Big changes are coming to Hand of Fate 2's combat next week! This update is designed to empower players of all skill levels, whether they're fresh to the Game of Life and Death or tyrant-toppling champions. The most exciting change is the expansion of our bash ability. Previously limited to disrupting shielded enemies and cracking armour-plating, bash will now knock back and stun all enemy types, and can even be charged up (through successful blocking or taking damage) with more powerful effects. Subsequently, our shields and armour sets have received an overhaul to allow for fun new combinations - freeze your foes, knock them to their knees for easy takedowns, or even batter them into temporarily joining your side. Artefacts have also undergone a generous reworking, with many of them upgrading to a more versatile "uses per combat encounter" system. This should make artefacts a much more viable deckbuilding choice, and ought to encourage players to more frequently bring their powerful abilities to bear in combat. Under the hood, we've made improvements to player character responsiveness and evasion, addressing a number of issues from sticky animation transitions to unreliable dodge vulnerability. We've also looked over enemy behaviours and added increased tells to certain enemy attacks to ensure players are never unfairly blind-sided. Finally, new situational health bars have been added to basic enemies, which should help overwhelmed players quickly determine the order in which to dispatch their foes. Health bars can be toggled in the options menu, but once you turn them on you may not want to go back. This patch also introduces a long-requested feature: the return of Hand of Fate's Apprentice Mode. The new mode, available in the settings menu, is designed for players more interested in the deckbuilding/narrative side of the game and less into the fighting. When activated, Apprentice Mode automates combat maneuvers like ripostes and finishers while increasing player damage output. It also stops weapon charges from resetting during combat, ensuring Apprentice players are able to access their powers more frequently in a melee. For a complete breakdown of the changes, check out next week's patch notes. An in-depth list of changes will also be made available as a sticky post in the steam forums. That's not all we've got planned for this update! Next week we'll have a very special announcement for the modder and mod-enthusiast community, so stick around.