Survival Mode!

[Shoggoth]

A new gameplay mode that is all about staying alive through as many battles as possible! Choose six heroes from most of the 40+ Banner Saga characters, then pit them against dredge, horseborn, bandits, and varl alike. Earn Renown and an item with each victory, unlock heroes to replace those who fall in battle, and upgrade the veterans who stay alive. To play, simply click on the Survival Mode banner on the start screen of Banner Saga 2.

Survival Details:

• Choose 6 heroes from a full roster. After you begin, you can recruit more heroes with renown.
  
• Your progress is saved, but you can only reload a battle a limited number of times. You have 3 reloads to start with and you gain 1 more reload ever 5 battles.
  
• Heroes who fall in battle are _dead_ and can be given a Viking Funeral to regain some renown and recruit new heroes.
  
• Heroes have no kill count requirement for promotion. If you have the renown, you can promote the hero.
  
• Battles have a 30 second turn timer (and 60 second deployment timer) to keep the action moving quickly.
  
• Battle turn order is fixed from the start, like pillage mode.
  
• Scores are tallied and leaderboards are displayed for playing in Normal or Hard difficulty.
  
• 12 new Survival mode achievements!
  
• One enemy per battle spawns with an item equipped. Kill the enemy, and gain the item!
  
• Every 5 battles offers the opportunity for a second wave of fighting, which opens up the possibility for additional renown and items.

Join the discussion about Survival Mode on our Steam forum: http://steamcommunity.com/app/281640/discussions/3/

Other Changes in Build 2.30.120:

• Fix issue preventing '+x Renown' banners in battle from displaying the correct renown for higher ranked enemies
  
• Fixed seam in baldrungr's godstone background sprites
  
• Fix reversed red/green coloration on DRAWING AGGRO items description
  
• Added 'Consequences' section on Match Resolution that displays Injuries (or Deaths, in Survival)

[Blueberry]

And when do you put the languague pack?

[Venceremos]

Ia Ia Shoggoth fhtagn!

[Shoggoth]

Originally posted by Blueberry:

And when do you put the languague pack?

As soon as the translators are finished and the game is tested. We have 3 languages very close to being finished now.

[Aleonymous]

John -- Do stress (in the Store page) that SM is available only to Saga2 owners for free. Not to everybody! People getting confused by that "free" word

[Shoggoth]

Originally posted by Aleonymous:

John -- Do stress (in the Store page) that SM is available only to Saga2 owners for free. Not to everybody! People getting confused by that "free" word

It's free like free DLC!

[Shoggoth]

I just updated the build to 2.30.128.

This changes Alette's Overwatch to be capable of missing like a normal strength attack.

I also added a section the save game file, labelled "survival_record". This section is a JSON object that describes the stats and outcomes of each survival battle. You can share these sections to other players to allow a detailed description of your party strategy. Since it is well formed JSON, it would be possible to create a JavaScript renderer for it.

[Troll]

Originally posted by Shoggoth:

Originally posted by Aleonymous:

John -- Do stress (in the Store page) that SM is available only to Saga2 owners for free. Not to everybody! People getting confused by that "free" word

It's free like free DLC!

Good thing you changed it. It sounded tacky the way it was earlier

[Lord Gek]

Are the maps or enemies randomized each play through of the Survival Missions?

[Aleonymous]

Originally posted by Lord Gek:

Are the maps or enemies randomized each play through of the Survival Missions?

Boards are in the same order. Enemies are somewhat randomized, drawn from "buckets" that are specified for each board. This means that you'll get similar mixes, with slightly different ranks and spawning positions.

[G00N3R]

Its a fun mode but the difficulty of the last fight is ridiculous. Having to fight Bellower and Eyeless and like 7 other guys is ridiculous. I reloaded 3 times in the first 39 fights (no losses, I only reloaded to reduce my number of deaths) and then lost that last fight 8 times in a row, game over. (Normal difficulty).

[Willhelm Schmidt]

I love the new Survival Mode. The combat system is easily my favourite of any turn based game in the past decade and the new mode is such a great addition.

I just have one gripe though: Eyeless being able to teleport anywhere he likes and one shot my squishies. While the teleport is annoying in itself, the fact that he starts off the board and out of range of anyone who can reduce his STR prior to the teleport is really cheap. In story mode, I can just restart the battle, but in Survival Mode where death is permanent and the reloads are limited, it's just not fun.

Please consider revising the way Eyeless functions in Survival Mode. Until then, I'll have to park Banner Saga 2 and play XCOM 2 instead. Great work on an awesome game otherwise.

[FatalFrosty]

Kill an enemy quick to keep her trapped in it's possessed version. Destroy the remaining enemies. Make sure your characters that are vulnerable to one hit kills from her counter strike are surrounded by your tanks before you slay the possessed. Finish her in one turn. Party on.

[Unfortunate]

I just want maybe 5 more seconds on turn timers. And much more for the formation portion. I've missed a few turns just because of the deselection function of the UI when you click on the field while selecting actions. I'm okay with non-sticky targetting style interface, but it's frustrating when I'm clicking through trying to get an action off and I miss that character's turn by a fraction of a second.

Trying to check turn-order of enemies and how far they can move so I don't put anyone too close takes more time because of the way the interface is designed. I don't mind the interface's slight clunkiness but with a turn timer, it can be very frustrating, as finding the tactical information you're seeking takes a bit of blind navigation.

[Katter$]

Did anyone mention that the turn order is fixed? This is such a big departure from the main story.
This means that if you eliminate an enemy, the next enemy in line does not move up the turn order, and instead 2 of your units will take turns in a row. So instead of leaving weak enemies on the field, you really really want to just finish enemies off as fast as possible. This makes units like Warhawks even better because you don't have to worry about your tempests killing weak enemies. It also increases the value of abilities that waste enemy turns (like Pin, and the arrow that can waste the enemy turn), since the enemy will get fewer and fewer turns as they lose numbers.

[Yodums]

Originally posted by Katter$:

Did anyone mention that the turn order is fixed? This is such a big departure from the main story.

That is actually intentional for survival mode if you check the notes for this new mode (pillage mode from the getgo). I personally find it refreshing and like it a lot because it makes certain useless abilities now useful even though some other abilities become worse.

The defacto maiming strategy in the main story is somewhat counterintuitive, but it's arguable which turn order mode is a better experience. Honestly, I'd like for there to be an option in the main story to set whether you want battles to be pillage mode from the onset because I find pillage mode more enjoyable. At least on hard mode anyway. You're right on normal mode, tempest combined with forge ahead just wreck everything so it's a bit unbalanced in that regard.