Update 1.5 - A Deep Dive Article

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Lord Captains!

Our major update for Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, Update 1.5, has been released, and it’s about time we dive deeper into the changes!

Before we start, we would like to extend our special thanks to our community and our Owlmates partnership program members for their massive help with pinpointing issues and offering ideas for improvements.

We’ve got a lot to show, so get comfortable, and let’s get started!

New Portraits

Let’s begin with the beautiful new art! Based on popular community requests, we’ve added portraits for four well-known and beloved NPCs:

The Commissar:

Malice:

Clementia Werserian:

Abel:

By the way, in case we decide to do more of these, which characters would you most like to see next?

Xeno and Space Marine Itemisation

Since release, we’ve received a lot of feedback saying that Xeno and Space Marine items in the game lack variety and diversity. We want you to know that we heard you. That’s why, in this update, we’re adding over 15 new Space Marine items and over 30 Aeldari and Drukhari items of all types, providing you a massive increase in build variety for your Xeno and Space Marine companions!

Take a look at this gorgeous new suit of armour for Ulfar, for example:





Or this new aeldari armour, that looks just perfect on Yrliet:

New Visuals

In addition, we’ve added a range of new armour and weapon model skins and recolors, which will be used for the new items described above, as well as many old items that previously shared the same model. Here are a few examples:






While we were at it, we decided to also review and improve a number of visual effects such as weapon projectiles or candle glow:

Origins Rework

While we’ve never sought to create a perfect power balance between different playstyles, it became apparent over time that certain choices had become way too underpowered when all the new patches and expansions were applied.

Older and weaker origins simply no longer felt as fun or engaging to play, so we decided to give them each a well-deserved update!

Behold:

Astra Militarum Commander Rework

Many of the old Astra Militarum Commander bonuses were either very situational or else very hard to set up, and the playstyle didn’t really support the image of an experienced leader who once commanded massive armies.

In this rework, we wanted to keep the focus on shooting and cover, but add a bit more emphasis on the tactical/commanding aspect of the Astra Militarum legacy while simultaneously encouraging heavy use of the iconic Astra Militarum weapon — the Lasgun.

Here’s what’s changed:

• PER bonus was replaced with FEL bonus and Medicae with Coercion for better synergy with Officers. FEL is now always available for level up instead of PER.
  
• Regimental tactics ability no longer requires being adjacent to the Commander or their allies, but instead works on enemies that were already attacked this turn by Commander or their allies.
  
• Suppression Fire! now applies not just to the Commander, but also to their allies, and will now work on enemies that were already attacked this turn by Commander or their allies, no longer requiring adjacency.
  
• Timely Rescue is gone and was replaced with the brand new Fix Bayonets! talent, which allows all two-handed lasguns to make a Bayonet Strike melee single target attack for 1 AP once per round, which deals weapon damage and does not count towards the attack limit per turn.
  
• Shoulder to Shoulder is gone and replaced with the Trench Warfare talent, which gives the Commander +20% rate of fire with las weapons in partial cover, and +40% rate of fire in full cover.

Vengeance for Cadia!

Ministorum Priest Rework

The previous version of the Ministorum Priest was arguably the least useful of all the old origins, with most of its bonuses being either very situational or just outright weak. In this update, the Ministrorum Priest has undergone a massive redesign. Our idea was to make it more fun and interactive, and offer a new Willpower gameplay option not related to that of Psykers.

We started with granting the Priests a brand new passive ability: Unshakable Faith.

It gives the Ministorum Priest (StrB+TghB+AgiB+PerB)*2 additional WP in combat, and introduces a new resource: Zeal. At the start of combat, the Priest receives a number of Zeal points equal to their WP bonus. For each new enemy attacked with a bolter, melta, flamer, chain, or power weapon, they receive 1 Zeal point. If a xenos or daemon is killed as a result of the attack, they receive 2 additional points.

The stats, talents and abilities for this origin have also changed in the following ways:

• The starting bonuses were replaced with +10 WP and +10 Lore (Imperium).
  
• War Hymn now grants momentum equal to 2*Zeal Points and after the effect, the Priest gains a number of Zeal Points equal to WPB.
  
• Litany of Purification now deals direct damage equal to 5*Zeal Points and applies Perplexed to daemon and xenos enemies within 5 cells.
  
