Well I just sort of picked that number out of the air, but yes, once I've got the shield combo all down to 5 cooldown, I would say I probably get a lot more than 10 upgrades without a new item. As for the confusing part, maybe there could be a series of boxes on each item, one of which is filled in after each upgrade, or even a simple counter like "upgrades 2/10".
Use Treasure Chamber and hit that every time it comes up on a cooldown of 15. Visiting item shop problem cured.
I think this is a very interesting idea, as long as there is some way to know how many upgrades you have left for any given item. It does raise a question I have been wondering about. Currently, if there any difference between upgrading one item or another. For example, if two upgrades are offered, both which raise my def by 1, does it matter which one I take? Is it better to have two items with def 2, or one with def 3 and the other with def 1? It doesn't seem to, but perhaps I am missing something.
I dont think it matters, except that if you have a lot of items with a long laundry list of upgrades you consider important like durability, blunt, +xp%, +shields% etc on every item, your chances of getting hosed in the shop with 3 downgrades might be higher. Not sure there is any practical way to avoid/minimize this, or that it is worth trying to.
Currently I don't want to get the gold actually as that will just take away from my eventual combo... Dazzle to scavenge to boost shields. Taking the coins will result in less shields. Besides... my fourth ability is usually teleport or skill elixir. One saves my bacon and the other helps me level faster while clearing potions that limit the dazzle/scav/boost combo.
Awesome, thanks! That should help out for sure Am I just missing the Class descriptions on the front screen since the update? The Race descriptions are still there, but I can't seem to find the Class descriptions, and basically am now starting a game, just to go to the Stats screen to see what each Class does (haven't memorized them yet ). Will these return to the front screen (if not already there)? Also, while upgrading items, instead of showing the growth of a particular upgrade on said item, it would be super helpful just to show the cumulative growth for that update. When I upgrade something (i.e. Spikes), if I am upgrading this on all three pieces of armor, I am only seeing the number go up on the item in the Upgrade screen, and have to then check the stats screen after and add them all up. Since I am upgrading the same value, ultimately I just want to know what the total is on the Upgrade screen to the right of the value adjustment number On the Stats screen, the totals could also be listed below when not selecting individual pieces, and once an individual item is selected, to see the cumulative stats again, you could just tap on the stats breakdown on the right
Class isn't as simple as race which just has a single benefit and mortal enemy. Class is defined initially by default race, default perk/flaw, and skill set including class-specific skill (the one at the top left on the skills tab). Since races and ability to change race become unlocked eventually, and perk/flaw slots as well as the ability to change skills, once you have unlocked and leveled the classes, the only defining characteristics of a class become the first perk/flaw, which can't be changed, and the class-specific skill, which can't be replaced for the class but can be used by other classes.
