This post is written by Mat, our gameplay designer.
Hi there! Quick one today: I want to introduce another aspect of Hardmode, Curses and Blessings.
We alluded to this before, but we are considering hardmode to be an “ascension” mode of sorts. As you master its challenges, you’ll gain more and more essence, and there must be a place to spend it!
Here’s where the Blessings come in. Whenever you pick Hardmode, you are able to spend Essences to gain temporary benefits to that run. Some examples are Leylines, which increases your maximum mana, and Wealthy Endeavour, which makes your gold rewards larger. We are also preparing some interesting ones about mana or messing with the Grail!
Now, when we were first talking about this model, the idea of spending enough essence to make hardmode too easy rubbed us the wrong way. So we doubled down on the “Ascension mode” theme and added the Curses - negative modifiers that you can pick for the run. All fun things, like No Witnesses making corrupted fights yield less rewards, and Grievous Wounds increasing healing costs. Pretty nasty stuff. Each one of these modifiers has a number associated with it, that we call Doom Value.
Here’s the thing: if you want to spend, say, 3 essences in Blessings? You gotta pick enough Curses to match the Doom value to the cost, in this case at least 3 Doom. So it’s always kind of balanced, but you can pick which benefits you want to use to take on an ever increasing challenge.
the current state of the modifier selection segment, not all modifiers are in yet
That’s not all. We want to reinforce people moving up in Doom Value as they play, so the higher the Doom Value of a run, the more Essence it’ll reward you based on how far you went.
So we leave it to the player, you see. If you got essence to spend, do you want to give hardmode + doom value 3 a go? Alright, pick 3 points in Blessings, and pay up. Now, every boss battle you defeat, you gain more essences at the end!
There you go! Mia, one of our designers, is hard at work creating interesting curses and blessings to change up your gameplay, and offer the more hardcore among you an ever increasing challenge to measure up to!
Want to participate in the design of those modifiers? Join our Discord server and let Mia know what you’re thinking!
Mat