Surprising nobody, Mordhau's developers, Triternion, revealed that 1 million copies have sold and celebrated with a massive mortar weapon and a new map called Crossroads. The update also contains a few other new weapons that one would expect in the game, along with one that no one expected: a carrot.
Crossroads is quite large and has an objective in the middle for teams to fight over, while the mortar is a new siege engine that can be found in the fort only on Crossroads. Throwable javelins and heavy hand axes are added, with the latter’s blunt side able to be used as a repair hammer to fix structures, adding an entirely new dimension to playing a “support” character that can also dish out damage at only three points to equip.
One thing becomes quite apparent about the Crossroads map, and that is that it looks primed for the use of horses. Players seem to either love or hate horses in the game. The latter tend to be those with tunnel vision who do not see or hear the galloping until it is too late, and their heads have been removed from their bodies. All the better, in that case, to teach players to mind their surroundings.
Now to the carrot. It is not entirely clear why we have received this “weapon.” It is rare to find in the game, deals low damage, and handles like a dagger. That said, it is fully capable of parrying attacks from all sorts of weapons. The only complaint is that the carrot does not become peeled after using it to block and parry. How silly. There must be some achievement attached to this weapon for later. Perhaps killing an enemy with it leads to a special unlock, since it would require mastery of combat, or an opponent that is playing with a latency of 400.
The rest of the update brings quality of life improvements and some balance changes. An important change is that traps can no longer be planted in spawn areas, friendly or enemy. This is a bit of a hot issue, since the ability to place a trap anywhere was quite useful, but understandably, trolls and the general confusion of close-quarters combat, particularly in a spawn area, leads to some frustration with the placement of traps.
Capturing and neutralizing points now gives more points, though this will still probably result in teams fighting everywhere but the objective. Still, the developers could leave a unicorn on the objective to get players to fight near them, and still, some would fight on the road. Such is the nature of control maps.
Finally, as predicted when the kick was buffed against shield users, the kick has been shortened slightly and the shield backpedal has increased in its speed. This will hopefully bring the balance back a little, as those first days after the last update saw so many poor shield bearers being kicked and stunned all too often.
Mordhau is available now on Steam.