Season’s greetings, Kindred, and welcome to the first post-launch Dev Diary for Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. Today, we will go through what’s included in the Winter Update, including details of the Custom Difficulty setting, the new cosmetic options to get you in a festive mood, and the changelog.

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

The base game came with 4 difficulties (Casual, Easy, Normal, Hard) and even before launch we knew we wanted to add more options for players to make the game harder or easier, as “correct” difficulty is very personal to each player.  As a post launch update, we targeted Custom Difficulty at players that have already completed the game, to provide more difficulty variety or simple mess around in their future playthroughs.  Doing this allowed us to list options that are effectively cheats, or could make a playthrough for a new player impossibly hard.  We look forward to seeing the combinations you will try and what challenges you set yourself.

Description: The menu of selecting difficulty options.

Custom Difficulty is available for all players that have collected “An Elder Unchained” achievement/trophy. This is awarded for completing the game on any difficulty as any clan.  

Once unlocked Custom Difficulty will be available in the difficulty select menu after you select New Game.

Selecting Custom Difficulty presents you with a menu of options that you can tailor to your liking and will apply for the whole playthrough. 

NOTE: Unlike the 4 base game difficulties (Casual, Easy, Normal, Hard) you cannot change custom difficulty once the playthrough is started, so think carefully.
Description: Menu selection showing some of the options you can change.

The Custom Difficulty settings are divided into four groups: HUD, PLAYER, ENEMIES, PROGRESSION.

HUD: Reactive Crosshair - Use this setting to disable the crosshair reacting to nearby secrets or collectables. Applies to both Phyre and Fabien quests. This is for players that want to increase the challenge of exploration and test their memory.

HUD: Character Reaction UI - Use this setting to disable the UI shown during conversations that 

states the impact of your dialogue choices - e.g. “Lou liked that” or “Fabien hit a wall”.  Applies to both Phyre and Fabien quests.  Can make conversations more immersive at the cost of clarity.

PLAYER: Elixir Capacity - Set the maximum number of Elixirs you can carry for each type from 0-10.  0 makes combat significantly harder and 10 much easier.  Applies to both Phyre and Fabien quests. 

PLAYER: Starting Health - Sets the size of Phyre’s health-bar at the start of the game.  The default balance is 2 bars of health.  Can increase up to 4 bars to make the start of the game easier or reduce to a fraction of a single bar to make the early game harder.  The health-bar can still be extended further by collecting the marks drawn with Phyre’s blood.

PLAYER: Phyre’s Damage - Use this setting to increase or decrease the damage inflicted by Phyre’s attacks.  Increase the damage to make combat easier or decrease to make it harder.

PLAYER: Masquerade Sensitivity -  Use this setting to increase or decrease the rate at which the Masquerade meter fills when performing actions that break the Masquerade. Can reduce the rate to make the game easier, or increase the rate to make it harder. Can also set to NONE to disable the Masquerade meter completely and freely act like a vampire across the city.

PLAYER: Ability Recharging - Use this setting to enable Phyre’s and Fabien’s abilities to passively recharge over time, reducing the need to feed.  Enabling ability recharging will make the game easier.

PLAYER: Targeting Time Dilation - Use this setting to disable time being slowed down when you are targeting abilities (holding LT on gamepad or Right Mouse). Disabling time dilation will make combat harder.

ENEMIES: Enemy Damage - Use this setting to increase or decrease the damage inflicted by enemy attacks.  Decrease the damage to make combat easier or increase to make it harder.

ENEMIES: Enemy Awareness - Use this setting to increase or decrease the speed that enemies will notice you.  Lowering the awareness speed will make stealth easier and increasing will make it harder. Can also be set to NONE to disable enemies spotting you at all, though attacking or touching them will make them aware.

PROGRESSION: Quests - The default campaign is a series of Phyre and Fabien quests.  Use this option to play just Phyre’s or just Fabien’s quests back-to-back without featuring the other character’s quests.

PROGRESSION: Iron Vamp - Our take on “Iron Man” modes from other games.  When enabled, quests will not generate their own saves, leaving you only the autosave to record progress.  If you die or break the Masquerade then the autosave is deleted, ending your run.

Description: Screenshot of the Iron Vamp setting.

Here are a few examples of how you can configure Custom Difficulty to get you started.

