Greetings, Adventurers!
Gold jingles in your purse and glory swells in your heart, but the greatest reward is the strength you carry forward. Today, we’re pulling back the curtain on some of the systems that let your heroes grow mightier as they conquer the depths of the Vault.
These are early design drafts, so expect a few tweaks along the road!
We’re excited to unveil the next stage of your journey into the Abomination Vaults! As you venture deeper, your party will grow stronger with each challenge you overcome. This, of course, is represented by levelling up!
We plan to utilize a "milestone" progression system, in which the heroes level-up upon defeating each floor's final major encounter or boss battle. Upon level-up, each hero immediately receives a handful of benefits:
Stat Increases: Each hero receives an HP increase reflecting their class’s natural hardiness, as well as Power and Defense: attributes that affect the heroes’ ability to output damage and healing and resist incoming damage.
New Abilities: For example, at Level 2, Ezren can gain access to Wall of Fire! You can freely equip new abilities via the Loadout Menu before or during any adventure.
One Feat Point: Feats are powerful passive bonuses spent in the Feat Tree, which is accessed at the Otari Garrison.
Each level-up further expands your capacity to customize each member of the squad. The role your characters play, whether offensive, defensive, supportive, or a hybrid, is yours to shape!
A Hero Level-Up screen displaying unlocks for each character
To further reflect the growth of each character during the adventure, the team has begun work on the Feat system. Players will access the Feat Tree by speaking with Captain Longsaddle at the Otari Garrison. Here you’ll spend Feat Points to hone your heroes’ specialties. If you ever wish to walk a different path, you may re-spec your Feat Points for a fresh start.
Each hero’s Feat Tree currently branches into three specializations containing four feats related to specific ideas like Amiri’s ‘Rage’ state, Kyra’s tanking capabilities, or Harsk’s ranged attacks. Choosing all four feats in a cluster will unlock its inner “Mastery” Feat, a potent additional power granted as a reward for your specialization. Will you cherry-pick the best feats from each cluster, or focus your points into one path for the valuable Mastery Feats? Let us know what you think of this system!
The Feat Tree displaying specialisations and unlocks for each Hero
Another concept we’ve been looking at is called the Party Bond, which represents the trust forged in battle between your party members. This design rewards teamwork and squad play, bringing everyone together! In this system, actions such as performing combo attacks, pulling off team plays, and watching each other’s backs earn Party Bond XP. As your bond strengthens, the entire party reaps the benefits, climbing from Tier 1 to Tier 10 over the course of the adventure.
Each Tier earned grants ever-greater blessings, such as increased combo effect damage and healing, faster ally revival, and longer-lasting support effects. Work together and reap the rewards!
The Party Bond Icon at the Centre of the Feat Tree
We hope this first glimpse into our progression systems has been insightful. We can’t wait to hear how you build your heroes, master your Feat Trees, and strengthen your Party Bonds.
Join us in the official Discord for deeper lore, design insights, and tavern chatter as the game continues to take shape! We’re eager to hear your thoughts!
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That wraps things up for this progress update! Thanks as ever for your support. To continue hearing more update, join our official Discord server and follow us on social media!
Onward, to glory!
~ The Pathfinder: Abomination Vaults Team
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