We're excited to announce an upcoming DLC for Blackthorn Arena: Reforged called Shadow of the Wuxia, releasing on Steam on March 21, 2025!

Shadow of the Wuxia introduces authentic Eastern martial arts elements into the arenas of Blackthorn Arena: Reforged. You'll embark on an immersive new questline filled with secrets and legendary martial arts stories, compete in a brand-new Wuxia-themed arena, and wield unique Eastern-inspired weapons and armor.


Highlights of the DLC include:

• New immersive questline: Discover hidden martial arts stories and secrets.
  
• Wuxia-style arena: Face fierce battles within an atmospheric Eastern setting.
  
• Martial arts skills and weapons: Master new combat techniques and oriental weaponry.
  
• Eastern-inspired armor sets: Equip your gladiators with armor that blends form and function.

Whether you're already familiar with Blackthorn Arena: Reforged or you're curious to check it out, this DLC offers fresh content, depth, and excitement to your arena battles.

Learn more here:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3168260/Blackthorn_Arena_Reforged/

Thanks for your support—we look forward to seeing you in the arena!

Hey everyone,

We’re excited to share some great news for Lunar New Year! While this announcement is primarily about Blackthorn Arena: Reforged, it’s still important for everyone who owns the original Blackthorn Arena. As you may already know, if you own the original game, you get Blackthorn Arena: Reforged as a free upgrade—it’s already waiting for you!

To make this even better, Blackthorn Arena: Reforged is now part of some special bundles, giving you the chance to explore even more adventures while saving along the way.

Here’s what’s available:

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/49912/Light_Up_Games_Publisher_Bundle/

Explore Blackthorn Arena: Reforged and Mark of the Deep together in this bundle from Light Up Games. This is a great way to experience two of the publisher’s standout titles at a discount.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/48436/Blackthorn_ArenaReforgedGladiator_Pack/

Already own Blackthorn Arena? This bundle includes the Reforged version (which you already have as a free upgrade) alongside other enhancements and new features from DLCs, all at a discount.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/47180/Blackthorn_Arena_Reforged__Gladiator_Guild_Manager/

If you love gladiator management games, this bundle pairs Blackthorn Arena: Reforged with Gladiator Guild Manager. It’s the perfect combo of strategy, combat, and arena battles.

These bundles are a great opportunity to explore more of the Blackthorn world or dive into new adventures. If you haven’t already checked out Blackthorn Arena: Reforged, now’s the perfect time to jump in and see all the improvements, upgrades, and DLC content that’s been added.

As always, thank you for being part of this community. Your support has made all of this possible, and we’re excited to share these bundles with you.

Happy Lunar New Year,
The Blackthorn Arena Team

Happy Holidays, Gladiators!

As a reminder, purchasing Blackthorn Arena automatically adds Blackthorn Arena: Reforged to your Steam library at no additional cost. This remastered edition includes all previously released DLCs, along with exciting new content and improvements to elevate your gameplay experience.

What’s New in Blackthorn Arena: Reforged?

We’ve been dedicated to expanding and refining Reforged, and our latest V 2.5 Update Patch is packed with fresh content and enhancements:

New Features:

• Gortus’ Endless Trials mode with tougher waves and champion encounters.
  
• A new legendary gladiator: Swan Knight Adelaide.
  
• Legendary gear, magical armor, and profession-enhancing sets.

Gameplay Improvements:

• Streamlined UI for better management.
  
• Localization updates and performance optimizations.

Bug Fixes & Balance Adjustments: Polished gameplay based on community feedback.


Winter Sale is Live!

Take advantage of the Steam Winter Sale to purchase Blackthorn Arena and instantly unlock Blackthorn Arena: Reforged in your library.

For the full patch notes, visit the Reforged page: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3168260/view/604142324070483045

Thank you for your support and for being part of our community. If you enjoy the game, please consider leaving a review—it helps us make improvements!

Happy Holidays and see you in the arena!

- The Blackthorn Arena Team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3168260/Blackthorn_Arena_Reforged/

Hi Everyone,

We wanted to share some updates about Blackthorn Arena: Reforged, which is automatically added to your Steam library when you purchase the original Blackthorn Arena. If you’ve already been enjoying Reforged, there’s even more to look forward to with our latest V2.4 Update and the launch of the Supporter Pack DLC.

What’s New in Reforged?

The Supporter Pack is a way for players who love the game to dive deeper into the world of Blackthorn Arena while supporting its ongoing development. It includes:

• Legendary Armor Set: Kingdom Glory
  
• Legendary Weapon: Royal Heritage
  
• 16 Pages of Concept Art & 17 Pages of Design Concepts
  
• 5 Exclusive 4K Wallpapers

Learn More About the Supporter Pack → Supporter Pack

This update introduces new content and improvements to enhance gameplay:

• New Opponents: Free Knight Roland and Scholar Mage Maggie, two powerful champion gladiators.
  
• Legendary Gear: Discover a new Legendary Staff and Wand in the Treasure Hunt quest.
  
• Improved Gameplay & Balance: Updates to one-handed weapons, magic mechanics, and armor effects.
  
