Hey everyone! Linus here, Gameplay Lead at Pugstorm 👋
It’s been a little while since we first revealed KYORA and since then we’ve overhauled and refined almost everything in the game, including the topic of our blog today, character customization and gear!
Before I jump into things, I want to take a moment to mention that everything we show today is a work in progress. Everything from the UI, to the customization options that players will have available to them will be changed and improved in some way, or even removed entirely. With that out the way, let’s take a look…
The good, the beard, and the ugly
One of the most common pieces of feedback we saw from the community when we first revealed KYORA was that players wanted more detailed character and customisation options, and so we’ve been hard at work to iterate on something that felt fun and fantastical, but remained grounded and true to the world of KYORA. Sprites, (beards), weapons, armour, the lot!
When tackling the update, our primary goal was to allow characters to be more expressive, add greater detail in gear sets, and let players feel like they could see themselves as explorers in this world. As you can see we’ve been experimenting with facial hair, different hair styles, and even tried out eyecolour. 
Always use protection
Of course, clothing and armour in KYORA isn’t just for looking pretty. Each piece will have its own set of stats that will impact things like your movement speed, max health, resistances and importantly, your defence. Besides being lucky and ̶s̶t̶e̶a̶l̶i̶n̶g̶ finding pieces of armour squirreled away in chests and tucked away in dungeons, you’ll be able to craft and upgrade your kit with resources you find in your adventures. 
We’re really happy with how the armour sets are turning out so far. We might have gone slightly crazy with the amount of equipment slots, but it's a lot of fun having many customization options! Our goal was to balance a handful of sets to get an idea of design rules to adhere to, as well as stat blocks, so that it would be much easier to create more options going forward.
Your trusty lantern will now always dangle by your side as an equipable item, great for exploring deep underground caverns.
We also have the fun challenge of having to populate the game with lots of interesting ways to defend yourself against the hostile creatures, places and things of KYORA. As the biomes change, so too do the types of obstacles you’ll encounter. The loadout that was suited to the lush green first area, might not be the most optimal way to survive going forward!
We’ve got lots of ideas about how we want to expand the sets and make the most out of the biomes, their resources and what kind of armour would suit the perils you will be facing in your journey. We’ll share more of this as development continues!
Thank you everyone who’s been keeping up with KYORA up to this point - your feedback and questions and conversations have been keeping us company through development. We’ll be sharing more info in the new year, but until then, have a great Winter break!
- Linus