It's time again, everyone!
Our next playtest is coming soon, here are SOME of the new features waiting for you:
CLASS AND BUILD SELECTION
Choose between 4 playable classes, each with 2 sub-trees available right from the start to help define your build direction early on. And yes, Acolyte, formerly known as Invoker, now has its own skill tree too. We are also taking a swing at a small little issue involving way too many "threads" granting way too many barriers to some classes, heh.
INVOKER ACOLYTE SKILL TREE
The Invoker class had some considerable work done, and was changed to Acolyte! with two new sub-classes: Inquisitor and Devout. Each with its unique playstyle and a couple of new weapons.
The Inquisitor is focused on Ailments, building up harmful status effects on enemies and turning prolonged suffering into a core part of its combat style. If you enjoy spreading pain, pressure, and punishment across the battlefield, this is the path for you.
The Devout, on the other hand, is focused on Boons, a brand new system we are introducing in this playtest. Boons are positive status effects, designed to empower you and your allies through combat-driven blessings and inspirational effects. Instead of weakening enemies, the Devout shines by strengthening the party and rewarding active engagement in battle.
Now every class finally has its own Skill Tree with 2 sub-classes!
KNOW YOUR PATH!
We gave our minimap a full makeover. It should now be much easier to understand the collision and identity of each room in the game. Hopefully fewer players will get lost in the Monastery’s maze-like corridors now . We are very happy with the result and would gladly accept cookies.
BETTER STARTER CURVE
We have rebalanced the progression curve to make the early game smoother and easier to get into, while making the later stages more demanding and better aligned with progression through higher difficulty levels. This is the beginning of a broader effort to make the start of the game more welcoming and less intimidating. With the data from this playtest, we hope to keep iterating and improving that early experience even further.
CHALLENGING AND REWARDING LATE GAME
Players who make it far enough gain access to the Lair, now closer to how we originally envisioned it. Inside it, you'll face Mutators, special modifiers that increase difficulty and change the dynamics of the run in meaningful ways. The Lair is also meant to be a more consistent path for acquiring legendary items, helping balance out the increased danger with stronger rewards. In other words, if you want pain, pressure, and shinier loot, we may have just the place for you.
BODY SIZES AND CHARACTER IDENTITY
This is our first real step toward character customization! For this playtest, we want to give you your first chance to personalize the size of your characters. We even added a mirror in the lobby so you can admire yourselves properly! It is still quite limited for now, but we wanted to give you a taste of what is to come and start investing more in tools that let you shape your own visual identity in the game.
DATA ANALYSIS AND TELEMETRY
We have improved our Analytics event coverage, which means this playtest will help us gather better play data and make better-informed decisions moving forward. We are only collecting anonymous gameplay data related to in-game actions and events so we can better understand how players interact with the game. This is one of those changes that may not be flashy on the player side, but it matters a lot for us behind the scenes, and consequently for your game in the future.