Dev Diary: Progression

Today we are excited to reveal the first details of progression in ZOR!

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