"Agreed, I do think there's a number of strong combos when going for high scores (mostly focusing on shields via scavenge, gold via treasure chamber or xp via masochism) but as always I'm open to ideas, so feel free to suggest a skill combo that would be fun and strong without being overpowered"- FireFlame I have to disagree with you that there are a number of strong combos that can be used for high scores. The reality is that there is only one combo (dazzle-->Scavenge-->shield boost+teleport) that you can use to challnge the high scores on the leader board. I have found it nearly impossible, at least on the hard level, to clear 50,000 with any other combination. However, with the shield collecting combo I have come within a couple hundred points of 100K. Of course, it is easier to point out flaws then it is to suggest solutions. My general idea is to add new skills and revamp most of the other existing ones in order to create character 'builds' that play differently than the 'shield collector' build that is used now. Manipulator build- Combining class perks and skills that allow for powerful and controlled manipulation of the board. Maybe they get a bonus to how quickly Teleport can be used. Maybe add a new skill that would allow for a more controlled manipulation of the board (compared to the relatively useless Earthquake) Killer Build- Combining class bonus, perks and skills to create a perfect killing machine. While this build would not gain as much per turn from coins, shields or expereince, they would be able to last substantially longer due to their attack (and perhaps health). Perhaps this class gets bonuses to Boost Damage or just a massive bonus to their damage levels overall. Magician build- Again using class bonus, perks and skillls that create a character that would use magic to perhaps 1) summon monters to the board to fight for him 2) take control of existing monsters on the board or 3) simply use magic to deal damage in addition to the normal attack. Maybe this class gets its own spell and mana of some type in addition to the four skills. These are obviously just very general thoughts and the key would be creating and balancing any new 'builds' so that each would be viable compared to the 'shield collector' model. I realize that it woud be very difficult to create and balance new builds. But I believe it is necessary. As it stands now, the game has 26 useless skills and a handfull of useless upgrades (spike, pierce armor, poison, blunt). This is such a great game, but it would be a shame to not realize all of it's potential. All that being said, I'm going back to try to break 100K. Daniel
Great post Daniel. I agree with almost everything you said. My thinking is that it will be harder to make new builds balanced than it would be to nerf the shield collector build and then slowly beef up every build (via new perks... abilities... etc) which is why I've been voting for nerfing the shield collector build a bit and balancing everything out. In an ideal world I would prefer your solution but i think it'd be difficult without potentially creating even more OP builds and/or adding a lot of new content/abilities. Also I'd like to back up your points with my own scores with and without the shield build. With other builds I can't break 30,000 (on hard) but with this shield build i just posted one score near 70,000 and routinely break the 30,000 mark. It is just that much better than the rest. Also, do you really think poison and blunt are worthless? I love blunt for handling flame specials and spike specials myself (as well as just buying you time in general as it wittles the enemies attack every turn). In fact i wish it was offered more often. The highest i have ever gotten was blunting of 11. It just isn't offered much around 9 on... Poison I'm more on the fence about. It's great for punching through that extra damage (for example in my latest game i had over 86 poison per turn for 3 turns) since it ignores the enemies armor but i can see how it gets less relevant in the very late game when all the monsters have ridiculous health points. Same thing for life regen... building it up 2 at a time just eventually cant scale along with the enemies damage output so instead i focus on boosting armor and armor durability. Just curious as to your thoughts as I'm always looking for ways to last even longer :- ) Also thanks to every one else for their strategies in the past 100+ pages of this thread as they have helped me a lot!
I love poison. It seems like the fastest way to raise damage since you get two points of poison damage (for 3 turns) per upgrade while base damage and weapon damage only increase by 1. Still weapon damage is probably better since it's multiplied by swords in the chain, but I find with high base damage and poison I can kill most things with very few swords (helpful if you're using scavenge). I also like blunting fwiw.
I think Blunt is good, although you can't get enough of it to matter in the very late game, I'd certainly rather have 10 Blunt than another 100 HP (when I'm already up to 3500 or whatever), so I take it when I can. I don't like Poison much. I'd much, much rather have +1 damage, it both does more to kill the enemies and also helps to leech HP.
Yeah I love blunting and am glad to hear others backing it up. Fireflame is there any reason it appears to be capped by the way? I don't think it's overpowered. Still as it is maybe it just doesn't do enough late game... Hopefully Daniel can respond so we can hear his thoughts. Poison i find great in the mid-early late game but eventually it can't keep up with the enemies health. I've started focusing the most on weapon damage (because as Royce pointed out) it adds on for each sword in the chain and plays nice with dazzle. Personally I'd love to see poision go to a percentage based thing with a 10% max. Wouldn't be overpowered but it would help it scale into the late game. Spikes are fun and I'll take them over a couple other upgrades if nothing good is offered... but they are very low priority and I'd really rather not take them. In the late game they just don't do enough to matter. Hurray i wasted 25 upgrades to do 25 damage per turn to a guy with 1,000 HP who is hitting me for hundreds of life a turn. I'd rather boost my armor, attack, or health to help me survive and/or kill that stupid guy. and yeah pjft... I dont think many of us are :- ) EDIT: Ok I just played a game and got up to blunting of 14... so its not capped... it just gets very rare after you get a certain amount of it... or so it seems. Either that or I'm just getting really unlucky which is obviously a possibility.
