In case you skipped the headline, I’ll repeat myself. Among the wonderful sights contained in space-poking adventure gameThe Great Fluctus are: beans, slug milk, alien volleyball, egg arguments, and massive frog. Additional screenshots suggest this frog later acquires wings. Like a captive Generation Game host, I am helpless but to shout out more incredible sights as they flutter past on the conveyor belt of pure flippin’ videogame before me. It’s got dance parties with horrible gorilla aliens. It’s got building, namely the Statue Of Liberty out of goop, just as George Washington’s goop clone intended. It’s also got just sitting on a bench, enjoying some lovely serene space scenery. Feast your famished face on the trailer.
The 1.0.5 update, out now across PC via Steam, Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5, makes a long list of changes to the game.
The highlights include the addition of two new playable characters (Luna and Ultimate Valby), a new hard Void Intercept battle (Gluttony), a new Ultimate weapon (Peace Maker), and a new module (Arche Concretion).
There are various changes to the way the game works, too. For example, Nexon has blocked equipping and removing modules, changing presets, and changing loadouts to prevent module swapping from becoming a strategy in Intercept Battles and Infiltration Operations.
Alongside the release of the 1.0.5 patch, The First Descendant director Minseok Joo outlined the development team’s plans for issues that are much-discussed within the game’s community. Minseok Joo confirmed plans to introduce a “guaranteed drop” system where players will be guaranteed to get the item they want after repeating an activity a certain number of times, in response to complaints about “the vagaries of drop rate.”
“The First Descendant has various missions and Amorphous Materials with chance-dependent rewards,” Minseok Joo said. “We’re considering how we can effectively implement the ‘guaranteed drop’ in such diverse reward systems, and we’re working to create a farming structure that players will be happy with. We hope to make improvements before long to provide a more rational and satisfying farming experience.”
Elsewhere, Nexon is planning a system to dismantle leftover items to get byproducts, and a rotating shop system where you can exchange the byproducts for something of value. “This will allow the items you obtained to have a greater value in the game,” Minseok Joo said.
Minseok Joo also discussed balancing, admitting “we can’t promise that all Descendants and weapons will be equally balanced at all times.” However, Nexon intends to keep changing the “effective” builds. “To that end, we promise to make constant adjustments and offer different ways to play with new content.”
These improvements will be made to the game during Seasons 1 and 2.
New Descendant: Ultimate Valby – Added “Ultimate Valby.”
Ultimate Valby Modification Modules – Spiral Tidal Wave: The bouncy Bubble Bullet has been replaced by a projectile that flies in a straight line. Spiral Tidal Wave is stackable and can be fired three times in a row, and attracts impurities during the Gluttony Intercept Battle. – Hydro Pressure Bomb: Instead of “Plop Plop,” she leaps forward and deals damage to enemies around the landing area. The more enemies in the Laundry state, the more powerful the damage.
Added Ultimate Valby Amorphous Materials – Amorphous Material Patterns 011, 044, 115, 030, 055, 113, 023, 052, 073, 087, 110, and 125 can no longer be acquired. You can continue to use the Amorphous Materials you already have as before. – Added the “AA variants” of Amorphous Materials 011, 044, 115, 030, 055, 113, 023, 052, 073, 087, 110, and 125. You can acquire the Enhanced Cell Blueprint, Stabilizer Blueprint, Spiral Catalyst Blueprint, and Code of Ultimate Valby from them. Ultimate Valby’s blueprint and Code Materials will replace one of the items available from the original Amorphous. – The Amorphous Materials of the “AA variant” can be acquired and used in the same place as the original.
First Update Alert! Meet the new Descendants, Luna’ and Ultimate Valby, and challenge the new boss, Gluttony. Don’t miss out on the action-packed looter shooter fun! pic.twitter.com/rTZyEFj63w
— The First Descendant (@FirstDescendant) July 31, 2024
New Descendant: Luna – Added new Descendant, Luna.
Luna Skills – (Passive Skill) Improvisation: Using any skill increases Inspiration Gauge, which allows Luna to use Enhanced Skills. – (Active Skill 1) Stage Presence: Using the skill changes Luna’s weapon to her Unique Weapon. Performing the notes in time to the music by using skills or hitting monsters stacks and increases her Skill Power Modifier. – (Active Skill 2) Passionate Stage: Using the skill makes Luna play upbeat music, increasing the Skill Power Modifier of Luna and her allies. Gaining the Enhanced Effect increases the Skill Power Modifier even more and also increases the Skill Critical Hit Rate and damage of allies. – (Active Skill 3) Relaxing Act: Using the skill makes Luna play relaxing music. Hitting the enemy with a note grants an effect that instantly recovers the MP of Luna and her allies. Gaining the Enhanced Effect increases MP Recovery, and reduces Skill Cost. – (Active Skill 4) Delightful Stage: Using the skill makes Luna play delightful music. Hitting the enemy with a note increases Inspiration Gauge and decreases the skill cooldown of allies. Gaining the Enhanced Effect increases the Inspiration Gauge even more and immediately resets the cooldown of allies.
