The Relic: First Guardian released on 31 July 2026 and entered a rapid patch cycle immediately. Eighteen updates had shipped across PC and PlayStation 5 by 18 September 2026, and the developers issued a public statement on the launch problems along the way. The next patch is in development. This page records what each patch changed.
The Launch Problem
On 6 August 2026 the developers published a statement acknowledging that the launch did not meet the standard of experience they intended, and apologising to everyone who pre-ordered, wishlisted, or waited for the game. They explained the root cause directly: during the final stages of launch preparation, technical verification of several changes was not sufficient, and as a result some large dungeons did not unload correctly after players left those areas and remained in memory.
As that accumulated it caused framerate drops and texture-loading issues in some environments, and prevented certain events and boss encounter triggers from functioning correctly. The team said these were issues they should have caught before release and took full responsibility. Fixes for the underlying structural problem have since rolled out on both platforms, with continuing work for players carrying on from existing save data.
The main improvements delivered in that first week were summarised as fixes for events and boss encounter triggers that could block progression, better overall stability and performance, adjustments to combat responsiveness and balance, improved rewards from enemies and world chests, and additional progression and crafting materials placed throughout the world.
Patch History
Patch | Date | Main Changes |
|---|---|---|
Patch 1 | 31 July 2026 | Significantly improved field quality and exploration density, plus broader work on event progression, combat, monsters, voice-over implementation, and localisation |
Patch 2 | 31 July 2026 | Optimisations, bug fixes, and performance improvements based on community feedback |
Patch 3 | 31 July 2026 | Continued improvements, balancing, and fixes drawn from player feedback |
Patch 4 | 3 August 2026 | Updated lighting for Chapter 1 and the Chapter 2 plains; added field rewards in Chapter 1 and a new rune that increases consumable items; adjusted basic monster animation timing; fixed frozen or immobile bosses, misplaced objects, and issues in the Shadow of the King dungeon; framerate improvements for the Edens in Chapter 1; more spawn points; moved the First Relic Awakening Shard; made the add-on appear by the second fast travel point |
Patch 5 | 4 to 5 August 2026 | Fixed two-handed weapon skill issues and a skill-chaining failure; resolved targeting-related movement glitches; adjusted skill attack ranges; switched standard monster rewards to relic energy; world chests now drop crafting materials instead of gold; added Elemental Shard materials across the map; fixed Ancient Memories blocking interaction in caves; resolved the invisible wall in Bloodrock Cave; added a new option so field and lore pages play their voice-over while pausing gameplay |
Patch 6 | 5 August 2026 | Fixed spawn points that could not be interacted with on load; stopped phantom monster audio in the Silversilver Mine; fixed the Walden boss arena wall and nearby terrain collisions; replaced cropped icons for two longswords; added crafting materials across Chapters 2 and 3; enhanced lighting for the Chapter 1 Tailor event; partly resolved frame drops in large Chapter 2 battles; fixed the Swamp Lantern event marker; reduced fog density in Chapters 1 and 2; extended the parry timing window; increased base defence by 30 |
Patch 7 | 7 August 2026 | Fixed dagger skills that would not reactivate after their cooldown expired; fixed a loading issue blocking entry to the Sanctum of the Stepped Aside cave; fixed players being unable to enter the Marisa boss area; revamped the burning village section of the tutorial zone; fixed the boss Walden occasionally freezing; changed lock-on dodging so it now moves relative to the camera view rather than the character facing; fixed out-of-bounds glitch areas on the land map |
Patch 8 | 7 August 2026 | Hotfix. Fixed boss and NPC instances duplicating when the player died and respawned nearby; fixed Harlan’s health bar staying on screen after a death; moved the Harlan checkpoint so a death restarts at the Harlan encounter instead of replaying the initial Looter wave; added map markers for merchants and buff NPCs; added 2,000 Relic Energy to the second fast travel camp; stopped the Lost Fragments of Courage event being accepted repeatedly |
