Happy Holidays, Gladiators!
This festive season, we bring you new challenges, powerful gladiators, and legendary treasures to make your battles even more exciting. Thank you for being part of our community—may your arena victories be as joyful as the holiday cheer! Although it is currently very difficult time for Indie game studios to operate, we will remain true to our original aspiration and bring you a better gaming experience. Not only Blackthorn Arena, but also another game developed by our studio, Age of Reforging: The Freelands, will also be launching a huge free update during the Christmas week! The update will be on sale for a limited time together with Blackthorn Arena during Winter Sale!

• *Gortus' Endless Trials has added a mode that challenges the gladiator. In this mode, players will face at least 10 gladiators in each wave and ultimately face at least one champion from other arenas. Each wave of enemies will be enhanced.

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A new powerful gladiator, the Swan Knight Adelaide, has been added.

A new suit of magical armor has been added to the random equipment treasure chest in the Gortus' Shrine.

A new legendary shield has been added, which can be obtained through the extremely difficult(RED) treasure hunt.

Six new Life Profession Sets have been added, which enhance the effects of your character's profession. They are:

1. Drillmaster Set: Increases the experience gained from training.
   
2. Doctor Set: Increases the health recovered from healing.
   
3. Torturer Set: Increases the loyalty gained from torturing.
   
4. Blacksmith Set: Reduces the money spent when crafting weapons and equipment.
   
5. Cook's Set: Reduces the cost of cooking food.
   
6. Herbalist's Set: Reduces the cost of crafting potions.

You can obtain these sets from the Wandering Merchant and the Robbing Caravan quests.

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- *Japanese localization text has been updated and added (Localization for other languages are also Preparing).
- *Some optimizations have been made to the running efficiency of the game, which may increase the frame rate for some players.

• Added a function to buy multiple items at once with one click.
  
• Added the function of automatically assigning free personnel to the training ground, Treatment Room, and torture chamber.
  
• Participating in a competition will no longer automatically assign players, but it can be done automatically via a button in the lower left corner.
  
• Now viewing a competition that has already started, you can see the specific participating NPCs.

• Improved the lighting effects in some scenes.

• Fixed an issue where players can watch matches held in other arenas through the arena list while they have put aside event and storyline matches, thus missing the event and storyline matches they have put aside.
  
• Fixed an issue where duplicate characters may be generated after the Freeman Champion escapes from the player's Arena.
  
• Fixed the problem where the poisoning effect of a poisoned weapon did not cause additional damage when stacked.
  
• Fixed the problem where the achievements Dragon Slayer, Enlightened Monk, and Watch Your Step could not be unlocked correctly.
  
• Fixed an issue where the race of a character did not match their appearance, which also caused the character's equipment model not to display.
  
• Fixed an abnormal force effect after being knocked into the air.
  
• Through a series of improvements, the problem of characters getting stuck outside the battle area or falling below the terrain has been further avoided.
  

• Some skill descriptions with incomplete effect descriptions have been completed.
  
• Fixed the inaccurate and incomplete description of the bonus to the agility attribute.
  
• Fixed the problem that the input in the input box did not take effect immediately when trading.
  
• Fixed the problem that the target indicator of the character did not disappear when the pause was cancelled.
  
• Fixed the incorrect skill description of Yanfan.
  
• Fixed the incorrect description of LeKha's grasp.

• Fixed the incorrect weapon type for the Orc Master.

• Berserker – Suppress Anger: Fixed the issue where the skill effect did not take effect.

• Werespider have been moderately strengthened.
  
• Crocodiles have been significantly weakened.
  
• Reduces the knockback effect of the scorpion lion skill.

• Defender – Intercept: The radius of the taunt has been increased by 1.5 meters from 1 meter, while the knockback effect has been reduced.
  
• Rogue – Venomous Weapon: It can now be stacked up to 6 times.
  
• Berserker – Suppress Anger: It now also has the effect of restoring health and ending the berserk
  
• Shapeshifter – Howler of Terror: now does not work against large enemies.state.

Join the Discord group!:

[discord.gg]Our team is committed to bringing more fixes, updates, and content to Blackthorn Arena: Reforged! Please remember to leave a review - this helps us out tremendously!

-The Blackthorn Arena: Reforged Team

Hello Gladiators!

We're excited to announce the Blackthorn Arena: Reforged Deluxe Edition, now live with all previous content at a 20% discount.

We're not stopping there; expect more patches and new content in the future. We'll keep some surprises up our sleeve for now, but rest assured, the adventure continues.

This Deluxe Edition will be available during the Steam Winter Sale and beyond, so it's a great time to get the full experience.

Thank you for your support, and we look forward to your feedback on this and what's to come.

