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October Patch Preview: New Easiest Difficulty, Combat Targeting Rework, and Smoother Escapes

Rebel Wolves director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz outlines the first big post-launch update, due early October 2026: a new easiest Story mode that takes over the current Story label, stun target-switching removed, navigation mesh fix for combat escapes, and PC performance work continuing; New Game Plus still being explored.

Updated: Category: upcoming

Rebel Wolves has confirmed what is in the first major post-launch patch for The Blood of Dawnwalker. Game director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz walked Eurogamer through the scope in an interview published September 21, 2026, and four A 级 outlets (GamesRadar+, Kotaku, GamerFuzion, TweakTown) plus Rock Paper Shotgun confirmed the same detail set within 48 hours. There is no exact release date, but the director placed the window as “the beginning of October” and described the update as “the big patch which will deliver a lot of upgrades.”

Status update, October 18, 2026: Rebel Wolves announced Update 1.1 on October 16, confirming the fifth difficulty tier and the rename this page had to hedge. The renamed tier is Forgiving, not the “Demanding” working name floated in the September interview. The full breakdown is now on the Update 1.1 page; this page is kept as the September-intent record.

This is the first page on the wiki dedicated to a not-yet-shipped update. Treat everything below as director-confirmed intent rather than released patch notes. The studio has not yet published an official changelog, so the specific difficulty rename (Demanding is the studio’s working name), the precise stun-breaks-after-three-hits formula, and the nav-mesh escape behavior are all subject to revision before the patch ships. As of October 10, 2026 the patch had still not shipped — see the status check below.

Difficulty: From Four Tiers to Five

The headline change is a fifth difficulty tier, and it lands at the bottom of the list rather than the top. Current players will see their difficulty setting shifted up by one notch because the patch is renaming the existing Story mode and installing a new Story mode underneath it.

Tier after the October patchExpected behavior
Story (new)Easiest tier; designed for players who want the narrative without the combat challenge, per Tomaszkiewicz
Forgiving (renamed from current Story; name confirmed in the 1.1 announcement)Roughly the old Story experience; still requires fighting
FairUnchanged from launch
ChallengingUnchanged from launch
DuelistUnchanged from launch; still the hardest pre-existing mode

“We will introduce an additional difficulty level, but an easier one, because many people are asking for a more easy difficulty. The Story mode which we have right now will be a different difficulty… and we will add a new Story mode which will be even easier for people who don’t want to experience the combat, they just want to learn the story and go through the game without this gameplay challenge.” — Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, Eurogamer interview, 2026-09-21

The patch does not raise the top end. Duelist is described as already demanding on its own — the studio considers removing the directional attack indicators enough of a challenge — so anyone playing the hardest mode now will not get a new tier above them. Players currently on Story who are happy with the existing challenge will not be made easier underneath; their mode is just getting a new label. The director left the new name open at the time (“Demanding or something like this”). The Update 1.1 announcement of October 16, 2026 settled it as Forgiving.

Combat: Stun Target-Switching Removed

The patch removes a behavior that has been one of the most-criticized combat mechanics in launch-week Steam reviews and Kotaku’s launch review: when Coen lands a stun or crowd-control ability, the lock-on target switches to a different enemy automatically. Tomaszkiewicz told Eurogamer the behavior was a deliberate design choice — his own — added during internal playtests after he kept stunning an enemy and accidentally breaking the stun by hitting the same target while locked on. To compensate for the team’s own confusion, the lock was made to jump.

Player feedback ran the other way, so the patch removes the forced jump. To balance the change, a stunned enemy will now require three hits before the stun breaks, instead of breaking the moment Coen connects. The director was explicit that this could create a different kind of bad feel and that the studio will watch the response after the patch ships.

“There will be three hits you need to take off this stun. We will see how people will react to that because, as I said, it can create another bad feel, but we will see. Maybe people will switch between targets fluently and if they want to just stun, it will be fine, and if they want to stun and hit a few times, it will be also fine.” — Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, Eurogamer interview, 2026-09-21

Targeting and camera behavior in general are also being worked on in the same pass, though the director gave no specific changes beyond the stun interaction.

Escaping Combat: Navigation Mesh Fix

The patch changes how Coen behaves when running or fleeing from combat. As shipped today, Coen gets caught on geometry and feels “clunky” when trying to put distance between himself and pursuing enemies — a frequent complaint in launch-week Reddit threads about Vale Sangora street fights and witch-form sprinting. The October patch rewires this so that while escaping or running in combat, Coen ignores the navigation mesh, producing fluid movement that does not snag on scenery.

