If you, like me, have been keeping up with Highguard, well, there’s good news. Despite last week’s studio layoffs and the radio silence afterwards, Wildlight Entertainment’s hero shooter has snuck out a new content drop. It includes a new map and raiding item, as well as new mounts that look like Dungeons & Dragons‘ Owlbears. But the real pocket of hope is a new mode the developers are teasing based around what Highguard does best: raids.
“This patch is purely content focused, with a brand new Base and a powerful new Raid Tool added to the game, along with new offerings in the Store,” read the patch notes on Steam. “We are also working on next week’s patch, which we aim to bring a new game mode focused on the Raid experience, as well as some balance adjustments to weapons, among other things.”
The “Raid experience,” for folks who bounced off Highguard at launch or haven’t given it a try, is when one team is breaching a base and trying to plant bombs on objectives to blow it up. There’s a bit of Rainbow Six Siege sprinkled in with destructible walls and gadgets that assist with breaching, including zip-lines you can shoot out from a siege tower to quickly get behind enemy lines. It’s usually the best part of any match and is where the real promise of Highguard begins to breakthrough. A new mode that serves that up in a more concentrated form could work really well.
Wildlight still hasn’t given an update on the old content roadmap but that new mode is supposed to arrive next week. In the meantime, however, this week’s patch will add the Cloudbreach map which takes place at the launchpad for a giant air ship, and the Lockpick, a new item that lets you shoot a dart at doors and windows to take control of them away from the enemy during raids. A purple variant will even add an electric shock that zaps enemies nearby. Plus there’s new Moonbruin Mounts which look look cool, though good luck getting anyone to spend money on Highguard right now.