• Litany of Hatred now causes the weapons of the priest and their allies within 5 cell radius to deal additional damage equal to Zeal Points/2 during the round when War Hymn or Furious Recital were used. Against xenos, psyker and daemon enemies, the bonus is doubled.
  
• Shield of Faith is gone and was replaced with Tenets of Retribution which adds additional WPB/3 damage and WPB% critical damage to bolter weapons, and increases base damage and burn level from flamers and meltas by WPB%. Against xenos, psyker and daemon enemies, the bonus is doubled.
  
• Flensing Faith now increases Armour Penetration for Chain and Power weapons by WPB%, and their critical hits additionally inflict burning WPB/2 damage. Against xenos, psyker and daemon enemies, the bonus is doubled.
  
• The Emperor's Blessing is gone and was replaced with The Emperor Protects, which gives the character additional wounds equal to WPB.

Since Argenta’s origin is a modified Ministorum Priest, she also inherits all these changes.

For the Emperor!

Commissar Rework

For Commissar, we wanted this origin to have much more impact on the battlefield thanks to their motivating presence, and make their iconic weapon type — pistols — way more attractive than they were previously.

For our redesign, we started by adding a brand new passive ability — Iconic Sidearm:

The Commissar's pistol in their primary hand has +15% crit chance, (2 * FelB)% bonus dodge reduction, and deals (BSB * 2)% additional damage.

Here’s what will change:

• Weapon Skill will be replaced with Ballistic Skill as a starting bonus.
  
• At All Costs! was completely redesigned to work as follows:
  
  The Commissar chooses an ally (not a familiar) in their pistol range and shoots them with their primary hand pistol, dealing (100 + Coercion)% damage. This shot ignores armour, deflection, always hits and can't be dodged or blocked. If the ally survives, they deal (Commissar's FELB * BSB)% more damage, have (Commissar's FELB * BSB)% bonus to Dodge and Parry, and also (Commissar's Coercion / 10) bonus to all stats for 1 round. If the ally is incapacitated, all other allies in the Commissar's retinue (except the Commissar) receive this bonus instead and the cooldown of this ability is reset at the start of the Commissar’s next turn. This damage is always critical against Xenos allies.
  
  
• Duty and Honour! is gone and was replaced by One for the Enemies, Two for the Traitors, which allows the bonuses from the Iconic Sidearm to work on pistols in the left hand.
  
• Show Them Contempt! gives 1 more baseline resolve and has a new additional effect - If there are no creatures in the 2-cell radius around the Commissar, the Commissar receives +(1 + FELB / 2) resolve.
  
• Motivation now makes the Commissar receive additional MP when they attack with a pistol, and also gives this bonus to allies in a 2-cell radius.
  
• Summary Execution was completely redesigned and now doubles both the damage dealt and the bonuses received if the shot is taken into the back of the ally.
  
• For the Emperor! was also redesigned, and now allows an ally who survived a shot from At All Costs! to restore 30% of their wounds as temporary wounds.

Is your faith in the God-Emperor strong enough?!

Navy Officer Rework

The last (but certainly not the least!) of the origin reworks is the Navy Officer. Above all, we wanted to improve this origin’s synergy with both Operative and Warrior, while simultaneously boosting or redesigning its weakest aspects. In contrast to the Astra Militarum Commander, which favors ranged gameplay, the Navy Officer is expected to play more into melee, tank, and support roles.

Here’s what we came up with:

• AGI and FEL starting bonuses were replaced with TGH and PER, while Demolition was traded for Carouse, and Commerce for Awareness. This should allow for better synergy with Warriors and Operatives.
  
• Brace for Impact! now works within a 5-cell radius (was 3-cell) no longer requires allies to remain in that radius for the effect to work. It can now also be used multiple times per combat - it starts with 1 charge, but more charges are awarded the first time the Navy Officer falls below 50% wounds, and the first time an ally falls unconscious.
  
• Do not Falter! is gone and was replaced by Stentorian Voice that causes the enemies in the area of effect from Brace for Impact! to have (-10 WS/BS * for each Archetype taken by the Navy Officer).
  
• Scatter! is gone and was replaced by Evasive Manoeuvres, which causes all allies affected by the Navy Officer’s non-attack abilities or Brace for Impact! gain +%dodge (10 + PERB * 2) for 1 round. Does not stack. In addition, all allies affected by Brace for Impact! don't provoke attacks of opportunity.
  