• UI Enhancements: Better character customization, portrait visuals, and attribute displays.
  
• Bug Fixes: Resolved issues with combat, save files, equipment, and more.

Why This Matters to Blackthorn Arena Players
If you own Blackthorn Arena, you already have free access to Reforged.
These updates and DLC are part of our ongoing effort to bring you more value and improve the overall experience. If you haven’t explored Reforged yet, now’s a great time to check it out!

Visit the Reforged Steam Page → Blackthorn Arena: Reforged

We’re incredibly grateful for your continued support and feedback. It’s been an amazing journey developing Blackthorn Arena, and we’re excited to keep making it better. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, feel free to share them with us.

Thank you, and see you in the arena!

— The Blackthorn Arena Development Team

Arena Champions,

We’re thrilled to announce that the highly anticipated Age of Magic DLC will arrive on November 14 at 4 PM PST / 7 PM EST (November 15 at 8 AM China Standard Time)! Get ready to bring magic to the arena with new gameplay elements that will transform the battlefield.

What’s Coming in the Age of Magic DLC

The Age of Magic DLC introduces six types of magic, 60 unique spells, a fresh storyline, and a new magic-themed arena—giving you powerful new tools to shape your gladiators’ fates and outwit your opponents.

Alongside the DLC, we’re also rolling out free content updates with improved balancing, UI and gameplay improvements, and new items.

In celebration of Gladiator Month and the upcoming Gladiator II movie release, we’re introducing two new Freeman Champions to the arena, adding fresh challenges to master.


Last Chance for the Blackthorn Arena: Reforged Discount

If you haven’t picked up Blackthorn Arena: Reforged yet, the base game is currently discounted until 12 PM ET (just 1 hour and 30 minutes left)—don’t miss out!

Thank you for your support as we bring this new chapter to Blackthorn Arena: Reforged. Mark your calendars for November 14 (November 15 in China).

Stay sharp,
The Blackthorn Arena: Reforged Team

Hey Arena Masters,

As part of Gladiator Month, we’ve teamed up with the creators of Gladiator Guild Manager to bring you a new bundle! Now, you can grab Blackthorn Arena: Reforged and Gladiator Guild Manager together—two games, one bundle, and endless gladiator action.

What’s Gladiator Guild Manager About?

In Gladiator Guild Manager, you’ll build and manage a team of fighters, beasts, and mages, putting your strategies to the test in arena battles. With tactical gameplay and plenty of ways to grow your team, it’s all about creating a squad that can take on anything.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/47180/Blackthorn_Arena_Reforged__Gladiator_Guild_Manager/

Don’t Miss the Launch Discount

If you’re thinking about picking up Blackthorn Arena: Reforged, now’s the time! The 20% launch discount is only available until Tuesday afternoon, November 12, so grab it while the deal lasts.

Thanks for being part of the community,
The Blackthorn Arena: Reforged Team

Arena Masters,

We hope you're enjoying your time in the Freelands. We've been busy since launch week, fixing bugs and making improvements based on your feedback. Thank you for helping us make Blackthorn Arena: Reforged better.

We’re excited to announce the Age of Magic DLC coming soon as we kick off what we’re calling Gladiator Month! With Gladiator II on the way, we’re celebrating the spirit of the arena with fresh updates throughout November. Here’s a look at what’s ahead:

• Six Types of Magic: Over 60 new spells to bring into battle, adding fresh strategies and depth to your fights.
  
  
• New Storyline: Follow Adelina, leader of the Wild Mage Association, as she works to bring magic to the Freelands. This story adds around two hours of new content.
  
  
• Magic-Themed Arena: Face off against magic-using gladiators in a new, spell-infused arena.
  
• Magic-related equipment: This includes wands, stuffs, wizard suits, and a whole range of other equipment related to magic.
  
  
• Champion of the Magic Gladiator Arena: He's no pushover!

Plus, we’ll have a Deluxe Edition soon, including exclusive concept art and the full game soundtrack. And as part of Gladiator Month, we’ll also be releasing new cosmetic gladiator skins—just one of the ways we’re celebrating everything gladiator!



Join Our New Discord Community:

Make sure to join our Discord Community to take part in community discussions!

Thanks again for your support, and here’s to a month of new battles!

Stay sharp,
The Blackthorn Arena: Reforged Team

• Added some new innate traits that can be randomly obtained
  
• Added a champion of the freeman, “Xuefei”. This mysterious swordsman from the East will appear in the Arena of the Freelands and have the opportunity to fight for you.

System:
*Fixed a bug where a small number of players were unable to start the game due to video decoding issues
*Fixed a bug where the game could not be played normally when a player encountered a side mission challenge during a tournament.
- Gladiators who are currently undergoing surgery, training Genre, or being tortured in the dark room can no longer be sold.
- Fixed the bug that allowed gladiators who were away/dispatched from the arena to be sold.
- Fixed the bug that caused the damage of the injuring Palm to be overpowered.

Performance:
- Fixed the bug that the bat would get stuck in the terrain.
- Fixed the bug that occasionally caused the arrow of the bow to get stuck in the hand and not disappear.
- Fixed the bug that after hosting a feast, the gladiators would not return to their posts.
- Fixed an issue where skill tips that did not meet the attribute requirements were incorrectly displayed.

