Aside from issues on PC (with upscaling pretty much mandatory for good performance), Gunfire Games’ Remnant 2 is a step up from its predecessor in every way. There are some complaints among players regarding things like Trait Points, particularly the cap, which makes it tougher to fully max Traits, and respeccing costs.
In a Reddit post, principal designer Ben Cureton clarified that while the Trait Point cap isn’t set in stone, it wasn’t going away (though some adjustments may occur). “When we originally started playtesting, it was 50. As we got more players into the game, we moved it up to 60. Throughout the project, as we added more players to our tests and received even more feedback, the actual values on Traits were adjusted, and 60 generally felt pretty good.
“Some people wanted more, some people didn’t mind less, but we found that the more gear players had access to, the more they found ways to make interesting builds where Traits and Gear could complement each other. This is what we had in mind. With the Trait cap in place, it allowed us to add Traits that we never had in R1.”
Overall, the team wants to focus on build diversity. “With the cap, we noticed throughout testing, and still to this day, people use many other rings to supplement their build. The additional 2 Ring slots go hand in hand with the Trait cap. For example, you can use Heart of the Wolf for a big increase in Movement Speed and Stamina. You can use Ring of the Robust for Health and Armor. You could add Lithic Signet for Damage Reduction, or pick up Wind Hollow Circlet for raw Reload Speed, etc. This was the goal.
“Moving forward, we aren’t against adjusting the cap value, but the gear was designed around a cap being present. It doesn’t have to be capped at 60, but if it’s too high or if there is no cap, it diminishes or almost completely invalidates many of the Trinkets we designed to supplement Traits. This would be unfortunate since we added so many new ones to the game.”
Cureton confirmed that duplicate Trait Books should provide EXP and Scrap when collected. However, for those seeking more resources, the team is looking “into a few potential tweaks to resources that come out of Chests and Rare Chests as well as the amount gained from duplicate Trinkets to make exploration even more rewarding. With a bit more resources from exploring and picking up duplicate elements, players should have more room to experiment.”
Converting an Engram into an Archetype should also cost less. The developer will also look at removing the Trait Point requirement for Dual Archetypes. “If removed, this would allow players to start Dual Archetyping the moment they had access to another Engram. TBD, but it’s definitely being talked about.”
Finally, Cureton acknowledges that respeccing is a “bit too costly and a bit clunky. Regarding the cost, this is an easy change. About the fluidity of respeccing, that’s another challenge. We have quite a few ideas on how to make this more seamless, but I don’t want to promise anything too specific at this time. I do, however, want players to know that we understand, and we are on the case.”
All of this is in addition to fixes and performance improvements coming with future updates, so stay tuned. Remnant 2 is available for PC, Xbox Series X/S and PS5. Check out our review here.