No Rest for the Wicked’s Equipment Durability is a Double-Edged Sword

Moon Studios’ No Rest for the Wicked is currently making the rounds in early access as one of the year’s most anticipated ARPGs. It comes as no surprise given the hype surrounding No Rest for the Wicked‘s initial reveal at The Game Awards 2023 and the pedigree of its developer, the team behind the excellent Ori games. Moon Studios is already setting a high bar for the game’s continued development as it rolls out regular hotfixes and responds to player feedback, acknowledging areas where the game can and will improve over the coming months. One of the more common gripes among players is No Rest for the Wicked‘s implementation of an equipment durability system.

Death is a regular occurrence in No Rest for the Wicked, to the point where it is baked into the game’s systems fundamentally. Players can expect to find plenty of loot at varying levels of rarity like in other ARPGs, but each death incurs a penalty on any equipped gear that results in its gradual deterioration, with broken equipment eventually becoming unusable. It makes sense for a game with Soulslike elements to incorporate some kind of penalty for death, but the current version of No Rest for the Wicked‘s equipment durability system is arguably in need of some tweaks.

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Equipment Durability is No Rest for the Wicked’s Trade-Off for Experience Penalty Upon Death

Though it’s not a Soulslike per se, No Rest for the Wicked is much more challenging than what one would find on offer in other ARPGs. In particular, combat is much slower-paced and methodical, with the weight of each swing and careful stamina management considerations to make in every nail-biting encounter. Ultimately, death is a fairly common occurrence in No Rest for the Wicked, but the game doesn’t incur a penalty on the player in the form of lost experience points similar to FromSoftware’s Soulsborne games or other Soulslikes.

Instead, the primary penalty for dying is loss of equipment durability. Degrading equipment places a bit of pressure on the player to observe enemy movements and get comfortable with No Rest for the Wicked‘s parry mechanic, especially with the hefty price tag attached to the act of repairing equipment at a forge. Though it can be tedious to need to repair gear that’s essential to a character build every few deaths, the trade-off is that players never lose any of their accrued progress toward making their character stronger and more capable in battle.

Equipment Durability Needs Some Adjustments if it’s Here to Stay in No Rest for the Wicked

In place of any other significant penalty for the common occurrence of dying in No Rest for the Wicked, it’s safe to assume that degrading equipment is here to stay. That said, if the system finds its way into the 1.0 release of the game, it needs some balancing and adjustment during the early access window to bring it more in line with the rest of the game.

Further, the rate at which equipment degrades is something that seems to be a sticking point with many players, with equipment becoming in danger of breaking after just a handful of deaths. Equipment arguably needs a much slower degradation curve for the balance of the system to feel more in line with the rest of the game. Players will pick up new No Rest for the Wicked gear regularly, but with an upgrade and refinement system in place for favorite pieces essential to a build, it makes more sense not to punish players for hanging on to specific armaments.

No Rest for the Wicked

From Moon Studios, creators of the Ori franchise, is an ARPG-style game called No Rest for the Wicked. The plague Pestilence has swept over the land and King Harol has died, leaving the land in turmoil. Players become a Cerim, a member of a group of holy warriors sworn to take up arms against Pestilence and cleanse the land. 

Developer(s)

Moon Studios

Genre(s)

Action RPG

Number of Players

1-4