Luna Modification Modules – Nimble Footsteps: This Modification Module enhances Luna’s Movement Speed and amplifies the effect range of her performance, making it easier to support her allies. – Noise Surge: Transforms all of Luna’s skills to combat skills. Performing the notes in rhythm unleashes a powerful AoE attack. When the Inspiration Gauge is full, summons a moving stage where she dances to recover MP and Shield.
Added Luna Amorphous Materials – Amorphous Material Patterns 017, 038, 081, 020, 098, 068, 015, 049, 071, 027, 090, and 094 can no longer be acquired. You can continue to use the Amorphous Materials you already have as before. – Added the “AA variants” of Amorphous Materials 017, 038, 081, 020, 098, 068, 015, 049, 071, 027, 090, and 094. You can acquire the Enhanced Cell Blueprint, Stabilizer Blueprint, Spiral Catalyst Blueprint, and Code of Luna from them. Luna’s blueprint and Code Materials will replace one of the items available from the original Amorphous. – The Amorphous Materials of the “AA variant” can be acquired and used in the same place as the original.
Added New Hard Void Intercept Battle: Gluttony – Added new Hard Difficulty Void Intercept Battle, Gluttony. – Intercept Gluttony to collect the Hungry Sonic External Components Set and the blueprint of the Ultimate Weapon Peace Maker.
Gluttony External Components Set – Hungry Sonic Set: 2-piece set effect grants Toxin Resistance. 4-piece set grants an effect that recovers MP on hitting the target with a skill’s Unique Weapon as well as an effect that increases Skill Duration and MP Heal Modifier proportionally to Max MP.
New Ultimate Equipment: Peace Maker – Added new Ultimate Weapon Peace Maker. Using a Dimension skill grants the “Single Reload for Peace” effect. At maximum stacks, the “Single Reload for Peace” effect enables you to fire the loaded ammo in a single quick burst when taking an aimed shot.
New Module – Arche Concretion: Decreases Movement Speed, Firearm ATK, and all Attribute ATK except the Non-Attribute ATK every time a skill is used, but each stack of Arche Concretion increases DEF and MP.
Added New Products – Added “New Descendant: Exclusive Luna Bundle” which includes Luna and the “Pool Party” skin. – Added Luna to the list of standard Descendants in the shop. – Added “Premium Ultimate Valby Bundle” which includes Ultimate Valby and the “Vermillion Wave skin,” and “Ultimate Valby Bundle.” – Added “Valby’s Summer Theme,” “Viessa’s Summer Theme,” and “Male Summer Theme Set.” – Added “Luna’s Albion Academy Cadet,” “Luna’s Classic Maid Uniform,” “Luna’s Panda,” and “Luna’s Dinosaur” limited skins. – Added “Luna’s Augmented Reality of Madness” premium skin package. – Added Luna’s exclusive “White Mouse” premium head skin. – Added Luna’s exclusive Hair & Makeup 1 & 2. – Added Luna’s “The Ultimate High Feeling” and “Volume Up” standard skins. – Added Luna’s makeup “Sly.” – Added “Adjustment Control Axis X30” and “Fine Adjustment Control Axis 20” support items.
■ Hotfix 1.0.5 Content Improvements (1) UI/UX – To prevent module swapping from becoming a strategy in Intercept Battles and Infiltration Operations, equipping and removing modules, changing presets, and changing loadouts are now prohibited. – Added a feature to collect all Lost and Found items at once in the Mailbox. – After checking the map with acquired information in the Library, closing the map now leaves the Library open. – Added Camera Shake ON/OFF feature in Game Options. – (PS, Xbox) Added the ability to select preset search keywords to make it easier to search modules and research. – Added commas after every three digits in the game menu and HUD to make it easier to read numerical units. – You can now check key stat information in the weapon, reactor, and external component inventories. – You can now register equipped items as Attached Items. – Saving a preset now automatically registers equipped items as Attached Items. – You can now turn the red dot crosshair display on or off cities in Game Options. – Added an image to some items in Graphics Options to show what they do. – Increased the speed of scrolling when scrolling the map with the gamepad’s R-stick. – Changed the color of icons for Hard difficulty Void Intercept Battles on the World Map to make it easier to distinguish them from Normal difficulty battles. – The map no longer displays the marker when a quest NPC being tracked disappears. – The Modification Modules for the same Descendant are now displayed together in a row in the Library. – When the first clear reward and repeat clear reward are the same, the Acquisition Info in the Library no longer shows them both. – When selecting all duplicate modules in Dismantle Modules, you can now use a filter to register only the selected modules for dismantling. – Simplified the module combining animation. – Starting a research in the Materials tab of the Research menu now returns you to the Materials tab. – Added the “Leave Party” button to the Social menu to make the function easier to find. – Added a search function to the Consumables menu. – Even when acquiring skins for Descendants not currently in use the red dot still appears. – Added the red dot when acquiring paint. – The red dot now appears in the Weapons List side tab too when acquiring a weapon skin.
