Take the class-based wizard shooter action of Paladins, riff on the battle royale modes whizzing all over games these days, and bish bash bosh you’ve got Realm Royale. Hi-Rez’s Paladins spin-off, which previously bore the remarkably cheeky name Paladins Battlegrounds, has now properly launched onto Steam Early Access, letting all play for free. Are you a bad enough wizard to murder like 99 other wizards? Throwing magical class abilities into the battle royale mix might make for interesting team-building in squads, so I’m curious about this one myself. (more…)
Choose your class and be the last champion standing in Realm Royale, the new battle royale game from Hi-Rez Studios which enters free-to-play Early Access on Steam today!
Team up, choose from one of five traditional fantasy classes, and dive head first into the Realm! Hunt for chests to unlock weapons and abilities to create a character truly your own. Will you soar above the battlefield raining fireballs as a Mage, or deploy turrets and shields as an Engineer?
Battle with your squad to be the last team standing in this 100 player game!
Realm Royale started development as “Paladins: Battlegrounds,” announced in January at the annual Hi-Rez Expo as a new mode for the hit hero shooter Paladins. After seeing positive feedback to the mode’s announcement, Hi-Rez Studios spun off Realm Royale as a standalone game with a larger scope.
With Launch comes some changes to our Update Cycle.
Paladins’ major Content Updates will now be bigger and better than ever before. Content Updates will include new Champions, Events, or other large features in every single update. These major Content Updates will occur every 6 weeks.
In between these updates, Paladins will release smaller updates that focus on balance, polish, and fixing outstanding bugs -- like this release.
Our 1.0b Patch introduces the awaited Battle Pass Challenges, new loading screen splash art, skins from another galaxy, Front Line focused balance, and a plethora of bug fixes.
Have fun in 1.0b, Champions!
GENERAL
Battle Pass
Players will be able to start completing Battle Pass Challenges in 1.0b! Challenges offer a way to further speed up your Battle Pass progress by completing various objectives during matches. Players who complete all Challenges before the Battle Pass ends will unlock the Legendary Title “Gearhead”.
Tier 1 Challenges: Blueprints
Unlocked at Battle Pass Level 2 Rewards 200,000 Battle Pass Experience for completing all Challenges
Tier 2 Challenges: Scrap Metal
Unlock at Battle Pass Level 11 Rewards 400,000 Battle Pass Experience for completing all Challenges
Tier 3 Challenges: Nuts and Bolts
Unlocked at Battle Pass Level 21 Rewards 600,000 Battle Pass Experience for completing all Challenges
Tier 4 Challenges: Wiring
Unlocked at Battle Pass Level 31 Rewards 800,000 Battle Pass Experience for completing all Challenges
Tier 5 Challenges: Power Source
Unlocked at Battle Pass Level 41 Rewards 1,000,000 Battle Pass Experience for completing all Challenges Unlocks Legendary Title “Gearhead”
Can now rotate preview models in the loadout scene as well as the Battle Pass scene
Customizations
The Galaxy Chest makes its return with two new additions: Mercenary Strix and Galactic Scion Lian! Packed with space-themed Skins, the Galaxy Chest is your look into a Paladins Realm far, far away...
Mercenary Strix
Unlocked inside the Galaxy Chest
Galactic Scion Lian
Unlocked inside the Galaxy Chest
The Galaxy Chest also includes these awesome skins!
Star Slayer Ruckus (Legendary) Dark Lord Torvald (Epic) Dune Crawler Cassie (Epic) Ebon Star Zhin (Epic) Nova Strike Kinessa (Epic) Replicant Ying (Epic) V1-KTOR Viktor (Epic)
Covert Ops Lex
Unlocked by acquiring or buying 1,500 Crystals in Paladins Strike after linking a Hi-Rez account. Please note that Crystals received before linking an account will be excluded from your progress.
Fixed a bug where there was no fog in the Team Deathmatch version of Magistrate’s Archives.
Champions
Ash
Assert Dominance can be great at buying time for an objective fight, or until a healer can get to you, but fees lackluster in most situations. These changes are aimed at making her ultimate feel more impactful when used, even if it’s not the perfect situation. The Range increase on Slug Shot gives Ash a true long range option.
Assert Dominance
Increased Damage 350 ➡️ 600 Increased Max Travel Distance
Shoulder Bash
Reduced Cooldown 17s ➡️ 15s
Slug Shot
Increased Range Increase 50% ➡️ 100%
Buck
Concussion
Reduced Scaling 1.5|1.5s ➡️ 1|1s
Fernando
Safe Travels effectiveness was potent enough to be an ability itself. We have brought down the shield strength and duration to be more in line with other Front Line Cards.
