My first ghost on 20+ tower

The tower awaits!

Re: My first ghost on 20+ tower

Postby Ferret » Thu Nov 15, 2018 5:13 am

Tower:20's not a bad run. :D I admit I might have been disappointed if your first run had been a win: I did expect the changes to make things tougher overall. :D

I'm glad you're enjoying the update, and thank you for the feedback. :D For the most part, it sounds like things are going as I'd hoped in regards to the results of the changes.

I still have the option to have different starting abilities per relic, and I'm starting to think I might use it, but only to a limited degree. i.e.: Imagine the current 14 starting abilities as a "base", each Relic might change 3-6 of them out for something else, or, alternatively, each Relic might have slight variations that are equal in overall powerful/usefulness, but still different overall. (For example: Titan's Fist might replace the 70 Power projectile Fire/Ice/Elec attacks with 85 Power melee Fire/Ice/Elec.) But, I would probably make one element of each type available per Relic regardless of how I decide to handle it: I don't want your starting Relic Upgrade so strongly tied to your starting ability that some elements are cut off entirely for you. That all said, in a similar vein, I'm reluctant to do anything that would cause starting ability to be the leading choice, rather than Relic Upgrade. I'll have to think about it more.

I will probably eventually add a Relic Upgrade that lets you reallocate your stats, but by first reducing them all to 5 (or perhaps even 1), rather than 10. This has uses beyond simply "reclaiming" these lost points: it also will let you reshuffle any mismatched Essences you've found, or let you change strategies entirely later in the game if for some reason that becomes desirable. (Like Revive Demon, it may be cooldown based rather than a credits cost. Haven't decided yet; as you can probably guess from Revive Demon's change in this light, I'm in the middle of re-thinking the purpose of Credits in the game.)

A few more options...3-5 total perhaps?... for starting demons is probably the most likely change to happen. I tried 1 mostly to stake out the most extreme territory and see how that plays out. If I do add more of them, like Homunculus, they all be semi-uniques (not actually Unique tagged... but never appearing normally in the Tower and having their own unique modifiers.) If I do do that though, expect the ability list on Homunculus' modifier to get nerfed a bit. I only gave him one that good because he had to cover all the bases by himself. :)

Sounds like Demon Preservation is working about like I'd hoped. :) Death March may take folks a little bit to get excited about... even with Lifeguard, you don't end up with a ton of MaxHP, BUT... it is assured to be enough to survive another bout of DP (assuming the demon was at 100% before the first death), and the full HP (even if only 55-60% of normal) is enough to be able to be semi-safe to use in battle again, particularly under well-considered circumstances. (i.e.: a support/ranged demon, especially if you have Far Summon to place them far from the action, or a demon who is resistant/immune to your current foes main attacks.)

Odd as it will sound given how "advanced" they probably seem, the no weaknesses / dupe demons bits were as much for new players as old. You have no idea how many people got stuck trying to figure out why a given fusion wouldn't work. (The dupe demon bit got less questions since the in-game documentation for it was better, but still had similar issues at times.) Once I realized I could balance properly around allowing them, it was far easier and more fun to do that than to wrack my brain trying to improve the UI to communicate the fail points better. :D

Thanks again for the feedback, and congrats on a strong showing in the new build :D

P.S.: I always forget to update the log feature. :(
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Ferret
 
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Re: My first ghost on 20+ tower

Postby oneeyedjoe » Fri Aug 02, 2019 1:21 pm

Hey it's been quite some time since my last post here.
I wanted to finish, or at least attempt, a few runs before posting some feedback on brand build here, but last week was too busy for me and I didn't have much time to play Demon. I did finish my one and only run in 7/21 with a ghost win so I have at least some experience with a new build.
Code: Select all
Demon Party Dump File
Version 7/21/2019, Scoring Model: 7/21/2019
Dump file created at: 7/24/2019 8:34:19 PM


Summoner Brandon...
was chosen by the Crown of Glory,
selected Ice as their starting element,
has earned a score of 68605,
is currently at Tower:23,
and is quite dead!



--==== Main Character ====--

Name : Brandon
Level: 33
MaxHP: 156
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 43
Magic   : 47
Vitality: 46
Agility : 100
Cunning : 10

Resist: Ice
Weak  : Electricity

Soul Brand:
Mi-Po (Lv.30)
  Magic: +13
  Strength: +13

Abilities Known:
1) Arcing Touch (Type: Electricity, 20 SP. 70 Power attack. Has a 10% chance to inflict Shock, causing the targets to miss their next turn.)
2) Wraith Touch (Type: Dark, 15 SP. 70 Power attack, split between HP and MaxHP damage. 66% of the MaxHP damage is drained to the user as bonus MaxHP.)
3) Frost Ring (Type: Ice, 20 SP. 70 Power attack. Chills the targets, reducing their accuracy, evasion, and movement speed slightly.)
4) Riposte (Type: Pierce, Reactive. Responds to attacks by adjacent enemies that miss you or that you dodge or parry with a 70 Power attack.)
5) Spiny Veil (Type: Pierce, Reactive. Responds to damage dealt to you by adjacent enemies with a 20 Power attack. Cannot miss.)
6) Tormentor (Type: None, Passive. Restores 5 SP when you deal damage to one or more characters that have negative status effects.)
7) Mind Reader (Type: Mind, Passive. Increases accuracy and evasion by 13% versus all opponents. (Bonuses are affected by Mind resistance.))
8) Aurastrike (Type: None, Passive. If your last action was a Fire, Electricity, or Ice ability, adds damage and a chance of a special effect of that type to Slash, Impact, and Pierce attacks.)

