To celebrate its first anniversary in 2025, Obsidian Entertainment is releasing a huge 2.0 update for Avowed, and for the first time, bringing the game to PlayStation 5. Avowed was initially released on Xbox and PC, but this update expands its reach to a new audience in the Living Lands. With a year of improvements already made, now is the perfect time to experience Avowed, especially with everything the Anniversary Update adds to the game.
As a big fan of Obsidian, it’s been amazing to see everything they’ve been up to since Microsoft acquired them back in 2018! They’ve consistently released fantastic games like The Outer Worlds, Grounded, and Pentiment. Even while still updating Grounded 2, they’ve been hard at work on Avowed, a new RPG set in the world of Pillars of Eternity. Avowed actually launched really well – especially on Steam, and seemed to sell as expected – but Obsidian didn’t stop there! They kept improving it, and recently celebrated its first anniversary with a huge new update, which is awesome to see.
After a year of requests from players, the latest update for Avowed finally adds a New Game Plus mode. This highly requested feature lets you start a new playthrough while keeping your character’s core strengths – all attribute points, abilities, necklaces, rings, trinkets, gloves, and boots will carry over. Your weapons and armor will also remain, but will be reset to level 1. To keep things balanced, gold, crafting materials, food, quest items, and consumables will be reset. The game world will also become more challenging, with tougher enemies and updated stats.
The Anniversary Update for Avowed gives players a great reason to start a new game, with the addition of three new playable races: Dwarves, Orlans, and Aumaua. Each race now has unique stat bonuses based on their background. Even better, you can now change your character’s species (and appearance!) at any time during a playthrough using a mirror. For those who prefer a magic-focused playstyle, the update also introduces the Quarterstaff, a versatile weapon that can be used for both melee attacks and finishing moves.
Okay, so the latest Avowed update is awesome for quality of life! They finally added Photo Mode, which I’ve been waiting for, and the game looks even better with some visual polish. Huge win: you can now skip those long conversations with that god character, which is a lifesaver. But the biggest news for me is all the accessibility and difficulty options. Seriously, you can tweak everything – damage numbers, enemy health, even how forgiving the parry timing is, and even your companions’ stats. It’s all in the Game settings. Just a heads-up though: messing with these settings won’t stop you from getting achievements overall, except for the ‘Path of the Damned’ achievement. So, if you’re going for that one, you’ll want to play it straight!
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The Anniversary Update is launching alongside the release of Avowed on PlayStation 5. After being announced for Sony’s system in January, Avowed is one of several formerly exclusive Xbox games now available on other platforms. Microsoft, once a strong competitor, has been expanding to include PlayStation and other systems. While some dedicated Xbox fans haven’t been thrilled with this change, Microsoft continues to implement this strategy and doesn’t appear to be stopping anytime soon.
Avowed Anniversary Update Patch Notes
Features and Improvements
New Game+
After you finish the main story, you can unlock New Game Plus. This mode is for players who want to master the game, try out different strategies, and create incredibly strong characters.
When starting a New Game Plus save, players will bring along with them:
- All unlocked abilities (with the exception of godlike abilities which are gained through story progression/world exploration)
- All spent attribute points
- All unique weapons and armors—but they are reset to level 1
- All unlocked enchantments remain
- All unique gloves and boots
- All necklaces, all rings, and all trinkets
- Any equipped Common Weapons or Armor items are kept, but they are reset to level 1
The following are removed from the player at the start of a New Game Plus:
- All common weapons and armor that aren’t equipped
- Companions must be picked up via story progression
- Companions keep their talent points and start at level 1
- All resources that had been collected
- Gold
- Upgrade materials
- Enchanting materials
- Food ingredients
- All consumables that had been collected
- All potions
- All food
- All quest items
- All god totems/trinkets
- Fast travel points/fog of war
- The aforementioned godlike abilities
To ensure challenge scales alongside player power:
- Enemy stats are increased across the board
- Enemies now have a chance to have modifiers applied to them
Elemental Modifiers
- Fire: Immune to Fire damage and accumulation. Attacks also now deal Fire damage.
- Frost: Immune to Frost damage and accumulation. Attacks also now deal Frost damage.
- Shock: Immune to Shock damage and accumulation. Attacks also now deal Shock damage.
- Poison: Immune to Poison damage and accumulation. Attacks also now deal Poison damage.
- Bleed: Immune to Bleed damage and accumulation. Attacks also now deal Bleed damage.
Physical Modifiers
- Haste: Increased movement speed, attack speed, and reduced cooldown timers
- Glass Cannon: Increased damage dealt and damage received
- Colossal: Increased maximum health
- Life Steal: Attacks restore the enemy’s health by a percentage of the damage dealt
- Crippled: Reduced movement speed and attack speed
- Sturdy: Increased stability making it harder for them to be stunned
- Natural Immunity: Immune to all status accumulations
- Forceful: Increased impact on attacks
- Vindictive: Increased damage dealt based on the amount of health lost
- Attribute stat cap rises from 15 to 30
If you’ve already finished Avowed, here’s what you need to know about New Game Plus: because it wasn’t part of the original game design, you’ll need a completed save file to start it. Either load a save from right before the final part of the game, or finish the game again to create a save that works with New Game Plus.
New Playable Species
The anniversary update brings a big change to how you create characters: you can now play as three new species, in addition to the existing Humans and Elves.
- Dwarves – The most well-traveled species in Eora, the stout dwarves are known for their great strength and tenacity.
- Orlans – Their two-toned skin, prominent ears, and hirsute bodies all in the smallest size of Kith make them stand outs in Eora.
- Aumaua – Towering, powerfully built, and physically imposing.
