The Blood of Dawnwalker's October Patch Adds a Fifth Difficulty Tier Below Story
The game is an action RPG built on Unreal Engine 5. It is developed by Rebel Wolves and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, and it launched on 3 September 2026 for PlayStation 5, Windows and Xbox Series X/S. It sold well from the start. Gagadget reports it hit 1 million copies sold in under 48 hours, and the million-copy figure appears in several other outlets.
The main change in the patch is a reshuffle of the difficulty list. Tomaszkiewicz told Eurogamer: "We will introduce an additional difficulty level, but an easier one, because many people are asking for a more easy difficulty," He said the new mode is for players who want to follow the story without the combat challenge.
The studio is reusing the existing name instead of adding a new one at the bottom. The current Story mode moves up a step and gets a new name, and the brand-new, easier setting takes over the Story mode label. Tomaszkiewicz suggested "Demanding" for the renamed mode, but that is a working title. The label shown in the menu could differ when the update ships.
After the patch, the menu is expected to list these five settings, from easiest to hardest:
| Position | Planned name | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Story (new) | A new easiest mode for players who mainly want the narrative |
| 2 | "Demanding" (tentative) | Today's Story mode under a new name |
| 3 | Fair | Unchanged tier |
| 4 | Challenging | Unchanged tier |
| 5 | Duelist | Unchanged tier |
Existing Story players should note one thing. If the rename works the way it has been described, the mode you play today will carry a different name after the patch, and a new, easier mode will take the Story label. Rebel Wolves has not said how existing saves on the current Story setting will be mapped.
What Rebel Wolves Has Not Said About the New Story Mode's Mechanics
So far the new mode is described by who it is for, not by how it works. Softonic notes that Rebel Wolves still hasn't explained exactly how the new easiest mode will work, and there's no exact date yet. Nobody has reported figures for enemy damage, player health, stamina or combat assists.
One general balance change has been ruled out. TheGamer reports that enemy "sponginess" is not being directly nerfed because balance depends heavily on player builds and gear. According to that report, Tomaszkiewicz explained that some builds can one‑shot foes while others will feel slower, and lowering enemy health across the board risks breaking powerful builds.
This separates two groups. Players who want a gentler experience overall get a new tier. Players on higher difficulties who find enemies take too long to kill should not expect a health reduction in October.
Combat Targeting and Camera Fixes Come With the Difficulty Change
Several outlets describe the same set of combat changes. According to All Things How, the patch removes automatic target switching after stuns, makes fleeing combat less clunky, and continues PC optimization. In the current version, a stun or crowd-control hit can move the lock-on to a different enemy. GamingBible calls this an annoying quirk where if you stun an enemy, your lock-on actually changes to a different enemy.
The lock-on switch was a deliberate design choice. Instant Gaming's news site reports that this is not a bug, but rather a feature intended by Tomaszkiewicz (who has apologized for it). TheGamer adds that combat targeting and camera behavior are also getting tweaked in the update.
Softonic mentions a more tentative change: possible stun changes that would make stun wear off after three hits. That outlet frames it as possible, not committed.
TechPowerUp's summary of the interview adds more items: general bug fixes, smoother and more intuitive combat, and more responsive NPCs. The NPC change specifically means wild animals should be less of a threat when players ride quickly past them. These details fit the broader coverage, but they come from TechPowerUp's account of the interview and are not in any published patch notes.
PC Performance Work Starts From a Demanding Baseline
Performance is the part of the patch most relevant to Windows players, and it is the least specific. Instant Gaming reports that the performance of The Blood of Dawnwalker will be further optimized. Gagadget says Tomaszkiewicz confirmed the team is continuing to work on optimisation. None of the coverage includes a frame-rate target, a list of affected GPUs, or a before-and-after measurement. A headline promising a PC "performance boost" describes planned work, not a measured gain.
The patch also builds on earlier fixes. TheGamer reports that Rebel Wolves has already shipped hotfixes for frame-rate and controller issues, and says performance and full controller support are on the list too. GamingBible also notes that the studio has already been rolling out small patches to address any performance issues or concerns.
Tomaszkiewicz did not fully accept the criticism. Gagadget quotes him as saying "People complain it's not 120, not 90, not 70… the game is about something else." Instant Gaming reports that PC players are specifically asking for the ability to reach 120 FPS on the most powerful machines. Taken together, this suggests the October work aims to improve performance, not to meet high-refresh targets. That reading is an inference: the studio has not stated any target.
