itch.io

As noted: Constructive feedback is welcome!

• If you find content-related mistakes or serious grammar/spelling errors, please leave them in a comment.
• If you think of good reasons why certain images (or text) should be rearranged, share them. It should only take minor effort on my part. Hopefully …

Hmm… now there is much more text then originally planned and the beautiful artwork was a bit marginalised. :-(

• EDIT: I changed the composed images from 9 sub-images per row to 6 – itch scales images to fill the horizontal space. IMO this looks better and the in-picture text is easier to read.

Spoiler tags for the sections of the collection would be nice, but this feature does not seem to be available.

Further idea: Overview table

• text-only table with all the Things
• ordered by tier they become available (lvl 3 things make this a bit messy interesting)
• grouped into units, summons, spells, buildings etc.

Inspired by this outdated text-only list by Flaminghair and motivated/invigorated by the game's wonderful artwork I had a somewhat crazy idea: Take loads of screenshots, write a script to take care of the tedious work (extracting + combining relevant parts), and finally create an

Image-based collection of most THINGS

Warning

• Some of the in-game descriptions are a bit vague and/or misleading. Very few are actually wrong.
• Some descriptions differ between preparation phase and battle phase. (Here mostly preparation phase is used.)

General notes

• The two stats attack and health of units are capped at 99, so temporary and permanent buffs can not increase them further. However, damage can be higher … Hint: Blessing!
• Constructive feedback is welcome! (See comment below.)

Spells

• ERROR: Bat Curse lvl 3 gives "Curse!" not "Curse", i.e. deals (3) damage for 3 steps.
• Bone Book:
  • The summoned entity can be placed on any empty spot that is not behind enemy lines.
  • It can also be placed on the spot of another (friendly) unit as long as there is a free spot somewhere behind (i.e. left of) that unit. This will move the unit 1 step back – and all remaining units on the way to the next free spot, too.
• ERROR: Blessing lvl 3 gives "Blessing!" not "Blessing", i.e. protection and Double Damage once.
• All lvl 3 spells sell for 5 coins while nothing else does. This might be a bug.

Buildings

• "on buy"
  • Lvl 1 buildings apply their effect immediately on initial placement.
    
  • Placing a lvl 1 copy directly from shop onto an already placed building results in the lvl 2 effect (instead of the lvl 1 effect) being applied immediately.
    • Combining two already placed buildings does not apply an effect immediately.
      
• "end turn"
  • This means after the battle phase, i.e. right before the next preparation phase.
    
  • The "end turn" buff from Blacksmith/Farmer will not be triggered at the moment you click "To Battle!".
    
• Blacksmith and Farmer apply their buff only to a unit on the spot directly behind them. So placement "on buy" matters. And on "end turn" any unit can be buffed by at most one building.
  

Buffs and items in shop

• Milk and Jumbo Milk are permanent buffs.
• Bone and Shield create corresponding equipped items when placed.

Equipped items

• Every unit can have at most one item equipped.
  • This means a new item will replace the current one!
  • Exception: Rocker's blessing ability will not replace items on newly summoned entities, but those entities will not get the blessing either:
    • Skull summoned by Skull lvl 2/3 (with item)
    • Devil Imps (with Shield) summoned by Summoner lvl 3.
    • I have only tried Skulls + Bone and Summoner lvl 3.
    • TODO: test Skulls + Shield and Skulls + different Blessing lvl
      
• Curses are actually items "equipped" by the enemy.
  
• Shield reduces 2 damage of every (incoming) attack, but the minimal damage is still 1 per (incoming) attack.
  

Summoned entities

• Every summoned entity deals only 1 damage to the castle – even the Skulls (2)(2) summoned by a Skull lvl 3.
  • TODO: Recheck this observation.
• Some of the summoned entities have different names from what the summoning unit claims to summon.
• Skull (1)(1) summoned by a Skull lvl 2: The description is completely wrong. (Note: The normal version has the same incorrect description during the battle phase.)
• Ratling: Their health can not be buffed, but they can be protected with blessing.
• TODO:
  • Try to get less crowded screenshots.
  • Add Idiot summoned by charmed Snitch?

Tier 1 units

• Milkman: Their health can not be buffed, but they can be protected with blessing.
• Skeleton: Placing a lvl 1 copy directly from shop onto an already placed Skeleton will give 2 coins instead of 1 – combining them later will not. (Similar to buildings!)

