Bionka, the orc queen, is back on her throne, and she’s leading a full-on orc revolution. The time to summon your magical armies through the rift is now!
BUILD YOUR ARMY WITH NEW GUILDS
Create guilds and invite your friends and teammates to join you. Chat together, work together, earn guild points together to unlock rewards for everyone in your guild.
THE 5-STAR NIGHTMARE IS BACK
You think you’re a real pro orc-slayer, huh? Put your magic where your mouth is. The 5-star rating system from previous Orcs Must Die! games has returned for Survival mode.
FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS
Your friends aren’t playing OMDU yet, you say? We just made it easier and more rewarding than ever to make new friends. Use the new Refer-A-Friend system to invite your friends to OMDU and you could both unlock amazing rewards, including an exclusive Blackpaw skin.
MORE OF THAT OMD HEART & SOUL
Remember when you fell madly in love with Orcs Must Die!? Two new compact and frantic maps bring back more of that epic defense feeling you’ve been missing in Orcs Must Die! Unchained.
THE REVOLUTION BEGINS NOW!
Bionka, the Queen Momma, is the matriarch of the orcs and leader of the Unchained. Bionka is now available in-game, and her royal abilities and motherly love mean there’s never been a better time to be an orc minion!
Release 1.3 has all of this plus a mountain of other updates from balance adjustments to new bosses. Read the detailed patch notes.
Sing and march for the new leader of the Unchained.
After sending her sons, including Bloodspike, to conquer the Order, it is time for the orcish queen to leave the Dark World and attack the Order herself. With her flail and her beautiful singing voice, she plans on taking a chunk out of the Order and making a new home on Centre. Make way for Bionka, Queen Momma!
Bionka is the supreme leader of the Orcs. Not only is she their leader and queen, she is also considered mother to all orcs in their culture--not necessarily by biology but by nature of being the queen. Bionka takes this maternal responsibility very seriously and, while a bit rough around the edges, she loves her “family” and will fight to help provide for her “children.”
Bionka brings a versatile set of skills to battle and packs a big punch. She hits hard and protects her “babies” with her dulcet tunes. She is not particularly quick on her feet, but when she gets near her enemies, she can pack a huge wallop with her massive flail.
Recent Changes from Bloodspike Unchained (Release 1.2)
As I’ve mentioned in my previous posts, we take your feedback very, very seriously, and hopefully you’ve seen that in some of our recent updates. To recap a few from the last patch (1.2), we took what the community felt was an overly complicated system, crafting, and did a number of things to streamline the feature. We’ve greatly reduced the number of materials in the game, simplified the recipes required for each item, and added the ability for players to target a needed material before each game. Each trap can be upgraded more frequently now too, among many other things.
Another big area of focus for us lately has been on the Survival game. With your help, we realized that the game was missing some of the original OMD! “feel”. We started addressing this in patch 1.2, but there are still several things on our plate that we’re anxious for you to try. As a quick recap, we recently changed the amount of damage players do to minions, yet at the same time changed up some minion behavior so they’re faster, and aggro to the player differently which makes them more of a threat. These changes, we think, bring back both the cool feeling of power from the original games, plus some of the great intensity that may have been missing recently.
Upcoming Changes from Orc Revolution (Release 1.3)
That’s really just a start for Survival. Coming soon, we’ll be adding some great new features, and making some changes, that honestly, might feel a little surprising. With the next update we’re going to change the maximum numbers of players allowed in a standard Survival game from 5 to 3. Now, why in the world would we do that? Good question, and it’s one we’ve thought about quite a bit. The biggest reason, is we find playing with 2 other players is just a ton of fun. It’s a great size for coordinating things in the game, and for strategizing.
From a design perspective, we’re now able to give the player more power than we could when 5 players are in a match, which just feels way better, and allows us to make “tighter” maps that are more like the original OMD! games. This change to maps alone makes the game feel fantastic. We’ve got a couple of these tighter maps - The Baths and Throne Room - coming out in our next release, so be sure to give them a shot, and let us know what you think.
If you’re a big fan of playing 5-player Survival games, and on bigger maps, that’s not going away entirely. Beginning at level 80, you can play Endless games as a 5-player group, and we’re going to keep making big maps for this mode moving forward. This is a great way for large groups to play together and chase leaderboards. Speaking of leaderboards, did we mention we’re adding a brand new feature to the game with this update? Guilds are coming to OMDU, and guild leaderboards alongside them! Band together with your orc-smashing friends to climb the guild leaderboards for bragging rights and awesome rewards.
