Hello everyone!
Wow, is it already mid August? This means that today is time for a new blogpost! <3
We'll have some news about the next big patch in September! But to keep you up to date:
- We're VERY excited by the new map! It's a LOT of work, but we think it will be worth the wait!
- As usual, we kinda went all out with this new map, so we needed a bit more time than anticipated to be completely happy with it. This means that at this moment, the "End of Summer" deadline may be very slightly delayed by a few days.
- In a few weeks, we'll have a blogpost with more info about the new map and the new features!
Today, we wanted to highlight our amazing community! Since the release, we saw how passionate about the game each and everyone of you are!
Not only do you create amazing guides and strategies for the game, but everytime there's a new player who asks for help, you all try to help them the best you can with great tips and advice!
As a Community Manager, it's always a pleasure to see such a positive and wholesome community <3
This is why today, we asked some of you on Discord some questions about the game!
Dran Kuo
Where are you from?
I am from Wisconsin, US!
What’s your favourite build?
My favorite build is a bruiser melee, preferably with a 2H axe for packs and any other weapon to clean up stragglers. It may not be a popular pick, but a quick armory means I've got plenty of gear that everyone can use no matter what stats are on it -- whatever's not getting sold for more cash, anyway -- and more than enough defense (block and resistance specifically!) to not worry about getting hit.
Do you have any advice to give to players who discover The Last Spell for the first time?
If they're just discovering it for the first time, just have fun. There's a lot of discussion on "optimal" or "best" ways to play that are totally overkill and shouldn't dissuade people from playing their own way. Even if the run doesn't go so well, you can go into the next one with new ideas and a few extra unlocks to ensure steady progress.
If they're struggling to get further -- pay close attention to the wound system. In a lot of games, a nearly dead unit is still as dangerous as a full health one, but in this game, a nearly dead enemy can barely move, deals about half damage, and most importantly, can get in the way of other enemies. If you're holding a gap in the wall, you can let the weak one hit you instead of letting a fresh one take its place..
Which night is the hardest for new players?
The nights have shifted around recently, with Bulkies showing up earlier than before, but I think the difficult nights are always going to be the one they aren't prepared for.
Whether its suddenly dealing with an additional side coming under attack, or a larger wave hitting a weaker side, or a new enemy they haven't seen before, it can usually set them back enough to make the next night unrecoverable.
To anyone going into something unknown -- line of sight can work for and against you, but even a single tile of stone wall can let you assess the situation without getting pinned down by archers or other ranged attacks. If you start behind that for the first turn of the night, you can decide whether its safe to run out in the open or if you need to retreat back to it at the end of each turn.
What’s your favourite thing in TLS?
My favorite thing from a design point of view has to be the art and sound direction. The skills look great, feel great, and taking out a large pack of enemies is incredibly satisfying.
From a gameplay point of view, I've been having fun testing the limits. The experiment to see how much damage I could deal in a single hit was hilarious, and there's other challenges to try beyond just surviving once you've got the game "figured out". Try new weapons you ignored or different city development plans -- it might prepare you for new stuff that comes out in the future.
and if anyone doubts me on the 2H axe, I even have this!
Eevlupix
Where are you from?
New Jersey, USA
What's your favourite build?
Critical builds, definitely
Infinite mana and big yellow numbers are very fun, especially when combined with multi-hit, aoe, and propogation abilities
Do you have any advice to give to players who discover The Last Spell for the first time?
Besides focusing on getting a resource income early, I think new players should just experiment with all the build options this game has to offer. This game gives you a lot of freedom when crafting a team for fending off an apocalypse and it's great. Finding what you like to do can often be a lot more fun than just skipping everything in favor of the "best" options, and that's what games are all about.
What's THE weapon that can get you out of dangerous situations?
I think the hand crossbow is probably my favorite weapon, since it can do a little bit of everything, and really well. Being able to burn down a horde in a few actions is really satisfying and if everything is dead, then there are less dangerous situations to get out of.
Do you think TLS is challenging? Why?
While I haven't yet played on the highest difficulty, I feel that the difficulty is pretty well managed, requiring you to plan ahead if you want to survive as long as possible. There's some room for mistakes but not so much that you don't have to think, and I think that's very good for a strategy game, and it's really fun to me.
Firens
Where are you from?
I'm from north of France. A few km away from Ishtar Games studio actually!
What's your favourite build?
Tough one! Even if I abuse 1h-crossbow (most powerful weapon right now), the build I actually prefer playing is what I call "Propagator", which is a mage with Druid Staff and Tome of Secrets. I optimize it around propagation bounce/dmg, poison, opportunistic, and obviously critical hits. It can debuff armies of monster, deals insane poison dmg over a few turns, and burst a few dozens monsters if needed.
I find it the most fun, because you have to think about how your spells will actually bounce from one enemy to another to maximise your dmg.
Do you have any advice to give to players who discover The Last Spell for the first time?
Don't be afraid to die! Be bold with placement, and try every type of weapon.
Also, don't neglect accuracy! This stat is much more important than it seems!
THE perk that helped you the most?
During prologue, I would have said Mana Collector, which gives you mana every time you get a critical hit. But it comes a bit late in the game, and you need a lot of Crit% to actually use it. So in the current state of the game, I would say First Blood is the most helpful (+15% critical hit against enemies with full health). Partly because it helps you doing a lot of dmg (and killing most enemies in one spell), but also because it allows you to trigger Mana Collector consistently, even if you don't have much Crit%.
What’s the biggest mistake you made in TLS?
I make a lot of mistakes around base building. But if I stay around battles, my biggest mistake was to use a propagation spell while having a hero in melee range of a monster... Which ended in my hero being poisoned and killed... I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one to have done it!
