[p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/37628885/2fe68fc2a202fdba877f22355491e3d2fdc208fa.png"][/p][p][/p][p]Deep within the forest lies a realm of the undead, a graveyard of spirits returned to life thanks to the power of Death Mysticism.[/p][p][/p][p]Surrounded by an army of undead dragons, Drasius the Lesser Dragon of Death awaits the coming challenger.[/p][p][/p][p]Welcome to the next major addition to Fragment’s Moonrise, the horrific land known as the Realm of Death. Like in the previous update, its been quite a while since the last update, but a significant amount of content has been added.[/p][p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/37628885/3cf364ca20761e516f4e62552c2e0dc066901652.png"][/p][p][/p][p]From Okeiri’s World Tree Map, head northeast to gain access to this new area. After a short journey, you’ll arrive at the entrance.[/p][p][/p][p]The Realm of Death is split into the 3 major aspects of Death Mysticism: Conjuration, Poison, and Lifestealing, and upon entering the Entrance you are able to choose from the 3 directions to head in.[/p][p][/p]
Graveyard
[p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/37628885/91475a755aa024e0329a69f884f57bc2199b47b4.png"][/p][p]Northwest lies the Graveyard, a land of conjuration. Creatures of this land are able to summon the dead back to life. Be careful of the powerful Deathkeeper, whom can resummon all who are deceased in a large area-of-effect.[/p][p][/p]
Deathkeeper
[p][/p][p]The Deathkeeper is capable of returning a large group of dead dragons back to life.[/p][p][/p]
Conjuration Arkoyle
[p][/p][p]With its attack, the Conjuration Arkoyle can both deal damage alongside summon an Undead Arkoyle for everything it hits.[/p][p][/p]
Conjuration Matosta
[p]With its attack, the Conjuration Matosta can both deal damage alongside summon an Undead Matosta for everything it hits.[/p][p][/p]
Conjuration Apprentice Dragon
[p]The Conjuration Apprentice Dragon strikes with a poisonous draconic fireball as its primary attack. In addition, it has the ability to resurrect a small group of dragons back to life.[/p][p][/p]
Undying Dragon
[p][/p][p]Miniboss of the Graveyard is the Undying Dragon, a powerful creature able to summon an army of dead very quickly if you allow it to. As a reward for defeating the Undying Dragon you unlock the Apprentice of Death spell Summon Greater Skeleton, a more powerful Skeleton summon.[/p][p][/p][p]Hidden within the Graveyard is a secret, which contains a new Apprentice of Death spell, Conjure Undead Mystic. This spell allows you to summon a temporary Mystic to fight alongside you.[/p][p][/p]
Swamp
[p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/37628885/c2832c4be71a15c6bb8cc21b482cf4415293cd81.png"][/p][p]North lies the Swamp, a land of poison. Riddled throughout the land is the Swampland, which damages and slows all who enter it. The Swamp is incredibly deadly, facilitating creatures that can inflict a powerful Venom, and deal incredible damage in a large area of effect.[/p][p][/p]
Vile Arkoyle
[p]The Vile Arkoyle lashes out with a stinging bolt of Venom.[/p][p][/p]
Vile Matosta
[p][/p][p]The Vile Matosta conjures Venom to fall from the sky, inflicting a rooting effect to those hit.[/p][p][/p]
Vile Apprentice Dragon
[p][/p][p]The Vile Apprentice Dragon is quite powerful, able to summon clouds of Venom that last a long duration. Its important to rapidly strike these clouds down as soon as they spawn, because left alone they can quickly cover the battlefield.[/p][p][/p]
Death Arkoyle
[p][/p][p]The Death Arkoyle conjures a trifurcated pattern of deadly fireballs.[/p][p][/p]
Death Matosta
[p][/p][p]The Death Matosta conjures 5 deadly fireballs which traverse out slowly, harming all they touch.[/p][p][/p]
Death Apprentice Dragon
[p][/p][p]The powerful Death Apprentice Dragon can conjure 5 massive deadly fireballs which traverse out slowly, quickly slaying all they touch.[/p][p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/37628885/6683d5ad783b101f1d108f4b1cbb54480b58ff5d.png"][/p]
Swampland
[p][/p][p]The Swamp is filled with Swampland, which drains the health and movement speed of the victims that come within it.[/p][p][/p]
Venom Lord
[p][/p][p]Miniboss of the Swamp is the Venom Lord. Capable of conjuring a powerful Venom strike, it moves incredibly quickly to lash out at its prey. As a reward for defeating the Venom Lord you unlock the Apprentice of Death spell Death Dance, a powerful AOE spell.[/p][p][/p][p]Hidden within the Swamp is a secret, which contains a new Apprentice of Death spell, Viper Nest. This spell allows you to summon a cloud of Venom.[/p][p][/p]
