Hello!
Drop Duchy’s release date is approaching, and I know all of you readers of these devlogs are on the edge of your seats, wondering what’s in the game beyond the demo you’ve had time to explore by now.
Well, today, I’m going to tell you all about the third faction of the game, The Order, but in order to understand it, we need to talk about a special family of cards: the religious buildings and the Faith mechanic.
Omnipotent Church
Farming, cities, and artisans were essential to medieval life, and so is religion: leaving this crucial aspect out of the game would be like building a house without a roof!
In our game, most religious cards award you Faith, a bonus stat that resets every round and boosts all the resources collected this round.
Religious buildings are, therefore, highly versatile and can fit every deck; boosting the resources from buildings and exploration can be a great accelerator to your economy. For instance, you can place a Church anywhere in the grid to gain Faith instantly, get the technology card Daily Bread to earn Faith when you explore Fields, or add the fantastic Cathedral to your selection to double all Faith gains in its range!
If you’re really into religious cards, you can specialize in them by including the other type of religious cards: those whose effect is multiplied by the number of Faith points you got in the round. This combo deck requires full commitment, but when you’ve got the right synergy, you’re unbeatable. For instance, the Abbey earns as much as 20 Gold per Faith, the Blessing tech can heal your Defense points, and there are even military buildings, such as the Commandery, which recruits 3 units per Faith!
Introducing: The Order
Now that you know more about Faith and the religious cards, let me introduce the third and final faction of the game, The Order. Since it’s the last you’ll unlock from the progress tree, we decided to step up the complexity, but if you handle it correctly, it’s at least as good, if not better, as the other two.
The Order is a crusade-themed faction that relies on two core synergies: religious and military. Its starting building, Krak des Chevaliers, is inspired by a real-life XII-century fortress built during the crusades. It’s a military building that is particularly tricky to place in the grid, but it can potentially recruit a considerable number of units, even in the first rounds of the run!
What’s the catch, you may ask?
Unlike the other two factions, The Order cannot spend gold to repair their defenses after a battle; they really need to win if they want to go far. On top of that, when the round ends, each remaining unit is turned into a crusader rather than the usual gold, further increasing the challenge of getting a solid economy going. You can send the crusaders in Expeditions in the dedicated menu to loot precious resources, strengthen your defense, or increase your baseline Faith.
With its more straightforward access to Faith, The Order is the ideal faction to build a solid religious combo. After each round, you can use the earned Faith to improve the starting technology Holy Crusade, which influences how many resources you collect from Expeditions. If you need more crusaders, include the other faction-exclusive buildings of The Order, such as the Military Chaplaincy.
Playing with this faction feels easier at first because of its military advantage, but don’t forget about building a solid economy if you want to go far!
Wrap Up
Thanks again for reading this devlog. We’re so excited to see you play with all the content we’ve crafted for you, and we hope you enjoy it like you enjoyed the demo! The next installment in this devlog series will also be the last before the game’s release, so we’ll touch on an all-important topic: what are the other two bosses and the alternative game modes?
If you enjoy our game, please support us by joining the community on Discord and subscribing to the studio newsletter.
Thanks!
JB Oger - Game Director
You can also follow us on Social Media to keep up with the latest news!
X / Twitter:
https://x.com/SleepyMillGames
https://x.com/TheArcadeCrew