Patch 9 | 11 August 2026 | Fixed loading errors after dying in a boss fight; fixed missing interaction in the Entom and Taylor boss arenas; stopped the Drakal fight resetting and restoring boss health on re-entry; blocked arrows damaging the player from outside the walls during Checkpoint Karr; fixed Igwis, Bale, Solona and Valsilas failing to spawn; fixed The King’s Awakening event not triggering; walled off Chapter 3 pathing before meeting Alyssa at the cliff edge; fixed lore journals for Allen, Murakan, Jena and Lena not dropping; added map indicators for caves, buff priests and villages; fixed skill passive runes not applying in the rune interface; fixed several weapon options including armour reduction and buff durations that calculated as minus one second |
Patch 10 | 12 August 2026 | Fixed world data resetting when starting a new game; adjusted font and field page text sizes and fixed clipping across resolutions in the inventory, upgrade and shop screens and popups; fixed Cullen’s behaviour tree; removed white empty boxes on the game load screen; fixed bookmarks not generating after collecting every field page; closed an exploit that let players enter the Fang Forged in Hatred event without a sealing stone; added event presentations and monster adjustments for Nix and a new presentation for The Unquenched Lantern |
Patch 11 | 14 August 2026 | Fixed the quest marker for Mairi in Valuable Supplies, missing rewards from Marek in What Could Not Be Left Behind, and a marker that stayed active after Unresolved Curiosity; removed an invisible collision wall near Selbarn; stopped players dashing out of the arena barrier at the start of the Village Chief fight; fixed the Status Board boss elimination counter when facing two or more bosses; fixed Lena falling through terrain on older saves; fixed Load Game from the inventory not transitioning; rescaled main menu, death screen, boss defeated banner and boss health bar across resolutions; fixed enemies becoming permanently invulnerable after repeated AI re-initialisation; fixed the ice debuff material effect not clearing; improved presentation and audio for The Unquenched Lantern and The Day Silence Was Chosen |
Patch 12 | 17 August 2026 | Map now shows dungeons, sealing stone dungeons, boss locations, relic shards, villages and other points of interest, with the marker display order reworked; fixed the Plan of the Abyss event failing to complete, which now resolves on entering the garrison at Hillsbrad Castle; fixed doors staying shut after defeating Dunt and the associated NPC respawn; fixed the Harlan arena wall failing to spawn after a player death; adjusted Brogas so he holds his designated position; added a confirm and cancel input guide to the main menu options; made field page interactions available during combat mode |
Patch 13 | 19 August 2026 | Added the Sealing Stone of Gratitude and the Sealing Stone of the First Oath as key items for two dungeons scheduled for a future update; added guide markers to the map for villages, boss encounter locations and sealing stone unlock areas, and made location names display on the map; fixed a field page that could not be collected at the entrance to the Tomb of Broken Oaths; repaired the event log for Shadow of the Deep Forest, which existing players complete by approaching the soldier at the Deep Marsh Outpost, and for AFTER EVERYONE LEFT, which resets on visiting the Collapsed Checkpoint; added missing sound effects and reworked the layout of Where Dawn Sleeps; added sound effects, adjusted movement paths, improved terrain and rebalanced narration volume in Remnants of Gratitude; fixed volume controls not affecting audio in Bloodstained Harvest; placed invisible walls to stop out-of-bounds climbs and stray first-person camera triggers at the Silver Mine Outpost, the swamp areas, Torvan Cemetery, the Coren region, the Rentir boss zone and the large-scale battle area in Chapter 2, and on the path leading down from the first camp in Chapter 3; fixed a non-functional kill zone under the elevator in the Bargain with Oblivion area; fixed the map breaking after the Harlan fight; stopped bosses clipping outside the arena wall when approached from behind; fixed the Dorman dungeon, The Last Feast, failing to load |
Patch 14 | 21 August 2026 | Removed the chests holding the two Sealing Stones so they are granted directly on starting or loading a game; moved the gamepad dodge from the bottom face button to the right face button; reworked internal input handling for attack, guard, dodge, movement and skills; unified the sealing stone dungeon icons on the map; fixed a wall disappearing before Ulke’s event was accepted; widened the interaction radius with Cullen in Machinations of the Abyss; moved the Swamp Encampment entrance to just outside the cave exit; added more than 20 monster ambush groups across Chapter 1, Chapter 2 and the swamp; fixed a Raider standing in a T-pose at The Hungry Fields in Chapter 1; removed the 2,000 relic energy reward; added field page audio for The Village of Scorched Harvest and fixed looping audio in Where Dawn Sleeps; adjusted skill sound volumes for The Unreturned and Nix; fixed progress tracking for the At the End of All Memory trophy and made it update retroactively on load; improved frame rates on PC and PlayStation 5 |
