| AI LIMIT | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | DLC & Pre-Order | Review |
| Eirene's Furnace of War DLC Review | |||
Overview
What is AI LIMIT: Eirene's Furnace of War?
The AI LIMIT expansion, Eirene's Furnace of War, brings gameplay enhancements, including reworked combat mechanics and a variety of new equipment, weapons, and spells to diversify combat strategies. This release marks a major milestone for the title, expanding its lore and offering veteran players fresh content to master shortly after the game's initial success.
AI LIMIT: Eirene's Furnace of War features:
⚫︎ New area
⚫︎ New gameplay modes
⚫︎ New gear and materials
⚫︎ Gameplay enhancements
⚫︎ Expanded lore
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about AI LIMIT: Eirene's Furnace of War’s gameplay and story.
| Digital Storefronts | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Steam |
 Epic Games |
 PS |
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| Free | ||||||||
AI LIMIT: Eirene's Furnace of War Review: Minimum Content, Maximum Effect
Welcome Back to Havenswell
AI LIMIT was one of 2025’s most popular soulslikes, without a doubt. Not for any specific reason, mind you: many people are still conflicted about the confusingly many themes used in the story, and the particularly rough animations both in and out of combat, for example. But if I had to point out one thing that made it so appealing, it would be “personality.”
It tried to be whatever it wanted to be, without any sign of shame.
That said, Eirene’s Furnace of War has just been released and it addresses one of the complaints that many people, regardless of whether they loved or hated the game, agreed on: the lack of post-game content beyond New Game+ and achievement clean-ups. In fact, that’s practically the only thing it does deliver, as it can only be accessed after beating the game once.
It also introduces you to Eirene, the game’s last Resplendent Bishop who, unlike her sisters, doesn’t care that you essentially committed mass genocide against her faction. Instead, all she’s concerned about is fighting the Necros, humanity’s nemesis, and so proposes a truce and a deal with the main character.
The DLC itself only adds a modest amount of content to the base game. However, what it lacks in quantity, it makes up for in how that content expands the overall experience. And considering that it’s free, that level of impact makes it one of the best updates AI LIMIT could have received.
Three Modes, Threefold Possibilities
Eirene’s Furnace of War brings with it three new gameplay modes. Essentially, it includes a roguelite, training, and boss rush mode that you can freely access after beating up the lore-accurate angel guarding the area.
The training and boss rush modes are quite similar to each other and only differ in mechanics. As you would expect, the latter will force you to fight against the game’s main bosses sequentially, and you’re rewarded at the end if you manage to survive the gauntlet. Meanwhile, you can fight any boss you want in the former, which essentially makes it an actual training ground for boss rush.
In many ways, these two modes simply serve to streamline the experience of testing different builds against the same or specific bosses.
Its roguelite mode, on the other hand, is an entirely different beast. Just like any proper game of the genre, it forces you to start from zero at the start of every run. Yes, that means it also strips you of your weapon. Fortunately though, it only removes the stats of your armor instead of forcing you into your birthday suit.
Now you can beat up enemies while wearing a maid outfit without having to worry about your defenses!
The result is, for the most part, simply awesome. Combat has always been the best part about AI LIMIT, as it’s a very trimmed down version of the soulslike formula with a number of new additions to make it unique. This mode just adds an element of RNG to it all and puts you under its mercy, with later difficulties adding more difficult opportunity cost choices to the loop. That alone makes every run feel unique, even if there’s heavy repetition between stages.
This is especially true considering that it will force you into weapons and builds you might not be comfortable with playing, serving as an even deeper level of challenge than just relying on luck for the right spells or passives.
Near-Endless Replayability
That said, there’s no doubt that you will come back to the Furnace of War often and for a long, long time. Considering that there’s multiple difficulties to each new mode, it’s practically a guarantee that we’re all going to get slaughtered many, many dozens of times before we’re able to clear everything.
Of course, this goes double for those who’ve already forgotten most of the bosses’ attack patterns after nearly a year since completing the game…
Anyway, this is really the perfect kind of postgame for a soulslike such as AI LIMIT. Not only does it play on the best aspects of the game, it’s also very rewarding in terms of both the experience and the accompanying materials. Primarily, you can obtain new gear by running the roguelite mode, which you can then use on the boss rush and training modes.
While not immediately obvious, that means playing the roguelite is incentivized to have more options to play around and experiment with elsewhere. This includes having more equipment to take with you to a new cycle, which can be very appealing to do after you’ve played enough of the former. However, that may present a problem when trying to go back to the Furnace of War because—
It’s Only Available At Endgame
Due to how the DLC is set to interact with Arissa, as well as the boss rush mode’s general content and the workings of New Game+, access to the Furnace of War is limited to the very end of the game.
How is that a problem? Well, AI LIMIT uses a single save file for your character, you see. So for those who’ve already started a new cycle, you won’t be able to freely swap between the DLC’s content and your NG+ content unless you either clear the latter again or are willing to make backup saves. And if you’ve already started your NG+ before all this, then tough luck. The same can also be said for those who haven’t finished the game in the first place.
I do understand why it’s designed this way, though. Eirene’s lore drop has massive spoilers regarding AI LIMIT’s conclusion, so it really doesn’t make sense for players to be able to access it before then. It’s just that it would be nice if New Game+ players are able to access it regardless, considering that they’ve already witnessed at least one of the game’s endings by that point.
Is AI LIMIT: Eirene's Furnace of War Worth It?
Yes, of Course
Come on, now. This is a free update that adds many, many hours to an already great game that’s shockingly cheap to begin with. What is there not to love?
Sure, you actually need to finish the entire base game just so you can access it, but that’s not an argument against the work done by the DLC at all. It solves AI LIMIT’s previously slim endgame content with just a handful of additional modes. And it does so by making great use of its already great boss fights and efficient combat system.
FAQ
Do you need to finish AI LIMIT to access Eirene’s Furnace of War?
Yes, you do. It’s meant for those who have already cleared the game.
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