Whilst I’m away this week, I wanted to take some time to put together a few articles covering different aspects of design for Vault of the Void. The first thing I wanted to tackle was the Void fight itself, as it’s something that has come up a few times already, both on the forums and in the Discord. So let’s dive in!
I want to start by clearing something up. The following explanation isn’t me trying to prove I’m right. Heck, I’m just some bloke from Australia who’s learning on the fly - I’m no more qualified than anyone else! What I want to do is provide my thought process behind why things are the way they are, and use that as a platform to encourage and invite discussion on the subject.
When I originally designed the Void fight, it was very different. All versions were, and there were... several. There was an age when “Void Shackles” existed, a mechanic that eventually got ported to what we know as the Black Coach fight. There was a time when the Void would gain AP for every point of energy you spent. Blade Hidden loved it. There was also a time when it scaled based on cards played, and de-scaled (like a coffee machine?) based on Purging. I could go on, but I won’t.
It came to a point where I had to decide what the Void fight should be. There's several factors I wanted to consider:
Runs in Vault take a long time
Not a LONG time, but a fairly decent time. Whilst veterans clock in around 60min, it's not uncommon for runs to hit the 90-120min mark. I wanted to keep this as part of the consideration when it came to the Void fight. Which leads into the next point
No one likes to hit a hard counter
This is core to pretty much everything in Vault. Whilst you have the ability to sideboard in cards, no one likes to hit that one fight which just hard counters everything you do. Don’t get me wrong, there was a point in time when that happened. In fact, I lent into it, hard. Taking a Bleed deck into the Ghostly Piranhas fight was almost certain death. Originally I thought this wasn’t a problem - I telegraphed the upcoming fight to the user, they just need to adapt their deck more! It turns out that wasn’t fun for users. No one likes to invest into a build only to have the game say “Ah, sorry no.” (doesn’t matter how politely you do it!) Also, there's a fine line between “good sideboarding” and “oh my - this is a chore”. Swapping in a timely AoE card or bringing Slow instead of Weak to a high Frenzy fight is the good end of Sideboarding. Doing a full deck rebuild mid run, it turns out, isn’t.
In Vault, encounters will propose challenges to your deck, but not counters. The Berzerker will punish your Hidden Blade build, but with smart play, an elegant deck or a bit of luck, you’ll still be able to get past it.
The Hag is going to punish a Future Strike build more than others. Bleed may have a harder time against the Ghostly Piranhas. The Black Coach might cause a slower Corruption deck a bit of pain. But at the end of the day, these should be challenges, not brick walls.
The End Game should lean into the Player Agency that Vault is built around
This is where the Vault Guardian system comes from, and will lead into my point. I wanted there to be some heavy challenges when it comes to the end game, but one that allows a player's prior knowledge to inform their choices and make their job easier. Queue Vault Guardians.
Each of these present the aforementioned “challenges” in a strong way - but knowledge is key. Whilst fighting the Spidernest with a full Ability deck is possible, it can be tough. The Queen of Ages may be defeatable with a Bleed deck, but it won’t be easy! The Vault Guardians act as counters and challenges to your deck, but presents players with a choice on how to approach them.
Cue the Void Fight
So when it comes to the Void fight, given the above points, I wanted to ensure that it was the opposite of the Guardians. It shouldn’t be a counter to certain deck types. Players should be able to fight the Void the way they want, with the deck they’ve lovingly created over the past 90min+.
If you spend your time perfecting the most awesome Bleed deck, and it’s instantly countered the moment you walk into the Void fight - that would suck.
So what if there were different types of Void fights, and the player was informed which one they had to fight at the start of the run? Whilst that is technically possible - what happens when you’re in the mood to play The Enlightened, and you roll into a run where the Void retaliates with damage every time you attack it? Delay Block would suddenly feel pretty worthless. Do you re-roll? Do you invest 90+ min on the hope you’ll be strong enough?
The Vault guardians are presented at the start of the run so the player can plan around it. Choose the Blessing they want, or picking the Guardians they feel they have a chance against. The key here is that there is a choice. You only need to fight 2 out of the 4.
So with all this in mind, I designed the Void fight as a Victory Lap. You’ve fought everything there is to fight. You’ve beaten two Vault Guardians. You’re 90 min in and you’re invested in your deck. You have the combos, the play style, the methods all down pat. Vault gives you the tools to make this happen. I often say that Vault is a combo builder - I want to give you the tools to make the filthiest deck you can. Here's all the cards available on the floor. Cherry pick what you need to get the job done!
Once you get into the Void fight, in my mind, you’ve already won.
I believe in this so much so, that in the analytics system, I actually count getting to the Vault as a Victory. The Void fight is there to give you, the player, a chance to show how strong your deck is - in a near perfect scenario. They aren’t going to counter it, they aren’t going to make your life hard with funky mix ups and change up mechanics. They’re going to do two things:
- They’re going to have a lot of HP
- They’re going to scale. Fast.
It’s a race. And make no mistake - it's a tough fight! But if you’ve set things up right, and the cards have fallen your way, you should be set up to take it on. How quickly can you bring down 2000 HP of hurt that Attacks every 2 out of 3 turns?
So that's why the fight is designed the way it is. Is it right for everyone? Probably not. There's several angles one could take when designing that last fight. It also doesn’t help that on Normal difficulty, he can feel like a pushover a little. However when it comes to Hard and Impossible, you really do need to have things trimmed down and running well to overcome the challenge.
I hope this helps shed a little light on what went on inside the old coconut when it came to this encounter. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below - I’ll be sure to read them as I always do and respond where I can!
That's all for me - until next time!