PC Gamer's pre-patch testing on an RTX 4060 system
The most useful independent measurement comes from PC Gamer's September 2 settings guide, published the day before launch. The testing focused on Rebel Wolves' mid-range specification, which the developer says delivers 60 fps at 1440p on the High preset. That spec pairs an Nvidia RTX 4060 with an eight-core AMD CPU, and PC Gamer used a Ryzen 7 7700X.
The results fell short of the published target. On a repeatable run through the dense forest in the Briar Sloughs area, ending in a monster fight, PC Gamer averaged about 50 fps at 1440p High with DLSS on Balanced. Lowering DLSS to Performance, which renders internally at about 720p, added only around 6 fps on average. The publication also found that the forests "immediately tank" frame rates, and that every tier of the official system requirements assumes Balanced upscaling is turned on.
The official requirements, as reproduced by PC Gamer, are:
| Target | Preset | GPU (Nvidia / AMD / Intel) | VRAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1080p @ 30 fps | Low | GTX 1060 / RX 580 | 6 GB+ |
| 1080p @ 60 fps | Medium | RTX 2060 Super or GTX 1070 Ti / RX 5700 / Arc A750 | 8 GB+ |
| 1440p @ 60 fps | High | RTX 4060 / RX 7600 XT / Arc B580 | 8 GB+ |
| 2160p @ 60 fps | Ultra | RTX 4070 Ti / RX 9070 | 12 GB+ |
All tiers list 16 GB of RAM, a 60 GB SSD, and Windows 10 or later with DirectX 12. CPU requirements go from an Intel Core i5-11400F or AMD Ryzen 7 2700X at the bottom to a Core i7-12700K or Ryzen 7 7800X3D for 4K Ultra.
PC Gamer's findings measure the launch build, not the October patch. They show where the optimization work starts from. Whether the patch closes the 10 fps gap between the mid-range spec and its 60 fps target will only be known once the update is out and tested again.
New Game Plus Remains Unconfirmed for the October Patch
Outlets disagree about New Game Plus, a mode that lets players replay the game with some progress carried over. TechPowerUp and PlayStation Universe report that Tomaszkiewicz hinted at it and at adding more enemies, but would not confirm whether or when either would arrive. PlayStation Universe quotes him saying of New Game Plus, "There is a chance but I don't want to speak about it yet," and joking that the publishing team would "kill me" if he said more.
Gagadget goes further. It says New Game+ is coming — it was meant to ship at launch but didn't make the cut, and lists it as one of the October headline features, crediting TheGamer. GamesRadar+ is more careful, saying the update may include New Game Plus if we're lucky. Since the director's own quoted words are non-committal, the safer reading is that New Game Plus is being considered but has not been confirmed for the October patch.
The same applies to extra enemy types. Tomaszkiewicz raised the idea as a way to improve variety, but gave no commitment or timeline.
What this means for you
Whether you should change your plans depends on what has been holding you back. Players who put the game aside because combat was too hard now have a clear reason to wait for early October. PC players troubled by frame rates should keep their expectations modest until someone tests the patched build.
There is little for PC players to prepare. The patch is free, and Rebel Wolves has not published any compatibility requirements, driver advice or system requirement changes for it. If you plan to compare performance before and after, note your current results now. Use a fixed resolution, preset and upscaler mode, and test in the same dense forest area, since that is where PC Gamer found the biggest drops.
- The October patch is planned for early October 2026 but has no confirmed date or patch notes, so do not rely on a specific day.
- A new easiest mode will take the Story name, and the current Story mode will get a new name that may end up as "Demanding," so current Story players should expect the menu labels to change.
- Enemy health is not being reduced across the board, so the new mode, not a general rebalance, is the option for players who find combat too punishing.
- The stun-triggered lock-on switch is being removed and fleeing combat is being made easier, which should affect every difficulty tier.
- PC optimization is planned without published targets, and pre-patch testing found an RTX 4060 plus Ryzen 7 7700X averaging about 50 fps at 1440p High with DLSS Balanced, below the official 60 fps target.
- New Game Plus and new enemy types have been hinted at but not confirmed for October, so do not count on them in this update.
Overall, Rebel Wolves is fixing the problems that were easiest to define: a difficulty floor that was too high and a lock-on behavior players disliked. The PC performance work is the one area where success cannot be measured yet. The patch is due at the start of October, and the first useful evidence for Windows players will come from benchmark runs through the Briar Sloughs forests after it ships.