A group of Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire fans are owed a serenade from the game’s director, Josh Sawyer after they managed to beat the hardest challenge in the game. The Ultimate Challenge was first issued back in 2019, now two years later, the director needs to pay up, in the form of a serenade.
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire is an RPG from developers Obsidian Entertainment, as the sequel to the first Pillars of Eternity. Characters from the first Pillars of Eternity game turn up in the sequel, with players able to carry over the events of their save and influence the second game through those actions. The game takes place in a magical world called Eora, where plates travel by boat to islands and countries to try and save the world before a giant Titan God brings about the end. The game emphasizes player choices and dialogue, as well as which sides the hero chooses.
Back in 2019, Obsidian released an update for the game, adding in an almost impossible challenge to the game. This "Ultimate" challenge was considered so difficult, that the director of the game, Josh Sawyer, promised on Twitter that if 12 people were able to complete the game mode (without using the Priest of Skaen or Blood mage subclass) that he would personally serenade them with a cover of Dolly Parton’s classic "I Will Always Love You." Now that a total of 12 players have managed this feat, it’s time for Sawyer to pay up.
The Ultimate challenge requires the game to be set to maximum difficulty, enabling all God Challenges, forcing the player to fight along, and only having the one save slot that is automatically deleted if the player is killed. Obsidian even offered to memorialize any player that accomplished this feat, offering the first 12 players who managed to beat the Ultimate to have their names engraved on a real plaque in the Obsidian offices. This sounds pretty impossible, but thanks to the efforts of 12 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire players, the plaque has finally been filled. Most of the spots were filled up to this point, with the first player beating the mode just a month after the challenge was issued, but the last player to beat it has only just done so. On March 22 the final player beat the game, with Sawyer tweeting out yesterday that the plaque had been engraved.
Fans of Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire on the subreddit have been looking forward to this moment for years, celebrating the accomplishment online and calling out Sawyer. Now it seems that Sawyer needs to get practicing if he wants to put on a good performance that is. Hopefully, this cover will be made public and not just for the eyes and ears of the 12 legendary players who managed to beat the impossible mode.
Source: Josh Sawyer/Twitter