Publisher X.D. Network and developer Han-Squirrel Studio have announced that Sands of Salzaar has exited Early Access and is now available for PC (Steam). The 'open-world strategy-action RPG' originally released in Early Access in January 2020 in Chinese, and an English localization update followed in September 2020.
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Sands of Salzaar is set in an 'open-desert sandbox' and combines action and strategy gameplay. You can recruit and train an army with an array of active and passive abilities, as well as a hero unit. More information can be found in the game's Early Access announcement.
The 1.0 version preview can be found below, via X.D. Network.
Hey travellers,
As we are approaching the end of English beta test, it's finally time to announce that the 1.0 version of Sands of Salzaar will be launched on Steam in mid-December out of Early Access soon!
We can't thank you all enough to provide us with all those valuable suggestions and feedback during the journey of Early Access. All of your advice and bug reports have inspired us to keep optimizing the gaming experience.
Now without further ado, let's check the version spotlights out which we can't wait to share with you.
New Game Mode & Difficulty Option
Brand-New Sandbox Mode
In this new game mode, you are free to explore the great desert at your own pace without engaging in set plot choices except that you still need to face the inevitable challenge of the Ifrit Ghoul invasion.
Three Different Difficulty Levels Available
Normal: Recommended for newbies. With such difficulty setting, you could enjoy the main story and exploration more without struggling with your life.
Hard: Recommended for experienced travellers. AI factions will be smarter, and travellers will face more challenges, such as higher damage in battles, limited times to dodge roll, etc. And more skills are needed to recruit NPCs.
Epic: Recommended for hardcore travellers. AI factions will become extremely difficult to deal with, and they will recruit top-tier soldiers, deploy teams and launch attacks dynamically. You will face great difficulty in the journey.
New Quest
Add five random quests related to travellers' titles and merits. In these quests, NPCs may invite you to join a tribe; or your superiors may assign you to capture specific towns, or ask you to persuade a rival tribe's sultan to surrender; or even incite you to want to overthrow them, etc.
Boss, Monster & Dungeon
Adjustment on the skills and value of some bosses, and increase the challenge of boss fights with more strategy required.
Add plenty of new Mobs that will get stronger as the traveller's strength increases.
Adjustment on the loot rewards of dungeons: We have improved the diversity of equipment loot drops, and increased the drop rate of some senior gears.
Classes, Heroes & Troops
All playable characters’ skills reworked
In past versions, our players often report that the skills of different professions are not distinctive enough.
To make their skills more distinguishable, we have reworked all classes, for example, the new Swordsman is positioned as a master swordsman equipped with a newly-designed set of magnificent swordsmanship. The remade Sultan becomes more like an inventor specializing in technology research, capable of creating unique ancient machinery to arm himself.
All heroes reworked
Modify all heroes' skills: Each hero will cast unique skills, and fight in a more distinguishable way.
Redesign the growth curve of upgrading heroes: Each hero has a specific growth curve in "Spirit", "Stamina", "Strength", and "Agility".
Command Skills: add exclusive command skills for each hero, allowing them to strengthen specific units, and the effects increase when the favorability grows in the Favor system.
New voices and dialogues lines for all initial tribe leaders.
All arms units remade
The basic properties, attack types, armor types, talents of all troops have been reworked in order to show more clearly the characteristics and upgrade paths of different arms units.
Legendary Elite Troop
Each tribe now owns its unique "Legendary Elite Troop". Besides, some epic creatures among neutral factions and monsters might also meet the qualifications for "Legendary Elite Troop", such as dragons. "Legendary Elite Troop" will have the most powerful abilities, but will also have difficult recruitment conditions and upper limit of units.
Skill pages redesigned
We have redesigned 36 skill pages with different styles consisting of exclusive skills. Each profession or hero has at least 3 skill pages to build your unique fighting style.
