Steam’s hottest free battle royale adds a new weapon and mystery balls

Naraka Bladepoint is the hottest ticket in free-to-play battle royale games right now. While it might still be yet to reach quite the heights of PUBG Battlegrounds and Apex Legends on Steam, Naraka Bladepoint has comfortably eclipsed its previous player count peak after becoming a free game, and developer 24 Entertainment is already making moves with a big Naraka Bladepoint update.

The highlight of the new additions is probably the new weapons. The Dual Halberds are a very stylish pair of short halberds that you can use to attack your foes with devastating flurry attacks. You can also whirl into the air to become a human blender, or hook the weapons together mid-combo to deliver some longer-ranged attacks.

If you’re just getting to grips with the game, there’s a new ‘specialized practice mode’ that’s been added to free training – this is designed to help new players learn everything from the basics to more advanced combat tricks. You’ll learn about all the different attacks, counters, grappling hook tricks, and other movement abilities at your disposal.

There’s also a handful of social updates, centered around the addition of a gorgeous new interactive lobby zone called Fairyland Penglai. These include an option for voice chat with players that you’re nearby, a photo mode, and the option to teleport directly to your friends’ locations to hang out, meaning you’ll probably find yourself sad when your queue actually pops, especially if you’re busy taking snapshots with your pals.

The new Fairyland Penglai zone also includes the options to play various instruments, take part in sky-high parkour racing to hone your skills with some friendly competition, or even search around to discover mysterious ‘Naraka Balls’ dotted all over the island, which award “delightful surprises” when interacted with.

There’s also a full wealth of limited-time events to take part in, along with a raft of hero balance changes for the start of Naraka Bladepoint season 9: Mythic. With the Naraka Bladepoint player count on Steam reaching a bold new peak of 264,381 concurrent players following its transition to free-to-play, you certainly won’t be alone.

Naraka Bladepoint patch notes – July 14, 2023

Here are all the new and updated features in the Naraka Bladepoint patch for July 14, 2023:

New Features

• New lobby – Fairyland Penglai.
  • Instrumental performances, solo or as part of an ensemble.
  • Parkour racing against other players.
  • Interactive Naraka Balls offering delightful surprises.
  • Photo mode.
  • Nearby voice chat and nearby chat.
  • Teleport to friends and Justice Chamber teammates.
  • Custom display featuring emotes and gestures.
• New congeneric weapon – Dual Halberds.
• New specialized practice mode.
• Brand-new series of Star Collections.
• Edition upgrade discount of 40% (July 14 – August 9).

 Events

All the events below run from July 14 to August 9, 2023:

• Anniversary Event – Glory Celebration.
• Anniversary Sale – up to 40% off select items.
• Limited-time event – Wells of Fate.
• Limited-time event: Anniversary Stats.
• Season Treasures return.
• Limited-time event – Glory Path.
• Limited-time event – The Hero Returns.
• Limited-time event – Hero Recall.

Seasons

• New season – Season 9: Mythic.
• Mythic Battlepass is now available.
  • Treasure Scroll can be obtained for 1,200 gold.
  • Glory Scroll can be obtained for 2,840 gold.
• Baize’s Blessing can be purchased to receive 600 gold. You can also get Baize Coins 24 times and an extra reward for logging in for 15 days. Baize Coins can be redeemed for plenty of rewards in the Baize shop.

Hero Balance Changes

Zai

• Adjusted the total damage multiplier of the Charged Attack from 4.2 to 3 when Ensnared Soul is full for the [Chain Scythe: Suppress] Ultimate.
• Increased the time required to charge Ensnared Soul for the [Chain Scythe: Suppress] Ultimate after it is depleted from 6s to 8s.
• After the [Flame Ward] and [Flame Ward: Ignition] Skills enter the [Flame Ward] state, performing a Rescue will immediately end the state.

Valda Cui

• Reduced the duration of [Nether Nightmare: Smite] Ultimate in Solo mode from 20s to 15s. No change in Duos and Trios modes.

Akos Hu

• Adjusted the duration of [Feral Frenzy] and [Feral Frenzy: Grab] Ultimates in different modes:
  • Solo mode: Reduced from 26s to 24s.
  • Duos mode: Reduced from 35s to 30s.
  • Trios mode: Reduced from 35s to 30s.
• Adjusted the three consecutive strikes’ damage multiplier in [Feral Frenzy] Ultimate from 2.8/3.1/3.4 to 2.3/2.6/2.9.
• Slightly reduced the absorption distance of Tiger-Claw Airborne Horizontal Strikes.

Tianhai

• New Skill features have been added to all modes and Talents for Tianhai.
  • When Tianhai activates his Ultimate and taps the Ultimate button again, he can initiate a jump-and-smash Skill in the aimed direction.
  • The CD for this Skill is 15s, and it is reduced to 10s in Showdown mode.

Others

• Adjusted the pentagonal abilities display and difficulty index for some Heroes.
• Ultimate deactivation has been optimized. When derivative Ultimate Skills (such as Akos Hu’s [Feral Frenzy: Grab]) are on CD, you can deactivate the Ultimate by holding the button.

Weapon Balance Changes

Staff

• Slightly reduced the displacement of precise Charged attacks.
• Adjusted the damage multiplier of [Knee Breaker] from 0.71*7 to 0.55*2 + 0.69*2 + 0.83*3. (These adjustments do not involve Showdown mode.)
• Slightly reduced the displacement for light running strikes and light sprint strikes.

Dual Blades

• Slightly shortened the startup frames of Charged Vertical Strikes.
• Adjusted the airborne height when knocked airborne by Crouched Vertical Strikes.
• Slightly reduced the displacement during Charged Vertical Strikes and increased the displacement of Vertical Strikes.

Greatsword

• Increased the damage reduction ratio of Stone Form from 80% to 90%.

Polesword

• Decreased the damage reduction ratio of Stone Form from 80% to 75%.

Longsword

• Charged Horizontal Strike first stage damage multiplier: decreased from 5.12 to 4.39.
• Charged Horizontal Strike second stage damage multiplier: decreased from 6.15 to 5.44.
• Charged Vertical Strike first stage damage multiplier: decreased from 4.46 to 3.99.
• Charged Vertical Strike second stage damage multiplier: decreased from 5.35 to 4.92.
• (The above adjustments do not involve Showdown mode.)

Souljade Balance Changes

Staff Souljade

• Optimized the special effects of [Stanchion·Rising·Sky Pillar] during charging.

Dual Blades Souljade

• Optimized the impact effects of [Universe Slash] for more stable attacks.

Longsword Souljade

• Adjusted the damage of [Hepta-Detach]
  • Damage multiplier: Adjusted from 0.35*2 + 2.77 to 0.12*2 + 0.92.
  • Recovery effect after a hit: Increased from 65% of damage to 400%.
• Adjusted the damage of [Phoenix Blast]
  • Charged Horizontal Strike first stage damage multiplier: decreased from 2.96*2 to 2.63*2.
  • Charged Horizontal Strike second stage damage multiplier: decreased from 3.65*2 to 3.26*2.
  • Charged Vertical Strike first stage damage multiplier: decreased from 2.58*2 to 2.39*2.
  • Charged Vertical Strike second stage damage multiplier: decreased from 3.17*2 to 2.96*2.

Additional tweaks and bug fixes can be found via Steam.

If you’re looking for even more of the best free PC games, we’ve got you covered – along with the best multiplayer games if you just can’t get enough of some good old-fashioned competition.