Hi!
As you move along through the world and the game, new enemies will appear that are tougher than enemies found in previous zones. There are several ways to compensate for the increase in enemy power:
- Acquiring new skills for your units
- Upgrading your existing skills
- Finding mana to cast spells
- Finding and equipping relics with various bonuses
- Purchasing blacksmith upgrades
The blacksmith upgrades are class-wide upgrades that apply to all units with a specific class. It’s split into two paths - weapon and armor upgrades. Weapon upgrades will boost attributes related to attacking enemies (like power, accuracy, or attack range), while armor upgrades boost attributes related to surviving attack from enemies (like armor, defense or move distance). Purchasing these costs gold, and the costs increase for higher tiers.
Note: armor is a layer of points above health, and defense is used to offset accuracy and calculate the chance to hit.
We’re balancing the upgrades such that reaching the end of the first zone will get you to about tier 2 of most upgrades, then tier 3 for the second zone, and slowly inching towards tier 4 and 5 for the rest of the game. We’re also considering how things will work out if you start the game with a party filled with a single class type since in that case, you’d only be buying upgrades for that class. We want to make it possible to play that way should you so desire, and it should be interesting to see if the game can be beaten with only fighters or mystics.
Besides the blacksmith upgrades, relics also play a role in becoming stronger, as mentioned in the previous blog post. Relics can also be purchased in a relic shop for gold, as well as sold. Just be careful not to sell the Grail :)
The blacksmith and relic shops are mainly found in cities, but you'll potentially find some of these in random encounters during your travels, depending on your actions. The blacksmith upgrades can also be gained directly without purchasing as a reward, similar to getting relics.
Thanks for reading. If you want to discuss this (or any) topic related to the game, join our Discord server, or send me a message on Twitter.
MarkoP