Hello all!
This is a bit later than usual, but here we are!
Today, I will be talking about upgrades - very juicy stuff, I know. There are multitudes of ways to increase your character's abilities, from flat stat upgrades, to more dynamic things, like choices in upgrading skills.
The Board Boar
Umnok, the proprietor of the Board Boar, will allow you to refurbish old buildings along with building new ones and upgrading those that you find in the wild.
Skill Points
The first thing that I will be going over are skill points. These are gained from skill shrines which randomly dot the dungeons that you are going to be visiting. They are used to increase the efficacy of any given skill, but only for the current run that you are on.
Along with increasing the efficacy of the chosen skill, they also increase base stats. Each skill increases base stats in a different way, giving a bit more choice to placement than just what skill you like the most.
The Blacksmith
In town, and unlocked by default, is the blacksmith Gon. Gon will augment your abilities through a pretty straightforward stat increase. Not particularly exciting, but, as it stands, he gives you upgrades for your base stats - Health, Armor, Shield, and Damage.
The Apothecary
Koria, both a playable character and the proprietor of her own shop, will upgrade your potions for you. By default, the player is able to carry one potion with them on each run, but after unlocking the Apothecary, you are able to both increase the capacity of potions and their efficacy.
The Scarification Altar
Roil, once found and rescued, will open up shop in town, allowing him to grant the characters different 'scars.' Each scar is, in essence, a generic upgrade that each character can choose from individually. Despite being generic, as in, all characters have the same scar choices, they are very powerful and generally very different from the types of upgrades found at the Blacksmith.
The Smoking Room
Oriilou'sii, again, once found and rescued, will open up her smoking bar in town. From there, you can get temporary buffs that will persist only one dungeon run. That's alright though, they are free, but you can only take one at a time. Some buffs also come with negative effects, so read the choices carefully.
The Bosses Killed Bonus, or BKB
I had nowhere else to explain this one in particular, so here we go. The Bosses Killed Bonus (BKB) is a cumulative bonus for all characters to their defensive stats based on the absolute number of bosses that have been defeated. It doesn't matter how many times one defeats any particular boss, they still grant more bonus.
The bonus is small, something like 0.5 health per kill, but eventually, it leads all characters to being stronger. The bonus that you receive is also different based on the 'class' of the character that killed the boss.
A pure mage, for example, gives bonus shield, but a rogue gives bonus armor. And a hybrid mage/rogue gives half the value of each!
That's not quite all that I have to share about upgrading, but the last bit needs to wait for another day - the Shroomery. But! That will be coming eventually, I've a plan, you see.
Until next time,
Thank you for reading,
Lucas