Where Giants Fall - v0.64 Patch Notes

v0.64 adds permanent unlocks, rebuilds the in-run HUD and changes how several weapons fight.

The new Unlocks screen gives you goals to work toward between runs. Discover weapons, abilities, items and characters through play, then spend the Essence you earn to add them to your collection.

This update also brings new roads, Native Widescreen support, clearer combat feedback and fixes for stage transitions. Our new Gameplay Showcase gives you a look at the game in action.

Major Highlights

• Permanent progression: discover content, earn Essence and build your collection between runs.
• A rebuilt HUD: new action bar, minimap, boss bars, Warpath counter and card layouts.
• Weapon reworks: Golden Gun sequences, Astral Fangs flurries, orbiting Ancient Spirits, forking Chain Lightning and a charged Sunfall skillshot.
• A clearer battlefield: new hit feedback, sharper damage numbers and scenery that keeps your character visible.
• World and display improvements: branching roads, Native Widescreen and expanded display settings.
• More reliable runs: stage-loading, miniboss and Ritual exit fixes.

Unlocks and account progression

• Unlocks is a new collection screen on the main menu. A fresh profile starts with about half the weapons, abilities, items and characters. Complete gameplay goals to discover the rest, then spend Essence to unlock them permanently.
• Earn Essence by playing. It is awarded at the end of a run and is separate from the gold you spend during that run.
• Discovery goals include fast or damage-free boss kills, clean stages, Giant Remnant trials, a 100-kill chain, a Loot Goblin jackpot and surviving five minutes in Endless.
• Each entry shows its discovery goal, progress and price, with full controller navigation.
• Discoveries appear during play without pausing combat. The results screen shows the Essence earned, discoveries made and Account Ranks gained during that run.
• Account Rank grows with lifetime Essence earned. Spending Essence does not lower it. Ranks grant small permanent bonuses to Damage, Maximum Health, XP and Gold, reaching +5% to each at the end of the track.

In-run HUD and cards

• Rebuilt the HUD with new artwork. Health, shields, XP, level, gold, weapons, abilities and movement charges now share the bottom action bar.
• Cooldowns appear inside their weapon and ability icons. Empty movement charges remain visible and show their refill progress.
• Shields appear as a gold extension of the health bar, with a separate gold amount and a brief fade showing absorbed damage. Full health, XP and cast bars no longer have a stray glow at their edge.
• Items sit at the top left with rarity markers. Temporary effects keep a fixed position on the right.
• The circular minimap, stage clock and objectives share the top-right corner. The clock drains through daytime and fills during Overtime; a beacon miniboss no longer switches it to night.
• Boss and miniboss health bars use the new artwork and adjust to one, two or three simultaneous enemies. Each keeps its own cast bar.
• Trial progress appears only while a trial is active. Player cast bars sit above health without moving the rest of the action bar.
• Timed weapon ultimates show their actual remaining duration, including upgrades and bonuses. Timers, sounds and effects end together, including after death, unequipping or leaving a stage. Burst attacks no longer display misleading short duration bars.
• Warpath has a new ivory-and-crimson counter. Kills give it a short pulse, tier changes have stronger feedback, and fading momentum is easier to see. Its position stays consistent on wider screens.
• Item, weapon, ability, Giantforge and Wheel of Fortune cards now share consistent layouts with the Card Library. Upgrade text focuses on what the choice changes, including clearer Attack Speed, Reload Time and charge recovery wording.

Golden Gun

• Bullets travel faster and stop at the first enemy. Piercing, ricochets and overkill chains have been removed from ordinary shots.
• Golden Sequence fires on every third attack, with distinct shots and sound for each round. Extra Projectiles extend the sequence, up to eight shots.
• Deadeye Sequence grants +15% Critical Chance; Marksman’s Eye grants +5%.
• Golden Verdict holds three charges, with at least one second between uses. Charges recover faster, while each blast deals less damage.
• The ultimate has new black-powder smoke and heavier impact effects. Final Sentence fires three blasts on every third charge; High Noon adds a blast to each charge.
• No Appeal turns a sequence-finisher kill into another shot from you at a visible enemy. The streak continues while each shot kills, up to ten extra shots.

