Balance Patch

Warlords,

I am back from the wedding! Thankfully it wasn't a red wedding (you will get the reference if you have seen Game of Thrones). Before heading out again for Japan, I wanted to address probably the most common feedback I have received, which is that the game is too easy. This patch is designed to bring the difficulty of Warlord: Awaji up to a higher level, while still providing a low-key option on "recruit" difficulty, so players getting used to the game should have no issues.

When I say difficulty, really all I mean is the multiplier of damage done to your units. Every time an enemy deals damage to one of your troops, the difficulty option you chose in the settings menu modifies it either up or down. This worked fine, but troops also receive damage reduction bonuses from your camp needs and spiritual modifier, so the overall damage reduction they enjoyed was way too large.

Before the patch the difficulty options had this effect:

• Recruit, 0.85 (a 15% reduction in damage)
• Regular, 1.0 (no impact on damage)
• Hardened, 1.1 (a 10% increase in damage)
• Veteran, 1.2 (a 20% increase in damage)

After the patch it will look like this:

• Recruit, 1.0 (the old Regular baseline, "too easy")
• Regular, 1.2 (20% harder than baseline, same as the old Veteran)
• Hardened, 1.8 (80% harder, a challenge where losses are higher than ever before)
• Veteran, 2.2 (120% harder, could be very difficult or impossible to survive consecutive battles without healing at camp)

Please let me know how these new values feel in the starter region as well as in mid and end game battles. I am leaving for Japan on October 5th, so I still have time to make some micro adjustments this week depending on feedback. In Japan, I will be hard at work on the Museum Mode, which will release after the holidays. I hope to send an update on its progress while I am in Japan.

Until then!

Darkmatter

vR107

• Raised difficulty of recruit and regular modes
• Considerably raised difficulty of hardened and veteran modes
• Increased enemy bomb usage
• Increased enemy gun usage
• Buffed temple and monastery support groups and raids
• Increased ranged weapon usage for enemy warriors
• Reduced ranged weapon usage for enemy genin
• Increased genin ranged weapon speed slightly
• Fixed Ogura and Iwaya clan armies having flipped strengths
• Fixed arrow sound looping issue
• Fixed torii gate on the southern most peninsula
• Fixed lighting issue with lantern in graveyards
• Fixed gokenin helmet crest disappearing, may require re-equipping the helmet item once on old save files
• Added welcome message for first time users
• Added hint to army menu to explain joke names
• Added hint to map menu to explain custom waypoint usage
• Slightly increased joke name chance

vR107s (Made on 10/1/26 at ~9AM)

• Reverted enemy bomb usage, it was too much
• Added "stop tutorial" button to the progress tab menu to end a currently running tutorial