Redfall Update 3 Adds New Weapon and Performance Improvements, but No Offline Mode

Redfall’s next game update is here, but if you were hoping that this new patch would roll out the option to play offline, you would be disappointed.

Redfall publisher Bethesda Softworks revealed all the changes in a new blog post. The biggest one is the addition of the Basilisk, a new sniper rifle that “charges the first bullet in a full magazine with UV power that can petrify Vampires,” but it does not work on enemies that are immune to petrification or were recently petrified, according to Bethesda.

The patch notes also mention that Arkane is continuing the development of the Hero Pass. However, no further details were shared, and players must wait until “later next year” for more information. The Hero Pass, available as part of the $100 Redfall’s Bite Back Edition or for $30 to purchase just the Bite Back content separately, includes access to “two future heroes with unique powers and gameplay.”

Another thing missing in the update notes is the option to play Redfall offline. Arkane was scrutinized before Redfall’s release when it was discovered it had an always-online requirement. In an interview last March, Redfall’s director Harvey Smith said they were working on reversing the requirement.

Nevertheless, Arkane has slowly been improving Redfall with last month’s update, adding the long-awaited 60FPS mode for the Xbox Series X/S versions.

Redfall was widely panned by both critics and players at release, with reports that the game had a troubled development cycle.

“Redfall is a bafflingly bad time across the board. Plagued with bland missions, boneheaded enemies, and repeated technical problems, Redfall simply wasn’t ready for daylight in this state,” my colleague Luke Reilly wrote in his review.

Yet Bethesda remains hopeful, with former Head of Global Publishing Pete Hines saying in an interview in September that Redfall will eventually be a good game, comparing its rough launch to that of Bethesda Game Studios’ 2018 title Fallout 76.

You can check out the full patch notes below.

Redfall’s Game Update 3 Patch Notes

• Weapons
  • Introducing the Basilisk, a new Unrivaled Sniper Rifle with a unique weapon trait: This weapon charges the first bullet in a full magazine with UV power that can petrify Vampires. Does not affect enemies recently Petrified or immune to Petrification.
    • Basilisk can drop anywhere Unrivaled items are eligible, with a higher chance to drop from Bellwether-themed containers in the open world and vampire nests.
• AI/NPC
  • Shrouds, Anglers, and Siphons are now gated from spawning in the open world until players reach a specific level, or complete certain missions.
  • Balanced enemy abilities and traits:
    • Siphon’s Blood Torrent ability takes longer to interrupt when breaking line of sight.
    • Increased Siphon’s resistances to fire.
    • Vampires deal more damage to Bribón and Devinder’s Quantum Kerfuffle decoy when attacking from close range.
    • Soulless enemies deal more damage when attacking players from close range.
    • Watchers react faster to players in line of sight, and spawn reinforcements in combat more often.
  • Human enemies are now able to climb awnings.
  • Improved quality of enemy pathing and human movement animations.
• Gameplay
  • Jacob’s Camouflage Field skill will no longer cancel ADS for non-Jacob players.
  • Devinder’s Ultraviolent Light skill no longer shatters Special vampires, and instead inflicts a large amount of damage to them. Regular vampires will still shatter.
  • Layla’s Psychic Shockwave no longer triggers multiple times from vampire lunge attacks.
  • Deathmist Spewers now respond to the UV burst from Emergency Flash Bang Blood Remnants.
  • Co-op players no longer lose their crouching ability when exiting a nest.
  • Bound civilians no longer show as cultists when pinged.
• Missions
  • Refined search areas for several missions.
  • Added more respawn points to minimize cases where players are blocked from respawning after death.
  • Fixed locations where Devinder’s Translocate device can be thrown out of world.
  • Improved NPC patrol paths
  • “Amelia’s Eulogy” triggers correctly after reloading the game.
  • Resolved issues with hostile and friendly states in “One of Us”.
  • Improved Totality’s responsiveness during the Black Sun boss fight.
• Heroes
  • All damage-dealing Hero abilities will now shatter vulnerable Nest hearts.
  • Jacob’s Six String backpack cosmetic is now shown with other Backpack cosmetics.
  • Hero thumbs should no longer clip into assault rifles when equipped.
• User Interface
  • Improved visibility of player locations on the Map.
  • Added input curve visuals for Input Response settings.
  • Voice chat now has a separate volume control option in the Audio Settings Menu.
• Accessibility
  • Added Single Press options for the following toggle-Hold interactions: ADS, Continuous Fire and all Menus.
  • Screen narration no longer repeats the narration for the “Close” prompt when navigating the System Menu.
  • Fixed an issue where all platforms read as ‘Xbox’ by the screen narrator.
  • Pop-up countdown is narrated properly during first time use of the Accessibility Menu.
  • Speech-to-text messages now appear in front of the blur of dialog menus in the Main Menu.
  • Message-of-the-Day carousel no longer receives focus priority after exiting out of pop-up windows.
  • Increased player flashlight’s fade speed when reflecting off surfaces.
  • Reduced Rook lightning dash attack impact brightness.
• Audio
  • Hero outfit foley has been updated and balanced to reduce loudness.
  • Resolved issues with audio skipping during psychic echo playbacks.
  • Resolved an issue where music would stop playing after a player was revived during a vampire god fight.
• Performance & Stability
  • Traversing through Deathmist should no longer cause performance issues.
  • Resolved issue with contact shadows interfering with self-shadowing.
  • Resolved issue with some Game Settings not persisting between game launches.
  • Restored default windowed mode to ‘Windowed Fullscreen’.
  • The game client now saves window location between game launches.
  • Various performance fixes related to FPS drops and stuttering.
  • Addressed edge-case crash condition with late joining game clients.

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.