Devlog 16: Dual Cultivation

As everyone knows, whether you’re from a righteous sect or a demonic path, dual cultivation is a fast track to improving one’s cultivation.In A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality, Han Li had an unexpected dual cultivation encounter with Nangong Wan in the Blood-Colored Forbidden Land. It pushed his Changchun Gong to the seventh layer, and even boosted Nangong Wan’s “affection” toward him.

So I started thinking

for a card-based cultivation survival game like ours, how do we integrate dual cultivation as a gameplay system? If we left it out, that’d be doing the Hehuan Sect cultivators dirty.

First things first

dual cultivation needs a partner… so I spent some time drawing a beautiful female cultivator.

What does dual cultivation improve?

Since our game is a survival-focused cultivation experience where you’re racing against lifespan, realm breakthroughs are crucial, because they increase how long you can live. And breakthroughs require you to accumulate enough spiritual energy.

If meditation in the secret realm is one way to gain spiritual energy, then dual cultivation can be designed as another way to obtain it.

So I made a Carved Harmony Bed. In-game, you can spend time dual cultivating with your partner. Not only do you gain your own spiritual energy, you also gain extra from your partner. Two birds, one stone. And yes, we mean it.

Then I spent a bit more time drawing a few other female characters as well.

“Wait… why is there a demon girl?”

Some of you might ask: “Hold on, why is there a female demon? Humans and demons walk different paths, how can they become partners?”

Our Hehuan Sect’s rule is simple: we treat all beings in the world equally.

Besides, to form a partnership with a demon, you’ll need a special magic treasure: the Demon-Binding Lock. Use it, and you can bind a demon you encounter outside and bring her back for dual cultivation. With a treasure like that in hand… who could resist becoming your partner?

Preventing certain cultivators from “dating the entire roster”

I know some of you are already getting impatient. But to prevent certain cultivators from trying to play the field like it’s a full-time job, I added an Alignment (Righteous vs. Demonic) value to characters.

Each time you use the Demon-Binding Lock, it will affect your Alignment. Alignment doesn’t just change the strength of your techniques, it can also influence the story’s direction and even determine the ending.

If you have more interesting ideas for our dual cultivation system, feel free to leave a comment, or join our community to chat with us. That’s it for this devlog. See you next time!