(2) Descendants, Modules – Increased the Poison contagion range of Freyna’s Room 0 Trauma from a 4 m radius to a 7 m radius. – Increased the maximum scaling range of Valby’s skills from 200% to 250%. – Increased the maximum scaling range of Blair’s skills from 200% to 250%. – Changed the blizzard generated by Viessa’s “Glacial Cloud” module to be triggered instantly without delay. – Changed Valby’s “Albion Academy Cadet” head skin to be dyeable. – Changed “Incoming Final Damage” to “Incoming Damage Modifier” in the description of the “Safe Recovery” module.
(3) Equipment – Added a feature in Game Options that enables some single-shot and burst weapons to fire automatically when the fire button is pressed and held down. – Increased Enduring Legacy’s Critical Hit Damage from 1.7x to 2.3x. – Increased Secret Garden’s Critical Hit Rate from 35% to 50% and Critical Hit Damage from 1.85x to 2.25x. – Increased Nazeistra’s Devotion’s Critical Hit Rate from 36% to 45% and Critical Hit Damage from 2x to 2.25x. – Decreased the trigger rate of Bombardment of Greg’s Reversed Fate, but now it also triggers when the weapon is fired at unshielded enemies. – Equipment can now be dismantled at once with no quantity limit.
(4) Field – Increased the amount of Void Shards that can be acquired from Special Operations by about 7 times.
# Director’s Comment Hotfix 1.0.4 added Void Shards as rewards to Special Operations, but unfortunately, there were just too few. The original intent was to keep Void Fragments as the primary farming source for Void Shards, and get additional Void Shards from Special Operations.
But the community has told us that many of you don’t like this loop, so we’ve increased the amount of Void Shards that can be earned in Special Operations. We’re also working on some steps for future improvements.
Many players are currently farming materials without spending the Fragments at the Fusion Reactor, so we’re considering removing the Fragments from the Fusion Reactor startup altogether. This would make the Fragments necessary only when the Reconstructing Device is used at the Fusion Reactor.
We’re taking a close look at how the reward loop we planned works in practice. We’ll try to finalize a reward loop that players will be satisfied with in the near future. – Reduced the distance you’re knocked down when hit by a trap. – Lowered the ratio at which the named monster’s immunity sphere HP scales with the number of players in Infiltration Operations, and reduced the duration of immunity. – The Agna Desert, Vespers, Echo Swamp, White-night Gulch, Hagios, and Fortress fields now have a 100% chance to spawn Encrypted Vaults at spawn. – Increased the hit box size in “data collection” missions to make it easier to collect data. – Outside environmental sounds are now less audible in the indoor areas in Kingston. – Adjusted the distance that monsters spawn in the Laboratory to be closer as 15m.
(5) Miscellaneous – Balanced sound levels for shield destruction notification, material research result window, etc.
Optimization Improvements – (PC, PS5, XSX, XSS) Applied AMD FSR 3.1. – (PS4, XB1) Optimized memory usage. – (PS4, XB1) Optimized resolution to increase the maximum resolution by at least 5%. Bug Fixes (1) UI/UX – Fixed an issue where enemies defeated by the unique effects of Ultimate Weapons were not counted in Battle Pass Challenge and Awards. – Fixed an issue where the capacity cost reduced by matching socket types was not displayed on the Weapon Module Enhancement screen. – Fixed an issue where closing the Capacity Exceeded warning message while enhancing a module made the game inoperable. – Fixed an issue where restarting an Intercept Battle, Infiltration Operation, or Special Operation after completing it would not matchmake you with allies who applied to restart with you. – Revised the description on the Info screen that incorrectly stated that the damage taken decreases the higher the “Incoming Damage Modifier,” so that now it states the damage taken decreases the lower the modifier. – Fixed an issue where completing a mission with a weapon that has been socketed at least once would appear to give Mastery Rank EXP, when in fact it does not. – Fixed an issue where the names of the core materials and blueprints of Ultimate Weapons were swapped. – Fixed an issue where the quantity of attached paint was not displayed in the Mailbox. – Fixed an issue where the DBNO UI animation would persist when a DBNO ally left and another ally joined. – Fixed an issue where changing loadouts while in combat is not possible but the UI would switch to the selected loadout.
