Preface

I am a long-time player who pretty much exclusively plays as a mage, usually multi-classed with both rogue and fighter, and often use a battle-mage play style combining melee attacks as my primary damage source with support/strategy spells such as freeze rune, iron blood, phase dance, conjure gag, conjure cuffs, and shadow dance. Some of my suggestions are probably quite biased because of this. 

I have experimented with almost every perk, spell, game setup option, challenge setting, and most of the tools offered by debug mode, so consider myself familiar with most game mechanics. 

Perks (General)

Unlockable perks: In later release / the final release, it may be better to have these below an appropriate category with a name of "???" with a lock icon next to it until the perk is unlocked, and maybe a brief hint as to how to unlock each perk (Such as “Defeat a certain boss”)

Progression perk points: Granting permanent perk points for reaching certain milestones could give a stronger sense of progression to the game - for example, you start with +1 perk point after defeating the Warden for the first time, and an additional +1 for the Dollmaker. 

Bigger is better: It might be a good idea to operate perks on a larger numerical scale (such as +100 / -100 instead of +1 / -1), since a perk like blackout having the same -1 cost as a perk like Panic! (Traps) feels odd when the latter will usually be more impactful across a run. Additionally, if combined with the idea of gaining perk points for milestones as described above, it could enable a progression-based “achievements” system in which players could gain a small number (such as 1-10) permanent perk points for minor achievements, such as completing the tutorial for the first time, reaching floors 2/3/4/5/ect for the first time, accessing the Summit for the first time, having an NPC with over 100 favourability towards you and the likes. Such a system could encourage players to interact with game mechanics they typically avoid, and could be a way to help players find new ways to play the game, or a way to give new players a clearer sense of direction. 

Perks (Specific)

Doll processing

Item farming cheese: The cyber wardens and cyber guardians can be infinitely farmed for keys and key cards, making locked doors, restraints, and chests significantly easier to deal with both early and lategame. They also drop powerful restraints which can either be sold for a LOT of coins, or used to contain high-ranking prisoners easily. 

To emphasise this, on my first time using this perk, I accidentally farmed 22 keys before leaving because I didn’t realise the enemies spawned infinitely and kept killing them.

Fixed map: Once you learn the best route, escaping is effortless without restrictions, and fairly easy even when using both Maidsweeper and Heavy Inertia. Only the 5-turn movement cost from Hogtied was too much for a reliable escape. Other than that, I like the fixed map, since there are a lot of interesting locations such as the binding conveyors with hidden escape routes, and niche ways to navigate it. 

Ideas for changes: To me, this perk is excessively strong because it is a negative perk which has no long-term effects. By making it a 0-cost perk instead, it would offer an interesting and fresh way to start the game, without essentially giving a perk point for free. 

Alternate ways to change this perk would be to make the map generation random, which would prevent it from being escaped so easily, or by making it immediately drop you into floor 1 without the opportunity to clear the tutorial or enter the shop, which would delay players from quickly accumulating lockpicks, weapons, potions, and armour.

Cyber doll

Bug or feature?: Accepting a quest from a goddess causes offerings to the shrine to cost 0 gold. Since all cyber restraints are metal, you can take this perk, then with luck get a goddess of metal quest on floor 1, or use the devotion system to force a goddess of metal quest to appear on floor 2, and almost immediately remove the restraints for free. 

Though I use the Cyber Doll perk somewhat often, I did one test run specifically for this review, and managed to be completely restraint-free before exiting floor 1 using exactly the method described above.

Tedium: The multiple dollsmiths or dollmaker's apprentices appearing on each floor definitely adds a challenge early on, but as you unlock more powerful spells, equipment, and gain higher stats, they start becoming more of a nuisance than a threat. Making a different, more powerful enemy appear in later floors (such as floor 13+) could make the perk more interesting. Perhaps a special ‘latex dragon queen’ (manufactured by the Dollmaker lore-wise?), which could gain progressively increased blindsight to aid in hunting you down as floor count increases. 

Common problem: I will address each perk individually, but the two remarks above apply to all the “Starting Scenario”-type negative perks except for Persisting Desires. 

Fuuka’s pet

Summary: This perk is too strong

Why is it positive?: This perk gives the positive variant “Fuuka’s Pet Collar” instead of the negative variant “Fuuka’s Collar”. 

Lacking restraints: While the ornamental dress and ornamental gag are each quite powerful restraints, starting with so few restraints feels lacking to me. Starting the player with each of the charm-type restraints Fuuka can inflict as well as the existing restraints might make this perk feel like you were in more peril without changing the gameplay much, since charm restraints can be removed quite easily. 

No secondary effect: Unlike other “Starting Scenario”-type negative perks, there is no persistent threat associated with this perk. I feel that instead of an enemy appearing on every floor, perhaps every 10 turns, one of Fuuka’s projectiles (the red balls which inflict charm restraints, not the talisman) could spawn and be fired towards the player. 

Other ideas for changes: Split this perk into two mutually exclusive perks. 

The first perk would give only the “Fuuka’s Pet Collar” upon starting the game, which would cost 1 perk point.

