Conan Exiles rapidly became Funcom’s top-selling game after it left Early Access back in 2018, selling over 1.4 million copies while receiving mixed reviews from critics and players. In the years since its launch, the game has been continuously updated with new content and features, a significant amount of cosmetic DLC, and major map expansions such as Isle of Siptah which added a new island map roughly 75% the size of Conan Exiles’ main map. To celebrate the release of the Age of Sorcery update, Conan Exiles is free to try from September 1 until September 8.
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As indicated by the title, the highlight of Age of Sorcery is the new sorcery gameplay mechanics. Players can unlock Sorcery powers by sacrificing their own bodies to permanent Corruption effects as a tradeoff, which allows players to practice Ritual Magic, Alchemy, and Spell Casting from five different schools of Sorcery. New Sorcery Workstations can be added to the player’s base including the Thaumaturgy Bench, Chalk Circle, Sacrificial Stone, Shallow Grave, and Transportory Stone. Sorcerers also have access to new items and gear to complement their magical abilities.
A complete revamp to the Perks and Attributes systems should make surviving Conan Exiles more interesting with more meaningful character progression choices. The old Attributes have been replaced with mostly self-explanatory Strength, Agility, and Vitality, along with Authority which allows for commanding larger numbers of Thralls, Grit which lets players take harder hits, and Expertise which improves survival and building skills. The building system has seen a major rework and is now centered around the new Construction Hammer item. Using the Construction Hammer pulls up an intuitive Building UI that shows buildable objects and their prices, along with automatically crafting the building pieces upon placement to streamline the process. The new Illusion system is also a welcome addition that finally allows players to take on the appearance of their chosen equipment while retaining the stats of their equipped weapons and armor.
The Age of Sorcery update marks Conan Exiles’ transition into a seasonal, Battle-Pass-focused content system. With more and more games adopting the controversial Battle Pass system to entice players to spend more time and money on unlocking cosmetics, this isn’t very surprising. This update also includes a staggering number of quality-of-life changes, balance updates, and bug fixes in the patch notes, so hopefully future seasonal updates for Conan Exiles include more of these improvements alongside the usual Battle Pass rewards.
Conan Exiles is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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Source: Conan Exiles
