Lords of the Fallen developer Hexworks is releasing patch after patch to try and fix the game, but lately, it seems like every update is making things worse, not better.
In the latest blunder, Hexworks effectively reduced the power of everyone’s boss weapons by half. Boss weapons initially were upgradeable up to +5, like Dark Souls, but there were widespread reports of them being vastly overpowered in PvP, especially Pieta’s Sword.
In an attempt to balance the game for PvP, Hexworks changed the upgrade curve so that boss weapons must be upgraded to +10 to reach the same power. In the process, they kept everyone’s existing boss weapons at +5, meaning their power was significantly downgraded.
To say the community is frustrated would be an understatement. Anyone playing after Lords of the Fallen’s 1.1.282 patch may be surprised to discover that their boss weapons are vastly less powerful than before, and it’s a very poor choice from Hexworks to try and balance the game in this way.
One Redditor said the developers had “violated the first rule of gaming” by taking power away from the players, and I totally agree.
Players weren’t even refunded the Deralium Shards they’d need to upgrade their weapons back to their previous power level. Hexworks did temporarily discount the cost of Deralium Shards from vendors, but that does little to remedy the problem that players’ power has been unfairly snatched away from them without warning.
To make matters worse, players in New Game Plus may not even be able to get the resources they need to upgrade their weapons again, especially considering Large Deralium Shards don’t start appearing until late game.
I can see how this could easily soft-lock your character if you’re stuck in a challenging area with a weapon too weak. A Redditor even called it an “inexcusable, unforgivable game design decision.” That one must hurt.
The nail in the coffin is that a PvP-focused change has had such a negative knock-on effect for PvE players. The change comes in addition to a whole host of other adjustments aimed at balancing invasions, like reducing the damage and ammo cost of explosive bolts, and significantly increasing the mana cost for certain spells, including my personal favorite (that I loved using in PvE), Infernal Hounds.
If Hexworks wants to balance the game for PvP, then it should implement PvP-specific weapon scaling instead of altering the PvE experience, like Elden Ring. The Lords of the Fallen subreddit is buzzing with frustrated players complaining about the changes, and if Hexworks has any sense, it’ll roll them back before community sentiment gets even worse.
