Where Giants Fall - v0.60 Patch Notes

Where Giants Fall v0.60 is the biggest major update yet. It changes how pressure builds, how rewards flow, how enemies attack, how giants enter the battlefield, and how a full Journey is paced from the first regular stage into Endless.

The headline systems are Warpath and Giant Pressure. Warpath rewards explosive killing sprees with escalating XP and gold bonuses, while Giant Pressure lets you permanently raise the danger of your run in exchange for denser battles, more giant threats, and more reward fuel.

This update also makes enemy populations biome-specific, adds seven new Giant Pressure giants, improves enemy attacks and crowd movement, rebuilds several characters, replaces Golden Gun’s previous ultimate with Golden Verdict, expands the soundtrack, and significantly reworks stage startup to reduce opening hitches.

Major Highlights

• Added Warpath, a six-tier killing-spree system that banks bonus XP and gold.
• Added persistent Giant Pressure invasions to regular stages.
• Added five optional Giant Pressure statues to every regular stage.
• Added The Giants Answer, a rare late-stage giant surge event.
• Reworked enemy populations so biomes now use biome-appropriate enemy mixes.
• Added seven new Giant Pressure giants and rebuilt several existing ones.
• Improved regular enemy attacks with approach, windup, strike, and recovery phases.
• Reworked crowd movement so large groups spread from range and compress naturally near the player.
• Increased the scale, movement weight, and readability of giants and bosses.
• Replaced Golden Gun’s previous ultimate with Golden Verdict.
• Shortened the standard Journey to 2 regular stages, 2 Ritual Siege stages, 2 boss stages, then Endless.
• Removed the per-stage Ritual Insight draft limit.
• Added random chest drops from regular enemies and Giant Pressure giants.
• Rebuilt Beth, Boris, the Forest Dryad, and the Necromancer with improved models and textures.
• Added a major soundtrack expansion across the menu, biomes, bosses, overtime, and Endless.
• Reworked stage startup so essential combat effects, enemies, audio, and player setup are prepared before the timer begins.

Warpath

Warpath begins when you tear through enemies faster than your normal killing pace.

It is not just a raw kill counter. Warpath reacts to how much faster you are killing compared with your recent pace, so maintaining your normal rhythm is not enough. You need a genuine burst of destruction to ignite and sustain it.

Warpath climbs through six tiers:

1. Skirmish
2. Onslaught
3. Slaughter
4. Devastation
5. Cataclysm
6. Extinction

Each tier increases the bonus XP and gold earned from kills while the Warpath remains active. Momentum drains continuously, and higher tiers become harder to maintain. If momentum falls below the current tier, the Warpath ends immediately rather than stepping down one tier at a time.

Taking damage does not break Warpath. Dying does.

When Warpath ends, the accumulated bonus pays out. If Warpath is still active when a stage ends, it pays out in full. Your longest Warpath is now shown on the run results screen.

Warpath stays hidden during ordinary combat and only appears once activated. Higher tiers become increasingly aggressive visually, with Extinction using the game’s highest-rarity red presentation.

To support this new reward economy, base monster rewards have been adjusted before bonuses: monster XP is now 42% of its previous value, and monster gold is now 35% of its previous value.

Giant Pressure

Regular stages now include a persistent secondary invasion of giants alongside normal enemies and events. Giant Pressure giants are chosen to match the biome you are fighting in.

Five dormant statues can now be found near the outer edges of every regular stage. Awakening a statue increases Giant Pressure by +30% for the rest of the run.

Each awakened statue increases:

• Giant Pressure spawn intensity
• Giant health
• Giant damage by an additional 5%
• Giant movement speed by an additional 5%

Pressure is cumulative and does not reset between stages. Awaken all five statues in one regular stage and your run carries 150% additional Giant Pressure forward, with another five statues available in the next regular stage.

The statues do not grant a direct reward by themselves. The reward is the battlefield they create: more enemies, more XP, more gold, more chest opportunities, and more fuel for Warpath.

Awakening a statue also has an immediate price. The Giant’s Grasp reduces your movement speed by 50% for 5 seconds after activation. If another statue is awakened before the effect expires, the timer refreshes instead of stacking.