The studio is also adjusting aggressive wildlife in the same pass. Animals in the open world currently hard-lock onto Coen and drag him into fights when he brushes past them in wolf form or during witch-sprint. After the patch, an animal will still take a swing at Coen when he clips it at speed, but if it misses, Coen keeps moving rather than being forced into a fight. For a game where time is the central pressure mechanic, this is one of the higher-leverage playability improvements in the update.

Performance: PC Work Continues, No Universal Fix Promised

Tomaszkiewicz acknowledged the PC stuttering complaints that have persisted through 1.0.5 and called out a tension in player feedback directly: the studio sees complaints about 70–90 frames per second feeling insufficient and does not fully agree that the difference from 60 to 120 matters for a single-player action RPG. He did confirm that PC performance work is still active, but did not promise that the October patch resolves the remaining shader-compilation and stutter problems — only that the studio is collecting hardware telemetry and continuing to optimize.

The implication is that the October patch is not a “performance patch” in the same sense that 1.0.5 was. Anyone waiting for the shader-compilation stutter to be fully resolved should not treat this update as the end of that line.

Not Changing

  • Enemy health / sponginess. Multiple outlets asked about this. Rebel Wolves’ answer is that the feeling comes down to player build rather than enemy tuning, and the patch is not addressing it. The Best Builds and Tier List page covers how to optimize damage on the existing loadouts.
  • 30-day timer. Still the core structure. No word on whether future patches will let players extend the timer; that conversation is happening in the Player Tips and Community Case Studies coverage but is not part of the October patch.

Being Explored (Not Yet Patched)

  • New Game Plus. Tomaszkiewicz told Eurogamer “there is a chance but I don’t want to speak about it yet.” He added that he needs to coordinate with Bandai Namso before announcing anything more. NG+ is being explored but is not in the October patch.
  • New enemy types. Tomaszkiewicz mentioned the studio is looking at additional enemy variety to make repeated encounters less repetitive. No timeline and no specifics on what kind of enemies.
  • Performance beyond 60 fps on PC. Acknowledged as a goal, not committed to the October patch.

What This Means for Players Now

The most actionable read of the update for someone playing today is the timing question. If you are on a first playthrough, the patch does not change the campaign you are already in — the new difficulty tier and the combat retargeting only apply at the start of a new save, and the stun-three-hits fix is the only thing that touches an in-progress playthrough. If you are considering a second playthrough to chase a different ending or build, waiting until the patch ships makes sense: a new difficulty option, smoother combat flow, and easier Vale Sangora traversal together change the feel of the campaign more than any single hotfix since launch.

If you are playing on PC and stuttering is blocking your experience, the director’s words are direct: do not expect the October patch to resolve it. The still-open shader compilation list lives in Launch Day Known Issues and Day-One Patch.

Status Check: 2026-10-18 — Scope Confirmed, Patch Due Week of Oct 19

The October window opened and closed without a changelog, but on October 16, 2026 Rebel Wolves announced Update 1.1 with a feature list and a ship window of the week of October 19, 2026. The scope on this page is confirmed; the patch itself is not yet installed on anyone’s machine at the time of writing.

What we verified on October 10, 2026:

  • Update 1.1 announced October 16, 2026, due the week of October 19. The Steam news feed for app 3751260 now carries third-party coverage of the announcement; the official post was made to the Dawnwalker account and r/DawnwalkerOfficial.
  • No official version above 1.0.5 is installed yet. Hotfix 1.0.5 (September 11, 2026) remains the newest confirmed live build; 1.1 is announced and dated but not released.
  • The full 1,100-item changelog is promised for patch day, not published in advance. New Game Plus remains unannounced.

So there is no “patch day” to plan around yet. The rest of this page remains director-confirmed intent rather than shipped behavior, exactly as written when it was first published.

What to Watch For When It Ships

The wiki will be updated when Rebel Wolves publishes official patch notes. The signals worth a dedicated entry in Updates Archive when they land:

  • Confirmation of the renamed difficulty label — resolved: it is Forgiving (announced 2026-10-16)
  • Exact stun-three-hits formula and whether it applies only to player-applied stun or environmental stun as well
  • Any change to enemy health / damage tuning (currently described as not changing, but a future tuning pass is plausible)
  • Any change to the 30-day timer structure (not in this patch per current scope)
  • Confirmation or denial of New Game Plus in the same patch or a near-term follow-up

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