Unique bosses, crafting items and new chapters

This post is not only about what is coming. We also want to clear up a mechanic that has been confusing for a lot of you.

At least 20 chapters

The game will have at least 20 chapters, and many unique bosses will show up along the way. So far only one of them has crossed your path: The Lesser Kraken.

A unique boss dies only once

Each unique boss can be killed only once per character. Once it falls, its room is left empty or closed off. A rebirth does not bring it back.

Getting to them

In many cases, reaching a unique boss means clearing an obstacle first, and that will require a specific key item, skill or spell. For example: if the boss sits on a ledge, you will need a grappling hook and rope, the climbing skill or the levitation spell.

This is where the academies matter

Some of those key items can be bought at the market, but every purchase has its cost: that money no longer goes into the upgrade that raises your consumables stock. If you would rather avoid that, you will have to pick a route through an academy where you can obtain the means to clear the obstacle. And in some cases, passing that academy's trial means training a combat ability that is not your class's primary one.

Rewards are collected at an academy

Once a unique boss is defeated, its reward does not appear on the spot: you collect it at one of the academies. What you get are materials that members of that academy harvested from the boss's body, handed over when you pass their trial. Those materials are used to craft items. Some grant percentage bonuses to your character, and others are mandatory in order to defeat other unique bosses.

Is killing them mandatory?

In most cases, no. But investing time into routes that kill them once per character opens access to items that make you advance faster than normal, or that let you get through the unique bosses that are mandatory with far less effort. Even so, enough grinding will always see you through.

General rule

If you do not need a specific key item, skill or spell, the best approach is usually to visit only the academies of your own class branch: they raise your combat damage and let you bring down each chapter boss in fewer rebirths.

Your characters help each other

That said, your class academies sit on your hard route, so you will need another one of your characters to escort you through it. Time spent progressing with other characters is not wasted: it pays you back directly.

Under consideration

We also plan to add events that trigger when a unique boss is killed and cause some unintended disaster in earlier chapters.

None of this has a date yet. We will talk about each piece as it lands in the game.