Relic Upgrades:
Capacity Up II (Grants additional storage capacity for demon allies, allowing for a total of 8 at once.)
Transpose Soul (Unlocks the Transpose Soul transmutation, which lets you sacrifice a demon to choose and learn one of the bonus abilities from the modifier it would pass if used with Fuse Demons.)
Refine Brand (Unlocks the Refine Brand transmuation (available in the Brand menu), which raises the level of a Brand in your stock to match your own level. Does not change previously Applied copies of the Brand.)
Create Brand (Unlocks the Create Brand transmutation (available in the Brand menu), which lets you sacrifice a demon to create a new Brand based on its modifier. The new Brand's level will be equal to the sacrificed demon's level.)

Inventory:
6 Chakra stone
20 Heal stone
2 Heart glyph
6 Pure stone
2 Peace offering
1 Venom rune
4 Heal gem
1 White essence
3 Pure gem
1 Calm card
3 Magic map
2 Red essence
1 Curse rune
3 Bolt glyph
1 Blizzard rune
1 Bronze offering
1 Night rune
1 Purple essence
1 Frost glyph

Brands:
Sa-Ef-Al (Lv.8)
  2 or less visible allies
  SP per Turn: +1.6
  HP per Turn: +1.6% of MaxHP
Qu-Ex-So (Lv.9)
  Is an Unmodified Demon
  Max SP: -20
  Agility: +19
Du-Po-So (Lv.33)
  Is a Non-Unique Demon
  Magic: +29
  Vitality: +29
Mi-Wa (Lv.14)
  Remove Weak: Elec
  Strength: +7
Qu-In-So (Lv.18)
  Is a Summoner
  Max SP: +25
  Agility: +18
Ra-Ri-Pa (Lv.18)
  Level is 28 or higher
  SP Costs: -31%
  Speed: +25%
Wa-Ra-So (Lv.22)
  Is a Demon
  Speed: +12%
  Remove Weak: Light
Ra-Fl (Lv.23)
  Last Used: Electricity
  Speed: +21%
Du-Sh-Pa (Lv.24)
  Level is 34 or higher
  Cunning: +30
  Vitality: +30
Ab-Wa (Lv.24)
  Remove Weak: Light
  No Light abilities
Mi-Po (Lv.30)
  Magic: +13
  Strength: +13
Po-Dis (Lv.24)
  Base Magic is 82 or more
  Magic: +24

Current Credits: 1285



--==== Party Overview  ====--

Element      Users      Immune     Resistant  Normal     Weak       
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Slash        2          0          2          5*         0         
Impact       1          0          2          5*         0         
Pierce       2          0          2          5*         0         
Fire         1          0          0          5*         2         
Ice          2*         1          2*         3          1         
Electricity  1*         0          0          6          1*         
Body         0          0          1          3*         3         
Mind         1          1          1          5*         0         
Matter       2          0          2          5*         0         
Light        0          3          0          4*         0         
Dark         1*         0          0          4*         3         

n : Number of party members counted.
* : Denotes the main character is included.



--==== Current Party ====--

Name : Lifebender Unicorn
Level: 29
MaxHP: 132
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 27
Magic   : 62
Vitality: 50
Agility : 27
Cunning : 24

Immune: Light
Weak  : Body Dark

Soul Brand:
Ra-Ri-Pa (Lv.18)
  Level is 28 or higher
  SP Costs: -31%
  Speed: +25%

Abilities Known:
1) Heal Wounds (Type: Healing, 25 SP. 105 Power heal.)
2) Panacea (Type: Healing, 30 SP. Removes all negative status effects.)
3) Healing Aura (Type: Healing, Reactive. Each standard turn, grants a 10 Power heal to you and all visible allies.)
4) Vigorous Aura (Type: Healing, Reactive. Each standard turn, restores 1 SP to you and all visible allies.)
5) Lifeweaver (Type: Healing, Passive. Reduces the SP cost of Healing abilities by 5, to a minimum of 0.)
6) Meditate (Type: Healing, 0 SP. Can be used while Muted. Restores 10 SP. Cooldown: Cantrip (0))
7) Mending (Type: Healing, 20 SP. Cannot be used on Mended targets or enemies. 150 Power heal. Applies Mended.)
8) Uncurse Host (Type: Healing, 25 SP. Removes Offense Down, Defense Down, Accuracy Down, Evasion Down, and Speed Down.)


Name : Warded Power
Level: 34
MaxHP: 132
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 94
Magic   : 14
Vitality: 70
Agility : 24
Cunning : 13

Immune: Light
Resist: Slash Impact Pierce Matter
Weak  : Dark

Soul Brand:
Ra-Ri-Pa (Lv.18)
  Level is 28 or higher
  SP Costs: -31%
  Speed: +25%

Abilities Known:
1) Lethal Thrust (Type: Pierce, 25 SP. 100 Power attack, enemies only.)
2) Rhino Charge (Type: Impact, 20 SP. Must target a character. Charge to the target with a 85 Power attack. Inflicts Stun, causing the target to miss their next turn. Cooldown: Charge (6))
3) Bloodlust (Type: None, Passive. Restores SP per target damaged when you deal damage with Slash, Impact, or Pierce abilities. 5 SP for the first target, 4 SP for the second, etc. No further recovery after 5 targets.)
4) Ready Block (Type: Defense, Passive. If your last action was a Melee, Beam, or Direct range Slash, Impact, or Pierce ability, provides a 20% chance to block Slash, Impact, Pierce, Fire, Electricity, and Ice attacks.)
5) Bloodthirst (Type: Body, Passive. Heals you for 25% of the damage you deal with Slash, Impact, or Pierce abilities (affected by Body resistance).)
6) Stone Stance (Type: Defense, Passive. Provides a 15% chance to block Slash, Impact, Pierce, Fire, Ice, and Electricity attacks if your last action was not movement or a movement ability.)
7) Last Defense (Type: Defense, Passive. Increases defense by 100% when your health is at 25% or less of maximum.)
8) Hunter's Cry (Type: Buff, 35 SP. Briefly improves offense and accuracy by 25% for you and your allies. Cooldown: Presence (3))


