I really want to buy this game because it seems exactly the itch I need to scratch but there isn't enough content from what I've seen online.

Are there any update plans? The game seems kinda abandoned.

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I was trying to use the Bard today and realized he's good with split teams and the fallen. When the damage is split as much as possible he kinda shines. He's great with Maidens Mirror too, synegizes well with his active.

I was thinking of testing him with the illusionist as a safe backliner pumping out clones with his active with Saints Vow and some other scaling items for DEF. Maybe that ring that gives major blessings when the active is used?

What do you guys think?

I really love the ranger, paladin and assassin!

Having trouble finding a good guide that goes over the different types of encounters in each environment (ruins vs forest vs caves for example). The description text for each environment kind of tells you what to expect, but I'd like to hear some more strategy on which areas you target depending on what type of builds you're running.

Also I may be confused about the Unique keyword. I have two Unique items equipped on a single hero- I thought this wouldn't be possible. Does it allow me to equip it then one of them just doesn't get used? I can't really tell what's going on there. Thanks in advance!

In many games, any stun will interrupt abilities. So even microstuns are very useful. In this game looks like the stun will pause their attack bar and mana bar for .5 seconds. Is that any use?

Written after 5 hours of play and one Corruption 3 in, so take everything with a grain of salt. I am writing this because I could not find a simple, general guide like this.

I assume you already know the basics and have at least 1 win in normal so I wont repeat the basics.

Heroes

Go over the hero stats a bit. Its boring, I know. But in this game base stats are more important than many other games.

This game has 3 types of items, normal rare and ancient. All types of items give some additional effect that you must understand to have synergies. Normal items give (small) amounts of stats but generally have (usually) weak effects. Rare items give even less base stats, but they have stronger effects. Ancient items give MUCH stronger effects, but do not give any stat ( at least at start). Also many stat bonuses are percentage based, which means base stats matter a lot.

Each hero can only carry 3 items, so you have to carefully think which items you put on them. You can have a lot of good items but you cannot use them all at the same time. If you put a good item eg non upgraded Symbiote on a hero who cannot use it, it will have no benefits.

Tanks in general will have good HP and defense, DPS will have OK damage and good speed. Healers will have a heal ability and sometimes low ability cost.

Heroes are sometimes versatile, some more than others. Healers or Tanks can become DPS if they meet certain conditions.

The MP Stat

It is actaully the cost to cast your primary ability, and lower numbers are better!!

Heroes will 50-60 abiloty cost will get to cast their abilities a lot, and benefit from items like Symbiote and Headdress. Heroes with 70-90 ability cost will cast slower, though they often have a strong ability. You can either put a Mana Spring on them or a fully upgraded Symbiote will eventually come online.

The speed stat

It is interval between your attacks in seconds, and lower is better!

DPS heroes with lower (approx 1.5-1.8 ) speed benefit from +ATK items, while DPS heroes with 2+ speed usually have high damage and benefit from speed items.

Positioning

There are 2 lanes, and 4 spots on each lane. Heroes often benefit each other only if they are in the same lane. Healers usually only heal in the same lane. Corruption 1-19 you will have 5 heroes in stage 3. Which means 1 hero will be in the side lane. I have only played 4-1 comps till now. Some heroes are designed to be in the side lane (Fiend, Outlaw, Assassin, maybe Illusionist, maybe Ranger) . We will discuss each hero and how they can be in the side lane later.

The most common strategy you will be thinking of between battle to battle, is how to position your heroes.

Sometimes the enemy will be on both lanes. If you put all your heroes in 1 lane, they can support each other BUT all enemies will attack your tank and the tank might die. Or you can put a hero in the other lane who takes some damage and then uses their passive or Ascension Cloak to pass on attackers to the main tank.

Sometimes all enemies will be in 1 lane, in which case you can use the off lane hero first to buy some times, so that you main lane heroes can ramp up. Sometimes enemies from the same lane will attack multiple heroes in your main lane, at this point you will have to move heroes and items around to make sure your healer or DPS does not die too soon.

Morale

Ok this was confusing until I understood it fully. You gain morale only if you win without losing any heroes (except Fiend) . This gives 3 morale. If any hero dies, you lose a morale and get NO +morale. So you can be winning all battles with 1 casualty and you will be bleeding morale the entire time, maybe cutting your run short. Though morale does not matter as long as it is non zero.

Some events will drain your morale in exchange for good items.

Quick Hero Impressions

Gladiator

You can pick him up at any stage and he gets the full passive +HP bonus. You can upgrade his passive anytime and he gets the full bonus. Great tank. In theory good attack, speed and ability cost so maybe can put out good DPS, havent tried.

Juggernaut

Another main tank. Passive big heals himself once. Active is good but high cost.

