Hello everyone! Welcome to the first Dev Diary for Risk of Rain 2: Hallowed Concepts.
In Hallowed Concepts players will explore Risk of Rain’s dark underbelly and the insidious cult of N’Kuhana whose stolen relic comes at a hefty price.
In today’s Dev Diary we’ll be looking at
The content scope of Hallowed Concepts
How that content is shaped by the design goals of the DLC
And finally we’ll take a look at one of the key features of the update: The N’tormat.
Much like N'kuhana, my dark knowledge also comes at a price… a price paid in wishlists. Please head on over to the Hallowed Concepts Steam Page and give it a wishlist.
Alright, now that you’ve done that you’re ready to read the sacred text of this Dev Diary…
Hallowed Concepts is shaping up to be our most distinct DLC yet. It brings with it a lineup of content unlike anything we’ve done before. Some elements will feel familiar, while others push into entirely new territory for Risk of Rain. So what can you expect?
2 New Survivors.
Several New Trial Stages with multiple objective variants including a “Boss Rush” Trial
3 New Standard Stages.
3 New Bosses.
4 New Enemies.
2 New Item Types
10 of one type…
11 of the other… (more on these another time)
3 New Standard Items (one lunar equipment item, two boss items)
New Unlockable Survivor Skins for Commando, Huntress, Bandit, MUL-T, Engineer, Artificer, REX, Loader, Mercenary, Acrid, Captain, Railgunner, Void Fiend, Seeker, False Son & CHEF* (16 total)
1 New Elite Type.
New Interactables.
New Music by DLC3 composer Stavros Markonis.
New Secrets.
One new “Curio”: The N’tormat.
* Developer Note: We heard your feedback loud and clear that you’d like skins for Survivors from previous DLC too. In Hallowed Concepts not only will all the base game survivors be getting a skin each, all the DLC1 and DLC2 Survivors will be too!
Psst, here’s a preview of one of those skins because you were cool and wishlisted earlier:
To learn more about the Hallowed Concepts content let's dive into some of our design goals for the DLC.
Throughout the previous three DLCs we’ve dished out player power with minimal challenge involved. Void Cradles & Seeds, Halcyon Shrines, Computational Exchange & Drone buffs all give you large power boosts with relatively minor and/or temporary setbacks. These often allow you to continue your runs with significantly more power in return. There are a number of reasons for this, not least of which - it's fun!
In Hallowed Concepts we wanted to push a lot further on both sides of that deal. We’re going to give you the option to steal huge amounts of power, but we wanted to balance that with increasingly dangerous threats and challenges. We also wanted to do this in a way that’s more integrated into your existing runs rather than being funneled into a new DLC path.
To steal the dark power of N’Kuhana you’ll have to
Complete the Wake Event
Access the Trials
Discover Shrines of Compulsion & their unique challenges.
Obtain the N’tormat and gather pages.
& More
These features each come with benefits and setbacks, all of which will be appreciated more if we keep them secret and you discover them for yourself! But this is a Dev Diary, of course we’re going to give you a peek…
For starters, let's talk about the N’tormat itself. The best way to describe this Curio is as new special equipment (which doesn't take up your normal equipment slot) which starts with a single ability that can be used once per stage. Throughout your run by interacting with DLC4 exclusive content you can gain extra pages each with a powerful new ability.
One such power is Dark Alchemy. This allows you to target a high-tier item and DESTROY IT. Great stuff, really pat ourselves on the back for that one. Of course, there is a benefit for this act of item violence - the item is downgraded to a lower tier, but duplicated!
Another power you can obtain is Fanatic Summons. By now you must have seen the Lynx Tribe enemies coming in the DLC - how would you like a friendly pet Lynx Pup? How would you like… AN ARMY OF THEM?
But I hear you saying, “wait a second… if these new fangled ‘pages’ are so strong, what are these ‘dangerous threats’ you keep talking about to balance it out?”
We have some wild things in store - but those are for another day… alright, here’s just one:
Thank you very much for checking out this first Dev Diary for Hallowed Concepts, don’t forget to go and wishlist over on the new Steam Page. We’ll see you next time!
Bye for now!
- The Risk of Rain Team
P.S. You can catch more info about Hallowed Concepts including an interview with ROR2 Lead Designer Bruno Fontanetti in the latest Gearbox Devcast!