Hey backlanders,
We’re super excited to share details on our upcoming Crafting system in update 1.1: Clockmaker’s Tools, coming September 29th!
Crafting In Hell Clock
We have two main goals with Crafting in Hell Clock: providing a tool to mitigate RNG during your progress (especially in Ascension); and providing another fun dimension to item progression.
Designing crafting systems in ARPGs is very tricky. If there’s too much RNG, it becomes a full “gambling” experience where you feel little to no control over the outcome. If it’s too deterministic, it becomes the main path to item progression, and the good-old “kill monster, drop loot” system that we all love so much loses a lot of its value.
What we are trying to achieve is a healthy in-between that works in the context of Hell Clock’s quirky structure. We don’t want to have a system as deterministic and as in-depth as Last Epoch, for example, but we also want something that gives you a bit more control than in Path of Exile 2 (pre-0.3, that is).
How Clockmaker’s Tools Work
All crafting in 1.1 is done by using special crafting currency called “Tools”. This currency starts dropping from the middle of Act 1 onwards, with drop rates improving as you progress further into the game.
Besides dropping fully-usable Tools right then and there, you can also drop Fragments - which are useless on their own, but if you gather enough of them you can create a usable crafting Tool.
Using Tools is easy: in your Reliquary back in town, just click on the Tool you want to use to activate it, then click on the Relic you want to use it on - it’s that simple.
There are 9 different types of Tools available in 1.1, so let’s go over each of them:
Tool of Tinkering: replaces a random affix on the Relic with a different one
Tool of Enhancement: transforms a Common Relic into a Magic with a new random affix
Greater Tool of Enhancement: transforms a Magic Relic into a Rare with a new random affix
Tool of Locksmithing: locks a random regular affix on the Relic so that it cannot be removed or replaced. Repeated uses of Locksmithing on the same Relic will switch which affix is locked
Imbued Tool of Fury: imbues the Relic with a special regular affix (Imbued Affix) related to Fury path (Life, Melee Damage, Life Leech, Fire Damage, Physical Damage, etc). Replaces an Imbued affix if there is one already
Imbued Tool of Faith: same as above but Faith (Mana, Conviction, Lightning Damage, Mana Shield, etc)
Imbued Tool of Discipline: same as above but Discipline (Evasion, Move Speed, Projectile Amount, Plague Damage, etc)
Corrupted Tool: unpredictably modifies the Relic, which become Corrupted and cannot be modified further
Divine Tool: improves the values of all Affixes on the Relic
Imbued Relics
With 1.1 we are introducing a new type of implicit affix called “Imbued”. Rarely, you will find Relics in the world which will come already Imbued with one of the three Paths (Fury, Devotion, Discipline) - but as we’ve just shown, there are also specialized Tools that will allow you to craft these powerful affixes into any Relic you want.
To allow for even more control of crafting results, the outcome of the Imbuements are different depending on the size of the Relic. For example, a Small (1x1) Relic that is Imbued with Fury can only roll either Life%, Endurance, or Life Regen.
Combined with the fact that you can re-apply Imbued Tools to Relics as many times as you want to get different results, this helps mitigate RNG significantly.
Corruption
And of course, no fun crafting system in an ARPG would be complete without the inclusion of the ultimate gambler’s gambit: Corruption. To truly get your most powerful items to the next level, you can risk it all and apply a Corrupted Tool to them, with volatile results.
No matter the outcome, after applying the Tool of Corruption to an item for the first time, that item will become Corrupted, which prevents any Tools from being used on it (including Tool of Corruption).
Corrupted Tool’s will have a 25% chance to do absolutely nothing besides Corrupting the item.
They will also have a 25% chance to randomize the existing affixes (which most probably will “brick” it, making it useless for your build).
However, there is also a 25% chance that it will improve all of the affixes on the Relic, similarly to a Divine Tool. The intensity of this effect is also random, but it can be as powerful as using 3 Divine Tools!
And finally, there is a 25% chance to add a brand new kind of implicit affix to the item: a Corrupted Affix. These will be extremely powerful, and the possible Corrupted Affixes are also based on the size of the Relic. For example: Corrupting a Grand Relic (4x1) can result in affixes such as “+1 Max Summons”, or “+50% Projectile Amount”.
Naturally, just as with Imbued Relics, you will be able to drop Relics which are already Corrupted. These will always contain a Corrupted implicit - and if you are REALLY lucky, you can drop a Relic that is both Imbued AND Corrupted.
Why Can’t We Craft on Gear?
As some of you may have already noticed, Gear in Hell Clock is not designed to be build-defining. They are mostly base stats and stat multipliers that amplify what you are building with your Relics and Constellations - putting them into the same category of the Bell skill tree.
The traditional “Gear” from ARPGs in Hell Clock is, and has always been, the Relics.
The reason why we went with this system in the first place is because of our game’s unique structure: we want you to put together builds on the fly, very fast, and not grind or trade for specific things in order to be successful.
Having Unique effects tied to Gear pieces meant you would have to juggle very limited item slots, which naturally decreases the amount of possible combinations. For example, if both “Powder Bag” and “Blunderbuss” were Gloves, you could not have their effect simultaneously in your build.
This is probably why the Diablo 4 designers chose to have Legendary effects transferable between gear slots, for example - and such a solution would be too cumbersome for a fast-paced game like Hell Clock.
How scarce will the currency be?
Our intention is for the leveling/campaign experience to already offer you a few Crafting options, mostly to help mitigate bad RNG and maybe to offer a few exciting and unexpected “gg” crafts, sporadically. Expect quite a few Tinkering and Enhancement tools to be available, with some Imbued tools here and there, and the Greater Enhancement tools being the rarest drops of them all. Corrupted and Divine drops should be cause for celebration.
In the endgame (both in higher World Tiers and in the upcoming Endless Nightmares), expect a lot more drops, with a Divine drop still feeling like a “gg” moment. You will be able to spam Tinkering, and spend a few Greater Enhancements every session to fish for those perfect Rares.
In general, if you spend enough currency, it should be relatively easy to get the outcomes you want: you can use Locksmithing until you lock your most valuable affix; then use Tinkering until you get a good enough roll on the remaining ones; then your preferred Imbued to get your implicit. Although these seem like extremely powerful tools (and they are!), the amount of items you have in Hell Clock due to the Relic system is larger than in a regular ARPG, so gathering enough tools to min-max ALL of your inventory will be a true endgame goal.
See you soon!
Clockmaker’s Tools (v1.1) is right around the corner, releasing September 29th. While Crafting is the most exciting feature of this update, it is far from the only one - so stay tuned to our Blog posts and our socials for more information leading up to release!
Cheers,
~Mark and the Hell Clock Team