The Avowed Anniversary Update releases on February 17, launches the same day as the new PS5 version of Avowed, and includes many new features, including New Game Plus, custom difficulty modifiers, new playable races, a new photo mode, and a new weapon type!
Table Of Contents
- Avowed Anniversary Update Overview
- Release date and platform timing
- New Game Plus explained
- Magic Mirror and character editing
- New playable races
- Custom difficulty modifiers
- New Quarterstaff weapon type
- Avowed’s New Photo Mode
- Additional melee finishers
- The Final Word
- More Avowed Builds
Avowed Anniversary Update Overview
The Avowed Anniversary Update is a systems-focused release built around replayability, customization, and combat variety. It does not add new quests or story chapters. Instead, it expands how you replay the game through New Game Plus, adds post-creation character editing through a camp mirror, introduces additional playable races, and provides a detailed set of custom difficulty modifiers that let you tune the player, enemies, companions, and the game economy. It also adds photo mode, new melee finisher animations, and a new weapon type, the quarterstaff, aimed at expanding wizard-friendly weapon options. Check out our video guide overview below.
Release date and platform timing
The Anniversary Update releases February 17. In the same announcement, the developers stated that this is also the release date for the PS5 version, and that the PS5 version ships with the full feature set covered in the update. Interestingly, the Playstation 5 release is also priced cheaper than the original Xbox/PC release, currently sitting at $49.99.
Related Guides
New Game Plus explained
New Game Plus is the largest gameplay addition in the Avowed Anniversary Update. The developers describe it as a post-launch feature added in response to community feedback, with the primary goal of giving players a reason to replay the full campaign while continuing to develop their character and build.
How to access New Game Plus
To access New Game Plus, you must finish the game. After beating the game, you receive a save point near the end. When you return to the main menu, a New Game Plus option becomes available. Once you begin, your saves will indicate you are in “Adventure 2,” which the developers use as shorthand for a second playthrough. The team also implies that this continues beyond a second run, with difficulty increasing as you repeat New Game Plus cycles.
A key limitation is that New Game Plus was implemented after the original release, and older save files were not created with New Game Plus in mind. Because of this, players may need a save close to the end of the game, re-complete the final segment, and then return to the main menu to unlock the New Game Plus option. The developers characterize this as a side effect of adding the feature post-launch rather than something intended to complicate access.
How it works
New Game Plus characters carry forward their previously unlocked abilities. The developers demonstrate a character beginning New Game Plus at a low level while still having a large set of unlocked abilities from the prior playthrough, with the expectation that players will continue expanding their build rather than rebuilding from zero. They also state that New Game Plus increases the caps for attributes and ability points, allowing players to push further into skill trees than was possible in the first playthrough.
The new attribute cap is shown at 30 in New Game Plus.
On the gear side, New Game Plus lets you keep your items, but resets equipment to level one so players can continue upgrading rather than being “locked out” of gear progression. The intent is to keep the upgrade loop meaningful during a replay while still letting players use the items they earned. In practice, this means you are not starting with a fully maxed kit that trivializes progression, but you are also not abandoning your inventory identity and build concept.
New Game Plus Difficulty
The developers describe difficulty scaling in New Game Plus as an incremental bump rather than a complete shift from one preset to another. They clarify that Normal difficulty does not automatically become Path of the Damned. Instead, your chosen base difficulty remains, while enemy difficulty increases through additional scaling with each New Game Plus iteration. Enemies are becoming tougher and more damaging, and they also reference a set of tuning “knobs” that are adjusted over time, including things such as attack speed.
In New Game Plus, enemies can spawn with additional modifiers that change the feel of encounters. Examples include enemies gaining immunities to certain damage types, enemies being effectively “enchanted” with elemental damage, enemies becoming tankier, or enemies becoming glass cannons with higher damage output but lower survivability.
They also mention that enemies can gain access to more spell-like actions, including high-impact abilities like meteor shower or blizzard. The intent appears to be making repeated encounters feel less predictable, especially in multiple New Game Plus cycles where players may already know the map layouts and enemy placements.
The general expectation is that each successive cycle becomes more punishing, while your increased attribute and ability caps provide the tools to keep developing a stronger and more flexible build.
No new story content
New Game Plus does not include new quests, new story sequences, or additional narrative content. They attribute this to time, resources, and the scope of what the post-launch team could realistically deliver. The Anniversary Update should be understood as gameplay and systems work, not a narrative expansion.
We recently updated all our Avowed builds for the Anniversary Update! Check them out!
Magic Mirror and character editing
The Avowed Anniversary update adds a character re-customization feature called the Magic Mirror. This item appears in your camp and can be interacted with after resting. The purpose of the Magic Mirror is to allow players to change their character’s appearance after character creation, particularly for players who felt they rushed through character creation initially or who want to adjust their look during a replay.
