Funcom might be busy working on Dune Awakening ahead of the game's planned early 2025 launch on PC, but Conan Exiles is still going strong and receiving updates, too. Today, the developer has released Chapter 1 of the Age of Heroes season of updates.
The main additions are two fully-voiced companions, the sorcerer Liu Fei and the Aesir warrior Freya. Liu Fei is reportedly trapped somewhere among humanoid grey apes, and Funcom warns players to carefully hear his story before deciding whether to add him as a companion.
Freya, on the other hand, can be found on a high peak surrounding the Northern Aqueduct. A bloodthirsty desire for vengeance is the backdrop to this adventure, and it's up to the player to lead or be led by Freya. Both Liu Fei and Freya have their own perks, abilities, and powers, and Funcom teased they'll be a consequence of the choices made by players during the respective companion quests.
Once you have recruited them, you can examine their perks to find out exactly what moment on your journey together led them to choose that perk and how those abilities will manifest themselves in combat. Each companion has a total of six possible perks, although they can only learn three through your interactions.
Interestingly, your companion could end up with a completely different set of perks compared to another companion brought in by a fellow clan member. In Conan Exiles Age of Heroes, you can have multiple companions of the same character with different sets of perks. It's up to you to complete the quests for each additional companion you wish to recruit.
Another big new feature of the update is the so-called living player settlement system. Whereas NPC workers in a Conan Exiles player's base used to be entirely static, they will now be powered by an internal needs system to imitate dynamic behavior. Needs include hunger, rest, sleep, and work.
Moreover, if the base is attacked, the workers will trigger a flee-or-fight behavior. As a general rule, this should be tied to their job (e.g., a cook would probably flee), but Funcom hinted that there may be exceptions. Furthermore, with the new update, the workers won't be attached to a specific workstation anymore; their bonuses will instead apply to all stations relevant to their profession and tier within a 140m radius (about 54 foundation blocks).
Last but not least, after many requests from Conan Exiles players, the workers can now be dressed up like any fighter, so you can change their clothing and weapons according to your liking.
The Bazaar item shop also got a significant expansion to the Argossean building set: there's the beautifully detailed observatory, interior decorations, and Pictish weapons and armors.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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