1) Fixed a bug when players challenge Orc Master's team will get stuck in the Grand Game

2) Fixed a bug where the gladiator occasionally went out without any HP during the Tag Fight .

3) Fixed a bug where the player's avatar appeared in the arena with a default appearance.

4) Fixed the bug that the mission could not be completed after obtaining the BlackThorns Armor Set.

5) Fixed the bug where black thorn battle armor was found and it would still enter the tomb after clicking temporarily.

6) Fixed a bug where the mission disappeared after exiting from the grave of the Black Thorn Warframe.

7) Fixed a bug related to the trigger target.

8) Fixed a bug related to the target of auto cast.

9) Fixed the bug that the unit will continue to perceive an enemy who has already exceeded the perception range.

10) Fixed a bug where the items in the inventory cannot be split.

11) Fix the bug that item sorting is invalid after category display.

12) Fixed the bug that rare prompt box remains and cannot be clicked.

13) Fixed a bug where certain bow and arrow skills would break the block and cause infinite damage (shown as break infinity).

14) Fixed the bug that the combat speed setting is invalid in the partice combat and side mission.

15) Fixed a bug related to resource loading, slightly reduced the memory usage after switching multiple scenes.

16) Fixed a bug where the player's character might initially fall to the ground during side missions.

17) Fixed a bug where a trigger might appear repeatedly in the tactical panel of another character.

18) Fixed a bug that gladiator occasionally does not deduct health when injured in battle.

19) Fixed a bug where robbery caravan achievement statistics is not working correctly.

20) Resolved the conflict that occurred when the player' competition started and the side mission was also sent out at the same time.


1) Now players can press Alt to highlight the gladiators on both sides while watching the battle.

2) Now hover your mouse over a gladiator's avatar, the gladiator will highlight in the scene and display the name.

3) The effect of using the potion was changed to take effect instantly, to avoid the animation being interrupted and making the potion invalid.

4) Balanced the reward of caravan side mission.

5) All humanoid units will drop a small amount of money after death.

6) Added materials to all monsters. Now monsters in both hunting and treasure hunting side mission will drop materials. The material will appear on the corpse after the monster dies.


1) Two new monsters have been added to the treasure hunt mission, Gargoyle and Wild Witch. They have very powerful skills and are very difficult to deal with.


2) Added all armor recipes for veteran T2 level, which can be researched by the blacksmith.

3) Six kinds of permanent potions have been added, which need to be synthesized by hunting the materials dropped by the top monsters. The formula of the potion can be studied by the doctor.

Blackthorn Arena v1.04 Update Change Log：




1) Fixed a bug in which players ’prizes would not return when players close the “Hold Arena" window.

2）Fixed a bug where a rare game played to a certain stage when no one participated in the game.

3）Fixed a bug where the host of the arena disappeared.

4）Fixed a bug that may caused a black screen or stuck .

5）Resolved an shadow flickered issue caused by monster butcher's cloak .

6）Fixed a bug where the guards could easily be knocked away.

7）Fixed some bug where players would get stuck in the grass during side mission.

8）Fixed some bug where some players would get stuck on the wall in dungeon during side mission.

9）Fixed a bug where certain rooms in dungeons could not be reached.

10）Fixed some skill description errors.

11）Fixed the bug that players' slaves would exceed the upper limit (16) by slave capture side mission.

12）Fixed the issue where the combat speed could not be adjusted.

13）Fixed the bug that the guards in side mission would sometimes not attack players when they should.

14）Fixed a bug where the archive will be corrupted after the side mission was exited in iron man mode.

15) Fixed a bug where the shadow of plants in the side mission would get flickered.

16）Fixed a loading bug related to desert side mission


1）Now archive will be automatical saved before side missions.

2）In Iron Man mode, archive will also be automatical saved before side missions.

3）The Cancel button in the settings interface now will close the window

4）Changed the game's default resolution from 2K to 1920x1080

5）Adjusted all the dungeon spots, monster configuration, and treasure chest placement.

6）Now with senior difficulty or higher, the orc master will participate in the Grand Game.

7）Added skills to many monsters, they are now more powerful and challenging.

1) Fixed a bug where specting the game and skipping the Left team would definitely win.

2) Fixed a bug where the characters in a side mission map would jump up in place.

3) Fixed bugs related to wolves in cave for side missions.

