Hello Warriors,

We hope you’re staying cool this July, as every day more closely resembles the swamp climate of Point C on Temple Garden.

Fortunately, we have a refreshing breeze of sales blowing in this week:




Over 3,000 items at 25% off! Get new threads, new Effects, and new Emotes for the hero you’ve been repping up!




With Champion Status, you can claim to your friends that you are an actual For Honor champion…and technically be correct! If they play For Honor with you, they will directly experience the bonuses provided by your championship. You have until July 23rd to take advantage of this sale!




These Winged Anomaly Ornaments may be just what you need to spice up your drop attacks. While they do not actually change your hero’s ability to dunk on enemies from the crow’s nests at Point B on Harbor, having wings will certainly help you gain the upper hand psychologically.

Thank you for joining us, and we’ll see you again at the next Warrior’s Den Recap!

If you haven’t already, join the For Honor Community on Twitter, Twitch, and Reddit.

Stay safe and we'll see you on the battlefield!

Hey there, Warriors!

Last week we unveiled our official roadmap for the month of July! Check it out below – there’s also an Extra XP Fest on the 17th:







The new “Fumes of Horkos” Effect is out this week! It’s certainly an intimidating way to make a statement on the battlefield.




The Anomaly of Horkos outfit is available for all heroes now! Head to the in-game store and check out the mysterious new threads.




Rounding out this week’s activities is the Ranked Vanquisher Challenge! Starting tomorrow, fight for your faction to win the most Ranked matches to earn the best rewards for your faction.

Thank you for joining us, and we’ll see you again at the next Warrior’s Den Recap!

If you haven’t already, join the For Honor Community on Twitter, Twitch, and Reddit.

Stay safe and we'll see you on the battlefield!

Greetings, Warriors!

The first month of Tyranny is officially in the books. We hope your Metal Trials have gone well! SADPOLLYON, Gitgudmundr, and the Tozens can all be challenging opponents – but it’s all worth it to hear the roar of the crowd.




Arcade Quests, Content of the Week, Challenges, and an Extra XP Fest! There’s something to try every week.




If you have a chance, head on over to the in-game store and grab a wide variety of cosmetics and effects at a discounted price! This sale will last until July 9th at 9:00am.




Finally, to round out the new Content for the Week, there are new Emotes available for all your favorite heroes!

An opponent stands across a narrow bridge that arches over a deep canyon. Before approaching, use the “Skeptically Swaying” Emote to show them that you’re not so sure it’s a good idea.

But later in the match: why’d your opponent choose to stand near those spikes? Show them that you question their decision-making with the “Confused Warrior” Emote.




The Weekly Quest “Wolves From The Door” is available now until July 9th for owners of the Marching Fire DLC.



Thank you for joining us, and we’ll see you again at the net Warrior’s Den Recap!

If you haven’t already, join the For Honor Community on Twitter, Twitch, and Reddit.

Stay safe, and we’ll see you on the battlefield!

Hello there, Warriors!

We hope you’ve all been enjoying the Season of Tyranny so far! Here’s what we have in store for this week:




We’re continuing the return of Test Your Metal with Chapter 2! From now until July 2nd, go show those Heathmoor impersonators who’s the real boss of the battlefield.




Looking for some new threads for your heroes? Head on over to the store and pick up the Timeless Wolf outfit for your main until July 2nd.




The Extra Loot Fest is ON. Play any game mode (including Test Your Metal II) from June 26th to June 29th and receive more loot! You’ve got three days to increase your chances of getting that drop you’ve been searching for. Good luck!



Chivalry meets Bushido as Warden bashes his way into the world of Samurai Shodown!

Ready the catapult!

Hello Warriors! Welcome to this installment in our ongoing series of State of Balance, where the Fight Team analyzes the results from the just-completed season and discusses where we are headed in the future.

In this blog, we will share data on the Win Rates and Pick Rates of our heroes with you, the community. We will also look at this data to discuss our perspective on certain balance issues, comparing the above data with the community-created Tier List, and where we see balance heading over the coming seasons.

A quick read on the methodology of the data presented



We know the results of previous Testing Grounds phases are hot topics with you, the community, so we want to quickly update you on their statuses. Based on feedback from the previous Testing Grounds phases, we are preparing to release 2 updates. We expect these 2 updates will bring variety to the meta, and will expect to be discussing their impacts in the future installments of the State of Balance.

