The Hand of Merlin Update Brings the End Times

Versus Evil, Room-C Games, and Croteam have announced a major update for the Early Access version of The Hand of Merlin. The End Times update releases today and implements a new ultimate hard mode as well as meta progression.

The hard mode is a tough challenge where all run modifiers are set to their maximums, with a special hard version of the final boss also included. It also features Dire Units, buffed versions of abominations. Meanwhile, meta progression sees players getting stronger with each run through the blessings and curses system. Blessings provide benefits including raised maximum mana or larger gold rewards, but must be balanced out with curses that produce negative effects such as more bandits appearing. The update also includes new alternate map versions, with each map concept receiving default, default corrupted, alternate, and alternate corrupted versions.

The Hand of Merlin is billed as “Arthurian legend meets with sci-fi horror”. The game sees players recruiting three mortal heroes on a journey from Albion to Jerusalem as the world is on the brink of the apocalypse. Combat features cover, ambushes, coordinated attacks, and magic as players battle human and demonic enemies. The Early Access version is currently available on Steam, GOG.com, and the Epic Games Store, with a full release on PC currently expected later this year.