Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon Free DLC 4 – Challenge Mode is now available alongside Patch 1.22

04.05.2026 by Ray Dalio

Awaken Realms and Questline have just released a free update for Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon. It includes a new Challenge Mode, plus improvements to gameplay and overall quality of life for players.

The latest update is now available on PC, and you can add the new downloadable content to your game library here. For players on other platforms, the Challenge Mode has been added to the main game with the update. Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is currently available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Steam).

Here are the complete patch notes for update 1.2.2, along with new screenshots and additional information from Awaken Realms and Questline.

Hey everyone!

It’s been a couple of busy weeks, and we’re excited to share more improvements to make your Tainted Grail experience even better!

First, we want to thank you all for the incredible response to our free DLC, Merlin’s Tomb! We’re thrilled to see you’re enjoying it – the Steam reviews are currently at 98%, which is fantastic. It seems like even the corrupted Sage couldn’t stop you from having fun, and that’s what’s most important! 😀

Okay, so I’ve noticed something about gamers – we can be a little… different when it comes to what we enjoy! Honestly, a lot of us actually like games that are brutally hard. It sounds crazy, but the more challenging a game is, the more fun it can be for some of us. And that’s what we’re tackling here – that desire to really be tested!

Our fourth free DLC, the Challenge Mode, is now out!

Challenge Mode is a new way to play for players who want a really difficult and unpredictable experience. As you improve your character, you’ll also choose drawbacks that significantly increase the game’s difficulty. It’s similar to a “roguelike” game – the more powerful you become, the tougher the challenges will be. Be careful, and get ready for a serious test of your skills!

Let’s be real: Challenge Mode is incredibly difficult. Expect to struggle, get frustrated, and die a lot. The game is meant to push you to your limits, and that’s intentional.

Now, let’s give you some more details on how all of this works!

Challenge Mode is a new difficulty level you can select when beginning a fresh game. To access it, you must start a new save file at the beginning of Act 1, after the prologue. Once you choose Challenge Mode, you won’t be able to change the difficulty later.

After you start your Challenge Mode run:

As previously noted, start with Act 1, skipping the introductory section. You’ll receive some basic equipment to get you started, suitable for different ways of playing.

you must select a new debuff at the start of the game and at the beginning of each subsequent Act;

Starting at level 2, you’ll get a new negative effect each time you use a campfire, open your inventory, craft something, or access your storage – whichever of those you do first.

The game features 70 different debuffs, all designed to thoroughly frustrate you! (Imagine an evil laugh here.)

Take a look at some of them:

Completing New Game Plus 3 on Challenge Mode will earn you a unique badge. But after that, the difficulty keeps increasing with each subsequent New Game Plus (NG+4, NG+5, and so on).

You can view a scoreboard by pressing the “I” key while playing! Just be aware that using cheats will mark your score with a “Cheater” label for this game save.

Hopefully, that gave you a good preview! If you want to truly understand the difficulties of Challenge Mode, we encourage you to experience it firsthand in Avalon!

So excited about this new mode! I’m hoping we can all have a blast, and even though things will get tough, let’s try to make the least bad decisions we can. Bring on the challenges – let’s really test our skills and show everyone how good we are at Tainted Grail!

Here’s a funny story about how Challenge Mode was created! Two of our most dedicated (and mischievous!) players, Woe and Daena, kept finding ways to overcome even our toughest game ideas. They were masters at ‘breaking’ the game, often with surprisingly simple tools like shovels and brooms! We jokingly vowed to create a truly difficult mode just for them, and that’s exactly how Challenge Mode came to be.

They beta-tested this mode themselves, and… it seems like we won. 😈

Now you know who to blame.

Patch notes 1.22

We’re releasing patch 1.22 for the game, alongside the new challenge mode! This update includes the usual bug fixes and improvements, plus some changes to gameplay and quality-of-life features. You can find the details below.

Gameplay

Added Broc Meala Basket model. It is now available in Broc’s shop when it refreshes.

The horse should now have smooth animations at high framerate.

Sarras skillpoints are now awarded every NG+ (this should be retroactive).

Fixed multiple “On Parry do X” talents and items cancelling each other out.

Increased Duelist Sword Physical Damage gain 0% > 2%.

Reduced the duration of TPP parry animations to match FPP.

Reduced camera shakes during TPP shield parry animations.

Fixed bug causing frozen status to break some NPCs’ death animations.

Vampiric Riposte now works with Duelist Sword.