Bog
[p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/37628885/a0b52b89baa140ee28aed3910c17c3598f876a6f.png"][/p][p]Northeast lies the Bog, a land of fear. The fog is dense, and hard to navigate. Throughout the land are creatures whom can inflict Fear and Leashing, hindering your warrior's movement greatly. In addition to that, there are creatures whom can steal the life of your warriors, restoring their own in the process. To help navigate this forest, a path of blood is laid before you.[/p][p][/p]
Wicked Arkoyle
[p][/p][p]The Wicked Arkoyle inflicts fear upon those it strikes.[/p][p][/p]
Wicked Matosta
[p][/p][p]The Wicked Matosta lies in the back, waiting to inflict a leashing effect upon its victim, dragging the victim close to it without any hope for escape.[/p][p][/p]
Wicked Apprentice Dragon
[p][/p][p]The Wicked Apprentice Dragon fears all who come before it in a massive area-of-effect.[/p][p][/p]
Blood Arkoyle
[p][/p][p]The Blood Arkoyle steals the life from its victims, preventing them from healing temporarily in the process.[/p][p][/p]
Blood Matosta
[p][/p][p]The Blood Matosta inflicts a more potent lifesteal coupled with healing prevention.[/p][p][/p]
Blood Apprentice Dragon
[p][/p][p]The Blood Apprentice Dragon is able to summon a homing lifesteal.[/p][p][/p]
Bloodied Ground
[p][/p][p]In the environment exists bloodied ground, left by the Vampiric Beast. Coming near this ground inflicts damage and prevents healing.[/p][p][/p]
Vampiric Beast
[p][/p][p]Miniboss of the Bog is the Vampiric Beast. Capable of inflicting a potent fear alongside stealing the life of its victims, this creature can be a challenge to defeat if you let it restore its life off you. As a reward for defeating the Vampiric Beast, you unlock the Apprentice of Death spell Blood Thief, a lifestealing spell.[/p][p][/p][p]Hidden within the Bog is a secret, which contains a new Apprentice of Death spell, Blood Slash. This is a short range powerful lifestealing spell.[/p][p][/p]
Drasius the Lesser Dragon of Death
[p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/37628885/24f0aa38efbc61831b930f712795001cdbe7c9b1.png"][/p][p]The boss of the Realm of Death and keeper of the Tome of Death, Drasius and his army protect the forest.[/p][p][/p][p]Drasius casts powerful Mysticism which inflicts the deadly Venom. In addition, he conjures homing masses of lifestealing energy. [/p][p]As the fight progresses, Drasius conjures powerful creatures to assist in the battle. In addition, hidden spawners at the edge of the arena begin to amass even more undead creatures to attack the player. [/p]
New Class: Apprentice of Death
[p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/37628885/e9059aa828d10edccdd215d1e9dff969384a79b1.png"][/p][p][/p][p]As a reward from Drasius, you will receive the Tome of Death. This unlocks the next elemental class, the Apprentice of Death. This new Apprentice is skilled in the core aspects of Death Mysticism. It can summon undead creatures, resurrect dead allies, inflict the potent Venom, lifesteal, explode corpses, and more.[/p][p][/p][p]In addition to that, two new MultiCast spells are available: Raining Death, which requires an Apprentice of Death and Mysticism to cast, alongside Deadly Embrace, which requires an Apprentice of Death and Air. Lastly, the incredibly powerful Resurrect spell is now technically available, but will require the Apprentice of Life unlocked before it can be acquired.[/p][p][/p][p]With all that being said, I hope you look forward to the next major update to the game: the Twisting Forest. My current goal is to release a new major environment update every ~2 months.[/p][p][/p]
Thanks for checking out Fragment's Moonrise!
Fragment's Moonrise V2.0: The Rainforest of Mysticism
Welcome to V2.0!
From the sky rains Mysticism, so pure it takes on a physical form, and in such concentration it is as abundant as the air around.
At the heart of the Rainforest, Illume the Lesser Dragon of Mysticism hides in wait, surrounded by a thick fog of Mystical energy.
Welcome to the next major addition to Fragment’s Moonrise, the wondrous land known as the Rainforest of Mysticism. Its been quite a long time since the previous update, but a significant amount of new content has been added as a result.
From Okeiri’s World Tree Map, head northwest to gain access to this new area. After a short journey, you’ll arrive at the entrance.
Bridging between the Path of Ice and the Rainforest is a small hidden pathway that can be used to quickly navigate to this new area as well.