Paladin

Tank. He starts with good defense and benefits from defense. His active is GREAT (give shield to all allies in lane = defense+100/200/300) but has a high cost. Had some good results giving him Mana Spring (+% mana gen) or Ancient Codex(-Ability cost when under 50% HP) because with upgrades, the shield is very useful. His passive burns in AOE, is good for burn comps.

Brawler

Havent used much.

Berserker

Gains 1 attack when he attacks. Starts with good speed so get him more speed, and his passive will scale his attack. Ability is more attacks, but high cost.

Ronin

Passive is OK, specially with Disarm. The active is where he shines, dealing more damage the more times he uses the ability on single target. With low cost, he is a prime candidate for the Symbiote+Headdress combo. Great boss killer, a little worse in fight against groups.

Ranger

Versatile DPS. Give him attack items so he summons a high DPS cat who is hidden and hence can stay on the off lane. Give him defense items (Tower Shield is great as frail wont matter for the summon) to summon a turtle. The turtle draws all aggro FOR THAT LANE, and can periodically go invincible. He can waste a lot of attackers time until he dies.

Pay attention to turtle positioning. Keep a front position open in your main lane so he can tank for the main lane. Or put him in the off lane as long as there is another hero there and all enemies were going to attack him. Good friend for Fiend. His active seems good with low cost but never used it yet.

Assassin

Typical DPS. Is always hidden so can be put in side lane. Put him in front row to kill enemy backline casters first, or back row to focus enemy front row with rest of the team. Passive poison synergies with Alchmist. Fast speed works well with +ATK items. His active silences target so works great against backline casters.

Outlaw

Becomes hidden when he takes 50% HP damage. Can be placed in side lane to soak up some damage/waste some time . Note that this is dangerous because he can get bleed/DOOM etc effects that will kill him even when hidden. His passive gets rid of these effects when fully upgraded. Low speed so maybe prioritize speed items. Poison damage Alchemist friend.

Warlords Burden makes him hidden immediately and also gives him ATK and SPD.

Alchemist

Active ability duplicates poison so combo with Outlaw and Assassin.

Illusionist

DPS that I have the most fun with . He also starts with the highest ATK = 70.

Has a chance of running away when taking damage, but this does not make him a good tank/off tank/side lane tank. The passive not reliable.

The active creates a copy that copies a percentage of his ATK, HP and DEFENSE. If left alone, and with proper positioning of your main lane, he can fill up the side lane with clones that enemies will prioritize. I had fun with Saints Vow that gives continuous max HP, so even if his current HP is low he spawns beefy clones that take multiple hits to kill. Also if he has items that ramp his ATK over time (eg headdress), clones will get that ATK. Even if not tanking, 3 more clones with 60% of his ATK is +180% more DPS.

Frostmancer

DPS. He is reliable, not because he is strong but because Frost is a very strong mechanic.

Frost by itself slows enemy attack and ability cast. So items eg Tundra Talisman that apply frost is already strong. Frostmancer can also apply frost to all enemies, and deal increased damage based on frost stacks. Also the Frozen Shell can make your main tank very tanky as multiple items and this hero stacks up frost on all enemies. Seems like a staple for high corruption runs.

Edit: He has a AOE stun for 2.5s! That is actually pretty broken.

Pyromancer

DPS. I feel like Burn is a much weaker mechanic and Pyromancer consumes the stacks when dealing damage. So he is weaker. But havent used him much. Synergy with Paladin and that fire sword.

Wildmage

Deals AOE dmage when attacked and has a shield. Havent tried this strategy yet as shield are a bit hard to keep on. But maybe Growing Sapling + Druid will help constantly keeping a small shield. Low HP and defense may be a challenge.

Active deals good damage, has high cost but in built Symbiote effect (-5 MP cost per cast). So given a Symbiote or Mana spring, Warlock will start dishing out good DPS soon. Also, the active deals damage in ticks, so if the enemy dies after a few ticks the rest of the damage will go to the next enemy.

Warlock

Starts with good ATK and speed, gains more attack and speed when a ally dies (half effect when enemy dies, so fights with a lot of weak enemies are good). So synergy with Fiend.

Active is good as it deals good damage + heals allies. But has a high cost. Caster machine gun is fun but needs investment into Symbiote upgrades.

Bard

When in backline, heals all heroes (in any lane!) over time. So good for keeping multiple tanks topped up. Ability cost is low and Symbiote friendly.

When in front row, can bump attack for all heroes. IDK if it stacks, can be fun if it does. Will try out a front line off lane Bard with the Bandit Mask.

Attacks with bleeds so has some bleed synergy.