Beyond just changing your character’s appearance, we’ve also given each species unique stat bonuses, giving you more options when creating your character.
Humans
- +1 Might
- +1 Resolve
Elves
- +1 Dexterity
- +1 Perception
Aumaua
- +2 Might
Dwarves
- +1 Might
- +1 Constitution
Orlans
- +1 Perception
- +1 Resolve
Additionally, players will receive stat bonuses depending on their chosen background.
- Arcane Scholar – +2 to Intellect
- Court Augur – +2 to Resolve
- Noble Scion – +2 to Perception
- Vanguard Scout – +2 to Dexterity
- War Hero – +2 to Constitution
Improved Character Creation
Added new Godlike features, color variants, and presets
Custom Difficulty
Players who want to personalize their experience can now adjust the difficulty in Avowed with custom modifiers. These options let you fine-tune the game’s systems to match your playstyle and are located in the “Game” settings menu.
Adjust player:
- Damage dealt
- Health, stamina, and essence resources
- Elemental status effect threshold
- Health and essence regeneration rates
- Potion and food restoration rates
- Interrupt or knockdown ease
- Second Wind cooldown time
- Carry capacity
- Parry window
Adjust enemy:
- Damage output
- Health pool
- Stun, interrupt, or knockdown ease
- Attack speed
- Elemental status effect threshold
- Aggro threshold
Adjust companion:
- Damage dealt
- Health max
- Elemental status effect threshold
- Aggro threshold
As well as general adjustments:
- Merchant prices
- Equipment upgrade material costs
- Fall damage
- Trap damage
- Item quality damage reduction
Heads up: Adjusting these settings won’t break most achievements you’re trying to get, but it will prevent you from earning the “Path of the Damned” achievement. You need to complete that one with the game’s default settings, without using any custom options.
Photo Mode
Okay, so I can totally take awesome screenshots in this game now! I can grab pictures of my character, my party, and the whole world from pretty much any angle. There’s a free camera I can move around, plus I can rotate my character to get the perfect pose. They’ve also got a bunch of cool filters and effects – things like post-processing and gradients – to make everything look amazing. You find the Photo Mode in the pause menu, which is super convenient. I’m already planning some epic shots!
New Weapon
The quarterstaff is a brand new weapon now available, perfect for players who enjoy a magical, archmage-style fighting experience. This bludgeoning weapon lets you chain together powerful physical attacks and stunning finishing moves, alongside spells that are sure to impress. It’s a versatile option that even the powerful sorcerer Concelhaut would envy!
New Stun Finishers
New stun finishers added for One-Handed Weapons and Two-Handed Weapons.
Respawning Encounters
Monsters now respawn in Dawnshore, Emerald Stair, Shatterscarp, and Galawain’s Tusks, meaning you can fight them again after defeating them.
New Quality of Life Features
- Players can now change their Envoy’s appearance after character creation via the mirror in the party camp.
- Newly placed workbenches allow players to upgrade gear without returning to party camp.
- All player Backgrounds now have an added attribute bonus.
- Added option to end dream conversations early.
- Powder keg chain reactions now occur with a short delay, instead of all exploding simultaneously.
- Increased max Controller Vibration Intensity (in the Controller Settings menu) from 1.0 to 2.0.
- Added keyboard-based turning in accessibility options.
Improvements to Lighting
- The lighting has been improved across all regions.
- Improved the lighting in conversations.
Graphics
- Updated XeSS to 2.1. Xe Frame Generation, Xe Super Resolution, and Xe Low-Latency mode are now available to more GPUs.
All Bug Fixes
Crashes and stability
- The game should now longer crash after Fog of War has been cleared.
- Addressed an issue causing Barbaric Smash killing blow VFX to remain on the player indefinitely
- Fixed an issue when creating save games that could cause NPCs to be stuck when reloading
Performance and Optimizations
- Resolved an issue where NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency was missing “Off” option while upscaling is disabled.
- Ray tracing is now off by default on Handheld PCs.
- Added Mid Luminance values to HDR settings.
- Various performance improvements.
Animation
- Fixed an issue with the Two-Handed Axe special attack not being aligned while in third person view.
- Companion animations no longer stutter during conversations and exploration.
Audio
- All audio should now play properly when cooking.
Quests & Conversations
- Decals for puzzle in Sallow Steppe should now render properly.
- The camera should behave normally during conversation with Tazaraak.
UI/UX
- Ability and Grimoire Cost Discounts are now shown in the Character tab of the Ledger, as well as the maximum (-90%) available.
- Fixed Tanglefoot’s icon on Player’s and enemy’s HUD.
- New Icon added to help distinguish Flurry of Blows on enemy’s HUD.
- Text should no longer overlap tabs in certain languages.
- Fixed description for several active abilities that were incorrectly labeled as passive.
- Resolved an issue where “confirm override” pop-up was not showing while switching presets in the Extras tab.
- Fixed an issue where Marius’ Hunter Sense disappeared from hotbar after leaving Party Camp.
- Vital bars are showing proper preview values for some skills when upgraded.
- Fixed an issue where “Survivalist” ability did not reflect additional bonuses in UI.
- Blunted hits no longer include blood VFX when “Combat Blood” is disabled.
Combat/Systems Fixes
- Fixed issue where various Area of Effect sources like Arcane Veil interfered with aiming player spells.
- Swinging guillotines in the Garden remain disabled after loading a save.
- Fixed an issue where Yatzli’s Explosive Blast did not break destructibles.
- Some unique weapon enchantments now work properly while Dual Wield Mastery is active.
- Already broken destructibles no longer receive damage numbers.
- Loot now directly drops at the feet of a shattered frozen enemy.
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2026-02-18 17:38