Hello miners,
With the 1.0 release approaching I thought I would start teasing some of the upcoming new content and big changes coming with it.
For the first 1.0 Content Breakdown I want to talk about balance and relics. Balancing a game with so many interactions between different elements is no easy task, but I think that, thanks to your feedback throughout Early Access, I've made significant improvements in that regard. Is it perfect? No. Can it ever be? Not really.
But let's start by talking about the heroes. I know there are some heroes who are beloved, hated, considered overpowered, or seen as very weak. My goal with heroes has always been to offer a unique and diverse cast of characters, each with their own identity. Some are definitely easy to fit into any team (looking at you, Knight and Berserker), while others are more niche (Astrologer is a good example).
Heroes Balance
Here is the current pick rate for each hero among teams on the leaderboard, as of today:
HERO | TOP 10 | TOP 100 | TOTAL LEADERBOARD |
|---|---|---|---|
Alchemist | 20% | 41% | 74% |
Astrologer | 20% | 20% | 22% |
Bastion | 30% | 37% | 14% |
Berserker | 50% | 55% | 32% |
Cursed Apostle | 40% | 22% | 14% |
Engineer | 20% | 18% | 28% |
Huntress | 0% | 17% | 24% |
Knight | 80% | 64% | 71% |
Necromancer | 30% | 35% | 18% |
Rogue | 10% | 28% | 35% |
Sea Witch | 60% | 51% | 55% |
Wizard | 90% | 65% | 68% |
Several things come to mind when I look at those numbers:
Knight and Wizard have the most consistent pick rates, regardless of the ranks we look at. This is good, as they were designed to be easy additions to any team, regardless of the synergies you're going for. Their pick rates are also helped by the fact that both heroes are available from the start.
Berserker and Sea Witch are very strong picks. It's easy to see why: they have multi-target attacks and abilities that make them very reliable, especially in later waves where thousands of enemies cover the entire screen. They're both very good at what they do.
Cursed Apostle is not beginner-friendly but has huge damage potential that top players know how to take advantage of. This character was designed to be a very late-game damage dealer, and I think he's currently in a good spot.
Astrologer, Engineer, Huntress, and Rogue are the least-picked heroes (especially at higher ranks). They're the ones that will receive the most attention in the upcoming changes.
Pick rate isn't a perfect metric, but it's something I always take into account when working on game balance. Astrologer, Engineer, Huntress, and Rogue are all receiving several buffs in the upcoming 1.0 update. The goal is to make them stronger in their respective niches. But that's not all.
No More Mandatory Spells For Late Game
One major problem with the late game of Hold The Mine is the mandatory use of spells (Time Stop and Heavy Anvil) to have the best chance of surviving past a certain point. And that's because two enemies have a major design flaw: both Spirit and Demon Skull are currently immune to status effects and knockback.
In 1.0, both will lose their immunity to status effects and knockback.
The goal is obviously to make heroes and synergies more reliable in the late game and offer more ways to climb the leaderboard. Heroes with slowing and knockback abilities will be key to dealing with these enemies, and stacking status effects will become a more reliable strategy. They'll still be a threat to your survival, don't get me wrong, but they won't have this unfair advantage anymore.
More Relics & Relics Stacking
Currently, the best strategy for finding relics is to sell your resources for coins and buy them in the shop, using as many rerolls as possible to maximize the number of relics you can get each time the shop appears. That's perfectly fine, but it shouldn't be the only way.
In 1.0, I've significantly increased the number of relic chests you can find in the mine, so every player has a chance to get more relics. And getting more relics will soon be important because...
... You can now get multiple copies of the same relic! Yes, some relics are now stackable!
Most relics are still unique (meaning you can only have one copy of each), but stackable relics will offer new ways to scale your damage and strengthen your synergies, as each additional copy will increase the relic's base effect.
One relic in particular should help heroes' damage scaling: the Mysterious Fruit relic. For this one, not only you can get multiple copy of it to increase the base damage of all heroes, but there is also a new block in the mine that gives an extra copy. You can easily accumulate enough to double the base damage of your heroes, meaning better basic attacks and most damage-dealing powers.
You can see below some of the relics that can now be stacked (including some brand-new ones!).
That's all I can share for today, but keep in mind this is just a small fraction of what's coming in 1.0. There's a lot of new content and many more changes I'm working on to improve the game and make it worth your time and support!
Thank you all!
paci
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