Name : Immortal Leib-olmai
Level: 34
MaxHP: 125
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 61
Magic   : 33
Vitality: 71
Agility : 37
Cunning : 13

Resist: Slash Impact Pierce Ice Body Mind Matter
Weak  : Fire

Soul Brand:
Ra-Ri-Pa (Lv.18)
  Level is 28 or higher
  SP Costs: -31%
  Speed: +25%

Abilities Known:
1) Rend Asunder (Type: Slash, 20 SP. 100 Power attack split between two Slash attacks.)
2) Life Pulse (Type: Healing, 20 SP. Only affects allies. 60 Power heal. Free action. Cooldown: Cantrip (5))
3) Calming Rain (Type: Healing, 25 SP. Removes Stun, Sleep, Panic, and Charm.)
4) Ever Ready (Type: None, Passive. Increases SP regeneration by 200% when your SP is less than 15.)
5) Parry (Type: Defense, Passive. Provides a 33% chance to parry Melee, Beam, and Direct range Slash, Impact, and Pierce abilities if your last used ability was also such.)
6) Healing Factor (Type: Healing, Reactive. Bestows Regeneration when an attack reduces your health to 50% or less, restoring health over time. Cooldown: Factor (1))
7) Bloodthirst (Type: Body, Passive. Heals you for 25% of the damage you deal with Slash, Impact, or Pierce abilities (affected by Body resistance).)
8) Sentinel's Cry (Type: Buff, 35 SP. Briefly improves defense and evasion by 25% for you and your allies. Cooldown: Presence (3))


Name : Hunter Ya-te-veo
Level: 34
MaxHP: 169
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 59
Magic   : 14
Vitality: 72
Agility : 45
Cunning : 85

Immune: Mind
Weak  : Ice Body

Soul Brand:
Du-Sh-Pa (Lv.24)
  Level is 34 or higher
  Cunning: +30
  Vitality: +30

Abilities Known:
1) Snatch (Type: Matter, 30 SP. Can be used while Muted. Must target a character. Pull the target to you with a 85 Power attack. Inflicts Held, which reduces accuracy, evasion, and movement speed. Cooldown: Charge (8))
2) Razor Whip (Type: Slash, 10 SP. 70 Power attack. Has a 70% chance to inflict Held, which reduces accuracy, evasion, and movement speed (can stack three times.))
3) Razor Lashes (Type: Slash, 20 SP. 70 Power attack. Has a 50% chance to inflict Held, which reduces accuracy, evasion, and movement speed (can stack three times.))
4) Eat Alive (Type: Pierce, 10 SP. 100 Power attack. Half normal accuracy. Heals the user for 50% of the damage dealt (affected by Body resistance).)
5) Tangling Veil (Type: Matter, Reactive. 35% chance to inflict Held on adjacent characters that deal damage to you, which reduces accuracy, evasion, and movement speed (can stack three times.))
6) Bloodlust (Type: None, Passive. Restores SP per target damaged when you deal damage with Slash, Impact, or Pierce abilities. 5 SP for the first target, 4 SP for the second, etc. No further recovery after 5 targets.)
7) Venomous (Type: Body, Passive. Provides a 35% chance for your Slash, Impact, and Pierce attacks to apply Poison, causing damage over time (can stack three times).)
8) Crusader (Type: Light, Passive. Provides a 35% chance for your Slash, Impact, and Pierce attacks to apply Guilt, healing those who damage the target (excluding reactions).)


Name : Yuki-onna
Level: 31
MaxHP: 129
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 32
Magic   : 89
Vitality: 61
Agility : 32
Cunning : 44

Immune: Ice
Weak  : Fire

Soul Brand:
Du-Po-So (Lv.33)
  Is a Non-Unique Demon
  Magic: +29
  Vitality: +29

Abilities Known:
1) Snowstorm (Type: Ice, 40 SP. Attenuated 85 Power attack. Chills the targets, reducing their accuracy, evasion, and movement speed slightly.)
2) Wintry Touch (Type: Ice, 15 SP. 100 Power attack. Chills the target, reducing their accuracy, evasion, and movement speed slightly.)
3) Pink Whisper (Type: Mind, 25 SP. 70% chance to cause Charm, turning the target against its allies. Free action. Cooldown: Presence (6))
4) Tormentor (Type: None, Passive. Restores 5 SP when you deal damage to one or more characters that have negative status effects.)
5) Sudden Chill (Type: Ice, 25 SP. Only affects enemies. 40 Power attack. Chills all targets, reducing their accuracy, evasion, and movement speed slightly. Cannot miss.)
6) Rain of Fire (Type: Fire, 30 SP. Attenuated 85 Power attack. Has a 35% chance to Ignite the targets, causing damage over a short duration.)
7) Accursed Aura (Type: Dark, Reactive. Each standard turn, has an 8% chance to apply Pariah to enemies, causing each of them to damage their allies when they take damage (excluding reactions).)
8) Wiggling Mass (Type: Matter, 25 SP. 40 Power attack. Has a 50% chance to inflict Held, which reduces accuracy, evasion, and movement speed (can stack three times.) Cannot miss.)


