On the anniversary of its launch in 2025, Obsidian Entertainment releases a massive 2.0 update for Avowed, adding tons of new content and general improvements while also bringing the game to PlayStation 5 players. While technically a multiplatform title on its original launch, including both Xbox and PC, the game has finally expanded to bring a whole new audience to the Living Lands. Timing-wise, there’s never been a better time to check out Avowed as the game has a year’s worth of updates under its belt and now, the massive Anniversary Update brings even more content and improvements to the table.
Since Obsidian Entertainment was acquired by Microsoft in 2018, the developer has been extremely busy releasing games like The Outer Worlds, Grounded, Pentiment, and more. Even with Grounded 2 still in Early Access, the developer has continued improving its action RPG Avowed over the past year, a game set within the Pillars of Eternity universe. Although the game got off to a very strong start, especially on Steam, and seemingly met sales expectations, Obsidian continued to work on improving the title, eventually leading to the game’s first anniversary with a massive new update.
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After a year of waiting, the Anniversary update for Avowed makes good on one of the biggest fan requests since the game originally launched. Players have been asking for a proper New Game Plus option in Avowed and with this update, the option is finally available. When selecting this option, players will carry forward all spent attribute points, unlocked abilities, necklaces, rings, trinkets, unique gloves, unique boots, and enhancements. Unique weapons, armor, as well as any equipped common versions will be kept but have their levels reset back to 1. Gold, upgrade materials, food ingredients, enchanting materials, quest items, fast travel systems, and consumables are all removed. The game’s world also scales up to provide more of a challenge, including enemy stats, elemental, and physical modifiers.
Perhaps players will want to start over, however, as Avowed‘s Anniversary Update also adds a ton of new content, including 3 new playable races: Dwarves, Orlans, and Aumaua. Each species now has specific stat bonuses, including ones gained from specific backgrounds. Better yet, players in the middle of a playthrough can use a mirror to not only change their character’s look, but their species at any time as well. In addition to three new species to pick from, the Quarterstaff has also been added to the game for those who want to pursue an Archmage-style build. It can be used to bash enemies as well as wand-style finishers.
In terms of quality of life updates, Photo Mode is now available in Avowed, the lighting and visuals have gotten more polish, and players can now skip through previously unskippable conversations with a certain god character in the game. Avowed also has a ton of accessibility and difficulty modifiers that can be applied to further tailor and customize the experience. The settings can be found within the Game tab of the settings menu, letting players adjust all sorts of options, like the amount of damage dealt, enemy stats, the parry window, companion stats, and many more. Keep in mind, tweaking these settings won’t disable achievements from being earned in Avowed, but it will invalidate the Path of the Damned achievement.
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)
The Anniversary Update also arrives just in time as Avowed officially launches on the PlayStation 5. Originally confirmed for Sony’s system back in January, Avowed follows in the footsteps of numerous other first-party Xbox games that have suddenly gone multiplatform. Once a staunchly fierce rival, Microsoft has since been bringing many of its former exclusive games to other systems like the PlayStation. The move hasn’t always gone over well with some of its more hardcore Xbox fans, but it’s a strategy that Microsoft has stuck to and likely isn’t changing anytime soon.
Avowed Anniversary Update Patch Notes
Features and Improvements
New Game+
New Game Plus is now available after completing the main story. This mode is designed to reward mastery, experimentation, and making the all-powerful build.
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
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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
An important note for those who have already completed Avowed: Since New Game Plus is being added post release and the game was not initially designed with it in mind, a completion save will be necessary in order to take advantage of the mode. You will need to load a point of no return save or later and beat the game to make a proper New Game Plus save.
New Playable Species
Included in the anniversary update is a major expansion to character creation: three new playable species join 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.
Not only do the different species change how you look, the team has also added in stat bonuses for all species adding another layer to character creation.
Humans
Elves
- +1 Dexterity
- +1 Perception
Aumaua
Dwarves
Orlans
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
For players who want even finer control, Avowed now includes custom difficulty modifiers, allowing you to tune the game’s systems to your preferred experience. These new options are found by scrolling down through the “Game” tab of the 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
Important note: While changing these options will not negate most achievements that you may be hunting down, they will invalidate a Path of the Damned achievement. That achievement must be done without use of the custom game options.
Photo Mode
Capture your envoy, companions, and the Living Lands from any angle and share your journey. Includes a free or fixed camera, filters, character rotation and toggle, post-process effects, and gradients. Photo Mode is accessed from the pause menu.
New Weapon
A brand new weapon type is joining the arsenal with the quarterstaff. Designed with the archmage fantasy in mind, the quarterstaff is a new bludgeoning weapon that comes complete with wand style stun finishers. Unleash brutal physical combos along with a fury of spells that would make even Concelhaut jealous.
New Stun Finishers
New stun finishers added for One-Handed Weapons and Two-Handed Weapons.
Respawning Encounters
Respawning encounters have been added to Dawnshore, Emerald Stair, Shatterscarp, and Galawain’s Tusks.
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.
- Released
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February 18, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Violence
- Publisher(s)
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Xbox Game Studios
