Year of Reckoning Season 1

## Hope

> *"After so many signs, all believed the end of times was nigh. Or so they thought. The earth quietened without warning, and a new dawn came. Hope filled the warriors' minds for the first time in ages. They remembered the many heroes who had fallen, who once fought for peace. For a brief moment, the leaders of Heathmoor ceased their quarrel. It was called the Truce of Wyverndale."*
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**Year of Reckoning: Season 1**, named "Hope," is the thirteenth season of the ongoing Faction War. The cataclysm has stopped, and Heroes are now instilled with a new energy that they have not experienced in ages: hope.

## Features

### New Armors and Weapons

As the earth quietened down and hope bloomed again, many blacksmiths and artisans in Heathmoor outdid themselves to craft richly decorated metals, refined woodwork and sophisticated embroideries inspired by the heroes who had died in legendary battles.

Get your hands on brand new free armor and weapon visuals for your heroes as you play during Y4S1: Hope.

All Heroes have received a Rare weapon visual which reflects the new age of Hope. As for armor, the Marching Fire Wu Lin Heroes get all new armor sets. The original Heroes and the Year 3 Heroes get variations of already existing sets. Year 1 DLC Heroes will receive new visuals later in the year.

### Hero Updates

While there were no new Heroes or reworks, Heroes have received some changes to their moveset for better balance and to reduce frustration they may have caused.

* Charged Heavy Openers have been adjusted as they proved to be too strong as an option select. Now, for Conqueror, Shinobi and Highlander, the earliest that they can feint their Charged Heavy move has been delayed (before, they could instantly feint these moves upon start-up).
	+ On the otherhand, cancelling these moves now allows from them to guardswitch during the cancel animation, as they were not able to freely do so before (or in Shinobi's case, had no such guard during the feint animation).
* Conqueror's forward movement during their Charge Heavy stance and on their Light attacks have been increased. This should allow them to hit their opponents properly, as they had difficulty in doing this when they backstepped (this was most apparent with their Chain Lights).
* Lawbringer's Parry punishes together with his Swift Justice Finisher have been reduced in damage so that his Punishes arere not too high, even for a Counter-Attacker. Stamina consumption of Impaling Charge and Impaling Riposte has been reduced so that he does not go out of Stamina too easily.
* Tiandi's Top Tiger Dodge (Light Dodge attack) now can branch slightly later from their Forward Dodge, allowing more variation when the attack can be initiated. Stamina cost for their Zone Attack has also been distributed so that it consumes less Stamina overall, opening up their offensive options when using it.
* Hitokiri had their Mangetsu move (Heavy Opener) slightly reduced to increase the number of strikes that would be needed to defeat low health opponents, akin to the change made to their Endless Myriad Heavies' damage in the previous Season. Their Throws also push their target a bit farther away.
* Jormungandr's bash-based moves now deal less stamina damage, and the shield they receives from Hamarr's Favor has been reduced. In trade, the wall stagger for their Throws and Side Finishers has been delayed, guaranteeing punishes they should have had.
* Other small changes:
	+ Forward movement increased on some Heroes' moves.
	+ Gladiator's Fuscina Ictus (Toe Stab) now correctly grants 30 Revenge to their opponent, whereas it was 10 before. This prevents the move from being abusable as a ganking tool.
	+ Berserker and Nuxia received small adjustments to their parry punishes to improve input comfort.

Feats have also received a few changes. Traps have had adjustments made to their visual placement so that they now will show above ground; before, they could be hidden under the ground or hidden from sight where it shouldn't. Haymaker has also been nerfed, both due to changes in Gladiator's kit that let him use his bashes more effectively, and in anticipation of changes that will be made to Centurion.

### Battle Pass

The leaders of Heathmoor signed a truce in a sacred meadow named Wyverndale. According to many tales and songs, Wyverndale was once a mythical city guarded by dragons that was destroyed during the cataclysm. All that remains now is a small, neutral clearing hidden in a luxuriant forest.

The heroes of Wyverndale are often seen as the first defenders of peace in Heathmoor. Weapons, symbols and tapestries were recreated in their honor.

Due to the Year of Reckoning releasing only two Heroes, the Year Pass has been replaced with the seasonal Battle Pass. Bring your customization to a whole new level with 100 Tiers of rewards for all heroes, all worth over a million Steel! As this pass is seasonal, progression through the Pass will reset at the end of the season.

#### Free & Premium Pass

The Season Pass has two ranks: the Free Pass and the Premium Pass. All players will have access to the Free Pass, earning rewards which include embossings, ornaments, an emblem outline, color swatches, paint patterns and more. Rewards are earned every few tiers.