4) Fixed a model issue of wearing veterans light armor chest.

5) Fixed a bug that the newly added one-handed spear could not be purchased, and added localization to it.

6) Fixed a bug where the items in the store could be dragged directly into the gladiator's equipment bar.

7) Fixed a bug where the prize of the match sponsor could be dragged directly into the gladiator equipment bar.


1) Increased the level of Skeleton Knight from 6 to 10.

2) Increase werewolf's attack damage, health and stamina recovery.

3) Slightly improved the endurance of The Orc Master.


1) Added a few missing Chinese localizations.

I hope you enjoyed this weekend.
I wrote this letter with mixed feelings since the official release of the Blackthorn arena three days ago.
On the one hand, we were delighted that we have archived a goal that we are working for a long time, which is to develop and publish our first game. On the other hand, I feel anxious and guilty because of the unsatisfactory performance of the game in the past three days. Here, first of all, please allow us to say sorry to all the players who have been troubled by the deficiencies and defects of the game. We are committed to working as fast as possible to solve the game's problems and further improve and enrich the game content.
Also, we would like to thank all of you, especially those of you who have already joined us in Early Access, for your valuable comments and suggestions on the steam community and our Twitter. Since the release of the game, we have felt the players' tolerance and support for independent games, and many players have spontaneously participated in game testing, which has greatly helped our development work. Here we would like to extend our sincere thanks to all the players.
Blackthorn arena is our studio's first work. I'm sure you don't know much about our studio. Due to limited funds and no former reputation, we have been focused on the development and rarely exposed to media. If you are interested in our studio, please let me give you a brief introduction to the current situation of the studio.
Our studio was established two years ago, it is consists of a dozen young people who love video games but never get a chance to work on one. Many of our members, including the initiator, are fresh graduates from college. Everyone is new to game development, and no one has ever participated in developing a game before. In the process of development, we encountered a lot of difficulties and challenges, due to lack of experience, every step we made can be very tough.
Also, our funds are very tight. There were no resources for previous projects, no commercial capital injections, and the two founders paid for the entire development process out of their own pockets. It's not uncommon to see comments from players about rough modeling, rough scenes, etc. Let's just say that this is the best that can be done on a limited budget.
In the process of development, we also encountered many difficulties. At the beginning of the project, we were actually planning to make a CRPG game similar to Baldur's Gate, Dragon age, Divinity: Origin sin. However, due to a lack of experience, I underestimated the difficulty of developing a CRPG game. In the middle of development, we realized that the funding available was insufficient to support the entire development process. Therefore, we changed our plan to make a small arena simulation games in the midway. Maybe a lot of players have also found our combat system and skill system are similar to an RPG game. Because the development of the existing game used the resources of the RPG game we were making.
We know that many players are not very happy with the current released version of the game. Some are disappointed at the game’s graphics, some people think our design has some defects, and balance is not done. The most criticized part of the game is the annoying bugs. We accept all this criticism because, for us, it has not yet grown into what we want it to be. But under the pressure of reality, we have to present it to you now. Here, we pledge to support the game for the long term, solve the existing issues as soon as possible, and add a lot of new free content. We also hope players can give us some understanding and tolerance on our gritty, unpolished debut after knowing the condition of our studio.
As for the CRPG we mentioned earlier, we are also considering further development, and all players who purchase the Blackthorn arena will be entitled to a discount.
With such an inexperienced team and so limited funds, if we compare the development process to a game, I think we chose the highest difficulty and ironman mode at the beginning. Honestly, it was a regrettable decision from my current view. But life cannot restart just like the game, right? Now, we are worrying about that the game’s income could not cover its cost, we are afraid of losing money. But we won’t lose our love of games, as long as we can earn enough money to continue to make games, continue to do the job that we love, we won’t make a stop.
Two years ago, we chose to develop indie games. Now we are on the road and we are not going back. It would be a great pleasure to have your company.
Finally, to all the people who like our game, sincerely say: thank you!
Persona Games

1) Fixed a black screen bug when players enter the dungeon mission.

2) Fixed a bug that the gladiators could not be renamed at the beginning of the game.

3) Fixed a bug that will cause players to be popped up automatically when importing pinch data in Role library.

4) Fixed a bug that players could not adjusting character's appearance after importing pinch face data.

