Prepare your dice, Astrea will be launching on Steam on September 21st!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_wo2sVtK6Y
It’s almost time to save the stars and purify the corruption from the universe in this deck building dice roguelike! Play as one of the six oracles each with their own dice, abilities, and playstyles.
Our Head of Marketing, Buddy, will be playing Astrea on Stream this Friday the 1st, next Friday the 8th and on launch day so come by if you wanna take a look! Rumor has it that he’s gonna be giving away keys and letting chat take the wheel! 👀
Features
Unique dual “damage” system: Purification vs Corruption
Astrea: Six Sided Oracles is joining a whole host of games at the BIG Festival!
The BIG Festival is the biggest business hub for the games industry in Latin America! We’re thrilled to be showcasing Astrea: Six Sided Oracles to our Latin American audience.
If you are going to to BIG festival, be sure to try out the Astrea demo at the Astrea booth! It will be a lot of fun and we hope to see you there! Be sure to tune into the BIG Festival awards ceremony, which takes place at 6/30 @ 7PM GMT -3
My good friend Buddy, the self-proclaimed best Astrea player in the world, is going to expand a little on the demo of Steam Next Fest! He'll be live Friday at 11am PST streaming a full run for Cellarius, the Tide Hammer!
While the free demo that you can play right now features Cellarius, we figured you might want to see what a full run with our favorite shark friend might look like! Buddy will be piloting Cellarius through all three zones from the full game so you can get a taste for what the full Cellarius experience looks like!
My good friend Buddy, the self-proclaimed best Astrea player in the world, is going to expand a little on the demo of Steam Next Fest! He'll be live Thursday at 11am PST streaming a full run for Moonie, the Astral Disciple!
While the free demo that you can play right now features Moonie, we figured you might want to see what a full run with our favorite owl friend might look like! Buddy will be piloting Moonie through all three zones from the full game so you can get a taste for what the full Moonie experience looks liike!
I hope you have been enjoying the Astrea demo during the Steam Next Fest! A few days ago I announced Austra the 4th of the 6 playable oracles in Astrea. I want to take the time to recap the 4 oracles we have shown off as well as a couple dev logs about map pathing and sentinels. If you haven’t had a chance to try out the demo, be sure to check it out before Steam Next Fest ends.
Sentinels are good, little buddies you can buy at the sentinel shop, pick up from random events or earn after defeating bosses! Each unique sentinel has their own unique die which you roll every turn. You can only have two sentinels active at the same time so picking the sentinels that fit your strategy is a must! https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1755830/view/3614731806343429328?l=english
Map Pathing Dev Log
What does the map that you move through look like? What sorts of decisions can you make? Why might you choose some of the destinations on your journey? In this dev log we took the time to break down some of the nodes you will find on the map to better understand the path ahead of you. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1755830/view/3636124153041431264?l=english
Moonie
Moonie is a scholar using wisdom and intellect to enhance and manipulate her dice, Moonie's specialty in converting corruption to purification and undoing the curse of hex dice will carry you to victory! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4YmrM7Arr0
Cellarius
Cellarius is a heavy hitting berserker, dealing tons of purification but in return taking a lot of corruption as well. Managing that damage taken is the key to success with Cellarius. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5r8r5_rtMc
Hevelius
Hevelius, The Ancient Warden is a massively armored robot crocodile who protects and empowers his little sentinel buddies to make purifying the corruption in the galaxy a team effort! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xgLVwQTiDQ
Austra
Austra is about probability and manipulating odds to give you a favorable outcome. Their dice pool includes crit chances and dodge chances. Critical will increase the purification you will deal and dodging will, well dodge corruption that the enemy may apply. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr_bS-YCmfs
There are two more Oracles left to reveal, each with their new unique mechanics and dice that I can’t wait to dive into soon.
My good friend Buddy, the marketing lead for Akupara Games and self-proclaimed best Astrea player in the world, will be streaming Astrea on Steam this Thursday at 11am PST and Friday at 11am PST!
-riv otter
Austra, the Will of Winds Oracle Spotlight
Hey, oracles!
We are still hard at work to bring Astrea to your hands!