Upon entering this environment, your warriors will immediately become invigorated by the energy all around. This boosts all of your Unit’s mana regeneration, attack speed, and movement speed, and this increases up to an additional +50% if you can survive long enough without taking damage.
The Rainforest of Mysticism is the largest environment of the Grove yet, featuring 4 new maps, and a few extras.
The Rainforest is primarily split between West and East, and knowledge of Mysticism is necessary in order to progress.
Hidden across the Western and Eastern Rainforests are Mystical beings known as Celestial Dragons. These dragons are very powerful minibosses, with each representing a core Mystical Element. As such, they can only be harmed by their respective element, meaning you’ll need to utilize all the various spells at your disposal in order to defeat all of them.
Upon defeating a Celestial Dragon, you’ll unlock its Teleporter. They are used to advance deeper into the forest.
New Enemies
Many new hostile creatures await in the Rainforest.
Mystic Arkoyle
Teleports near your Units and begins casting homing spells that deal devastating damage.
Mystic Matosta
Fires an incredibly powerful orb of Mysticism.
Mystic Apprentice Dragon
A very sturdy dragon, who conjures deadly tornados and releases them at your warriors.
Lunar Arkoyle
An invisible Arkoyle, whom waits in ambush for the player to draw near, then begins striking them with spells that rapidly drain mana.
Moonrise Matosta
A unique Matosta that can destroy any incoming spell as well as reflect spells that hit it. As it becomes hurt, it quickly escapes only to return later.
Celestial Dragons
Powerful dragons of their respective Mystical element, capable of conjuring a deadly homing orb of Mysticism that is very difficult to dodge without being attuned to the environment.
Illume the Lesser Dragon of Mysticism
The boss of the Rainforest of Mysticism and keeper of the Tome of Mysticism, Illume suffers from a split-personality that has festered further as a result of exposure to the Fragment.
Illume lurks in the fog, ready to strike at any moment. He utilizes a powerful homing spell and can even destroy other spells.
Throughout the duration of the fight, Illume will escape to safety only to ambush again without warning.
As the fight nears its end, he conjures an unrelenting Mystic Star to destroy the player. This spell chases endlessly, so you’d better finish the fight fast.
The Narya Approaches
Lurking within the Rainforest is a nomadic hunter of dragons, a being known only by its race: Narya. The Narya are a mysterious and evil derivative of the Mystic race, incredibly powerful and completely hostile to the Mystics as a whole.
Defeating this Narya, however, will grant the player access to a new series of incredibly powerful spells known as Elite Spells. While none have yet to be implemented, they are under planning and design, so expect to see them once all of the Elemental Apprentice classes have been added.
Elite Spells will cost 1 Scripture each in order to unlock, and are as powerful as Multi-Cast spells while still being single-cast.
New Class: Apprentice of Mysticism
As a reward from Illume, you will receive the Tome of Mysticism. This unlocks the next elemental class, the Apprentice of Mysticism. This new Apprentice is primarily skilled in dealing powerful single-target damage from a variety of distances, can decimate an enemy’s mana supply, can teleport, and can weave a cloak of invisibility. Finally, its ability to rapidly exchange health for mana can make it always ready to strike.
A new dual-cast spell: Great Mystic Energy
Requiring an Apprentice of Flame and an Apprentice of Mysticism, Great Mystic Energy is a powerful dual-cast spell more devastating than Frostfire while inflicting both a mana draining effect alongside burning.
With all that being said, I hope you look forward to the next major update to the game: the Graveyard. My current goal is to release a new major environment update every ~2 months.
Thanks for checking out Fragment's Moonrise!
Fragment's Moonrise V1.9: The Path of Ice
Welcome to V1.9!
As frost creeps in, the Path of Ice is revealed and at its head, the Lesser Frost Dragon Ceruss stands firm.
Welcome to the next major addition to Fragment’s Moonrise, the frostbitten land known as the Path of Ice.
From Okeiri’s World Tree Map, head west to gain access to this new area. After a short journey, you’ll arrive at the Entrance.
Bridging between the Lair of Fire and Path of Ice is a small hidden pathway that can be used to quickly navigate to this new area as well.
Upon entering this environment, you’ll immediately become aware at how freezing it is...
As you explore, you’ll need the warmth of a nearby Brazier to carry you through this freezing environment. If you don’t, your warriors will quickly succumb to the frost and freeze to death. Quickly finding the next Brazier to light will be your key to navigating this treacherous area.
New Enemies
Many hostilities await in this frozen wasteland.
Frost Arkoyle
Conjures a spear of ice that slices through everything in its path.