Giant Pressure persists for the entire Journey. It remains active during regular-stage overtime and carries into Ritual Siege stages. Ritual Siege stages do not contain statues, so Pressure cannot be increased there. The pressure invasion ends when the Ritual giant awakens. Boss and Endless stages preserve your accumulated Pressure but do not spawn the Giant Pressure invasion.

Your current Giant Pressure and activated statue count can be viewed under Run Threat in the Battle Ledger.

The Giants Answer

Sometimes the giants answer back.

Once during a regular or Ritual Siege stage, a war horn can sound during the latter half of the stage. When it does, two giants from every available Giant Pressure family form a massive ring around the player.

For 20 seconds, affected giants gain:

• 2x health
• +50% damage
• +65% movement speed
• An enlarged visual presence

Ritual elites caught in the event receive the same surge. The horn temporarily pushes the soundtrack into the background so the warning is impossible to miss.

If overtime begins before The Giants Answer has triggered, the scheduled event is cancelled. If the surge has already begun, it is allowed to finish normally.

Biome Enemy Overhaul

Enemy populations now properly reflect the biome you are fighting in. Regular waves, events, and Ritual Siege encounters draw from biome-appropriate enemy populations while preserving the combat roles needed for varied encounters.

Every supported biome retains access to melee threats, casters, and bombers. Giant Pressure follows the same philosophy.

Every non-Volcano biome now has two giant families specifically matched to that environment, giving different stages a stronger visual identity.

Seven New Giants

Seven new Giant Pressure giants have been added:

• Sandscar Giant
• Templebound Giant
• Jadeclad Giant
• Swamplord Giant
• Amberbark Giant
• Cloudstep Giant
• Pine Giant

Several existing Giant Pressure giants have also been rebuilt. Giant Pressure giants are now approximately 15% larger when they enter the battlefield so they remain recognizable inside dense hordes.

Enemy Combat and Crowd Movement

Regular enemies now properly attack instead of simply walking into the player.

Enemies now approach to an appropriate attack distance, visibly wind up, strike, recover, and resume pursuit. This gives close-range enemies a clearer rhythm and makes incoming contact damage easier to read.

Large giants now use a heavier, telegraphed kick attack with the striking leg aimed toward the player.

Large groups should also look much better while approaching. Enemies arriving from range spread into loose streams instead of immediately collapsing into one enormous moving mass. As they close in, they naturally compress into the dense hordes expected from Where Giants Fall.

Local spacing now takes individual creature size into account, allowing giants and regular monsters to move through the same crowd more naturally. Special movement states such as knockbacks, pulls, leaps, attacks, and scripted movement can temporarily override the spacing system when needed.

Giants and Bosses

Large enemies received a major movement and scale pass. Giants now pace their animations according to their actual size, giving them a heavier walk without making them look like they are moving in slow motion. When sufficiently accelerated, they transition into a proper run.

Scale changes include:

• Phalanx: approximately 25% larger
• Morvessa: approximately 10% larger
• The Bishop: approximately 25% larger
• Cryospire: approximately 25% larger
• Nullframe: approximately 25% larger
• Ashen Colossus: approximately 25% larger
• Giant Pressure giants: additional battlefield scale increase
• Winter giants: size increase and approximately 15% more health

Boss health has also been increased:

• Morvessa: +15% base health
• Iron Tyrant: +15% base health
• Phalanx: +10% base health

Iron Tyrant: Darksteel Onslaught

The Iron Tyrant’s Darksteel Onslaught has been heavily reworked. The ability now unleashes rapid volleys of larger darksteel shuriken instead of repeatedly restarting its cast sequence.

The attack now has more waves per cast, larger shuriken, narrower attack lanes, faster releases between volleys, slightly slower projectile travel, longer maximum travel distance, and more consistent blade, light, particle, and trail presentation.

The result creates more deliberate gaps to weave through while making the attack considerably more imposing.

Bosses now also distinguish between quick spells and sustained channelled abilities. Long casts use a sustained two-handed incantation, while quick and instant abilities keep their faster casting animation.

Golden Verdict

Golden Gun’s previous ultimate has been completely replaced by Golden Verdict.