The second perk would give the “Ornamental Dress”, “Ornamental Gag”, and “Fuuka’s Collar”, which would cost -2 perk points.

Hogtied

Bug report: When starting with Hogtied in the mage class, you start the game with only the Arcane Orb instead of both the orb and the dagger as you usually would. 

Elemental Slave / Maid Sweeper / Latex Toy

Freedom Cheese: By taking Akashic Blast, Akashic Conflux, and CMD: Greater Unlock as your first three spells, you can spam Magical Sight to accumulate 100 arcane energy, then cast Akashic Conflux, and finally cast CMD: Greater Unlock to remove everything except the collar.

This strategy is actually so strong that you can take all three perks and almost instantly be free from all restraints except for the collar and restraints below it on the item stack. 

Bug report: CMD: Greater Unlock does not unlock the Obsidian Cuffs, Obsidian leg cuffs, or Obsidian Ankle cuffs. The same occurs with the Elbow chain, Reinforced Leather Belt and Leather ankle cuffs from the Maidsweeper perk. 

These all have one thing in common: They are one restraint layer below a “chain”-type restraint (wrist chain, thigh chain, ankle chain) on the item stack. Items below these on the item stack (EG. Maid cuffs) are still unlocked. 

Rusty bolts

Underwhelming: If I stand on a trap and the 25% misfire chance triggers, then I stand on the same trap again later, it can still trigger. This makes the Rusty Bolts perk feel underwhelming. Permanently de-activating traps which misfired would make this feel more impactful to me, but otsimply increasing the misfire chance could work too. Another avenue would be to change how it works to “After stepping on 3 traps, the next trap you step on is guaranteed to misfire”, thus making misfires predictable and allowing players to strategise around misfires.

Panic! (Chests)

Bug report: The 2 turn stun triggers upon opening any chest, not just trapped chests.

Price gouging

Realistic economy in-game: I get it. With the economy the way it is, 11,500 gold for one macaron feels like a bargain these days. But 5x is a bit too much, especially since prices for basic items rise in later floors. Maybe experiment with a 3x or 4x multiplier, or consider a weaker version for -1 cost which acts as a 2x multiplier. Perhaps a ‘bulk buy’ perk which forces you to buy 5x items for 5x the price. I really like the idea of financial perks which alter how you interact with your gold (such as a perk which lets you enter debt, or causes you to lose 10% of your gold when going down a floor), but the price hike of this perk just feels too high to ever be use.

Quickness

+2 is a lot of points: I’ve tested quickness a few times because it’s an interesting concept. I’ve found it useful for baiting enemies into combat which is turn-favourable since you can dodge their first attack without ticking the clock, as well as niche situations such as crossing conveyor belts in otherwise inconvenient locations. but it just doesn’t feel worthy of a +2 score when for the same price, more universally useful combat and utility skills such as deft fingering, locksmith, rigger, or studious.

Bug report: The description states you have to not move for 4 turns, however you have to wait for 5 turns to gain the quickness effect.

While a minor mention, you have to wait to gain the effect rather than stay stationary. Drinking a potion does not contribute to the turn count, and conversely, being pulled while on a lead does not break the turn count. 

Spells (Incomplete trees)

Projection magic only offers 1 spell currently, which is Summon Decoy. Right now, Summon Decoy just is not very good. I believe the main problem is its high mana cost, especially when the Earthshape series offer very similar utility for as little as 1/3 the cost. I think it would be a more useful spell if the mana cost were reduced (such as to 30 mana), but in exchange the maximum number of decoys limited (such as to 3 at a time). Maybe an up-casted version could be introduced which summons 5 decoys in a + shape, with the middle one staying still and the others moving in cardinal directions. 

Air novice only offers 2 spells - Gust and Windblast. While I consider both these spells to be weak right now, I can see an AOE wind spell being useful to escape when surrounded - though shadow dance, phase dance, and sometimes blink 2/3 already fill this role in most situations. Introducing tickling elements to future wind spells, as well as wind buff spells, or spells which require two spell trees as pre-requisites could make the air tree more valuable in the future. 

Water novice offers 3 spells, which are water ball, tidal sphere, and raincloud. I have really enjoy using water ball and tidal sphere, and they stand as some of my favourite abilities in the entire game (though walled in choose spells mode by the poor tree). Raincloud on the other hand is a long delay and a lot of mana cost for minimal results. Since Raincloud deals acid damage, maybe it could reduce latex integration level or have an effect similar to (but weaker than) the new Latex Solvent item. A buffing spell which increases SP recovery speed might fit in with the theme of water magic, too. 

Spells (Specific)

Ignite: It feels terrible to use. I know it isn’t strictly bad since it’s a highly mana efficient damage source, and you can use it on an allied fire elemental, fire mote, or yourself at 0WP to mitigate most of the downsides, but maybe increasing the mana cost a bit and causing Ignite to grant a significant increase to fire resistance (such as 50 to 100) for its duration would make it feel less situational. 

Earth kick: I love the idea, but I found actually using this skill to be extremely difficult. This time, I have no suggestions on how to change this to make it feel better to use. 

