Nacon and developer Eko Software released a new free update for Dragonkin: The Banished on November 12th that added a fifth playable character, a new Survival mode, and additional customization options for the Ancestral Grid.
The biggest addition is the Harrower, a new playable character who was subjected to experiments by the Order of the Eternal. Unlike the other classes, the Harrower isn’t tied to a specific element and instead uses a mechanic called Instability, allowing him to equip up to 10 Wyvern skills from any element. Once all four elements become unstable, he enters an Unleashed state that significantly increases his damage output. He’s got 17 active skills and 16 unique passives and talents to experiment with, so there’s plenty of room for different builds.
The other big addition is Survival mode, which is just what the game calls Hardcore. If you’ve played any ARPG basically, you know what Survival/Hardcore is, it’s a permadeath mode. You’ll need to create a separate character for it, and while town progression is shared with your regular characters, there are restrictions on sharing equipment. If your character dies, that’s it, although they may earn a place in the Pantheon to commemorate their unfortunate demise. Personally, I’m not much of a permadeath guy, especially in games where I can spend hours working on a character only to lose everything because I did something stupid, but I know some people love that kind of challenge and it is a staple of the genre so it’s nice to finally have the option.
Rounding out the update are six new Ancestral Grid modifiers, including two exclusive to the Harrower and four available to every class. One of those is Whirling Mastery, which causes projectiles to spin around your character, and that sounds like something I could have some fun experimenting with.
The update is available now for Dragonkin: The Banished on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
Smith’s Sentiment: I’ve been playing around with Harrower for the past day, and while I’m still early with him I’ve been enjoying it. This is a great game and it definitely deserves more support from gamers. For some reason, PoE and Diablo get all of the love (or sometimes hate for Diablo 4), but Dragokin is a great Diablo-like ARPG and it’s nice to see a big free update like this. Hopefully there’s more to come.
