With Path of Exile 2’s new season underway, Last Epoch about to kick off its next chapter, and Diablo 4 Season 8 due in just a few weeks, another ARPG challenger is staking its claim for April. Torchlight Infinite Season 8 is titled ‘Sandlord’ and transforms the free Steam game with a new mechanic that sees you taking charge of a floating city in the clouds. Ahead of the new season, XD community manager Andre talks us through some of the biggest changes we can look forward to.
As the season name suggests, the new Torchlight Infinite update makes you “a skybound magnate developing their own Cloud Oasis.” That means, alongside all the regular ARPG horde-blasting and loot gathering that’s a staple of the free Steam game, you’ll also be building and upgrading a floating stronghold, managing resource trading, building construction, production optimisation, and recruiting workers across five professions.
Don’t worry that this new aspect will make Torchlight Infinite into more of a city builder than an action game, however. In order to handle most of this new management side, you’ll need Oasis Coins, which are earned by fighting out in the Netherrealm. There, you’ll also encounter Sand Pirates that you can hire as laborers, who can then be assigned to tasks such as mining and goods production.
You can also assign mercenary bands to head out and raid Sand Pirate stashes in search of rare materials. As you progress through the Sandlord side of things, you’ll unlock new blending recipes, which make use of said materials in order to unlock the ability to add unique affixes to any belt. Up for grabs are the likes of medium talents, core talents, and even hero trait points, so it’ll be well worth the time investment.
Speaking of heroes, another big addition is the Blasphemer trait for hero Thea; turning on her faith, her lost Blessings are transformed into Desecrations, which deals additional damage to foes around her. You can choose whether you want to specialize in using those effects to focus down elites, or spread it across multiple targets. If you’re able to strip away all of her Blessings, the Desecration damage transforms into a powerful execution skill that can demolish foes.
The new mechanic and hero are just the start, of course. Season 8 packs in plenty of fresh gear along with balance changes across a wide range of characters, skills, and items. Erosion damage has been reworked to make it feel more useful as an on-hit effect. A new crafting feature called Gear Imprint allows you to pull a strong set of crafted mods off one item and put them onto another piece of gear with better base stats.
As you get into the later stages of the Netherrealm endgame, you’ll start facing negative affixes that will push you to adapt your strategies to survive. The Deep Space mechanic has been given an overhaul – here, you’ll face a wider variety of negative affixes, meaning you’ll have to be careful about what you’re prepared to take on. Manage to do so, however, and particularly potent rewards await you.
Beyond that, you can expect lots more minor quality-of-life adjustments aimed at smoothing out both the leveling progression and the late game. Torchlight Infinite has managed to carve out a nice spot for itself as a more fast-paced blaster than many of its rivals, and the new season is looking like a great reason to return, if you can find the time among such a packed ARPG schedule.
Torchlight Infinite Season 8 ‘Sandlord’ starts Thursday April 17 at 7pm PT / 10pm ET (that’s Friday April 18 at 3am BST / 4am CEST for Europe). You can download and play the game free on Steam. Take a look through the extensive patch notes courtesy of XD for a full list of changes and additions.
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