5) Fixed a bug where the slaves would be duplicated in the practice battle.

6) Fixed a loading bug that caused by default over-the-shoulder camera.

7) Fixed a bug that players could exceed the limit of input amount of gold when players hold arena battle.

8） Fixed a bug where Orc Master would not cast spells automatically.

9) Fixed an issue where the blacksmith's quenching sound effect was too high.

10) Fixed a bug where the opponents of the challenge battle did not display sometimes.

11) Fixed some minor issues with beards and hairstyles.

12) Fixed a bug cuased by attacking dummies in side missions when players using fully automatic mode.

13) Fixed a bug where the genre information of the slave in the black market sometimes displayed incorrectly.

14) Fixed an issue where picking certain foods during the side mission would crash the archive.

15) Fixed some localization issues.


1) The cost of crafting all medicines is reduced to half.

2) The IK effect of the BearTrap has been removed.

3) Players can no longer send gladiators with health condition below 15% to the competition.

4) Modified three event diagrams.

5) Improved the visual occlusion problem in the three dungeons.

6) Improved the brush points of some dungeons, so that monsters can no longer be brushed together.

7) Three new side mission maps have been added! Including a complete new desert type of map.

8) Three new one-handed spears have been added. Corresponding to common, uncommon, and rare levels.

9) Several new face print have been added to character's customization.

10）All Side mission's dispatch time has been reduced to 2 days

1) Fixed a series of bugs caused by loading archives during practice battle in training ground.

2) Fixed the bug where player's gladiators will be duplicated

3) Fixed a bug when players entering certain dungeon scenes will cause black screen.

4) Fixed a bug that caused when players return to the arena after capturing slaves.

5) Fixed a bug where the enemy in side mission would not open the door correctly.

6) Fixed a bug where players sent Gladiators to participate in a beast show without gaining experience

7) Fixed a bug that the escaping of players' low obdience gladiators halfway during side mission will cause the error of loading.

8) Fixed a bug where equipment could be duplicated.

9) Save and Load pinch face data button is now working correctly in Role Library.


1) Added difficulty instructions and various options for starting a new game

2) Enhanced the compatibility with EA version archives

3) Added many missing localized texts

Dear players of the Blackthorn Arena, after more than a month of hard work, we are very happy to finally present the full official version of the Blackthorn Arena to every players! There are many changes from the EA version to the official version. We are not be able to list every single update one by one. We will only introduce some major new additions and updates. Although the old save files could still be working, we still highly recommend that players open a complete new start.



After the plot develops to a certain stage, the game will open the function of sending gladiators to perform side missions outside the arena. There are four major types of missions: robbing caravans, capturing slaves, hunting monsters, and exploring for treasures. In addition, more than twenty maps for missions have been added. They have different styles, and some of them offer players the experience of exploration. By sending gladiators to perform these side missions, your gladiator will gain large reward such as capturing new slaves, gathering money and resources and even obtaining legendary equipments.


We have added more than 20 kinds of new enemies (caravan guards, robbers, monsters, etc.) to the game, many of which are fierce monsters that will appear in the hunting monster mission. You can send gladiators to defeat and capture these beasts, bring them back to your own arena to host unique Venationes. Bizarre beasts will bring you huge amount of reputation and ticket income.


In this update, we added a large number of new equipment items, many of which can only be obtained through missions. We won't list them here, leave it to the players to discover.


We re-created all the basic character models used in the game in higher definition. In addition, we have added a lot of new hairs and face prints to offer players more choices when customizing characters.

We have improved the sound performance of the entire game, adding new ambient sounds, gladiators and UI sound effects. Now, the sound effects of the game don't sound so dull.


We have optimized the game in many ways. Now the memory consumption of the game has been significantly reduced, 8G memory can run stably and smoothly. In addition, we have optimized and improved a number of scenes that previously had frame drops, and now the frame rates of these scenes can be stabilized in an ideal range.


1) At the request of many players, we have added 4k resolution and two widescreen resolutions.

2) Three types of material traders were added to the three black markets.

3) A new gladiator appearance animation (before the battle start) has been made, and the gladiator appearance animation can now be skipped.

4) Re-entered the entrance lens of each arena.

5) We have added some interaction between the gladiator and the players in player's arena.

