Developer Cyanide Studio has released a new update for its stealth action adventure game Styx: Blades of Greed. Headlining this update is the addition of a New Game+ mode, which gives players the chance to once more experience the story while carrying over the skills, runes, blueprints, inventory, and upgrades they found in their original run. Check out the trailer for the New Game+ mode below.
The studio has noted that, while players will get to carry over most of their things, items and tools locked behind story progress, like Grapple, Glider, Spectral Dash, and Claws, will need to be unlocked through the campaign. Players will also be able to rediscover the collectibles they found in their last run through the game to get bonus XP, runes, blueprints, and other rewards.
As for players that might want to revisit the story before taking on the final boss and without heading into New Game+, there is now a dedicated end-game save set right before Styx travels to Akenash for the finale. This way, you can get your hands on any collectible that you may have missed and take care of any side missions that you left behind.
The update also brings in performance improvements, reducing CPU usage for the game by around 80 percent by optimizing the ragdoll physics for dead enemies. PC players can also take advantage of the fact that when Global Illumination is set to LOW, it disables Lumen, with light and shadow detection falling back to a software implementation. This way, players on low-end GPUs can still enjoy the game at reasonable performance levels.
There are a few bug fixes as well, like DLC outfits being randomly applied or lost when loading save files from an older version of the game, or grapple kills having the potential to permanently lock the game’s music in its combat state.
Styx: Blades of Greed was released on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S back in February. The title revolves around the eponymous goblin that has mastered the art of stealth through his many adventures. His new goal is his most dangerous one – to get his hands on the most precious resource in the world: Quartz.
While previous entries in the Styx franchise have revolved around the protagonist working for stronger factions and entities, in Blades of Greed, he is out for himself this time, leading his own crew and traveling the world on his zeppelin. The title also features appearances and cameos from several important characters from previous games, and Styx has to figure out how to tell the difference between friend and foe as he takes on the forces of the Inquisition.
Styx: Blades of Greed features three open environments: The Wall, the Orc village of Turquoise Dawn, and the ruins of the Elven capital of Akenash. To help him travel through these worlds, Styx has access to a host of new tools, like the Grapple and the Glider. Due to this change in gameplay structure, Blades of Greed also has a larger emphasis on exploration than its predecessors. Check out our review for more details.
