The first ten players that beat my highscore by November 30, 2021 get the game for free!
This is what you need to do:
- Get the free demo right from the store page. Note that the IndieDB version does not qualify for this contest, because it doesn't have access to the leaderboard.
- Create a character. If you've played the demo before, you may use your existing character.
- Play in doomsday mode. This is important! Infestation mode does not qualify for this contest! You get to choose the mode at (and only at) the beginning of a journey.
If you're using an existing character and forget what mode you picked, check the top right corner of the character screen. If it doesn't say doomsday, you're in infestation mode. To change the mode, you first need to finish the journey. Alternatively, you could create a new character instead.
- Fight battles! Survive! Get good at the game! Once your score on the character screen exceeds 14,128,851 points, you've beaten my highscore. It won't be easy and you'll probably need several runs to achieve that, but it is certainly possible. Further below are a few tips.
- You'll need to upload your score to the leaderboard. Every time you beat your own record you're given the opportunity to submit your score along with a replay of your fights. You don't have to do that every single time, but when your score exceeds 14,128,851 points, that's when you need to upload it as proof.
- Oh, you actually got more than 14,128,851 points? Congratulations! Post a comment below to claim your prize! Make sure to use the same account that you used when playing the game. I will then verify your replay and send you the key via PM. If there are more than ten valid claims, the order of the posts will determine the winners. Note that my verification tool only checks for consistency of the replay data. It'll detect hackers and cheaters, that's all. On the other hand, taking advantage of an exploit (if you find one), is totally fine with me and would not disqualify you. Myriavora is a roguelike, you're supposed to experiment and be creative and I'm not gonna stop you.
This contest ends on November 30, 2021, even if not all prizes have been awarded.
If you have any question or run into a problem, feel free to post a comment. I'll try to respond as quickly as possible.
Crash course on getting good at Myriavora
So, how do you improve your score in Myriavora? Here are some tips.
- You need to survive. When you die, your journey ends and your score resets to zero. When you play the game for the first time, not dying can be a challenge in and of itself. I've written a guide to help you overcome that hurdle.
- Use the irritation pulse multiple times per wave. The first pulse simply starts an incoming wave, but then every further pulse grants a score bonus, but also makes the spiders angrier and more dangerous. Each spider can only be "harvested" once for its irritation bonus, so at some point the pulse won't get you any more score. There's a display in the top right corner of the HUD that shows the aggro level (total score of angry spiders) and irritation bonus (total harvestable irritation score).
- Upgrade your gear! Every time you win a fight, you'll get some pieces of clothing. The higher the score you've achieved, the more and better loot you get. Drag it into your wardrobe to gain more skills for use in combat. There're 24 slots and each item can have up to 2 skills, so you can equip up to 48 skills. Try to max that.
- Sooner or later you'll prefer some skills over others. Swap items in your wardrobe for those that better fit your preferences. You can also dismantle an item and install its skill device into a different item. Right-click on an item to access its crafting menu.
- Make sure to use enough perk skills. They provide permanent bonuses that last until the end of the journey. You'll really need those for the harder battles later in the journey. The skills Upgrade (which provides super or ultra points) and Permanent Power Bonus are particularly important.
- You can watch my replay on the leaderboard to see what skills I equip and how I use them. However, keep in mind that I made a new character to set the highscore for this contest, so I didn't have perfectly optimized gear. I did it that way specifically to prevent myself from setting the bar unreasonably high. But that also means you shouldn't assume my replay to be the be-all and end-all of how to play my game.
- When you pick a battle, pay attention to the rewards you'll get. I typically prefer super point rewards for the first battle of a journey, and ultra points for all subsequent battles. Power or score bonuses are also nice to have. Health is usually not worth it unless you really need it.
The demo has 12 camps in total, so often you're only given one or two battles to choose from. Make the best out of it.
- You'll need some luck. Myriavora is a roguelike (or roguelite to be precise) and heavily relies on randomly created encounters. You'll have good runs and bad runs, no matter how good you are at the game. Perseverance is the key to success.
- Eventually you'll always want to adjust your gear for the upcoming fight. Having multiple clothing bags can help with that. Occasionally they drop as loot, but you can also craft them. Point to a clothing bag and press W to switch your wardrobe to that bag. This way you can quickly switch between your favorite loadouts without the need to swap individual pieces in and out of your wardrobe. However, you'll need a lot of gear to fill multiple bags, so it may take a while until this becomes viable.
That's all for now. Good luck!