Hello kindred and welcome to our latest dev diary detailing what’s included in the Valentine’s update for Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. In honour of the season of the heart, we have added blood bags, beards, a beret and more for you to sink your fangs into. Wishing you all a happy and more importantly, bloody Valentine’s!

Description: New variations of the Valentine-themed customisation options for Phyre.

To make rooftop encounters more rewarding we have added a new feature that allows enemies to carry an item of loot (elixirs or blood bags - see below). Rather than just spawning the loot upon their death, we have them carrying it on their waist, allowing the more sneaky among you to practise your pick-pocketing skills and take it without being seen. And for those of you who prefer to get your hands bloody, the item will drop on their death. Most rooftop encounters in the city will feature an enemy with an item of loot.

Description: An Anarch Ghoul carrying an elixir that can either be pickpocketed or taken from their corpse.

Blood Bags

To help those of you who are hunting for blood resonance, we have added a new item type - Resonant Blood Bags. They are typically found being carried by Anarch vampires and their Ghouls on the rooftops of Seattle using the Enemy Loot feature.  Collecting a blood bag will award blood resonance points of its type (e.g. 100 Sanguine points) that can then be used at a Clan Contact to awaken the Nomad’s blocked abilities.

Description: A blood bag containing melancholic blood in Dale’s apartment.

For those of you who want to look your best this Valentine’s, we have added several new customisation items, including hats, an eyepatch and an homage to a fan favourite character.

Description: A look for proud Anarch’s made with a Valentine’s hat and makeup.Facial Hair

A popular request upon launch of Bloodlines 2 was to be able to add facial hair to Phyre, and the Valentine’s update adds three facial hair options, under the Accessories tab, for you to mix and match into your favourite looks or create something new.

Description: For a classic gentleman Dracula look, combine this Valentine’s hat, glasses and beard, with The Sheriff outfit.

Overall, there are 7 new hair options, 8 new make-up looks, 4 new eye colours, and 7 new accessories, making a total of 26 new customisation options. Combine these with the existing 151 items and 24 outfits to create your Valentine’s look. Please feel free to share these creations with us on social media for a chance to get featured in our “Phyre Friday” social posts. 

Rotate Character

To help you admire your freshly follicled face, we have added a rotate character function to the customisation menu, so you can make sure you look perfect from every angle.

Description: Pirate Phyre staring contemplatively off into the distance.OUTRO

In addition to the bug fixes listed in the changelog below, we’ve added a shortcut to the Load Game Menu on the in-game Pause Menu, so you can easily jump to a previous chapter should the need arise.

Description: The in-game pause menu featuring Load Game menu option.

That wraps up the Valentine’s update, which is available to play right now. A quick reminder that there are two DLCs to look forward to this year: “Loose Cannon” lets you step into the shoes of Benny, the Brujah Sheriff, and the second DLC, “The Flower & The Flame”, you will play as Ysabella, the Toreador Primogen and owner of The Atrium nightclub. 
Thank you to everyone for all the feedback, memes, fanart and videos that you’ve been posting on your socials. If you’d like to be part of the conversation, please join us on the official Bloodlines 2 Discord[pdxint.at].

Cosmetics Update

• 7 hairs

• 8 faces

• 7 accessories

• 4 eyes.

Gameplay Improvements

• Rooftop enemies in the Seattle map can now carry loot.

• Blood bag items can be collected to gain blood resonance. Found in certain quests and some rooftop enemies in the Seattle map.

• Rebalanced input window for performing a kick to make it easier to achieve.

• Rebalanced Cauldron of Blood to be harder to interrupt with combat actions, making it more effective in a wider range of scenarios.

• Several performance improvements across all platforms.

• Shaders compile 90x faster.

• Ability descriptions updated:

  • Charge - Added “Each enemy struck applies damage to the held victim.” to clarify that you can increase the damage of the attack..

  • Taunt - Added “Armed opponents will drop their weapon.” to clarify its added utility in combat.

  • Earthshock - Added that “Being higher off the ground when casting increases the size of the blast.” to clarify that your positioning when casting affects how lethal the ability is.

  • Blood Curse - Added “Weaker opponents or targets closer to you are significantly quicker to curse.” to clarify that distance to target affects the cast speed. 

