Zor: Pilgrimage of the Slorfs
Hotfix - Dec 12
Fixed issue where chill of the wood perk could fail to be rewarded
Hotfix - Dec 11
Deck display now sorts cards in order of deck slots, fixing bug where you could tell which card was coming next (was not intentional)
Fixed issue where underflock boss grubs could be in tile with slorf but not eaten
Experience pickup SFX fixed
Hotfix - Dec 1
Note the fix doesn't repair existing runs with the issue
Content update: Into the Woods
New Content
Slorf: Rowan
Rowan is a denizen of the woods and has some very peculiar traits for a Slorf. Being a tree, he has the largest store of water of any character at a baseline of 6. Slightly less food and health, but the real twist is that being a tree he isn't really into eating with his mouth and prefers eating with his toes taking nutrients from the soil.
Clearing: Weeping Woods
Once this clearing is discovered you may encounter it in the Warrens or the Maddening Murk. A massive tree offers a bargain to help clear foul weeds that are strangling it's roots. If you succeed, the grateful giant will offer a game changing full heal to both Slorfs and unveil a shrine as a reward.
Astrolabe Nodes
The woods panel has activated and three new nodes are available to be unlocked, adding a new layer of achievement based progress, and new twists on gameplay. Unlock the secrets of the Spooky Forest, Chill of the Wood, and Evil Acorns!
Cards: Move and Harvest
Move and harvest needed some variety so we added 12 new cards to the mix.
With upgrades its actually 25 but we don't like to pad the stats
Tuning
Cards
Early move upgrades and starting deck composition was reworked, see our previous diary for details
Triobelisk
Some strong cards, or cards that needed a new home have been moved to the Triobelisk pool, which is no longer move only. The cards moved there are Glare, Mark, Rested, Digest, and Greedy
Balance Changes
- Punch, Stepback, Run have been buffed
- Reflect is now 2/2 exhaust
- Scrounge costs 3 and is a March upgrade
- Nature walk replaces +2 bonus in it's upgrade with the addition of weed and plant tags (There has been a comprehensive retagging of tree/weed/plant objects)
- Murk Arena clearing has more breathing room at start
- Peeker challenge in Warren is larger and uses weeds to pen some of the enemies
- Eggs replaced with weeds/tree in courier bug level (it's still not easy but more focused now)
Misc
Aloe plant renamed, as name was placeholder and somehow stuck around for a year
Quality of Life
- Harvest Icon replaces the word harvest on card fronts
- Attack and harvest cards always show a range icon, so buffs are more clear
- Dialogue bubbles now dismiss with any click
- Slorf selection swaps if you select the one in opposite slot
- Deck slots now have tooltips
- Deck content view now shows card cost buffs
- XP gains show numerical amount
- When discovering the reward in the leaf pile, the other leaf piles fade visually
Bug fixes
- Cause of some rare crashes/hangs found and fixed
- Discard accidentally became possible in first tutorial level, reversed that
- Flying enemies no longer require 2 actions to attack up a height level
- Evade/Armor info no longer disappears from slorf HUD after cancelling a card
- Map gen code bug fixed that would cause zones to spread along unplayable hex zone edges
- Game no longer erroneously saves during card consumption causing card loss and resource exploits
- Fixed some crashes that could rarely happen when cleaning up dead entities
- Recipe component icons no longer low resolution
- Glare now states it must damage to immobilize
We hope you enjoy this huge new update and also the upcoming holiday season!
- Clint and Gavin
Shuffle up!
Before diving in, the goals for these changes are:
- Every card upgrade should provide a choice
- Giving more meaning to initial upgrades beyond the puzzle of how to spend your XP wisely
Now for the details!
Movement Card Changes
Here is how we are rearranging the movement upgrades to meet that second goal:
Lazy is now the single root of the tree, and upgrades into Walk, Explore or March. On the surface they all seem to have the same value: 1 food per action in different amounts. However, there are pretty significant gameplay differences between those numbers, and now each branch will now have its own upgrade pool with a unique identity.
While Lazy is still a bad card by design, upgrading it will be a commitment to which direction the deck will take. Slower with more utility? More expensive with explosive capabilities? Playing it safe?
Also note the astrolabe perk which adds a second lazy card becomes much more interesting!
Three Branches
Motivation Changes
This free card in the start deck has been in the game since the beginning, and plays an important role in providing relief to the game's many difficulties. Knowing it is coming, and choosing when to use it adds depth and variety especially early game.