(2) Descendants – Fixed an issue where Lepic could trigger the “Overkill” skill at 0 MP while equipping the “Increased Efficiency” module. – Fixed an issue where Yujin could not target an ally when using “Solidarity Healing” if part of their body was covered by an object. – Fixed an issue where DBNO allies rescued by Yujin could not use any skills for a short period of time after the rescue. – Fixed an issue where switching weapons after using Viessa’s “Frost Road” skill caused the skill’s visual effect to remain. – Fixed an issue where the Knockdown range of Valby’s “Plop Plop” skill was larger than the actual Skill Range. – Fixed an issue where Enzo’s “Shoot Support” was not applied to allies. – Fixed an issue where using Ultimate Gley’s “Massacre” or “Life Siphon” skill did not increase her Skill damage when she is above 50% HP. – Fixed an issue where Gley’s “Life Siphon” skill and her Modification Modules “Massive Sanguification” and “Explosive Life” could be used on objects in Intercept Battles. – Fixed an issue where Kyle’s “Repulsion Dash” could be used on objects in Intercept Battles. – Fixed an issue where the skill animation of Kyle’s “Repulsion Dash” skill would intermittently be cancelled. – Fixed an issue where the power of Ultimate Bunny’s “Lightning Emission” was determined by the amount of Electricity she had at the time of use, unlike Bunny. The power of Bunny’s “Lightning Emission” depends on the amount of Electricity she currently has. – Fixed an issue where Bunny’s “Maximum Power” skill’s sound pitch went up infinitely and sounded like a noise. – Fixed an issue where Esiemo would become uncontrollable while using the “Arche Explosion” skill. – Fixed an issue where after Ultimate Viessa used “Frost Road” with the “Absolute-Zero” module or Valby used “Laundry Bomb,” Ajax placing a barrier on top of it inflicted reflective damage on Ultimate Viessa or Valby.
(3) Equipment – Fixed an issue where moving on a field with three or four pieces of an external component set prevented the 2-piece set effect from being applied. – Fixed an issue where the damage of hitting the Ultimate Weapon King’s Guard Lance after it was deployed was recorded in the statistics. – Fixed an issue where the Ultimate Weapon Executor’s Hip Fire Accuracy was lower than what it should be. – Fixed an issue where the Ultimate Weapon Thunder Cage’s unique effect would deal more than 1.33x damage when monsters were clustered. Instead, Electric Shockwave now deals 2x damage regardless of the number of enemies.
# Director’s Comment During internal testing, we discovered a bug with Thunder Cage. Thunder Cage should always deal 1.33x damage according to its description, but it was dealing more than 1.33x damage when there were a lot of monsters. We fixed this bug, but we also boosted the 1.33x damage to 2x so that it doesn’t become less efficient when hunting.
We’re well aware that the value of items you own is important to you. To ensure that fixing the bug doesn’t devalue your items, we’ve given it more power than we originally intended. If something like this happens again in the future, we won’t stop at simply fixing the bug but consider how to preserve the value of your items to provide a reasonable patch. – Fixed an issue where you could hear one or two extra shots when firing single shots with a repeating firearm.
(4) Modules – Fixed an issue where the Firearm Critical Hit Rate increase effect was missing in the description of Valby’s “Supply Moisture” module. – Fixed an issue where Valby’s “Tidal Wave” module would not properly stack Finishing Attack when piercing an enemy. – Fixed an issue where equipping Ajax’s “Body Enhancement” module would have different final result values depending on when it was saved. – Fixed an issue where if the “Matrix Recomputation module” was equipped by Ajax the Shield would recover every time after a very short while and the Shield started at 50% after equipment. – Fixed an issue where the “Pitmaster” passive would remain indefinitely when Blair removed the “Classic Chef” module while Flame Zone was in effect. – Fixed an issue where the knockback effect would not trigger when Blair used “Deadly Cuisine” while equipped with the “Backdraft” module. – Fixed an issue where the name of the “Sharp Precision Shot” module’s buff was incorrectly shown as “Lethal Finish.” – Fixed an issue where Bunny’s Evolving Skin quest requirements were not counted when Bunny equipped a Modification Module. – Fixed an issue where Bunny unequipping the “Electric Condense” module left a status effect display that did not have any effect. – Fixed an issue where Gley’s “Predator Instinct” module skill displayed the Frenzied state icon and name twice when used. – Fixed an issue where Ultimate Gley’s “Demonic Modification” module sometimes did not deal damage when used.
