Today, Blood and Brine, the free expansion for Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter, arrives on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4. This new post-game adventure sends Arlo away from the frozen North to Hardshell Brook, a coastal region packed with 11 quests, 10 new bosses, nine armour sets, new music, and a fishing system with 32 aquatic creatures to discover. You’ll need to finish the main campaign before you can set sail.
Cast off for Hardshell Brook
After everything Arlo has survived across the Ratdom, his next problem sounds almost relaxing: help two shipwrecked sailors build an aquarium. Jaimie and Sam have washed ashore after losing their vessel, and their plan is to fill a new attraction with rare sea life, draw in visitors, and earn enough to repair their ship.
That means somebody has to do the fishing.
Hardshell Brook gives Arlo a very different landscape to explore, with sunlit docks, open water and plenty of unfamiliar faces. You’ll cast your line in different fishing spots and hunt down 32 creatures for the aquarium, gradually turning an empty collection into something much stranger. Fishing gives the adventure a quieter rhythm between battles, but we haven’t forgotten what kind of world this is. Some things under the surface are much happier trying to eat Arlo than being displayed behind glass.
And as the aquarium grows, so do the questions around Jaimie and Sam. Their story about what happened at sea might not be quite as simple as it first appears.
A rougher kind of seaside break
Hardshell Brook may look warmer than the snow-covered Wastes, but it is definitely not safer. Across the expansion’s 11 quests, Arlo will encounter new enemies on land and beneath the waves, along with 10 boss fights designed around fresh attack patterns and hazards.
We also wanted to make the coast feel different in combat, so Blood and Brine introduces ship arena battles that take fights out onto the water. One moment you might be exploring the harbour or checking a fishing spot; the next, you’re on deck dealing with something enormous that has decided your boat looks like lunch.
There are nine new armour sets to collect as well, giving you more options to prepare for these encounters and, just as importantly, more ways to make Arlo look suitably battle-worn for a trip to the seaside.
Indie heroes enter the Ratdom
One of our favourite parts of making Blood and Brine has been working with other independent studios. We’ve always loved seeing how different indie teams build memorable characters and worlds, so we wanted to bring a few of those familiar designs into our hand-drawn medieval setting.
The expansion includes crossover armour inspired by Blasphemous, Cult of the Lamb, Dave the Diver, Death’s Door, Moonlighter, and Beyond Galaxyland. Rather than simply dropping those costumes into the game, our artists redrew and adapted each set so it feels at home on Arlo and inside the Ratdom. Seeing recognisable heroes reinterpreted as armour for a very determined rat has been a lot of fun, and we’re hugely grateful to every team who let us play with their designs.
A thank you to everyone who joined Arlo’s journey
Blood and Brine started as another adventure for Arlo, but it grew into a much bigger addition than we first expected: a new region, new quests and bosses, new music, a new fishing mechanic, and a small celebration of the indie games we admire.
More than anything, it’s our way of saying thank you to everyone who has supported Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter. We hope returning players enjoy discovering what is waiting along the shores of Hardshell Brook, and that anyone who has not yet finished Arlo’s original campaign has one more reason to sharpen their blade.
Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter – Blood and Brine is available today as a free expansion on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4. Complete the main campaign, ready your fishing rod, and prepare to set sail. The waters of the Ratdom are anything but peaceful.
To celebrate the launch, Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter is 60% off on PS5 and PS4 from August 12–26 as part of PlayStation’s Ready, Set, Play promotion.
