What is the point of wyrdness / candles?

[<:)]

Just seems like some arbitrary micro-management meta that just serves to be annoying. I've yet to run out of candles and be stuck with no means to see. It seems like as long as you aren't needlessly running back and forth across the map you will never run out.
This mechanic is just annoying and offers no value to the game, unless i'm missing some key functionality.

[CattMeister]

Here's a topic:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1199030/discussions/0/3142927376025445320/

You might find more if you search through discussions.

[OlMaltelO]

You are. It controls how good/bad the tainted force carsds you may get dealt will be. For a certain enemy it determines its strength, and in the overworld it decides whether you can or cannot see which enemies you will encounter

[Mastodon_2]

It's a risk / reward system. Do you burn your candles at max strength and try to complete the run with as few footsteps as possible, or risk staying in the field longer, with the candle burning down and more and more cards to hinder to you turning up in your hand?

[snuggleform]

Cards are periodically added to your hand depending on your light level, and you can't simply ignore them as they have nasty effects if you don't cast them.

You will definitely run out of candles (I did, a lot) in the first maybe 10-20 hours of the game until you find and invest in the candlemaker.

[CattMeister]

Someone noted you get extra wyrdstone for having low/no candle lit. Haven't tested this myself.
And there are a couple of encounters that only occur when not having a candle lit, even ones tied to the main story line.

[CrabNicholson]

You get a random card every few turns and how good/bad it is depends on wyrdness level. At high candle level it will read something like "0 energy, +50% damage for this turn, if not used, draw 2 extra cards next turn" and if bad it will read something like "2 energy, give all enemies 10 barrier, if not used lose 100 armor next turn".

High candle level is nice to have but having 0 candle can be crippling.

I think it primarily serves as a way to force you to budget your footsteps. You will have to take an economical route to the boss and maybe leave enemy packs behind instead of just grinding every single enemy on the map, before moving to the treasure boss and then the level boss.

[CattMeister]

Which might be true for your first couple of runs but when you've upgraded the amount of candles you start with and the candles you get from boss it becomes a non-issue and you'll rarely if ever run out.

[CrabNicholson]

It could use some balancing, the candles do seem pretty abundant

[FDru]

I always ran out of candles asap before finding the candlemaker. I did not waste them, but I did clear every encounter on every map in the most efficient way possible that I could find, and always extinguishing every stone I ran into, and always taking blood candles or any wyrdcandles that came up as rewards. Usually it was 1 or zero candles remaining after beating the first boss, and so starting the next area with 1-2 candles which would quickly run out.

After finding the candlemaker the candles running out more or less became a "whether I want them to or not" kind of issue.

[Weaver]

Originally posted by CrabNicholson:

It could use some balancing, the candles do seem pretty abundant

In my first playthroughs I felt like I was always almost running out but now that I've put some upgrades into the candllemaker I feel like I'm effectively never in danger of running out. Waystones I often just take add a candle too since I find the buffs they give not really that powerful compared to how good the positive tainted force cards a high burn level can add.

[hrhomer]

Originally posted by CattMeister:

Someone noted you get extra wyrdstone for having low/no candle lit. Haven't tested this myself.

Yeah, 100% true.

[roobs]

If you want to gain wyrdstone at a fast rate for meta progression unlocks then you should avoid using candles. But avoiding candles makes it more likely that you may die in some fights. So it's a risk-reward choice.

e.g. if you find a stream / recording of someone who is quite skilled at the game you may notice they are running around in the dark without candles nearly all of the time so they can maximise wyrdstone

[snuggleform]

Originally posted by Weaver:

Originally posted by CrabNicholson:

It could use some balancing, the candles do seem pretty abundant

In my first playthroughs I felt like I was always almost running out but now that I've put some upgrades into the candllemaker I feel like I'm effectively never in danger of running out. Waystones I often just take add a candle too since I find the buffs they give not really that powerful compared to how good the positive tainted force cards a high burn level can add.

I think the culprit is the upgrade that gives more candles on boss kills; it's pretty quick to max it out and even before max you can get enough candles to explore every node comfortably above low light. On top of this, you can even purchase wyrd candles which I've never had to do.

[FDru]

Originally posted by snuggleform:

I think the culprit is the upgrade that gives more candles on boss kills; it's pretty quick to max it out and even before max you can get enough candles to explore every node comfortably above low light. On top of this, you can even purchase wyrd candles which I've never had to do.

I focused most of my upgrades in candle duration. Also once you find the candlemaker, each time after that you get even more duration for that run. That's really all you need. Once that got too expensive I started putting points into boss wyrdcandles. Starting wyrdcandles is both expensive and weak in comparison to other upgrades.

[snuggleform]

The first 2 starting wyrdcandle upgrades are cheap and help a lot.

The wyrd candle duration upgrades get extremely expensive very quickly, and only give +5% duration each. As I said the real culprit is the one giving more candles on boss kills. You get enough from one boss to clear the next area, and then on top of that you could purchase more candles if you wanted, or pick up extras from the area or events.