In addition to enabling appearance changes, the developers mention that they added new presets and reorganized them. The explanation is that the presets were adjusted to be more visually appealing and were reordered in a way that moves from more neutral designs to more chaotic designs, giving players an easier time browsing and choosing a starting appearance direction.
New playable races
Another major addition in the Anniversary Update is the expansion of playable race options. Avowed originally supported humans and elves, and players frequently asked about the absence of other Pillars of Eternity races that exist in the setting (which you can also see in the game itself). The update adds the ability to play as Aumaua, Dwarves, and Orlans.
These new race additions to the game are more than purely cosmetic. In first-person play, your camera height changes based on race. Orlans are smaller, so the camera sits lower. Aumaua are taller, so the camera sits higher. This alters how the world reads visually and how scale feels in everyday movement and combat encounters.
Minor stat boosts are also now associated with each race, such as +2 Might for Dwarves or +1 Perception and +1 Resole for Orlans, which is included to make the race choice feel like a traditional RPG selection rather than a purely visual skin.
Custom difficulty modifiers
The Anniversary Update also adds a custom difficulty system with a large set of adjustable modifiers. The developers frame this as a way to let players shape the experience to their preference rather than being limited to preset difficulty modes.
The modifier system is divided into several categories. There are player-side modifiers that affect your character’s damage output and resources, including max health and max essence. There are enemy-side modifiers that affect enemy damage, health, posture, and attack speed, with the ability to increase or decrease these factors. The developers also describe companion-related modifiers, which allow you to adjust how companions behave or perform, though the transcript does not list each companion control in detail. Finally, there are world modifiers affecting economy and environmental factors such as merchant prices, upgrade costs, and fall damage.
Another detail is that these settings are not configured during character creation, but can be accessed any time during gameplay via the menu screen. The developers state that difficulty presets are exposed at the start, but custom tuning is meant to be adjusted after the game begins to avoid disrupting the opening flow.
New XP bonuses tied to difficulty changes
The custom difficulty system also includes a kill-based XP bonus that increases as you raise certain challenge modifiers. The developers explicitly state that this XP bonus applies only to kills. It does not apply to quest completion XP or point-of-interest discovery. Some world modifiers can grant XP bonuses as well, including merchant price increases, which creates a scenario where players could increase merchant prices without intending to buy much and still benefit from the bonus. They acknowledge this as a side effect of how the system is structured.
By stacking multiple modifiers, you can reach a substantial multiplier for kill XP, roughly in the range of two times and approaching three times. The Avowed devs have not described a fixed maximum here and suggest they will rely on community feedback to refine the values.
Interaction with Path of the Damned and achievements
The developers confirm that you can set Path of the Damned as a base difficulty and then further modify difficulty with custom settings. They also mention that changes to difficulty interact with achievements, and that the game warns you when you change settings, with the intent of keeping achievements consistent rather than allowing difficulty manipulation to bypass achievement expectations.
New Quarterstaff weapon type
The Anniversary Update introduces the quarterstaff as a new weapon option. The developers describe the quarterstaff as a way to expand wizard-themed weapon variety, noting that wizard play previously leaned heavily on grimoire and wand. The quarterstaff provides a two-handed option with a more physical combat feel while still supporting magical identity.
The baseline common quarterstaff functions similarly to other two-handed weapons, but unique quarterstaff variants with elemental properties also exist, including frost and poison varieties.
Like all weapon types in Avowed, the quarterstaff also includes a special attack that can trigger when you successfully apply a full stun to a target.
Avowed’s New Photo Mode
Photo mode is included as part of the Anniversary Update. The developers mention that Obsidian leveraged experience and technology from the Grounded team to implement a familiar set of photo mode tools. Avowed’s new photo mode includes UI toggling and camera adjustments, including tilt and visual effects, allowing players to frame shots in combat and exploration.
Additional melee finishers
Some additional finisher animations were also added for most melee weapons in Avowed as part of the Anniversary Update. The motivation given is that frequent late-game play can lead to the same finisher being seen repeatedly, so the update expands variety to keep combat presentation from feeling as repetitive.
The weapons explicitly mentioned as receiving updated finisher variety include two-handed hammer, two-handed axe, two-handed sword, dagger, and spear. The discussion implies this is focused on one-handed and two-handed melee categories rather than ranged or spellcasting.
The Final Word
The Avowed Anniversary Update is a feature and systems update rather than a narrative expansion. Its core additions are New Game Plus with scaling and increased progression caps, camp-based appearance changes via the Magic Mirror, new playable races with first-person camera height differences and minor stat variations, a deep custom difficulty modifier system with kill-based XP bonuses, and new combat and presentation features including enemy modifiers, the quarterstaff weapon type, photo mode, and expanded melee finisher variety.
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