No Rest for the Wicked - The Breach Review

Developed and published by Moon Studios, No Rest for the Wicked isn't your typical action role-playing video game. The title first launched as an early access, and because of its unique art style and gameplay mechanics, it brought with it a lot of high expectations. However, soon after its initial launch, game updates became scarce. 

Following The Crucible and a few more small patches and hot fixes, Moon Studio has finally delivered something worthwhile with the release of The Breach update. This patch doesn't simply just bloat the game with a horde of new content; it overhauls a lot of No Rest for the Wicked's fundamental mechanics, making it feel like a totally refined experience.

It doesn't matter if you're returning clear or picking up the game for the first time; this update is surely worth anyone's attention. An important thing about the breach update that I got to know is that The Breach update requires you to start with a new character; your old save files will remain as a "legacy" save, but you won't be allowed to experience the new stuff that the update brings using them. 

The changes were supposedly so extensive that a new playthrough was the best way to appreciate everything they've added. While this may be a setback to some, I can also see why the studio went in this direction, as it ensures everything goes smoothly and cohesively.

This No Rest for the Wicked update has some continuation of the original storyline. Without getting into spoilers, the new chapters go deeper into the plague that spreads across the land with your character, and there's a serum that's the last hope to stop this plague. 

The Breach update also introduces a new hardcore mode. In this mode, when your character dies, they are no longer allowed in hardcore servers, although you are still able to play with them normally; it's basically high-stakes mode for those who enjoy a greater challenge, but the balance of it is still being fine-tuned. Hence, there might still be changes in the future.

The breach update increases the game's explorable areas twofold; there are two new massive zones, the lowland meadows and the Marin Woods. The meadows lie south of the sacrament, and their beautifully bright, the Sunny field, over by plague-infested beings.

The woods are located in the north and are home to the fierce tribes and wild beasts. The new zones are beautifully crafted, introducing new enemies and bosses. If we go into specifics, there are four new main campaign bosses, nine plague bosses, and two new enemy factions. 

The previously existing areas have also been reworked and updated with additional secrets and pathways, making them just as replayable. The new zones aside, there's also a new safe area called Marin Village. Unlike the original safe area, you can't fast travel or buy a home here, but it serves as a great spot to shop and to upgrade gear. 

The vendors in the game sell rare materials like animal skulls and claws, which are important for crafting and upgrades. There is a blacksmith available in the village, but they can only repair your gear and not upgrade it. Marin adds another layer to the game's world, giving you more reasons to explore.

There were a lot of new things introduced with No Rest for the Wicked's combat, including the introduction of new weapon types - Gauntlets and Wands. Gauntlets are fast-hitting martial arts weapons that let you do flashy moves, pretty similar to daggers, and scale well with dexterity, making them a great option if you're into melee and an agile playstyle. 

Wands, as we know them, are one-handed magical weapons that can be paired with a shield. It gives you more flexibility, especially if you want a more defensive build that is mobile; the Wands scale with your intelligence, catering to a nimble spell-blade type character.

No Rest for the Wicked's Shield system has also been overhauled. When you block an attack, it no longer drains your stamina; now it depends on the poise stat. This change makes it much easier for you to maintain stamina during soft battles, giving you more breathing room to block and counterattack. 

Weapons in the new update also scale better with your stats, but I wouldn't say that this chain significantly affects the game to the point where it makes it easier. The improved scaling ensures that the stats feel more meaningful.

One of the bigger game-changing features in this new update is the game's pestilence system. This feature randomly corrupts zones with the plague, similar to "helltides" in Diablo. The corrupted regions become infected with dangerous enemies, which are marked with purple on your map, after entering the Pestilence Zone. 

You'll notice a bar that basically tracks the strength of the plague, and when defeat the enemies, the bar reduces, and when it empties a final plague boss appears the bosses are a tougher variant of the existing ones, and beating them cleanses the zone of corruption and reward you with pretty decent loot.

You're also able to increase the difficulty of these zones by using torn resources – special items that drop only from infected enemies. Does that make it harder? Yes, but doing so makes it so that you get better loot, and it's a really good way to farm gear, a fun risk versus reward mechanic.

The update increases the number of enemy factions that appear in different zones. This change makes it so that you don't face the same type of enemies over and over again. When combined with the pestilence system, this makes the playthrough more dynamic and unpredictable, which is nice.

The dropped items also now scale better with your levels and aren't really tied to specific areas. Items that you get from the earlier zones can now be found again in different areas, giving you an opportunity to build a character you want without making it so that you'd have to play the game again to get your desired set.

A lot of the item affixes have also been revamped, and the enchantment system has also been fine-tuned. Previously, the affixes were static, making it hard to find and tune your build, but this time around, you're allowed to re-roll enchantments using a rare item called the fallen ember. You can pre-roll until you get the perfect combination, but the ember is a rare item, so you only need to keep that in mind.

The way that you heal in fights has also been rethought and changed. Previously, you had to wait between the bites of food, which was pretty annoying, especially when you were in a heated fight - that cool down is now gone. But you're now limited in how much you can eat during combat. This limit can be increased during plague ichor, which you give to a special NPC called the Watcher. 

A small meter on your food icon shows how many times you can eat when you're in a fight. This change improves the game's pacing and, as a strategic element of how you heal, removes the annoyances, but it's not something that makes the game easier. You still have to be strategic about how you go about the healing mechanic, as it is a bit limiting.

I remember the inventory management being horrid in No Rest for the Wicked, but now the resources stack in your home chest can go up to 99, giving you a lot more room for crafting materials and food. You still end up carrying the same amount in your backpack, but your house storage is much more efficient, cutting down on all the time spent organizing items—a great quality of life improvement.

Another welcome addition was the Whisper Stone, which lets you travel quickly and directly from your house to anywhere. If you own multiple homes, each can have its own whisper stone, allowing you to traverse through them easily.

The wait times for No Rest for the Wicked's building projects were such a nuisance; our prayers have finally been answered. You're now allowed to feed project workers food and ingredients to speed up their progress. This is an interesting feature that we've seen in many games, and it makes upgrading feel more interactive and less like a waiting game.

Before the update, areas and no rest for the wicked were marked only as moderate, dangerous, or deadly. It didn't really add that much nuance, but now danger levels are shown in numbers so that you know exactly how dangerous the area is. Especially helpful for newer players so that you don't accidentally wander into the zones that are too difficult.

The breach update in No Rest for the Wicked is a massive step forward, adding so much variety, stories, areas to explore, new combat styles, a better loot system, and countless quality-of-life improvements while still building on the core foundations of the original. 

No Rest for the Wicked is still in the early days of the update, but it tells you a lot about the developers, specifically how they listen to player feedback and how they are committed to improving the experience—a sight we all love to see. If you've been on the fence about the game or haven't really been in the loop since launch, now is the perfect time to step back in the pool to see what's new and what resonates with you.