Shadow Warrior 3 – Update 1.03 Adds Hardcore Difficulty, Adjusts Guns and Gore Weapons

Flying Wild Hog has released a new update for Shadow Warrior 3, bringing Hardcore difficulty into the game. In this mode, enemies will deal more damage and “punish your mistakes” more frequently. You’ll also receive less resources and the invulnerability timer for last stand has been reduced.

Update 1.03 also introduces a variety of balance changes and adjustments. The Katana’s fire attack now has increased projectile speed, explosion range and ignite chance. However, its ice attack now has reduced freeze duration while the electric attack’s range has been reduced. The Riot Gun has suffered a slight decrease to its range while Gore Weapons like the Seeking Eye and Blade of Hattori have reduced duration.

Enemy health (sans bosses) will now be the same across all difficulties and some have seen their HP adjusted. The amount of HP that can be restored with finishers now differs based on difficulty along with the amount of Health and Ammo gained from orbs. Check out the full patch notes below for more details.

Shadow Warrior 3 is available for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Check out our review for the base game here.

Shadow Warrior 3 update 1.03

Introducing – Hardcore difficulty!

• On Hardcore difficulty, enemies hit even harder and use every opportunity to punish your mistakes. Resources also come in less generous numbers, so long story short Grasshopper – don’t get hit and watch your aim! Last stand invulnerability timer has been reduced.

General Balance Changes

• Katana fire attack projectile speed, explosion range and burn chance increased.
• Katana ice attack freeze effect duration reduced.
• Katana’s electric attack range decreased.
• Sidekicks’ damage slightly increased and spread decreased.
• HP amount restored from the Finishers now varies with Difficulty.
• Adjusted the Health Points of certain enemies.
• Enemy Health Points are now the same across difficulties (except bosses).
• Shuriken Spitter does not register headshots anymore.
• Health and Ammo orbs respawn-time now varies with Difficulty.
• The amount of Health and Ammo restored from the orbs now varies with Difficulty.
• Last Stand invulnerability-time decreased.
• Thorn’s damage now varies with Difficulty.
• Kugutsu accuracy and projectile speed increased.
• Laser Shogun laser now stops on enemies.
• Riot Gun range slightly decreased.
• Oni Hanma’s stagger delay increased.
• Lifetime for Seeking Eye and Blade of Hattori have been reduced.
• Removed temporary invincibility after usage of Brain Tonic.

Fixes and Improvements

• Various Balance changes (see below).
• Fix for Achievements not unlocking in rare cases.
• Fix for an unwanted second attack being made with the upgraded Katana if the weapon wheel was used during an attack.
• Fix for the Shuriken Spitter not causing damage during some attacks on the Guardian of The Heart.
• Fix for a bug where the player might get locked in the Guardian of The Heart’s third phase on Hard difficulty.
• Fix for Shogai not reacting to Katana hits if they are performing a melee attack at the time.
• Fix for headshots on Kugutsu from Sidekicks making the ragdoll spin.
• Fix for one of the upgrade points on “The Fast and the Furry” disappearing after the player respawns.
• Fix for some weapons not shooting when the “ranged attack” input is being held while switching between guns.
• Various User Interface fixes.
• Fixes for when the player could fall out of the world.
• Fixes for players leaving the gameplay space.
• Additional checkpoint added to “Doomsday Device” level.
• FOV minimum value set to 80.
• Various progression issues fixed.
• Fix for Thorns popping up inappropriately.
• Fix for a bug where the Thorns wouldn’t wither on the final arena of “Egg Express”.
• Fixed various edge case logic bugs in various levels.
• Fix for a bug where the player could move with the Tanuki in their hands. Shame.
• Fixed LoD and popping issues in various places.
• Fix for a rare crash when performing a Finisher on Chef Oboro Guruma.
• Various performance enhancements.
• Fix for tutorial messages staying on screen after the player’s death.
• Fix for the weapon disappearing when the weapon change was performed right before a cutscene had started.
• Fix for a bug where the player could shoot their weapons during transition cutscenes.
• Fix for the Grappling Hook remaining open after performing certain actions.
• Updates for French, Spanish and Russian localization.
• (PC) Fix for the weapon disappearing when trying to choose an unobtained weapon using keyboard shortcuts.