Warlord: Awaji Patch Notes

This page is the long changelog for Warlord: Awaji after the 9 September 2026 Steam launch. Darkmatter Games shipped a complete single-player campaign, then posted patch vR101 in the same window because too many new warlords attacked the wrong settlement or paused while the clock crawled. The updates hub is the short map. Stay here for the full bullet list and the demo trail that still explains radar, highlights, bows, and horses.

vR101 does not retune weapon damage, horse charge, or arrow types. If you came here to reshuffle yari versus tachi, open the weapons tier list. If the homestead prompt looks wrong, keep reading.

Patch vR101 — full list

• Moved the player closer to the nearby homestead, to keep the tutorial focused.
• Added a note in the tutorial for the player to confirm they are attacking the correct nearby homestead.
• Lowered the tutorial nearby homestead distance check to 70 meters so the player must get closer to trigger it.
• Increased starting resources slightly to compensate for players overbuilding in the tutorial.
• Removed leftover K and J testing note debug buttons.
• Fixed a tutorial soft lock when you capture the nearby homestead before setting charge and battle mode; those steps are now non-sequential.
• Amended the capture-the-farm string to capture the nearby homestead, so the objective no longer sounds like a second settlement down the road.
• Fixed the pause menu so it does not noticeably pass time while paused.

That is the launch patch. The rest of this page is what those eight lines do on night one, then how older demo notes still explain live buttons.

What vR101 changes in play

Awaji is a heightmap island dotted with farms, shrines, and homesteads that look alike at a jog. The original tutorial string told you to capture the farm. Players charged a nearby cluster that was not the scripted homestead. vR101 pulls the spawn closer, asks you to confirm the correct homestead, and will not fire the objective until you are inside 70 meters. Walk to the marked settlement. The getting started page now matches this flow.

Before vR101, capturing the homestead before you set charge and battle mode could soft-lock the lesson. The live tutorial no longer demands that order. Capture first if the fight is already on you. Set charge and battle mode when you can breathe. The controls page still explains those modes; the patch only stops the script from trapping you between them.

Starting resources went up slightly because players spent the first hour laying extra tents, then starved the watch. That is not permission to build a town. Pitch the smallest camp that sleeps, feeds, and guards, then read camp building before you spend the extra stock. K and J were leftover testing note debug buttons. They are gone. If a launch-week guide tells you to tap them, the guide is older than vR101.

The pause menu was leaking world time. Night raids, food, and watch rotations could crawl forward while you read a formation screen. vR101 holds the clock. Open pause when you need to think. If time still ticks, Steam has not delivered the patch yet. Update, then blame the army layout rather than a running clock.

Demo-era context (not the current download)

Launch players still ask where radar came from, why bodies can glow blue or red, why a spear can snap, and when horses arrived. Those answers live in demo notes. The demo is not the current game. Do not hunt for Demo 1.1 as if it were a live branch.

Demo 1.1 added radar so you could tell who was in front of you and who was behind you on a busy road. The live campaign still expects you to read that disc. Blue marks allies. Red marks enemies. Period armor does not come with team jerseys. Bind it, then keep combat in mind: looking at the person you intend to hit still matters more than spinning the camera.

The Steam Next Fest build added optional character highlights (blue and red silhouettes) with a toggle, because radar alone was not enough when two oyoroi sets occupied the same ditch. Turn highlights on until you can read sashimono at a glance. The same build added a level 13 armor color so demo progression had somewhere to land, and a chance for spears and naginata to break instead of drop when stamina is gone. That last rule still changes how you grade polearms on the weapons list. Reach is excellent until the shaft dies in your hands.

Demo 2.0 is why launch players are not stuck in melee-only war. It added horses and mounted AI, bows and ranged AI, five arrow types with ammunition switching, a yabusame (horseback archery) track, a small warrior’s mansion as a taste of interiors, and physics optimizations aimed at large battles. The live bow and cavalry guide is the player-facing version of that kit.

Those physics notes still matter on the system requirements page. A homestead tutorial is cheap. A shrine fight with melee, bows, and horses is not. vR101 does not add a new island. Steam still lists the game as single-player, around $24.99 with a short introductory discount, plus a soundtrack DLC on the Steam store. After you apply the patch, finish the nearby homestead, then open conquest or the walkthrough only when the tutorial is done.