Patch 15 | 27 August 2026 | Reverted the gamepad and keyboard input settings to their previous stable state to resolve input issues; fixed players reviving in a guard stance after dying while guarding; fixed fallen wave monsters floating in mid-air and no longer attacking during the Harlan fight; removed the two Sealing Stones previously granted at the start of a new game; drew quest markers above village icons on the map; fixed the Cleaver event conversation with the jailed NPC failing to restart after the player was hit; fixed Lena sometimes not appearing on existing saves; fixed the soldier marker in the Shadow of the Deep Forest event tied to Rentir; fixed the character floating on the water near the Vermion Dungeon waterfall; enhanced sound and environment objects in The Grave of the Nameless Sorrow; added boss encounter sound effects for Garrot, the Executioner of the Black Day; stopped ambient audio looping endlessly in seven events |
Patch 16 | 2 September 2026 | Brighter event log text in a larger font (14pt to 16pt); reworked control guide images and colours for Xbox, PC and PlayStation; fixed wrong location names for a field page from The Cavern of the Unreleased and for the encampment near Hillsbrad Castle; fixed boss health bars appearing to refill on death and UI windows overlapping; made the music run seamlessly through the large-scale battle up to Zena's boss room; added boss voice lines for Taylor and missing audio for Garotte, Brunok, the Tomb of Nameless Grief and the Swamp of the Sunken; added a crossroads gate and a barrier at Hillsbrad Castle, the barrier opening once Lena is defeated; made the Valdemar Realm gate open after talking to Malcolm and Herson; moved the Solona and Black Mire spawn points closer to their boss rooms; fixed hits two to five of Volgar's Skill04 being unblockable in the Harlan encounter; fixed Nakra's summoned minions not despawning; fixed the guard animation persisting after a respawn; fixed projectiles from The Unreturning not exploding on the ground; fixed taking damage while interacting with some objects |
Patch 17 | 11 September 2026 | Enhanced the environments of the Cemetery of Waiting, The Cemetery Where Words Never Reached, the zone of Entom, the Starved and The Weeping Chapel of Silent God; added audio to four events, spawn points and the Sealing Stone Dungeon Gate; fixed the achievement progress display; fixed the revive animation at spawn points; stopped attacks landing while reading field pages; fixed the boss UI order in fights with two or more bosses; locked movement until fast travel completes; fixed missing zone names and a stray compass; fixed the field page count for The One Who Became Law; kept the player and Gurgas inside the boss room; fixed markers in the Agnes event; fixed missing defeat rewards for Archas and Adras; fixed Urkas appearing at the wrong time in the Urkas and Adras fight; reduced high monster density and added main-road ambushes in Chapter 1; fixed Igwis attacks that could not be parried properly; made some unparryable Stenor attacks parryable; added a marker to the NPC after the Igwis fight |
Patch 18 | 18 September 2026 | Boss markers now update on the map once a boss is defeated; sealing stone dungeons are marked as cleared once their item is obtained or their boss defeated; removed unfairly placed monsters and explosive barrels across the Chapter 1 and 2 fields and adjusted enemy spacing; replaced most patrolling monsters with location-triggered ambushes; thinned the Chapter 2 Outcast Zone and the Chapter 2 swamp; overhauled cave encounters from mid-Chapter 1 to Chapter 2 with more enemy variety; reduced Ghoul density in the Eltrin Dungeon; removed Ishak's rat summons; gave Eltrin a second phase; added audio to the Cemetery of Waiting, The Unburied Cemetery and The Archive of Silence |
Patches have generally landed on PC first, with PlayStation 5 following within a day where a platform-specific fix was needed. Patch 11 is a documented example: it went live on PC in the morning and on PlayStation 5 later the same day. Patch 13 and Patch 14 both went live on PC and PlayStation 5 together. By Patch 12 the pace had settled into roughly one update every two to three days, and the developers have said the next patch is always already in progress. Patches 15 to 18 each went live on PC and PlayStation 5 together, and through September the gap between updates widened to about a week.