The link is as follows:

Blackthorn Arena: Reforged - Supporter Pack

Here’s what’s included:

1. Full set of Legendary Armour: Equip your gladiator with the Kingdom Glory set
   
2. Unique Legendary Weapon: Equip your gladiator with the Royal Heritage
   
3. 16 pages of Concept Art: Gain insight into the artistic process of shaping the game's world and characters.
   
4. 17 Pages of Design Concepts: Explore the creative inspirations behind the game's systems and features.
   
5. 5 4K Wallpapers: Add an arena atmosphere to your desktop with these 4K wallpapers.

We've added a new Steam Trading Cards feature to Blackthorn Arena: Reforged, which allows players to earn Champion's trading Cards as they play through the game! Collect badges, and backgrounds!

• Two new champion gladiators have been added: the Free Knight Roland and the Scholar Mage Maggie. They will appear in the game world as leaders of the freeman challengers, and will not join the player's arena, but will become very powerful opponents.
  
• A new Legendary Staff has been added, which can be found in the treasure hunt quest.
  
• Added a special effect to Leif's Shield and upgraded it to legendary quality
  
• Added a Legendary Wand that you can find in the Treasure Hunt quest.

• The execution of triggers has been significantly optimised, and new event and target types have been added.
  
  1. After modifying the trigger content, the check box is no longer automatically unchecked.
     
  2. New event: Units enter combat
     
  3. New condition: Unit weapon damage type
     
  4. New action: Switch weapons
     
  5. Condition and action improvements: “Any enemy”, “Any ally” and “Farthest enemy” have been added to condition and action objects.
     
  6. Condition improvement: The character has a buff/debuff has been changed to whether the character has a certain type of buff.
     
  7. Condition improvement: Added all damage types to the damage type.
     
  8. Condition improvement: Added the unarmored type to the unit armor type judgment.
     
  9. Action improvement: The action of casting a skill with no target no longer displays the target.
• The number of guards that the player can hire has been increased from 6 to 8.
  
• The frequency of physics calculations has been increased, making the physics effects appear smoother and less prone to errors.

• You can now choose custom colours in the character customzation.
  
• The display of character portraits has been optimised. Champions now have a distinctive golden background, while non-champions have an orange background after reaching level 25.
  
• When viewing a character, you can now clearly see the affinity/reputation level with other characters.
  
• The display of attribute values has been improved, and now shows up to two decimal places. The colour of the value display has also been modified to make the text easier to read.
  
• The prompt effects for the six basic attributes have been modified, and some of the value display errors have been fixed.
  
• The UI display method for the background story of the arena has been fixed, and the font size is now fixed.
  
• Some quick access buttons for our social media have been added to the main menu.

• Fixed some unreasonable monster configurations in some side quest scenes (e.g. piles of poisonous snakes in a sewer scene).

• Optimised the special effects of some magic skills.

• Fixed the problem of abnormal growth of game saves, now the size of later saves is reduced by about 50%.
  
• Fixed a series of errors caused by loading an archive in the training ground.
  
• Fixed a problem that would cause the character to get stuck in repeated casting.

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Fixed a problem where the character would transition too close to the target if unable to attack.

Fixed some issues that may cause the character to get stuck outside the battle area.

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Fixed an issue where the entered amount would not take effect immediately when hosting a competition.

Fixed an issue where the character's magic power may drop to a negative value.

Fixed an issue where gladiators will recover health if they eat automatically in the lobby.

Fixed an issue where the colours of the character may change automatically when editing the character.

Fixed the issue where using potions quickly would cause multiple effects.

Fixed the issue where the player could not capture special champions in an expedition after the number of normal gladiators reached the upper limit.

Fixed the issue where trigger actions were not executed completely.

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Fixed the issue where characters would not continue fighting after casting an activated skill when attacking scarecrows/poles.

Fixed an issue where the command prompt line is displayed incorrectly.

Fixed an issue where the “Enter Battle” event of the trigger did not take effect.

Fixed an issue where the trigger could cause the character to damage itself under certain settings.

Fixed the issue where the default value of the trigger action target did not take effect.

Fixed the issue where the trigger did not work when the trigger condition relationship selected “or” and there was no specific condition.

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• Fixed the problem where Aoi's weapon effects did not display.
  
• Fixed the bug where the player's team avatar did not display after watching a match.
  
• Fixed the incorrect avatar of Elva and improved the avatars of some champions.
  
• Stamina Points are now uniformly abbreviated as ‘SP’ in the text, and no longer as ‘EP’.
  
• Corrected some incorrect descriptions of skills.
  
• Fixed some localization errors in the English text.
  