Specifically, what I am referring to is the Class specific trait which used to be mentioned on the front screen when you would first enter the Edit screen. For example, this is the "5% swords are arrows (match 1 tile away)" for the Ranger and "5% potions are mana (reduced cooldown)" for the Mage, etc. These are still mentioned, but only in-game on the Stats screen now, along with your Race, Perk/Flaw abilities. EDIT: LOL, nm, I was not paying attention, those are just the default Perk/Flaws for the Classes haha
Blunt is awesome if your playing elf. 6 blunting (i.e. 6 damage off) a boss skull with 150 attack is nothing...but if you use elf, 6 blunting will eat into the bosses 75 damage. Of course, the difference is even more dramatic on normal skulls -- six blunting may take too long if a skull has 50 attack, but if the skull has 25 attack thanks to the elf racial, the 6 blunting has a pretty dramatic impact. Currently its still bugged and even better than it should be. Admittedly, I cant get a great sense of how useful this combo will actually be when the bug is fixed, but I definitely wouldnt call blunting useless, even if you arent playing elf. Poison is kind of nice because it does damage that spikey doesnt return, and that doesnt require a sword. In the end-end game, you cant use too many swords at once or you'll get fatal bosses. Same with spikes. My pet peave for the game is that gold skulls, teleporters, exploders and upgrade eaters become impossible to deal with so quickly. Gold skulls, in particular, are close to a joke, and are almost totally impossible to kill except in the early game. In the end game, even dazzle and a full screen of swords wont suffice. If you do have a build that allows you to kill a gold skull in the later game (say dazzle + magic sword) the reward is very small.
I've hardly played at all since the update---still waiting for the IAP unlock ---but I didn't find the golden specials or the exploding specials all that hard to kill. If you already have Dazzle then a screen full of swords can do a lot of damage. And, anyway, if you can't kill them, and have to deal with what happens when you don't kill them, that's sort of the point, right? I wouldn't really mind if there were bosses with infinite HP, that had some sort of adverse effect that you have to prepare for. Of course it makes Teleport even more overpowered, perhaps we can all agree on that.
I wish the Teleporter skulls didn't have such ridiculously high attack. I feel like their attack is on par with Boss skulls.
Yeah I have a feeling I'll end up using the elf race for that reason. Currently I'm not using it though since i know it's bugged. I agree on the countdown guys. They are VERY tough late game. Still i find i can often just ignore them and let them dissapear. It's the other specials (especially the ones who effect armor and cooldown) who scare me the most late game! EDIT: Rather than double post... So in playing again this morning I'm wondering if we can tweak the level ups a little. Right now it doesn't seem to account for equipment bonuses (for example +1 vit or luck on equipment) when showing your current and upgraded bonus chances. Can that be fixed? Also a fun perk idea might be tumbling. Dodge 3% of incoming attacks. The flaw could be 3% of swords do not do extra damage or something like that. If there already is something like that then retract that statement. I only just started messing around with perks (i have been mostly playing human adventurer while I unlocked all the classes) but I don't remember one like that.
New to the game Hi everyone I've only just gotten this game yesterday and while I am loving it (but not how much of my life it seems to be swallowing so far) I am confused about how the level/career progression works.... as in I have no idea! I've played through enough that I have gotten the hang of the upgrades and level ups, etc, but not unlocking the other careers this game has I'm sorry if this has been asked before (there are over 138 pages for this game!), but I would very much appreciate any help anyone can give? Ta muchly in advance
You unlock other classes (and then level up said classes) by collecting trophies dropped by special monsters (not the basic skulls). They don't show up on easy but otherwise you should see one for every 15 special monsters or so you kill
