The doubler is $2.99. Not $.99. And it costs 5000 gold to open the last area and 8000 gold each to open two of the characters . Getting through all three islands is really hard and takes a ton of time and who knows how many runs. I haven’t even gotten close and I have played well over 5 hours (I think it may be closer to 10 but I’m being conservative). Also should note that several other games like where it costs $.99 to unlock other characters. Here the equivalent amount of gold would cost $4 for several of them (8000 gold each, $5 for 10000 gold) and then one of them costs $4.99 (you can’t even earn that one). So the doubler costs $2.99. The costs of three of the characters would be $13. The game itself costs $.99 and there’s still tons of other things that cost gold. And there’s a lot of grinding to get repute as well for all of the above! Yes you could grind for all of that but when you have played 5 hours and only have unlocked the first island. 5000 of the gold used was free with the doubler and wouldn’t have earned more than 2000 even with the doubler (I still have not beat the boss on the second run). At the current rate I may have to play 20 hours to unlock just one of the 8000 gold characters? Oh and I only have 525 repute after that 5 hours. That’s clearly a problem. Five hours for a mobile game for most people is a lot of time. So no, I do not think that is fair. Some people may play better than I do but I play a lot of these games so I would say most people’s experience will be similar to mine. And many will just stop playing. This game is far from a good value compared to others in the genre. It still needs work for balancing.
Sounds to me like you got excellent value for $4, with 5+ hours of entertainment. You are of the opinion that price tags on the characters are barriers - I am not. I see them as goals, incentives to keep playing. The goal of this game is not to play the first area of the first map with all characters. It’s to master a character, mechanics and enemies to make it to the end - THEN when you feel confident with it, unlock another character. I’m trying very hard to not be dismissive of your opinion because it is very valid, but you rehashing it over and over and over is, quite frankly getting stale. As a general point applicable to anyone, I will also reiterate what I said earlier - playing the game with the “how far can I get THIS TIME?” mindset is flat out wrong. So here are some tips for how to play the game effectively: The aim of the game is not the typical roguelike “how far can I get”. It’s all about having a successful pirate career. When you think about it in those terms, the following point makes more sense: End your runs after defeating a boss. Knowing when to end a run is crucial. I found that with the gunner, you need to have 3/4s of your deck upgraded to be successful in area 3. Ending a run early gives you more gold and repute than if you continued. I get 200 gold for bowing out after the second boss. I get 180-ish for being unprepared and losing a fight halfway through zone 3... having wasted an extra 20 minutes. Prioritise card upgrades. I can’t stress this enough. For the gunner, my priority order is: Issue Order, then all ammo cards, then double shot and then all the rest. Buy the Hammer upgrade relic if you see it. Don’t bloat your deck. Unlike on a real ship, a small deck is good. Don’t take cards just because they “sound good”. If you have to pick between bad cards, take the one that doesn’t cost ammo. Sacrifice it first chance you get (at events). Don’t play every card. You don’t have to and if you have a bad pull, it’s often better saving some extra ammo to do more damage next turn. An example of this is when you’re up against a single enemy and have 40 armour. Don’t play any more shields, no matter how tempting it is. If you’re given only bad reward options after a fight, take a relic. Cards bloat your deck and cost money to remove. Selling relics gives you money. No-brainer. Similar point - sell used up relics. Relics like the candle, upgrade hammer and a few others are one-use only. Sell them for extra money. Prioritise avoiding damage. Imagine this: You have one ammo and one opponent about to hit you for 5 damage. You could shoot him once and take the damage, or get 6 armour and kill him next turn, safely. Option B is the clear winner because health is not cheap to refill and you should be pumping all your cash into upgrades. The Weaken stat you can apply to enemies sounds good on paper but is infective. Blind is always better. The spiky area 2 boss with the bleed? A single Immunity card makes it trivial. If you don’t get one, getting drunk will do. (I’m the game, not real life). Do all your damage first, then replace the bleed with another status effect before ending the turn. Island AP costs have no bearing on the fights or the rewards you get. Plan out a route in advance (hitting all islands you want) and follow it, or simply take the lowest AP cost. Personally I prioritise going for events (the question marks) because more often than not they’re helpful. Poisonous cave? Left, left, right. (There is another layout, though I haven’t figured that one out yet) That’s a decent list to get started on the path to success.
I keep rehashing my opinion because people have been dismissive of it (and that is quite frankly getting stale). And now acting like the gold doubler is the end of all problems with this game. I’ll just stick with Silent Abyss and Endless Road where I spent $2.99 and $3.99 respectively to unlock everything in the game and not have the same frustrations of slow progress. This is a game that could have been excellent with better balancing. But for me, it’s too frustrating to progress and others (including reviewers who do this for a living) agree. To each their own, I’m done.
That's what the Dev have addressed by having the doubler also affect gold rewards. You feel it's still not enough, where we feel it is. Let's not fight further, and let us enjoy the game while you play Silent Abyss or any other games that you enjoy better
Well the reviewers were pre update But that’s neither here nor there. Can we all make a general consensus that if the Damn Game was a pile of heaping garbage then it would get no spin. This game has been out for what...? 2 weeks or so...maybe...and already has ELEVEN PAGES on TA. That to me shows how passionate people are about this game. Yes, ofc quite a few pages are whining when it comes down to it but what we CAN say is the game is still slick, exciting, and Fun as hell!! If the fact that you have to EARN your way through a game is too cumbersome to some then I get it. Go read a book or something. This is a game people and games are supposed to be fun and entertaining. If it’s not for you then move to another thread and quit complaining and trying to ruin everyone else’s fun time. In the end you choose where you spend your money and time. Stop wasting it whining on here please. Thanks! And my wife has learned quite well over the years that a small deck can still have a Great Captain
Well, the reviewers were reviewing it as a paid game without buying an IAP. So changing the doubler would not make a difference in their reviews. I won’t post again but just wanted to make that point for those that harshly criticizing the TA review in the comments.