(5) Field – Fixed an issue where defeating named monsters at the same time as Void Fusion Reactor mission was being deleted allowed the player to use Reconstructing Devices without consuming Void Shards. – Fixed an issue where the zone map of “Hagios: The Old Mystery” showed different paths from actual paths. – Fixed an issue where the traps would remain on restart after dying in the No Resurrection Zone in Hagos: The Haven. – Fixed an issue where movement markers would appear while progressing through the Void Fusion Reactor. – Fixed an issue where roaming monsters would not spawn on the White-night Gulch: Hatchery battlefield. – Changed the Amorphous Material Patterns and Shape Stabilizers acquired from Hard Infiltration Operations in the White-night Gulch and Hagios.
(6) Miscellaneous – Fixed an intermittent terrain rendering bug. – [XB1, XB1S] Fixed an issue where textures would intermittently display black lines when rendering terrain. – Fixed an issue where the Sub Quest “Obtain Freyna’s Research Materials 1” would complete after clearing “Rockfall: Vulgus Strategic Outpost” even if the “Amorphous Material Pattern: Freyna” was not obtained. – Fixed an issue where the Sub Quest “Prepare to Obtain Additional Materials for Freyna Research” could not be completed with Ultimate Bunny. – Fixed an issue where the camera would intermittently freeze when removing parts during Intercept Battles. – Fixed an issue where the Elite Vulgus Special Effect “Chasing Orb” would not deal damage.
# Director’s Additional Comment Greetings, this is The First Descendant Director Minseok Joo. Today, I’m going to outline the Dev Team’s plans for issues that are discussed frequently by the community.
The team is currently working on Season 1 and Season 2 updates, while also responding to improvement issues discovered during the live service. Today, I’m going to talk more about how we plan to improve the current state of The First Descendant rather than about the Season 1 and 2 updates.
Drop Rate Improvement Plans While all of our drop rate systems are operating fairly in The First Descendant, we do understand that some players are struggling with the vagaries of drop rate. To address this, we’re planning to introduce a “guaranteed drop” system where you’re guaranteed to get the item you want after repeating the activity a certain number of times.
The First Descendant has various missions and Amorphous Materials with chance-dependent rewards. We’re considering how we can effectively implement the “guaranteed drop” in such diverse reward systems, and we’re working to create a farming structure that players will be happy with. We hope to make improvements before long to provide a more rational and satisfying farming experience.
Disposing of Leftover Items Next is an update on items that are piling up in your Consumables. There is currently no way to dispose blueprints for Descendants and weapons that you’ve already completed, so there are cases where players are getting multiple copies of blueprints they already own during the farming process.
We’ve been listening to the community, who have told us that there needs to be a way to dispose of these unwanted items. While we could consider simply converting them into some Gold or Kuiper, we want to reward you with more value for the time you have put into the game.
To resolve this, the Dev Team is planning a system to dismantle leftover items to get byproducts, and a rotating shop system where you can exchange the byproducts for something of value. This will allow the items you obtained to have a greater value in the game.
Supporting Build Diversity It’s a lot of fun for us to see the variety of builds being posted in the community lately. We love seeing you try so many different builds and are amazed by the unexpected ways you’ve evolved them.
We hope for more builds to exist in The First Descendant, and we want an environment where players are free to experiment with different builds. However, we’ve found that it is difficult to take advantage of loadouts after assigning socket types, which goes against our goal of experimenting with different builds freely.
As a result, the Dev Team is planning to provide an environment where completely different builds can be created by assigning each loadout with different socket types. We hope this will help you experiment with different builds without feeling overwhelmed.
Balancing Finally, some news about balancing. We are seeing a dominance of the skill damage-focused builds of some Descendants. Descendants and weapons that are well-suited for these builds are quite popular now.
We want the meta builds to change from season to season. We want the Descendants and weapons that are effective in new content to be different from those in previous seasons. Also, we’re looking to increase the proportion of firearm-based combat in the endgame.
We can’t promise that all Descendants and weapons will be equally balanced at all times, but our goal is to keep changing the effective builds. To that end, we promise to make constant adjustments and offer different ways to play with new content.
We aim to implement the improvements I talked about today during Seasons 1 and 2.