Name : Lifebender Unicorn
Level: 29
MaxHP: 132
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 27
Magic   : 62
Vitality: 50
Agility : 27
Cunning : 24

Immune: Light
Weak  : Body Dark

Soul Brand:
Ra-Ri-Pa (Lv.18)
  Level is 28 or higher
  SP Costs: -31%
  Speed: +25%

Abilities Known:
1) Heal Wounds (Type: Healing, 25 SP. 105 Power heal.)
2) Panacea (Type: Healing, 30 SP. Removes all negative status effects.)
3) Healing Aura (Type: Healing, Reactive. Each standard turn, grants a 10 Power heal to you and all visible allies.)
4) Vigorous Aura (Type: Healing, Reactive. Each standard turn, restores 1 SP to you and all visible allies.)
5) Lifeweaver (Type: Healing, Passive. Reduces the SP cost of Healing abilities by 5, to a minimum of 0.)
6) Meditate (Type: Healing, 0 SP. Can be used while Muted. Restores 10 SP. Cooldown: Cantrip (0))
7) Mending (Type: Healing, 20 SP. Cannot be used on Mended targets or enemies. 150 Power heal. Applies Mended.)
8) Uncurse Host (Type: Healing, 25 SP. Removes Offense Down, Defense Down, Accuracy Down, Evasion Down, and Speed Down.)



--==== Recent Messages ====--

 You feel more accurate!
 Your unicorn looks more accurate!
 Your leib-olmai misses the leib-olmai.
 The leib-olmai rends you.
 The leib-olmai looks healthier.
 The leib-olmai misses you.
 You riposte. You stab the leib-olmai.
 It isn't very effective.
 You pierce the leib-olmai.
 It isn't very effective.
 The leib-olmai's evasion returns to normal.
 The leib-olmai's defense returns to normal.
 Your power stabs the leib-olmai.
 It isn't very effective.
 Your power looks refreshed.
 You don't have enough SP to use Wraith
 Touch.
 The leib-olmai parries your attack!
 Your leib-olmai claws the leib-olmai.
 It isn't very effective.
 The leib-olmai will regenerate longer!
 The leib-olmai misses you.
 You riposte. You stab the leib-olmai.
 It isn't very effective.
 Your power impales the leib-olmai.
 It isn't very effective.
 Your power kills the leib-olmai!!
 Your power looks refreshed.
 Using Wraith Touch...
 Aim within the possible target area using
 movement keys. Press Enter to execute,
 Escape to cancel.
 Nevermind then.
 You begin resting.
 Your unicorn gestures at you.
 You feel better.
 Your defense returns to normal.
 Your evasion returns to normal.
 Your power's evasion returns to normal.
 Your power's defense returns to normal.
 Your leib-olmai's evasion returns to normal.
 Your leib-olmai's defense returns to normal.
 Your unicorn's evasion returns to normal.
 Your unicorn's defense returns to normal.
 Your accuracy returns to normal.
 Your power returns to normal.
 Your power's accuracy returns to normal.
 Your power's power returns to normal.
 Your leib-olmai's accuracy returns to
 normal.
 Your leib-olmai's power returns to normal.
 Your unicorn's accuracy returns to normal.
 Your unicorn's power returns to normal.
 Rest complete, but you must defeat enemies
 to restore your allies' missing Maximum HP.
 Pick up Sa-Na? (Y or N)
 There is a shimmering portal to Victory
 here. Press 'p', '<', or '>' to change
 levels.
 Using Refine Brand...
 Refine Ra-Ri-Pa for 634 C? The new form is
 previewed above the current form. (Y or N)
 Alright then.
 Refine Qu-In-So for 634 C? The new form is
 previewed above the current form. (Y or N)
 Alright then.
 Refine Du-Po-So for 340 C? The new form is
 previewed above the current form. (Y or N)
 Alright then.
 Refine Qu-Ex-So for 1012 C? The new form is
 previewed above the current form. (Y or N)
 Alright then.
 Refine Sa-Ef-Al for 1054 C? The new form is
 previewed above the current form. (Y or N)
 Alright then.
 Using Refine Brand...
 Refine Du-Po-So for 340 C? The new form is
 previewed above the current form. (Y or N)
 You refine Du-Po-So!
 Du-Po-So is now level 33!
 Using Apply Brand...
 Press Enter to replace Po-Vu (shown above)
 with Du-Po-So or press Escape to cancel.
 You apply Du-Po-So to your yuki-onna.
 You begin resting.
 You continue resting to restore your
 inactive allies.
 Rest complete, but you must defeat enemies
 to restore your allies' missing Maximum HP.
 There is a shimmering portal to Victory
 here. Press 'p', '<', or '>' to change
 levels.
 This is the 7/21/2019 version of Demon,
 using the 7/21/2019 scoring system.
 Your current score is 68605.
 Save and exit? (Y or N)
 Alright then.
 Are you sure you want to abandon the current
 game? If so, re-enter your summoner's name.
 You quit...



--==== Recently Slain Allies ====--

Name : Archon Civatateo
Level: 31
MaxHP: 105
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 16
Magic   : 102
Vitality: 22
Agility : 25
Cunning : 65

Immune: Mind
Resist: Ice Body Light Dark
Weak  : Fire Electricity

Soul Brand:
Po-Vu (Lv.32)
  Weak: Pierce
  Magic: +30

Abilities Known:
1) Inquisition (Type: Light, 35 SP. 70% chance to inflict Guilt on enemy targets, healing those who damage the targets (excluding reactions).)
2) Life Drain (Type: Body, 25 SP. 70 Power attack. Heals the user for 50% of the damage dealt. Cannot miss.)
3) Light Veil (Type: Light, Reactive. 50% chance to respond to damage dealt to you by adjacent enemies with a 40 Power attack. Cannot miss.)
4) Ritualist (Type: None, Passive. Reduces the SP cost of magical abilities that cost 20 or more SP by 5 if no Cantrip abilities are on cooldown. Cooldown: Cantrip (0))
5) Hypnotic Glare (Type: Mind, 25 SP. 70% chance to inflict Sleep on enemies, preventing them from acting for a few turns or until damaged. Cooldown: Presence (9))
6) Somnia (Type: Mind, 30 SP. 70% chance to inflict Sleep, preventing the target from acting for a few turns or until damaged.)
7) Expose (Type: Debuff, 15 SP. 85% chance to reduce defense by 20%.)
8) ------------