Frost Matosta
Conjures ice from the sky, freezing whomever it touches.
Water Matosta
Like its Arkoyle counterpart, this Matosta excels in healing. Can conjure soothing rain to heal its allies, and harmful frost to damage its enemies.
Liquid Arkoyle
An Arkoyle made of water, inflicting a debuff that lowers your Water resistances.
Liquid Matosta
A Matosta made of water, whom casts a long range waterbolt that can lower your Water resistances.
Ice Golem Arkoyle
Massive Arkoyle, whom conjures a giant avalanche of frost to damage and throw back any enemy it touches.
Ice Golem Matosta
Massive Matosta, whom conjures a barrage of spiraling frost all around it, freezing anything it touches.
Blizzard Arkoyle
A fast and aggressive Arkoyle, whom quickly strikes down any foe with its vicious winter-wind.
Ceruss the Lesser Dragon of Frost
The boss of the Path of Ice and keeper of the Tome of Water, Ceruss is a prisoner of the dragons, now forced to fight you and defend his Tome.
Strewn about the arena are many ice crystals that were found in the environment. These crystals can be shrunk using flame, but are restored using water.
As the fight progresses, orbs of dancing ice appear, wandering randomly and freezing to the touch.
When the fight approaches its finale, Ceruss has one last spell to strike you down with: the power of frostfire to greatly reduce your water and fire resistances!
New Class: Apprentice of Water
As a reward from Ceruss, you will receive the Tome of Water. This unlocks the next elemental class, the Apprentice of Water. Skilled in both utility and damage, the Apprentice of Water can cleanse harmful status ailments while restoring mana and dealing considerable damage.
A new dual-cast spell: Frostfire
Found within the Path of Ice, Frostfire is a new type of spell known as a Multi-Cast. This requires the Apprentices of both Flame and Water to join in on the attack, casting an incredibly powerful Frostfire spell which can deal the highest damage in the game (so far). Its damage type is split between both Fire and Water, so its useful in a variety of scenarios, even if the foe has a special weakness to one element or the other.
With all that being said, I hope you look forward to the next major update to the game: the Rainforest of Mysticism. My current goal is to release a new major environment update every ~2 months.
Thanks for checking out Fragment's Moonrise!
Fragment's Moonrise V1.8: The Lair of Fire
Welcome to V1.8!
Its been a little longer than normal! And with good reason: the Lair of Fire in its entirety has been finished!
This next series of major maps are going to be a lot more demanding to develop for, and to start them off, I bring you the Lair of Fire.
From Okeiri’s World Tree Map, head southwest to gain access to this new area. After a short journey, you’ll arrive at the Entrance.
The forest is going to begin to sprawl out a lot more going forward, and the Entrance is the first of many. A passageway nearby will eventually lead to the Path of Ice environment, but for now it has simply been placed in.
As you go forward, you’ll be greeted with a few new types of enemies: dragons capable of powerful Fire Mysticism. Let’s check them out...
Fire Arkoyle
A dragon similar to the Mataush miniboss fight all the way back at the start of the Grove, the Fire Arkoyle casts a bursting fireball that can even harm its allies. And that’s going to be the theme of this environment: fire is chaos, and thus the encounters will be just as chaotic. All major fire dragons will be able to damage each other, but they do have higher Fire resistance to compensate.
Molten Arkoyle
The Molten Arkoyle casts a fireball capable of burning anything it touches as it travels, in addition to dealing damage. This does mean if you position yourself appropriately, you’ll be able to have other dragons get inflicted with Burning from this fireball.
Flame Matosta
A dragon similar to the Surras miniboss fight back at the start of the Grove, the Flame Matosta casts fireballs that rain down from the sky. True to the design of the Matosta, it can harm itself in addition to being able to harm its allies.
Molten Matosta
The most powerful of the Fire Dragons, the Molten Matosta casts an intense flame that burns everything it touches and chases the player relentlessly. You will need precise movement in order to dodge this spell.
Lair of Fire Exclusive Enemies
Added exclusively for the Lair of Fire are a few extra enemies used to supplement the chaotic gameplay and lore of this environment.
Otherworldly Flame
A dark purple plume of smoke, the Otherworldly Flame rains fire down from the skies (similar to the raining fire during the latter half of the Barein fight). This being also has the ability to summon two special enemies: the Enflamed.
Enflamed Arkoyle
Equivalent to the Lesser Arkoyle, the Enflamed Arkoyle chases after the player and casts a more powerful fire spell. Summoned by the Otherworldly Flame.
Enflamed Matosta
Equivalent to the Lesser Matosta, the Enflamed Matosta is a stronger variant summoned by the Otherworldly Flame.