1. Centurion got a significant update based on the original Testing Grounds phase (which focused on Warlord, Gladiator, and Centurion). We’ve taken in the feedback from the original Testing Grounds phase and have since made a number of edits to improve efficiency to initiate and sustain offense, as well as reduce the frustration of stun, stamina drain, and the cutscene. The updated Centurion changes went live with the start of Y4S2.
   
2. Fight System Improvements have been worked on since the latest Testing Grounds phase (which focused on improving the whole roster’s offensive tools, reducing inconsistencies such as delayed/buffered attack results, improving stamina costs, making zone attack input more comfortable, etc). We are continuing to make a number of edits to them to better set damage levels, and also to reduce the frustrations of Light Spam. We expect these changes to improve the meta of the game, and be a refreshing improvement to the state of play. We’ll communicate more during Y4S2 on the release date of the Fight System Improvements.

Now - let’s look at the Win Rates data, Pick Rates data, and Community Tier List!




These are the Win Rate and Pick Rates based on player data combined from Y4S1.



This Tier is based on individual Tier Lists created by the community and combined by the community.

Individual Tier Lists

The Combined Tier List (the graphic reproduced above)


Kensei and Aramusha currently appear at the very top of the Win Rates for Full Population and Top for Dominion. Kensei and Aramusha have always appeared near the top of these data sets, with both having good damage on their attacks as well as good range. We’ve seen Aramusha rise in the meta as well, as players have learned to confirm a 40 damage 700ms Side Heavy off of, for example, a friendly Gladiator’s Toestab. This particular issue occurs because our Openers (which can be ganking tools as in this case, and/or defensive tools when used as Parry Punishes) often carry as much or more damage than our Finishers. In our ‘Testing Grounds: Fight System Improvements’ version, we tried to rebalance the damage to be generally lower on Openers, and more on Finishers. We would expect that this would reduce the rewards for defensive play, reduce the damage reward when ganking, and incentivise offense through continuing the chains toward the biggest damage attacks.

Lawbringer also appears at the top of the Win Rates. There seem to be a couple of reasons for the Lawbringer’s current power level – the ones most addressable, which are high HP and Impale not following the usual rules for binding opponents, were addressed at the start of Y4S2. Topics like Shove-on-Red or the global issue of target-swapping-in-the-lane are also problematic, though not simple to address.

Top of the Win Rates and Tier Lists are starting to converge a bit more than they seem to have in previous seasons. We note that Lawbringer was almost unanimously placed in the S Tier by top community players who created the Tier List, and he appears very high in the Player Win Rates as well. Kensei and Aramusha are placed highly in Win Rates and Tier List as well, and Warlord, Conqueror, Jiang Jun, and Hitokiri appear reasonably high on all results. It still diverges in respect to Shaman, Gladiator and Black Prior who appear lower in the Win Rates, but high up on the Tier List.

Raider no longer appears at the very top of the Player Win Rates for Dominion. Similarly, Raider was particularly high in the previous shared season’s data for Duels (for Full Population the Duel data was the #3 hero at 61% (is now 52%), and for Platinum And Above was the #1 hero at 63% (is now 56%)). The Storming Tap nerf and damage nerfs appear to have impacted the Win Rate as well as frustration of fighting against Raider, without making Raider unviable. We therefore don’t expect to have to make any other nerfs to reduce the frustration element on this character.

Hitokiri also no longer appears at the very top of the Player Win Rates for Dominion. While the Win Rate has gone down somewhat (especially in Duel), we introduced more changes to Hitokiri at the beginning of Y4S2, to reduce the frustration element when fighting the character in 1v1 and group fight scenarios. Our examination is that Full Population players are having a difficult time with the Light Finishers, and Uninterruptible Stance.

Jormungandr is currently appearing in the middle of the Win Rate data, and the Tier List. However, we also see that Jormungandr repeatedly is marked as the most frustrating character in the player surveys that we’ve been performing each season. Some of this appears to be stamina-related, some on the early timings of Uninterruptible Stance, some on the frame advantage after a finisher, and some on the survivability given by the Feats. Also – we noted the Jomungandr was much stronger when played in ‘Testing Grounds: Fight System Improvements’. In the short term, we introduced a variety of small nerfs to Jormungandr at the start of Y4S2, and in the longer term we will investigate the survivability benefit given by the Feats (as this was a big part of the higher power level Jormungandr enjoyed in the Testing Grounds).

