Witchfire Early Access ‘Ghost Galleon’ update now available
Calamity redesign, new classes, enemies, weapons, and more.
The Astronauts have released the “Ghost Galleon” update for the Early Access version of dark fantasy first-person shooter Witchfire, which features a calamity redesign, and new classes, enemies, events, weapons, spells, and more.
Get the details below.
The “Ghost Galleon” update includes a host of new content, including player classes, fearsome foes, new events, weapons and spells for the preyer’s arsenal, as well as a shop vendor offering novel items. The update’s name refers to a newly minted Calamity event: a spectral ship infested with demonic minions of the Witch.
Alongside the new features available in today’s patch, The Astronauts team has implemented careful redesigns of Witchfire‘s level progression and Calamity systems, based on Early Access feedback. Players will begin the game with souls-style classes, granting boosts to certain stats and unique gear. Classes include Slayer, Berserker, Hunter, Shadow, Saint and Penitent— this final class is for Witchfire veterans seeking an extra challenge. A new feature, called Gnosis, will allow players to “over-level” (slightly) without a corresponding uptick in enemy difficulty. Gnosis is the preyer’s understanding of dark magic. As this occult knowledge expands, players gain power and uncover hidden paths and events in the game. The update also adds a Calamity Meter on the HUD, which calls attention to player actions (and missteps) that make Calamities more likely.
“I like when gameplay matches lore,” said The Astronauts creative director and co-founder Adrian Chmielarz in a press release. “The Witch launches Calamities at preyers as they venture further and further into her realm. The threat of a Calamity is immense, but so is the reward. The witch tends to launch these assaults when players are wounded, at their weakest—which hasn’t always been well-received by players—but this design still feels exciting to me. So we’ve kept the soul of it, but redesigned it to feel more fair. It’s a feature that both teaches you how to play by pointing out mistakes, and motivates you to do better. Yet it’s also an element great players can abuse: trick the Witch into thinking you’re losing, then strike back and reap the rewards. This supports two main pillars of our design philosophy: Competence and Autonomy.”
The redesigns in the “Ghost Galleon” update aim to ensure players have agency and understanding of gameplay mechanisms, while still maintaining the intense challenge at Witchfire‘s core.
Content available in today’s mammoth Witchfire patch includes:
- Three new Calamities (including the Ghost Galleon)
- New activity: Vault Raiding
- Six new classes
- Five new weapons
- Four new spells (plus four redesigned spells)
- New shop vendor
- Seven new magical items (fetishes, rings, relics)
- 10 new or variant enemies
- Five new events
- Six new traps
- Calamity redesign
- Gnostic Knowledge and Level Progression
- Quality of life updates and bug fixes
- And more…
Full patch notes are available here.
Witchfire is currently in Early Accses for PC via Epic Games Store.
Watch a new trailer below. View a new set of screenshots at the gallery.