Age of Darkness: Final Stand’s new content has been coming out left and right as developer PlaySide Studios hopes to turn the action RTS into the best version before its full release.
Age of Darkness: Final Stand To Release Campaign Act III In December 2023
Released in October 2021, the game initially did not have a Campaign Mode but skirmishes where players had to build their base of operations to defend against the nasty swarms of zombies. In this article, we will mainly go through the major update, Exile’s Return Campaign: Act III.
Age of Darkness: Final Stand is going full-steam ahead with the final update of Exile’s Return, which will be released on August 14, 2025, at 7 AM EST. Act III will be the culmination of the heart-pounding and riveting storylines that they have introduced in Acts I and II. Players can expect several chunky hours to finish the last 3 Campaign missions of the game, a boss fight, quality of life enhancements, and a new hero named Aurelia Pelegren.
Bossing Around in the Darkness
In particular, the boss fight is being kept under wraps for now to avoid spoiling the experience for players but the developer is certain that this will be a memorable one. To add to this, they have always wanted to allow for easier ways to assemble units in the Survival Mode.
Come December, you will now be able to make use of Formations, which smoothly lets you allocate the positions of strong allies and glass cannon ones to protect the latter. For instance, Archers will finally remain behind resilient Swordsmen to maintain an optimal and safe distance between them and their Nightmarish foes.
Next, Age of Darkness: Final Stand has enhanced its Hero introductions featuring a prominent ability to entice (and make it more difficult) for you to choose the Hero and faction you will play as. One example is selecting Vizargo with his deadly claw attack and Dark Essence coursing through his veins. These 3D Hero Select feature helps visualize the type of character you intend to command.
Aurelia Pelegren, The Daughter Of Ruin
Probably the biggest update in Age of Darkness: Final Stand Exile’s Return is the addition of Aurelia Pelegren who is known as The Daughter of Ruin. Under the tutelage of The Order, Aurelia gained all of her knowledge from them - both academic and athletic skills and was chosen to be the Lightbearer. She was hot-tempered at times but she had a good heart. As the years went by, Aurelia started to yearn for answers about her past. This included her family and who she was before becoming an orphan but The Order could not provide her with the things she needed.
Lo and behold, everything turned south when she came across the despicable Volatists and Vizargo. It was here that the corruption of her soul started, and so, she started to fight alongside them.
Aurelia is a very interesting Hero to play because of her versatility - dabbling in both the skills inherited from The Order and Volatists. From Edwin, she has inherited his resilience and from Vizargo, her damage has increased significantly. These qualities are also particularly noticeable and embellished on her Flail’s weapon design as a Lightbearer as well as the jagged spikes of her armor to show her alliance with the Volatists. Because she is unlike Vizargo in that only a portion of the Dark Essence is under her control, Aurelia needs to make use of a Dark Crystal to improve her abilities.
Aurelia’s Skills
Contrary to the rest of Age of Darkness: Final Stand’s Heroes, Aurelia does not have an Ultimate and Passive Skill, which means she focuses on aggressively taking her enemies straightaway. As early as Level 2, she gains access to Flail Whip. This allows Aurelia to essentially hammer foes in front of her and tug at her Flail to whip it back and cause maximum AoE damage. It is a powerful skill, especially against the likes of Wraits and Crushers because once they are hit by the weapon, they drop 1 Dark Essence to fuel her own rage.
At Level 3, Aurelia can activate Midnight Bloom to CC targets. This lets her create a crystal shard in the middle of the field to inflict slow on enemies. Should they attack this shard, it will detonate to deal tons of damage. Pretty gnarly, right? Next, at Level 4, Aurelia now can utilize her Dark Essence to enter the state of Dark Fury. This makes her and her allies almost immune to taking damage since they can quickly restore a portion of their lost health.
Last but not least is Crimson Lightning at Level 6. Crimson Lightining is a multifunctional skill. Not only does it boost Aurelia’s attack speed but it also heals her and allows her to manipulate dark energy to damage enemies along the way. It is a very powerful AoE skill that targets need to strategically avoid to stay alive in combat.
Hello Age of Darkness, My Old Friend
So what did you think about this exciting Age of Darkness: Final Stand’s Exile Return update? Have you already grabbed the game? Let us know in the comments below.
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