Challenge Mode starts from a clean save

Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon added its fourth free DLC, Challenge Mode, on April 30. The mode is not a small toggle. It only works when starting a brand-new playthrough from Act 1, skips the prologue, and cannot be reverted once selected.

The rule set is built around stacking pressure. Players choose a debuff at the start of the run, another at the beginning of each later Act, and one more every two levels when they hit systems like campfires, inventory, crafting, or stash access. Awaken Realms says the pool holds 70 unique debuffs. Challenge Mode also adds a dedicated scoreboard, and clearing NG+3 awards a special badge while difficulty keeps scaling past that.

Patch 1.22 hits combat, quests, and saves

Horse animations are smoothed out at high framerate.
Several parry-related talents and items no longer cancel each other out.
Over-time effects such as debuff application and damage should stop batching late.
Patch 1.22 also fixes quest flow, UI issues, and an Xbox DLC detection problem that could leave DLC missing and saves locked.

This update is doing two jobs at once. The free DLC gives returning players a harsher ruleset to learn, but the patch notes spend just as much time on reliability fixes that affect ordinary playthroughs. That usually tells you whether a studio is treating a mode drop as a side event or as part of a broader maintenance push.

The Reddit thread in r/pcgaming reached 152 points and 28 comments at crawl time. The discussion leaned toward how punishing the new mode looks and whether the long fix list is enough to pull returning players back in right now.

Source: Steam news · Reddit thread

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Tainted Grail adds free Challenge Mode with 70 debuffs as patch 1.22 fixes saves and combat bugs