Thank you to everyone who played the demo — your adventures made the game a lot more fun for all of us. We’ve received tons of feedback and bug reports, and in this announcement we’d like to address the most commonly raised questions. If you still have other concerns, feel free to leave a message in the community hub.
Q1: Is this a single-player, one-time-purchase game?
It’s pay-to-own (buy-once). There are no microtransactions and no in-game purchases at all.
However, the game is not fully offline — an internet connection is required. Ranked matches use asynchronous PvP, allowing you to challenge other players’ lineups, which needs network access.
Also, since our loot system involves extremely complex builds and detailed data analytics to fine-tune game balance, we don’t use Steam Cloud saves. Instead, we run our own dedicated servers to securely store player data and power our stat tracking tools.
Q2: Loot drop rates feel too low?
Because the game is buy-once, you can rest assured — we have no reason or incentive to push you toward spending money by artificially blocking progression.
That said, we’ve received two very different opinions:
Some players feel the drop rates are too low and repetitive farming becomes exhausting. But when we tried increasing drop rates or adding more ways to earn rare items, other players told us it ruined the thrill of finding something truly special.
To balance both experiences, we’ve made the following improvements:
You can craft (synthesize) items of purple rarity or below
Players can gift pink-rarity items to each other
Drop rates scale up with difficulty
In Speedrun Mode, you can view the exact number of items left in the loot pool
Builds are always centered around purple-rarity core characters, meaning even without ultra-rare loot, you can still create many strong and viable loadouts
Q3: Why does every popular build get nerfed?
Unlike many looter/ARPG games that rely on standard formulas for ATK, crit, or attack speed, Shuihu Scrolls focuses on mechanic-driven synergy combinations. These interactions are nearly endless, making manual balance testing extremely difficult.
To maintain long-term game health, we have to analyze live player build data and adjust balance based on real-world performance.
We understand that nerfing certain synergies can feel frustrating. While we still need to keep the meta healthy, we will also:
Reduce how frequently we make balance changes
Invest more resources into internal testing
Avoid disruptive adjustments whenever possible
Thanks for your understanding and support as we work toward better balance without harming the excitement of discovery.
Q4: Why will progress be reset (data wipe)?
The demo included many experimental systems (especially changes to loot and crafting), which unfortunately resulted in dirty, incompatible, and unstable data.
So, before launching the full release, we must perform a one-time progress reset. After that, the game will no longer receive destructive updates, ensuring a stable, rewarding, and enjoyable long-term looting experience for everyone.