Name : Python
Level: 24
MaxHP: 126
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 43
Magic   : 13
Vitality: 57
Agility : 19
Cunning : 33

Resist: Slash Impact Electricity Body
Weak  : Fire Ice Matter

Soul Brand:
Ra-Ri (Lv.7)
  SP Costs: -9%
  Speed: +7%

Abilities Known:
1) Tackle (Type: Impact, 10 SP. 70 Power attack. Has a 50% chance to delay the next turn of the target.)
2) Earth Break (Type: Impact, 25 SP. 70 Power attack.)
3) Tangler (Type: Matter, Passive. Provides a 35% chance for your Slash, Impact, and Pierce attacks to inflict Held, which reduces accuracy, evasion, and movement speed (can stack three times.))
4) Tangling Veil (Type: Matter, Reactive. 35% chance to inflict Held on adjacent characters that deal damage to you, which reduces accuracy, evasion, and movement speed (can stack three times.))
5) Bloodlust (Type: None, Passive. Restores SP per target damaged when you deal damage with Slash, Impact, or Pierce abilities. 5 SP for the first target, 4 SP for the second, etc. No further recovery after 5 targets.)
6) Low Profile (Type: Defense, Passive. Always dodge projectiles fired by allies unless directly targeted.)
7) Crusader (Type: Light, Passive. Provides a 35% chance for your Slash, Impact, and Pierce attacks to apply Guilt, healing those who damage the target (excluding reactions).)
8) ------------


Name : Immortal Leib-olmai
Level: 33
MaxHP: 122
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 59
Magic   : 33
Vitality: 69
Agility : 36
Cunning : 13

Resist: Slash Impact Pierce Ice Body Mind Matter
Weak  : Fire

Soul Brand:
Ra-Ri-Pa (Lv.18)
  Level is 28 or higher
  SP Costs: -31%
  Speed: +25%

Abilities Known:
1) Rend Asunder (Type: Slash, 20 SP. 100 Power attack split between two Slash attacks.)
2) Life Pulse (Type: Healing, 20 SP. Only affects allies. 60 Power heal. Free action. Cooldown: Cantrip (5))
3) Calming Rain (Type: Healing, 25 SP. Removes Stun, Sleep, Panic, and Charm.)
4) Ever Ready (Type: None, Passive. Increases SP regeneration by 200% when your SP is less than 15.)
5) Parry (Type: Defense, Passive. Provides a 33% chance to parry Melee, Beam, and Direct range Slash, Impact, and Pierce abilities if your last used ability was also such.)
6) Healing Factor (Type: Healing, Reactive. Bestows Regeneration when an attack reduces your health to 50% or less, restoring health over time. Cooldown: Factor (1))
7) Bloodthirst (Type: Body, Passive. Heals you for 25% of the damage you deal with Slash, Impact, or Pierce abilities (affected by Body resistance).)
8) Sentinel's Cry (Type: Buff, 35 SP. Briefly improves defense and evasion by 25% for you and your allies. Cooldown: Presence (3))


Name : Immortal Leib-olmai
Level: 33
MaxHP: 122
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 59
Magic   : 33
Vitality: 69
Agility : 36
Cunning : 13

Resist: Slash Impact Pierce Ice Body Mind Matter
Weak  : Fire

Soul Brand:
Ra-Ri-Pa (Lv.18)
  Level is 28 or higher
  SP Costs: -31%
  Speed: +25%

Abilities Known:
1) Rend Asunder (Type: Slash, 20 SP. 100 Power attack split between two Slash attacks.)
2) Life Pulse (Type: Healing, 20 SP. Only affects allies. 60 Power heal. Free action. Cooldown: Cantrip (5))
3) Calming Rain (Type: Healing, 25 SP. Removes Stun, Sleep, Panic, and Charm.)
4) Ever Ready (Type: None, Passive. Increases SP regeneration by 200% when your SP is less than 15.)
5) Parry (Type: Defense, Passive. Provides a 33% chance to parry Melee, Beam, and Direct range Slash, Impact, and Pierce abilities if your last used ability was also such.)
6) Healing Factor (Type: Healing, Reactive. Bestows Regeneration when an attack reduces your health to 50% or less, restoring health over time. Cooldown: Factor (1))
7) Bloodthirst (Type: Body, Passive. Heals you for 25% of the damage you deal with Slash, Impact, or Pierce abilities (affected by Body resistance).)
8) Sentinel's Cry (Type: Buff, 35 SP. Briefly improves defense and evasion by 25% for you and your allies. Cooldown: Presence (3))


Name : Immortal Leib-olmai
Level: 33
MaxHP: 122
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 59
Magic   : 33
Vitality: 69
Agility : 36
Cunning : 13

Resist: Slash Impact Pierce Ice Body Mind Matter
Weak  : Fire

Soul Brand:
Ra-Ri-Pa (Lv.18)
  Level is 28 or higher
  SP Costs: -31%
  Speed: +25%

Abilities Known:
1) Rend Asunder (Type: Slash, 20 SP. 100 Power attack split between two Slash attacks.)
2) Life Pulse (Type: Healing, 20 SP. Only affects allies. 60 Power heal. Free action. Cooldown: Cantrip (5))
3) Calming Rain (Type: Healing, 25 SP. Removes Stun, Sleep, Panic, and Charm.)
4) Ever Ready (Type: None, Passive. Increases SP regeneration by 200% when your SP is less than 15.)
5) Parry (Type: Defense, Passive. Provides a 33% chance to parry Melee, Beam, and Direct range Slash, Impact, and Pierce abilities if your last used ability was also such.)
6) Healing Factor (Type: Healing, Reactive. Bestows Regeneration when an attack reduces your health to 50% or less, restoring health over time. Cooldown: Factor (1))
7) Bloodthirst (Type: Body, Passive. Heals you for 25% of the damage you deal with Slash, Impact, or Pierce abilities (affected by Body resistance).)
8) Sentinel's Cry (Type: Buff, 35 SP. Briefly improves defense and evasion by 25% for you and your allies. Cooldown: Presence (3))