The wyrdstalker is now a lower tier on his first combat appearance (statuses work on this one).

We need to fix a bug where temporary effects, like damage over time or applying debuffs, don’t happen immediately. Instead, they delay and then all activate at the same time a few seconds later.

Quests

Fixed the disappearing of NPC’s in the Dreaming before their quests were complete (Theud Act 3)

Fixed looping dialogue with Vrell, as well as missing rewards in the Silent Burden quest.

Now you can talk to Vati and Olwen about One-Eye.

Fixed dialogue duplication with Brother Ismat when discussing Liliana’s books.

Fixed flow issues with Vrell during the progression of her personal quests.

Fixed dialogue duplication with Barlaam when asking about Glyrna.

A long-standing bug where NPCs would stay in a downed state but could be talked to should be fixed

Fixed an issue with the Blade In The Shadows quest where you found

The flow of the “Wayward Son” quest has been fixed. The objective text no longer spoils the ending.

We fixed a bug in New Game Plus where players could incorrectly complete the ‘Call of the Wintermoon’ quest by using an item carried over from a previous game. This prevented proper quest progression.

Fixed an issue with Rueko’s positioning in portal interaction colliders.

We’ve resolved a few small issues that appeared during conversations with Ludger in the Hollow Blessings quest. You can now find Ludger on the upper level of the Red Priests’ Quarters.

Fixed when Ulloriaq could get stuck locking the player in conversation.

A variety of smaller improvements.

Fixed an issue that caused players who visited exactly 4 tombs to not get the Merlin’s Tomb quest.

World

Fixed an issue where Alisa could sometimes become stuck on the bed in the Seacoast Manor.

Audio

Added ghosts’ sound effects in Sagremor Castle.

Reworked audio for Crystal Crawler, Frostgrot Snail, Wight, Dryads.

Added missing audio in Merlin’s Thorn, Ravencrest Executioner, and Frostbitten Sword.

Enhanced sound effects’ bass clarity in the mix.

We’re currently adjusting the volume levels of all NPC dialogue to create a more consistent and balanced experience throughout the game.

Improved arrow swish sound effect.

Improved arrow hit flesh sound effect.

Flying arrow sound is now dependent on the strength of the drawn bow.

Fixed an issue causing bonfire SFX to be muted.

Fixed an issue causing wrong SFX to be played when maxing out the skill in the skill tree.

Fixed an issue causing wrong SFX to be played when spending last skill point.

UI

Resolved an issue where item set bonuses would disappear when items were stored in a container or dropped on the ground.

Added a restart requirement after changing the Compact Widescreen setting.

We fixed a bug that prevented the quest tracker from updating properly after you collected the last item needed to complete a step.

Fixed an issue where the Spyglass could not be used again after interacting with the Quick Wheel.

Fixed an issue where accepting rebinding keybind with mouse could start editing other keybind.

Misc

Fixed the game not starting up correctly if you have not played the game since early access.

[XBOX] Fixed DLC detection resulting in DLC missing and locked saves.

Added new setting that allows inverting horizontal camera input.

Weapons: Star Catcher & Crescent Halberd – custom VFX on critical attack.

Fix: hero was not equipping weapons after pressing button responsible for Bow’s Zoom action.

Fix: after rebinding Block action, Bow’s Zoom action was still bound to the previous key.

Fix: icon in spyglass tutorial was not updated after rebinding Attack action.

Hey, so I found a weird bug where if I tried playing with both a controller and my mouse at the same time, all the little icons showing what buttons do would vanish. The developers just fixed that, so now they should stay visible even if I switch between controller and mouse!

Fixed missing drop models of a couple of items.

We’ve made some minor adjustments to how weapons and gear are displayed to fix an issue where they would sometimes disappear when viewed from specific angles.

Fixed bonfire availability in NG+ prologue.

Sanctuary of Sarras

It was possible to encounter a softlock during the dialogue with Moe after choosing the option to

. The bug has been fixed.

Fixed the dialogue flow with Nautilume

Added audio to the female Drowned Knight.

That’s it for today!

We think you’ll really enjoy the new, free Challenge Mode DLC – it’s going to be tough, but in a good way! Now get out there and dominate!

We’d love for you to share your leaderboards with other players! It’s always more fun – and a little less painful – when you tackle challenges together.

Take care, and thank you for all the support up to this day!

Cheers,
Awaken Realms / Questline

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2026-05-04 11:03