Progression?

[Bastion]

From what it looks like theres not really much (or any) meta progression outside of your gear, so far (a few hours played) the gear looks incredibly underwhelming. Not sure how much better the gear gets as you progress, but currently I have the knight, mage and rogue unlocked, got 1 trait for the mage but beyond that I'm not really feeling any sort of GROWTH between runs.

The green slime arena event always, always, always takes about half my health regardless of character just due to the slimes being able to instantly launch an attack once they come into range. I've killed the twin flying boss once, which provided 2 chests but that was it. I found a lore item for the mage which doesn't seem to do anything.

...is this the entire game? Is there any way to affect or nudge which gods you get level ups from? The powerup for your main attack is crucial but it seems like certain gods are inherently rarer than others (necromancer, justice, fates). Across 8 runs I've only found necro twice. I got excited for this game because its basically VS mixed with Hades, both of which have STRONG metaprogression mechanics. But this one seems to lack that almost completely.

[jaxomdad]

I agree. I just don't see the meta progression and I have all 5 characters unlocked with at least one achievement for each (the remaining ones just seem impossible without something changing). The gear seems to be mostly trash and I feel like runs are useless now. The Party achievements appear to unlock more mechanics (maybe?) but the unlock conditions are so obtuse that I have no idea what I am supposed to do at all.

[Jasmin]

Originally posted by jaxomdad:

I agree. I just don't see the meta progression and I have all 5 characters unlocked with at least one achievement for each (the remaining ones just seem impossible without something changing). The gear seems to be mostly trash and I feel like runs are useless now. The Party achievements appear to unlock more mechanics (maybe?) but the unlock conditions are so obtuse that I have no idea what I am supposed to do at all.

Have the party achievements and they just add some decor to the room as far as i can tell... so yeah need some progression because just doing RNG loot farming for hours get old really fast.

[jaxomdad]

Mark me down as disappointed then. I really wanted to like this game but it there is zero meta progression then I am out. There are just too many annoying things in the game to not at least allow SOMETHING meaningful to happen on a run.

[buttnut]

The progression side of the game is shallow as a puddle and really let me down. Doesn't scratch the itch at all and the gear system is ridiculously boring and mediocre.

[Ruzan]

As someone who spends countless hours in these games, I was very excited for this release. There is no 'continue playing to get stronger' meta involvement and the game ends up being boring very fast. I'm glad it's in Early Access and the devs seem to care what we think, as I do feel this will end up being a great game.

[Lord_WC]

You all actually checked the items?
They are extremely impactful on high rarities and they also can give multiple banish/rerolls. They just aren't called 'Thermomagical Arcane Tower level 543' handing you out 5% damage and 1 reroll but... a Belt.

[Saukuy]

5% damage and a reroll isn't what I'd call impactful. That's about as bland and mediocre an upgrade as you can get...

[jaxomdad]

Originally posted by Lord_WC:

You all actually checked the items?
They are extremely impactful on high rarities and they also can give multiple banish/rerolls. They just aren't called 'Thermomagical Arcane Tower level 543' handing you out 5% damage and 1 reroll but... a Belt.

The issue is the rarity part. You aren't going to see something like that every run making most runs feels useless. If we could use our gold to upgrade items that would be different but there just isn't real meta progression. It is just RNG gear dropping which feels bad because RNGeesus can definitely ruin a game for people.

[ILikeBirds]

Originally posted by Saukuy:

5% damage and a reroll isn't what I'd call impactful. That's about as bland and mediocre an upgrade as you can get...

Endgame gear allows you to cast unique versions of spells corresponding to each of the gods. Like, for example, allowing your attacks to breathe a cone of frost (similar to Summer), which isn't an upgrade available from Winter.

[Rhawkas]

Originally posted by jaxomdad:

The issue is the rarity part. You aren't going to see something like that every run making most runs feels useless. If we could use our gold to upgrade items that would be different but there just isn't real meta progression. It is just RNG gear dropping which feels bad because RNGeesus can definitely ruin a game for people.

Agreed. And this is definitely an issue. It sucks to spend run after run trying to get a little bit further or advance an achievement's progress and that's the only progress you make. There are some nice items that can really make you more powerful. But the only way to get them is to just get lucky. You can't just grind and work toward getting something better. Like getting tokens to upgrade the rarity of an item or getting money to spend at a gambling merchant that sells stuff that can be junk or great.

[Auburok]

Originally posted by Saukuy:

5% damage and a reroll isn't what I'd call impactful. That's about as bland and mediocre an upgrade as you can get...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3084334329

[a cute psychosis]

Originally posted by jaxomdad:

Mark me down as disappointed then. I really wanted to like this game but it there is zero meta progression then I am out. There are just too many annoying things in the game to not at least allow SOMETHING meaningful to happen on a run.

you got an early access game on release, what did you expect? lol

the game's foundation is solid, now it's just a matter of devs adding content and polishing the game up

[Keesasha]

Yeah, HoT did one thing really, really well...and that is, the more achievements you get, the more xp you get...made it worth playing all the maps, all the classes and so on, but I guess this one is earlier in development. I like the gear, but I feel like speed is way too OP, you basically can't do anything later on if your speed is too low.

[Bob Gnarly]

I would agree if this game wasnt EARLY ACCESS.

Why buy a game that's still in development and complain it's unfinished?

There's clearly more that will be added before full release.

[Handbanana]

There is no meta progression outside of the talent unlocks. They need to remove rerolls and some other stuff from gear and at some type of meta progression. The gear alone is a bad way to do it.