Also note that the skill pages are not at your free disposal, which means you need to find out the right fighting style to build up an elite troop. We also have enriched the skill descriptions, hoping to help you train your teams more strategically!
New Gameplay
Brawling in Tavern
"Not good at persuasion? Just answer with your fist!"A fresh gameplay mode - Brawling in Tavern will hit the desert. Travellers can learn simple brawl skills, and fight with strong wrestlers in small taverns. Sometimes your friends might lend you a helping hand.
Tournament
All tribes will regularly hold “Tournament” where you will encounter masters of tribes with some professional fighters by defeating whom you will get generous rewards.
Heroic Statue Challenge Adjusted
With heroic statues established in each area, Heroic Statue Challenge will open 1~3 times every 10 days regularly. Travellers will obtain powerful equipment after winning the challenge. The strength of the "heroic statue" is greatly enhanced and will continue to be enhanced when you level up.
Troop Crystal System
Players can utilize magical jewels to give arms units unique abilities. That is to say, arms units can also be buffed with equipment. Not anymore fixed ability values and skills. These magical jewels can be obtained from various high-level dungeon maps and purchased from jewel merchants.
Tribal Title System
Travellers can be rewarded in the tribe for their merits, obtaining noble titles and fiefdoms as well as leading their troops with their granted titles to fight in the desert!
NPC Favor System
Each NPC now has unique personalities. With random events happening all the time, their different characteristics will lead to distinguished results, which will further affect relationships between NPCs.
NPCs in the protagonist team will also be initiating different events according to their own personalities and will dynamically change their relationships. The player-character can provide advice to NPC fellows and their behaviors might change accordingly.
AI Rebellion System
When the relationships between the city lord and its tribal leaders start off a bit rocky, a rebellion might be triggered by the city lord to form a new tribe.
Gear, Resource & Specialty
Additional attributes for gears
Add a large number of new attribute entries to equipment, which can potentially buff your gears and weapons with new skills or special effects. A Rare attribute entry can also make your gears more valuable to trade - merchants will be eager to buy your Rare equipment with tons of Utar!
Adjustment on players' economic growth curve
We have reduced the pace of access to resources, and adjusted the acquisition difficulty of Utar, Jade, and other resources. Town earnings and high-level troop recruitment costs have also been adjusted. Besides, some extra resources will be used in some new systems, such as salary and tournament systems, etc.
Rework Trading System
We have rearranged the distribution of product types and quantities in each area for trading.
A lot more voyaging merchants and NPCs
They will sell all kinds of animals, skills, mounts, or brawling skills.
Legacy Skills
New assistant legacy & special legacy skills such as healing, summoning, and armor.
Removal of some old legacy skills such as "Sword Slam", "Guardian Mastery" and "Charge"
Talent System
Rework a number of Talents: Rearrange and adjust their functions and values.
New Buildings
New building - Medical Stations
Add Medical Stations in all major cities where you can spend resources to heal troops, or you can disband your team in exchange for some resources.
New Tribal Landmark
Add landmarks to some special towns.
Visual Art Optimizations
Remake the illustrations and models of professions
New heroes' models: New stand-ups for the initial rulers of the major tribes.
New tavern hostess models: [Sumayah] and [Basha]
New icons for special tribal building: More than 40 new building icons designed based on tribal characteristics.
Adjustment on the map and landscape: refine the sandbox map and landscape of major main cities.
UI
Adjustment on the team interface
Modify the skill bar interface
Adjustment on the inventory interface
Modify the legacy page
Adjustment on garrison management interface
Adjustment on the interface of tribe main city
Bug Fixes
Fix the bug of abnormal Talent reset
Fix lagging issues
Fix the bug of the random quests guide
Fix the bug of being unable to appoint city ruler
Fix the bug of equipment effects not being triggered
Fix the bug where all NPCs would lose equipment durability when the main character entered specific battles and exploration dungeons
Fix the bug that the main character's skills unable to be deleted from the skill bar