New General Enemies
Some new support enemies were necessary to be added to the game in order to improve each respective environment.
Life Arkoyle and Matosta
The Life Arkoyle and Life Matosta are new powerful healers, capable of rapidly healing any damaged ally. An issue with the previous primary healer, the Water Arkoyle, was that it could easily get out of position and not be able to perform its healing role. The Life Arkoyle and Matosta have been equipped with a way to restore mana while simultaneously teleporting nearby allies, to ensure their always in the fray and able to perform front-line healing duties.
Sound Arkoyle and Matosta
The Sound Arkoyle and Sound Matosta fill a Resistance-modifying role. The Sound Arkoyle is capable of increasing the Resistances of all nearby allies while the Sound Matosta has a long-ranged Resistance-reducing spell.
Nature Arkoyle and Matosta
The Nature Arkoyle and Nature Matosta fill a unique position-based role. They are capable of Rooting any hit player unit, making them unable to move and thus easy prey. The Nature Matosta also has access to the powerful Earthfall skill for devastating damage.
Secrets
Hidden with the Lair of Fire are two pathways that lead to unique rewards. Be sure to explore around to find them!
Feross the Lesser Flame Dragon
The boss of the Lair of Fire and keeper of the Tome of Fire is Feross, the insane Lesser Dragon of Flame.
As the fight with Feross progresses, it becomes more and more chaotic. He can summon Otherworldly Flames thoughout the fight, and the lower health he has, the more dangerous he becomes. His fireballs start off small, the same size as Barein’s, but as he gets weaker, the fireballs get much much larger. In addition, as his health is lowered, more and more flames begin to surround the arena. By the end of the fight, the arena has been squeezed to nearly half its size.
Finally, as a finishing move, Feross casts a massive fireball. This fireball will destroy the entire arena, damaging everything within it. When he casts it, you’ll need to finish him off as quickly as possible, because this fireball is the most devastating attack in the game (so far!).
New Class: Apprentice of Flame
As a reward from Feross, you will receive the Tome of Fire, which unlocks the next Elemental Apprentice class: the Apprentice of Flame. The Apprentice of Flame specializes in large AOE damaging spells based around the fire spells of the dragons of the Lair of Fire in addition to some spells influenced from Classic.
Oh! And last but not least, some new music has been added to the Nightforest!
With all that being said, I hope you look forward to the next major update to the game: the Path of Ice. My original goal was to release new updates roughly every month, but because I want to really detail these next series of environments, updates will likely only be every ~2 months.
Thanks for checking out Fragment's Moonrise!
Fragment's Moonrise V1.7: New Random Maps
Welcome to V1.7!
In the last update, I created the Mist Lake, which housed access to a new class, alongside expansion upon the Ulia questline.
Now, in this small but important update, I have finished creating 22 additional maps for the Pseudo-Random Map Generator.
So what is this Pseudo-Random Map Generator?
You can find the original post about the PRMG here.
These random maps are essentially pre-built maps, with randomized enemy spawns, used to fill up the world and provide more ways to acquire resources and experience while giving you the opportunity to test out your spells on standard enemies.
So why create 22 new maps?
This brings the total up to 25 different random maps that can spawn, giving more variety to exploration, and more dynamics to replayability.
These 25 PRMG maps will be used throughout the rest of the development of the game in various ways to expand upon the exploration of the world.
More importantly, they weren’t all too difficult to create, which gave me plenty of opportunity to plan out the rest of the project. Let me discuss that here...
The current plan for the game is to release a new major piece of content roughly every month. As such, pre-planning is necessary so I can get directly into creating content rather than having to draft it first.
I’ve designed the remaining 7 critical areas to the game, excluding the final bosses area. They are as follows: • Lair of Fire • Path of Ice • Cavern of Mysticism • Graveyard • The Winding Forest • The Hidden Forest/Lair of Urs • Land of Despair
With these new environments planned out, throughout the next several updates, I will be creating these and deploying them as regular updates.
This all leads into the ultimate finale for the game, the boss fight against Jhiik, the Hydra. With him, that marks the completion of the Grove, and thus finalizes my plans for Fragment’s Moonrise 1.
I also intend on developing more replayability features to make the game more enjoyable to re-experience, including some form of Randomizer mode, but that will come after completion of Jhiik’s Lair.
With all that being said, I hope you look forward to the next major update to the game: the Lair of Fire.
Thanks for checking out Fragment's Moonrise!
Fragment's Moonrise V1.6: The Mist Lake
Welcome to V1.6!
In the last update, I created the Forest of the World Tree, which housed a method of teleporting across the world.