Late game it loses it's impact a bit, and it may seem odd that it doesn't upgrade, so In the next update Motivation can be upgraded into one of two specialization options:
- Determination: Increased to 4 Actions
- Inspiration: Exhaust, so only usable once, but gives an XP
Harvest Cards
Upgrading harvest cards will finally give a variety of results each run instead of the same three choices. Four new harvest upgrades have been added, and greed has been moved to the triobelisk as it makes much more sense as a second powerful but costly harvest card than the staple in your deck.
The TLDR
- This update will add 8 movement and 4 harvest cards
- The initial upgrade branches have been overhauled
- Triobelisk now contains a variety of card types, and some strong cards have been moved there
- Several cards have been balanced
Some dense information in this one, I hope you all appreciate it and are excited to dive in to this huge meta shake up. Next diary will cover the rest of the new content including a new challenge, new astrolabe nodes, and a new Slorf!
Thanks for tuning in,
Clint and Gavin
Critical hotfix - Oct 27th
Hot fix 2 - Oct 25th
Hotfix - Oct 25th
Turrets now stop rotating when immobilized
Improved unlock info for Gharl to be clearer
Avenging ghost visually distinct from other ghosts
Major Update: Fate of the Graves
With the systems in place, the next content updates will come faster as we add more slorfs and make more of the astrolabe available.
New Content
Playable Slorfs
Finally, ZOR allows you to expand the Slorf roster and customize your duo
Elder
The Elder will show the young Slorfs how it was done in his day. Trade some combat robustness for wisdom that will see your deck improving more rapidly.
10 Health - 8 Food - 3 Water
Cannot use attack cards
Gain 1 XP each camp
Unlocked by beating the game on Normal or greater difficulty
Gharl
This spectral Slorf assassin can dish out 99 damage, and yes, one shot a boss. Overpowered? Maybe, but with 1 health and no way to increase it, there is zero room for error.
1 Health - 10 Food - 3 Water
Max health is always 1
Attacks during movement do 99 damage
Unlocked by killing 13 ghosts in a single pilgrimage
The Astrolabe
Pilgrimage setup has been upgraded to the Astrolabe. An array of 6 groups of 3 perks which can be unlocked via various achievements.
Nodes
The following Astrolabe nodes are available in this update
Blessings (core left) - Minor buffs that are unlocked easily by just playing the game
Burdens (core right) - Minor challenges that are unlocked with some easier achievements
Grave (lower left) - Perks that mix things up significantly using ghosts and graves. Will be necessary to unlock Gharl
Map Scrolls
Some clearings need to be discovered via simple challenges. The ghastly maze will show up in rotation once you have destroyed a grave.
New Content
Ghastly Maze - A new discoverable challenge
Avenging Grave - Spawns an avenging apparition if any enemy was killed between its turns
Spectral Turrets (via node) - Underflock turrets become ghosts and do 99 Damage
Mask card - New early recipe, costs 1 water for 1 evade
Reworks
Camp Improvement Tree
Overhauled with many balance changes. Some effects are gone, and some new ones have been added.
Notable changes:
- Woodshed is now an independent node costing 5 sticks
- Complexity and card rewards removed, opting for simpler and objectively helpful effects
- Row 3-4 contain effects that give more value the sooner you get them, like bonus food from grubs and meat.
- New effect: Can expand number of recipe choices
Burrowing Thrix
This enemies behavior was too complex and confusing, so it was streamlined (and is now not only clearer, but more interesting as a result)
- Always moves to next glowing burrow each round, even if slorf in range
- No longer retreats when attacked
- No longer immune to movement impairing effects
Tuning
- Tutorial is required to unlock the Trial
- Challenge clearings no longer appear twice in a row
- Graves and ghosts are more likely to show up
- Graves made more visually distinct
- Throbbing pustule only animates if a Slorf is adjacent, cutting down on end round delays
- Warren pools tuned, bugs reduced, various clearing improvements
- Murk pools tuned, number of tendrils reduced, water pools placed more fairly, various clearing improvements
- Crusty tendril no longer has blunt attack
- Steppes crystal shrine clearing size reduced and removed second height level
- Snarp timing reordered based on now better understood difficulty: Haste, Thorn -> Gravity, Ghoul -> Rage, Liminal
Quality of Life
- Recipe cards now show the components needed to craft
- Crafting screen can now be viewed when choosing cards or recipes
- Flying added to keywords and explained in tooltip
- Underflock General dialogue added
- Tips added to camp main screen
- Slorf dialogue now dynamic depending who is in the first slot
- Several tooltip improvements where info was confusing or lacking
Bug fixes
- Belligerent bug drops XP again
- Ghost animation is no longer in sync
- Clearing name fixes where overrides weren't considered
- Impossible recipes removed from Trial pool (Drink, etc)
- Area number on cards like spinning attack no longer appear buffed by attack card range buff
- Grimp eye no longer explodes during enemies cleared animation, and handles mid movement
Final Note
Note that although steam achievements are referenced as the source of astrolabe unlocks, only the challenges are currently live, and the real achievements will be added in a future update,
Dev Diary: Progression
This new content will elevate the game from something you play a handful of times until you beat the bosses, to a longer journey that spans many runs. As you progress, the game will grow with new options and goals that will keep things fresh for a very long time.
