My dear players!

Battle for Elements 1.60 has been released! This is a new base version so you will have to start over from the scratch as your previous characters will not be compatible with the new version due to basic changes. Please see the full list of changes below.

Remember that is base version, not an update, so you no need any previous versions to install version 1.60. You may get 1.60 here.

Global changes:
 :!: Drop system was reworked. Now you will gain items with more appropriate item levels.
 :!: Stat requirements on items were reworked heavily. Really heavily. Now you need to invest seriously into strength, dexterity and energy to equip powerful weapons. For example: Matriarchal Pike requires 1083 points of strength and 1624 points of dexterity. Elder Staff requires 904 points of strength, 452 points of dexterity, and 1355 points of energy (yes, energy). Additionally, you need to keep an eye on item soul requirements too as weapon souls carry over approx. 25% of item stats requirements now. For example: you extract a soul from a War Axe (this weapon requires 320 strength) and you'll get an item soul with "+80 to Strength Requirements" property that will add up to the stats requirements of an item you insert this soul to.

Launcher changes:
- There is new version of launcher by Alf. Please, test it.

Gameplay features:
- 2 new sets: Fancy Dress (player' fun set by IGran) and Want to be a Shooter (player' fun set by lordvampir).
- New killcounter was added. Thanks to dav92 from PhrozenKeep. Now the counter will be increased after each kill made by you, your hireling or your minions.

Graphics features:
- New game select sreen by Ice_instinct.
- New elemental fragments by k0r3l1k.

Balance:
- Catacombs (Act 1) are big now again.
- Containers were revisited. Now you can get more appropriate items from it, normal items from civilian containers, exceptional items from scientist containers, and elite items from military containers. Penalties for wrong opening process were changed to Luck -10, -30, and -50 respecively. Also, the items for scientist containers correct opening process were changed too, please, examine these containers carefully.
- "+5 to Summon Resist" was removed from Wisdom Crossroads as useless.
- Dream in Steam, Melt in Plasma, Live in Clouds sets: elemental masteries on rings are bonuses for 4 set items now instead of 3.
- You can reach 7 modifiers on Ring of All Wonders instead of 5.
- Evil urns were removed from Kurasts.
- Crafted items now get additional required level based on following formulae: ilvl of the item increases by 1 + the number of rare affixes.
- Chances to obtain Legendary items are greatly increased!
- "Favorite Talisman + 10 Synapses" recipe bonus was changed from "+20 to Mana" to "+5 to Energy".

Bug fixes:
- Buckler Balancer can be used with all shields (including paladin shields and necromancer heads) now.
- Bug with possible multiply drop of Gambler Dice from Griswold.
- Bug with game crash on item which was cubed with Andariel blood.
- Wrong description on items which was cubed with act bosses blood.
- Mephisto blood now can be dropped.
- All act bosses blood now give proper modifiers to weapon.
- Blade Shield and Burst of Speed skills from Veil of Steel, Head Hunter's Glory and Spike Thorn unique items work now.
- Mimics now can be spawned in Moo Moo Farm.
- No more "Chance to Cast Chain Lightning on attack" modifier on rings and amulets.
- Throwing knives, throwing axes, javelins, pilums, short spears, balanced knives, balanced axes, glaives, throwing spears now can't be sold by vendors.
- Prayer now have correct description.
- Broken Act1 hireling skills were fixed.
- Bug where you can't insert throwing weapon soul in throwing weapon was fixed.
How to install:
 
Do the following two steps only if you have any older BFE versions installed:

1. Remove all previous versions of BFE completely, while retaining the default Diablo II program files/folder.  Note:  pre-1.50 saved characters and shared stash are not transferable.

2. Ensure that the existing _LOD_HC_SharedStashSave_.sss and _LOD_SharedStashSave.sss files have been removed from the ./Save/BFE/ folder.

The following step is required:  

3. Run BFE1.60setup.exe and follow the installation instructions.

P.S. Please, read documentation in "Knowledge Base" folder !!!