• Perfect Timing is gone and was replaced by Fleet Combat Training which causes the Navy Officer to automatically perform a cheapest attack with the secondary weapon after a successful parry or crit with the primary weapon.
  
• Get off me! was redesigned and now works as follows: During the effect of Brace for Impact!, the Navy Officer's melee attacks knock enemies prone if they fail an AGI test (-10). The Navy Officer also gains access to a new Get off me! ability for 0AP, which pushes enemies within a 2-cell radius back by 2 cells.
  
• Get Into Cover! will now boost cover efficiency by 30%, and the provided MP will scale with Navy Officer’s TGHB.

Abelard approves!

Improving Rare Weapon Gameplay

In this update, we wanted to make the use of rare and exotic weapons, such as Webbers, Arc Rifles, Aeldari/Drukhari weapons, and Plasma weapons, more interesting and attractive.

To that end, each of these weapon types has received 5 new talents that further boost their effectiveness or utility. Here are some examples:

Promethium Treatment – Burning damage taken by enemies immobilised or slowed by a webber is increased by 35% as long as the effect persists.

Overclocking Module – increase the arc jump radius by +INTB/5 (min 1) for arc rifles.

Path of the Outcast (Yrliet only) – First kill per turn with a single shot from Aeldari Weapon provides an additional attack that turn.

Enhanced Splash Area – Plasma Overcharge (area attack) pattern is increased.



In addition to these new talents, we’ve also rebalanced or updated many existing weapons of these types, added a baseline difficulty scaling for Webber immobilisation saves, and reworked the overheating system for Plasma weapons to be more interactive and fun to build around.

Convictions for Familiars

You thought we were done improving the Lex Imperialis content? You were wrong!

Starting with Update 1.5, the Lord Captain’s familiar will now visually change based on the player’s chosen Conviction. Just look at this:









They also gained new abilities.

For example, all allies adjacent to an Iconoclast Cyber-Mastiff will now automatically have their wounds healed for an amount equal to the Overseer's Iconoclast Rank at the start of each of their turns, as well as receive a percent damage reduction from all sources equal to the Overseer's Iconoclast Rank + the Familiar's TGH Bonus. Additionally, any Heroic Act used in combat now fully heals the Iconoclast Cyber-Mastiff's wounds.

Your choices now matter more than ever, Lord Captain!

Hiding Equipment

Before this update, the only pieces of equipment you could hide were your helmet and backpack/cloak. Following your numerous requests, starting with 1.5, you will be able to separately show or hide other items, as well:

Now, your party will look exactly like you want them to!

Bug fixes

In this update, we’ve squashed hundreds of bugs. You can check the patch notes for more details, but here are a few fixes that may be of particular interest to you:

• We heard your feedback regarding the numerous problems related to Yrliet, so she has a whole section in the upcoming patch notes devoted to her, with fixes to various issues, including the infamous teleport to Quetza Temer during romance scenes.
  
• We’ve done an in-depth consistency pass over all the epilogues, fixing narrative contradictions and rare combinations of decisions that caused some slides to appear incorrectly or never appear at all.
  
• Players will no longer get stuck in the Crematorium at Footfall.

The Game Balance

And of course, we couldn’t forget about game balance. Brace yourselves!

With the abundance of new tools that became available over the years through DLCs and updates, we’ve received a lot of feedback that progression in the game felt increasingly off, with overlevelling, weird difficulty spikes, build options becoming obsolete, and a general lack of challenge being the biggest complaints.

Tuning the balance in a single player game is always tricky — it’s good for long term health of the game, but can be frustrating in the short term for players whose playstyles are hit when changes are implemented. Because of this, we’ve been a bit hesitant about introducing balance tweaks. But with so many players voicing their concerns, we felt that action needed to be taken.

In order to make this as seamless as possible, we’ve kept the previous patch 1.4 available through the beta branch system.

Players who have mods running on the previous version or who simply want to finish their playthroughs without figuring out the new meta can switch to the beta branch to keep the old version:



Please note that we do not guarantee compatibility of this legacy branch with future content and mods, will not be able to help with any issues or bugs you may encounter while playing it, and will not process any bug reports sent from this branch.

Now, onwards to the changes!

Experience Squish

One of the biggest offenders in making combat less fun and challenging is accumulated power creep.

A mix of experience inflation, new combinations found by inventive players, and the numerous new tools added via patches and DLCs can often cause the party to consistently outgrow the difficulty curve of encounters.

