No Rest for the Wicked rapidly established itself as a hack ‘n’ slash that’s not afraid of doing things differently, though its Early Access status means it’s rough around the edges. That’s bound to change as the game is updated, of course, and Patch 2 is proof enough of that.
Notably, No Rest for the Wicked‘s Early Access Patch 2 is the biggest update the game’s received yet. Sure, it is only the second major update Wicked has gotten so far, but I’ll allow it. It’s a sizeable chunk of improvements across the board, for sure: between performance uplifts, control scheme improvements, all-new gameplay features, and a variety of fixes and balancing boons, there’s a lot to like here.
No Rest for the Wicked Early Access Patch 2 overview
First things first, then, let’s go over Patch 2’s performance uplifts:
- Upscaler availability: DLSS 3.7 and FSR 2.2 options are now both available
- Various CPU optimizations
- Performance Mode improvements: lowered texture resolution, leading to better performance and stability on low-end machines
- Various memory leak fixes
- GPU culling improvements (lower latency and overhead, with better stability)
- Steam Deck improvements (optimizations in the texture resolution and memory budget departments)
- Improved Ambient Occlusion rendering performance
- Various additional optimizations in art rendering, memory use, and other items
Impressive stuff across the board, though it’ll take a bit before we can properly quantify just how much better the game might be running now. The presence of upscalers alone should help massively in GPU bottleneck scenarios, however, so that’s great news for sure. Patch 2 goes far beyond just performance improvements, however:
- Introduces the Respec system via the Cerim Crucible Atrium statue (1 Fallen Ember per attribute point reallocation)
- Introduces the weapon try-out system: players can equip a given weapon regardless of its attribute requirements
- (Re)introduces the ‘Misc’ inventory tab that separates Housing Items, Runes, Fallen Embers, and other assorted goodies from the rest of your inventory
- Added a new set of Enchantments
- Spear weapons can now be upgraded with ‘Throw’ runes
- Pig Sticker and Assegai blueprints added to Fillmore and Whittacker’s shops, respectively
Some extremely solid improvements here, too, but that as well is just the start of it. The official Steam blog post lists a massive array of other tweaks and changes, many of them having to do with bugs, faulty bounties, localization issues, and various assorted audio improvements. Note that certain VFX instances have been made “juicier,” notably in the blood and gore department, so that might be fun to see in action.
Regardless, things are looking solid so far for No Rest for the Wicked! It’s not a game you can play as you would a regular hack ‘n’ slash, of course, but Moon Studio is clearly unafraid of pushing the envelope here, and I, for one, am thrilled to see what the team makes of Wicked.
