Monster Slayers - a Deck Building Roguelike

I was caught in the groove and can’t remember! If that helps, I had a lightning spell and a frozen spell that were coming from gears (and my hand was filling up with frozen cards, as is obvious on the capture ;)

Really looking forward to this as, thus far, runs during which I ran into the Holy Upgrade Alter have been clearly overpowered, while the others felt underpowered.

That’s why I was asking. It’s hard to tell what the blessings mean. What does adding 1 weakness to all enemies really mean, for example? There’s nothing there to explain context or what “weakness” is. It just seems that what you have to give up is a lot unless what you get is really good and in most cases it’s hard for me to judge so I just pass on it.

Thank you!

Ooh, a way to spend gold on upgrades! I like that! I had a paladin end up with something like 400 gold and nothing worth buying. Sad!

Tooltips! In the battle screen, everything is pretty clearly explained. Weakness is a value that simultaneously decreases damage dealt and increases damage received.

-Tom

Oh, I’m rebalancing the Companion abilities too, to reduce the power level between Mage and Paladin, for example. Full HP restoration is sooooo much better than a one turn weakness to elements… sometimes I want to go back in time to my pre-release self, give him a good shake and say “WHAT THE FISH WERE YOU THINKING BRO”

Also, the new altar ability: “up to five random upgradeable cards in your deck gain a level”

Thanks Tom. Do you know how much though? Does adding 1 to enemy weakness mean that you do a flat 1 extra damage and take 1 less damage? If so, it still doesn’t sound like such a good deal if (for example) you lose AP to get it.

Thanks for doing that. I haven’t bothered to level my mage companion for just that reason.

@Coldsteel; Yes, Weakened 1 on an enemy only reduces Physical damage taken by 1 and increases Physical damage dealt by 1. Some combinations of the altar rewards are not really a good deal, the aim is to have you weigh if it fits your deck. Weakened is especially powerful if you have a lot of Physical Damage cards.

Maybe it’s just the classes I have been playing but the only time I have ever regretted turning AP into an altar reward was on my ranger before I had gotten any AP upgrades. Some classes will want more than starting AP but it’s generally been my experience you’ll get more opportunities to get more than I have actually needed ever.

v1.0.6 has been set to live. The major changes are listed below:

  • Discrete volume control for sound and music! Now you can change the volume in 10% increments
  • Merchants now offer Delete/Upgrade services for a fee. The more you use the service, the more expensive it becomes!
  • Many cards given additional levels and rebalanced
  • Some Companion abilities changed and rebalanced
  • Fixed Legendary Mode item duplication bug
  • Fixed Level Up/Merchant additional card offer bug

Also, the game now checks if you have collected all dropped items before ending the level.

Those are some impressive, prompt updates!

I haven’t felt the desire to try this yet, but I showed my wife the game as soon as it hit the forum here and that is all I see her playing now. She is loving it so far.

Keep a lookout for an item that does damage to the enemy per point blocked.

Weakened 1 is not really worth much if you look at what enemies can do in the later two quests.

Is there any way to view one’s equipped items while choosing a level-up reward?

Patch Notes:

Oops already posted

A pet peeve of mine in game design is when one’s asked to make a decision, yet isn’t given access to the information one needs to make an informed decision. This game is guilty of that.

That’s fair. Nerdook has been very responsive to feedback. I know on the steam forums, it was brought up that the mulligan buttons were covering info at certain resolutions, but can’t recall if that has been addressed yet (and haven’t played the last couple of patches).

Okay, this is super fun. Some annoyances to be sure, and the balance feels off, but super fun nonetheless.

Barbarian is a really fun class. Glory Kill is a wonderful mechanic.

Feedback:

  1. I have no idea what items are dropped between runs. Clarification would be lovely.
  2. Is there a way to move items between equipped and backpack during a run? There should be IMO.
  3. Some mechanics are really fun for the player but godawful frustrating when enemies use them.
    ** Specifically: Junking up my deck with Penance just sucks.
    ** Super-combo turns feel incredibly unfair when the enemy does them. Chaining a bunch of RNG on me with no chance to react or mitigate isn’t any fun at all.
  4. I would love just a little more control over thinning my deck. I’d probably try a limited deckbuilder pre-run first, and tie it into the fame unlocks. Something along the lines of picking 15 of 20 cards after whatever you think the onboarding period should be. Hard to make interesting choices that aren’t straight up obvious upgrades here, though, and feature creep for sure.
  5. I would vastly prefer consumables to be a between-rooms thing instead of cards in my deck. I often don’t really want healing potions, because they’re so often dead draws. Alternatively, make them cycle when double-right-click discarded. Or both.
  6. I would love, love, love a simple combat log. Hide it behind a button - I don’t think it needs to be readable from the main screen - but there are always a couple turns each run that I want to go back and look at what the hell the enemy just did and how the mechanics played out. Also, put that button on the “yer dead” screen so you can look at what killed you if you want.
  7. Seriously, this is really fun. I really like the core design, and it’s got a really good and smooth gameplay loop and player-headspace balance. Nice work @nerdook!
  8. e: Silly and minor, but I’d love to have access to the tables you use to generate names.
  1. new items should be highlighted in Orange.
  2. nope, can’t equip in dungeon. It’s frequently requested, but Nerdook isn’t sure it is something he wants to implement
  3. not sure exactly what you mean here. Starting decks are always the same, save a few upgrades in the passive tree. There are more ways to remove cards from your deck in the newest patch
  4. agreed. I have requested this too
  1. I believe he wants the ability to customize a starting deck before entering the dungeon. That’d be pretty neat but potentially really unbalancing.

What does Glory Kill mean?

  1. Right, but don’t you drop some of your items when you die? Is it just equipped items? Maybe I’m missing something, but it’s unclear to me.
  2. And that’s fair, if he thinks it just adds another lame decision point that takes away from the coffee breakness of the run. I just find myself not really ever picking items in chests or merchants because I already have stuff equipped. Maybe there’s a thematic thing about sending stuff to camp instead of carrying it in your backpack that would resolve that for me?
  3. Yeah like I said, feature creep. That’s probably the suggestion would involve the most work. And it’s pretty blue-sky and ill-defined as I wrote it, for sure. More of a thought than an actual Serious Suggestion.

Glory Kill is a card. 2AP | Support | If the enemy’s HP is 15 or less, kill it immediately and get 10 Fame and 25 Health.