Ahoy Voyagers! Stephanie / Stephiroth here with a deep dive into our Sanctuary mechanic updates coming in the Tend, Build, Thrive patch. We have been working on big changes to the Sanctuary mechanics to make them easier to understand, reward players more for investing into their bases, and better capture the feeling of a lively safe haven for Spirits. Keep reading below to learn more about the changes!
Many of you may be familiar already but just in case any emerging Echoes are reading this - currently, players build Spirit Anchors, which are the heart of the base and allow players to power magical stations, attract spirits, and gain protection over a growing radius. Spirit Anchors have a max power level they can potentially output, achieved by empowering the Spirit Anchor. Then, players must build Spirit Amenities, which are decorative buildings that Spirits can spawn at, to actually provide power. However, through playtesting, gathering feedback and iterating, we realized this version of this system had a few major flaws:
Players find the difference between Sanctuary Power Level and Spirit Amenity Score very confusing
Spirit Amenities being required to achieve Sanctuary Power restricts creative freedom in building
Base Power as the only reason to build was not satisfying enough as a mechanic
Players really love Spirits, but bases feel empty and Spirits only spawning at Amenities feels limiting
So, what did we do?
We have made major changes to how Sanctuaries work. We have re-worked the power mechanic to be more intuitive, added new features to tie into base building to make investing in and building up bases more rewarding, as well as changed how Spirit Amenities work to provide more choices and benefits within base building.
We have simplified the power requirement mechanics by linking them directly to the Empowerment Level. Now when you level up the Spirit Anchor, you will immediately be able to use a station that requires that power level. We have also re-worked the benefits given by the Spirit Anchor; now they are more focused on improving the Anchor’s attributes (power level, radius, placement amount) rather than adding bonuses. We’ve shifted these bonuses instead to Amenities and the Sanctuary itself, which we’ll detail more below!
If you were someone who primarily built for cosmetic reasons, the system worked great. However, a lot of people wanted more reasons to build and wanted it to have some tie-in with the rest of the gameplay. When approaching this change, we also wanted to make building any type of item in your base valuable to do - not just stations and Spirit Amenities. Sanctuary Points
All cosmetic items now have a Sanctuary Point value – we call these Comfort Buildables. As you build more Comfort Buildables and Spirit Amenities, your Sanctuary points increase; and when they hit certain point thresholds, you will unlock special buffs for your base known as Sanctuary Benefits. Some of the benefits are things that make your base more convenient, like removing stamina costs while in the Sanctuary radius. But there are a special class of buffs that will help you on your adventures: Rest Buffs. Rest Mechanics
Before, players could only sleep at night and the only thing this did was help pass the night faster. Now, players can rest any time - and after resting for enough time, if their base is comfortable enough they will gain a buff called Rejuvenation. As you increase your Sanctuary points and make your base more comfortable, the Rejuvenation buff will become more powerful and unlock more benefits. For example:
Rejuvenation I - Once fully rested, receive the following buffs:
Fully restore Health and Mana
+25% Stamina Regeneration for 20 mins
Rejuvenation III - Once fully rested, receive the following buffs:
Fully restore Health and Mana
+30% Stamina Regeneration for 30 mins
Stay nourished from food 10% longer
We hope between the Sanctuary benefits and the Rest Mechanics, this will make it feel more motivating to build out a base and have base building directly tie into the exploration gameplay.
Previously, Spirit Amenities were purely cosmetic, decorative stations that were built to attract Spirits to the base – they looked special but didn’t really follow through in any significant way. We wanted to give more impact to the amenities - after all, if the Spirits think they’re so great, you should too! Now each Spirit Amenity has a gameplay purpose, such as:
Spirit Tree
Increases growth rate of farm plots placed near it
Spirit Hot Spring
Interact with this to receive a potent healing buff
We believe this will offer more interesting choices as you’re building out your base, as well as make the Spirit Amenities feel more unique and magical.
We’ve always wanted players to feel like they are building a living, thriving Sanctuary for the Spirits, but it has fallen a bit short of that. Players really love that Spirits show up in the base (it’s actually one of the highest rated features in our surveys), so we decided to lean into that! Now Spirits can show up at almost any of the comfort buildables and stations to hang out. They’ll spawn in and out, and hopefully show up in some surprising and delightful places. You’ll also notice that it's not just Guide Spirits (the lil blue guys) showing up, but now Spirit Companions (Tideray, Cindertail, etc) can show up in some places as well! This is just one small step towards integrating Spirits more into the base, and we hope to add even more Spirit features to the base and game overall!
This will be in our Tend, Build, Thrive patch on March 30th! Since we’re close to our launch, this is our final sneak peek blog for this patch! In our next Dev Stream we’ll be sharing an overview of everything coming in the patch, so make sure to tune in! Have ideas for Sanctuary Benefits? Or where Spirits can spawn? Things you want the Rejuvenation buff to do? Let us know in the comments or catch us in Discord and talk directly with us in our ask-the-devs channel! Until next time,
TH Stephiroth