Dramatic Irony Run - For narrative focussed players that have completed the story and want to play again with the knowledge of “who dunnit” in the game’s various mysteries, to see what clues and foreshadowing are present.

PLAYER: Masquerade Sensitivity = NONE

PLAYER: Ability Recharging = FAST

PLAYER: Elixir Capacity = 10

Speed Run - Same as Dramatic Irony Run, but excludes playing Fabien’s quests.

PLAYER: Masquerade Sensitivity = NONE 

PLAYER: Ability Recharging = FAST

PROGRESSION: Quests = Phyre Quests Only

PLAYER: Elixir Capacity = 10

Immersion Run - For players that want to rely purely on their own intuition to play the game.

HUD: Reactive Crosshair = OFF

HUD: Character Reaction UI = OFF

Fabien Tourist Run - For players that want to replay Fabien’s storyline with as little friction as possible.

PLAYER: Elixir Capacity = 10

PLAYER: Ability Recharging = FAST

PROGRESSION: Quests = Fabien Quests Only

Fabien Challenge Run - For players that want to show off their knowledge of Fabien’s quests.

HUD: Reactive Crosshair = OFF

HUD: Character Reaction UI = OFF

PLAYER: Elixir Capacity = 0

PROGRESSION: Quests = Fabien Quests Only

Phyre Elder Run - For players that want to feel like an unstoppable elder in combat.

PLAYER: Elixir Capacity = 10

PLAYER: Starting Health = CASUAL

PLAYER: Phyre’s Damage = CASUAL

PLAYER: Ability Recharging = FAST

ENEMIES: Enemy Damage = CASUAL

PROGRESSION: Quests = Phyre Quests Only

Iron Vamp Run - For players that want a tense, strategic playthrough, demanding mastery of Phyre's combat.

PLAYER: Elixir Capacity = 3

PLAYER: Starting Health = NORMAL

PLAYER: Phyre’s Damage = NORMAL

ENEMIES: Enemy Damage = HARD

PROGRESSION: Quests = Phyre Quests Only

PROGRESSION: Iron Vamp = ON

Phyre’s Nightmare Run - For players that want a very tough challenge to overcome.

PLAYER: Elixir Capacity = 0

PLAYER: Starting Health = NIGHTMARE

PLAYER: Phyre’s Damage = NIGHTMARE

PLAYER: Targeting Time Dilation = OFF

ENEMIES: Enemy Damage = NIGHTMARE

PROGRESSION: Quests = Phyre Quests Only

We’re also delighted to include some new customisation options just in time for the holiday period. If you’ve ever wanted to play out your fantasy as Santa Claws, now is your chance.

Description: Phyre in a fake Santa beard and Santa hat, everything a vampiric Santa needs.

This is also a sneak peek at the fact that we’re implementing beards in a later update, something we know the community has been requesting. We’ve also included a little nod to the original Bloodlines, as well as a few other looks that we hope you’ll enjoy playing around with

Description: Lean into your necromantic side with this bloodied look.

Description: Or opt for a sweeter side of Phyre with a touch of glitter and glamour.

Overall, there are 8 new hair colours, 8 new make-up looks, 8 new eye colours, and 4 new accessories (formerly called piercings), making up a total of 28 new customisation options for you to explore and unleash your creativity. Please feel free to share these creations with us on social media for a chance to get featured in our “Phyre Friday” social posts. 

We’ve also added an FOV Slider and a Motion Blur Toggle, as well as some other gameplay improvements that can be found in detail in the changelog below. We are still working on the “Improved Progress Saving” feature; it has been improved since its release, but it’s not quite ready for release, so unfortunately we will have to delay it until early next year. 

Major things to look forward to for next year are the Valentine’s update, which will include more juicy cosmetics, the first DLC called “Loose Cannon” that lets you step into the shoes of Benny, the Brujah Sheriff, and, of course, the second DLC called “The Flower & The Flame” where you will play as Ysabella, the Toreador Primogen and owner of The Atrium nightclub. 

On a final note, we would like to take this opportunity to thank the fans for enjoying the game, and staying with us on this journey as we continue to improve and update the game.

Description: Become a winter-themed Phyre with these customisation options.

Cosmetics Update

• 8 hairs

• 8 faces

• 4 Accessories (rename of piercings)

• 8 eyes.

Custom Difficulty

• Player customization of various aspects of the game has been added to enable players to have a bespoke experience that suits their player preferences.