Tier 2 units

• Assasin: To trigger their ability the ally has to be directly in front of them and use the default (melee) attack – attacking with abilities does not count.
• Nurse:
  • To trigger their ability the ally does not have to be directly in front of them, but attacking with abilities does still not count. The ally also needs to survive their attack … No Resurrection!
  • They can not heal themselves, but one can heal another.
  • Overheal: Healing can increase a unit's health over their starting health for the duration of the battle.

Tier 3 units

• Excalibur:
  • Here only the base stats are shown.
  • You should apply attack buffs preferably before level up!
• Wizard:
  • Magic is an equipped item, so "on spell" it will replace the Wizard's previously equipped item if there was one. This implies: Only one "charge" of magic per Wizard per step.
  • Using a Blessing spell on a Wizard will not give this particular wizard magic … but the blessing.

Tier 4 units

• Kobold:
  • Their ability targets only enemies on the same lane.
  • They shoot on their first step, i.e. they start the battle with step count at 1. (Pigman starts at 0.)
• Rocker:
  • Their ability targets summoned allies on any lane.
  • Lvl 3 gives allies "Blessing!" – "Blessing!!!" does not exist.
• Succubus:
  • Prince and King are immune to direct "on hit" charm.
  • Prince and King die instantly when hit by the "bounced" charm (only Succubus lvl 3).
  • When enemies are charmed, they respawn with their starting stats, equipped items and no curses … and now facing your enemy.
  • When a charmed Snitch/APC dies, the resulting Idiots/Guards still fight for your team.
    • TODO: Recheck whether they count as summoned allies regarding Bard/Rocker. IIRC they do.

Enemies

• Every enemy can deal 1 damage to you if they reach your side of the battlefield.
  • Exception: The King will take all your remaining health and you lose.
• TODO: Add Archer and try to get less crowded screenshots.

Now for a "fun" experiment.

It took me some time to figure out that the (non-boss) enemy difficulty grows with number of rounds and damage dealt to castle. But if you can avoid dealing too much damage to the castle, a lot is possible. Like having to sell lvl 3 Things to make space. Or stacking several rows of coins each round.
To reduce dependence on luck you basically have to spy every round (3 x free, then 2 coins per round) for quite some time.
2 lvl 3 Bat Curse books can take out 6 units which is really helpful. But then there are rounds with 7 (or 8?) archers, so a third book was nice to have. Even if they don't die right away, replacing their bows is great for planning.
Also keeping different books inactive behind the front line can be beneficial for adapting to current enemies every round.
It feels a bit weird to rearrange the units every time to maximize your own casualties – e.g. supporter in front, but it can be done … even if it costs some of your own health during the first few rounds.
Using multiplying summons makes the planning rather difficult – as do random ranged attacks –, so most of them loose their use soon.
For this delaying strategy it is very useful that lvl 3 units only deal the same 2 damage to the castle as lvl 2 units, so you don't have to delay the upgrade too much.

I could have probably squeezed out a few more rounds if I had sold the succubi … but they are simply too cute <3.
EDIT: … And a whole lot more when focusing on only 3 units … as several older comments on previous pages point out. Why didn't I check there before? Now I feel a bit dumb. But this was still quite fun for a first try of a delay approach.

The basic gameplay is explained well enough for someone with prior auto battler experience. (I can't really comment on the point of view of an absolut beginner.)

However, there are also some issues (not really bugs).

A lot of the initial difficulty of the game seems to be caused by important information being hidden or given in a somewhat misleading/inconsistent way.


Regarding the hidden part of the problem:

IMO most important for planning ahead would be the various lvl 2 or lvl 3 unit descriptions. It takes quite a few (or maybe a lot) runs to get every unit to lvl 3 at least once.
I assume the "Choose Deck" menu (Coming Soon) is going to solve this is in a more suitable way.

EDIT: Actually, there is a list of most unit/book descriptions on one of the past pages of comments, but it seems to be partially out-of-date.


Regarding the misleading/inconsistent part of the problem, i.e. mostly description issues:

The fast forward button has the tool tip "Move units to last space, ignore special effects".
I would assume this includes movement-based effects like Bat Curse and ranged attacks. But they are not ignored.
Is the description simply out-of-date?
If not, what special effects are ignored?