The huge October update Fate of the Graves will give you a first taste, and the rest will become available rapidly over the coming months.
Gharl is a ghosty Slorf with a single health, evade, and 99 damage. Yes, he can one shot a boss, but can he survive missing lunch?
Our Goals
Vision
- Rewards are tied to achievements. Get an achievement, and unlock a cool new thing
- As you gain these rewards, your options will expand and you will have more tools to use as you attempt the more challenging achievements
- The path is not linear, and you have freedom in how you approach it
- All paths lead to an ultimate goal, but more on that in the future
- You can reset progression and do it all again. Maybe you want to try a new approach, or to challenge yourself to complete everything in fewer steps or a certain difficulty level
- You can sync progression to your achievements, if you change your mind
Anti-Vision
- No currency or XP grind
- No stingy rewards that are clearly borrowed from the basic pool of content. (Come on, we can tell)
- No artificial difficulty and linear power progression
The Rewards
Give them to me
As you earn achievements, the game will reward you with something significant. These rewards can shake up the whole experience, and often help with further goals. The two main things you will be aiming for is to collect Astrolabe nodes and recruit Slorfs.
The Astrolabe
Collect an array of fate bending nodes and add them to the Elder's finest creation: the Astrolabe. Replacing the blessings and burdens system, the Astrolabe is a collection of perks that have game changing effects on a single run. You may select one from each group when setting up the pilgrimage. In some cases, the effects will be necessary or very helpful to meet the requirements of other goals.
More Slorfs!
The biggest prize of all are unlocking the 6 new Slorfs with unique stats and game changing traits. Each has big advantages and disadvantages that make the game feel new, and the value of gaining them grows exponentially when you consider the many combinations.
The elder is not a warrior, and only applies himself to peaceful endeavors. Yet at camp, he looms large as valuable wisdom is shared
Example
In case this sounds a bit too vague, here is an example of the kind of sequence you might follow
as you navigate progression.
Hulga survives an attack from a ghost (not easy as they do 99 damage) which unlocks the astrolabe node "Haunted Battlefield". This node's effect is to add ghosts and graves to almost every clearing in the run. Additionally, this node guarantees you will encounter the Ghastly Maze.
Completing the Ghastly Maze unlocks a further node, but you also have your eyes on unlocking Gharl by killing 13 ghosts in a successful run. With all that considered, in the next pilgrimage you activate the haunted battlefield node. To try and keep things balanced you also select the node "Bountiful" adding more food and resources to each clearing.
Strangely there is fresh fruit found in the maze
After dying half way through the Murk, Gharl remains unavailable. However, you did complete the Ghastly Maze, so the "Phantasmal Flock" node is unlocked! The node converts every Underflock turret into a ghost turret that does 99 damage.
This sets up a choice of which node to use as there are now multiple options to increase the number of ghosts, and each has its pros and cons.
How you proceed is up to you!
I am in fact, afraid of those ghosts
In Summary
There are several of these paths, and you decide what methods to use and in which order to attempt them. Will Gharl be helpful with another goal? Or should you try for a reward from a different Astrolabe group which makes the final ghost achievement more likely?
The first taste of progression is available right now on our beta branch! You can unlock:
- The ghost group of astrolabe nodes
- The 6 basic astrolabe nodes, with simpler difficulty tweaking effects (formerly blessings/burdens)
- Two of the Slorfs: Elder and Gharl.
Once we iron out any issues and feel that it is stable enough, it will be released on the main branch.
Get out there and try it out, we can't wait to hear your feedback!!
Thanks for tuning in,
Clint and Gavin