Flying Wild Hog has released patch 1.03 for Shadow Warrior 3 that adds a Hardcore Difficulty Mode. Moreover, this patch brings a number of balance tweaks, and fixes numerous bugs and issues.

As Flying Wild Hog claimed:

“On Hardcore difficulty, enemies hit even harder and use every opportunity to punish your mistakes. Resources also come in less generous numbers.”

Update 1.03  fixes various progression issues and packs various performance enhancements. It also sets the FOV minimum value to 80, and resolves LoD and popping issues in various places. Furthermore, it has fixes for when the player could fall out of the world, as well as for players leaving the gameplay space.

As always, Steam will download this patch the next time you launch its client. Below you can also find its complete changelog.

Shadow Warrior 3 Patch 1.03 Release Notes

General Balance Changes

• Katana fire attack projectile speed, explosion range and burn chance increased.
• Katana ice attack freeze effect duration reduced.
• Katana’s electric attack range decreased.
• Sidekicks’ damage slightly increased and spread decreased.
• HP amount restored from the Finishers now varies with Difficulty.
• Adjusted the Health Points of certain enemies.
• Enemy Health Points are now the same across difficulties (except bosses).
• Shuriken Spitter does not register headshots anymore.
• Health and Ammo orbs respawn-time now varies with Difficulty.
• The amount of Health and Ammo restored from the orbs now varies with Difficulty.
• Last Stand invulnerability-time decreased.
• Thorn’s damage now varies with Difficulty.
• Kugutsu accuracy and projectile speed increased.
• Laser Shogun laser now stops on enemies.
• Riot Gun range slightly decreased.
• Oni Hanma’s stagger delay increased.
• Lifetime for Seeking Eye and Blade of Hattori have been reduced.
• Removed temporary invincibility after usage of Brain Tonic.

Fixes and Improvements #1

• Various Balance changes (see below).
• Fix for Achievements not unlocking in rare cases.
• Fix for an unwanted second attack being made with the upgraded Katana if the weapon wheel was used during an attack.
• There is also a fix for the Shuriken Spitter not causing damage during some attacks on the Guardian of The Heart.
• Fix for a bug where the player might get locked in the Guardian of The Heart’s third phase on Hard difficulty.
• Fix for Shogai not reacting to Katana hits if they are performing a melee attack at the time.
• There is also a fix for headshots on Kugutsu from Sidekicks making the ragdoll spin.
• Fix for one of the upgrade points on “The Fast and the Furry” disappearing after the player respawns.
• Fix for some weapons not shooting when the “ranged attack” input is being held while switching between guns.
• Various User Interface fixes.
• Fixes for when the player could fall out of the world.
• Fixes for players leaving the gameplay space.
• Additional checkpoint added to “Doomsday Device” level.
• FOV minimum value set to 80.
• Various progression issues fixed.

Fixes and Improvements #2

• Fix for Thorns popping up inappropriately.
• Fix for a bug where the Thorns wouldn’t wither on the final arena of “Egg Express”.
• Fixed various edge case logic bugs in various levels.
• Fix for a bug where the player could move with the Tanuki in their hands. Shame.
• Fixed LoD and popping issues in various places.
• Fix for a rare crash when performing a Finisher on Chef Oboro Guruma.
• Various performance enhancements.
• Fix for tutorial messages staying on screen after the player’s death.
• Fix for the weapon disappearing when the weapon change was performed right before a cutscene had started.
• There is also a fix for a bug where the player could shoot their weapons during transition cutscenes.
• Fix for the Grappling Hook remaining open after performing certain actions.
• Updates for French, Spanish and Russian localization.
• (PC) Fix for the weapon disappearing when trying to choose an unobtained weapon using keyboard shortcuts.