Fellow Necromancers,
Run difficulties have been implemented! There are now 3 different difficulties:
Chill Difficulty
No Modifiers
This is the default Difficulty, and exactly the same as the game has been up till now. If you were already enjoying the game and don't want anything different, choose this.
Standard Difficulty
A Monster with at least 60% HP will be auto-selected each Battle (excluding Boss and Final Battles)
Extreme Difficulty
A Monster with at least 60% HP will be auto-selected each Battle (excluding Boss and Final Battles)
0-Cost Moves cannot be duplicated with Duplication Orbs
Cannot see Enemy tooltips before Battle
Philosophy behind the changes:
In an ideal world, we would like players to be switching their teams around more than they do currently. Figuring out the optimal way to play a given configuration is fun, and many Monsters can pair well with a lot of others even if it's not necessarily the absolute 'best' team you could assemble.
The Standard Difficulty was one we spent a lot of time playtesting (manually, it wasn't coded) just prior to release, and we almost decided to make that the main mode of the game. At the last moment we decided that removing the ability to always choose your team might negatively impact newer players too much, and so decided against it.
Now that we have a small but dedicated player base, we're really excited to see what people think! Even though it may seem frustrating at first, we've found it to be more fun overall when you're really forced to make the most out of any given spot, and there is some really interesting counterplay to it as well (such as letting your weaker Monsters take more Damage intentionally so they cannot be force-chosen, or even killing them off entirely and getting a higher chance of Move Tomes for your preferred Monsters),
As always, we welcome your feedback!
Additional Changes:
Can no longer exit the run and re-enter to reset Move Tomes (or the Monster chosen for you on higher Difficulties)
With the introduction of Difficulties, we have decided to remove the ability to 'reset' what Move Tomes you are offered by exiting the run and reloading it. We received feedback from multiple players who wishes this wasn't a possibility, as they felt pressured to take advantage of it.
Resetting a Battle can still be accomplished using this trick however, including at higher Difficulties (though the Monster auto-chosen for you will not change, you can change who you pair it with).
Volcurtle Battle (end of Night 3)
Both Volcurtles have been slightly nerfed - gaining 5 Block on the non-Eruption turn (was 10), dealing 5 Damage (was 10), and gaining 2 Power (was 5). Their HP has also been reduced to 105 (was 120).
Most players agree that this Battle can be a run-ender if you're newer to the game, or if you don't have good sources of Block.
For now we've decided to make the Battle a little easier, but if this isn't enough we may choose to switch its location to a later night.
Additional Achievements
3 more Steam Achievements have been added to the game; one for completing a run on each Difficulty. All other Achievements can be completed on any Difficulty, and nothing has been reset.
What's Next?
Our next update will include additional Enemies. Ideally we would like every non Boss/Final Battle to have 2 options, and all Boss/Final Battles to have 3 possible options. This will likely come out over the span of 2 updates as we also look to rebalance our existing Enemies (particularly with the new difficulties).
We are also moving to fortnightly updates to ensure everything continues to run smoothly and as bug-free as possible. Any reported bugs will of course be fixed ASAP (ideally within 24h!).
Happy reanimating!