No Rest for the Wicked Patch Notes: Early Access Patch 2

No Rest for the Wicked has been in early access for one month exactly at this point, and the developers over at Moon Studios have decided to celebrate by releasing their biggest patch yet. Early Access Patch 2 is the most significant update for the game so far, and it aims to fix many of the issues players have been having since they first tried out the game. This includes things like the ability to remap the buttons of your controller, the ability to respec your characters, as well as the option to try out all of the different weapons you find without meeting their requirements.

All of these changes are just the beginning of their early access roadmap for the development of the game, and we should be expecting the first major content patch to be released in the coming months. Patch 2 also brings a lot of other changes to the game, and in this article, we are going to go over the full list of patch notes for the biggest No Rest for the Wicked update so far!

No Rest for the Wicked Patch Notes: Early Access Patch 2

Patch 2 for No Rest for the Wicked is all about quality-of-life updates, with the highlights being the ability to respec your characters and try weapons without having to meet the requirements. Many players who tried the game when it first launched in early access were not happy with how restrictive it felt towards their characters, with the game forcing you to put permanent points into your stats before you even knew how the itemization system worked.

This resulted in players hoarding their points until they managed to find the perfect weapon for their playstyle, which was also not easy as you needed to actually spend those points in order to try the weapons out. This has now been fixed, and you should be able to play around with these weapons (at the cost of reduced damage) and check out their move sets before you make your decision.

Other big changes, such as the addition of DLSS/FSR Upscaling and controller button remapping, have also been added, the latter of which should have honestly been in the game right as it launched. Needless to say, the developers are putting in the time to make the game as accessible as possible before they start adding new content, with the first major patch being confirmed to add co-op and PvP to the game. Here is the full list of changes that are coming to No Rest for the Wicked with Patch 2:

Performance:

• Performance Mode now lowers texture resolution, reducing crashes on lower-end machines
• Numerous Significant CPU optimizations
• Fixed performance degradation that might occur on some gamepads
• Fixed numerous memory leaks
• Reduced instantiation spikes for numerous objects
• Disabled detail meshes on generic humanoids faces when not needed
• Reduced latency, overhead and improved stability of GPU Culling
• Optimized texture resolution and memory budgets for Steam Deck
• Optimized Art content in Ship Prologue and its cinematics
• Removed unused weapon assets to free up memory
• Removed leftover developer tools to free up memory
• Optimized CPU spikes of a variety of common content loading operations
• Added texture streaming for character portraits during dialogue interactions to save memory
• Fixed some persistent log spam being generated by potatoes in Nameless Pass
• Cleaned up numerous NPC prefabs, reducing memory footprint and instantiation costs
• Optimized Ambient Occlusion Rendering
• Extended GPU culling usage for more cases
• Configured and optimized pooling for more prefab instantiations reducing CPU spikes

Gameplay Systems:

• Added new Respec System!
  • Players can now Respec by examining the statue in the Cerim Crucible Atrium
  • Respec allows players to take back Attribute Points that have been allocated at the cost of 1 Fallen Ember per Attribute Point returned
  • Players can then allocate returned Attribute Points for no cost at the Respec screen or in the existing Stats screen

Quality of Life:

• All weapons can now be equipped regardless of their Attribute Requirements to allow players to try out weapons they acquire
  • Weapons that the player does not meet the requirements for will deal less damage through negative scaling on the Attributes that are below the weapon’s Attribute Requirements
• Inventory Items can now be docked to compare them
  • Press F (Keyboard) or Y (Controller) to dock items and hover other items to compare
• Brought back the Misc category to the Inventory
  • Housing items, Runes, Fallen Embers and other miscellaneous items will now be sorted into this category and free up space from other categories
• Vendor screens are now sorted by item type so that items are more organized for purchase
• Improved Stamina player HUD brightness for better visibility, and readability of stamina debt
• Added side notifications for when Danos Sacrament Upgrades are completed
• Added Floor Indicators under the Clock HUD to show the Cerim Crucible floors
• Improved visibility of LB/RB button icons for Equipment HUD on Steam Deck