I’m excited to introduce you to the next playable oracle: Austra the Will of Winds!
https://youtu.be/yr_bS-YCmfs
Austra is about probability and manipulating odds to give you a favorable outcome. Their dice pool includes crit chances and dodge chances. Critical will increase the purification you will deal and dodging will, well dodge corruption that the enemy may apply. There are even status effects that you can apply that will give benefits if you are successful in dodging damages or getting a crit.
-riv otter
Tune in to the Oracle Reveal Stream on Friday, June 16th!
Hey, Oracles!
The next Astrea Oracle will be revealed this Friday, June 16th in a livestream at 10AM Pacific/1PM Eastern! The Illustrious Buddy (well known as the best Astrea player in the world, according to the latest Completionist Stream!) will be showing off the newest Oracle for two whole hours of roguelike goodness!
Then, after the stream, the next Oracle Spotlight will premiere on Youtube so everyone can get a look at some of their newest builds and mechanics! Now that Moonie, Cellarius, and Hevelius have all been revealed, we get to go deeper into some of the more complicated Oracles who have builds and synergies that will test the best among you!
If you have any predictions (such as: will Buddy beat his run on stream!) feel free to leave them down in the comments below! And for eagle-eyed viewers, there's going to be a few more mechanical tweaks to Astrea that we'll get to show off in Friday's livestream as well. If you've ever wondered what tougher difficulties might look like in the game, let's just say that we can take a peak on that experience this week!
Can't wait to see you all there! -Riv Otter
Astrea Livestream on Friday
Hey Oracles,
My good friend Buddy, our marketing lead at Akupara Games, will be streaming Astrea on Friday at 10am PST after the Cryptmaster demo!
https://www.twitch.tv/akuparagames
He needs help in picking which Oracle he will play for Astrea so I want to run a poll with you to decide which oracle he will play! You may cast your vote by reacting to the announcement in the Astrea Discord.
-Riv Otter
Map Pathing Dev Log
Hey, oracles!
In the grand tradition of writing big ol' devlogs like the one my good friend, Riv, wrote on Tuesday about Sentinels (which you can check out at this link if you'd like a little more detail,) I figured I'd put a little time into writing one myself. This one is very simple. I just want to show you one of the core features in Astrea: The Map.
A lot of ink and footage has been dedicated to talking about the game inside of Astrea's battles but today, we're going to take a minute to focus on what the game has to offer outside of battles. What does the map that you move through look like? What sorts of decisions can you make? Why might you choose some of the destinations on your journey? Let's find out!
The map in Astrea is populated by different nodes, some of which you can see in the above. Every node does something different and you can hover over them to check out what they do specifically in the tooltip! Big nodes that glow red are battles, so let's talk about them first! There are three types of battle in Astrea: Normal Battles, Hard Battles, and Boss Battles!
One of the most common nodes you'll see blocking your path, battles feature the normal, expected difficulty of the game and the normal, expected rewards. There are many different types of battle that a player can walk into and they won't be able to see the specifics of who they're fighting beforehand. But they will know that they'll be rewarded with a dice chest and fifty star shards after every battle, so as long as you win, you're coming away with something powerful.
A little less common are hard battles, which feature a different set of more powerful enemies. Like normal battles, you won't be able to see exactly who you're fighting beforehand but you will see rewards and they are hefty! Defeating a hard battle will grant you a chest, one hundred star shards and a star blessing, so proving yourself victorious here will make a massive, massive difference!
And then least common of all are the boss battles! Boss battles cap off each individual region of the game with players needing to progress all the way through the map to reach. Interestingly, though, the icon above isn't generic; it's a unique representation of that specific boss. Every boss in the game has their own icon so crafty players will be able to see exactly whom they're going to fight. Boss battles also have incredible rewards as well, offering players who beat them one-hundred and fifty star shards, a sentinel, a black hole blessing, and a golden chest containing an epic die! Additionally, beating the boss of a region will fully heal your oracle so it's a great way to recover health!
But battle nodes aren't the only nodes on offer in Astrea and navigating the map between other nodes is a massive part of the game. Here's a breakdown of the other nodes on the map!
The most basic reward in Astrea is the simple Chest! Each chest contains up to two dice for you to add to your dice pool. The dice you pick, though, won't be random, it'll be one that you directly choose of three options, one safe, one balanced, and one risky! And if none of the dice are to your liking, fear not! You can always feel free to skip adding dice to your pool in exchange for ten star shards!
