The Champion Update is a comprehensive refinement of the game to address the biggest items of feedback from the playtest:
Replay value needs investment
The Astral ambush every battle is not fun
The game is punishing, especially for new players
Playtime metrics back this up. We love that a core group of players have clicked with the game, but too many players are turned off in the first few battles or stop playing after a single run.
We’ve made some sweeping changes to address feedback while preserving the core gameplay and positional combat that sets Attack of the Astrals apart. We’re super happy with the result!
Astrals no longer ambush
(Image: An example of turn start with Golem's new passive.)
The game has been re-balanced around Astrals not attacking at the start of battle. In addition to feeling more familiar to genre fans, this has other benefits:
By moving first, players have more control over damage distribution.
Healing and Execute effects are weaker and require more planning to maximize.
The climax of battle is more often on turns 2 and 3, instead of overwhelming the player with a dire situation on turn 1.
Some Astrals have a passive ability to compensate for the removal of ambush:
Golem gains Protect at turn start.
Siren inflicts Confuse at turn start, targeting the strongest Champion. Siren still has no damaging skill.
Titan grants Protect to a random Minion spawned at turn start.
The game still feels snappy to play, and we still find new combat puzzles to solve each run. Our goal is to focus on our fun, differentiating gameplay, and ambush proved to be un-fun and confusing to most players.
Thank you to everyone who sent in feedback in-game or on our Discord!
Champion identities
(Image: The new leader select screen, with leader abilities and completion badges.)
Each Champion now has a set of Scrolls that are only rewarded if they’re on your team, as well as a unique passive ability when they’re the leader of the team. We want every team to play differently, and we want players to have a reason to complete a run with each Champion as the leader.
Your Champion choice for each role now makes a big difference to your strategy.
As an example, the Knight role:
Tyrant offers mostly offensive Scrolls and a leader ability that makes killing Minions more effective.
Bastion offers purely defensive Scrolls and a leader ability that buffs allies.
Their kits interact with other Champions’ Scrolls and leader abilities in different ways.
These additions required a complete redesign of the team building screen: new portraits, a new layout, and new badges to track your progression through threat levels with each Champion!
Introducing Druid
(Image: Druid's default skill, Bloom, in action.)
Druid replaces Ranger in this release, with the same mechanics. As a Mage focused around dealing damage from a distance, she has high mobility with her starting Summon and lots of healing Scrolls to maximize her leader ability, which damages ALL Astrals when any action deals no more than 1 damage to any target.
Ranger will return in the full game with new visuals and mechanics.
Summon identities
(Image: New Chariot skill providing global swap movement.)
Chariot has been redesigned around extra mobility. Its skills teleport across the map, swap tiles with another unit, and increase movement range. The previous design of Chariot, with its pushing and pulling, was awkward and often ineffective. Now, attuning to Chariot guarantees a unique and powerful movement skill. Druid (who replaced Ranger) still starts with Chariot when picked as the leader, but the skill now teleports her anywhere on the map.
The starting Summons for Gladiator, Tyrant, and Bastion have been redesigned:
Gladiator’s Earthshaker now reads: “Deal 0 damage. +1 damage for each tile traveled.” Earthshaker was previously the most powerful starting Summon skill, and did not align with Gaia’s identity as a Summon meant to thrive in crowded maps.
Tyrant’s Siphon now reads: “Deal 2 damage. Then steal 2 Health from targeted Astrals.” Siphon was the opposite of Earthshaker - it was terrible! This now gives Tyrant a skill to use on crowded maps and aligns with his and The Eye’s health manipulation identity.
Bastion's Blinding Light now reads: "Deal 3 damage to enemy targets. Protect targeted Champions." This works well with his leader ability, which grants additional movement to Champions with Protect. He can no longer Protect himself, but he can save and inspire his allies.
Powerful skill previews
(Image: A Blood Rite preview with two repeats and a mix of healing and damage on the actor.)
Targeting a skill now shows you a detailed preview of what will happen:
Health changes are previewed directly on health bars.
Icons indicate which units will die: stars on enemies, red X's on allies.
Changes to max health are now shown with pips next to the health bar.
Multiple hits of damage, like when a Champion has Confuse and kills an Ice Wisp, are now shown in sequence in the overlay.
Multi-hit and repeating Summon skills also preview their sequence, so The Eye’s Blood Rite or Gaia’s Circle of Life now show the number of times they will repeat on their targets.
We hope this minimizes or eliminates a lot of the math or predictions previously required in certain scenarios.
New Scrolls
With Champions having unique pools of Scrolls, new shared Scrolls have been introduced to provide some generic functionality. Some of these Scrolls provide EXP in exchange for a downside (Protect an Astral, damage your Champions), allowing you to accelerate your level-up by making the current battle harder.
The Scroll reward screen after battle also has new sounds for every action and phase change.
New Player Experience
This update doubles the number of contextual tutorial popups. Every screen is introduced to new players, and battle features new popups for many enemies and all Champion leader abilities.
The tutorial run no longer starts with a Summon, and Summons are explained during and after the first reward. Leader abilities are not in the first tutorial run at all.
Miscellaneous QoL
This update also delivers too many UX tweaks, sounds, bugfixes, and QoL changes to mention, but some deserve a callout:
The final fight is no longer a tease! Fight Ogre, Titan, and Banshee in the core of Astra as the ultimate test of your team's strategy. You'll need at least one powerful Scroll to survive!
The Summon reward screen no longer has an option selected by default, and it should be more clear which Champion is selected.
All input prompts are now in-context next to the relevant control. In particular, the prompts to pop up extra info and tooltips, to cycle skills, and to change/cycle Scrolls are easier to spot
Gaining EXP now looks and sounds much better, with each EXP point popping out of the bar to fill it up.
The difficulty select screen has a new layout and new badge icons.
Astrals that lose health from Earth Wisp deaths now show as impacted on the map during targeting, making lethals and health changes clearer.
Future Updates
Each of these changes gets us closer to the demo. The next update is likely our final pre-demo update, and will include some improvements to the world map screen and player progression.