It's here, it's released, and it's ready for you, with extra gifts for early players. Read on about what to expect.
Almost everything in Eat That Ice Cream hinges on items you can get in your Steam inventory. Items allow you to progress further in the game, they unlock new crafting stations, and some are even tied to achievements or buried secrets! Some of these items are permanent and untradeable to not lock you out of content, but the vast majority are designed to be traded to other players, crafted in game, or consumed as you play.
Since you get new items over time, this game is meant to be played slowly. You won't be able to speedrun the core content in a few hours on your own. Frustrated? Trade with other players! Got extras you don't want? Sell 'em!
The Basics of Eating Ice Cream
Click and drag the tool(s) you brought to the level. Get the balls of ice cream to the top of the screen. Tools all have a special ability you can activate by pressing spacebar. It might be useful or even necessary (or not).
Earn enough points within the time limit and you beat the level!
How Drops Work
Drops in Eat That Ice Cream are separated into a few major pools. The first pool we'll call "basic drops." Basic drops are what you get when you click the Drop Stuff? button, or when your other drops are on cooldown. They're mostly super common stuff like single-use toppings or the occasional throwaway ghost tool, but there are some goodies buried in there and everything you get can be useful!
Then there are the drops you can get when you play the game and eat ice cream. The better you do in your run, the better chance you have of getting something really good or rare. If you want a good tool, you'll have to eat ice cream! But if you lose a level during your run, you don't get anything!
Those better drop pools have much longer cooldowns, and the best pools can only drop so many times per day, but the game will try to give you an item from a lesser pool if your target pool is on cooldown! Note: due to how Steam drops work, there's also a mandatory cooldown between every drop that isn't tied to progression or promos. This means if you just got a basic drop, it might be worth waiting the minimum drop time before trying to get a run drop.
As a bonus for the folks who show up here during release, drop frequency has been increased temporarily, and I'm providing a few delicious promos only available now:
- 10 minutes between each drop
- Shorter cooldowns for better drop pools (1-3 hours)
- "Beta Blue" paint can - limited time crafting item! - can rarely drop when getting paint, and one is given for free when you beat your first level
- Halloween Sprinkles - a season limited item worth extra points when used - can drop when getting toppings, and you get one for free alongside the paint can
- Blue-Inlaid Chopsticks - a rare limited time tool - each player who makes it past level 3 during this period will unlock one, and that's it, forever. If you want one in the future, you'll have to trade for it!
And some undisclosed rare items and crafting recipes have improved drop rates...
How Rarity Works
At launch there are 3 main rarities: Common, Uncommon, and Rare, plus two special "rarities": Unique and Auspicious.
Unique items are permanents, almost always tied to progression, and usually give you access to more of the game.
Auspicious items are content for the current end-game.
As for the main rarities, they're compared within their own item type and affect their drop rates within a valid subpool. When rolling a pool, it first rolls to choose one of its subpools and then that subpool rolls. So, some "commons" might be harder to come by than some "rares." For example, a Rare Topping is rare for a topping, but when compared to, say, a Common Paint, there's probably more of it in existence.
What does this mean in practice?
Well, roughly speaking, a given drop from a subpool will have a 60% chance of being a common of some kind, a 30% chance of being an uncommon, and a 10% chance of being a rare, with some particular rares being much harder to find. Even the toughest pools have at least 1% chance of giving some kind of rare when counting their subpools. So if you're getting a Basic Drop, you're probably getting a topping, and it's probably going to be common. But occasionally it's NOT a topping, or that topping is not common. While if you're getting a higher level drop, you're still likely to get a common, but it's probably a common of a much higher quality item set.
Some Extra Notes
- Crafting happens when you're holding something near something else and the other object starts changing colors. Release to craft! This is how you open chests, paint tools (if they're not currently painted), upgrade certain items, and use crafting stations
- Most crafting recipes have their own subpools!
- You'll have to discover crafting recipes for yourselves. There are occasional hints in the item descriptions in your Steam inventory, and a few in-game
- Don't be afraid of consuming items. The game is designed to be fairly generous, especially around single-use things like toppings and ghost tools