Summary

  • Moon Studios' Crucible update for No Rest for the Wicked offers endless customization options for players through new Echoes mechanic.
  • Update introduces new vendor, the Seneschal, offering refined resources and Exalted gear for those brave enough to enter the Cerim Crucible.
  • Besides significant Crucible rework and additional content, the update also enhances CPU performance and adds quality-of-life improvements.

The Crucible, No Rest for the Wicked's first major update, is now live. This comes a few months after No Rest for the Wicked became available to play on PC.

Developed by Moon Studios, the team behind the critically acclaimed Ori and the Blind Forest games, No Rest for the Wicked is a top-down action RPG that tasks players with defeating a terrible plague as holy warriors called Cerim. The title has only received hotfixes and patches since it entered Steam early access in April, but Moon Studios has finally released a massive update for No Rest for the Wicked that adds a host of new content and implements significant game tweaks.

featured image, how to respec your character in no rest for the wicked
No Rest For The Wicked: How to Respec

Wondering how you can change your entire build in No Rest For The Wicked? Here's how you can respec your character.

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The July 25 Crucible update for No Rest for the Wicked most notably made changes to the Cerim Crucible, the game's primary endgame activity that lets players fight the single-player ARPG's most difficult enemies in the hopes of being rewarded with some of the title's best loot. Thanks to the latest update, Crucible runs can now be customized via the new Echoes mechanic. Echoes provide buffs and effects that should provide people with near-infinite ways to edit their adventures in the Cerim Crucible, Moon Studios explained. To activate Echoes, players need to use Traces, which are orbs that drop from all the enemies inside the dungeon.

Moon Studios' most recent update also tripled the number of available arenas in the Cerim Crucible, introduced the Gloam enemy faction, and introduced a hidden vendor in the endgame mode that only accepts the new Gloamseed currency. This vendor, referred to as the Seneschal, will offer refined resources, upgrade weapons to Exalted quality, and sell No Rest for the Wicked's Fallen Embers, which are used to enter the Crucible. In the future, players will be able to unlock new features within the Crucible through the Seneschal, according to Moon Studios. The developer noted that the Cerim Crucible can now be accessed much earlier in the game through the Spoken & Unspoken quest associated with the NPC Elsa.

While the Crucible update mainly focused on No Rest for the Wicked's roguelite dungeon, it delivered plenty of bug fixes, tweaks, and quality-of-life changes as well. Players should now see improved CPU performance, more polished cinematics, and smoother transitions when switching between areas in No Rest for the Wicked, among other things. Moreover, the most recent update extended some regions in the game's overworld and added new stray animals that players can pet.

Moon Studios, which revealed that No Rest for the Wicked has now joined the ever-growing list of Steam Deck Verified games, told its community that more content is coming in the future. The developer also said that it was eager to share more details about its latest game's early access road map soon. Aside from the PC, No Rest for the Wicked is set to fully launch on the Sony PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S systems.

No Rest for the Wicked Crucible Update Patch Notes

Performance

  • Reduced CPU spikes occurring when loading new areas and content.
  • Reduced CPU spikes occurring when instantiating numerous visual effects and objects.
  • Reduced memory usage in various systems.
  • Improved our broad-phase culling pass, reducing CPU utilization.
  • Improved content loading sequencing to reduce cases of on-screen pop-in.
  • Improved particle simulation and rendering performance for various debris effects.
  • Improved mesh trail performance.
  • Improved cloth simulation performance.
  • Improved character animation system’s performance.
  • Improved CPU performance during cinematic sequences.
  • Reduced CPU overhead for physics simulation of clutter, debris and destructible objects.
  • Reduced CPU overhead for pre-placed corpses.
  • Reduced CPU overhead for animating objects’ visual properties.
  • Reduced CPU overhead for characters outside of the camera viewport.