Topgun
Where are you from?
I’m from the province of Quebec in Canada.
What’s your favourite build?
Anything with mass crowd control and poison, debuff the horde and watch it slowly die by itself. Combine with automated defenses and a big wall to really get that tower defense kinda feel.
Do you have any advice to give to players who discover The Last Spell for the first time?
Progress might seem slow, but really it’s just to the pace of the game, since combat is turn based, there’s no rush, take your time, both in combat and just while playing in general. I know the music really makes the adrenaline flow,
What’s your personal accomplishment in the game?
I like doing challenge runs, of those, beating the game without dealing damage was the most interesting and fun.
Tell us about traps! How useful are they?
Traps are... in a weird place in the game currently, and they will probably always be a bit weird by the simple nature that they need to be used up to provide value, walls block pathing even when not targeted, catapults and ballistas can provide value at no cost after the purchase as long as they are kept alive, traps need to loose durability to do anything. Basically, traps are the material equivalent to choosing between buying equipment in the shop or building a mine with gold. Catapults are expensive but can reasonably be expected to provide long term value, traps help just now... unless they aren’t activated (with semi-random spawn locations, that just sometimes happens). Anyways, so the 2 situations were short term benefits should be considered is when long term isn’t a concern, this is mostly the case when you aren’t sure to survive the next night, or for the last few nights in general. Already this kinda eliminates traps before night 6 ish. Now all you need to do is pick the right trap for the job, damage traps are best for desperate situations with unreliable but potentially massive group damage, slow traps are a cost effective way to give you more time great for late game, and stun traps can effectively grant you one free turn if placed right beside your wall if your going for a more defensive playstyle. One last tip, remember that traps activate after monsters move, but before they act, this means that stun traps effectively stun for 2 turns, and that any traps placed next to a wall has higher chance of getting activated since they’ll move bunched up ready to attack but will get shutdown before the wall get pummeled. That was a much longer response then the others, but don’t you try and pretend you didn’t know what would happen by asking that, devs.
Def_Metal
Where are you from?
I am from West Sussex, England UK.
What’s your favourite build?
Tough question, i want to provide my optimal build and secondly my 'favourite' build that is more focused on fun.
Build One:
1H Xbow (preferably with multi hit, crit or propagation bounces)
Teleport Crystal offhand
All armor and trinkets geared towards: Multi-Hit, Crit, Propagation Bounces, Propagation Damage, Ranged Damage or Damage increases.
Perks:
- Specialist, unless i find another 1H Xbow with important stats to hold as i want two charges of the Blaze attack at all times.
- Mana collector and first blood, to complement the crit chance increases I will take on levels. This ensures I effectively have 'free' mana.
- Energized, as with Blaze there will be so many kills that I can generate additional AP.
- Swift as the wind, for movement points to offset the low range on the weapon.
- Initiator - for the additional multi-hit
- Avid Learner - for the XP boost
- Steady Aim
- Cherry Picking + Confident - Increase reliability to 100% against isolated enemies when at full health, an important early game DPS increase.
Build Two: (Fun Build)
Druidic Staff (with damage, poison damage, propagation bounces or magic damage increase or isolation)
All armor and trinkets geared towards: Poison, Propagation, Magic Damage or Damage increases
Perks:
- Mana Collector and First Blood
- Potent Toxins
- Swift as the wind
- Initiator
- Avid Learner
- Magic Fuel (as this is a big DPS increase, and gives incentive to collect armor with +Mana as this gives additional damage and can make some unusable armors usable)
- Steady Aim
- Energized
- Cherry Picking + Confident
- Mark (as a free debuff to proc opportunistic against key targets)
Levelling upgrades focus on magic, propagation, poison and opportunistic. This build can output huge
This build is fun because you can entrap enemies with vines, poison them with bees and with enough Opportunistic bonus you can one shot almost every enemy in the game. A very powerful but fun build.
Do I have any advice for new players?
Yes - you must treat your AP like the ultimate resource. Do not waste it on enemies that are (a) out of range from causing city panic or damage to heroes unless no other choice and (b) focus your AP on priority targets. Learning what is a priority will come with successive playthroughs.
Drakenkin's Steam guide on the game is superb and remains relevant, I used this a lot.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2523369507
Otherwise, my guide series on my Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/defmetal1/videos) has a beginner's guide video that gives some focus on how to progress. In honesty though, i would recommend a few blind runs before turning to a guide as you want to experience every aspect of this brilliant game yourselves!
What buildings do you make first?
This is highly debated in the endgame community right now. However, I am very firmly of the view that the first two buildings should be gold mines, upgraded to Production 3 and Mine 2 before moving onto anything else. This can be achieved quite quickly, and produces a very strong foundation for an economy that will generate enough gold to see you through to Night 12. There is no need for 3 gold mines. This remains true until potentially you have full meta unlocks through repeated playthroughs, and at that point it may be better to go straight for production buildings but this remains RNG dependent. Consequently, even in my Apoc 4 runs, I still run two gold mines as the output is steady and dependable.
How many runs did it take you to make through the end of TLS?
I can't quite remember now! I ended up doing multiple runs that I quit half way through because I was filming content etc so wasn't focused on completions. However, I think if i started a clean save right now, I'd like to think I could complete standard difficult on possibly Lakeburg 1 and certainly at Lakeburg 2. Apoc 4 I'm less certain on, but I'd hope for a completion on Lakeburg 7. Watch this space soon!
Thank you very much for answering our questions! We feel very lucky to have such great players <3
Don't forget to join our Discord server!
Take care, warriors!