I know a lot of you really love the droneyard. Who wouldn't, when it's all about getting help from cute little creatures? The Beastmaster pushes that to the limit, thanks to a small army of catgoblins they employ. Besides looking badass, the Beastmaster also plays quite uniquely.
First of all let's dive into what the catgoblins do.
Initially you call them by punching a hole into the back wall of the mine. Soon the catgoblins from your dome will emerge and pick up resources near that hole. This means the Beastmaster never has to track back to the dome to bring back these big bundles of resources. That is lucky too, as the Beastmaster does not come with any upgrades to carry capacity and can only carry three resources.
The catgoblins do not stop there though. If you upgrade them, they can also dig out resources independently, similar to iron worms (if you are familiar with the gadget). But wait, there is more! The Beastmaster also commands squads of specialized miner catgoblins. They can emerge out of the holes and dig out tiles. They cannot dig out resources, but they will make short work of any rock. Truth is, they very much synergize with the normal catgoblins as they dig out the resource clusters, enabling the catgoblins to access all tiles and dig out the resources in turn.
One of the best things about the squads is that they also have a knack for digging into the direction of close resources. So if you have a tunnel and there is a resource just out of range so you can't see it, the miner squad will dig it out.
To be really successful with the Beastmaster, you have to employ both types of catgoblins together. This needs some planning, but the reward is that you have to do way less work than the other keepers. You might have noticed the imposing and extra cool tentacle arms of the Beastmaster. They are not only for calling the Catgoblins. You also traverse the mine with them. This results in a movement similar to the existing keepers, with one big exception: you need tiles that tentacles can grab. This means you cannot just mindlessly destroy all tiles. Huge empty spaces are no friend of the Beastmaster, or her Catgoblins. There remains one important aspect to talk about: can you actually mine rock yourself? Of course you can! The tentacles prove very useful for this, punching the rock until it crumbles. At the core of the mining is some sort of frenzy, where you dig faster and faster the longer you mine. The Beastmaster comes with three distinct paths for the mining, that each lean into a different aspect of this mechanic. You'll probably find your favorite path quickly, once you try them. Overall this makes the Beastmaster a really unique keeper. Not needing to haul resources back to the dome is a huge timesaver, making the Beastmaster quite relaxed to play especially if you combine it with the teleporter or similar gadgets. You do need to plan your mining a bit more than most other keepers, but you don't need to be dextrous to have fun with this one.
PS: same as for the Infiltrator, here are two cool artworks! Again one from Erik but based on a pose from Annika who was an intern in 2023, when we first hatched the idea of a Beastmaster keeper. The water color version is again from Anne, who created most of the pixel art for Dome Keeper.