Thanks devs for the gold doubler! Think this solves most of the issues with progression. I’ve been having fun with this with the doubler already, but am glad it will be easier to unlock new characters. I feel like playing the first map with the gunner and sword master hasn’t gotten stale yet. I unlocked the second area but am still playing the first because, as someone else mentioned, I still can’t consistently beat with either. Feel like I’ve gotten my $4 or $5 worth (forget what doubler cost) already. I find this to be much deeper than card crusade - liked that at first but very quickly started seeing the same cards over and over and don’t understand how that got such a good review.
Does anyone know if each map offers card-specific options? I'm asking because I've unlocked some excellent cards for cursed captain in the 3rd area, however, I've never been able to get his curse system at max capacity. I ask this because I saw the 2nd area offers area-specific cards where an additional effect will occur if the enemy is undead/human. If that's the case it'd be nice to see in your collection what cards are available in what area. Especially when someone like Cursed Captain hinges on the ability to consistently self-inflict curses (Drown: Skill; 1 ammo; deals big damage and adds 1 handcuff curse to draw pile) which I've only managed to enjoy in the third area. So far the only 3 characters I could see consistently beating each area would be (in power order): Admiral, Alchemist, Explorer as their natural kit and mechanics are the least hindered by map mechanics. And for what it's worth, ending runs early is paramount to any efficient gold gain (esp now that doubler is updated). I absolutely love that they reward the decision the end a run if RNG is stacked against you. On top of that, it allows for exploring and testing playstyles while passively earning gold in shorter bursts.
I wish I can smash the like button on this single post multiple times. Personally I don’t even know there’s a known path to the cave. The first time I failed after 2 times navigating the cave, I stopped taking chances as I thought the path were RNG LOL. I’ve come to learn some of the nuances of RPG card battler after playing some 4-5 runs as I don’t understand why wouldn’t someone just dump their hand each round. It make more sense now, does this move gives u any benefit? If not, save up and let the hand refresh. Deck thinning seems to be the strategy similar to other deck building games, in fact this game genre is similar too. I do understand the perspective of Anthony and where he’s coming, everything has 2 sides of the coin. Some people see it as challenge while others see it as obstacle. Obstacle here to me seems to be that some of the things are gated from a paywall, e.g. paid characters. That I will see as supporting the devs for putting out an excellent game although it would be good to be able to get it through playing the game but so far each character seemed to offer a unique enough of experience that frankly I don’t really mind paying for. I’m not merely celebrating because the dev enabled the gold into the doubler, I honestly couldn’t put the game down (now waiting for slay the spire to come to Switch) and I haven’t felt so for an iOS game in a very long time. Granted I don’t buy so many games nowadays. Can’t seem to get into silent abyss though. I bought night of the full moon based on some good praises from people a couple of post back but haven’t started. Just wanna focus on this for now. As for the review, too bad that it’s out. I didnt get the vibe that people are being harsh to the reviewer. I know I’m not. What’s done is done. But if enough people leave good reviews on the appstore/playstore then it helps too. Now onto more games! Does anyone know what the % of progression for each map means? Is it about how much card you have unlocked for the specific map?
View attachment 125930 Just ended another insane run at 1st world 3rd island with the explorer. 1040 gold, 260 repute, 2 new cards. Wow. I had to face with 2 bosses each with 200 hp at the same time. In the end I had up to 100+ armor with 12 hp left LOL. Stacking armor like mad.
I think most of my runs end because I get too many crap cards from Battle. It feels like the reward of the additional card is more like a curse
Just to add, I spent the first few pages of this thread grimacing about the dual currency and IAP. I no longer have those concerns. And feel that the structure of the grind now (with the doubler) is decent, appropriate and respectably rewarding. Edit: succinctly, i’d see this as a decent premium title.
I’ve unlocked the alchemist Damn it’s fun but it’s a hard class to play. You can fuse two cards into a random card + a card that draws + reloads Fusing a card also provides a damage boost. It’s difficult balancing the deck around this since you can’t predict the outcomes of fusing. Removing cards is also changed into fusion where you pick two cards and the cards are replaced by a single random card. It’s fun but it’s hard to build a specific strategy with all the randomness
Bought the doubler yesterday and it has totally changed my perception of the game - from a daunting grind to a very enjoyable challenge. I can now buy the Sword Master and the Explorer and will try to complete Pirates Bay with these characters. Given that I have only beaten bosses 1 & 2 with the Gunner so far I reckon I'll get enough Gold for the next area by the time I have completed this objective. The way I look at it - it's £3.99 for one the best games I have played in a long time.
Our dev team are tracking and working on this bug. We will try to fix it with other unexpected issues as soon as we possible. We apologize, and in advance thank for your patience. Agree with you, Alchemist is difficult to master.
Thank you for listening! Congrats on making such a fun game for everyone. I haven’t encounter that bug anymore (fingers crossed), so far so good. I still have 3 more heroes and 1 last map to unlock. Once the bugs which were found are ironed out, please share with us some of the future plans that the studio has for this game (I know the game is barely a week old but I’m very excited!!!)
