Led by former Runic Games and Blizzard North co-founder, Max Schaefer, the team developing Torchlight Frontiers is comprised of veteran developers who were responsible for the games that defined the ARPG genre, including the original Diablo and Torchlight franchises.

Torchlight Frontiers combines the heart of the beloved Torchlight series with a shared, persistent and dynamically generated world. In true Torchlight style, players will team up with friends and devoted pets to hack and slash their way through a vibrant world, discover ancient ruins of lost civilizations and brave dungeons filled with riches and dangerous creatures.

Those courageous enough to brave the frontiers will be able to collect Relic Weapons, powerful ancient items earned through the game’s crafting system. These exclusive weapons can be activated for a limited time to carry out deadly, earth-shattering attacks on approaching enemies. When Relic Weapons are equipped in battle, they also grant players with additional powers and unique effects.

Relics are a special type of item with unique features:

• Unique item that levels up. Gains increased stats, new affixes, and can grant access to unique skills.
• Equipped in the dedicated Relic Weapon slot of your character.
• Can be activated to swap out your primary weapon for a short time, granting additional powers and effect while active.
• Designed to provide a wide range of options for character building - they can be build-defining items or used to compliment a preferred play style.
• Earned through crafting, so you can reliably work towards the Relics you want to collect.
• Basically gives your character super powers.

Since power progression in Torchlight Frontiers shifts away from character levels and focuses more on gear quality, Relic Weapons can be leveled up to increase/gain new item stats and unlock special skills. These powerful items give players the flexibility to choose from weapons that define a certain character type or ones that complement their individual playstyles.
 
Today the Echtra Games team reveals three of Torchlight Frontiers’ new Relic Weapons. This includes:

• Bane (Staff; Poison damage; Chance to Poison; Grants Health on kill)

  At Level 7, Grants Passive Skill Contagion: Damaging a poisoned enemy has a chance to release projectiles that damage enemies and inflict Poisoned status. 
  As long as Bane is equipped in the Relic Weapon slot, the Contagion passive can be used. This means you can benefit from the Contagion proc even when Bane is not activated. Bane is powerful on its own when used for the weapon attacks, but if players build a character to take advantage of Contagion they’ll reap even more benefit.

• Fire Striker (Sword; Fire damage; Bonus critical hit chance; Bonus attack speed)

  At Level 5, Gains Affix: Attacking with Fire Striker unleashes a wave of fireballs. These have a high chance to inflict Burning. 
  Fire Striker is all about waving your flaming sword around during activation, setting as many enemies on fire as you can before the duration runs out. The bonus critical and attack speed affixes, once fully leveled up, really make this a spike damage machine.

• Flaming Destroyer (Sword; Fire damage; Chance to Burn; Bonus chance to Crit)

  At Level 3, Grants Active Skill Sword Smash: Summon an ethereal sword that slams into enemies, dealing direct damage and leaving them Burning for 125% weapon damage.

  At Level 5, Gains Affix: Gain 5% attack speed when you hit with this Relic. Stacks up to 5 times. 

Relic activation has a dedicated slot on the skill bar (default W). Relics currently have a duration of 30 seconds when activated. During that time your primary weapons are swapped out for the Relic weapon. In this state, your skill damage and weapon attacks use the Relic weapon’s stats, including any bonus affixes or procs on the Relic.

Activation also triggers an AoE buff for you and your party members. The type and strength of the buff depends on the Relic. We hope to see parties strategically planning what Relics to bring on a mission, and timing when they trigger activation buffs.

Once the active duration ends your primary weapons are returned to your hands and the Relic needs to charge before it can be used again. Currently the charge time is 120 seconds.

We are working on gear affixes that affect charge time, duration, and other aspects of the Relic weapon mechanics. These will give more ways for players to customize how their Relics fit into their overall character build.

In the Fort, players construct a Reliquary which they’ll use for crafting, empowering, and storing their Relic collection. Relics aren’t item drops - they are ancient artifacts of power you hunt down and restore to glory.

Forging a Relic requires some of the general purpose crafting materials found in the world, and a Relic Core item unique to each Relic. Drop rates are fairly predictable for the materials and cores. Players are not meant to depend on ultra rare RNG-based drops to determine whether they can earn a Relic. It’s about being able to reach the right area and defeat the monsters guarding those precious resources.

We see this as a wide open space to think of crazy mechanics and skills a character could have, and insert that gameplay in a way that players can combine with classes and builds in new and fun ways. There are also certain play styles that fit poorly into core class designs, like dedicated tank or healer kits, which we can explore by creating Relics that focus on those mechanics. Each class then gets a chance to play with this subset of skills and traits.

Relics are another feature that enables horizontal growth for the game. Adding these items & powers periodically will expand the content that players have available, creating new niches for builds & play styles. Today we’ve shown some very cool, powerful, but relatively straight-forward Relic weapons. I can’t wait to continue showing you more awesome Relics the team has been building!

Torchlight Frontiers will be available on PC, Xbox One and PS4.