In coordinated play, the Bonus Healing Received from Earthen Guard combined with her assortment of defensive tactics makes her incredibly hard to take down. We’ve reduced the innate effectiveness of the bonus healing so Inara is not as oppressive early on (before players can purchase higher levels of Cauterize).
Earthen Guard
Reduced Increased Healing 60% ➡️ 40%
Stone Bulwark
Reduced Heal 30|30 ➡️ 25|25
Khan
After analyzing Khan’s release, we have made numerous changes to bring him more in line with other Front Lines. Commander’s Grab acts as Khan’s only non-ultimate damaging ability, and his only movement ability. The increased damage will now make hitting this ability feel more rewarding for the opportunity cost of using it. Khan aims to be in the midst of Battle - However, despite having a healing based ability, Khan’s self healing is either equal or only slightly above other Front Lines. We’ve increased the effectiveness of Battle Shout to encourage this play style.
Updated Button Callouts to higher resolution textures
Party Leaders can now kick players from their party
All party members can now invite other members
Under Investigation
Known crash on the Georgia Peach Logo when launching Paladins.
Alt+Tab while in Fullscreen can cause a client crash
Known in match texture loading error, causing massive graphical distortion. More commonly referred to in the community as either the “LSD Bug” or “Hall of Mirrors”
Time to party! We're kicking off the Paladins launch with a Party Up event - and this one is bigger than ever! Grab your friends and earn 3x Performance XP and 3x Performance Gold!
The Paladins Launch Celebration continues all month long with contests, broadcasts, giveaways, videos, in-game events, and more! Follow our social media channels to see how you can get involved!
When: Tuesday, May 8 at 4am EDT to Wednesday, May 16 at 4am EDT
What: 3x Performance XP and 3x Performance Gold while in a party
It feels almost unfair to call free-to-play ‘hero shooter’ Paladins an Overwatch clone, but then I look at screenshots like the one above, and another one with a big n’ heavy character with a chain-hook attack and… yeah, it’s pretty clear that Paladins is riding on Blizzard’s coattails. But it’s also fun, good-looking, and free to jump into. It’s been a regular in Steam’s top ten most played games for some time, and has officially left early access as of today.
Join 25+ million players in Paladins, the free-to-play fantasy team-based shooter sensation. Wield guns and magic as a legendary Champion of the Realm, customizing your core set of abilities to play exactly how you want to play.
The free-to-play online FPS Paladins, which began open beta testing in 2016, will go into full release on May 8, developer Hi-Rez Studios announced today. The studio also released the mobile shooter Paladins Strike today for iOS and Android devices, which will enable players to unlock two free skins in Paladins.
"We are so excited for the official release of Paladins," executive producer Chris Larson said. "We really want to thank all of our dedicated Beta players for the time and effort they have put into helping Paladins grow. This Launch Celebration is about our players—only with their feedback were we able to make Paladins the amazing game it is today, with drastically improved UI, console aiming, presentation, and gameplay."
There were a few bumpy patches on the way to release: An update in early 2017 resulted in "pay to win" complaints, and then near the end of the year there was a similar eruption of anger over loot boxes. Despite all that, user reviews on Steam are "very positive" and more importantly, it remains well into the top 20 list, with a peak concurrent player count today of 25,000.
Hi-Rez is also looking to expand Paladins into the sweet, lucrative Battle Royale genre: The studio announced a BR mode called Paladins: Battlegrounds in January, but decided shortly after to spin it off as an entirely separate game, Paladins Realm Royale, which is now in closed alpha testing.
Anyone who played Paladins during the beta phase will also be given 200 Crystals, a premium currency used for purchasing cosmetics, for logging in between May 8-31. The beta will continue right up to the full launch, so you've still got most of a week to be eligible for the freebie. All of the game's Champions will also be unlocked until May 7, which makes this week a particularly good time to try it out. And there will be an Esports Superstars: Paladins launch tournament running May 5-6, with six teams including Natus Vincere, SK Gaming, G2 Esports, and Fnatic battling it out for a slice of a $100,000 prize pool.
Free-to-play class-based FPS Paladins will launch properly next week, developers Hi-Rez Studios (the Smite lot) announced today, on Tuesday the 8th of May. It’s been in open beta testing for almost twenty months, long enough that I’d forgotten it’s not actually out-out, and added heaps of heroes and things since then – as well as dabbling in battle royale. Development won’t end when it hits version 1.0, of course, but it will be done enough to remove that “early access” label. (more…)
