ranks to level up the associated Boon. These Boons can add abilities to heroes and classes that they wouldn't typically be able to access.

Trinkets

12 brand new trinkets for heroes to find. These can be combined to form five new sets to offer enhanced powers, using a combination of older and newer trinkets. The following trinkets and sets are available to everyone in the free update.

Trinkets:

• Spiked Collar

• Razor Amulet

• Rosethorn Wand

• Vitaerium

• Greater Ring of Alacrity

Sets:

• Thorny Carapace

• Bloodletter's Tools

• Emblems of Hermes

The following trinkets and sets require the Celestial Ruins expansion.

Trinkets:

• Spellslinger's Amulet

• Spellslinger's Circlet

• Ring of Avarice

• Goldwarp

• Bountiful Bracelet

• Chicken Feet

• Necromantic Focus

Sets:

• Spellsword's Insignia

• Mark of Avarice

Pets

Every Hero has their trusty companion, and yours can be an adorable scarab beetle (if you really want it to be)! The following pets are available to everyone as part of the free update.

• Dog

• Cat

• Toucan

• Raven

• Scarab

The following pets require the Celestial Ruins expansion.

• Candle

• Wisp

Base Game Balance Adjustments

Stats and Mechanics

• Crit Chance increase from Dex/Int reduced (16.5%->15% at 100 stat, 27.5%->25% at 500)

• Crit Damage increase from Dex/Int heavily reduced (120%->86% at 100 stat, 447%->335% at 500)

• Spell Power gain from each class’ primary stat has been doubled

• Additional mana cost for Spell Masteries reduced from 8% to 3% per level

Dev Note: The goal here is to reduce the disparity between weapons and spells in the late game and reduce the impact of crit stats. Increase in Spell Power gains also makes primary stat more relevant, with its effect no longer easily overshadowed by gear and trinkets.

Classes

• Primalist Tremor Strikes damage increased by +10

• Primalist Tremor Strikes Glacial/Tempest Strikes chance increased (10%-40% -> 20%-60%)

• Primalist Ancient Totems AoE range increased

• Paladin Purging Flames persistent flames damage increased by +5%

• Wizard Fireball damage increased by +10

• Wizard Magic Missile damage at max level decreased by -10

Dev Note: Because the Celestial Ruins expansion introduces new Spirit Boons, as well as the stat impact rebalance, class tweaks remain relatively minor. More extensive changes are planned, dependent on community feedback (and how the meta shapes up).

Weapons

• Sword epic attack projectile damage reduced (100%->66%)

• Maul epic primary attack explode chance increased (50%->66%)

• Maul epic secondary attack nova damage increased by +50%

• Staves primary attack damage increased by 33%

Dev Note: Swords have been the go-to choice for late game weapon builds, so a nerf was warranted, while both Maul and Staves felt really underpowered. More extensive weapon rebalance is planned for future updates.

Enemies and Units

• Elite enemies now have more Armor starting at NG+1

• Bleed can now be applied to most bosses

• Bleed and Stun can now be applied to Wisps

• Wisps’ resistance to their own element is cut by half (still very high)

• Player-owned Mercenaries Armor and Health increased

• Player-owned Mercenaries now scale better with NG+

Dev Note #1: Increase in Armor for elites is another step taken to reign in weapon builds in the late game, but it also increases the relevance of Strength and Armor Penetration.

Dev Note #2: Bleed has been severely hampered by some of the most dangerous enemies in the game being immune to it. These changes should make it more relevant, especially with the Priest’s new Flagellant subclass.

Dev Note #3: The Mercenary buff is the first step in making both summons and hirelings more relevant in later NG+. More extensive changes are coming.

General Fixes

• Fixed missing sound effects for some Wisp attacks

• Fixed certain tags missing from player skills

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