Now, in this update, I have expanded upon the questline for Ulia hinted at back in update V1.3. If you’ve progressed the questline up to that point, then you’ll want to head back to the Wisps’ Grove (which is through the Nightforest).
So what’s in this new update?
A New Class
The Apprentice of Nature has been teased at for quite a while if you’ve been paying close attention to the Ulia questline, so without much spoilers, this class now becomes accessible after some... exploring...
New Spells for Apprentices of Air and Nature
Added in V1.4 was the Apprentice of Air, but no spells were added for it. In this update, I’ve added a dozen new spells for both the Air and Nature Apprentices. These spells can be unlocked back at the Home Base.
Explore the Mist Lake, a place of Illusions
The Mist Lake is artistically themed after the Nightforest, but with additional mystery to make it truly feel like the lake is mysterious, eerie, calming.
Watch out for Traps
No enemies exist to fight here, instead, be on sharp lookout for various traps hidden throughout the land. Coming near them invokes some... interesting effects. I won’t spoil what can happen when you come near, just know they will do something... interesting.
This ends the blog, best wishes checking out what the Mist Lake has to offer!
Thanks for checking out Fragment's Moonrise!
Fragment's Moonrise V1.5: The Forest of the World Tree
Welcome to V1.5!
In the previous update, I established the Lake of Lightning area, which included an additional boss fight alongside access to a new class, the Apprentice of Air.
Now, in this update, I have expanded upon the main questline with the addition of the Forest of the World Tree. This is the area where the “open world” feature of the game will truly begin to shine, because this next area basically relinquishes all exploration-based control to the player. While none of the maps it connects to have yet to be established (they will all be added in due time), this hub sets the state of the world to come.
To access the new area, head to the Pathway Deeper into the Grove, and continue forward.
So what’s in this new update?
Access to the World Waypoints
World Waypoints offer a way for the player to rapidly traverse across the entire world. Think of them like the in-map Waypoints, but across ALL maps.
You will be able to discover these World Waypoints in key locations as you explore the Grove. At any point in time, you can teleport back to the World Tree, and access the World Waypoint menu and thus transport to any location corresponding to a World Waypoint discovered.
Expansion upon the main questline
The main questline continues on with the discovery of Okeiri, the World Tree. This is an ancient tree from times of old, and has much lore and rewards to offer.
The purpose of Okeiri in this scenario is to establish the main plot of the Grove: find and slay the Hydra Jhiik. With Okeiri’s help, it is clear where Jhiik dwells. However, being such a powerful dragon means the player must prepare. Opened up is now main routes to various places in the Grove that can contain new elemental Tomes, similar to the Tome of Air from the last update. Upgrading your Units and establishing your army will be pivotal when it comes to facing Jhiik.
This ends the blog, best wishes checking out what the Forest of the World Tree has to offer!
Thanks for checking out Fragment's Moonrise!
Fragment's Moonrise V1.4: The Lightning Lake
Welcome to V1.4!
In the previous update, I expanded upon the southern-most passageway leading to the Nightforest. Now, in this update, the Lake of Lightning area has been fully expanded upon up to completion.
To access the new area, head to the Pathway to the Lightning Lake, and continue forward.
So what’s in this new update?
Access to a new class
Upon completing this area, you are rewarded with a special new tome, the Tome of Air. This Tome allows you to advance your Apprentices further, into a new class pathway known as the Apprentice of Air. While in this update it just features the class advancement, know that in the subsequent update there will be brand new spells for this class alongside all necessary rebalancing.
New enemy spell type: Continuous Damage
To facilitate the mechanics of the boss, Lesser Lightning Dragon Bekseivu, I created a new and quite powerful spell mechanic called Continuous Damage. So, what does it do? Well, its simple. As it travels, upon moving the radius of its AOE, it explodes (and doesn’t stop). This means that as the spell travels along its path, it will continuously deal damage if you’re near it. This damage can stack up fairly quickly, and has become one of the most deadly spell mechanisms I’ve added to the game.
Two new enemies were added that can cast continuous-damage spells, which include the Lightning Arkoyle and Lightning Matosta. The Arkoyle casts a shorter range spell and usually are encountered in more numerous amounts, while the Matosta features a very long range attack that has a very wide AOE.
New boss: Bekseivu, the Lesser Lightning Dragon
Bekseivu expands upon the Arunaiya questline, and finishes off this short sub-quest. There is quite a lot of lore in this dialogue encounter, with various expansion upon character backstories.
With his design, the idea was a continuous barrage of spells in a pattern. As such, a series of spells were designed to fire off in various patterns. These patterns are of course based off the same code used to design Mataush’s burst fireball, but these are much more numerous in count. I wanted a boss encounter that felt like you were traversing a maze of death, and that was accomplished thanks to the Continuous Damage mechanic.