Name : Volcanic Mandrake
Level: 24
MaxHP: 114
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 9
Magic   : 71
Vitality: 48
Agility : 24
Cunning : 41

Immune: Fire
Resist: Mind
Weak  : Ice Matter

Soul Brand:
Du-Po-So (Lv.11)
  Is a Non-Unique Demon
  Magic: +14
  Vitality: +14

Abilities Known:
1) Wiggling Mass (Type: Matter, 25 SP. 40 Power attack. Has a 50% chance to inflict Held, which reduces accuracy, evasion, and movement speed (can stack three times.) Cannot miss.)
2) Mind Scream (Type: Mind, 25 SP. 40 Power attack, enemies only. Cannot miss.)
3) Meditate (Type: Healing, 0 SP. Can be used while Muted. Restores 10 SP. Cooldown: Cantrip (0))
4) Sympathy Veil (Type: Mind, Reactive. Only activates when your HP is at 50% or less of the maximum. Responds to damage dealt to you by enemies with a 30 Power attack. Cannot miss.)
5) Accursed Aura (Type: Dark, Reactive. Each standard turn, has an 8% chance to apply Pariah to enemies, causing each of them to damage their allies when they take damage (excluding reactions).)
6) Rain of Fire (Type: Fire, 30 SP. Attenuated 85 Power attack. Has a 35% chance to Ignite the targets, causing damage over a short duration.)
7) Vengeful (Type: None, Passive. Responds to damage dealt to you by enemies by restoring 3 SP.)
8) Greek Fire (Type: Fire, Passive. Increases the duration of your Ignite effects by 3 turns.)


Name : Reprobus
Level: 29
MaxHP: 129
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 73
Magic   : 30
Vitality: 38
Agility : 34
Cunning : 31

Immune: Mind Light
Weak  : Electricity

Soul Brand:
Sh-Mi (Lv.15)
  Strength: +8
  Cunning: +8

Abilities Known:
1) Swiftness (Type: None, Passive. Reduces the turn cost of movement and movement abilities by 20%.)
2) Impaling Thrust (Type: Pierce, 20 SP. 85 Power attack, enemies only.)
3) Fire Breath (Type: Fire, 20 SP. Attenuated 0-85 Power attack, based on the user's SP (max SP = 85 Power). Has a 35% chance to Ignite the targets, causing damage over a short duration. Cooldown: Breath (4))
4) Second Wind (Type: Healing, 0 SP. Can be used while Muted. Restores 30 SP and resets your Breath and Charge cooldowns. Free action. Cooldown: Endure (4))
5) Piercing Cry (Type: Debuff, 20 SP. 85% chance to briefly reduce defense by 20% for enemies. Cooldown: Presence (3))
6) Block Physical (Type: Defense, Passive. Provides a 20% chance to block Slash, Impact, and Pierce attacks.)
7) Unconquerable (Type: Defense, Reactive. Responds to damage dealt to you by enemies by reducing your Endure cooldown by 1 turn.)
8) ------------


Name : Ninkasi
Level: 31
MaxHP: 113
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 23
Magic   : 39
Vitality: 38
Agility : 50
Cunning : 50

Resist: Ice Body Mind
Weak  : Fire

Soul Brand:
Sh-Tir (Lv.17)
  SP equal to or less than 50
  Cunning: +19

Abilities Known:
1) Might (Type: Buff, 10 SP. Improves offense by 25%.)
2) Soothe (Type: Healing, 20 SP. Must target a character whose HP is more than 50% of their maximum. 105 Power heal.)
3) Refresh (Type: Healing, 5 SP. Transfers up to 15 SP from the user to the target. Free action. Cooldown: Cantrip (1))
4) Rallying Cry (Type: Healing, 25 SP. Only affects allies whose HP is more than 50% of their maximum. 105 Power heal. Cooldown: Presence (6))
5) Alluring Gaze (Type: Mind, 20 SP. 70% chance to cause Charm, turning the target against its allies. Cooldown: Presence (6))
6) Charisma (Type: Mind, Passive. Reduces Presence cooldowns by 33% when your HP are at more than 50% of maximum.)
7) Ever Ready (Type: None, Passive. Increases SP regeneration by 200% when your SP is less than 15.)
8) ------------



Ended up with another wacky aurastrike build, mage-fencer. Hard to hit and punishes you for either hitting or missing it in melee range. MaxHP drain was there just as a form of defense (building up some maxHP from the last enemy before next fight) and single target focuser. Worked reasonably well, especially against things that use multiattacks. Onies were dropping like flies from chain lightning infused ripostes.
I wish I had a fancier brand for my summoner though. My demons however were in for a treat. -30% SP costs and +25% speed for being high level? Yes please. That brand fitted really well for healers and damage dealers. It also synergised with itself, because usually high speed demons have problems with SP, too fast to recover, but not when your costs are lowered by a third. Sadly my build wouldn't benefit neither from speed nor from low SP costs because my main source of damage was coming from ripostes and with tormentor/frost ring/spiny veil my SP was always plentiful. So I was stuck with a boring +STR +MAG brand. +maxSP +AGI for being a summoner was my second close option, but I opted for extra damage from MAG and STR instead.