  • Reactive Crosshair

  • Character Reaction UI

  • Elixir Capacity

  • Phyre Starting Health

  • Phyre’s Damage

  • Masquerade Sensitivity

  • Ability Recharging

  • Targeting Time Dilation

  • Enemy Damage

  • Enemy Awareness

  • Quests (playing as single or both protagonists)

  • Iron Vamp

Accessibility Improvements

• Improvements to the accessibility options within the game.

  • Field of View

  • Combat FOV boost

  • Lensing

  • Motion Blur

  • Gamepad Aim Assist – Auto Tracking

  • Gamepad Aim Assist – Aim Slowdown

Gameplay Improvements

• Padlocks will no longer stay locked if enemies have fallen through the floor or walls.

• Padlocks will state the number of enemies nearby and have been balanced to detect enemies over a smaller distance.

• Fixed several abilities incorrectly cancelling ongoing abilities, such as split second and enter oblivion.

• Fixed Taunt working incorrectly on unaware opponents.

• Fixed an issue with Enemies not hunting the player after losing track of them.

  • IAO are now more effective at warning allies of danger.

• Adjusted the player's climbing behaviour to make it easier to climb onto thin platforms without falling off.

• Fixed an issue where the achievement "Catch!" would not be triggered.

• Fixed an issue where enemies staggered by an attack were still able to evade.

• Fixed certain enemies being able to use recall while incapacitated by player abilities.

• Fixed some player attacks not buffering inputs for a follow-up attack.

• You are no longer able to use blurred momentum to "dodge" your own boiling blood.

• Players can no longer repeatedly complete the "Executive Delivery" side quest to farm unlimited ability points.

• The interruptible casting period of blood curse has been made resistant to light damage.

Bug fixes

• Various optimisations to improve performance and memory usage.

• Fixes to various lines overlapping.

• The DLC Jukebox briefly disappeared once after interacting with it during the quest "In Chains of Lead and Gold".

• For some quests after Hub Break1 the 'Auto Repair Shop' is inaccessible during hub traversal.

• The Unbirthed fails to spawn if the player navigates along the edges of the room during the Unbirthed intro sequence in the 'As Above, So Below' quest.

• Progression blocker occurs when player recalls to ward location after placing it before pulling wooden planks in 'As Above, So Below' quest.

• Player can teleport to previous quest stage location by using Recall ability after killing the Gardener, blocking progression.

• Incorrect quest name displayed on the map after completing "The Coursing of the Rats" quest.

• If you complete Onda's mission (or Mrs Thorn where it ends outside) then die in any way, you can exploit the experience system to give you 1000 exp every time you reload after death.

• Player can kill Izzy again and again to farm ability points.

• NPCs are not holding the items they are meant to be using e.g. cigarettes, phones etc.

• Melancholic NPCs react incorrectly to the aggressive dialog "I can destroy you" during Blood Resonance conversations.

• Steamdeck - NPC heart effects appears to be misaligned while viewed in Heightened Senses during open-world gameplay.

• Back face culling is visible for the white fur of "The General" outfit during conversation with Safia and Lou in Tome Alone quest.

Achievement

• Achievement Unoriginal Sin does not unlock after feeding on five Sanguine NPCs while wearing Priest outfit as Lasombra "A Full-Blooded Elder" achievement fails to unlock despite unlocking 77/78 achievements.

• “What Sup?” achievement count does not update after feeding on Choleric NPC.

• ‘Breach Contained’ achievement fails to unlock after recovering from a Masquerade breach on Casual difficulty.

• The crosshair remains visible during the Safia boss fight intro cutscene in the ‘The Streets Incarnadine’ quest.

Save and Load

• Death Letter conversation auto-skips with no dialogue prompts after autosave reload in Fabien’s office.

• Marla’s conversation auto-skips with no dialogue prompts after autosave reload in 1920s Makom Bar sequence.

• Spirit Touch conversation with Filing Cabinet fails to display dialogue prompt when reloading from autosave.

• Fabien is unable to interact with Mr.Lemon upon checkpoint reload after enquiring about Memory loss.

Coming in hot is the latest Hotfix 1.0.4.1 for Bloodlines 2. It fixes the following issues:

• Save on exit dialogue issue

• Steam deck video player

Stay tuned for more updates in the future!