Your feedback means a lot to the Dev Team. We’ll do our best to provide a better experience as we build the game together, and we’ll continue to listen to you as we strive to make The First Descendant even better.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Few acts in games feel quite as gleefully gratifying as removing a knight’s shiny dome with a halberd swing in medieval multiplayer melee Chivalry 2. In a pastime that’s had several decades to perfect the art of hitting men with sharp objects, that’s quite the accomplishment. Since releasing in 2022, Torn Banner have lavished the player base with free horses, angry peasants, and most recently, the Regicide update – hosting a climatic tete-a-tete between two angry crownmen. With work on No More Room In Hell 2 well underway though, Torn Banner have decided to call it on Chiv 2, which they now consider “feature complete.”
Based on the Loyal Three and their Moochi-feeding mythical master, Pecharunt, the Shrouded Fable set features some key players of the Pokémon Scarlet & Violet DLC: Hidden Treasures of Area Zero, amongst new additions. It’s a packed set, with Kingdra ex also making a royal splash in the expansion.
As night falls, Pecharunt ex emerges, commanding the Loyal Three—Okidogi ex, Munkidori ex, and Fezandipiti ex—in their evil mission. Meanwhile, Revavroom ex lights up the battlefield as a Lightning type through Terastallization.
Here’s a firsthand look at our highlights from the Elite Trainer Box, Kingambit Illustration Collection, Kingdra ex-Special Illustration Collection, and some standout cards from Pokémon TCG: Scarlet and Violet—Shrouded Fable.
Shrouded Fable Elite Trainer Box Preview
The Pokémon TCG: Scarlet and Violet—Shrouded Fable Elite Trainer Box is an absolute must-have if you’re a dedicated trainer. Everything is neatly organized in a collector’s box with four dividers, making storing and transporting your collection easy. Plus, a Pokémon Trading Card Game Live code card for the set is included for digital pack openings. Still, nothing beats ripping open the included boosters!
Inside, you can find nine Shrouded Fable boosters, all bursting with diverse cards to enhance your deck. This is alongside a foil promo card featuring Pecharunt, a powerful addition to your Dark-type deck and a collector’s gem. There’s also 65 card sleeves centered around Okidogi, Munkidori, and Fezandipiti, all rocking a cool purple and green metallic design, perfect for a new deck build.
Shrouded Fable Elite Trainer Box – What’s In The Box?
Nine Shrouded Fable booster packs
Full-art foil promo card featuring Pecharunt
65 card sleeves featuring the Loyal Three
45 Pokémon TCG Energy cards
A player’s guide to the expansion
Six damage-counter dice and a competition-legal coin-flip die.
Two plastic condition markers
Kingambit Illustration Collection Preview
The Kingambit Illustration Collection looks stunning! The titled stage two card is hands down the best card art out of the big boxes in Shrouded Fable in our opinion. Kingambit commands respect and overcomes all challengers. This collection is perfect for those looking to strike, slash, and take command in their battles.
The promo card Kingambit we’ve found inside showcases the big blade Pokémon in a menacing classical painting style, alongside foil cards featuring Pawniard and Bisharp completing Kingambit evolution chain for a cool Steel type playset straight out of the box! There’s also four Shrouded Fable boosters, each a chance to find powerful and rare cards, and codes for Pokémon TCG Live.
Kingambit Illustration Collection – What’s In The Box?
The Kingdra ex-Special Illustration Collection is another fantastic addition that we love. This collection adds artistic flair to your deck while strengthening strategy with bench-damaging cards, making it a must-have for collectors.
Inside you’ll find stunning classic Japanese print artwork and powerful gameplay features from the Kingdra ex promo card, another full playset line out of the box with foil cards featuring Horsea and Seadra, codes for Pokémon TCG Live, alongside a set of five Shrouded Fable boosters. It’s nice to see those included as well.
Kingdra ex-Special Illustration Collection – What’s In The Box?
1 full-art foil promo card featuring Kingdra ex
2 foil cards featuring Horsea and Seadra
5 Shrouded Fable booster packs
A code card for Pokémon TCG Live
Our Favorites Pulls From Pokémon TCG: Scarlet and Violet—Shrouded Fable
Kingambit – Illustration Rare
Stats:
Type: Dark
HP: 180
Attacks:
[D] Dark Slice (50 damage)
[D][C][C] Night Slash (90 damage): Switch this Pokémon with one of your Benched Pokémon.
Rarity: Kingambit Illustration Rare is a literal Pocket Monster. With amazing-looking artwork and two devastating attacks, this card will be very sought after by both players and collectors!
How to Play: Once a player’s Pokémon has put at least 4 damage counters on an opponent’s Bench and active Pokémon, it’s time to bring Kingambit in. Even if there are one or two Pokémon left over under 140HP, Massive Rend will one-shot them.
Fezandipiti – Illustration Rare
Stats:
Type: Psychic
HP: 120
Attacks:
Ability: Adrena Pheromone – If this Pokémon has any [D] attached and is damaged by an attack, flip a coin. If heads, prevent that damage.