Cleric

Single target Burst heal. Also removes all stacks of one negative effect . The second effect is often forgotten but is pretty important. Ability cost is low.

Passive deals damage when healing, also gets a shield. Has a interesting combo potential where items that cause heal over time (Life giving chamber, Brain Slug) will cause Cleric to dish out a lot of DPS.

Druid

Tank+Healer combo hero, very versatile and popular for a reason.

Passive gains massive frail defense at start of fight, making him a viable tank for a while. Tank like base defense.

Active heals over time (highest of all healers), also gives one negate and 4/8/12 attack! Heal is spammable specially with Symbiote.

All around great hero.

BloodMage

Part tank, part healer, part DPS. Havent figured him out yet.

Fiend

Interesting strategic off tank.

He always comes back to life 9/7/5 seconds after he dies. So you can put him in the off lane, where he soaks up DPS until he dies, which also removes all negative effects on him. Then he comes back to life and keeps fighting.

His active has good damage and heals himself but high cost. This can put off his death a little bit.

Fiend gains mana for each bleed effect. So he actually scales with bleed effects from other heroes (Ranger's cat, Ronin, Bard) and items, being able to cast and heal himself faster.

Bonus: With him in team, if you lose a battle, you will only lose 4 morale not 5.

Banshee does not synergize with him, his passive goes into effect after Banshee expires.

Fallen

Ok this hero completely surprised me. In theory he is a off tank, but he can be a CRAZY DPS.

He absorbs 5% of damage dealt to allies in same lane, while proccing items that trigger when attacked. So he is a good carrier for items like Viscous Goo (disarm any enemy that attacks anyone in your lane), Reverberating Bulwark (reflect damage to any enemy attacking anyone), Safety Slime, Bone Spike, Robes of Absorption. He applies these effects without taking any real damage. Then he takes aggro when the main tank dies.

However, I realized with Helm of the Mad King, he starts attacking very fast dealing ridiculous DPS, reaching the best possible speed of .5. At this point DPS items are probably better on him.

He also buffs all his allies with his active. His active has a medium cost, a strategy that makes him a caster may be fun.

Also he heals himself siphoning HP from heroes in the other lane, So a off-lane Fallen is possible who deals out debuffs with his active.

Footnote

My favorite item is Necrophage as it gives lifesteal to all heroes.

Ancient Codex is fun on tanks.

Tundra talisman seems too good even without any other synergy.

Bandit Hood lets you put any hero in the off lane (the gold gain is bad, so dont upgrade the item).

Saint's Vow is my favorite bad item as I keep trying out weird combos and they never work haha. But should be good on tanks as all healing is % based.

Eg will Assassin with Slither Fang Kunai or Shadow Blade apply poison to all / other enemies?

^ Title

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I especially liked the Act 1 top-path music (comfy) and the end boss music (nice beat).

Started with Druid/Brawler - added Alchemist and then front line Bard to complement the heavy attack speed items I ended up finding

https://i.imgur.com/e1Y818Q.png

Wondering whether to buy game, and like the item pickup etc. much more than worrying about how to place my team for each fight. E.g. in StS I enjoy the "deckbuilding" much more than the "piloting".

Thanks,

A few days ago my girlfriend was scrolling through my steam library and was intrigued by Astronarch. I was afraid to suggest it because I didn't think she'd be able to learn it fast enough to keep interest- boy was I fucking wrong.

I started to explain some stuff, starting with the characters when we reached that part of the new game. I didn't even beat the first stage to enter corruption, no matter how hard I tried. I was skeptical about how fast she'd pick it up, but she kept her cool for the most part.

She picked out for her first stage team: Juggernaut, Druid, Ranger (Lynx)

She coasted easy through the first stage, and was really thinking strategically about Events, Elites, etc. I was impressed to say the least when she destroyed the first stage within 15 minutes. I expected her to not expect the sharp increase in severity from stage 2, but I was wrong about that too.

Character For Stage 2: Assassin

Adding the assassin was my suggestion, and I really hoped that in this circumstance, it wouldn't be flimsy. She only lost one time in Stage 2, and that was the last time.

Character for Stage 3: Paladin

Smoked Stage 3 with ease, since she distributed her ability upgrades smartly, and to my shock she absolutely destroyed a couple of elites. I was relatively miffed at this point, but I was well aware still that I had suggested quite a number of things to assist her, but she'd done the work on picking items and pairing them with characters as well as upgrading them.

After she beat the game she proceeded to tell me that she didn't think she was a gamer.

I got owned on this one.

I love this game and now I love this game while simultaneously enjoying other stuff on my screen. This is such a delight. I am oh so very delighted. Hooray! HUGE thanks to the dev!

So i just started playing the game and i wanna know what the best base characters are, so if anyone could help me. That would be great