What you need to know
- Over 2 million players have downloaded the free Outriders demo to this point.
- The latest developer update highlights changes to be made to the demo and final game based on feedback.
- Patch dropping early next week to address issues covering all platforms.
- Some glitches are being closed up and rerunning side missions will provide a chance at legendary loot.
The Outriders demo has been a roaring success, in no small part due to its progression passing to the main game. It could even end up being one of the best Xbox One games of the year The keenest gamers who know they're going to sink hundreds of hours into the final game have been using the demo to load up their characters ahead of launch so they have a bit of an advantage going into the next chapter.
In particular, many have been farming the demo's bosses, higher difficulty enemies with a higher chance of dropping legendary weapons. There are 10 legendaries in the demo and some players are going after as many as they can get sinking hours into running the same part of the game over and over. Yes, including me.
It's maybe a little surprising to the dev team people are doing this. That tone certainly comes across in the latest update from the team, though folks who have been able to play previous, closed playtests of the game seem insistent these methods won't be necessary in the final release. But we are where we are. And Outriders is a ton of fun, even just with this small snippet of the game to play.
In response to feedback and their own telemetry, the Outriders developer will be making a number of changes to the demo. These will affect how those farming the game can acquire those precious legendaries and make a couple of balancing adjustments to the bosses.
Changes to Captains
- The Captain mob ability "Healing Light" will have its effectiveness reduced.
- The Captain mob ability "From the Ashes" and "Phoenix Aura" will have their cooldowns increased.
Changes to Gauss
- Gauss will have his health points increased for repeat playthroughs.
- Gauss healing from his ability "Steel Wall" will be increased.
Changes to loot drops
While we do not want to prevent farming runs (We get it!), the lootcave discovered via the triple chest-run, as well as the store exploit, do not feel to be within the spirit of the game. To that end, we are redirecting farming efforts to mechanics in the game that may be more enjoyable for players to play through and repeat.
- Epic items will no longer appear in shops and vendors (within the demo).
- Chests will no longer drop legendary items.
- Side quest rewards (on repeat runs) will now have a chance to drop legendary items.
Drop rates for enemies won't be changed at this time, so if you want to keep killing that Captain over and over, you can and you won't have a worse chance of getting a legendary drop.
Away from loot, a number of quality of life issues have been discussed, including motion blur. Initially we were told motion blur could be disabled in the final game. But, that seems to be coming forward to the demo. All platforms will be getting a motion blur toggle with the next patch.
In addition, the frame rate in cut scenes is being tweaked, though a more comprehensive solution for those will be pushed out with the final game.
There are also PC, PlayStation and Xbox specific updates headed, so check out the full post to get a handle on everything. The patch is currently in testing and is expected to be released to all platforms early next week.
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