• Fixed an issue where the character selection UI would cover the character hover hint UI.

• Fixed an issue where the Skeleton Warrior's effect of drilling out of the ground was incorrect.

• Fixed an issue where some equipment did not display effects.
  
• Fixed an issue where some equipment would block the character when it fell off a dead character.
  
• Fixed the model of some equipment.

• Fixed the issue where the shield's counterattack did not deal damage.
  
• Fixed the issue where the AI would not automatically use the commander's rescue skill.

• Wearing armour now reduces the character's maximum mana, with different types of armour reducing it to a different extent.

1. Light armour: Helmet 5%, Chest 10% , Legs 5% = 20% total
   
2. Medium armour: Helmet 10% , Chest 20% , Legs 10% = 40% total
   
3. Heavy armour: Helmet 15% , Chest 30% , Legs 15% = 60% total

• In multi-round matches, the winner of each round now recovers 5% health.

• All one-handed weapons have had their damage increased by 2–2 (in previous versions, one-handed, dual wield and shield characters had significantly lower damage and were noncompetitive compared to two-handed, polearm and ranged characters)
  
• Adjusted the abnormal movement speed bonus of Whisper of the Wind
  
• Added attributes to the Assassin's Top Piece
  
• Adjusted some unique weapons that had an additional damage that did not match the text description.
  
• Enhanced some of the amulets that can be exchanged at the Gortus' Shrine, and also increased their prices.

Units:

• Adjusted the difficulty of each wave of the Endless Trial of Gortus, and added some new enemy types. To provide players with a more challenging experience later.
  
• The maximum magic of the Werequid has been reduced from 1500 to 1000.
  
• The Sludge Arrow debuff of the Murloc Archer has been modified to be non-stackable.
  
• Enhanced the attributes and skills of the Vampire.
  
• Enhanced the attributes of the Mountain Troll.
  
• Enhanced the attributes of the Lizardman Warrior.
  
• Minor balance adjustments to other monsters.
  
• Slightly increased refresh rate for early, low-level matches

• Enchanting and Shield spells have had their cast time increased by 30%.

• One-handed weapons – Sidestep attack: Now forces a dodge against all incoming attacks while casting.
  
• Polearms – Swift thrust: Critical strike chance greatly increased, but damage reduced from 30/40/50% weapon damage every 0.25 seconds to 20/25/30% weapon damage.
  
• Shield – Shield Counterattack: Trigger chance increased from 10/15/20% to 20/25/30%.
  
• Rogue – Back Attack: Now forces a dodge during the casting of the spell.
  
• Duelist – Disarm: Now has a 100% chance to apply the disarm effect on hit.
  
• Ranger – Slide Strafe: Now forces a dodge during the casting of the spell.
  
• Ranger – Backflip Shoot: Now fires 4 arrows at once.
  
• Ice magic – Cold Fury: Damage reduced from 45/60/75 to 30/40/50, but now completely freezes surrounding enemies.
  
• Air magic – Wind Jump replaced by Levitation: The caster flies into the air for a short time, using the power of the wind to avoid enemy attacks and to cast some spells and attack from a distance.
  
• The mana cost of all magic shields is reduced. From 1.25/1/0.75 mana per point of damage, it is reduced to 1/0.75/0.5 mana per point of damage, while the damage absorption rate is adjusted from 100% to 75%.

• Fixed the bug where lipstick and blush could not be saved when editing a character's appearance.
  
• Fixed the bug where the trait ‘Sign of Magic’ could not be saved.
  
• Fixed the bug where the character occasionally got stuck in the training ground.
  
• Fixed the bug where a character would move abnormally due to a collision object with poor collision detection.
  

:

• Optimised the ‘keep distance’ manoeuvring method.
  
• Optimised the smooth transition of the target position for grasping skills.

Dear Arena Master:
Greeting, thank you for your support for the Blackthorn Arena! After we have collected the suggestions and feedback from players in various communities in detail, the 2.3 version update mainly fixes a large number of feedback bugs and improves daily(Quality of Life) functions that meet the needs of players. We hope to provide you with a more complete gaming experience. In the near future, we will provide more game content. We also hope that you can give us a little more time. Thank you again for your support and understanding!

• *Fixed an issue where the options menu would not work properly if the player's computer System language was Russian.
  
• *Fixed an issue where some displacement skills could go through the walls of the scene.
  
• *Fixed an issue where the character would be knocked up(hanging in the air) by an abnormal physics effect when the jump skill was interrupted.
  
• *Interrupted skills will now enter a 1 second CD to avoid getting stuck in repeated casting.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Freeman champion Xuefei would not appear.
  