Bekseivu has a handful of spells to watch out for: he has a handful of pattern-based spells, an incredibly fast barraging spell, a homing spell similar to the Nightdrake (but not as deadly), a bursting tornado spell, and as the fight progresses his attacks get even quicker. This ended up being quite the powerful boss that was quite enjoyable to fight!
This ends the blog, best wishes checking out what the Lake of Lightning has to offer!
Thanks for checking out Fragment's Moonrise!
Fragment's Moonrise V1.3: Nightdrake's Grotto
Welcome to V1.3!
Continuing on with the Nightforest from V1.2 is the addition of the Nightdrake’s Grotto, an area home to a quite terrifying and powerful new boss known as the Nightdrake.
Teased in the previous patch notes, the Nightdrake is an invisible boss that stalks the forest.
When it sees the player, it ambushes them, wherever they may be in the forest.
Therefore, stealth will be your best friend for traversing this new map. And there is plenty of invisibility grass strewn around the map.
Added alongside this update are new spells, more lore, the start of the Nightdrake questline, and a major expansion upon the Ulia questline. Let’s take a look into what is entailed below.
You can access the Nightdrake’s Grotto from Nightdrake’s Folly, which can be found if you take the Pathway to the Nightforest passageway from the Meadow of the Waternymphs (near where you defeated Arunaiya).
New spells include the following:
Conjure Light: this spell allows you to summon light at a targeted location, allowing you to see further in this environment (among many others) to determine the path you want to take going forward. Very useful for remaining in stealth and steering clear of the Nightdrake! It also gives you the ability to disable an enemy’s invisibility, to help you see invisible foes much more clearly. The Nightforest is home to the Nightchildren, whom are completely invisible, so you will either need a keen eye or this spell in order to find them!
Rain of Fire: this spell allows you to conjure fire to rain down from the skies, inflicting a burning effect on anything that touches it. This is a fire alternative to the cloud of poison, and encompasses a much larger radius despite not lasting as long.
Gust of Wind: this utility spell invokes the same effect the Nightchildren could invoke upon you, and that is to force you away. Hitting anything with a gust of wind causes them to tumble out of control and fly backwards, which is very useful for zoning and moving foes out of your way.
Wisp Energy: while Ulia gave you a decent mana-healing spell, this new Wisp Energy is a much more powerful variant. While Lesser Mana Heal is a spell you can directly cast on your allies to restore their Mana, Wisp Energy is a spell you can use to steal mana from your foes and restore your own. It has a much shorter cooldown, is quick to cast, and has a very long range, making it suitable for restoring mana in the heat of battle (and you’ll need it should you go up against the Nightdrake!).
Lore:
Hidden throughout the Grotto are various tidbits of lore about the area. While exploring, you’ll encounter some Nightchildren having a conversation with one another. One of these gives you an indirect hint as to how you could fight against the Nightdrake itself...
Ulia, Part 3:
Where you find the Wisp Energy spell is also where you’ll advance the Ulia questline; upon entering the area, you are greeted with a cutscene containing a great deal of lore about Ulia’s capturing. This cutscene plays a pivotal role heading into one of the biggest pieces of completely optional content being added into the game, so its well worth not skipping over!
Nightdrake:
Upon entering the Nightforest, the Nightdrake locks onto you, poised to strike. Its only with the help of the invisibility grass are you able to sneak your way through the area and avoid the wrath of the Nightdrake.
Those daring enough to face this boss should know that this boss has been designed to be a late-game opponent. This is a boss that will quite literally require usage of all the spells available to your Apprentices, alongside your own cunning and tactics. Its highly recommended to avoid this boss until you have much stronger Units in the future, but those seeking a challenge will be greatly pleased with the difficulty spike of this boss. The only recommendation is to pay attention to his resistances, and formulate a strategy based on that alongside the mana pool you have available to your Apprentices. And, of course, don’t forget about the terrain at your disposal... (for reference, defeating this boss with your Apprentice’s current DPS took me approximately 1 hour of straight fighting to pull off).
The Nightdrake has been designed as a 4-phase boss.
Phase 1 is its starting phase, which consists of 2 spells. The first is Life Siphon, which has the ability to steal health from your Units. This is the first homing spell put into the game, meaning the spell will follow and chase your Units, only losing track when it gets too close (so dodging at the last second is a must). The second spell is a cloud of miasma, which will limit your movement on the battlefield. If you are faced with a scenario where you either have to take damage from the Miasma or take a hit from Life Siphon, it will always be better to take damage from the Miasma, as Life Siphon will restore a lot of health back to the Nightdrake!
