Enotria has 4 elements: Vis, Gratia, Malanno, and Fatuo which are used by enemies, and the maskless one. Elements cause damage to the receiver's health: the maskless one may encounter enemies that seems especially resistant to an element but extremely weak to others. As an example: inside the Monastery of Maja all the wicked entities are especially resistant to Fatuo, however, they are extremely weak against Gratia.
Masks are crafted automatically upon collecting enough shards; excessive shards are sold automatically giving the maskless one extra memoria every time shards of that type are collected.
Hitting an enemy with a melee attack charge or the lines by a set amount - this amount varies from attack to attack and it's higher with slower weapons. The maskless one can alter its charge speed by leveling up certain virtues, through certain mask passive abilities and the path of innovators. Additionally, upgrading a Line makes it charge faster. It is important to note that lines have different charging speeds, usually depending on how powerful a line is; this is hinted at in the line description (we are also improving the UX for that part so it is more understandable to non-Italian speakers).
Ardore is a form of damage and works exactly as any other elements of Enotria. The difference is that it is always active so it coexists with both Physical and Elemental damage. The quirk of Ardore damage is that enemies are not really able to resist its force, which means that Ardore in a way ignores the enemy defenses and can be extremely effective against tanky enemies. On the other side, it requires a lot of investment from the player in the related virtue/path of innovator. Unraveling is an abnormal status that once it procs makes the receiver exposed to a powerful riposte attack, it is completely detached from ardore damage.
In Enotria there is no difference between a Frontstab and a Backstab: they deal identical total damage even if the animation is different and can only be performed when an entity is exposed from Unraveling. We have them both in the game because the player can either be in front or the back of an enemy and we wanted him to always be able to perform those powerful attacks regardless of where it is.
Enotria has 4 statuses that come from elements (and Unraveling), those are Dizzy (related to Vis), Radiant (related to Gratia), Sick (related to Malanno), Wicked (related to Fatuo). They can be applied to both the maskless one and enemies alike in many different ways including using infusion, using the environment, or simply using weapons or lines that are naturally imbued with the element. Status damage builds up with each hit, upon reaching a threshold it procs and stays active for a set duration of time or until it is cleansed by external effects. Enemies and the maskless one can be affected by all 4 statuses at once, additionally using a riposte with a weapon infused or naturally imbued with a certain element: instantly applies the related status, bypassing the buildup phase. For their effect in more detail:
- Dizzy reduces the defenses and increases damage and stamina regeneration: it is a really dangerous status to be afflicted with as it makes some enemies deal a lot more damage than they usually do, on the flip side it also makes you stronger so potentially you can defeat enemies way faster than usual. When applied on enemies it softens them, so it is especially useful against tanky enemies: however, be careful because dizzy enemies also have their damage increased.
- Radiant heals the afflicted one over time, however being hit in that state causes a powerful explosion stopping the healing entirely. The explosion has an area of effect so all entities inside that area are affected by the explosion and it is also more powerful the more Elemental Power the dealer has. Most of the time the healing is barely seen because an attack that procs Radiant also immediately triggers the explosion, so be careful when encountering an enemy that builds up this status on you. The most consistent way to take advantage of radiant healing is through the environment or items… I’ll leave it as that for now.
- Sick causes the receiver to take damage over time, for the maskless one and weak entities this is usually lethal when not treated in time. Also, the affected entity emits an aura near him that builds up sickness to everybody else, and this makes the sickness spread more and more… so it is an extremely powerful tool to use with extra care because it can turn against you very easily. One tip I can give: the damage dealt from sickness is malanno damage and that means that everything that improves the malanno defense also reduces the sickness damage received (and there is also a perk in the path of innovators for that).
- Wicked vastly boosts the affected entity's elemental power, however, if one is hit while wicked, the damage dealer is healed for a portion of the damage dealt… and yes this includes enemies. Be aware of wicked mages…
Infusing a weapon allows the maskless one to inflict the elemental damage and the related status through the melee attacks of the weapon he is currently wielding (be careful: switching weapon removes the infusion) - infusion can’t stack and is not reset by subsequent activation so you need to be creative to keep their uptime for as long as possible, also some weapon have attack attacks that temporarily infuse the weapon just for that attack. Being affected by a status simply applies to the maskless one the related abnormal status effect.
Gems modify the parry: upon parrying an attack, depending on the gems you have equipped, the damage is either mitigated or negated entirely, this also changes if the attack was ranged or melee. For example in the demo we have the “Unpolished gem” that is the easiest to use however it doesn’t inflict a lot of unraveling damage and only partially reduces elemental damage even if the parry was perfect. The “hardened stone” and “Indaco tear” are harder to use but more effective at inflicting unraveling, the first is stronger against melee physical damage and the other against melee elemental damage. We suggest reading the item descriptions for those ones as they usually hit at their effects
We are making it so you see the status damage that you would do IF you infuse your weapon (same for element). If the row is highlighted that means that element/status is innate and active by default. If you infuse an innate weapon then you have BOTH the innate AND the infused element/status… and if you infuse a weapon with the same element as its innate you get double elemental damage/status
Dodging is easier and is intended to be that way but also doesn’t apply unraveling damage and even using the related perk is not as effective as parrying an attack with a strong gem. Also parrying certain attacks allows you to interrupt that enemy and gives you an opening that otherwise you would not have. We believe that players will find the way that best fits their playstyle and adapt over time. We designed the game to allow several ways to effectively approach the same scenario, so feel free to experiment and choose what's best for you!
We are already working on explaining the scaling on weapons. Scaling does exist in Enotria like in other Souls games. Every weapon, line, etc… scales in a different way; the slower the weapon/line the higher the scaling (upgrading a weapon/line also boosts the rate of the scaling)
Attack Power boosts your physical damage (of your weapon, lines, perks, mask abilities, etc…)
Elemental Power boost Vis, Gratia, Malanno, and Fatuo damage
Status Power boost Dizzy, Radiant, Sick, Wicked and Unraveling damage
Ardore Power boosts Ardoredamage
The same way as regular enemies, no differences. It just takes more time to apply for a status to a boss.
You can use the environment, consume certain items, or take hits from enemy-infused attacks (very dangerous).
See ya next time, Maskless Ones!