Golden Verdict stores two independently recharging shotgun shells. Each shell is manually aimed and fires a devastating forward blast that critically hits every enemy caught inside its cone, has no enemy target limit, hits point-blank enemies twice, and strongly displaces surviving enemies.

Because each shell recharges independently, you can spend both immediately or preserve one while the other recovers.

Golden Verdict also has a new heavy shotgun sound, stronger muzzle presentation, larger impact effects, and weapon recoil feedback.

Journey Structure

The standard Journey has been shortened slightly.

A run now progresses through:

1. 2 Regular stages
2. 2 Ritual Siege stages
3. 2 Boss stages
4. Endless

Previously, the Journey contained three regular stages.

Ritual Siege

Ritual Siege has received several reward and clarity changes.

Ritual Insight no longer has a per-stage Active Ability Draft limit. If you keep earning enough Insight, you can keep earning additional drafts throughout the Ritual Siege. Overflow progress is preserved between thresholds.

The Ritual Insight HUD has also been reduced in size so it only occupies the space needed for progress and earned draft count.

Destroying a Ritual Site no longer automatically grants a movement-speed buff. The buffs dropped onto the battlefield are now the reward and must be collected.

BoneShambler is now exclusive to regular-stage overtime and no longer appears in normal biome waves, regular events, Ritual Siege, Endless, or other standard encounter pools.

Loot, Rewards, and Camera

Regular non-boss enemies can now occasionally drop treasure chests:

• Normal enemies: 0.3%
• Overtime and Endless enemies: 0.15%
• Giant Pressure giants: 0.6%
• Ritual Siege monsters: no random chest drops

Bosses retain their guaranteed chest rewards. Enemies based on boss archetypes no longer incorrectly receive guaranteed boss chests when appearing as ordinary monsters.

Treasure chests are also 20% larger, making them easier to spot during combat.

XP and gold orbs now begin travelling toward the player from up to 100 metres away. The previous pickup-range item has been removed.

Your chosen camera zoom is now respected throughout the Journey. Boss and Ritual Siege stages no longer forcibly zoom the camera out, and entering a regular stage no longer resets your zoom to default.

Characters, Audio, and Music

Beth, Boris, the Forest Dryad, and the Necromancer have been rebuilt with improved character models, cleaner rigs, and higher-quality textures.

The player character also received a locomotion correction that removes a subtle sideways lean visible while running, strafing, and jumping.

Where Giants Fall has received a major soundtrack update. New music now covers:

• Main Menu
• Seasonal biomes
• Swamp
• Phalanx
• Morvessa
• Boss victories
• Regular-stage overtime
• Endless

Regular stages now transition into one of two Last Stand themes when overtime begins, depending on which regular stage you have reached. Endless uses its own dedicated looping The Last Stand 3 theme. The main menu has a new primary theme, with the previous menu music remaining in the rotation.

Additional audio changes include new Machine Gun firing audio, rebalanced weapon and ability sound levels, new Golden Verdict firing audio, improved Giants Answer horn presentation, consistent menu feedback sounds, and fixes for overtime and Endless music volume during lighting transitions.

Performance and Stage Loading

Stage startup has been significantly reworked.

The loading screen now remains visible while the opening encounter and essential combat effects are prepared. During startup, the player is positioned and grounded, the opening encounter is prepared, monsters remain frozen, frequently used combat audio is prepared, damage feedback is prepared, equipped projectile and impact effects are prepared, and opening caster effects are prepared.

Once everything is ready, player movement, enemies, and the stage timer begin together. This significantly reduces first-use hitches and freezes during the opening moments of a stage.

Fixes and Polish

This update also includes fixes for enemy melee animations, statue placement and activation, pressure-spawned boss-style enemies using instant contact damage, Endless music startup, overtime lighting reducing music volume, random chest drops interacting incorrectly with boss-derived enemies, oversized enemy animation playback, and long-travelling pooled projectile effects losing presentation.

v0.60 is a pressure and pacing update at heart. Warpath rewards decisive destruction, Giant Pressure lets you choose how dangerous the run becomes, and the surrounding enemy, boss, reward, music, and loading changes make the whole Journey feel denser, clearer, and more forceful.