Now to some balance/mechanics feedback. I managed to use "Create brand" upgrade for a bit and really liked it, however there is some inconsistency with regular modifiers. For example I was given a brand that boosted my strength for the cost of some cunning if my last action was an impact ability. Sounds pretty good right? Except I got that brand for Ikyro, a demon with corrupt modifier, modifier that mostly relies on cunning and magic. Similar happened when I disintegrated my volcanic mandrake and got something completely unrelatable to fire magic contained in that modifier. Which also shows that only unique demons have unique brands as an outcome, regular demon with unique modifier just gives random stuff. Unique brand creation felt a lot more consistent. Got "body immune if last action was healing" from Ninkasi and "light immune if has no dark abilities" from Reprobus, seems about right. My biggest problem with create brand is that you can't create brands if your stock is full and game keeps flashing that "YOU HAVE TO DELETE A DEMON" menu in your face. Not sure if it is an oversight. balance decision or UI limitation, but I'd love it to be fixed/reworked. Create brand and delete demon options located in separate menus and it is kinda natural that you can't just pick up an extra demon on a go and turn it into a shiny right away. I wish it wasn't the case, because you get way less opportunities to make brands that way, unless you keep one empty slot in your pocket all the time.

AI finally learned which brands would be good for it and which ones are detrimental so that's nice. AT least during that run I didn't see any -VIT -MAG +CUN on healers and stuff. However, sometimes demons seem to ignore brands even if they are good for them. I remember seeing Kitsune/Fairy pack with +mag +agi brands, expect only Kitsune were using that brand, Fairies had nothing at all.

And on an unrelated note - would be nice if the game had screenshot button build in. I actually wanted to take some screenshots during that run, but PrtSc+Paint is too much work when you get consumed by the gameplay :D. Surely there are enough programs that can make screenshot in a press of a single button but still, would be nice if the game had an inbuilt option as well for lazy people like me.
oneeyedjoe
 
Posts: 205
Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2017 4:30 pm

Re: My first ghost on 20+ tower

Postby Ferret » Sat Aug 03, 2019 4:08 pm

-30% SP and +25% Speed is a pretty darn good brand. :D Cruel irony to find it when playing one of the few types of summoner builds that wouldn't get much from it, but such is life.

Hmm... that Ikiryo result you mention shouldn't be possible, but I'll look into it. The *current* modifier should be being what is being used as well, I'll also confirm that: it could be the same bug working in both cases too though.

Putting Create Brand on the main Transmutation hamburger is a reasonable request, I'll do that, or at least, do that during a forced delete situation. :)

I'm glad AI's finally using Brands better, but hmm.. not sure why Faeries would have declined +Mag/+Agi. There weren't any penalties on it at all?

I'll investigate a screenshot button too. Chances are this is a common enough feature I can probably find some guidance on it pretty easily. :)

Thanks for the report and feedback :D
User avatar
Ferret
 
Posts: 1785
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2014 3:18 pm

Re: My first ghost on 20+ tower

Postby oneeyedjoe » Sat Oct 26, 2019 11:22 pm

Just lost a decent 5 cycle streak I had going for a month, don't remember any spicy details about most builds sadly, so I'll just show them I guess and list some nitpicks at the end.
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Summoner Brandon...
was chosen by the Hand of the Dead,
selected Ice as their starting element,
has earned a score of 72082,
is currently at Tower:23,
and is still alive!



--==== Main Character ====--

Name : Brandon
Level: 33
MaxHP: 156
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 10
Magic   : 97
Vitality: 46
Agility : 47
Cunning : 10

Resist: Ice
Weak  : Electricity

Soul Brand:
Ri-So (Lv.25)
  Is a Summoner
  SP Costs: -34%

Abilities Known:
1) Frost Arrow (Type: Ice, 20 SP. 85 Power attack. Chills the target, reducing their accuracy, evasion, and movement speed slightly.)
2) Snuff Out (Type: Dark, 25 SP. 130 Power attack, but misses if the damage would not be fatal. Cooldown: Dark (3))
3) Mantra (Type: None, 0 SP. Reduces Light and Dark cooldowns by 2 turns. Free action. Cooldown: Cantrip (3))
4) Lightning Bolt (Type: Electricity, 25 SP. 70 Power attack. Has a 10% chance to inflict Shock, causing the targets to miss their next turn.)
5) Agony (Type: Dark, 25 SP. Only affects enemies without the Agony status effect. 70 Power attack. Applies Agony. Cannot miss. Cooldown: Dark (6))
6) Hunter's Cry (Type: Buff, 35 SP. Briefly improves offense and accuracy by 25% for you and your allies. Cooldown: Presence (3))
7) Vigorous (Type: None, Passive. Increases base SP regeneration by 50%.)
8) Tormentor (Type: None, Passive. Restores 5 SP when you deal damage to one or more characters that have negative status effects.)

Relic Upgrades:
Lifeguard (Reduces the MaxHP damage allied demons take from Demon Preservation by 50%. (This does not change the MaxHP required to be saved by Demon Preservation.))
Consume Demon (Unlocks the Consume Demon transmuation, which lets you reduce an allied demon's MaxHP to 1 to restore your own HP, SP, and MaxHP as a free action. Results are based on the demon's current MaxHP.)
Refine Brand (Unlocks the Refine Brand transmuation (available in the Brand menu), which raises the level of a Brand in your stock to match your own level. Does not change previously Applied copies of the Brand.)
Capacity Up II (Grants additional storage capacity for demon allies, allowing for a total of 8 at once.)

Just a general damage dealer build without any quirks. For some reason I often end up going with ice, dark and electricity combo with my mages. I guess it's because very few demons are resistant/immune to that combo, but then there're plenty of other 3-elements combos that don't meet too much resistance. In that run I learned that mute doesn't block mantra.
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Summoner Zealot...
was chosen by the Faithful Heart,
selected Light as their starting element,
has earned a score of 135981 (presently on cycle 2),
is currently at Tower:23,
and is still alive!



