Avowed’s Anniversary Patch Turns One Playthrough into Many — Here’s What Actually Changes

Why this update actually matters for Avowed players

Obsidian just handed Avowed a proper second act. The one-year Anniversary Update (out Feb 17) isn’t a handful of bells and whistles-it’s a systems-deep patch that makes replaying the game interesting again. New Game Plus, three playable races (Dwarf, Orlan, Aumauan), a race-and-godlike swap through a Magic Mirror, a new quarterstaff weapon class, a doubled attribute cap, and quality-of-life features like photo mode and granular difficulty sliders all arrive alongside a native PS5 edition. For anyone who finished Avowed and wondered “what now?”, Obsidian gave you several actual answers.

• New Game Plus: carry over most gear and abilities into harder, tweakable runs.
• Three playable races: Dwarves, Orlans, and Aumauans add meaningful mechanical options, not just cosmetics.
• Magic Mirror: swap race and godlike traits mid-playthrough without creating a new character.
• Quarterstaff weapon class: a fresh melee toolkit built around stuns and crowd control.
• QoL: attribute cap doubled, photo mode, and difficulty sliders that let you tune challenge and fun.

Breaking down the headline features

This caught my attention because Avowed launched as a solid, old-school RPG with big systems-Obsidian’s signature area. But its first year exposed the same gnarliness most modern CRPGs face: great tools, limited replay hooks. Update 2.0 addresses that directly. NG+ lets you push builds further (Obsidian raised attribute caps from 15 to 30), while the Magic Mirror removes the “oops I picked the wrong race” anxiety that has spoiled many second runs in other RPGs.

These additions are not just window dressing. The three new races come with distinct mechanical edges: Dwarves as durable frontliners, Orlans built for agility and burst, and Aumauans offering versatile brawler options. Because you can change race mid-run at camp via the Mirror, you can experiment without restarting-huge for players who want to test hybrid builds without losing 50 hours.

New Game Plus and the experience loop

NG+ is the update’s spine. Obsidian lets you carry over most unique gear and abilities into a tougher, modifier-driven loop. Enemies scale up and can spawn with modifiers that demand build diversity instead of the same “hit harder” response. That higher attribute ceiling opens genuinely different power curves: a build that capped at 15 points before is only getting warmed up at 30.

Two caveats: godlike story abilities remain gated to narrative beats, and not every piece of common gear keeps its level. Still, this is the kind of NG+ that rewards thinking about long-term synergies—especially with the new quarterstaffs and the Mirror allowing on-the-fly role swaps.

Quarterstaffs, builds, and actual play implications

The quarterstaff is the most interesting mechanical addition. It’s a blunt weapon class built around stuns and crowd control, with charge finishers and AoE wake-up alleys that change how melee encounters flow. If you liked playing a control fighter in Obsidian’s past games, this feels like a natural extension: set up stuns, rotate companions, and force fights into windows where your damage matters.

Combine that with the doubled attributes and the Mirror, and you get hybrid options that weren’t feasible at launch—think a high-Might quarterstaff bruiser who can swap to an Orlan for a stealthy opener, or an Aumauan brawler that trades elemental access mid-dungeon. It’s the kind of emergent gameplay Obsidian promises and now finally supports.

Quality-of-life and platform notes

Photo mode and difficulty sliders are smart, overdue quality-of-life wins. The sliders let you tune enemy health, damage, and other variables granularly—great for speedrunners, challenge-seekers, or players who want a relaxed, story-first run. The PS5 native edition arriving with the patch is also notable: Obsidian shipping a first-party-caliber RPG to PlayStation after a year on Xbox/PC is a clear sign they want a broader second wind for Avowed.

The Bottom Line

Obsidian didn’t just slap on a couple of features to celebrate a birthday. This is a thoughtful systems update that deepens character options, rewards experimentation, and gives players real reasons to return. There’s still room to nitpick—godlike gating and some balance unknowns remain—but if you loved Avowed’s bones and wanted more ways to tinker, Update 2.0 is the kind of expansion that turns a single playthrough into multiple genuinely different experiences.

TL;DR: If you finished Avowed and hesitated about replaying, this patch fixes most of the pain points. New Game Plus, race swapping, a new melee archetype, and tuning sliders make next runs feel fresh instead of repetitive.