Pillars Of Eternity 2 fully launches turn-based mode, adds more story beats
At World's End and feeling fine.
Pillars Of Eternity 2: Deadfire didn't set the charts ablaze the way I'd hoped, but that hasn't stopped Obsidian from giving the piratical RPG some top-notch support. Released yesterday, Patch 5.0 is set to be the final major update for the game, marking the end of beta testing for its turn-based combat mode, overhauling the ship interaction UI and adding some new story stuff. They've even gone as far as roping in the original voice actors to provide new dialogue to help flesh out the main plot arc. Below, a video overview of the changes, plus a challenge for only the maddest of players.
After a lot of tweaking and tuning (it was a whole alternate rule-set, after all), Pillars 2's turn-based combat mode is officially complete, so anyone putting off trying that can rest easy that it's relatively well tested. They've also fleshed out the main story a bit (especially the endgame) with more dialogues involving Woedica and Eothas. New lines, new voicework - always nice to see. Free-wheeling players may be happy to hear that they've extended the Anarchist path through the story by shuffling some story-critical items elsewhere in the world. It's a big update, and you can see the official abridged notes here.
For players who have already beaten the game to within an inch of its numerically-driven life, Obsidian have thrown down the gauntlet. The first twelve players that beat The Ultimate Challenge will have their names immortalised on a plaque in the Obsidian offices, and the first fifty will receive a badge for nerd bragging rights. In this challenge mode, you need to complete everything on the highest difficulty, in Solo mode with upward-only level scaling enabled, all eleven God Challenges on and all bosses (including DLC) beaten in Iron Man mode. It's a suicide mission, arguably impossible, and I expect those fifty badges to be claimed within a month.
Lastly, Obsidian have updated the free Pillars Of Eternity pen-and-paper RPG rulebook after some playtesting. You can snag that in PDF format from the official page here.
You can see the full Patch 5.0 notes here on Obsidian's forums. The now-properly-finished Obsidian edition of Pillars Of Eternity 2: Deadfire is 34% off on GOG, reducing it to £38.29/€46.19/$49.49. It's published by Versus Evil.