Other:
- Fixed an issue where some acquired traits were classified as innate traits.
- Removed attribute requirements for some weapon skills.
- Fixed the bug where the damage of the Empty-handed and the Monk's Qi Gathering was too high.
- Fixed the issue where the health potion also restores morale.

Balancing:

Overall:
* The character load limit system has been redesigned: characters now have three load limits: light, medium, and heavy.

• When lightly loaded, the character will receive a certain amount of bonus to dodge, attack speed, movement speed, and stamina saving.
  
• When heavily loaded, the character will receive a certain amount of penalty to dodge, attack speed, movement speed, and stamina saving.
  
• When medium loaded, there will be no bonus or penalty.

-Characters can now dodge charging skills.
- The initial random attributes of the characters in the Role library are now consistent with the initial random attribute range of the market characters.

Weapons and armor:
- Bows and crossbows now reload immediately after firing
- Bows, crossbows and quivers have had their damage increased by 1.5
- Polearms have had their damage reduced by 1
- Adjusted the stamina cost of some two-handed and polearm weapons, and increased them overall
- Slightly increased the armor resistance of the Freeman
- Slightly increased the attributes and levels of some of the weaker champions


Animations:
- Power strike : The animation speed has been reduced by 20
- Lunge : The animation speed has been increased by 30
- Bow and Crossbow: The animation speed of the attack and reload has been increased by 20

Skills:
- Injuring Palm: Remove the damage of time effect. Its damage type changed from sustained to soul damage.
- Martial arts master: Resistance penetration has been reduced from a maximum of 75% to 50%, but it will increase the basic damage of the maximum 6% physical strength vaule.
- Quick Heal: The life recovery speed has been reduced from 4/6/8 to 2/3/4
- Power Strike: The cooldown has been increased from 12 seconds to 15 seconds, and the Stamina consumption has been increased from 1.5 times the weapon value to 2 times

Improvements:

Features:
* When creating a custom character in role library, players can now select initial traits under certain rules.
- When selling and buying gladiators, you can now also view the gladiator's equipment.
- When viewing a character, you can now view his equipment.
- The automatic save before reading the dispatch task is now not repeated when the task is executed again.

UI:
- The UI for selecting the initial gladiator at the start of the game has been improved.
- When viewing a character in the purchase interface, hovering the mouse over the genre will display an introduction to the genre's characteristics.
- Players will now be given more obvious prompts when they obtain items.
- Buffs now display the duration on the icon.
- The UI of the match and mission settlement screen has been optimized. Excess loot now no longer extends beyond the UI frame, but is displayed using a slider.

Scenarios:
* In the sewer scene of some missions, the character can now fall into the water and climb back up the ladder.
- Improved lighting effects in multiple scenes

Hello, Arena Masters!

We’re excited to share that Blackthorn Arena: Reforged is now live! This enhanced version brings upgraded visuals, quality-of-life improvements, new content, and a new Endless Arena Mode that lets you face off against waves of challenging opponents.

If you own Blackthorn Arena, you can claim Reforged for free as a thank-you for being part of our community. To get your free upgrade, simply visit <link to https://blackthorn.lightup.games/>this page</link> and complete the claim form. Once you register, we’ll send you a Steam key for Reforged shortly.

Please note, that the claim process is currently manual, so we appreciate your patience as we work through each request. We’re also exploring ways to streamline this process with Steam, so stay tuned for updates on this.



- **Enhanced Graphics** – Reforged brings a fresh visual experience to each battle.
- **Quality-of-Life Updates** – Player-requested improvements for smoother gameplay.
- **Endless Arena Mode** – Endless battles to put your skills to the test.

- **More Content and Updates** – Added features inspired by player feedback, with a roadmap coming soon.

Thank you all for being part of the Blackthorn Arena journey. We hope you enjoy this new chapter and all the exciting updates in Reforged. Don’t forget to join our <link to https://discord.gg/bNnQtBUKXA>new Discord server</link> to share your feedback, and suggestions, report bugs, and stay connected with us!

Stay sharp,
The Blackthorn Arena Team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3168260/Blackthorn_Arena_Reforged/

Hello, Arena Masters!

We want to thank everyone who participated in the Blackthorn Arena: Reforged demo during Steam Next Fest. Your feedback has been incredibly valuable, and after careful consideration, we’ve decided to take a little more time to polish and refine the game further based on what we’ve learned from your experience with the demo.

Steam Link - Blackthorn Arena: Reforged

As a result, the release of Blackthorn Arena: Reforged will be delayed slightly from our original target. While we don’t have a specific new date to share just yet, rest assured it’s not far off, and this extra time will ensure we deliver the best possible version of the game.

While we know delays can be frustrating, we wanted to share something we’ve been working on in the meantime: Endless Arena Mode. Here’s a quick look at the mode in action:



We appreciate your understanding and support and will update you with a new release date as soon as possible. Until then, thank you for being part of this journey with us. We’re excited to share more soon!



Stay sharp in the arena,

The Blackthorn Arena: Reforged Team