Hexworks has released patch v.1.1.191 for Lords of the Fallen, which aims to tackle performance issues across all platforms but also brings boss changes that could make the game harder for players. Lords of the Fallen is a reboot of the 2014 game with the same name and joins the recently-released Lies of P as one of the latest entries to the Soulslike genre.

Soulslike games are known for their highly challenging difficulty in which players must carefully plan their next move as they trudge through level after level. These games push players to create builds and to be more observant of enemy positioning and attack patterns. While being a tension-filled experience, games of this genre also give a sense of accomplishment after finally defeating a particularly challenging boss, such as Malenia from Eldin Ring, who served as a roadblock for some players.

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With patch v.1.1.191, Hexworks has updated Lords of the Fallen to increase the difficulty of two bosses in the game. The first is the gigantic Spurned Progeny, a mid-game boss located in Upper Calrath, who will keep performing his combo attacks no matter what the player does. The next to receive a tweak is an optional trio of secret bosses located in an arena in the Umbral Realm. According to the patch notes, these bosses are now more “dangerous adversaries” as they can no longer be trapped in the column in the arena and will now be able to move about the area more efficiently.

In addition to the boss updates, the patch also introduced nerfs to several enemies in the game. Scarlet Shadows and the “walking corpse” enemies as a whole have had their damage lowered, with Charred Spirits, a type of “walking corpse,” getting an additional reduction. The update also disabled Frame Generation, but a newer patch has reactivated it.

Hexworks has been steadily releasing patches almost every day since the game’s release to address various issues, including the game’s performance. The general consensus on social media platforms like Reddit and Twitter is that while the game seems to be a decent Soulslike entry with a good story and deep lore, it should have been delayed to fix performance issues. In the patch v.1.1.191 thread on Reddit, some Xbox players said they are still experiencing a number of issues, such as stuttering, missing textures, and pop-ins. Xbox seems to be the platform hit the hardest with performance issues, making the game unplayable, leading to some refunding the game.

However, Hexworks seems determined to bring its game up to standard and has been communicating with players on Twitter and Reddit to locate issues to solve. For now, only time will tell if Lords of the Fallen truly is the answer to players who want Dark Souls 4.

Lords of the Fallen v.1.1.191 Patch Notes

All Platforms:

Balancing:

• Bringers of Stillness and Scarlet Shadows have had the damage output of their two gap-closing attacks reduced to not be so punishing when attacking from their own shadow.
• Charred Spirits in the lower city have seen their damage output slightly nerfed, from 80 to 64 to compensate for them being the most aggressive "walking corpse" type.
• All "walking corpses” have seen their charged attack damage reduced from 1.18 to 0.8, as their animations are not properly reflecting the danger of the hit. Their anticipation has been slightly adjusted for better readability.
• Skein working forces have now a better-adjusted hitbox, as we felt it was spawning just a few frames too early.
• Barrage of echoes (eyeball umbral spell) has received an additional failsafe to make sure they always explode when hitting any environment element.
• Adjusted the hit direction of some projectiles that could make the player hit-react in an undesired direction. Purely cosmetic.
• Ruiner has seen his fire shield attack and his jump knockdown attack damage slightly reduced. In exchange, his standard damage has been slightly buffed from 81-95. The idea is for players to still be scared of him, but reduce the amount of one-shots in later regions of the game.

Bosses:

• The Spurned Progeny has received a small tweak to make sure he never interrupts one of his combos, regardless of the player's actions.
• The arena of the trio of secret bosses hiding at a secret place, has been tweaked to help them navigate the space more efficiently. Also, if they enter the column in shadow form, they now know how to exit. They’re effectively more dangerous adversaries now.

Visuals:

• After optimization, Pieta chest armor lost some of the IDs for the tincts. This has been corrected so tincts can be properly applied to it.
• Fixed a nanite mesh on the 3D Gallery background that was incorrectly animated, creating white dot artefacts.

Performance:

• Barrage of echoes eyeballs explosion had a lingering VFX that could be kept active for longer than intended, which hindered performance if abused.

Photo Mode:

• Photo Mode had a small black line on the right-bottom corner. This line is now gone.

Audio:

• Umbral stigmas now have a nicer sound for their activation and deactivation.

PVP:

• We've deactivated the ability to parry other players' kicks to allow an additional option when you find a very good "parrier".

PC:

We've worked diligently to fix some of the issues that unfortunately have affected some of our players.

Rest assured that our commitment to enabling as many people as possible to immerse themselves in our game world is what drives our passion.Thanks to the data provided to our "Sentry" bug database by players who clicked "send" on the crash report pop-up, we've been able to identify four main issues:

1. **Non-Updated Drivers.**Lords of the Fallen is powered by UE5, a high-end technology that requires the latest GPU drivers. We've observed that the majority of crashes result from outdated drivers.That's why, starting now, when the game launches, it checks for the installed drivers and prompts an update if they are not up to date, redirecting to the respective GPU providers: Nvidia or AMD
2. Frame Generation StabilityDespite our eagerness to provide players with the latest technologies, Sentry noticed that Frame Generation is also leading to crashes under specific conditions.We have decided to temporarily deactivate Frame Generation until our collaboration with NVIDIA allows us to deliver more stable drivers. This action is intended to prevent the crashes that some players are experiencing with their brand-new 40 series GPUs.
3. Unidentified GPU crashesAn engine error that could occur with certain 30 and 40 series GPUs, causing the game to crash even with auto-set graphics, has been partially addressed.EPIC has promptly provided us with a patch that includes additional fail-safes to prevent those crashes, and it's been integrated to resolve most of these crashes.We've also observed that quite a few players enable settings that their rigs cannot handle, especially in terms of VRAM. If you experience instability, low frame rates, or even crashes (especially DX12 crashes), simply click on "AUTO-SET" within the Graphics Settings, and this will most likely resolve your issues.
4. Crash after first cinematicAn issue with the engine code related to the calculation of Pipeline State Objects (PSOs) has been identified in Sentry. This issue resulted in crashes when shaders were being compiled after the first cinematic of the game.EPIC has been swift and efficient in providing a solution, which has now been integrated into the game and should resolve the majority of cases.However, if the issue still persists, we've provided a workaround to allow you to access the game. Please note that this workaround may result in some micro-freezes the first time you enter a new area of the game. To deactivate PSOs calculation, please follow these steps:a. Right click on the game in your Libraryb. Click on Propertiesc. In the General tab, enter the following modifier in the Launch Options text box: -nopsos

Please refer to our Performance Troubleshooting Steps if you are still experiencing issues.

PS5:

• No platform specific changes.

XBOX:

• We've fixed the issue with the loading of low LODs for the Xbox Series X.

Steam Deck:

• Steamdeck now has a virtual keyboard.

In Light we Walk.

Lords of the Fallen is now available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

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