v1.8 - A New Hero Appears

Lost For Swords » Devlog
1 year ago by MaxBytes
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The new update brings a second playable hero, new cards and lots of quality-of-life improvements

Here's whats new:

  • Second playable hero: the Rogue. In typical rogue fashion, this hero is all about attacking from the shadows, quick and ranged weapons, applying poison and slipping past enemies without getting seen. Watch out though, the rogue is not an easy hero to play!
  • Because of the second hero (and more to come), I decided to split the card pool and make a lot of the cards hero-specific. This should give heroes a more distinct feel! :)
  • Undo: you can now undo once per room, to help against misclicks or other things that can go wrong :)
  • Reworked sleep mechanic: sleep now stacks and is more clear (IMHO), and works much better with the newly designed cards
  • Reworked push to shift: push was weird and hard to understand. Shift now moves the whole row or column, regardless of how many cards there are
  • Cards can now be looked at more closely with right mouse click (windows, web) or long tap (mobile). This not only shows a larger version of the card, but also includes notes that explain keywords and mechanics.
  • Reworked Orc Shaman enemy: now channels to give other enemies armor buffs
  • New Cards:
    • Poor Jester's Top: let's enemies sleep
    • Battle Rod: for strategic positionings
    • Greatsword: for the defensive-minded knight
    • Morningstar: for the even more defensive-minded knight
    • Rapier: good choice for heroes that don't like armor
    • Nightmare Blade: a great finisher for sleep focussed decks
    • Atonement: Sin-Synergy Galore!
    • Shield Slam: a tricky to use, but powerful room finisher
    • Nightmare: sleeping is poison, kinda...
  • Lots of rebalancings and other changes!

As a solo developer, I'm always craving for feedback, both good and bad! Let me know what you think! :)

Ok, bye! (ʘ‿ʘ)╯

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Version 10 May 15, 2023
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quebaixo1 year ago

In the new update, I noticed that sometimes when I upgrade weapon that I happen to have 2x in the deck (for example, if I upgrade the battle rod), the duplicate card will disappear.
Since the cards are random, it's not super easy to replicate, so I am not sure if it has been fixed already.
Just wanted to let you know!

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quebaixo1 year ago (1 edit)

Both played as the rogue and as the knight. I absolutely love the new cards, especially the rapier!
I also love how the undo button and the card lookup option were implemented, it's simple and easy to understand.

At the moment, playing as the rogue is much easier then playing as the knight, because there are quite a few quick attack weapons that can allow you to take out an entire room without getting hit even once.
It's a ton of fun playing as the rogue, it just needs a little tweaking so it's not too easy.
Maybe the defensive dagger could move into the knights deck? I feel like the rogue has too many quick attack weapons.

I am still getting used to playing as the knight now, since my playstyle was always to go for the quick attack or the poison/sleep weapons (I guess I am a rogue at heart).
Combat feels less fast paced now, but it might be because I need to adapt to the new playstyle.

I have not utilised the sin/atonement mechanic that much, that is something that I'm gonna try next time I'm playing!


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MaxBytes1 year ago

You hit the nail on the head with your rogue analysis! That hero is currently a bit broken because they have so much free damage potential, worst offender being quick attack weapons. The power level alone would be fixable, but the main problem I see is that it completely sidetracks the whole armor concept... because if you're never hit, why ever get armor? And that's making the playstyle too one-dimensional, IMO.

My current plan is to reduce the amount of quick attack weapons, first and foremost the daggers. Having all daggers have quick attack was cool for differentiation to other sets of weapons, but quick attack is just too powerful of a mechanic. I still want players to get a taste of that power and build decks around quick attack, but it should be more focussed and not as easily available.

Thank you so much for your ongoing playtests and your feedback, it means a lot to me! :)

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quebaixo1 year ago

Finally got to Level 10 on rogue after you removed a lot of the quick attacks. It feels super balanced now, every level felt very tense!
I really felt for my little rogue every time I had to calculate whether a hit with the poison dagger is worth it.


I also love that sloth is back and renamed fatigue. Fatigue feels less judgy and also helped me immerse myself in the dungeon, with the fatigue creeping up to you and making you unable to move.

I haven't tested the knight as thoroughly, I will report back when I have!

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quebaixo1 year ago(+1)

Hell yeah, I can’t wait to try it!

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