Each level consists of a grid of encounter nodes and it randomly generates the type of encounter in each node, and I think it may also randomize the layout. It also randomizes which levels you can choose between at each stage, I think which companions are available, what loot you get, what merchants are selling, etc. Makes each run quite different even with the same class. So far, for example, I had one rogue run that hit an altar that upgraded every upgradable card in my entire deck at once at the frankly minor cost of a couple of useless cards in the deck (which I proceeded to delete with delete rewards) and was intermittently flamestriking people with a card from my equipment, while rocking a once-every-few-battles heal from my druid buddy Mooselord. My next rogue run got a level V attack card straight off the bat so I won some early encounters just by getting that in my opening hand and one-shotting them with 25+ damage. He also exchanged healing on every card play (which is tremendous for rogues, who play a LOT of cards) for the two useless Penance cards (except less useless now because they’re still a card and thus 1 HP). And my third rogue also got healing on every card but at the cost of slower companion recharge (and I wasn’t using them that much anyway). And he managed to get an Exploding Palm card that did 30 straight, unblocked damage once a fight, a fully upgraded Backstab and Execution and had 100+ damage turns on the regular. Sadly, he just wasn’t able to take enough damage to survive long enough to level against the third ltier opponents. :(
Game length is fairly short, but with very high replayability. Closest model I can think of is Solitairica, but this is faster (some of my Solitairica matches are pretty time consuming because I play relatively slowly). This plays very quickly once you have a handle on what you are doing.
I really like this model. I’ve had an idea kicking around in my head for quite some time (that will probably never be made) and was kicking around a similar approach.
This approach reminds me of Strange Adventures in Infinite Space. that game was a little too short, which resulted in your score riding tremendously on whether you found a trader early and what they had to offer.
The Long Journey Home is also taking that sort of approach but they are shooting for a length of roughly 6 hours. I wonder if that will end up being a hair too long for people to want to play it again and again.
I’m loving this game. I don’t really like the this or that permanent choices though. I also worry about class balance a bit. Lastly regeneration and trolls in particular can die in a fire, super imbalanced imo. Every time the card comes up they get an additional 5 hp per turn and it all stacks and is permanent. combined with their already high hp and tanky blocks it gets crazy. Had a troll getting back near 100hp per turn before I finally succumbed.
With the newest patch you can respec those choices. Think it is currently one time, but the dev is considering options.
I’ve never had a problem with trolls. Could see it being a pain with Clerics or Knights, maybe.
Happy that others are enjoying this too. The developer is making bug fixes quickly, and is talking about adding more content (new classes, possibly a fourth dungeon, something for those that want more challenge). They have been very receptive to feedback, which is always nice.
I picked a Knight to start out just because. Finished the tutorial and then picked the Tomb of the Ancients as my first dungeon. I fully expected to die in there but breezed through it pretty easily with the starter deck and a few cards picked up as loot along the way. The final boss was a demon eye thingy which didn’t pose much of a problem.
The gameplay is a lot of fun so far. I just worry about it maybe being too easy. I hope it gets harder in the next dungeon.
It does. Considerably.
After losing 5 heroes I beat the harbinger as a rougue. I had 2 Godspeed cards, along with a ton of daggers and chockrans (sp?). I had saved my companion abilities, so I was able to draw an extra card, take an extra turn, ignore his first 2 cards, and dodge at 90% - all 1x per the battle. I was barely touched when I beat him.
His special ability was inserting a useless card into my deck each turn. I was prepared for the ability that makes me lose HP each time I played a card, but apparently the harbinger’s special ability gets randomized too. That was a ton of fun!
Yeah, the altars in each dungeon will tip you off to what to expect when you get to the harbinger.
The object of the game is to kill this guy?
I just grabbed it from there and I’m getting “purchase error. Your subscription to the following items has not been completed” when I try to activate it…
edit: restarted Steam and it worked.
LOL, not a problem at all. The 2nd dungeon has completely crushed my characters so far.
Wait til you hit #3. (which I’ve done exactly once). Yeouch.
Tried a few Ranger runs. Dodge and crit are both really nice when they work but they’re not reliable so it’s tougher to build around that the way you can build around rogue card chains. I do really like Precise Hit and things like Silent and Piercing Arrow pay off pretty nicely. I’ve managed a few one turn KOs in later levels with that stuff.
Keep getting dungeon levels where I can’t get enough enemies at or below my level to level up before I start having to fight next level up stuff though. And while it’s certainly possible to win one or two fights against higher level enemies, having to keep doing that is a bit of a death sentence.
Down to $6.02 on Steam for me right now.
Tried to fight the Gold Dragon as a cleric…his thunderbolt thing does so much fucking damage.
edit: anyone think this really lends itself to mobile?
bug I’ve found already: if a Siren steals Bag of Gold and plays it, you still get the money.
Absolutely destroyed everything with my latest Rogue build. Definitely feels like easy mode compared to the other classes so far. It helps that I haven’t seen anything that really punishes physical attacks like the fire dinosaur boss in Dream Quest.
Finally beat the Harbringer with a knight. Thanks to the card that does damage equal to 20% of your hit points and keeping a card that healed full damage for the fight. Without the later, I wouldn’t have made it.
Is there an advantage for the ranger to use a bow, or is using another weapon fine if it is the better weapon?
Nope, whatever weapon has the best stats is all you need. Class doesn’t make a difference.
First fight in the third dungeon (first time as a rogue): Stone Golem.
- Immune to Poison (crap have two poison cards and an item that adds poison on hit).
- Immune to lightning (welp there goes my two good thunderstrike cards).
- Resists Physical damage (uh. . .).
Got beaten pretty soundly. He’s not the first guy I’ve seen that resists phys (slimes do). But holy crap that was nasty. Unfortunately I had to fight it to see the rest of the dungeon (crap start, that).
It’s depressing when you have two level 3 backstab cards and they matter so little.