Quality of Life Improvements

  • All hairstyles are available on both body types

Content Additions

  • Major Crucible Rework!
  • Added multiple new base Crucible Chambers
  • Each trial run now randomizes more than triple as many arenas, and includes more diverse art styles, new enemies, and more environmental challenges
  • New system - Echoes - to allow infinite customization for every Crucible run
  • Added new Spike Traps, Fire Projectiles and Levers
  • New enemy faction - The Gloam
  • The Seneschal vendor NPC hidden deep within the Crucible
  • Exalted gear which permanently increases stats and improves enchantments
  • New interactions and dialogue for the Watcher in “Spilled Blood”
  • Lots of new dialogue for Roan, who now provides tips and pointers to guide players toward quests
  • “Spoken and Unspoken” quest re-structured, allowing the Crucible to be opened much sooner, and including new scenes and dialogue for Elsa and Roan.
  • Added new hairstyles for both body types
  • Players can now pet stray cats and dogs around Sacrament!

Balance

  • Rebalanced Health and Damage curve for Enemies

Weapons

  • Updated names and descriptions for some Armor/Quest items
  • Updated descriptions for Runes
  • Added more enchantments for Bows

Enemies and Bosses

  • Polished animations and timings for several enemies
  • Added new Armor variation to the Risen Ironhand
  • Updated enemies behavior - now some of them can use jumps for navigation
  • Updated Attack, Dodge and Taunt animations for Light Plagued Enemies
  • Improved randomization on enemy armor sets
  • Improved hit reactions on Siren Enemies
  • Updated High level behavior
  • Enemies can now use special moves more often
  • Rebalanced stats of both phases of the Echo Knight boss
  • Nerfed Health of both phases of the Falstead Darak boss fight in The Black Trench

Areas

  • Improved collision, faders and set dressing in Sacrament, The Black Trench, Nameless Pass and Cerim Crucible
  • Added new trapdoor interactable
  • Updated foliage in various locations
  • Lighting improvements across many locations as well as housing interiors and vendor shops
  • Added interactive inscriptions for Dasha statues in Sacrament and Orban Glades
  • Added Mini Arena underneath Prison in Nameless Pass
  • War room rooftop door can now be entered before Servant of God quest is finished
  • Replaced more static barrels with destructible ones in Sacrament

Quality of Life

  • Improved interaction priorities between ladders and pick ups so they can both be used in the same location

Settings

  • Added Mute Audio on Focus Loss setting

Full No Rest for the Wicked Crucible update changelog found here.

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No Rest for the Wicked Tag Page Cover Art

No Rest for the Wicked
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Action RPG
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Systems
PC-1 PlayStation-1 Xbox-1
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Top Critic Avg: 73 /100 Critics Rec: 50%
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Released
April 18, 2024
ESRB
M for Mature
Developer(s)
Moon Studios
Publisher(s)
Private Division
Engine
unity
Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
Number of Players
1-4
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WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
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From Moon Studios, the award-winning developers of Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps comes No Rest for the Wicked, a visceral, precision Action RPG set to reinvent the genre.

The year is 841 – King Harol is dead. As word of his death echoes throughout the kingdom, the crown passes to his arrogant, yet untested son Magnus.

Even worse, the Pestilence, an unholy plague not seen for a thousand years, has returned. It sweeps across the land, corrupting everything and everyone it touches. Madrigal Seline, a ruthlessly ambitious figure in the church, sees the Pestilence as a chance to prove herself in the eyes of her god.

These forces converge on the backwater Isola Sacra, where rebel groups and the provincial government fight for control amid the isle’s crumbling ruins.

You are a Cerim – a member of a group of mystical holy warriors imbued with remarkable powers and sworn to defeat the Pestilence at any cost. But the task will prove increasingly challenging as you become entangled in the people’s plight and the vast political struggle of this downtrodden land. Chaos will pull you in every direction as you seek to cleanse the land of wickedness and shape the kingdom’s fate.

Genre(s)
Action RPG