Act II of Siltbreaker, the Dota 2 co-op campaign, adds new casual mode, artifact changes

The long-awaited Act II to the Siltbreaker story campaign has been released for Battle Pass owners, and gives casual fans, and hardcore reward grinders alike something to look forward to. This new player-versus-environment game mode comes after a series of delays, as this slice of the campaign was announced for a late July release.

So far, heroes have been beckoned—or, really, obliged—by the Conclave of the Brine to defeat Rhyzik the Corruptor, one of Siltbreaker’s horrid creations. Players travel east into and through the Kalabor Desert to find and defeat this terrible being before he becomes too strong for a band of even the most worthy of opponents.

This mode promises opportunity to dive into the Dark Reef Prison of Dota 2 lore and “eradicate the fiendish Siltbreaker once and for all.” Of course, this is given you survive the journey that precedes it, and the trials that await along the way.

Dota 2/Valve

After a slew of player feedback, Valve has patched in a number of quality-of-life changes that will affect all types of players, for better or worse.

The most jarring and welcome change for returning is the addition of nine new heroes to the game mode:

• Dragon Knight
• Gyrocopter
• Leshrac
• Luna
• Omniknight
• Treant Protector
• Viper
• Weaver
• Zeus

These new options have a nice variety of damage and healing techniques. Omniknight and Treant can give a team better survivability, while Zeus and Dragon Knight add more area-of-effect-like damage outputs. Abbadon has been removed.

The update brings massive changes to Artifacts, the in-game assist item system. Drop rates have been increased, according to the patch notes, and the system will not drop duplicates within a session.

The new patch also introduces “Artifact Coins,” which are used to activate Artifacts. They are rewarded from enemies and completing zones, and are persistent between play sessions; Coins collected on Monday will still exist Friday. Plus, if you want to give a new Artifact a whirl as soon as you pick it up, Artifacts you activate within the play session you picked it up in do not require Coins. (Of course, they’ll be required in your next campaign attempt.)

As before, in regular gameplay modes, there will be the “three-star” reward system. The first play-through will reward Battle Points, while a three-star completion of any zone in any occasion will net a special Siltbreaker treasure.

If players don’t want to struggle for rewards and simply want to enjoy the Siltbreaker experience, Valve has also introduced a casual “Adventure Mode.” More lives are given, and enemies are weaker, but rewards and artifacts aren’t given out in this difficulty setting. Still, it makes Siltbreaker a great way to kill time for players sick of the MMR grind.