This creation adds a unique gameplay identity to the Va’ruun painblade revolving around poisoning and debuffing enemies over time. – AmBoandlkramerSeiLaster

Main Features

• Custom upgrade slots for the painblade extending core weapon gameplay (attacking, blocking and power attacking)
• 10 new unlockable skins for the painblade ranging from a worn, rusted appearance to a regal golden finish
• 2 unique legendary modifications, each with their own gameplay twists
• New weapon quality system with removable item flaws
• Fully integrated into the game world and unlockable by normal game progression (including the Shattered Space DLC if installed)

Detailed Features

Painblade gameplay: The painblade is a powerful melee weapon that can be used to strategically poison enemies, making them slowly lose health, reducing their speed and weapon accuracy. At higher upgrade tiers poison damage can be extended to cover a greater area unleashing toxic gas clouds, but beware you can also poison yourself if too careless. This can be avoided by upgrading the block slot of your weapon and blocking poisonous gas at the right instance. Additionally, injectors can be used to cure poisoning. Once poisoned, enemies are weakened and can be disarmed by upgrading your power attack slot. Toxic gas mines now also uses the new poison system.

Painblade modifications: The default modification system at the weapon workbench has been replaced by a custom one that is more focused on actual gameplay elements, such as adding interesting bonuses for attacking and blocking. Higher quality tiers and unique legendary effects need to be unlocked by progressing the game and using the research lab.

Research: New research projects were added that unlock weapon modifications and skins, but only the first 3 upgrade tiers are readily available. Tier 4, 5 and especially skins need to be unlocked first by either finding research notes or carrying rare painblade variants to the research lab making exploration and looting a more rewarding experience. Research notes can be found as loot at research sites or obtained from Va'ruun zealots (see the unlock guide below for more details). Additionally, completed research projects are hidden at the research lab to not clutter the UI. The hidden projects can still be viewed in the database menu.

Weapon quality: Random item quality elements and default legendary modifiers were completely removed from the painblade. Instead the item quality is determined by weapon flaws. Each painblade has the chance to carry a major and a minor flaw that result in slight stat debuffs. These flaws can be removed at the weapon workbench if you have the required skills. A common painblade carries both a major and a minor flaw, while rare painblades carry only one of these and epic painblades are completely flawless. Legendary painblades are now really unique items with their own skins and custom modifications. There are 2 legendary painblades that can both be found during the Constellation story arc, “The Last Priest”, which was already present in the main game, and a new one added by this creation. If you want to know where exactly to find them, see the unlock guide below.

Translations

The creation is available in English and German. All other languages default to the English translation.

Requirements

The Free Lanes update is required and must be activated (SFBGS00D.esm).

Unlock Guide (includes gameplay and story spoilers)

The legendary painblade “Remnants Of A Better Past” is used by Guardian Fionn at the end of the main story. On death he has a random chance to drop the weapon and/or a book with some weapon lore while disintegrating. The weapon allows to consume playing cards found throughout the game world by sneaking while blocking to greatly improve one’s defensive capabilities for a short period of time.

“The Last Priest” is awarded by the Hunter after completing his personal quest. Killing lifeforms with it will summon gravitational anomalies that can be activated by walking into them and temporarily improve the starborn power regeneration similar to quantum essences.

Both “Remnants Of A Better Past” and “The Last Priest” can be researched by carrying them in your inventory while interacting with the research lab.

To unlock the unique Nebula skin all you need to do is join the Constellation, then the respective research project will appear at the research lab.

Weapon modification tiers 4, 5 and most skins are hidden at the start of the game. The according research projects are unlocked by finding rare painblade variants that carry respective modifications or skins and having them in your inventory while interacting with the research lab. However, these painblade variants are quite rare (drop chances per painblade: Tier 2 ≈ 20 %, Tier 3 ≈ 11 %, Tier 4 ≈ 7 % and Tier 5 ≈ 2 %). Alternatively, research notes can unlock the respective projects. These are mostly dropped by Va'ruun zealots (roughly 1 in 30 enemies) or rarely found as boss loot at research sites. Some research notes require other painblade related research projects to be completed first, for example a tier 4 research note will not drop until the respective tier 3 research has been completed.

Acknowledgment

Special thanks to ambientCG, cgbookcase and 3DTextures for providing free and open texture repositories.