Astral Fangs

• Astral Fangs fires short flurries instead of a steady stream. It starts with three fangs; Split Orbit, Full Volley and Storm Volley raise that to five, seven and nine.
• Each fang can acquire a new target. Attack Speed shortens the wait between flurries.
• Starfang Tempest and Grand Fangfall deal 30% less damage. Grand Fangfall launches its five great fangs in sequence, tracking targets as they leave.
• Fixed Wandering Stars failing to ricochet during the ultimate.

Ancient Spirits and Ancestral Host

• Ancient Spirits continuously orbit you. Guardians follow varied paths around a clear space near your character, keep up during Power Rush and leave spectral trails. Levels 6 and 9 widen the orbit.
• Ancestral Host replaces Ancestral Hunt. The ultimate adds five guardians in a double orbit, makes them 80% larger, expands the formation by 60% and deals 175% Spirit damage per contact. The guardians stay around you throughout.
• Spirit Wake replaces Eternal Hunt as the Core Legendary. Guardians leave damaging spectral wakes that deal 35% Spirit damage.
• Grand Procession replaces Ancestral Legion as the Ultimate Legendary. Four outer guardians surge outward and return to the formation.

Chain Lightning and Heaven’s Verdict

• Every discharge forks into two chains. Normal attacks only target enemies in front of you and wait if there is no frontal target. The two forks take different routes through the pack.
• Level 3 extends each fork. Levels 6 and 9 add independent discharges that spread across available targets or converge on a lone boss.
• The first strike reaches 20% farther; later jumps reach 25% less far and retain 75% of the previous jump’s damage. Giantforge Chain Range enhancements now correctly extend the reach.
• Chain Reaction replaces Forked Fate as the Core Legendary. A kill grants that fork another jump and +15% damage for the rest of the discharge, up to +60%. Each fork builds its own bonus, which resets on the next discharge.
• Rebuilt the lightning with branching bolts, travelling flashes and blue-white contact sparks. Lesser enemies briefly seize when struck; bosses and giants keep their actions. New cast sounds remain distinct in busy fights.
• Heaven’s Verdict replaces Tempest Ascension. Divine wings mark the ultimate: +160% Attack Speed, rising to +240% for the final stretch, an extra discharge and chains through 13 enemies. Its chains have wider reach and no jump damage loss.
• Ultimate chain strikes deal 60% of an equivalent normal strike and gain 15 percentage points of Critical Chance. The opening and closing lightning bursts have been retuned alongside them.
• Wings and the storm sound begin and end with the ultimate. Storm Conduit is the new name for the former Heaven’s Verdict Legendary enhancement; its effect is unchanged.

Fireball and Sunfall

• Sunfall is a forward-fired skillshot with three charges. Each press launches one sun in the direction you face. Charges recover one at a time, every six seconds.
• A sun pierces lesser enemies and elites, then explodes on a boss, giant, solid terrain or at the end of its flight. It no longer launches a fan of automatically aimed suns.
• Mastery upgrades improve charge recovery, the explosion, damage gained from piercing and impact damage. Second Dawn empowers every third sun.
• Ordinary Fireballs have new miniature-sun effects and appear 20% larger.

Critical strikes and combat balance

• Base Critical Chance is 5%, down from 10%. Critical Chance bonuses from weapons, upgrades, items and the Giantforge have also been reduced. Critical Damage is unchanged.
• Attacks that previously guaranteed a critical now have 50% increased Critical Chance. For example, 20% becomes 30%. This applies to Golden Verdict, Crimson Guillotine, Sunfall, Saturation Bombardment, Maw of Ruin, Starfang Tempest, Glacial Wall, Skybreaker, Venom Rift’s poison, Terminal Strain’s ticks, Alpha Fang and Absolute Zero. Heaven’s Verdict uses the separate bonus described above.
• Starting health rises from 200 to 260.
• Lesser enemies have 20% more health, deal 20% more damage and move 10% slower. Their melee reach and spell range increase by 20%.
• Giants, minibosses and bosses deal 20% more damage.
• Lesser-enemy swings commit once started, lead your movement and can connect throughout the strike. Dashing remains a way through; attacks no longer catch you behind the attacker.
• Pressure giants keep a walking stride instead of switching to a hurried run.