Settings:

• Added support for Upscaling with DLSS 3.7 and FSR 2.2
• Added custom key rebinding options for Controller
• Added support for Mouse Buttons 4,5 and F1-F12 Keys for custom Keyboard bindings
• Default Keyboard layout set to Mouse+WASD
• Added support for worldspace Player HUD (Stamina wheel, NPC name tags, etc) brightness to UI Brightness setting

Content Additions:

• Added a new set of enchantments
• All Throw runes can now be added to Spears

Loot:

• Added Pig Sticker Blueprint to Fillmore’s Level 1 Shop
• Added Assegai Blueprint to Whittacker’s Level 1 Shop

Balance:

• Nerfed Throw runes
  • Reduced Poise Damage on all Throw runes
  • Reduced Damage on Ice Throw Rune
• Nerfed Focus Regeneration enchant curve so that it no longer generates too much Focus too quickly
• Focus Regeneration enchantment no longer drops with Gloves and now only drops with Helmets
  • This includes enchanting items at Eleanor
• Falling Sky and Woodland Protector’s initial item levels were set too high and have been lowered to the intended levels

Weapons:

• Updated animation for backstabbing with Staves, Spears, Greatswords and Great Hammers
• Updated visual effects for Piercing type weapon attacks (such as Spear or Rapier)

Enemies and Bosses:

• Polished Darak boss fight
  • Improved behavior to prevent him standing idle after attacking
  • Improved behavior when fighting ranged builds
• Added Bite Attack to Plague Rat
• Added Back Attack to Risen Axe Bruiser
• Added escape logic to Risen Fire Bomber
• Added Elemental Affix visual effects to Nith Brute, Nith Screamer and Shackled Brute
• Adding cloth simulation to Boarskin Bruiser
• Polished rigging on Plagued Boomer
• Reduced camera shake intensity on Risen Hammer Bruiser, Boarskin Bruiser and Riven Twins
• Smaller enemies can now smash breakable objects (barrels, crates, etc.)

NPCs:

• Changed the name of the worried woman in the Sacrament Town Square to Nell
• Polishing dialog for Druo, Lucian and Everwyn
• Updated the dialog for NPCs at the Cerim Gate in Nameless Pass
• Added eavesdrop to Sleeping Guard Gerard in Sacrament

Areas:

• Improved collision, faders and set dressing in Prologue Ship, Orban Glades, Mariner’s Keep, Nameless Pass, Sacrament, Multiple Sacrament Interiors, Cerim Crucible, Cerim Cave, Riven Twins Boss Arena and Potion Seller Cave
• Polished lighting for the ship in Prologue, Sacrament and Cerim Crucible
• Updated foliage in various locations
• Added physics and wind simulation to Spruce trees

Cinematics:

• Polished animations for characters in the Inquisition Arrival cinematic
• Improved lighting, character rim lighting and volumetrics for the Prologue Ship Crash Outro and Inquisition Arrival cinematics
• Removed a background character who was blocking part of the view in the Inquisition Arrival cinematic
• Fixed cloth and camera pops in the Inquisition Arrival cinematic

Audio:

• Environment update for Sacrament:
  • Added Ambience Emitters for certain Residential and Vendor buildings like the Cook, Tavern, Woodcrafter and Enchantress
  • Updated zone beds and oneshots for unique parts of town (Cemetery, Poor Area, Training Grounds, Dasha Sanctuary)
  • The church near the cemetery now has bells ringing to service playing at certain times of day, followed by churchgoers praying and chanting from behind the doors.
  • Updated ambience for Sacrament Town Square to feel busier during the day
  • Updated environment audio for the Cerim Gate zone in Mountain Pass
• Increased audio buffer to help alleviate audio crackle artifacts
• Increased available audio resources to help prevent sounds from dropping out during long play sessions
• Updated audio for Cerim Vision cinematic
• Updated audio mix for Barrel and Crate destruction
• Saluting Guards in Sacrament now have sound
• Added Weapon-specific Impacts on parrying and blocking actions
• Added ladder sliding sound effects for Kickdown Ladders
• Added sound effects for going down Ladders
• Added new sound effects for Plague-Enchanted weapons
• Polished audio for Bounties enemies
• Fixed missing sounds for Plagued Mutant Soldier
• Fixed rain sounds appearing in Sacrament Interiors
• Fixed enchantment-specific weapon whooshes cutting a bit too early
• Fixed NPCs not making footstep sounds when walking around
• Fixed environment states sometimes not resetting when returning to the main menu

VFX:

• Blood effects are now juicier and used more often!
• Improved blood visual effects attachment to characters bodies from attacking and getting hit
• Increased intensity of shiny item drop VFX

Bounties and Challenges:

• Updated Crustacean Conundrum bounty to spawn 14 Crabs while still only requiring 8 Crabs be killed to complete

Localization:

• Added and updated localized text in many places across multiple languages
• Added localization support for new Controller Remapping screen and for various missing localized elements
• Fixed incorrect font on the Activities screen

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed various enchantments on unique weapons and rings that weren’t working properly
• Fixed Rested Bonuses for sleeping in beds
• Fixed Key Items respawning after pick up
• Fixed navigation in Nameless Pass which was preventing certain enemies and the Riven Twins boss from patrolling and moving to the player
• Fixed Echo Knight falling off the arena and blocking progress
• Fixed Cerim Armor missing upgrades at Filmore
• Fixed Risen Pavise, Eye of the Beholder and Wooden Howler Shields not showing their proper models
• Fixed SHIFT key not being recognized in the Main Menu
• Fixed certain environment textures overriding certain armor textures
• Fixed certain armor having missing or incorrect cloth simulation
• Fixed rigging on certain armor
• Fixed The Wallow boss attacks not having sound effects
• Fixed Falling Sky Blueprint not giving the Unique version of the weapon when crafting
• Fixed an issue where completed but not yet turned in bounty/challenge rewards were being automatically given to the player at reset
• Fixed wall cannons not firing in Cerim Crucible
• Fixed XP UI not showing “Max Level” after reaching the level cap
• Fixed Level and XP UI being present without a Character selected in the Main Menu
• Fixed “Long Area Name” appearing on the map where map is unavailable (such as Cerim Crucible)
• Fixed being able to skip through locked doors in The Shallows
• Fixed players getting stuck at the end of the entrance corridor in the Echo Knight Arena
• Fixed Enchant Item Challenge counting enchanted items that are picked up
• Fixed mortuary guard popping in on screen during Spoken and Unspoken quest
• Fixed extra Elsa map marker during the Spoken and Unspoken quest
• Fixed Giles and Petra standing instead of sitting on the chairs in Caroline’s Inn
• Fixed Arrows not hitting Plagued Wolf
• Fixed Wolf and Plagued Wolf target point
• Fixed Tanth Knight getting stuck during patrolling in Mariner’s Keep at Endgame state
• Fixed Darak leaving his shield in Orban Glades when he escapes
• Fixed chest opening VFX in Performance and Balanced quality presets
• Fixed Wolf having a dance party after death
• Fixed Chest floating in the air in Mariner’s Keep
• Fixed incorrect texture on the Crafting Table
• Fixed 4096x2160 resolution appearing as 256x135 aspect ratio, instead displays as 1.9:1
• Fixed overblown bonfire lighting at The Shallows
• Removed rogue rim light at The Shallows
• Removed lighting debug shortcut

That concludes the full list of changes that are coming to No Rest for the Wicked with Early Access Patch 2. The game is in a much better state just one month after it released in early access, and we can't wait to see how it will turn out with a few more months of development. If you are interested in more No Rest for the Wicked news and guides, make sure to check out the rest of our website!