Reflex Guard Heroes still have a difficult time in Dominion. All Reflex Guard heroes currently appear at the bottom half of the Win Rates. We’re keeping an eye on this as it is a trend that is problematic. At the same time, we recognize that their Win Rates increased in ‘Testing Grounds: Fight System Improvements’, likely due to a combination of attacks hitting more often as well as assassins having generally higher damage than heavies/vanguards/hybrids in that version.

When it comes to Duel, we note that there is a reduction of the highest Win Rates in this season’s Duel Win Rate data. Full Population’s highest win rate this season is 63% for Shugoki (was 68% for Hitokiri in the previous shared season’s data), and Platinum And Above now has a highest Win Rate of 60% for Hitokiri (was 63% for Raider in the previous shared season’s data). This is currently moving in the correct direction.

Uninterruptible Stance / High Damage Heroes still have a large presence at the top of the charts. This seems to suggest that these properties are very strong when used in the context of Full Population or Platinum-or-Above play in Duel. The main outlier is Berserker, who has an Uninterruptible Stance but appears quite low in Full Population play. We changed the Uninterruptible Stance timings on Hitokiri, Shugoki, and Jormungandr in 2.19.0 – and expect this to reduce them marked as frustrating to fight by players in our seasonal surveys.

Zhanhu comes into the middle of the Dominion Win Rates, but is low in the Community Tier List and in Duel data. The feeling is that the character does come in generally weaker than hoped. For example, the Superior Block Palm struggles to find a niche, and the Zone Attack is too slow to be as effective as desired – while the fire AOEs and general chaos of a Full Population Dominion game seem to keep Zhanhu more relevant in player data.

Warlord and Gladiator have both moved up quite a bit in the competitive Tier List. Warlord also moved up quite a bit in the Win Rate data, both in Dominion and Duel. While the Gladiator hasn’t moved up nearly as much in player data Win Rate in particular, the buffs that the two have received from Testing Grounds (and the other patches around this time) have moved each up into relevance in the meta.

Centurion generally appears low in all results. Centurion requires parry-fishing for damage in 1v1s, and the ganking power of the cutscene (especially vs Revenge) in Dominion. Otherwise, Centurion finds itself lacking in most respects. We expected the Centurion rework to have made a positive impact once we’re able to analyze Y4S2.

Defensive Meta is still the dominant meta, and the Fight Team’s analysis is that this meta is stale and needs to change. We look forward to introducing improvements to offense in the Live game during the course of Y4S2, and we expect this to reduce staring contests and freshen up the way the game is played.

For interests’ sake, we include the Duel and Breach Win Rates and Pick Rates here.












We would love to hear more from you on the results of the Player Data for Full Population, Platinum-or-Above, and Top, as well as on the Community Tier Lists Please remember that we look at all this data, information, feedback, player survey results, and a whole lot more when we make our decisions.

Keep sending us your feedback, and we look forward to sharing the next installment of the State of Balance!

We hope you’re enjoying Y4S2! 😊

- The Fight Team

The Y4S2 Battle Pass includes the following rewards for 26 heroes:

• 1 Execution (one per hero)
  
• 1 Weapon Set (one per hero)
  
• 1 Emote (one per hero)
  
• 2 Battle Outfits (one per hero)
  
• 1 Effect (Idle/Emote/Execution per hero)
  
• Color Swatches, Paint Patterns, Symbols, Emblem Customization
  
• a 10% Bonus in Battle Points earned through completed matches
  
• and much more!

Also new to this season, players will be able to purchase a battle bundle, unlocking the premium pass and 25 tiers instantly.

The Season of Hope is ending. The heroes of For Honor are on the cusp of a new Season: Tyranny. A strangely familiar visage is seen in the fog of war - proclaiming that “peace is poison.”

Warriors: Year 4, Season 2 is live on June 11th!





