Table of Contents
Bard & Instrument Expansion
The Bard Expansion greatly expands the role of instruments on Enigma.
Instruments are no longer simply tools with a limited number of uses. They can now have their own Bard Quality, powerful instrument properties, Slayer bonuses, and other effects that improve the capabilities of dedicated Bards.
The system also introduces Gear Power and Music Resistance, creating greater progression for Bards while allowing powerful creatures to remain appropriately difficult to control.
Bard Instrument Quality
Bard instruments now use their own dedicated Bard Quality system.
| Quality | Description |
|---|---|
| Normal | A standard Bard instrument |
| Exceptional | A well-crafted instrument with improved potential |
| Tuned | A higher quality instrument with additional power |
| Harmonic | A rare and powerful Bard instrument |
| Virtuoso | An exceptionally powerful instrument intended for accomplished Bards |
| Mastercrafted | A special high-end instrument obtained through select rewards and content |
Normal crafting can produce Normal and Exceptional instruments. Higher quality instruments are primarily obtained through loot, rewards, and other special content.
Bard Quality is separate from the normal equipment quality system used by weapons, armor, and other items.
Gear Power
Bard instruments can contribute Gear Power when performing Bard abilities.
Gear Power is determined by:
- Instrument Quality
- Instrument Properties
- Matching Slayer properties
A more powerful instrument can therefore improve a Bard's chances against difficult creatures.
A matching Slayer instrument is especially valuable when performing against creatures belonging to that Slayer group.
Music Resistance
Creatures now have an effective Music Resistance representing how difficult they are to influence through Bard abilities, based largely on the creature's overall strength and health.
This means a normal dungeon creature and a powerful boss are no longer treated as equally difficult simply because the Bard has reached maximum skill. Your Bard skills, instrument, Gear Power, and the creature's Music Resistance all contribute to the final result.
The strongest creatures are intentionally much harder to control through Barding. High Bard skills remain important, but equipment and instrument progression now matter as well.
Instrument Properties
Higher quality Bard instruments can possess special properties that alter or improve Bard abilities.
| Property | Effect |
|---|---|
| Quickstep | Reduces Bard ability recovery time |
| Encore | Can remove the recovery period after a successful performance |
| Carrying Tone | Increases Bard targeting range |
| Wide Chorus | Increases the range of Area Peacemaking |
| Perfect Pitch | Can restore instrument uses over time |
| Steadfast Grip | Can prevent instrument-use loss after failed performances |
| Practiced Ear | Improves Bard skill-gain opportunities |
| Extended Hold | Increases the duration of eligible Bard effects |
| Discordant Echo | Spreads a weaker Discordance effect to nearby related creatures |
| Warlord's Beat | Reduces healing received by Discorded creatures |
| Echo Chamber | Applies weaker Discordance and Energy damage to nearby creatures |
| Cursed Notes | Deals recurring Physical damage to successfully Provoked creatures |
| Bloodfeud | Increases damage dealt between a successfully Provoked pair |
| Siren's Call | Causes creatures to retreat after Peacemaking ends |
| Still Waters | Prevents Spell AoE damage from triggering the normal Peacemaking break |
Different instruments can therefore support very different Bard playstyles.
Peacemaking
Peacemaking benefits from the new instrument progression system and several new instrument properties. Properties such as Wide Chorus, Extended Hold, Siren's Call, and Still Waters can greatly change how Peacemaking is used.
Apex Peacemaking
The most accomplished Bards can gain access to Apex Peacemaking — intended for true master Bards with the required 120.0 / 120.0 Bard skills, providing an additional level of progression beyond ordinary Peacemaking.
Powerful creatures and bosses remain subject to additional restrictions. Bard progression is designed to make Bards stronger without allowing the strongest encounters to be permanently trivialized.
Discordance
Discordance benefits heavily from the new instrument system. Instrument properties can increase its usefulness beyond a single target through effects such as Discordant Echo, Warlord's Beat, and Echo Chamber.
Area Discordance
Bards can gain access to Area Discordance, allowing Discordance to affect multiple nearby creatures. Each creature performs its own resistance check — successfully Discording one creature does not automatically guarantee that every creature nearby will also be affected.
Creature strength and Music Resistance still matter individually when using Area Discordance.
Provocation
Provocation also gains several new possibilities through instrument properties.
Cursed Notes can cause ongoing Physical damage to Provoked creatures, while Bloodfeud increases the damage exchanged between a successfully Provoked pair.
This gives dedicated Provocation Bards additional ways to specialize in turning enemies against one another.
Slayer Instruments
Slayer instruments remain an important part of Barding and now interact directly with Gear Power.
Using the correct Slayer against an appropriate creature can provide a meaningful advantage when attempting Bard abilities against difficult targets. For dedicated Bards, maintaining several specialized instruments can therefore be extremely valuable.
Instrument Improvements
The update also includes several improvements to existing Bard instruments and their underlying systems.
- Instruments now use the dedicated Bard Quality system
- Crafted instruments correctly support Bard Quality
- Existing special and artifact instruments retain their intended properties
- Existing saved instruments remain compatible with the new system
- Bard reward systems have been updated to support the new qualities
- Harp weight has been reduced from 35 stones to 5 stones
Becoming a Master Bard
The Bard Expansion is designed to give musicians something that previously existed only to a limited degree: equipment progression.
Skill remains the foundation of every Bard. But the instrument you carry now matters.
A young Bard can begin with ordinary crafted instruments, while experienced musicians can hunt for better qualities, useful properties, Slayer instruments, and specialized combinations suited to Peacemaking, Discordance, or Provocation.
The better the Bard, the better the instrument, and the better the preparation, the greater the creatures they can hope to overcome.