The Premium Pass on the other hand offers the bulk of rewards, such as new signatures, new weapons, new executions, new effects, and more. Premium Pass owners will still receive rewards from the Free Pass. The Premium Pass also offers +10% Battle Points, the points necessary to progress through the Battle Pass tiers.

As both Pass' progression are shared, a player is able to upgrade to a Premium Pass and receive all rewards they would have gotten if they had purchased the Premium Pass from the start.

#### Notes

Take note that the purpose of the Battle Pass is to guarantee rewards for players, compared to how all rewards were based around random drops post-match or scavenger crates. The Battle Pass however will not replace any current system of cosmetics and loot gain, such as the above mentioned random drops, any event loot or the content of the week.

Content of the Battle Pass, even for the Premium Pass, will only be character customization items and consumables, preventing a pay-to-win model. All tiers are also visible to Free Pass owners, so there are no hidden rewards. However, the exclusive rewards in the Premium Pass may become unobtainable at the end of the season.

Progression through the tiers of either Passes can be hastened with Steel, skipping either 1, 5 or 20 tiers at once. The price for hastening progress is static through the tiers and between both ranks of Battle Passes.

### Other Changes

The For Honor devs held a community emote contest back in the early summer of 2019, with winners being promised that their emote would be added to the game. The first one of them has been added in this season as the "Reluctant Applause," where the Heroes applaud in an unsatisfactory manner. (video down below)

To reflect the season of Hope, there have been changes to the menu elements. New menu music, together new background visuals for all menus.

Minions have also received an updated look, as they now wear clean armor that display how resources have been more plentiful.

The Custom Match Menu structure has been changed, moving "Rules" and "Options" from the main menu area into being an integrated part in the Game Mode section.

A new effect visual has been added, "Master of Peace," which can be earned by participating in the Ranked Duels.

Bug fixes have been made to elements of the game, such as fixing displaced animations for emotes and executions, erroneously sized visual customizations, and map bugs. Heroes also received some fixes for bugs, such as visual issues for Raider's Storming Tap, Centurion pinning allies or enemies that he was not targeting, and the Punch Through feat dealing twice the bonus damage it was intended on dealing.

## Midseason Changes

During the midseason change, couple of improvements were initiated.

* Breach improvements have been implemented from the Testing Grounds.
	+ Attacking Team no longer has Respawn Tickets during phase 1 and 2. Instead, the Ram's health at the end of Phase 2 will determine how many Respawn Tickets they will have when facing the Commander.
	+ Respawn Timer is now 20 seconds (+3 second when executed), instead of increasing based on how many Feats the Hero had unlocked.
	+ The game has been sped up by increasing the Ram's speed and the capture rate of Archer Points.
	+ The Guardian has had a few changes, one being that they won't throw down a Fire Flask anymore. On top of that, the buff they give to their slayer's team has been changed into its very own buff instead of being a collection of the Attack, Speed and Defense buff of before. The Guardian buff now has the following attributes:
		- Full health healing + Revenge upon attaining the Buff.
		- 100% shield, infinite stamina, 10 times more damage to Pikemen, and 50% less damage taken from Pikemen. 2 minute duration.
		- Unique effect - Guardian glowing eyes.
		- All buffs are still lost upon death.
* Guardbreak vulnerability has been standardized across the board for all Heroes. Feint into Guardbreak combat has also been adjusted to be more balanced.
* Couple maps have received map adjustments to make them more balanced.
	+ Hallowed Bastion: The Commander Phase area has had some adjustments to grant less visibility for Defenders. There is a new stealth path from the Healing Zone to the Commander, a monolith at the bottom of the stairs to the Commander, the Ballista is walled and the spawn for both Defenders and their Pikemen have been pushed back.
	+ Citadel Gate: Zone A was hard to enter for Defenders due to the drop from wooden ramp. Now it features a proper ramp, though part of it still works like the drop it was before. Point C also received some fencing so that climbing the ladder was not a death sentence.
	+ Temple Garden: Point C (the Garden Tree) has had a couple adjustments to make it less frustrating, from revamping the bridges to be equal in size with proper rails to the remapping of the under-tree so that swift Heroes cannot stall by running.

