Hound13 studio held a live broadcast for the action role-playing game “Dragon Sword: Awakening”, dedicated to the first major update 1.1 of the action role-playing game “Dragon Sword: Awakening”. The developers confirmed that the update will be released on October 15, 2026, and revealed many details. Below we’ve put together a short summary for you with all the interesting tidbits announced during the live broadcast.
- Version 1.1 will introduce a new playable character, Ryza. She is an elf, one of the Six Heroes, also known as the “Spear of Annihilation”. She was the studio executive’s favorite character. Ryza is skilled in the lightning element and uses a spear for teleportation mechanics, making her a good companion to heroes Onette, Sion, and Tate. In combat, she places a heavy emphasis on her electric (electric shock) status and also makes heavy use of her knockdown status, making her synergy particularly strong with Onette, who requires these statuses to attack.
- Lysa comes from the elven clan Avenrath, who were exiled for trying to cut down a branch of the World Tree to cleanse Dragondust’s corrupted land. As a result, she leaves elven society, wanders for a long time, loses her arm, and finds a student whose story will be revealed on her personal quest. Complete Mission 53 “Reunion” to get Lysa for free. Players who have completed this quest will automatically receive the character as soon as the update is released.
- Ryza’s Q skill allows her to throw a spear at an opponent or anywhere in the arena, after which she uses her F skill to instantly teleport to the spear and attack. The Q skill initially has 2 charges, but after awakening, their number increases to 4, allowing you to quickly move between multiple targets. E skill 2 generates a wire, causing electric shock and air condition. The grapple skill can be used on enemies in electric shock state (after the main skill is upgraded, it can also be used in physical state).
- In Hunting mode, a level system (from D to S) has been introduced at all difficulty levels (from Normal to “Nightmare” and the new “Hell”). Ranking is determined not only by completion time, but also by “action points”: the use of perfect dodge, the frequency of applying status effects, and the frequency of breaking through the boss’s super armor. High levels will earn you Awakening Stones, which shifts the focus of farming these items from exploring the world to hunting mode. The Hell difficulty level doesn’t add new attack modes to bosses, so as not to ruin the fun of the character switching mechanic, but it does significantly increase your opponent’s health and damage. The average combat time for a fully upgraded character is about 3 minutes.
- The new area can be accessed through the NPC Edric in Royal Castle Orbis, and players can freely test damage (DPS) and character combinations. In training camp, you can choose the type of dummy: a stationary scarecrow, a mobile ogre with a simple pattern, or a group of goblins to test AoE damage. The screen displays the total damage caused and damage per second in real time, allowing players to choose the most effective team combination.
- The game will add a mission targeting the rebel leader Lentus – Othello. The mission will take place a year before Ute arrives in Orbis, in the currently peaceful seagull village of Hernante, and will tell the story of the place’s past, Othello’s motivations as a representative of the militant wing of the rebels, and his goal of overthrowing the king’s authoritarian power.
- Improved quality of life:
- The number of food quick access slots has been increased from two to three (four slots were given up due to interface congestion).
- Fixed a bug where food cooled down when minimizing the game or using sleep mode on the Steam Deck.
- When you hover over a food in your inventory, it now displays its name and category, and in recipes, you can see the names of ingredients when you change a recipe.
- Expanded the number and variety of icons used to set markers on the global map (for example, a honey icon was added).
- In the game settings, an option has been added to disable character change animations so that the screen is not overloaded with visual effects during intense battles.
- The familiarity menu now clearly shows where and how to obtain specific familiars (including those that come with purchasing DLC).
- Completing an achievement now displays an instant toast notification on the right side of the screen, eliminating the need to constantly open the menu to check progress.
- Version 1.1 will add three new costumes with styles that fit the game world: Irene (a student of the Blue March), Raina (a royal ceremonial knight), and Othello (whose backstory is tied to the new mission and who carries on his back not the usual weapons but a lute that can be transformed into a weapon). More costumes are in development for future updates.
- The 1.1 update will include balancing for rarely used and weaker characters such as Erin and Castella, including changes to skill cooldowns, rage generation rates, and skill usage conditions. It also plans to change the mechanics of calculating critical hit and armor penetration effectiveness to avoid situations where players only collect an “ideal” set of stats and ignore other traits.
- Game sales have exceeded 400,000 copies. The CEO promised to host a Johnny cosplay live broadcast when sales reach 500,000 copies. A full pause option for single-player games is in development.
- English and Chinese dubs are scheduled to be added in December, with a Japanese dub coming later, closer to the game’s release on consoles (versions for PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2 are currently in development).
- The katana-wielding Kane character is expected to be released next year.
- There are currently no plans to release the game on mobile devices.
You can watch a full recording of the broadcast in the attached video below.