Volcanism: The limited area of enhancement just isn’t satisfying to me. Maybe increasing the enchanted area, or creating an upcasted version which enchants all summoned rocks regardless of range, could make this ability feel better to use. 

Leather spell tree: I use the leather skill tree a lot because it offers a utility (Silence, blind, disarm, snare, rapid fire). However, there isn’t a single spell cast verbally or with legs, which can make it feel like a one-trick tree at times.

Elastic grip: It would be pretty cool if you could also target a wall or immobile object with this ability, and be dragged 4 tiles closer to the target.

Blessing of Obscurity: Maybe a passive could be added to the Blessing of Obscurity which increases stealth or critical damage, since right now this spell tree feels a little lacking. 

Restraints (General)

Rare Restraints: With the addition of the Summit and NPC binding, it would be nice to have ways to obtain currently inaccessable restraints such as shadow hands and the ice series, as well as new ways to obtain restraints which are currently quite rare, such as the holy rope series (though I suspect the corruption/divinity update will make this specific set less rare), or the Ectoplasmic series.

Reject metal, return to rope: Currently rope-based bindings feel weaker than other types. Perhaps a higher-grade variant of the holy rope series (angel’s hair rope?) could be introduced to reduce the power gap between ropes and other restraints. Since more bosses are planned for the future, maybe a pitcher-plant type boss (Nepenthes would go hard as a boss's name) or semi-boss (like dragon queens) could be introduced to add new vine restraints and a unique encasement. 

Other

Meta-progression: I brought this up in the Perks (General) section, but implementing mechanics to give progression between runs instead of just within a run could make the game feel more polished, and could make it more replayable. A lore-based progression of this type already exists in the form of collectable journal entries. Perhaps allowing players to choose one weapon or restraint to take with them into their next run, or creating a kind of hub area where you can use some kind of currency accumulated from previous runs (such as gold, or some 'score' based on how many floors you cleared, enemies defeated, and similar) to purchase upgrades for subsequent runs. I think something of this nature would enhance the roguelike appeal of the game.

In-game explanations: Despite having played for a long time and reading the patch notes where I can, I still have little to no understanding of several mechanics, even mechanics which have existed for a long time. An in-game encyclopaedia with information on everything you have encountered would help a lot. 

For example, having a brief entry on every enemy you have defeated at least once before, every item, weapon, and restraint you have collected at least once before (even if it just an index of the existing descriptions), as well as tiles/map features of interest (such as bondage machines, cracked walls, hooks, cages, spell orbs, different chest types and such), and status effects (blind, conductive, edged, and such). An in-game resource explaining these features will make the game MUCH more approachable for new players, and easier to understand for more experienced players.

It can also serve as a checklist - for example, I have never been certain if weapons such as the Moirai's Scissors (alongside Metamorphosis, Four Seasons, Dragonslaver and such) are actually obtainable, or if they are exclusive to debug mode because no method to obtain them has been implemented. Maybe each one is attached to reaching 100 reputation with a certain faction and I've just never done that, maybe they simply can't be obtained legitimately, maybe there's something I'm missing - but in any case, I have no way of knowing or even guessing using the tools provided by the game itself. 

OP loot and single run progression: I think purple chests are too strong right now. The first time I managed to beat the Dollmaker was several updates ago, and at that time, I was getting hard-carried by a pike with a good enchantment. Purple chests give extremely early access to powerful weapons such as the staff of storms/frostbite/incineration, or the Shadow's Edge, which make most non-boss combat trivial. 

By the time I reach the Warden, I typically have all 3 elemental staves, and some combination of other rare and powerful weapons. While these weapons did exist in the past, often I found myself with only 1-2 of them by the time I reached Floor 20. These powerful weapons are actually more common than their weaker counterparts (Staff of shocking/permafrost/flame). 

In other words, you get extremely powerful very quickly, then nothing better for the remainder of the run. This is notably less obvious if you use a spell-heavy playstyle, since MP and skill orbs are more limiting than weapons. 

One method of dealing with this could be by adding a weapon upgrading or enchanting system (possibly tying in with the Summit's functionalities?). One possible implementation of this would be obtaining a staff of shocking from a purple chest, then requiring an ally from the Nevermere Trainers faction to have an opinion value of over 50 in the Summit, and requiring some amount of resources from recycling bondage items to upgrade the staff of shocking into the staff of storms. 

Bug with conduct: The damage from conduct is sometimes not properly rounded, with the damage received from conduct being reported in the log as follows: “0.9750000000000001 electric damage conducts to you!!!” (12 zeros) 

Closing Thoughts

I really like this game. I want to see it completed, and in the best state it can possibly be. The things I've mentioned above are that which immediately stand out to me as points of improvement, both minor and major in nature. I really hope Ada reads this far and takes an interest in at least some of these suggestions. I'm a little worried about feature-creep, but I'm also interested and excited for what future updates hold. I've been waiting for a long time, and I'll keep waiting as long as it takes, so do your thing Ada, and make this game the best you can. 

I actually really appreciate this writeup and agree with most of it! Some of these will be harder to address than others but theres some low hanging fruit I think Ill be able to tackle in the next major update.