I'm not sure if this is possible but have you thought of unlockables being triggered by the shape of the matches? As in you could have a goal of making a match that is a box shape, a match of 8 tiles creating a box with an empty centre. Easy enough to understand but a bit difficult to pull off - a bit luck based, but you could also help engineer it a bit by studying the field, matching the right things, getting tiles to drop where you want them to. A box is also a fairly simple shape, there's scope for bigger more complex designs...well, "designs" is a bit generous, they'd be pretty abstract, like constellations. Sometimes when you finish doing a large match, the trail looks like a constellation, got me thinking.
Yeah, this sounds like it could really work. Presumably you'd still be fighting off enemies while trying to line up a chain of 10 coins or whatever, which would add a lot of focus on clever board management, and force the choice between e.g. drinking potions to survive or lining up a couple more coins so you can progress. I'd love to implement this mode, any other thoughts on this? Yeah, ideally the unlockables would add more variety or present a more risk/reward tradeoff rather than give a direct advantage, so I'll definitely be trying to keep unlockables from overpowering a game. Tying unlockables to achievements makes sense and I'm also thinking about giving a small chance at getting an unlockable every time you kill a special monster, which would add a bit more tension and sense of achievement to those encounters. I haven't considered unlockables being tied to the chain shape, but I've got a skill in mind that will work that way. I think drawing shapes while tile mathcing could possibly be an interesting mechanic for an alternate game mode as well...
So on normal level, how often are folks able to get past level 7? Out of 10 games, I only did so once, in which I got to level 14. I probably died because I was a little careless. That said, I felt like I was still on the difficulty curve, not above it. (I guess that means I feel below the curve from level 5-7). Getting past levels 5-7 is hard because you need to get some form of health recovery (say 3 points in luck) while not falling behind the DPS curve, and you may have little margin for error if you dont have a board clearing skill yet. At this point, you likely wont have more than 1 or 2 armor per shield either, so when stuff goes bad, your armor will 0 out very quickly. Later, I started feeling like the DPS curve was not as overwhelming of a problem. I was finding that my emmerging need was a second board clearing skill and/or increased damage mitigation, as the damage of the skulls was really creeping up there as compared to my health. Many of the skills which I can see being killer later on are useless in getting you past the rough patch in levels 5-7. For example, armor piercing is useless during this period (but I can see will be great later.)
I actually am not entirely clear on what the Armor Piercing stat/upgrade does. Is Armor Piercing at 10% a 10% chance I'll completely bypass armor or does it mean all monster armors have their values automatically lowered by 10%? I think that has often been a pretty rough spot for me as well but saw I was doing consistently better when I paid a little more attention to my armor (not neglecting to upgrade, repair, and improve my repair related skills so each shield nets me 3-4 points of repair so that even the feeblest shield trace fully repairs my armor). Also there is no denying the power of Regenerating and Leech, initially pretty minor healing but it is done automatically while you're focusing on kicking monster but. Like collecting interest at the bank. Oh, and another thing, does increasing my Defense and Dexterity stats on levelups only help in repairs or does it also determine how quickly I can fill my upgrade gauge as well? For clarity I think the Defense upgrade needs a different name since the Defense upgrade is not the same as the Defense stat when leveling up.
Blunting is good too, as it can prevent 5+ points of damage when things are going bad and there are a lot of skulls on the board, which is when you need it most. I am not entirely clear exactly how blunting works though, as it does not seem that with, say, 2 in blunting every skull does 2 less damage with every attack -- which is the way I would think it would work from the description.
Yeah, that lost me too, it would appear there is only a CHANCE the attacks are blunted...or, wait, perhaps it is identical to Spikes in that all Spikes and Blunting are disabled the moment your armor is brought to 0? Which then brings up a question for FF, in the upcoming skill Armor Explosion (all enemies take damage equal to your armor) is that the current damaged value the moment the skill is initiated or based on the max value?
Blunting and Spikes work the same way, they don't work when your armor is at 0. I have found some success with them when I can get 2 quick increases in armor durability. So 70% durability + spikes + blunt goes a long way with a high defense. But you kind of need the whole package for that.
Hey FF - I think you should think about enhancing the store a little. Note, the following is based on Hard level playing: So we have 3 types of upgrades to the character: Levling, Enchanting and the Store. Leveling is the best of course because you get 2 upgrades, and almost always one of them is helpful. Often one can be game changing if it is a skill you need. Enchanting only gives you one boost, probably not game changing, but at least while you are getting shields they are giving you some defense at the same time. Except for maybe in the first 40-50 turns, there is almost always a better alternative to coins, even if they would provide an upgrade. They don't provide any better upgrades than enchanting does, and you only get one. And you get nothing else along with them, and sometimes you don't want any of the choices you get. To me this means use Dazzle because I need the swords more than the coins which are just in the way. I don't have the answer, but it is something to think about.
+1, I am on level 26 on normal, and I find the store intensely frustrating, and generally just convert coins to swords. 25% of the time, I would rather chose none of the 3 items, 50% of the time I am ok with what I consider a sidegrade. It makes no sense to be forced to "buy" something. If you are not comfortable with getting new choices next turn, let the store pop-up again in 2 or 3 turns, but you keep your coins and arent forced to take an item you dont want.
The armor piercing is your chance of destroying the monsters' defense when you attack them, and works pretty much the same as armor durability works for your armor - that is, with piercing at 60% each point of damage done to a monster's armor (up to the monster's current defense rating) has a 60% chance of breaking 1 point of defense. Armor Piercing starts at 50% Yep, increasing DEX/DEF only increases how quickly shields repair your defense. Hmm, maybe having the upgrade with the same name as the stat is a bit confusing, I could rename the upgrade to Armor? Yeah, I can tweak the store to have a much lower chance of offering a sidegrade. What strategies did you use to get to level 26? That's a massive jump from your previous best of 14!
