It’ll soon be time to embark on The Virtuous Cycle – Mortal Shell’s new roguelike mode. Today the team at Cold Symmetry have detailed and dated exactly what will be arriving, and the best thing about it is we won’t need to wait too long at all before getting hands on.
Launching worldwide come August 18th, The Virtous Cycle is a game-altering roguelike expansion for the rather brilliant Mortal Shell, with it dropping onto Xbox, PlayStation and PC.
The premium DLC – expect to find this around the $7.99 / €6.99 / £6.99 price tag – releases simultaneously across Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 and PC via Steam, the Epic Games Store, and GOG.COM. That same day, the base game will also emerge on Steam, mostly thanks to the 300,000 Wishlists that have so far been dropped in.
So what should we expect to see? Well, The Virtuous Cycle reinvents your journey through Fallgrim and beyond as adversaries cycle and shuffle upon each death. As demanding and brutal as ever, now you can never be sure what lies ahead. But scattered across the land are pillars that will bestow new talents for you to inherit and with more than 100 new abilities to discover and combine together – from exotic weapon enhancements to entirely new combat maneuvers – players will be free to create and develop their very own combat style.
The Virtuous Cycle update and content drop also grants players command over Hadern. Once your elusive teacher, they are now yours to master as Mortal Shell’s fifth possessable Shell. Playable within both Mortal Shell’s main campaign and The Virtuous Cycle, Hadern’s unique skill tree unlocks a new domain of innate talents, from dagger mastery to an intimidating ability to absorb punishment.
Done? Not quite yet as also unearthed in the expansion is the Axatana, Fallgrim’s most venerable weapon. In your hands the Axatana bends to your will, assembling itself into a supreme heavy axe when the moment calls, and detaching into lightning-fast dual katanas when you desire. Unique movesets for both stances are yours to unlock.
“Designing and developing The Virtuous Cycle DLC has been a blast,” said Francesco Zacchini, Technical Designer at developer Cold Symmetry. “We have crammed in over 100 new abilities alongside new lore, the transforming Axatana weapon, and Hadern as a playable shell. I can’t wait to see all the ways players are going to break the roguelike mode that we created. I think they’re going to have a lot of fun with that.”
If you have a copy of Mortal Shell to hand then you’ll no doubt be hugely excited to hear of the amendments coming about via the premium The Virtuous Cycle. If you don’t get over to the Xbox Store right now. Let us know if you’ll be dipping your toe in come August 18th.