[P] Energy Feather (30 X damage): This attack does 30 damage for each Energy attached to this Pokémon.
Rarity: As an Illustration Rare, Fezandipiti is rare, and it is very playable in dark decks. Expect this one to attract buyers with cash on the hip!
How to Play: Fezandipiti offers a superb blend of offense and defense, making it invaluable in any dark deck. Start stacking Energy on this Pokémon as soon as it hits the Bench, bringing it in to clear out any hush HP active Pokémon with Switch or sacrificing energy for retreating. Make sure to have some Energy Retrievals on hand, just in case!
Pecharunt – Illustration Rare
Stats:
Type: Dark
HP: 80
Attacks:
Ability: Toxic Subjugation: As long as this Pokémon is in the Active Spot, put 5 more damage counters on your opponent’s Poisoned Pokémon during Pokémon Checkup.
[D][C] Poison Chain (10 damage) Your opponent’s Active Pokémon is now Poisoned. During your opponent’s next turn, that Pokémon can’t retreat.
Rarity: Although it can be found easily in Shrouded Fable Elite Trainer Boxes, Pecharunt’s ability is very powerful and can be used from the Bench. When in play, this Pokémon can cause 7 damage counters per Pokémon checkup, so there is no doubt this card will be seen in players’ decks quickly.
How to Play: Pecharunt is a fantastic Poisoner and can slow an opponent’s game from the Bench. Ideally, you should use another Pokémon to poison opponents and then use Pecharunt’s ability to enhance the poison. Using it alongside Garbador’s “Poisonous Puddle” ability from Rebel Clash would be a fantastic combination from a player’s Bench, allowing an active Pokémon to clean up!
Pecharunt EX
Stats:
Type: Psychic
HP: 190
Attacks:
Ability: Controlling Chains: Once during your turn, you may switch 1 of your Benched [D] Pokémon, except any Pecharunt ex, with your Active Pokémon. If you do, your new Active Pokémon is now Poisoned. You can’t use more than 1
Controlling Chains Ability each turn.
[D][D] Irritating Burst: 60x damage. This attack does 60 damage for each Prize card your opponent has taken.
Rarity: Pecharunt EX is a rare and powerful card, although not as much as its full-art variant. It’s also extremely playable, so it’s likely to be in high demand!
How to Play: Using Pecharunt EX alongside any Loyal Three EX is a winning combination and allows for switching of Dark types once a turn with no retreat cost. In our opinion, this can really slow down opponents, saving Pecharunt EX when you are low on Prize Cards to devastate an opponent’s active Pokémon.
Where to Preorder Pokémon TCG: Scarlet and Violet—Shrouded Fable
Shrouded Fable is busting out all of the usual box sets and booster bundles, this time centered around the Loyal Three of Kitakami, Okidogi, Munkidori and Fezandipiti.
They’ll all be getting EX cards alongside the malicious Pecharunt, looking to shove its cursed Moochi treats into the face of any human or Pokémon it can. Here are all the details you need to secure the your preorders for Pokémon TCG: Scarlet and Violet—Shrouded Fable, releasing on August 8.
We’re always watching the latest Pokémon deals here on IGN, not to mention giving our readers early previews of upcoming sets such as Twilight Masquerade. Stick with IGN for everything Pokémon TCG for the latest.
Christian Wait is a UK-based freelancer for IGN, you can follow him @ChrisReggieWait on Twitter/X.
This week marks the second anniversary of the Switch exclusive Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and while there’s nothing planned for this occasion, it seems the game’s character designer Masatsugu Saito has shared some new artwork on his social media page.
It’s an illustration of the character Eunie, with some English text on the side to commemorate this two-year milestone. Saito previously shared a similar image marking the launch of the game in 2022.
The famous Pokémon developer Game Freak is gearing up for a new era with titles like Pokémon Legends: Z-A, and with this in mind, it appears to be on a recruitment drive.
Video game actors are currently on strike, in hopes that withholding their work from video game companies will push those companies to agree to better actor protections around the use of AI. However, at least one video game CEO — Andrew Wilson of Electronic Arts — doesn’t think the strike is going to impact his company, at least in the short-term.
In today’s EA earnings call, Wilson answered a question from an investor about the impact of the strike on the business. Put simply, he’s not worried for now. Here’s the full quote:
We deeply value our talented actors who are an important part of the work we do to deliver the incredible entertainment experiences that our players enjoy around the world. We’re working very closely; this is not an EA-specific situation, this is an industry-specific stuation, and we’re working diligently to negotiate at the table. The way it works now in terms of our product specifically is that the strike is limited to games commencing production after September 2023, including live service games. So we don’t expect any near-term disruption to any of the games we have in development or any of the live services we’re currently running. That being said, we’re committed to continuing to bargain in good faith and are hopeful that the parties can expediently resolve our issues at the bargaining table. But we’re not anticipating any significant short-term impact at EA.