6) In addition to the content listed above, this update also has a large number of unmentioned bug fixes and detail improvements.
our originally planned multi-language localization will be added to the game in the next one month. At the same time, the MAC version of the Blackthorn Arena will also be released in two weeks.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused by the delayed the release of the two, and thanks for your patience.

Finally, we wish you a happy game in the full version of the Blackthorns Arena!

If you have any feedbacks or bug reports, please leave comment as below and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Cheers!

Dear BlackThorn players
Thank you for all of your support as always! We've just updated a small hotfix patch, and now the game has entered a relatively stable version.
Currently, we plan to launch an official version of the Blackthorn on May 19. Due to the abundance of new content and the long production cycle, unfortunately, we may not update the new content before the official release, but we will still launch hotfixs based on players' feedback and BUGS.

1) Send your gladiators to perform tasks outside the Arena area.

2) More than 20 new battle maps outside the Arena area, some of which will be exploratory.

3） More than a dozen of new enemies.

4) More than a dozen pieces of new gears.

5) The character model will be completely remade, and the new character model will become more HD and detailed.

6) A large number of optimizations and additions to sound effects.

7) Seven localized languages will be supported! (French, German, Italian, Russian, Korean, Spanish, Japanese).

8) The overall optimization of the game.

9) Add more details and so on.

However, please understand that the release of the official version does not represent the termination of game development.
We're launching the official version because the game's content is fairly complete and has good playability and stability.
After the launch of the official release, we will continue to develop new content for the game with everything free. We have no plans to launch any DLC.
We can guarantee that the maintenance of this game will last a long time.
Finally, thank you again for your support during the EA phase.Your encouragement and feedbacks are extremely valuable to us. I hope every players will enjoy our official complete edition.



1）Fixed a bug that causes players cannot unlock the new achievements.

2）Fixed a bug that causes the gladiator slot's icon won't change after the gladiator's head portrait has changed.

3）Fixed a bug related to feast.

4）Fixed a bug that causes the color of gladiator's state text on the after match panel incorrect.


1）Slaves in the markets now have their background stories.

Dear Blackthorn Arena Players:
Greeting, thanks for supporting our game. As always, the following content contains some bug fixed and improvements. If you have any feedbacks or advice, please leave your comment below or share your opinion on our offical discord.



1）Fixed a bug where in challenge battle, players might get stuck in the battle preparation phase after clicking start button.

2）Fixed a bug that prevent the players from ending the game after players complete the last battle of the Grand Final.

3）Fixed an issue where NPC 's champions could repeatedly appear in a single team.

4）Fixed numerical and description errors on some skill texts.

5）Fixed an issue where the slave's skill levels were sometimes displayed incorrectly in the market.

6）Fixed an issue where the slave's genre levels were sometimes displayed incorrectly in the market.

7）Fixed a bug where a player would not earn any money from hosting the Grand Final.

8）Fixed an issue where character's animation occasionally shaked abnormally while Circling with enemies.

9）Fixed an issue where players could not discard changes when editing a character in the role library.

10) Fixed an bug where players would get stuck(blackscreen) in the second round during Tag Match in the Orc Master's Arena .


1）Added some tutorials to the games.

2）Added descriptions of the specific effects of different options in the tactics panel.

3）Added a button to the upper left corner of the management interface. Click it to view the player's career history.

4）Enlarged the UI of the crafting interface.

5）Add a panel to display all attributes and traits for specific slaves when player click them in the market.

6）Added a button to adjust the combat speed of the game in the shortcut bar, allowing the game time to run at 0.5, 1 or 2 times.

7) Click on the Dead list board of the treatment room and select one of the gladiators to view their career data.

8) A Portraits folder has been added to the game installation directory.Players can put their custom portraits in it. These portraits will appear in the options when the player starts a new game to create an avatar. The standard size of a portrait is 400x500 pixels. If the size does not match, the image may appear stretched or blurred. In addition, it is recommended to put another small square sized portrait picture with the name of the portrait and "_square" in the end of the picture's name at the same time ( For example, Player put a picture named " Portrait" for avatar, it is recommended that he put another square sized picture with the name of "Portrait_square" at the same time so our system can match these) . Both Png and Jpg format are supported.

PS: Old archive could not support portrait change, player must open a new archive.



1）Each major arena will send its champion to participate in the Grand Venationes.

