The place Winds Meet is taking us again to “considered one of China’s most wonderful eras,” the Tang Dynasty, with its subsequent main replace, the Hexi growth, which kicks off, without spending a dime, on March 5.
Between March and Could, the workforce will launch Hexi’s three chapters in sequence, taking wanderers “from desert to ice fields to grasslands,” beginning with Jade Gate Move subsequent week.
“In historic China, pals would write poems for one another. Consider these three chapters as our poem to all of you,” the workforce defined, stressing that this marks “a way more cinematic strategy to storytelling” that feels “fairly totally different from our earlier storytelling.”
Set in an enormous desert panorama, developer Everstone Video games stated the Hexi growth represents the “greatest growth for the reason that recreation’s launch, and can provide up brand-new narratives, new bosses, contemporary gameplay options, and martial artwork kinds.” We are able to anticipate three main maps, which, mixed, boast almost 20 sub-regions, 11 distinctive bosses, seven Jianghu Legacies, “dozens” of facet quests, and “a lot extra.” There’s additionally a brand new path referred to as Bamboocut-Mud, with two new martial arts for Umbrella and Roped Dart. Umbrella’s Spring Dreamscape is “all about agility,” whereas Rope Dart’s Fleeting Clouds is “all about huge, sweeping AOE assaults.”
The stream confirmed off a few of these aforementioned boss fights intimately;, together with Jade Gate Move’ marketing campaign boss, Guo Xin, the growing old basic and final grand protector who “stays at his submit defending the land to the very finish.” He’ll come at you with “sweeping combos and summon veterans to battle alongside him,” so you may want to make use of your deflects properly to guard in opposition to his assaults. His second part, however, boasts “sands swirl and time reverses” as the decision of his military “jostles him again to his prime,” enabling him to unleash his full energy.
We additionally get a sneak peek at Wandering Ark, which, I am delighted to say, is strictly what it seems like — an enormous ship. As soon as a messenger, it is now obsessive about discovering its approach house by way of the desert. If you happen to grasp on after the principle presentation finishes, there’s additionally an excellent chunk of the battle in opposition to Hexi’s Moongazing Maiden boss battle, too, the place all the abilities and weapons are associated to the moon.
Whereas the stream targeted totally on the desert, we additionally paid fleeting visits to the upcoming Liangzhou and Qingchuan maps, too. The previous is a metropolis identified for its wonderful wine and treasured jade in our first snow mountain area, and the latter, your closing vacation spot, the place you may cycle by way of all 4 seasons on one map and discover warring factions all over the place you flip.
Better of all, although, Everstone careworn that every one your progress carries over from season to season, together with character ranges, abilities, and arsenals, so there’s “no want to start out from scratch.”
As for goodies? Here is simply a few of what you possibly can anticipate:
- 30+ Lingering Melody
- 90+ Resonating Melody (contains pulls obtained through free Echo Jade earned by way of exploration)
- 100+ Appearances and objects
- Win unique Whirl of Radiance outfit (obtained by way of exploration)
- 100+ Beautiful Rewards, together with Appearances like Burlap Sack, Bride’s Bloom, Battle Drum and extra, the White-Headed Basic Avatar, the Radiant Horizons Nameplate, and the Who Else? And Pluck Stars Emotes
That is not all! Everstone additionally revealed a slew of latest quality-of-life updates, too, which we have summarized beneath:
Cross-platform optimization and improved stability
- Efficiency and stability optimizations:
- Efficiency and reminiscence utilization have been optimized throughout all platforms. This successfully reduces crashes, guaranteeing a extra secure and dependable general expertise.
- Dynamic scene enhancements:
- Optimized object movement in dynamic scenes to make display screen transitions and motion processes smoother and extra pure.
- Unified cross-platform expertise:
- By complete changes throughout all platforms, now we have improved the consistency of the gameplay expertise on totally different units.
- Optimized notifications for Compendium, Achievements, Occasions, Martial Arts, and Guilds. We hope to make sure well timed and clear data supply for all gamers whereas minimizing distractions and repetitive alerts.
Console management upgrades and smoother interactions
- PS5 controller optimization:
- Adjusted controller inputs for the Taiping Mausoleum and choose occasions to boost intutitiveness and dealing with.
- Focus and cursor show optimization:
- Optimized the logic for controller focus show and stuck cursor points, making UI navigation clearer and extra secure.
- Polished console expertise:
- Additional improved interplay particulars on consoles to reduce management interference and enhance general gameplay expertise.
Stock administration upgrades
- Recycling and sorting enhancements:
- Optimized the interplay of the recycling interface to assist the fast recycling of a number of merchandise varieties, enhancing sorting effectivity.
- Quick recycle now obtainable:
- Added a Quick Recycle operate to shortly course of expired, discarded, and recyclable objects in bulk.
- Merchandise categorization and stacking optimization:
- Launched new merchandise categorization strategies and elevated the stack restrict for sure Life Supplies, retaining your stock clear and arranged.
Gameplay and social updates
- Guild gameplay updates:
- Added numerous Guild-related gameplay modes and challenges to counterpoint fight kinds and play selections.
- Guild Battle optimization:
- Adjusted league and command mechanisms to scale back interference, guaranteeing smoother fight move.
- Social characteristic upgrades:
- Added a number of chat channels and group chat features to facilitate interplay amongst gamers and permit sharing of Jianghu tales.
The place Winds Meet’s Hexi growth may be pre-downloaded from right this moment (February 27). “To wrap up, Hexi is a cinematic open world expertise. Three chapters, tons of inventive storytelling. We actually hope this ardour undertaking brings one thing contemporary to all of you,” the workforce stated.
The Wuxia open-world action-adventure RPG set in historic China debuted on PC and PlayStation 5 on November 14, topping 9 million gamers in simply two weeks. The cell model launched on December 12.
It did not take lengthy for gamers to seek out inventive — and extremely amusing — methods to utilize the sport’s chatbot NPCs, together with taking a novel strategy to fixing riddles by… merely telling the sport’s AI-powered chatbot NPCs that they’ve solved the sport’s riddles.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, in addition to a critic, columnist, and advisor with 15+ years expertise working with a few of the world’s greatest gaming websites and publications. She’s additionally a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually Excessive Chaos. Discover her at BlueSky.