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Killer Instinct‘s third season has brought four new fighters to Xbox One and PC, but there’s more to come. In addition to another four characters, the fighting game will also receive Shadow Lords, a single-player mode that’s described as “part ladder, part arcade mode, part story mode, and part roguelike.” It was announced in the Season 3 launch trailer, which you can watch below.
Developer Iron Galaxy Studios detailed the mode on the official Killer Instinct website. In Shadow Lords, you’re tasked with beating Gargos before his invasion of Earth is complete. You’ll choose a character as your “main” and put together a team of fighters from the Killer Instinct roster–Iron Galaxy says Shadow Lords will also receive new content as new characters are added to the game.
The post says “there’s a lot of stuff to earn and craft,” and “KI Gold will allow you to accelerate to get to some rarer stuff sooner.” KI Gold is the in-game currency you can earn from playing or by purchasing it in the store. Shadow Lords is said to have persistent items and elements that will carry over to future playthroughs.
Shadow Lords wasn’t revealed with a specific release date and will come “later this season.”
The launch trailer also announced a new multiplayer mode coming in July. Iron Galaxy says the new mode will tie into Shadow Lords and some of the items you’ll be able to craft.
The next four characters received launch windows in the trailer as well. The vampiric Mira, who was teased recently, will arrive in April, while Gargos comes in May. Players can also expect a new character in both June and July. A recent leak may have revealed the identity of one of those characters as Gears of War villain General Raam.
In addition to characters Kim Wu, Arbiter, Tusk, and Rash, the developer also released patch 3.0. You can check out the notes below:
Changes
- The Whole Cast Has Been Fully Rebalanced for Season 3; Each Character Gets a New Ability! Read them here.
- Added Support for Cross-Play and Cross-Buy with Killer Instinct on Windows 10
- Added 3 New Stages
- Arena of Judgment (Arbiter’s Stage)
- Chinatown Brawl (Kim Wu’s Stage)
- Icehaven (Tusk’s Stage)
- Added Shadow Lab Support for Rash & Arbiter
- All-New Next Gen Lighting System
- Light for All Stages has been Completely Revamped
- Includes Enhanced Reflections
- Added All-New Season 3 Front End “Corruption” Theme
- New Character Select
- New Stage Select with Music Track Selector
- Enhanced Shadow Move Effects
- Added Exclusive In-Game Character Colorations players that purchase that character’sUltimate Source Figurine
- Added Support for Key Game Action Events for the 9″ Jago Electronic Sound-Link Statue from Ultimate Source
- Dynamic Camera Effects for Level 4 Enders
- Added Combo Assist Support for New Season 3 Characters
- Added Shadow Point and Elite Boosters to the Store
- Enhanced Leagues – Final!
- New Leagues Promo Match Logic (Must defeat your rank or higher)
- Leagues Auto Rank Down for Inactivity
- Leagues Player-Initiated Reset Rank
- Leagues Gold tier now gets best 2-out-of-3 functionality
- Leagues Anti-Cheat “Probation” System Enacted.
General Bug Fixes
- Fixed a crash that would occur when, at a specific point of the streaming install process, a player would try to select Hisako
- Fixed a crash that would occasionally occur when a player quit out of a Player vs. CPU or CPU vs. CPU match and tried to navigate to Shadow Lab using LB or RB
- Fixed an FPS drop that would occur when Retro Cinder used a Triple Afterburner in his Warrior Armor accessory set
- Fixed an issue where a Cinder CPU would stop attacking the player if it started a certain combo
- Extensive updates and corrections to the Command List
- Fixed an issue where Cinder’s Burnout VFX were visible on Shadow Jago when he performs his Air Dark Demise
- Fixed an issue where certain stage VFX would remain visible over the darkened background during Shadow Jago’s Annihilation
- Fixed an issue where some of Shadow Jago’s Challenges would not be properly published to the leaderboards when completed