Hit feedback and damage numbers

• Weapon and ability hits give enemies a brief flash matching the attack, including bosses and giants. Damage over time does not repeatedly flash the whole enemy.
• Damage numbers are sharper, with brighter centres, thinner edges and colour around the numeral. Weapons have their own colours and short impact motions; critical hits keep that identity with stronger feedback.
• Poison, bleed and burn ticks share a consistent, quieter size. Damage numbers stay crisp with anti-aliasing enabled.
• Numbers show the full strength of a hit, including damage beyond an enemy’s remaining health and bonuses against elites or bosses.

Roads and scenery

• Roads cross regular-stage maps and branch toward beacons, with forks, occasional loops and an arrival point on the road. Ritual Siege keeps its four-spoke layout.
• Roads follow terrain and keep props out of the route. Fleeing encounters can use them too.
• Scenery between the camera and your character opens a soft window around you instead of disappearing whole. The window follows dashes, Power Rush and flight.
• Fixed missing or overlapping grass when revisiting areas, and improved distant vegetation.
• Fixed trees and props overlapping Orb Magnets.
• Speed streaks now follow the movement that caused them: a dash, the opening of Power Rush, full-speed Human Catapult or top-speed Giantstride. They no longer linger after the move or through pause screens.

Trial of Ascension

• Removed the flight countdowns. Progress is shown as rings completed out of eight; a ring is missed only when you fly past it.
• Two misses can be recovered by placing a replacement ring ahead. A third miss ends the trial.
• Jump flattens your flight; Dash dives; Power Rush remains available in the air.
• Updrafts provide continuous lift while you steer inside them and rest after a full ride. Three columns along the route support climbing and recovery.
• The finish guides you into the landing. Lesser enemies are thrown outward, land and recover while keeping the trial’s lasting slow. Fixed enemies remaining frozen after the trial.

Loot Goblin

• The larger Loot Meter fills smoothly through green, blue, purple and orange quarters. These colours do not change the reward thresholds or payouts.
• Treasure milestones flash briefly with their names. JACKPOT keeps its gold finish visible after the reward is paid.
• The goblin appears five metres farther away and runs 25% faster.

Stage flow, minibosses and Endless

• Nullframe, The Bishop and Cryospire each appear once per regular stage, in every biome. Fixed repeated minibosses and Cryospire being excluded from most biomes.
• Fixed new runs getting stuck after ending the previous run during a stage transition.
• Fixed interrupted stage loads leaving runs unplayable.
• Fixed missing exit portals and stuck transitions in Ritual Siege.
• Endless continues adding giants beyond the previous limit of 36, up to 200 as the run escalates. Its opening population is unchanged.

Display settings and ultrawide

• Choose Standard 16:9 or Native Widescreen on wider monitors. Standard remains the default; Native adds horizontal view while keeping the same vertical framing. Enemy spawning and targeting ranges are unchanged.
• The action bar stays centred and the rest of the HUD remains within readable screen bounds. Fixed inconsistent HUD scaling and offscreen markers on wide displays.
• Display changes apply immediately. Resolution and display-mode changes have a 15-second confirmation window before reverting.
• Added VSync, a Max FPS setting based on your monitor’s refresh rate, anti-aliasing options and 100%, 85%, 75% or 50% render scale. Lower render scale keeps the HUD sharp.
• Fullscreen refresh-rate choices reflect the monitor’s supported modes. Improved support for Steam Deck’s 16:10 display.

Performance and stability

• Improved loading times when playing several runs in a row and fixed failures when loading later stages.
• Reduced stuttering when enemy waves arrive and while exploring.
• Improved performance in busy fights and areas with dense vegetation.
• Fixed enemies becoming invisible between stages.
• Fixed a white overlay that could obscure the game.