2）Modified some monsters in the Grand Venationes to balance the game's difficulty.

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Dear Blackthorn Arena Players:
Greeting, Thank you for supporting our game and sorry for the long wait this time. The update features huge new content ! The orc master is coming to Freeland! If you have any feedbacks or advice, please leave your comment below or share your opinion on our offical discord.






1) Fixed several bugs related to the tag match, now tag match will spawn at arenas as before.

2) Fixed a bug that could cause player cannot leave the blackmarket after sold a slave.

3) Fixed a bug where the icons of Exhibition and Tournament were reversed in World Map.

4) Fixed a bug related to bankruptcy event.

5) Fixed the bug that the shortcut button in the shortcut bar in the first battle was not clickable if player enables the automatic pause.

6) Fixed a bug where gladiators did not properly remove from their post (such as chef, blacksmitch, doctor etc.) when they fell into a coma due to their health decrease.

7) Fixed some bugs of text display on UI.

8) Fixed a bug where the story match could be participated before it actually happened.



1) Now, players can choose two genres for a role that they created/edited in the role libarary.

2) When started a new game, players are able to choose two characters from the role library.

3) Added a cooldown time display to the skill slots in the action bar.

4) Made some small improvements to the UI of the management interface.

5) Improved the weapon's attack buffering range and now makes it easier to hit enemies with one-handed weapons.

6) Added an option to disable manual combat when starting a new game. When checked, the player's gladiator will always be controlled by a computer and this option cannot be changed.

7) Optimized the loading logic and increased the loading speed. Now the loading time of the game is shorter overall.

8) Added a button to browse and purchase goods from markets in your own arena, but you need to pay a 10 silver errand fee for this, no matter how many items you buy.

9) Players can now choose a research direction for their chef, doctor, and blacksmith while researching for recipes.



We present a whole new chapter for Blackthorn Arena ! This storyline will take place after the spring game and before the Grand Venations show. The legendary orc master has come to freeland! He will set up his own arena, and lead a group of brutal half-orc gladiators across all other arena. If the player is strong enough, the orc master will also fight the player in person!




With the arrival of the orc master, there will be a new arena in the game. It will host its own competition like other arena and will also accept the challenge from players. The difference is that all the gladiators in this arena are Orcs!



The orc master has 17 orc gladiators with different styles and unique skills. They will become strong enemies for players in the middle and late game period.


This helmet originally belonged to the orc master, defeat it and claim your reward!


A Feast button has been added to the Main hall scene. Players can use this button to spend one day and double the cost of daily diet to restore twice the health and morale of all gladiators, and each gladiator has a 50% chance to gain a single point of obedience.

Add a Practice button to the training ground. After pressing, players can select two gladiators to perform a practice battle in the octagon cage on the training ground. Players can control one of the gladiators. It ends when players defeat opponent. However, players can exit at any time.

Clicking on the Dead list button in the treatment room will now open a panel to browse all dead gladiators. Dead gladiator's icon, name, cause of death and time of death will be all displayed on it.



1) We have made a huge change to the battle mode, the purpose is to slightly increase the battle time, slower the battle pace while making the battle more strategic and ornamental.
The specific changes are as follows:

1. The three fighting styles have been differentiated, and each fighting style has distinctive characteristics:

The character will attack the opponent with 100% attack frequency. Characters will immediately launch the next attack if they have enough stamina and are not in attack cooldowns.

The character will attack the opponent with 75% of the attack frequency, however, the accuracy of the attack is increased by 25%.

The character will only attack the opponent with 50% of the attack frequency, however, the dodge and block rate will increase by 25% from the original.

At the same time we also introduced a new fighting style: Retention Style

In this mode, the character will attack the opponent with 100% of the attack frequency, but when the Stamina drops below 25%, the character will no longer launch the attack, and will not continue to attack at 100% frequency until the Stamina recovers above 75%.

2. All weapon-based skills will be restricted by the attack interval. In other words, it is not possible to cast a weapon skill immediately after performing a normal attack, but have to wait until the cooldown of the normal attack is over.

3. The initial maximum Stamina of the character and the maximum Stamina bonus provided by the equipment are all halved. Now the aggressive combat style can only burst a shor amount of time.

2). Reduced the attribute requirements of most skills so plays have less restrictions on building their gladiators.