• Fixed an error where Slora the Carefree would gain an extra level in the first quest of age of magic (DLC content).
  
• Fixed an issue where the Inborn Healer would not take effect.
  
• Fixed an issue where the running animation of the YanGuan Sword became a sliding step.
  
• Fixed some monsters with incorrect or unreasonable loot configuration.
  
• Fixed an issue where using the Amnesia Potion would cause the passive effects provided by legendary equipment and weapons to become invalid.
  
• Fixed an issue where the characters created in the Role library were sometimes incorrect.
  
• Fixed an issue where the burning effect would not disappear.
  
• Fixed an issue where lipstick and blush could not be saved when editing a character's appearance.

• Fixed an issue where the blacksmith's level was not displayed correctly at certain resolutions.
  
• Fixed some missing localisations.

• Fixed an issue where Visual effect in the Desolate Fort was incorrect.

• Fixed an issue where the chest model of the herbalist's robe was not displayed correctly.(DLC Content)

• Fixed the issue where the one-handed weapon ‘Dodge Attack’ did not take effect when equipped with a small round shield.
  
• Fixed the issue where the Marksman's ‘Armor Piercing Arrow’ always critted.
  
• Fixed the issue where the Ronin's ‘Smoke Bomb’ blinded himself.
  
• Fixed the incorrect description of the Commander's ‘Condemn’.
  
• Fixed the Commander's ‘Harasser’ passive skill not taking effect.
  
• Fixed the incorrect level effect description for the Air magic ‘Air Shield’.
  
• Fixed the Light magic ‘Sphere of Light’ not healing Life and Stamina.

• Damage taken now also increases the experience gained by the character in the game.
  
• Slightly increased the probability of the audience demanding the defeated gladiator survives (players were always asked to execute their enemies in the past).
  
• The price of the Mystery Gift in the Gortus shrine has been increased from 100 to 500, but will no longer offer uncommon quality gears, and the chance of getting other quality equipment has been greatly increased.
  
• The duration of the ‘light’ and ‘heavy’ statuses has been adjusted, making it easier for both to take effect.
  
• The number of monsters in the dungeon of the side mission has been balanced to avoid problems such as monsters being too dense and powerful.

• The quality of the Knight's Chainmail has been changed from Common to Rare.
  
• The quality of the Knight's Plate Mail has been changed to Epic.
  

• The small stone golem has been slightly strengthened.
  
• The scorpion lion has been strengthened.
  
• The minotaur's loot has been increased.

• The animation speed of some ranged skills has been slightly increased.

• Ranger: Backflip shots now stuns the target for 1 second.
  
• Defender: Passive damage resistance increased from 3% per level to 2% per level (Defender was too versatile and powerful compared to the other genres).

• All types of quests now automatically pick up loot from enemy corpses.
  
• When a hunting quest ends, the player can now choose whether to kill the main target or not (if they choose not to kill, they will be captured in the Arena).
  
• The player can now skip the entire execution process with one click.
  
• Characters will no longer be deactivated by disengaging during side mission and match.
  
• More instructions have been added to the tutorial for triggers.
  
• The order of gladiators is now saved after they have been sorted in a specific order.
  
• There is now a degree of randomness when unlocking recipes.

• Added hover tips for the genre/class when buying gladiators/slaves in the market.
  
• You can now press ESC in the market to bring up the setting menu.
  
• Optimised the descriptions of some items that were too long.
  
• The effects of injuries can now be seen in the surgery room.
  
• The descriptions of the removable traits can now be seen in the dark room.
  
• Optimised the slots in the training ground and torture chamber, which now display the most noteworthy information for the corresponding slot.
  
• The staff information for each function scene has been optimised, and an experience bar display for relevant professional skills has been added.(DLC Content)
  
• The hover tooltip for the gladiator's head frame now includes the display of the target's magic types.
  
• Added the function of selling items of the selected type and quality with one click (Bulk Sale).
  
• Added the function of random name generation for the role library.

• Improved the lighting and navigation of some cave quest scenarios.

• A legendary weapon, Awn of Light, has been added. Players can obtain it by completing high-level dungeon treasure hunts.

• 1. A new innate trait has been added that allows a non-magical character to pass the magical trials.
  
• 2. An option has been added at the start of the game, so that players can now unlock the functions related to the magic tower at the beginning.

P.S: We apologise for the many shortcomings in the early days of the game's release, which did not provide the smooth experience for you. We hope you can see our sincerity and the substantial improvements in our recent updates. And now, our studio is in a difficult situation. We sincerely ask for your support. Every positive review you give us can help us tremendously and help the studio survive. We promise to continue updating and improving the game in the future, and we will also create more new content for everyone! Thank you again for your understanding and support.