Review Build Versus Launch Build
Alongside the first patch the developers published a list of what had changed since the build given to reviewers. Field structure and traversal flow were reworked in Chapters 1, 2, and 3, with substantially expanded environmental detail; lighting was completed in areas that had none; monster placement and density were revised; and the amount of materials and collectible items placed in the fields was increased significantly. Rewards from exploring, including currency from abandoned campsites, were raised. Event progression was reviewed across the board, two-handed weapon skill animations were sped up, monster damage and combat balance were adjusted, and missing or incorrect voice-over was fixed.
August Platform and Pricing Announcement
On 17 August 2026 the publisher and developer announced the next stage for the game: release dates for the two remaining platforms, a permanent price cut, and a limited reward for early buyers. Full detail is on the Platforms and Release and Editions and Pre-Order Bonus pages.
Change | Detail |
|---|---|
Xbox Series X|S | Releases 25 September 2026 at $34.99 (US), with Xbox Play Anywhere support |
Nintendo Switch 2 | Releases 9 October 2026 at $34.99 (US) |
Permanent price drop | The digital price on PC and PlayStation 5 was to fall from $49.99 to $34.99 (US) on 26 August 2026, matching the two new platforms |
Exclusive Sealing Stones | Anyone who bought on PC or PlayStation 5 before the price cut received two Sealing Stones, later named the Sealing Stone of Gratitude and the Sealing Stone of the First Oath. They permanently grant access to two new dungeons with their own boss fights and loot, both scheduled for a future update. Patch 13 published the claim method on 19 August and Patch 14 made the grant automatic on starting or loading a game. The publisher has said the reward will be made available for purchase at a later date for players who were not eligible |
Price cut now live | The reduction went live on 26 August 2026 on both PC and PlayStation 5, taking the digital edition to $34.99 (US) and £29.99 (GB). The claim window for the two Sealing Stones closed at the same moment, at 11:59 PM UK time on 25 August on PC and at midnight local time on 26 August on PlayStation 5 |
PlayStation 5 physical edition | Went on sale in Europe at select retailers on 4 September 2026, bundling a physical map of Arsilthus with The Night of the Unextinguished Flame and The Black Banquet |
Xbox Series X|S pre-orders | Opened on 8 September 2026 at $34.99 (US) or £29.99 (GB), with The Night of the Unextinguished Flame included, ahead of the 25 September 2026 release |
The same announcement summarised what the patch cycle had changed in gameplay terms. Rewards from common enemies moved from gold to relic energy to help skill progression, and new map icons were added to make dungeon locations easier to find while hunting the up to 80 brutals. The developers listed stability, NPC behaviour, balancing, rewards, events, combat, progression, localisation and general quality of life as the areas touched since launch, and said player ratings and reviews had been revising upward as a result. That last point is the publisher’s own characterisation rather than a measured figure. Player scores on 27 August 2026 stood at a mixed rating on the PC storefront, 206 reviews split 99 positive and 107 negative, and an average of 2.49 out of 5 from 886 player ratings on the PlayStation storefront. Four patches later, on 23 September 2026, the PC storefront showed 223 reviews split 105 positive and 118 negative, still Mixed, and the PlayStation storefront still averaged 2.49 out of 5, now from 938 ratings.
Planned Work
The developers have said their work is not finished, and that they will keep delivering patches and improvements on each platform while reviewing reported issues. Beyond stability, they have committed to expanding the core experience with additional content, including new events and boss encounters that extend the world and stories of Arsilthus.
The PlayStation Store description, read on 23 September 2026, says seventeen patches have shipped and that the next is being worked on; Patch 18 had already followed on 18 September. No release date or contents had been announced by then for the two dungeons tied to the early-purchase Sealing Stones. Patch 15 stopped granting those two stones at the start of a new game, and Patch 18 changed sealing stone dungeons in general so they show as cleared on the map once their item is obtained or their boss is defeated.