The Metal Trials will be live on June 11th! The much-anticipated Test Your Metal is back with a twist: a crowd of spectators. Group up with 3 of your friends and battle campaign mode powerhouses like Tozen, Gudmundr, and Apollyon for the enjoyment of the crowd!

A fun fact: the bosses receive bonuses if the players win a Bo7 round. So good luck grinding the throwback Event rewards, Warriors – as well as rewards for the heroes who did not exist during the previous Test Your Metal.




The Centurion rework of legend will finally come to the live game on June 11th. Thank you for your invaluable feedback from last September’s Testing Grounds, Warriors, and thank you for your patience.

Stay tuned for an article that will take a closer look at all of Centurion’s changes. Enjoy playing his updated moveset, and we hope you find playing him INCREDIBILIS.


The mysterious new hero will make their presence known on August 6th.

The changes we tried in the last Testing Grounds (now called the Core Combat Update) will also "go live" on August 6th. The Core Combat Update will result in a more dynamic experience for our players and disrupt the potentially stale defensive meta.

We’ll have more news before then, but for now: know that we’re keeping your Testing Grounds feedback regarding damage values, potential light spam, and Feats balancing in mind.




An Emote for the informal among us. Use this as you win a Metal Trials match to prove that no-one, not even the bosses from the campaign mode, can touch you on the battlefield.


We hope you enjoyed the Warrior’s Den (from home)!

If you haven’t already, join the For Honor Community on Twitter, Twitch, and Reddit.

We’ll see you again at the next Warrior’s Den Recap. Stay safe, see you on the battlefield!

Hello Warriors!

We hope you have enjoyed the May throwback events. June 11th (and Year 4, Season 2) is right around the corner! We’re eager to share more about the new season with you, but in the meantime, here are this week’s activities and sales:




It’s Extra XP time once again! Use this time to knock out your Orders you’ve been meaning to get done. This also applies to all matches you play, including Ranked. You’ll be able to participate in the XP Fest beginning on May 29th at 1:00pm (EDT) until June 1st at 3:00pm (EDT).



We’ve got a sale on Signatures that runs from now until June 4th 9:00 (EDT)! Pick one up before time runs out so you can celebrate your victories in style.




Does your faction have what it takes to win it all? From now until June 1st at 3:00pm (EDT), be the ones to win the Ranked Vanquisher Challenge!



We hope you’ve enjoyed the throwback playlists and rewards month!

If you haven’t already, join the For Honor Community on Twitter, Twitch, and Reddit.

We’ll see you again at the next Warrior’s Den Recap. Stay safe, see you on the battlefield!

Hey Warriors,

We’re entering the final week of throwback events as we head into June. Check out the May Roadmap below in case you missed it:





If I were trying to win the match, I would simply not stand in the fire. Return to the Carousel of Fire from now until May 28th, 9:00pm (EDT)!



Another week, another throwback Illustrious Outfit set! From May 24th at 9:00am (EDT) to May 21st 9:00am (EDT) feel free to grab your favorite look at a discounted steel price.



The Zhanhu’s Gambit Bundle has returned to For Honor. Catch it in the store until May 28th at 9:00 am (EDT).


We hope you’ve enjoyed the throwback playlists and rewards!

If you haven’t already, join the For Honor Community on Twitter, Twitch, and Reddit.

We’ll see you again at the next Warrior’s Den Recap. Stay safe, and see you on the battlefield!

Hello Warriors!

We hope you’re all staying safe at home! The May Roadmap was released a few weeks back, but feel free to check it out below so you know what to look forward to in the coming weeks:






Week two of our Throwback month is in the books, which means week three is currently underway! We’ll be revisiting the Carousel of Ragnarok event from now until May 21st, 9:00 am (EDT).



We’ve updated the store with a new Illustrious Outfit set! From May 14th at 9:00am (EDT) to May 21st 9:00 (EDT) you can grab it at a discounted price.



Finally, to help round out Throwback week three, the Wrath of the Jorumgandr bundle will be available for purchase in the store until May 21st 9:00 am (EDT).

We hope you’re enjoying the throwback playlists and rewards!

If you haven’t already, join the For Honor Community on Twitter, Twitch, and Reddit.

We’ll see you again at the next Warrior’s Den Update!

Stay safe, see you on the battlefield!