Wilson’s confidence likely comes from the fact that EA’s portfolio is almost entirely live service games right now, and games whose development began prior to September 2023 (so, basically every live service game) are not impacted by the strike. The company’s $1.26 billion in net bookings for the quarter was driven by Madden NFL 24, FC Mobile, and FC Online, all live service games, and the rest of its coming fiscal year is much of the same: Madden NFL 25, EA Sports FC 25, NHL 25, and so forth. The Sims 4 and College Football 25, also unaffected.
Its one single-player offering, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, is also fine. And while it’s impossible to speak to EA’s release slate further out, it’s probably a safe bet that next year’s release slate likely looks a lot like this year’s, and is entirely populated by games that have been in development for three, four, five or more years. EA, at least, is in a position to weather the storm for a long time.
What Wilson doesn’t mention is how this will impact the company in the long-term. The longer the strike goes, the more in-progress games will be impacted. Any game the studio greenlit after September of 2023 is going to be slowed down if no SAG voice actors will touch it, and this will impact EA’s plans for 2026, 2027, and so on. So while short-term impacts won’t be felt, it’s possible that a strike will start to have affects we’ll see years down the road, especially if a contract is not agreed on soon.
SAG-AFTRA officially called a video game actor strike late last week, beginning at 12:01 am on Friday, July 26. The union has been unable to come to an agreement with video game companies on a new contract for eighteen months, with AI protections being the primary sticking point of negotiations. The union has announced it will hold its first strike picket on Thursday, August 1 at WB Games. We wrote a detailed guide on what the SAG-AFTRA video game strike means for everyday gamers, which you can read right here.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
For the past couple of decades, the official Olympics video games have starred Mario and Sonic and been exclusive to Nintendo devices. Not so, this year. Olympics Go! Paris 2024 is free-to-play and available for PC via the Epic Games Store.
Hear the curl of the monkey’s paw? Yeah, it’s a mobile game port with the touchscreen prompts seemingly still intact, and its publisher is also pushing a “commemorative Paris 2024 NFT Digital Pin collection”.
Xbox hardware sales are way down again in Microsoft’s Q4, while gaming content sales skyrocketed again thanks to the company’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard last year.
The company posted its earnings today, which included a report of hardware revenue down 42% year-over-year. Hardware sales saw a significant dip of 31% year-over-year last quarter as well, though sales were up slightly (3%) in Q2 thanks to a series of holiday discounts and promotions. But hardware was also down 7% prior to that in Q1, and yes, dropping steadily for several quarters prior to that too.
For what it’s worth, Xbox is far from the only console maker seeing dips in hardware sales. Everyone’s impacted, according to Circana’s most recent report. Xbox, Sony, and Nintendo all say “double-digit percentage declines” in May of 2024, and the Switch saw the most significant drop. This is likely reflective of the fact that all three consoles are on the back halves of their life cycles, and is reflective of fairly normal, cyclical industry trends. Xbox has already confirmed that a “next-gen” console is in the works, and has expressed plans to share more information about hardware of some sort around the holiday season.
Gaming revenue overall appears to be doing more than fine in terms of year-on-year comparisons, even setting quarterly records. This is largely due to the boost offered by the acquisition of Activision Blizzard – it wasn’t there to make money for the company last year, now it is, so the numbers have gone up. Gaming revenue was up 44% year-over-year, but with 48 points of net impact from the acquisition, this indicates that Xbox’s not-Activision-Blizzard-related business isn’t doing quiiiiite as well as it was last year. Xbox content and services revenue faired better, up 61% year-over-year, with 58 points of net impact from the acquisition.
Overall, Microsoft’s More Personal Computing division (which includes Xbox as well as other segments such as Windows) brought in $15.9 billion in revenue, up 14% year-over-year. Microsoft will hold its Q4 earnings call and field questions from investors and analysts shortly.
Earlier this month it was reported that Skibidi Toilet, the YouTube phenomenon, may be heading to film and television via director Michael Bay. Now Invisible Narratives, a production company co-owned by Bay, has apparently sent a DMCA takedown notice to Garry Newman, citing the large number of Skibidi Toilet games and assets advertised within Garry’s Mod.
Skibidi Toilet uses assets derived from Half-Life 2, however, and owes a lot to the Garry’s Mod machinima scene. And the animation’s original creator, best known as DaFuqBoom, is claiming innocence over the DMCA.
