Dev Log #7: Character Ability Updates

Last time, we took a brief dive into the world of SunderBound and how you, as a player, will experience its story. You can check out that article here. Today, we are looking at our main characters: Vuk and Nu, and their new & improved abilities.

New Approach to Character Abilities

We’ve always envisioned Vuk as a frontline juggernaut, built to smash through crowds and shatter enemy formations with raw power. Nu, by contrast, is our elusive sniper, silently picking off high-value targets from a distance. While earlier iterations of their ability kits nailed these individual roles, they also felt too isolated. The characters' playstyles were distinct, but they lacked impactful interactions and shared goals during combat.

Cooperation is at the core of Sunderbound, and we needed our character kits to reflect that. We went back to the drawing board with a clearer design philosophy: abilities should be good on their own, but devastating when combined.

Here are a few ways we are bringing that to life:

• Direct Synergies: Some abilities now apply a Marked status to enemies, which the other player can exploit for great bonus effects on their abilities.

• Positional Combos: Nu can deploy a magnetizing object that pulls enemies close to it. Vuk can then capitalize on the clustered targets, or even use his abilities to physically launch the magnetizer across the battlefield. Another example is combining an ability that creates an impassable obstacle for enemies with an escape ability to position the characters on the other side of the obstacle.

• Versatile Toolkits: At best, every ability should serve multiple purposes. We want your skills to be just as useful for initiating a brawl as they are for following up a partner's combo or making a tactical retreat. Timing is the key - the sweet windows of opportunity when the abilities are most effective do not last for long and require attentive positioning from you.

• Flexible Core Roles: We are preserving what makes Vuk and Nu special while expanding how you can play them. Vuk will always be our frontline brawler, but now the abilities, combined with your build and Perks, allow you to play him as a defensive anchor, an area-of-effect powerhouse, or a highly mobile skirmisher.

This interactivity we want to embrace in the updated player abilities is also partly the reason why we toughened up all enemies (check out our dev log on combat changes). This ability revision is the other side of that coin. The increased challenge is designed to push you to communicate, outsmart your foes, and time your combos perfectly.

There are more examples of updated and added abilities to both characters coming in the future, as well as the Co-op ability (the High-Five), but we don’t want to spoil everything, so we will end the dev log here.

We would love to hear what you think! Give us your thoughts in the comments or on our Discord server!

See you soon!

Obey the Minister, and thank Him for His service.

• Kipi Interactive