Character Refresh Update

Where we're at: A few months ago we released a new character (Ventra), then an update with new visual fx/sound fx. Now after months of playtesting, we're refining Gideon and Ventra's card pools and mechanics!

(We'll get into the highlights now, then the links to the full patch notes will be at the bottom of this post.)

New Ventra Mechanic - Wisps

Ventra has a new mechanic called "Wisps" that is replacing the old Invoke mechanic.

New cards summon "Wisps" of various colors to your "Ruins". *Once per battle*, you can activate your Ruins to attack with all your Wisps, which deal damage and have special effects depending on their color.

The *once-per-battle* activation is the highlight. (After that, you can't summon more Wisps.) Think of summoning Wisps like filling a bucket with magical effects, then you pick the right time to spill them all out. You'll often consider: "Do I cash my Wisps out now, or keep building them up for a later turn?" This mechanic is actually kinda addictive! It's sort of like playing one of those push-your-luck dice games where, each turn, you weigh the possibility of death vs. holding out just a little longer for maximum value.

Gideon Refresh

We cut, added, and updated cards to refine Gideon's card pool.

New Cards

"First turn matters" is a surprisingly funny theme, and there are many more ways than you'd think to optimize for first-turn damage. It also really makes you consider your plays that first turn. And slaying a lot of monsters first turn gives you more breathing room to set up late game combos. This is just an extra little mechanic we snuck into a few cards/artifacts. It's one of those things you'll only make a deck for once in a blue moon, but it's pretty neat!

Cull the Weak

Gideon had accumulated too many "passive" cards that hurt player agency by not offering interesting decisions! (Often sitting in your hand, or filling your deck with junk that made the late game tedious.) We culled those cards and replaced them with new fun stuff (some of it already shown above).

Some cards that involved few player decisions also got reworks:

We think Gideon's card pool is in a much better state now... 99.9% of the cards make us say "Oh, I could imagine a cool deck for that."

Subclass Buffs

One line of text, or one tiny buff, has a huge effect when it comes to class cards! We updated Brewmaster to keep his hand more full, and Starcaller's comet to have a little more oomph.

Mastery System Rework

• Mastery Levels are now shared among all subclasses for a character. So you don't need to repeat the same Mastery Level for multiple subclasses anymore, and you can pick whichever subclass you want to progress.

• There are now 15 "Mastery Levels" instead of 4 "Difficulty Levels". This is to give the player a smoother difficulty ramp before unlocking the endgame mode.

• If you're one of the 1% of players who has already unlocked Plight Mode, you'll now find yourself at Mastery 5. This is intended. If Mastery 5 is too easy though, you can press "U" then "P" (a temporary command) on the class select screen to increase your Mastery level. The change will only be saved if you win the run.

• Subclass unlocks were changed to require new achievements. You'll likely load up this patch and see all but two subclasses locked. Further subclasses will be unlocked simply by winning runs.

What's next for Mage Tower?

With this refresh, both characters now have solid card pools and mechanics. Though there will be balance tweaks and card adjustments, it's unlikely the characters will need another big refresh.

The enemy encounters have been stable for a while, and we like the balance and variety there.

The rest of the game's systems, the meta progression, etc.... they're in a good place.

In fact, we're kinda running out of stuff to add before release! Here's our tentative list of features we'd like to add before release:

• Some spells still need unique visuals and sound effects. • Steam achievements (in addition to the in-game ones). • Ventra still only has one subclass. We're working on a new one called Plaguemaster. • More events. • There are a handful of Kickstarter rewards left to implement. • It needs to be easier to gain XP for the Zadean Research tree, and it needs a mini-tutorial. • The post-run screen is mostly coded, we just need to improve the UI before we add it. • Who knows? If you have any ideas, let us know!

Want the full patch notes? They're in the three Steam posts below, with 90% of the notes being in the first link:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1698850/view/540009684293128855 https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1698850/view/697637574580109968 https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1698850/view/697637574580110101

We hope you enjoy the new update!

-Brett Brimmer www.supermegagames.net Mage Tower Discord: https://discord.gg/RK7W4fpXAq