There are other chests to choose from in Astrea as well. The blue chest, for instance, contains only Safe dice to choose from, guaranteeing that you'll be able to choose from the safest options available. Similarly, a green chest and red chest will direct you to only Balanced and Risky dice options for you! You'll be able to skip these dice for ten star shards as well from any of these three chests.
Speaking of Star Shards, you can also pick up fifty of them just by landing on that spot on the map! Star Shards are the core currency in Astrea, allowing players to really fine tune their build as they get deeper and deeper into the game. Picking up heaps of Star Shards can make a huge difference when your dice pool is stable but you want to find an opportunity to improve before moving to the final boss.
Speaking of star shards, this is one of the spots where you'll use them! A Forge Shop will allow you to spend star shards to upgrade the different die faces on your dice. Customizing die faces to remove some of the most dangerous effects will help you turn your riskiest dice into some of your most powerful dice.
The Sentinel shop, on the other hand, allows players to upgrade their little buddies and make them a more powerful piece of their build. The only opportunity to upgrade a sentinel comes from the star shop, so if you find a sentinel particularly key to your build, you can spend Star Shards to make sure it doesn't fall by the wayside as you progress.
The third shop type is the Epic shop! Everything in here is very powerful and incredibly impactful to your runs. Star blessings and epic dice, all purchasable for hundreds of Star Shards. Beware, though, since that cost makes it the most expensive shop in the game to visit. You had better save wisely if you plan to visit the Epic Shop and take advantage of the services there.
Another powerful opportunity to pick up Epic Dice, Star Shards and Star Blessings, Shrines allow you to pray to Astrea for power, riches or health! You will always be able to trade one of your precious hearts for an Epic Die or Star Blessing if you're willing to take the risk. But if you've lost a heart or two while traversing the map, you can also rest and replenish a heart here as well. Finally, if neither a heart nor a risk is worth it, you can always take a heap of Star Shards with you as well. Shrines always appear just before bosses so you can expect to find them before the hardest fight in the region.
Sadly, some shrines have been desecrated by the forces of corruption, removing their healing properties. These broken shrines will appear throughout the map and always allow you to sacrifice a heart for a boon-- or take fifty star shards if you need the money!
Other nodes offer perhaps the most deceptively simple, most straightforward choice: You must destroy one die in your deck; which one do you choose? The answer can be harder to decipher than you might think! Creating a dice pool with enough consistency and power to beat the bosses of Astrea is no easy feat and you'll need to choose wisely to get rid of dice that are clogging up your draw each turn. These are some of my personal favorite nodes on the map, so make sure you don't sleep on them! They have quite a lot to offer.
The Duplicate node offers the opposite choice! Choose one die in your deck and add another copy of it! If you're like me and you immediately think of the Epic Dice in your deck, be forewarned that Epic Dice are ineligible for duplication so you must choose something less obvious. One key to powerful runs can be to make a single die incredibly strong through the Forge Shop and the duplicate it multiple times for incredible effects! As long as you have the Star Shards, it can change your run immensely for the better.
The final node on the map, the Mystery! Inside could be anything! Incredible rewards! Devious trades of curses for power! An ambush! The Mystery node includes so much I can't get into all of the different details and permutations here, nor would I, since opening the box to see what's inside is half the fun! The mystery node does commonly feature choices with immense power but be forewarned that some of the most debilitating curses in the game will afflict you if you're too greedy!
And that's everything I have to say about the map! Those of you who've played the Astrea demo are likely well-aware of some of the ins and outs, ups and downs of navigating through Astrea's map. If you haven't gotten the chance to play, keep an eye out for when the demo goes live with events! I'll probably have more devlogs to write in 2023, thanks!
-Buddy
Hevelius, the Ancient Warden Oracle Spotlight!
Hey, Oracles!
The next Astrea Oracle spotlight is here! HEVELIUS, THE ANCIENT WARDEN is a massively armored robot crocodile who protects and empowers his little sentinel buddies to make purifying the corruption in the galaxy a team effort! You can check out the Hevelius spotlight right here on Youtube!
As always, I'm gonna show off Hevelius in a stream as well, so tune in Friday at 10AM PST! Be sure to check out to see how far I can make it before inevitably failing and ruining my run! https://www.twitch.tv/akuparagames