We’re also bringing back an old favorite feature from previous OMD! games… the 5 Star (formerly Skull) System. Now you’ll be able to go to Battleground Select, and try to get a “5 Star” rating on every map. It’s fun, and it’s wicked hard. We’re also allowing level downscaling through Battleground Select, so you veteran players can bring in new friends and still have a great game. This will be in the next patch (1.3), so it’s just right around the corner.
On the Horizon
There’s plenty more coming that we will be talking about soon. We’ll be doing more to teach new players to get them up-to-speed faster in all modes of the game, and in Siege we’ll do a better job communicating with players when key events happen in the game that they should be aware of. Of course, we’ll keep the heroes, traps, traits, and maps coming, so keep an eye out for those too.
Alright, that’s probably enough for one day. I appreciate you sticking with us. Even with all those words, I realize you’ll probably want even more specifics. Please check out our forums, and our weekly Insider Access twitch stream where you can ask us questions directly, and where we can really dig into the details. You can also check out the full patch notes for the upcoming Orc Revolution update for additional details, once they are released.
Thanks again for helping us shape Orcs Must Die! Unchained into a great game. We always appreciate your feedback, so keep it coming!
Did you miss this week's Insider Access? Never fear, we've got the video right here! Paul Hellquist joins SixOkay to reveal the next hero coming to Orcs Must Die! Unchained with the Orc Revolution game update! Like Bloodspike before her, Bionka the Queen Momma is returning to OMDU!
Bionka's skills and animations have been completely revised since her first appearance in OMDU. Check out the full Insider Access video, including the hero overview for Bionka, Queen Momma!
No two people are alike, and gamers are no exception to that rule. It does not matter if a player is color blind, left-handed, or simply used to a different gaming setup. They should be able to jump into a fun game, and play comfortably and effectively. That’s why Orcs Must Die! Unchained has several great options to help players customize their gaming experience.
COLOR BLIND SETTINGS
Players with varying levels of color blindness struggle with video games. They have trouble distinguishing between friends and enemies, or seeing a difference in certain visual effects going off next to one another. Many games have started to include options for color blind people over the years – and OMDU is no exception.
To enable settings for color blindness in Orcs Must Die! Unchained, press the Escape key while in a game to bring up the Pause Menu. Click on Gameplay, and find the second option, labeled “Color Blind”. Select your specific type of colorblindness - Protanopia (red-green), Deuteranopia (a different form of red-green), or Tritanopia (blue-yellow) - and details in the game will change to provide suitable contrast to keep you competitive.
KEY BINDINGS
Many left-handed players struggle with both console and PC controls plainly geared for right-handed people. Thankfully, the ability to change key bindings has become a fairly standard option for computer play. Not only does this help left-handed people play, it enables people with clumsy hands – not you, other people - to choose how their controls are spaced out.
To change your key bindings in Orcs Must Die! Unchained, press Escape to bring up the menu, and then select Options. The fourth option down, labeled “Key Bindings”, leads to an extensive customization menu. First, select the desired Keybind Mode. The “Swap Binds” setting prevents any potential conflicts, while the “Allow Duplicates” option gives free reign over the process. From there, it is simple and intuitive -- all you have to do is click on any of existing key settings and follow the prompts.
PREFERENCES
The Gameplay menu offers several other ways to change things up as well. If you’re used to the inverted Y-axis common to first-person shooters, you can toggle the “Invert-Y” setting in Gameplay. Enabling “Split Loadout”, an option further down on the Gameplay Menu, prevents the mouse’s scroll wheel from inadvertently selecting traps when you’re trying to attack or use an item. This is great for players who want to more carefully select traps, items, or actions dependent on situational context. You can even allow other players to sell your traps when they need to.
SMASH SOME ORCS!
Customization is a real game changer for many players! It can turn a frustrating experience into a good time, and ensure everyone can participate to the fullest. We encourage everyone to make the game work for them! After all, the only thing standing between a player and their rift should be orcs – preferably dead ones.
Did you miss this week's Insider Access? SixOkay was joined by Paul Slusser to reveal another brand new Survival map called "Throne Room," coming to OMDU with the next major game update!
Check out the preview of "Throne Room" in the Insider Access video!