To compensate for this growth (which we actually just boosted even further with this update), we’ve slowed down progression by universally increasing the amount of experience required for each level up.

This increase is non-linear and will have a bigger impact on higher levels. Typically, this will mean that you arrive at the final battle being ~3-6 levels lower than you were before, which should help to mitigate down the power overgrowth.

Overtuned Abilities

While we know you guys love the havoc that Bladedancers and Executioners from Void Shadows cause on the battlefield, most of you will probably agree that some of their capabilities were a bit… over the top.

A mindblowing 5,000,000 damage per turn from a single character (yes, we’ve really seen this number) is where it gets outright silly, and that’s the point where we stop, admit that this is clearly a design flaw, and do something about it.

To bring the potential of these two archetypes down to more reasonable levels, we’ve implemented the following changes:

Bladedancer - Death From Above and Death Waltz

After every jump from Death From Above or Death Waltz, the Bladedancer receives a stacking debuff of -20 dodge, -10% STR and -10% PER for each stack, down to -50% until the beginning of their next turn.

Executioner - Forced Repentance

The target now takes a resistance check (AGI vs Burning and Warp Burn, TGH vs Toxin, Bleeding and Haemorrhage and WP vs Soul Burn and Biophysical Distortion) for every DoT type it has on itself when the ability procs. On a successful resistance check, the effect fails for that DoT type and is not applied. Typically, you’ll see about ~15-30% procs resisted, depending on target type and level.

Executioner - Scourging Strikes

The formula was changed from (2*StrB) to (StrB + PerB) to reduce scaling and allow for more diverse build options.

Executioner - Where it Hurts

The effect of this ability is subject to the same resistance checks for every DoT type as described in Forced Repentance, failing to consume that DoT type on successful resistance. The target can also no longer gain new stacks of the DoT effect that was already removed with this ability, until the end of the turn.

Executioner - Carnival of Misery

This ability was completely redesigned, becoming a single-target melee attack that causes damage equal to 4x the damage from DoTs on the target. DoTs are not consumed by this attack.

The upgrades are as follows:

Upgrade 1: Any target affected by Executioner’s DoTs can’t use armour against DoTs. Works on the target of the Carnival of Misery.
Upgrade 2: Carnival of Misery effect also procs for other enemies within 6 cells.
Upgrade 3: Executioner’s DoTs deal 100% more damage until the end of combat.
Upgrade 4: Any DoTs on Executioner himself no longer deal damage, but heal him instead.

Let us know what you think of these changes and whether you feel they’re enough and make the game more fun for you!

Colonisation Rebalance

Colony events and projects have gone through a major polishing and consistency pass, with many rewards now improved and updated, experience gains adjusted, and a few narrative tweaks introduced. The system will also offer more Conviction and Navigator’s Insight rewards, which may prove very helpful in your journeys across the Koronus Expanse.

Item, Vendor, and Loot Table Rebalance

Many items have received adjustments to their stats, abilities, and descriptions for balance and consistency reasons. A lot of them have also been redistributed across the game in the name of smoother progression, as well. Vendor tables have also been significantly updated, offering new purchase options, swapping or replacing some items, and changing their reputation requirements.

Companion Starting Builds

Since the launch of the game, we’ve received a lot of feedback about starting builds for companions, especially the late-game ones, with players pointing out a number of choices as being sub-optimal or incompatible with the expected playstyle of a given companion.

We agreed with many of these opinions, and in this update, we have taken the time to review and replace the talents that were found to provide little to no benefit.

Here are a few examples:

• Uralon is no longer be an Expert in Chain Weapons he can’t even use;
  
• Heinrix traded Defensive Manoeuvres for Rigorous Training;
  
• Ulfar has seen a total of 6 talents replaced, including getting rid of Heavy Armour Proficiency that he has no use for;
  
• Marazhai had Elusive Shadow, Seize the Advantage, Bringer of Doom, and Lore (Xenos) replaced with Death Whisper, Lethality Heightens, Deadly Calculation, and Carouse, respectively.

This should broaden the capabilities of your companions and give even more build options for your party.

What’s Next?

We are done with the highlights, but there are a lot of changes, great and small, that are available in the patch notes. Check them out here.

We have plans for many more exciting new things and QoL improvements in future updates. It will take some time though — first, we want to let the dust settle a bit and see your reaction to the changes we’ve already made, especially those related to game balance.

As always, we look forward to your feedback!

The Emperor protects!

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