No Rest for the Wicked- A Plague-Ridden Renaissance That Transforms Early Access Ambition Into Souls-Like Excellence
Moon Studios, the company that made the extremely popular Ori series, tried something new with their action RPG “No Rest for the Wicked.” When it came out in early access in April 2024, the game was significantly impacted by its challenging gameplay and unique art style. But there weren’t many material changes. Since July 2024, when “The Crucible” came out, the only significant update has been “The Crucible.”
After months of waiting, Moon Studios has finally released “The Breach” update, which makes the game much bigger and better. With the studio’s recent shift to complete independence after buying back the rights from their previous publisher, they’re now fully committed to realizing their vision for what they’ve described as their “Fellowship of the Ring” in what’s planned to be a larger series.
No Rest for the Wicked takes place in a plague-ravaged world where you battle against monsters and explore diverse environments. The Breach update continues this narrative thread while expanding the story significantly.
The game now features two new massive zones that essentially double the explorable area: the sun-kissed Lowland Meadows to the south of Sacrament, which is ravaged by plague-infested monstrosities, and the Maran Woods to the north, a deep forest area affected by blight where players face off against the fierce bird warriors of the Balika tribe and other woodland creatures.
The update also introduces a second safe area beyond Sacrament—the Maran Village. While not functioning as a full second hub (you cannot fast travel directly to it or get a new home there), this village offers new vendors who sell valuable materials like animal skulls and claws, making it easier to upgrade your weapons. You can go to the town after finishing the story tasks in this area. This adds to the world-building and plot development.
At its core, No Rest for the Wicked is a strict action RPG with parts like Souls. The game is about exploring, fighting, gathering resources, and strengthening your character. Many of these features have been completely redesigned in The Breach update to make the game more enjoyable and cohesive.
To access the new material, players must create new characters, but they can still use old saves. This choice was made because the game’s main features have been changed a lot. The discovery part has grown with new zones and changes to old ones, adding new secrets to find and tasks to complete.
One of the most significant additions is the Pestilence System, comparable to Diablo’s hell tides, where plague can overtake areas. These pestilence-ridden zones are marked purple on the map and feature different enemy types than usual. As players defeat these enemies, a pestilence bar decreases until it summons a plague boss, a variant of the bosses faced in the main story. Defeating these bosses cleanses the area and rewards substantial loot.
You can increase the difficulty of pestilence areas using special “torn resources” dropped by enemies, creating a high-risk/high-reward system that serves as an excellent endgame activity for farming better gear. Additionally, the number of enemy groups that can take over different zones has grown, making battles more varied.
No Rest for the Wicked’s combat is still strict, but The Breach update makes a lot of changes that make the experience more fun and fair. Gauntlets and sticks are two new types of weapons that have been added. Gauntlets offer swift martial arts attacks, including suplexes and dropkicks, scaling with dexterity like daggers but featuring more powerful ranged rune spells.
Wands provide one-handed spell-casting options that can be paired with shields, scaling with intelligence, and allowing for a more agile spellblade playstyle. The shield-blocking system has been completely reworked, now consuming poise instead of stamina.
This change creates more breathing room for stamina management when blocking, making shield builds more viable as players have more stamina for counterattacks. Weapon scaling has been adjusted to better scale with stats compared to previous versions without breaking game balance.
The overall difficulty remains high, staying true to the game’s challenging nature. The Breach update also introduces four new campaign bosses, nine new plague bosses to test player skills, and two new enemy factions to keep combat encounters fresh and unpredictable.
The update adds a hardcore mode for players seeking even greater challenges. When a hardcore character dies, it reverts to a regular character rather than being permanently deleted, offering a more accessible take on the permadeath concept. The food system has also been overhauled, removing cooldowns after eating but introducing a hunger limit that restricts how much food can be consumed during combat.
This limit can be increased using plague ichor at the watcher NPC. This change makes exploration and healing while fighting regular enemies easier and requires more careful resource management against bosses. No Rest for the Wicked features a distinct visual style that blends detailed environments with a slightly stylized aesthetic.
The Breach update enhances this with two visually distinct new areas: the colorful, sunflower-filled Lowland Meadows and the deep, blight-affected Maran Woods. The pestilence system also transforms familiar areas with a plague-infected visual overlay, adding variety to previously explored zones.
The danger level indicator has been improved to show specific level numbers rather than vague “moderate/dangerous/deadly” descriptions, helping players decide which areas to explore based on their character’s capabilities.
No Rest for the Wicked generally features atmospheric audio that enhances the game’s dark, plague-ridden world. The intricate sound design matches the challenging gameplay. For example, sound cues for enemy strikes help players correctly time their dodges and blocks.
No Rest for the Wicked has changed a lot with The Breach update, which fixes a lot of player complaints and adds a lot more content to the game. With twice as much space to explore, new weapon types, improved battle systems, and the addition of the disease engine for replayability in the ending, Moon Studios has shown that they are committed to keeping the game updated.
Quality of life improvements abound, including better resource management with increased storage capacity, the ability to teleport directly to player houses via whisper stones, shortened project wait times through worker upgrades, and clearer danger level indicators.
The itemization overhaul makes gear progression more rewarding, with items dropping appropriate to the player’s level regardless of the zone. The new enchantment system provides more build flexibility. At $40 during early access (with plans to increase to full price at launch), No Rest for the Wicked offers excellent value for money, especially considering the developers’ vision for cross-platform play and continued support.
While another reset is planned before the 1.0 release, the developers have stated that resets will be the exception rather than the rule in the future. For fans of challenging action RPGs in the vein of Souls games who don’t mind the early access journey, No Rest for the Wicked is worth picking up now.
Those who prefer a more complete experience should wait for the 1.0 release, which includes multiplayer functionality, skill trees, and further combat refinements. Moon Studios has proven its dedication to crafting a unique, challenging action RPG experience that rewards player skill and investment. With The Breach update firmly establishing the foundation for what’s to come, No Rest for the Wicked is one of the most promising early access titles currently available.