### Season Delay due to COVID-19

> For Honor Production Update, a message to our community
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> First and foremost, we hope that everyone is doing well and is safe at home during these times. On our side, the team is still hard at work to keep For Honor fully operational even though we are doing so from home.
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> We are proud of how quickly everyone on the For Honor development team has adapted to the situation. However, even with all our efforts during these times, this unprecedented event has slowed down our ability to effectively test our upcoming content. For this reason, we have taken the decision to delay the release of Year 4 Season 2 to June 11, 2020. This delay of 6 weeks gives us the time we need to adapt our testing pipelines to this new situation.
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> We know that this news is disappointing; we were all excited to be able to show you what was coming to For Honor for the upcoming season. However, we are confident this was the right decision for us to be able to launch the content as we intended.
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> On a positive note, the team is currently working on a plan to be able to bring back fan-favorite activities to compensate for this delay. Those activities will be available in May and we will soon share more details within our May roadmap.
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> We want to thank you for your continued passion and support. Stay safe everyone.
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> The For Honor Team
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Due to the COVID-19 Outbreak that has caused governments to enforce a lockdown for all but essential workers to stay at home, Season 2 of Year 4 was pushed back to June 11th, 2020 to give staff more time to work on the upcoming content. In the meantime, the developers have promised that during the coming two months, content will be reused on top of a rotating event playlist to make sure that For Honor is not left as a wasteland of content. The first two weeks of this delay kicks off with a double XP fest to boot.

## Gallery

### Video

For Honor The Truce of Wyverndale Trailer Ubisoft NAFor Honor- Year 4 Season 1 Battle Pass Launch - Trailer - Ubisoft -NA-Reluctant Applause - 2020 - Ubisoft -NA-
## Trivia

* All premium Executions from the Battle Pass references a legendary sword from the faction's culture:
	+ Clarent (Knight): Although Excalibur was King Arthur's iconic sword, he also wielded other swords, one of them being Clarent.
		- Clarent was meant to be a sword of peace, used for knighting and ceremonies instead of battle. But it was infamously stolen by Mordred and then used to killed Arthur at Camlann.
	+ Futsunomitama (Samurai): A legendary sword used by the Japanese god of thunder and swords, Takemikazuchi . It was gifted to Emperor Jimmu, the first Emperor of Japan, to quell the Middle Country.
		- The Futsunomitama (布都御魂剣; *futsunomitama-no-tsurugi*) is categorized as a Totsuka-no-Tsurgi (十束剣; lit. "sword of ten hand-breathes"), legendary swords that appear in Japanese mythology and are owned by a Japanese god.
	+ Dainsleif (Vikings): Dáinsleif ("Dáinn's legacy") is King Högni's sword, according to Snorri Sturluson's account of the battle known as the Hjaðningavíg. The sword was forged by Dáinn, one of the Dwarves, and like other magical weapons of Norse mythology, wounds made by the sword would not heal.
		- The sword was brought up in the Skáldskaparmál, where Heðinn offers Högni compensation for the abduction of his daughter. Högni replies that peace cannot be made as he had already drawn Dáinsleif, and once drawn it has to fell someone's life.
	+ Goujian (Wu Lin): An archaeological sword from the Spring and Autumn period, wielded by King Goujian of Yue. King Goujian's reign coincided with the last major conflict with the rivaling kingdom of Wu, which resulted in his victory and the annex of the rival.
* The new Premium Battle Pass Signatures make reference to various myths and legends where individuals turn into stone for various reasons, mostly as a curse.
	+ Lethaea's Fate (Knight): A mythological character who was turned into stone due to her vanity. She is only mentioned briefly in Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphoses.
	+ Otohihime's Tale (Samurai): Otohihime (弟日姫; more commonly rendered as 弟日姫子), is the wife of Ōtomo no Satehiko (大伴挾手彦), and is commonly conflated with Matsu'ura Sayohime (松浦佐用姫), a legendary heroine in Japanese Buddhist mythology. When her husband left for an expedition in 536, it is said that Otohihime prayed with such fierceness that she was transformed into stone.
		- The Japanese and Chinese localization mistakenly refers to Otohime (乙姫) instead, the princess of an undersea castle that appears in the Tale of Urashima Tarō. Otohime gifts the titular character with a box that turns him into an old man.
	+ Dans Maen (Vikings): Dans Maen (Dawn's Men, Cornish for "Stone Dance"), also known as "the Merry Maidens," refers to a late neolithic stone circle in Cornwall, United Kingdom. A local myth tells that the stone circle was created when 19 maidens were turned to stone as punishment for dancing on a Sunday.
	+ Ashima Stone (Wu Lin): The Stone Forest (石林; pinyin: shílín) is a set of limestone formations in the Yunnan Province of China. According to legends, the forest was the birthplace of Ashima (阿诗玛; pinyin: āshīmǎ), a beautiful girl of the Yi people who turned to stone upon being forbidden from marrying her suitor after falling in love.