Monthly Archives: May 2016

The latest patch for Orcs Must Die! Unchained open beta is now LIVE! Start your OMDU dashboard and the patch will begin to download. This patch contains a huuuge amount of changes including the return of Bloodspike the brutal! You’ll be sure to want to catch up on the patch notes for this release. Here is a very quick summary:

• New Hero – Bloodspike. Great for Siege offensive play
• Completely redesigned crafting system!
• Survival mode has been completely re-balanced and fine tuned to feel more like classic OMD gameplay. Minions move faster and take more damage. There is also a brand new map too – Banquet Hall.
• Unchained Fortress has a number of changes including re-positioned war camps and boss changes.
• Surival traps now have 7 tiers of upgrades.

Watch live video from OrcsMustDie on www.twitch.tv

Crafting Changes

As part of the goal to simply crafting and the game meta following from fan feedback, the number of in-game materials has been reduced from around 20 to 10. This means some materials are being retired, but don’t worry – you’ll see these being returned to you in the form of other materials. The graphic below explains what will happen. (Click to enlarge).

Click to enlarge

Bloodspike is making a return to Orcs Must Die! Unchained in the next open beta patch. Bloodspike has long been on fans wishlist to make a return to OMDU following his removal at the end of closed beta phase 1. Having appeared in the most recent OMDU trailer he is now back in the fray following a comprehensive redesign.

Meals meals meals

They don’t call Bloodspike “The Brutal” for nothing, he has an interesting new passive ability which demonstrates his sheer brutality. He is able to attack and kill his own friendly minions, when he does he is able to consume them as delicious meals which can then be used to restore Bloodspikes HP. Think of it as sacrifices for the greater good. This sounds like an interesting mechanic and could be interesting in turning the tide of battle utilising Bloodspike to push instead of a sacrificed minion lost through his bloodhungry passive.

Another interesting mechanic surrounding sacrificing your own minions – he has another ability called “Bloodbath“. This melee attack makes up his secondary ability . The more enemies (or allies) that Bloodspike hits, the faster he can power up all of his other abilities. This works in a stacking system similar to Oziel’s souls. Bloodspike gains  8% per stack – up to +80% bonus damage. Unlike Oziel however, Bloodspike’s stacks timeout over time so players need to keep an eye on his stacks to make sure they are getting the best out of Bloodspike at any one time, or if he needs a break to feast on some of those delicious meals.

Powerful Attacks

As a melee hero, Bloodspike wields two mighty axes, delightfully named ‘Bridget’ and ‘Delilah’ take turns as they can be used to slay enemy (or indeed, friendly) minions. Each hit that these axes makes also serves a secondary purpose – lowering the cool-down an Bloodspike’s E ability – Maiming Blow – A double-axe melee attack that deals damage and slows proportional to enemy hero HPs. Low HP heroes are dealt high damage but slightly slowed. High HP heroes are dealt low damage and significantly slowed.

Inspirational

The Unchained can always do with a little bit of encouragement on the battle field – especially those Orcs. Luckily with Bloodspike around confidence is greatly boosted via his Inspiring Frenzy shift ability. When pressed Bloodspike calls out to his minions in close proximity, empowering them with increased attack and movement speed and temporary HPs.

If this isn’t enough to wet your brutality appetite you can also check out Nananea’s excellent hero overview video below to see Bloodspike in action!

Hero Overview Video

You can also find out more about the design process for Bloodspike by reading Paul Hellquist’s blog on the Orcs Must Die! website via the link below which makes for interesting reading.

https://na.orcsmustdie.com/#!/en/blog/prepare-to-be-brutal

Be on the lookout for Bloodspike next OMDU patch – date TBC!

Last week Robot Entertainment were out in full force at PAX East in Boston to show off Orcs Must Die! Unchained to the masses. Robot set up camp with a massive display with their OMDU booth along with 30 stations combined of 20 survival stations and 10 siege stations all equipped with the latest gear from the likes of Alienware, Cybertron and Razer. The large overhead display showed matches currently in progress and Marketing Manager Justin “SixOkay” Korthof provided running commentary of what was going down.

The Robot team was further bolstered by Gameforge staff and also a number of community fans. Juicy, RoyalFino, Chel, RyuShinomori, Astraea, Taroth and Boom were at the booth providing additional engagement and support to help players. It’s great to see the community come together at events like this. Moltenink was also on the scene and provided some excellent additional match commentary with SixOkay. We hear he was quite the talented commentator!

Art Drop

The Art Drop was back from last year too. Harmonia and K2-D2 were on a mission to hide the various art pieces created by hand from Robot’s own artists around the venue. Those lucky enough to find one of the art drops were able to not only keep the fantastic art, but were able to pick up a swag bag is they brought it back to the booth. Here is K2-D2 subtly hiding this piece:

 Orcs Must Live!

We all know that orcs must die, but did you know there is a group out there that actually supports Orcs? Thats right, there is the ‘Center for Orc Tolerance and Understanding‘ or COTY for short. This group specialise in helping raising the awareness or Orcs and how they can integrate into normal life. Check out this video by Rooster Teeth to help gain understanding on these interesting principles:

The Orcs Must Live! campaign were in full force at PAX East holding placards and even breaking out into dance!

Don’t worry though, they were soon sorted out courtesy of the Boston Police Department.

Best PvP and Best MOBA at show

With so much going on at PAX East from Robot Entertainment it is important not to forget about the game. The OMDU booth enjoyed constant activity and was always bustling with people wanting to play. MMO Games commented on OMDU by awarding the title not one, but two awards – Best PvP and Best MOBA. Here is what they had to say:

Hands-on, OMDU has some of the most agile controls I’ve laid hands on, letting anyone jump in feet first and get to playing without too much trouble. The ebb and flow of the game kept players on their toes and the action high, and the overall sense of fun kept things competitive yet upbeat. Orcs Must Die! Unchained has the ingredients to become a stable of PvP gaming.

Check out the MMO Games website to see more of their thoughts on the MOBA elements.

Another year, another PAX East. This year was a fantastic success from the Robot staff on the PAX floor, the community volunteers, the marketing efforts from the team at Rooster Teeth and of course, OMDU being a great game. It all came together for a memorable event. Check out the blog over at OrcsMustDie.com for more information on the event!

https://na.orcsmustdie.com/#!/en/blog/PAX-East-2016-Wrapup