No Rest for the Wicked’s parry mechanic gets blasted with nerfs in April 22 update

The No Rest for the Wicked developers have been hard at work on more updates for the early access title, dropping an April 22 patch focused on fixes and balancing.

Hotfix Three features performance improvements, bugfixes, much-needed clay-drop buffs, and even a nerf to parrying, which is already challenging for players. Although No Rest for the Wicked is in early access and still has a lot to do on the development front, the devs have been heads-down since April 18 to release three significant hotfixes, with the latest going live today. Like the past two patches, this one has a core focus on game performance and graphics improvements, with several bugfixes.

One of the fixes players will be glad to see is that the devs have adjusted the dig spot rates so Clay drops more often. This is important because Clay is essential for repairing buildings and structures. It’s also used in crafting. The biggest problem has been this resource becomes scarce as you progress the No Rest for the Wicked storyline, and to combat this, players have had to take their characters to a new realm just to be able to farm for Clay, which shouldn’t be happening. So, the Clay spawn buff is a welcome relief.

Everyone’s favorite (not) mechanic, parrying, has also been nerfed. When you parry with a weapon, it will now consume Stamina, but Shield parrying remains unchanged. Stamina is one of the most painful stats to manage in No Rest for the Wicked, so the fact that parrying with a weapon now consumes Stamina means we may have to adjust how we assign stat points and whether parrying is even worth it—dodging has a lower Stamina cost at this stage. Depending on how you like to fight, you may need to adjust your combat strategy now that parrying with a weapon consumes Stamina.

Here’s the full list of changes and fixes shipped in today’s update.

No Rest for the Wicked: Hotfix Three patch notes

Performance Improvements

• Improved area streaming, which means the game should feel smoother while traversing across different areas.
• Dynamic resolution scaling will now be now less aggressive, maintaining higher image quality.
• Improved culling for off-screen physics objects and characters.
• Fixed culling for bird animations, enhancing their performance in levels.
• Additional shader optimizations for performance mode.
• Fixed a leak which increased memory and CPU usage the longer you played the game.
• Optimized rain and other GPU particles.
• Opening cinematics and ship prologue optimizations.
• Memory optimizations for character customization textures.
• Additional general CPU performance improvements.

 Graphics Additions and Fixes

• Adjusting brightness/contrast/saturation should no longer break HDR rendering.
• Fade to Black will now actually entirely fade to black in HDR mode.

 Settings Additions and Fixes

• Added camera zoom adjustment options.
• Automatic camera zoom adjustments for handheld devices and performance modes.

 Menu Changes

• New menu for exiting the game added. This includes both “Exit To Main Menu” and “Exit To Desktop.”
• “Repair” menu size adjusted to accommodate text in other languages.

 Balance Changes

• Weapon parrying now consumes Stamina. Shield parrying unchanged.
• Nerfed the “Gain Focus On Focus Use” enchantment.
• Unarmed can now land hits while an enemy is on the ground after performing a Backstab.

 Loot Changes

• Dig spot rates adjusted so Clay drops more often.
• Number of hits needed at dig spots, ore veins, and trees reduced.

 Enemy Changes

• Behavior for Nith Screamer and Shackled Brute improved.

 Bug Fixes

• Fixed the crane not turning correctly in the Nameless Pass and blocking players from progressing.
• Fixed a chest at Mariner’s Keep elevator from locking you in when trying to loot it.
• Fixed the dig spots that were sometimes not giving any loot.
• Fixed the remaining enemies and bosses becoming Kaijus.
• Fixed Falstead Darak from being able to deal damage during his transition while he is still human.
• Fixed particular doors in Sacrament not having interaction hints.
• Fixed missing visual effects for attacks by the Twin Bruisers, False Ones, and Boarskin Axe.
• Fixed the condition where enemies would attack when they should not.
• Fixed vendor buy/sell prices on Raw and Refined materials being only a quarter of what they should be.
• Fixed missing furniture items at the Workbench.
• Fixed Mira and Meri’s Spinning Wheel from not allowing players to refine wool threads into garments.
• Fixed the keyboard and mouse buttons not working on the Bounties contribute panel.
• Fixed an issue where side notifications would occasionally spam players.
• Fixed the trigger conditions for the parry tutorial.
• Fixed the wording in the enchanting tutorial to more accurately describe common rarity.
• Fixed the spot in the Prologue where you can jump off the ship.
• Fixed the sizing of a railing on the ship in the Prologue.
• Fixed the spots where you can get stuck in a climbing loop in Orban Glades and the Nameless Pass.
• Fixed spot in the Black Trench where you can see out of the world.
• Fixed the recipe name for Angler’s Delight Chowder.
• Changed the confirm button color for Danos so it does not look grayed out (unclickable).
• Fixed NPCs not knowing how to hold fishing rods in the Nameless Pass.
• Fixed missing shadows and incorrect volumetric fog after changing the resolution.
• Fixed reflection popping in sewers dungeon.
• Fixed torches and fire popping in cinematics.
• Fixed rain appearing in caves in Nameless Pass.
• Fixed the missing audio for Potion Seller’s Cave waterfall.
• Fixed the missing audio for the Nameless Pass Prisoner chopping and mining.
• Fixed an issue where, after respawning, there was a bright mist in the area of the Twins Boss.
• Fixed the pink effects occasionally appearing in faders.
• Improved collision in certain places at Orban Glades.
• Improved faders in the Nameless Pass.
• Fixed the photosensitivity screen having overlapping text in specific languages.

No Rest for the Wicked’s third hotfix will bring much-needed improvements to the game. Given the rate at which these hotfixes are dropping, we’ll likely see another one go live before the week is out. For now, these are all the changes now live in Hotfix Three.