Well, the death on 14 was careless. If you can get past level 7, you should be able to stay alive with care, good skill choices and normal luck. To answer your specific question though, I got some durability early, as well as enchanting, and I have had 95% durability for a long ways. At level 28 now, I have only around 22/23 armor, but I have maybe 6-7 blunting, so I can take quite a pounding. It seems impossible to achieve 2 sword kills at this level, dont know how a prior poster achieved it -- he must have been razor focused on DPS and had better luck with it than I (sometimes I have been close to 2 kills on the weaker skulls). But 3 sword kills are ok if your properly equipped and skilled. 4 sword kills are not ok, so I still need to make sure I have enough dps. I have not been able to keep a lot of regen, but am not finding I really need it. Luck is at 9...I'd like to increase that a bit. 225ish health.
95% durability is the key, but the blunting is super important. 5 skulls hitting for 20 each = 100 damage With 40 defense, you would take 60 damage. With 25 defense and 7 blunting you take 13x5 - 25 = 40 damage. So...when things are bad, 1 blunting is vastly better than 2 or even 3 defense. This is why many things the store offers that the store might consider upgrades or sidegrades are actually horrible downgrades.
Sadly, just got my first item shop with 3 clear downgrades. Its pretty miserable: Weapon: New: 30 dmg, 1str, 1 luk Current: 29 dmg, 2str, 1 luck, 10% pierce, .25xp Necklace: New: 150 HP, 1 luk, quick Old: 145 HP, 2 luck, quick, 1 regen Shield: New: 42 def, 4 spikes Old: 9 def, 18 dmg, 4 base dmg, 3 up, 5 spikes, 7 blunt, 1 repair. The weapon trades +1 dmg for -3 enchants, the necklace is +5 hp for -2 enchants, and the shield -- this makes me shudder -- is +33 def for a staggering -43 enchants (remember "up" comes in .25 increments, so this is actually 12 enchants). That is a lot of defense, true, but a point in blunt is worth maybe 3x each point in defense, and if I lost that much dps, I might need 4 swords to kill stuff. I think I'm going to stop...level 40 with no end in sight, normal is just too easy pre-upgrade (once you get going and get past lvl 7 or so.)
I have to congratulate the creators for making such a complex and interesting game, it's so enjoyable to theorycraft. It's gets deeper the more I think about it. After comparing Spell Power vs Spell Penetration vs Haste vs Spell Crit etc. in WoW, this is like coming home, hehe. Just a thought, if you could pick your four spells right at the get go, which four would you go for? (Though having asked that, I'm glad it's not a skill tree sort of system where you pick, the current style forces you to adjust your strategies to make do with what you've got.) Also is there a list of them anywhere?
I can call my 4 favorite right off the bat (but won't even venture to say they're the best combo since I have yet to break level 20 on Normal): Dazzle: Converting coins to swords as the shop isn't always your friend and it's always nice to be able to call on some extra swords when needed. Enchantment: Who doesn't like to call up an automatic upgrade every 35 turns or so? Mana (new one): This converts all of the potions currently on screen to mana potions which, when gathered in a potion grouping, will reduce the time out delay of all of your currently regenerating skills (in my case lets me get my Enchantment going that much quicker). Big Game Hunter (new one): One of my own ideas so of course I'm biased, but it allows you to convert a random skull on screen to one of the new specials. Sure this is kind of like intentionally poking your own eyes out for fun, but it's great when the screen is chock full of swords with just a couple of skulls. Since killing these guys give nice bonus cash or experience when killed.
Since LordGek did the best spells in the beta, I'll do the current best spells. 1. Enchanting -- free upgrades, a no brainer 2. forget the name -- totally new tiles, good for getting rid of terrible board with lots of skulls 3. Turn skulls to swords -- get out of jail free card, its great 4. Exploding potion: Useful for clearing big chunks of the board. 5. Dazzle: Turn coins to swords. This will save your bacon if your dps falls behind for a bit. Plus, the further you get, the more you realize that coin turn ins are just not that helpful. You can only have 4 of these. Make sure one is enchanting, and then pick 3 from the rest. Exploding potion is a little dicey, no potions near the skulls you cant use it. Too many potions and the whole board goes, and you might get tons of skulls on the new board. Still, I'll take it if it presents and I need a board clearing skill. I will sometimes take double potions, which can also save your bacon.
Yes, No. 2 you're thinking of is Teleport (?). I love that one. My Top 4 I think are Enchant, Teleport, Dazzle...having trouble deciding the last one. I had some success once with the one that collects potions as xp. In the early game it really got me ahead of the curve. I think it'll be great if I can ever couple it with Teleport in the same game, as a way of dodging the wall of skulls that tends to follow (that's why I normally avoid ones that clear large parts of board, it always leads to me getting blitzed...but it worked well that one time I used it). Freeze and the double damage with swords one are not so great. Can get you out of a tight spot, but it doesn't buy you much. EDIT: In fact I love Dazzle not so much for needing more swords specifically, but opening the board up so you can actually get to skulls that are in tight spots, or linking two groups of skulls together so you can hit them all at once.
Was gonna wait for a price drop on this but after reading the reviews in this thread I had to try it. Really fun game Highest so far is around 12. I thought I was invincible, but got a little careless and died. I really like the unique twist on the 'match 3' puzzle gameplay. I'd love to see even more abilities/monsters/items/depth/whatever. Looking forward to future updates!
