Hey there, Survivors!
In today’s Dev Notes, we’re excited to share something new we’ve been working on—the revamp of the Blacksmith System!
Jorgn: The OG from EA
Since the Early Access days, Jorgn has been holding down the fort in the hideout. He’s probably one of the first NPCs you ran into, and he’s been your go-to guy for Weapon Upgrades and Repairs.
Jorgn’s all about giving players a sense of growth through weapon upgrades, making him a big part of character progression in Remore. Alongside leveling up and gaining traits, he’s been one of the main ways to feel your character getting stronger.
The Blacksmith System also added more depth to scavenging. It wasn’t just about finding survival essentials like food anymore—it gave you a reason to dive deeper into dangerous areas, hunting for better weapons and the materials to craft them.
At one point during development, we actually took the blacksmith feature out (!) for a while. Part of it was to better sync character growth with levels and traits, but mostly it was to shift the focus of the game from scavenging to tactical combat, making things way more intense and exciting.
In the end, this helped us nail down character growth and build a solid tactical combat-focused structure. As we mentioned in[Dev Note] Faster Battles! More Rewards!,the faster pace between battles and resting really kept the tension alive during expeditions.
On the flip side, we ran into a problem: scavenging during expeditions started to feel less exciting. We’ll go into more detail in future Dev Notes, but a major change to how memories are tied to characters made memory acquisition a core part of the game. This naturally narrowed down the range of items you’d hunt for.
Another challenge was balancing difficulty and character growth. Having all growth tied directly to the character made things feel a bit one-dimensional. Sure, there are plenty of ways to customize how your character grows, but it was hard to ignore the feedback that focusing everything on just one aspect left something to be desired when tackling tougher stages.
That’s why Jorgn is making his big comeback—this time with a shiny new weapon system and some cool upgrades!
Jorgn’s Back: The Blacksmith Who Levels Up with You
The old blacksmith system had its limits, mostly because of how the weapon system worked. The idea was to let you enhance weapons, add traits, and upgrade their tiers so you could handle harder stages. But with only a few upgrade levels and not much need for them compared to the number of stages, the system felt a bit dull.
Now, with more stages, more finely tuned difficulty levels, and more reasons to grow, Remore is in a totally different place. Even with a revamped blacksmith and weapon system, tougher challenges are waiting ahead.
We’ll cover the updated weapon system in future Dev Notes, but today, let’s focus on what’s new with Jorgn.
The biggest change? Jorgn now Levels Up! Every time he works on a project, he earns experience points. As he levels up, his blacksmithing skills get better and better.
When you first meet Jorgn, only the dismantling feature is unlocked. This lets you break down those ok weapons you find during expeditions and turn them into materials for crafting better ones. Plus, every time you dismantle a new weapon, Jorgn gains blacksmithing experience and adds that weapon’s recipe to his memory.
Once he hits Level 2 and unlocks weapon crafting, Jorgn can start making weapons in three stages. With each stage, the weapon gets closer to completion, depending on his skill (and a bit of luck).
The Blacksmith’s Brilliant Inspiration!
So far, Jorgn hasn’t changed much, but we’re adding something new— “Blacksmith’s Inspiration”—to spice up weapon crafting.
Now, Jorgn can have a burst of genius while crafting, and when that happens, the weapon turns out at a higher tier than expected. This means the weapon will be way stronger and more efficient than the usual ones you find on expeditions.
If you craft a weapon that really gets Jorgn’s intuition going, the chances of this inspiration kicking in go up even more. This means you’ll have a higher chance of crafting deadly weapons and can bring even more variety to your expeditions!
On top of that, the blacksmithing features are still getting updated in tons of cool ways. Get ready to see more of Jorgn’s inspired work!
That’s all for today, we’ll catch you again soon.
Thanks, Survivors!!
REMORE