Pillars of Eternity gets a turn-based mode in the latest beta update

Obsidian Entertainment has announced a public beta update for Pillars of Eternity 1. It adds an option to toggle turn-based mode for the game's combat system.

Obsidian released the game in 2015, with Paradox Interactive as the publisher. Up until now, the game featured a real-time with pause (RTWP) combat system. A sequel to the game called Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire was released in 2018, also with RTWP. However, Obsidian added a turn-based mode to Deadfire in an update that was released in 2019. This was likely inspired by Owlcat Games' Pathfinder: Kingmaker, which released the same year as Deadfire.

Coming back to PoE 1, Obsidian had announced in April 2025, that it would update Pillars of Eternity 1 to add a turn-based combat mode, and that this would be available later this year. Well, it's not a stable release yet, but the studio has kept its promise by updating the cult-classic game.

While RTWP has its own fan-following, it can become tedious if you have 6 characters in your party, each doing their own thing, targeting different enemies, and potentially getting their butts kicked in the process. It can get confusing in battles where enemies are spread around in an area, often pulling other enemies into the game. I say this as a huge fan of Tyranny, also an Obsidian CRPG, but set in a different universe. Managing 4 characters in Tyranny was significantly easier, and it's a shorter game anyway.

Want to try the new turn based mode in Pillars of Eternity? Open the Steam client on your computer, switch to your Library. Right-click on the game's name and select Properties. Click on Betas on the sidebar, and then on the drop-down menu next to "Beta Participation." Select the Public Beta. Click on the install button and Steam will download the latest beta version. If you already had the game installed, it will download an update for the game. The version number of PoE 1 beta is 3.9.0.88179. Here's the official announcement.

Despite the beta being announced as available for Xbox, it's only available for Xbox Insiders on PC, not on console. Don't ask me why. Anywho, to get into the beta, Open the Xbox Insider Hub app, go to Previews > Pillars of Eternity – Hero Edition and click on Join. After registering for the beta, you will be able to install the Hero Edition and play it. Microsoft says that this applies to users who own Pillars of Eternity, or have access to it via an active Game Pass subscription. Refer to this page for more details.

Pillars of Eternity's latest beta runs fine on Linux, I tested it with Proton-GE. You can't enable turn-based mode from the main menu, it's only available from the in-game menu, or when you start a game. To enable it, press Escape and select Difficulty. Click on "Turn-based mode" on the right side of the screen. There is no option to switch between RTWP and turn-based mode during combat. Obsidian says it is working on a "direct HUD toggle", i.e. a button you can press to switch between the 2 combat modes, without having to navigate the menu.

Note: The game will display a pop-up explaining the mechanics of the real time combat system, even if you have turn-based mode enabled.

 

Once you have enabled turn-based mode, and you enter a battle, you will see a list in the top right corner. The current round sections lists the order of the combatants as they will take part in the battle during the ongoing turn, similarly the next round lists the order in which they will fight on the next turn.

Pillars of Eternity uses Unbound Turns, it is influenced by a character’s overall speed. Obsidian says this improves the value of Real-Time with Pause attributes and mechanics. What does that mean? When battles start, characters with the highest initiative get the first go. If an enemy has a higher initiative, they will start first. Or if one of your characters has the highest initiative.... you get the picture, right? Battles will automatically start in paused mode when it's your turn. Hit the space bar to unpause the game. You can take your time to think about your move. Right-click on an enemy to study it.

Left-click on an enemy for a standard attack, or left-click on a spell/move on your character's bar and target an enemy/ally to cast the spell. Hit End Turn to end the round. You can attack and move. Both mechanics have a counter displayed above the end turn button. Beware of the disengagement penalty when moving away from a melee attacker standing next to you. But this also applies to enemies.

Obsidian says that the update also comes with some other improvements. The game now allows "Smarter Free Actions" such as swapping weapons, drinking potions, or enabling modals. But these are limited to one per turn per type for balance. The game's combat has a faster pacing, and combat lethality has been significantly increased for both enemies and players.

Here are the other changes in the game (quoting the release notes)

General

• Added support to change to the original Pillars of Eternity main menu art by clicking base game and DLC icons.

Visual and Audio

• Fixed characters sometimes being stuck in a running animation during cutscenes.
• The title screen background should no longer appear with a delay.

User Interface and Interaction

• Fixed Player-controlled characters sometimes being unable to attack if any Class Behavior is active.
• Fixed an issue that allowed summoned Concelhaut to be looted after death.
• Fixed cursor changing to the default one while hovering over party members outside of combat.
• Fast mode now can now be enabled without toggling off slow mode first.

I've previously played Pillars of Eternity (about 20 hours), but didn't finish it because of the tedious combat. The update might help people like me. Turn-based combat can be useful for boss encounters and tougher enemies, but seems to take a lot of time when fighting low-level mobs. So we can use RTWP for faster battles, and switch to turn-based when we need to calculate each move.

Earlier this year, Obsidian released Avowed, a first-person/third-person RPG that is set in the same universe as the Pillars games. And now, it has updated Pillars of Eternity 1 with a turn-based mode, ten years after the game was released. Interesting, isn't it? Does this mean we could see Pillars of Eternity 3 in the future? I wouldn't say no to Tyranny 2 either.

On a side note, Steam Deck users can now download games when the console's display is off.

Players who own the game on GOG or Epic Games will have to wait for the beta to end, and a stable update to be released.

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