Phase 2 involves the Nightdrake’s first iteration of summoning its ghostly minions. Between 60% and 50% HP is when this phase starts, and on a somewhat short cooldown will the Nightdrake begin summoning ghosts designed at chasing you away from the fight. These Ghost Nightchildren will inflict Miasma upon your Units if they get too close, and will cast an Entangling spell upon you if you don’t avoid them. Losing your ability to move while fighting the Nightdrake will almost certainly spell an instant defeat.
Oh, and did I mention- both the Nightdrake’s Life Siphon alongside the Miasma will remove your ability to go invisible? So attempting to escape will become a lot more perilous should you take a hit from either of them...
Phase 3 involves the Nightdrake summoning more ghostly minions. This time, it will summon twin Ghost Nightdrakes, whom are capable of casting Life Siphon alongside summoning Ghost Nightchildren. Just as the Nightdrake can ambush your Units from anywhere, so do the Ghost Nightdrakes, so be careful when you are suddenly surrounded by 3 enemies!
Phase 4 is simple: the Nightdrake just gains a short boost to its already quick cast-time, making his spells fire off much quicker. This means if you’re already used to dodging the Nightdrake’s attacks, you’ll just need to continue to do so... but faster.
Defeating the Nightdrake yields a great reward and begins the Nightdrake Questline, which will take place much later on in the game. The Nightforest leads into the Nightdrake’s Despair, an area locked away currently.
So what about the reward?
The first is a new spell, Ghostform. This spell allows you to turn your Units invisible, much like getting near the invisibility grass. Invisibility is going to be a critical component to stealthing around the world alongside the Nightdrake questline going forward, and this will be on of the few very rare spells allowing you to go invisible.
The second reward is the first Scripture you can acquire. Scriptures, like Pages, are used for upgrades... and such a rare and vital component will be made incredibly useful going forward.
Finally, for those following the YouTube channel, I'll be doing a deep-dive into the design philosophy behind this boss on my channel, so look forward to that!
This ends the blog, best wishes checking out what the Nightforest has to offer!
Thanks for checking out Fragment's Moonrise!
Fragment's Moonrise V1.2: Nightdrake's Folly
Welcome to V1.2!
In this update, a new area has been designed known as the Nightforest. This is a dark and mysterious new area, coated with invisibility. It is aesthetically wildly different than any other environment thus designed.
And to introduce to the player this new area, I've created a new map: Nightdrake's Folly.
You can access this Map via heading to the Meadow of the Waternymphs, and taking the passageway known as "Pathway to the Nightforest".
So what's in this new environment?
You begin at the entrance to it, and after a small skirmish, are able to take in its mysterious view.
Immediately upon entering the Nightforest, you will be greeted with a cutscene to give additional lore for both the area and for Ulia's backstory.
There exists now a new type of environment object, a tall grass that coats all of your warriors in invisibility. This invisibility will be key for exploring the future segments of the Nightforest, as I have some fairly epic (and likely scary) plans for the next map!
Immediately after the tall grass are a new type of enemy, the Nightchildren. Perceivably weak, their threat does not come from damage but from their utility effects. Especially as we delve into the map after the Folly. Look closely! You can barely make them out, but there is one to the left, and one to the right.
The Nightchildren cast a spell called Emerald Wind, which deals minor damage and blows all of your warriors hit by it backwards with a large gust of wind. I added an effect that spins your units around when they are hit by it, so certainly check it out in-game because this image does not do it justice!
This spell does one thing in particular that will make the next map much more terrifying: it disables your ability to become invisible!
So, with all that talk of the next map, when will that be added?
For V1.3, the next major piece of content added will be the Nightdrake's Grotto. This will contain a reimagining of the original classic Nightdrake, with a twist. This Grotto will be a stealth map, nudging the player to want to stay invisible at all times because of how strong the Nightdrake will be. I want a new boss added to the game that has the feeling of only being defeat-able later in the game, and that's what the Nightdrake will be. You'll need to stealth through the area, because once the Nightdrake finds you, you'll be dead in an instant! And if you encounter some Emerald Wind while trying to escape from the Nightdrake, there will be no escape.
There were some minor improvements to the game that are being added in V1.2 as well. The first is a new visual effect for the Rooted status ailment. I want all effects to be as visual as possible, to not lose things in the UI like in Classic, and Rooted was one status effect that did not have a visual effect yet. I fixed some major saving issues with the Passageways. Lastly, I fixed some issue with the enemy dodging mechanisms.
Thanks for checking out Fragment's Moonrise! I hope you enjoy V1.2!