It seems Blacksmith + Farmer can not buff the same ally at the same time. :-( So "give ally directly behind" might make it clearer.

A few unit/book descriptions differ between preparation phase and battle phase.
Examples:

• Blessing book lvl 3 in preparation screen is missing the "Double Damage!" part … which is kind of important.
• Bone book lvl 3 in battle sreen is missing the "ironic" … which isn't nearly as important. ;-)

Shield claims to "Reduce 2 damage.", but it neglects to mention that minimal damage is still 1.

Ratfolk claims to summon Ratling(1)(1), but it is Ratling (1)(Red Skull – dies on hit), so buffing summon health is pointless here. Also " " is missing.

The target area of unit's abilities should be consistently stated like "first", "on lane", "random", "any", "directly in front", "directly behind".
E.g. Kobold targets weakest enemy on lane while Rocker targets any summoned ally. Both are missing these important details.
Related: It is unclear what "weakest" means. Lowest enemy tier? Or most damaged?

When several units buff the same unit (e.g. 2 bards on a summon or Nurse(s) + self-buffing unit) the animations are a bit misleading. If I am not mistaken the accumulated buffs are applied at once, but the visuals do not match. This can lead to the (hopefully wrong) conclusion that at least one buffer failed to do its work.


And then there are a few undocumented and somewhat surprising game mechanics.

Summon overflow:
Units that summon more than one unit on death might not summon all of them if there is not enough space directly behind them or at the end of their line where they could push their allies to – IIRC they never push towards the enemy.
This seems to be more of a feature you have to plan for than a bug (you can summon a Skeleton (1)(2) directly in front of a Snitch to take it and the sole Idiot out — or it could in turn cripple your summoner strategy) – so this mechanic should be explained somewhere. "On Death – Summon up to X Things if there is space" in the description might help make this clearer. And/or an additional page of the "?" regarding summons.

Succubus' issue with the royals:
Prince and King are immune to the direct charm (succubus lvl 1–3).
But the bounced charm (only lvl 3) seems to deal 99 damage to the unlucky 2nd enemy (any type). This kills the enemy before replacing it with a converted copy – except for the royals … they just die. (As pointed out by Isaac 576.)
This makes some kind of sense, but is a bit surprising.

Related:
The enemies max health during battle seems to be hard-coded to 99 even if the king has already grown to 100+ health outside of battle. (See future comment below.)
EDIT: A few of the older screen shots on previous pages already cover this. And apparently all stats are capped at 99.

First of all:
This game is already great and one of the best (of the smaller ones) I stumbled upon in recent years.
(And this account was just created to make the following comments. So this seems to be important to me.)

The art is really super cute while not being too distracting. Great work!


Request for two QoL features:

Full-screen mode in browser version. Please!

Tampering with zoom and scrolling is a a real hassle …
(At least I assume this would be easier than an build for all the OS that aren't Windows …)


Better Spy usability

• When fine tuning the units' placement after spying on a large enemy army I have to go back and forth between the two screens a lot since my brain's memory can't handle frequently overwritten values very well. And those "values" (enemy units) change every round …
• So instead of seeing only the enemy units on the spy screen it would help me tremendously being able to see the battlefield in its entirety while still being able to move units around (and going back to the shop).
• I suppose seeing both shop and the entire battlefield at the same time would need to much horizontal space. But since the shop contains much less "values" that would be much less of a problem.
  
  • EDIT: Never mind this presumed restriction!
  • According to the full-screen image in this comment by Stopsignal the full-screen version has ample horizontal space. It should suffice for both the shop and the complete battlefield.
  • This small visual comparison shows there should be enough space for at least the spy results being visible in the preparation screen – in case the (preferred) version shop + complete battlefield would be too much work.
• Before using the spy option this still modifiable battlefield view could simply hide the right 5 columns behind fog of war (or smoke or darkness – or disgusting light).
• Furthermore the king's stats are shown briefly every round regardless of spying, so you could simply add them to this new battlefield view.

Related balance issue:
Spying is really powerful in long runs which tend to involve a better income via (multiple) Mausoleum lvl 2+, so 2 coins every round might be a bit cheap. Maybe increase the cost every few rounds uses?