  • Recall - Added “Damages enemies standing nearby when you appear.” to clarify that Recall has combat utility.

  • Blood Salvo - Added “can be thrown at enemies or explosives” to clarify that explosives can be targeted.

  • Bladed Hand - Added “A silent attack” to clarify its utility as a stealth attack.

  • Unseen Aura - Added “Staying still increases the ability’s duration.” to clarify that the ability rewards being deliberate and strategic.

  • Possession - Added “Ventrue and Affect abilities can be cast while possessing someone.” to highlight the combination potential and stealth utility.

  • Blink - Added “Knocks over enemies that you Blink into.” to clarify that Blink has combat utility.

Save and Load Improvements

• Load Game menu can now be accessed through the in-game pause menu.

Bug fixes

• “Confirm Selected Clan?” UI continuously remained on screen when specific inputs were pressed after the final dialogue.

• Enemies affected with 'Glimpse of Oblivion' ability reset to unresonated when in stunned state, preventing players from obtaining Melancholic Blood Resonance points.

• Normal difficulty set for quest To Taste a Foreign Body when players select Casual difficulty during the New Game flow.

• A black screen appeared briefly during the new game start cutscene.

• Several issues fixed around enemies nearby prompts incorrectly showing.

• Clan Contacts dialog reset after updating to a new version of the game.

• Enemies detected and became alerted to the character when the player opened the Pause menu while the awareness UI was triggered during combat.

• The hair clips with the Halloween DLC golden mask appear if the player equips the Bun hairstyle in the Appearance tab and in-game.

• The game environment becomes dark if the player disconnects the controller on the Masquerade Breach screen during gameplay.

• Snow flickering observed on the ground during the crawling sequence in the quest "In Fingertips of Rose".

• Enemies spawn above the elevator if using the 'Enter Oblivion' ability while the elevator is moving at the Vat room combat during “A Kiss from Prospero” quest.

• Masquerade Meter incorrectly increases rapidly during combat in Onda's side quest 'Miranda Cashes In'.

• Fabien gets stuck between a parked car and garbage bags in front of Aurora Pawn.

• NPCs clip and pass through the Atrium Club wall when running away from the player.

• The attack prompt fails to appear after using Cloud Memory on Benny during the final combat encounter.

• Codex items "Lou's Grave" and "Discarded Purse" not highlighted or interactable at St. Stephens during "Turning Down the Heat" quest.

• Codex items “Perfumed Sleeping Bag” and “Poetry Notebook” not highlighted or interactable at Atrium rooftop during “A Work of Holy Innocents” quest.

• Randomly, Sharky fails to use her firearm and only kicks during combat in the quest 'Swimming with Sharky'.

• Car alarm sound plays from a nearby vehicle instead of van when van is hit at the Atrium club 1st combat area.

• Randomly, the SFX for breaking the IOA camera is not audible.

• Nix has abrupt animation changes in her final dialogue lines during the final conversation with her.

• The player character becomes stuck and unable to move if the player crouches between the cabinets near the exit door to Glacier Hotel in the Library combat area.

• Lasombra passive VFX does not appear on some equipped Winter Update cosmetics.

• Glowing heart VFX is incorrectly displayed on Safia when the player feeds her during the boss fight after performing Cauldron of Blood and Blood Curse.

Achievement Bugs Fixed

• The Frequent Flyer trophy fails to unlock when the player glides through the air in the Seattle map.

Known issues

• Winter Update Hair 6, the red ribbon over Phyre's forehead animates incorrectly during cutscenes & conversations.

• Boss fight variant of Benny's character model incorrectly appears in the cutscene before his introduction conversation.

• Player camera locks when using the ability targeting button during mid-air glide.

• Scalp is visible for all Shaved hairstyles on Masculine Phyre in the Appearance tab.

• Collectibles reappeared and counter exceeded after collecting with a pre-update save.

• Background music is missing during traversal and rooftop combat during “Keep the Peace” quest.

• Fletcher, Silky and Patience reintroduce themselves when continuing progression from a pre-update save.

• Benny appears in T-pose inside the Dutchman bar during the quest "Blood Sisters.".

• Dale’s Haven items reset and become re-interactable with missing associated Fabien voice-over after loading a save created between the Halloween Update and Winter Update.