Hey Heroes,
Welcome to Heroes' Hall #14!
This week we're going to look at a passive mechanic in Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos that gently alters the difficulty of the game in a thematic and lore friendly way - the time of day and the weather!
So brave Heroes, read on so you don't find yourself caught off-guard, or find out how to give yourself a challenge fit for the brave and the foolhardy that will bring you extra spoils and loot...
The things that go bump in the night...
Rogue Heroes doesn't have static difficulty settings, instead putting you into a world that gives you a fair and fun experience with a healthy bit of challenge sprinkled on! Even if you fall you'll always come back stronger, the forces of evil cannot be allowed to prevail after all.
But then the Titans have a few tricks up their shadowy sleeves to stop you and your friends in your tracks, with one such devious play being 'Elites'.
Elite Enemies
Elite enemies are versions of monsters that are stronger and tankier than their brethren, meaning they'll both take more damage to defeat and dish more out if they hit you.
Luckily, through your natural heroic intuition you'll be able to spot elite enemies via the rather foreboding skull above their head.
This type of enemy has a base spawn chance of 5% when exploring dungeons when the weather is sunny and clear. That means that whilst there's a good chance you'll encounter these more powerful creatures on your dungeon runs, there won't be too many to fight through and whittle down your precious HP and supplies.
But this isn't always the case, for in certain conditions the Titan's minions will feel emboldened and empowered, increasing the spawn rates of elites.
These two conditions are night time and stormy weather, which both occur naturally as you roam about the lands of Tasos. These can occur separately from each other, or at the same time and their effects will stack. After all, what creatures of the night don't also enjoy a good storm!
Both of these effects add a 5% increased chance that an elite enemy will spawn in the place of a standard one, meaning that if it's both night and stormy weather then there's a notable 15% chance of any enemy being an elite.
Whilst this might not be too scary in rooms with less enemies, those with swarms of them or particularly powerful ones can quickly escalate the situation.
But With Risk, Comes Reward
Fear not though, for whether you come up against elite beasts intentionally or unintentionally, taking them down has its rewards!
Elite enemies drop significantly more Gems and crafting materials than their normal counterparts, meaning more challenging fights will allow you to level-up your Hero more swiftly, as well as rebuild Intori Village sooner.
To show this we sent one of our more experienced Heroes who's dealt with elites before out into a dungeon to show this in action...
Standard Skull Spear
Elite Skull Spear
Inviting a Challenge
If you have no fear and want to seek out the strongest of the Titan's minions there is a way to manipulate both the weather and time of day. For those who seek such power, they will find it in the form of powerful spells!
These spells can be found on runes that rest of shrines scattered throughout Tasos. Upon finding them and claiming the power that resides within them you can choose to manipulate both time and weather itself to invite a more challenging world state.
On the flip side you can also choose to return the weather to clear and the time of day to sunny, limiting the extent that elites will roam the dungeons - the choice is yours!
Try the Demo!
With a little over a week to go until the gates to Tasos fully open there's still time to try out our free Steam demo:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/787810/Rogue_Heroes_Ruins_of_Tasos/
It's time well spent as not only will you get to start your adventure early, but you'll be able to carry your save data over to the full game when we launch on February 23rd!
Please note: The launch version of Rogue Heroes supports full online multiplayer. The demo only features the local multiplayer version.
You can also be extra heroic and support us ahead of launch by giving us a Wishlist - Thank you!!
See you next week!