Long Read

Probe, but with a bow.

Long Read is a small passive skill for Outward Definitive Edition. Once you know it, the Speedster skill Probe works with a bow in your main hand: instead of a melee jab you draw and loose a probing arrow. It builds Alert on hit and climbs Probe's usual ladder (Probe, Bait, Taunt, Mark, Flourish) with the same numbers as the melee version. Melee Probe is left exactly as it was.

What the probing arrow does

• Bow draw and release animation, one arrow consumed, a real projectile from whatever bow you're holding (bow damage plus arrow damage, like any bow skill).
• 0.5x damage and 0.15x impact at Alert 0 to 3, 1.25x damage with full impact at Alert 4. Same as melee Probe.
• +1 Alert on you per hit. Taunt inflicts Confusion, Mark inflicts Pain, the other stages inflict nothing.
• Probe's stamina cost and cooldown are untouched; the draw animation is what sets the pace.
• Hunter's Eye lock-on range applies, same as any bow shot.
• Swap weapons mid-fight and your Alert count carries over; the next Probe follows whatever you're holding.
• Off-hand items (pistol, chakram, lantern, shield, lexicon) don't matter.
• Probe's requirement line now reads "Required: Melee Weapon, or Bow with Long Read."

Learning it

Talk to Lawrence Dakers, Hunter in the Harmattan central market and ask to train with him. He'll tell you what he wants: you need to know Probe (Serge Battleborn, in the same market) and Hunter's Eye (Ture, in Berg), and bring 50 silver. Come back with all three and a new answer appears. Say it, the screen goes dark for a moment, and you walk away knowing Long Read. It's the same kind of lesson Robyn Garnet gives for Haunt Hex. His shop and quest are unchanged, and the option goes away once you've learned the skill.

If you'd rather not touch Lawrence, set Trainer = Odette in the config and his sister Odette Dakers, Tracker stands next to him and teaches it instead. She's a SideLoader character, so she stands still rather than using the market idle animations.

Install

Needs Outward Definitive Edition on the Steam default-mono beta branch (the one BepInEx mods use), plus:

• BepInExPack_Outward 5.4.19 or newer
• SideLoader 3.8.4 or newer

Use r2modman or Thunderstore Mod Manager. For a manual install, make BepInEx/plugins/LongRead/ and copy the contents of the zip's plugins/ folder into it, so you end up with BepInEx/plugins/LongRead/LongRead.dll and BepInEx/plugins/LongRead/SideLoader/manifest.txt. Leave the manifest.json, README and icon out.

Config

BepInEx/config/djk.longread.cfg appears after the first run. Changes apply on the next game start.

Item IDs

This mod reserves item IDs 2317000 to 2317099. Long Read itself is 2317000. The only vanilla item it touches is Probe (8205422), which gets one extra bow-only effect set and the new requirement line.

Known limitations

• Co-op is untested. Everyone should run the mod; a player without it sees the bow animation but no arrow, no damage and no Alert change.
• Probe's description is shown in English in every language while the mod is installed, and its name stays in whatever language the game started in (SideLoader pins both when a vanilla item is edited).
• SideLoader's in-game Hot Reload isn't supported for this pack; restart the game instead.
• Removing the mod is safe. A save that already learned Long Read loads fine, the skill is just gone and Probe is back to vanilla. You may see one log line about the missing item on the first load.

Building from source

dotnet build at the repository root builds the plugin and assembles the Thunderstore package under build/. The build compiles against the game's own assemblies; pass -p:OutwardPath="..." if your Definitive Edition folder isn't in the default Steam location.