In Alterstone Kingdom, captured criminals face two choices for their punishment: death or service. Most opt for execution, but a brave few choose to live life in penance as Marked Inquisitors. These wandering wrongdoers hunt wicked Mages, devouring their hearts to prevent them from terrorizing the Kingdom any further. 

Customize a Marked Inquisitor’s crime, look, and class. Choose from one of eight starting classes — Highblade, Paladin, Assassin, Cleric, Dualist, Fighter, Ranger, or Sage — then partake in the Magebane Rite. Imbibe the sacred drink, speak the words, and come away from the rite Spellmarked, in a flux state between life and death. Free from mortal fears, the Inquisitors vow to spill the blood of Mages to put an end to their cruelty. 

Prepare for each excursion at Pardoner’s Vale, a hub filled with friendly Inquisitors. Set out and roam eerie villages, tomb temples, and swamp kingdoms in single player or drop-in drop-out online co-op. Find clues and track down more than 20 types of Mages, including scorching Pyromancers, toxic Venomancers, and abominable Corpumancers. Wield grappling hooks and pursue them, then slay them in brawler-style side scrolling combat. 

Pillage the remains of Mages to craft new equipment with Runic Arts, granting Inquisitors unprecedented new abilities. Search every decrepit corner across multiple maps for powerful melee weapons, deadly ranged weapons, and protective armor and charms. Join multiplayer factions, including the cooperation-focused Dawnlight Order and the player-killing Shroud Alliance.

Ska Studios brings back its signature hand-drawn look, providing each candlelit cave and foggy forest with a personal feel. The expansive Bestiary features more than 100 monsters, many inspired by Scandinavian folklore. James Silva’s haunting score injects a sense of foreboding throughout the entire journey.

“With Salt and Sacrifice, we wanted to create an experience taking everything players loved about Salt and Sanctuary and building upon it in meaningful ways,” said James Silva, founder, Ska Studios. “Whether you plan to face Mages alone, call on friends for co-op, or stalk through Altarstone Kingdom as a PvP invader, Salt and Sacrifice offers something for everyone, and we can’t wait to bring the game to PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Epic Game Store on May 10!”

The realm of Salt and Sacrifice will be a place of adversaries and cooperators, where fast-paced battles break out among Inquisitors dutifully serving their sects.

A significant number of players have less-than-zero interest in PvP, and eventhough it is super fun, but is also certainly not for everyone, and you won’t have to engage in PvP if you don’t want to.

Player-versus-player combat in Salt and Sacrifice is far more dynamic than it was in Salt and Sanctuary. the developers have added sprinting with unique sprint attacks, many of which send foes flying (and gravity is still, as they say, the final boss). But getting blasted into oblivion isn’t the end: a lucky Inquisitor can use their grappling hook to cancel out of a fall, provided they plummet past the right sort of ledge. There are also dozens of Runic Arts to explore–powerful situational abilities employed by the Inquisition–from lightning shockwaves and pursuing insect swarms to elemental buffs and storms of spectral blades. Quick-swap ranged attacks and alchemical bombs are great for punishing foes, and while readied ammunition is sparse, if your foe foolishly relents, you can always field craft some more.

The most straightforward Inquisitor sect is doubtlessly that of the Blighttakers: the Shroud Alliance. They have interpreted the Inquisition’s charter overzealously, and pursue its goals by slaying fellow Inquisitors indiscriminately. Inquisitors must suffer, so blessed is he who brings about the greatest suffering.

A bit less straightforward are the Blueheart Runners. These Inquisitors believe it would be wasteful to squander the many opportunities offered by their new stations. Seeking profit in even these most dire of circumstances, they pilfer the frontier of its unique magical materials. Blueheart invaders are charged with destroying and looting the haze-tainted creatures of your realm, causing horrible monsters to spawn from the temporal rifts that spring forth in their wake. A careful Inquisitor is wise to cut down any Blueheart Runners that enter their realm.

If you try out Salt and Sacrifice PvP when the game launches, you should find ample opportunities to aid, grieve, spar with, and vanquish your fellow Inquisitors in horrible and wonderful ways. Whether with a well-placed arrow to a mid-grapple Inquisitor, a mallet slam into a poison mire, or the finisher following a perfectly-timed parry, victory in Salt and Sacrifice is something to be savored.

Death or servitude as a Marked Inquisitor are the only options for criminals unlucky enough to get caught in the act. As a Marked Inquisitor, hunt down mages and devour their hearts to cleanse the corrupted Altarstone Kingdom, but beware of invaders from another world trying to halt the purification process...or invite the player-controlled interlopers to trial by combat.

After creating a Marked Inquisitor’s appearance, class, and past crime, you’ll embark on your cursed hunt, but there’s no sense in suffering alone. Join a variety of factions for multiplayer combat and online interactions. Revealed in a gameplay trailer highlighting Salt and Sacrifice’s multiplayer features are two such factions: the Shroud Alliance, with a focus on pure PvP combat, and the Blueheart Runners, an invading PvE cadre of arcane smugglers who wreak chaos in a host’s realm.

Consume a Guiltless Shard to temporarily disable the Spellmark, strange magic that binds Marked Inquisitors to their Kingdom, opening the world to invaders seeking riches and blood. Although invaders are other players seeking PvP encounters, the magic that binds them provides ample opportunity for balance. Oathbound Watchers are drawn into worlds threatened by invaders to protect their hosts, and Sheriff Inquisitors are summoned to police realms defiled by Blueheart Runners.

Solo players desiring a pure-PvE experience can avoid the threat of otherworldly invaders simply by never summoning an ally. Those seeking friendly cooperation and exploration may use a password system to grant allies easy access to their game world for epic, mage-slaying adventures.

The eight starting classes, Highblade, Paladin, Assassin, Cleric, Dualist, Fighter, Ranger, and Sage, give PvP matchups a wide variety of strategies and depth. Claim victory in the name of multiple factions like the Dawnlight Order or Shroud Alliance. Finish each fight in style with gruesome finishers to rid the realm of your faction’s enemies.

Experiencing the dark tale of Salt and Sacrifice goes beyond a challenging single-player campaign, utilizing fan-favorite mechanics from soulslikes of the past and deadly multiplayer PvP for a gripping journey that never relents.

Salt And Sacrifice will be available for PS4, PS5 and PC (Epic Games Store exclusive) in Q1 2022 at USD $19.99.