In a new message on X, "The Everything App," FromSoftware has revealed the final names and stats of the two additional classes coming in Elden Ring's $5 Tarnished Edition DLC. The Idus Knight looks sick as ever, while the Heavy Knight appears to have gotten the gentlest, most tender of nerfs since we saw their stats leak from a Tarnished Edition playtest last year.

The Heavy Knight will start at level 10, as opposed to eight in the playtest, with their two extra levels shaking out as a plus one to their Faith and Mind stats. Hardly ruinous, and I think HK will still be a new top pick for a very specific niche of builds (Hulk smash), but the change stands out to me all the same.

Due to Elden Ring's one stat point per level system and exponentially increasing cost to level up, it's beneficial for a class to start as low level as possible, avoiding any points lost to "junk" stats not used by your build. Buildcrafters got all in a lather about HK's aggressively min-maxed stats, and now those stats have been ever so slightly less min-maxed.

It's an almost imperceptible change for your average player, but may factor into speed or challenge runs and the like. Otherwise? Heavy Knight = big guy + big sword (of the "curved great" variety) + big armor, and both of those bits of gear are new to the Tarnished Edition.

The Knight of Idus has always been more exciting to me: An agile swordsman class to give the base game Samurai some competition. They start with a scandalously swagged out new armor set, a shield of indeterminate extraction, and the previously Shadow of the Erdtree-exclusive Milady light greatsword, an extremely cool weapon that used to take hours of gameplay to acquire.

Stat-wise, Idus strikes me as a slight upgrade to the Samurai (to the same degree that the Heavy Knight was slightly nerfed): More Faith and Strength, less Arcane, Vigor, and Int, but also a lower starting level of seven.

They also introduce the nation of Idus, which has never before been mentioned in Elden Ring, and will likely be the exclusive domain of the item descriptions for the knight's armor pieces⁠. Never change, FromSoftware. The DLC will be made available on PC the same day as the Tarnished Edition's Switch 2 release: August 28.

Knight of Idus stats

• Level: 7
• Vigor: 10
• Mind: 12
• Endurance: 11
• Strength: 13
• Dexterity: 15
• Intelligence: 8
• Faith: 11
• Arcane: 6

Heavy Knight Stats

• Level: 10
• Vigor: 14
• Mind: 8
• Endurance: 17
• Strength: 15
• Dexterity: 11
• Intelligence: 7
• Faith: 8
• Arcane: 9

Star Wars Zero Company developer Bit Reactor is made up of former XCOM veterans, a series which has a pretty lively modding scene, especially XCOM 2, which supports modding with official development tools. It's even had its fair share of Star Wars mods over the years that completely transport it to a galaxy far, far away. Mod support is one of the reasons XCOM is still holding ground on players' hard drives all these years later.

Despite the success this has brought to Firaxis' series, Bit Reactor has confirmed in a new Discord Q&A that Zero Company won't have official mod capabilities.

"We have a lot of respect for the modding community," says lead producer Caydence Funk, "but there is no official mod support planned for Star Wars Zero Company."

Of course, this could change post-launch if it proves a hit, but the devs have made it clear we're not getting official modding tools at release. It's a shame given all the creative XCOM Star Wars mods willing Zero Company into existence years ago. Plus, it's also one of the most requested features in the game's Discord server, so it's not like there's not an audience. My guess is it's down to simple development priorities.

In a month-old Reddit post made before their hopes were crushed, one fan said that "without mods, [Zero Company] probably won't surpass XCOM 2 in my rotation. But with them it could become my new favorite game." Sorry, bud.

While there won't be official mod support, it's hard to stop those inclined—not that I think that's Bit Reactor's intention, especially since there won't be microtransactions that could potentially be undermined by player creations, as was the case in Firaxis' Marvel's Midnight Suns. I'm sure we'll still see some jerry-rigged creations even without official support.

I'm a sucker for customisation, so any alternative character models and gear would be a plus. Hopefully we'll also see more extensive mods later down the line, like additional encounters or an equivalent of XCOM 2's Long War 2 mod, which overhauls the game with new mechanics across a longer campaign.