--==== Main Character ====--

Name : Zealot
Level: 32
MaxHP: 166
MaxSP: 50

Strength: 10
Magic   : 71
Vitality: 62
Agility : 10
Cunning : 52

Resist: Light
Weak  : Dark

Soul Brand:
Ri-Ex (Lv.17)
  Max SP: -50
  SP Costs: -31%

Abilities Known:
1) Smite (Type: Light, 10 SP. 55 Power attack. Cannot miss. Cooldown: Light (1))
2) Set Alight (Type: Fire, 20 SP. 40 Power attack. Has a 100% chance to Ignite the target, causing damage over a short duration. Cannot miss.)
3) Burning Star (Type: Fire, 30 SP. Attenuated 85 Power attack. Has a 35% chance to Ignite the targets, causing damage over a short duration.)
4) Battle Cry (Type: Buff, 15 SP. Briefly improves offense by 25% for you and your allies. Cooldown: Presence (3))
5) Inquisition (Type: Light, 35 SP. 70% chance to inflict Guilt on enemy targets, healing those who damage the targets (excluding reactions).)
6) Ever Ready (Type: None, Passive. Increases SP regeneration by 200% when your SP is less than 15.)
7) Warmth (Type: Fire, Passive. Increases HP and SP regeneration based on the number of Ignited characters you can see (more characters = larger bonus, with diminishing returns.))
8) Greek Fire (Type: Fire, Passive. Increases the duration of your Ignite effects by 3 turns.)

Relic Upgrades:
Nightingale (Doubles the rate of HP and negative effect recovery for inactive demons.)
Revive Demon (Unlocks the Revive Demon transmuation, which allows you to restore recently killed demons to life, though their MaxHP will be temporarily reduced.)
Recycle (Delete Demon now grants Credits based on the number of levels the demon has gained (more levels = more Credits).)
Capacity Up II (Grants additional storage capacity for demon allies, allowing for a total of 8 at once.)

Wanted to do some kind of inquisitor build for a change but didn't get abilities I wanted so just ended up with fire/light damage. Mostly I just wanted Expel and Incinerate for that build, but alas. Got a nice brand/ability combo though. Less maxSP doesn't matter when you have ever ready and warmth, especially with lower SP costs.
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Summoner Dart Arts...
was chosen by the Orb of Power,
selected Debuff as their starting element,
has earned a score of 201570 (presently on cycle 3),
is currently at Tower:23,
and is still alive!



--==== Main Character ====--

Name : Dart Arts
Level: 32
MaxHP: 179
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 10
Magic   : 73
Vitality: 80
Agility : 10
Cunning : 64

Resist: Dark
Weak  : Light

Soul Brand:
Du-Ef-Pa (Lv.19)
  Level is 29 or higher
  SP per Turn: +2.8
  Vitality: +27

Abilities Known:
1) Expose Host (Type: Debuff, 25 SP. 85% chance to reduce defense by 20%.)
2) Madness Gaze (Type: Mind, 20 SP. 85% chance to inflict Panic, causing the target's actions to sometimes be randomized. Cooldown: Presence (6))
3) Agony (Type: Dark, 25 SP. Only affects enemies without the Agony status effect. 70 Power attack. Applies Agony. Cannot miss. Cooldown: Dark (6))
4) Snuff Out (Type: Dark, 25 SP. 130 Power attack, but misses if the damage would not be fatal. Cooldown: Dark (3))
5) Meditate (Type: Healing, 0 SP. Can be used while Muted. Restores 10 SP. Cooldown: Cantrip (0))
6) Arrest Host (Type: Body, 35 SP. 50% chance to cause Paralysis, causing the targets to frequently miss their turns.)
7) Reserves (Type: None, Passive. If you would gain a time-based cooldown longer than 1 turn and do not have a Reserves cooldown, you instead gain a Reserves cooldown of the same amount. Cooldown: Reserves (0))
8) Innocence (Type: Mind, Passive. Increases offense, defense, accuracy, and evasion by 33%, and status accuracy and status resistance by 16%, versus opponents who are at full HP. (Bonuses are affected by Mind resistance.))

Relic Upgrades:
Translator (Reduces the cost of using Copy Ability on yourself by 50%.)
Transpose Soul (Unlocks the Transpose Soul transmutation, which lets you sacrifice a demon to choose and learn one of the bonus abilities from the modifier it would pass if used with Fuse Demons.)
S.E.P.I. (Generates a small amount of Credits each time you fully explore a level.)
Capacity Up II (Grants additional storage capacity for demon allies, allowing for a total of 8 at once.)

Here the main idea was that first I lower enemies' defenses, use innocence-buffed agony and then, thanks to reserves, my dark CD would still be at 0 and I will be able to snuff out something relatively early in the battle. And some crowd control debuffs for variety, Didn't really work that well most of the time, but still was a decent build.
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Summoner Cursebag...
was chosen by the Hand of the Dead,
selected Debuff as their starting element,
has earned a score of 269666 (presently on cycle 4),
is currently at Tower:23,
and is still alive!



--==== Main Character ====--

Name : Cursebag
Level: 33
MaxHP: 199
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 10
Magic   : 13
Vitality: 103
Agility : 10
Cunning : 93

Resist: Dark
Weak  : Light

Soul Brand:
Ra-Sh-Pa (Lv.19)
  Level is 24 or higher
  Cunning: +19
  Speed: +18%

Abilities Known:
1) Acid Burst (Type: Matter, 20 SP. 70% chance to inflict Melting, causing damage over time.)
2) Hypnotic Glare (Type: Mind, 25 SP. 70% chance to inflict Sleep on enemies, preventing them from acting for a few turns or until damaged. Cooldown: Presence (9))
3) Vile Dance (Type: Body, 20 SP. 85% chance to apply Infection to enemies, which prevents most HP and SP recovery. Also considered a movement ability. Cooldown: Breath (4))
4) Sepsis Wave (Type: Body, 20 SP. Only affects Infected characters. Inflicts Poison, causing damage over time (can stack three times).)
5) Vile Alchemy (Type: Body, Passive. When you apply Poison to an already Poisoned target, you always increase the Poison stack level if it is not already at the maximum.)
6) Afflicter (Type: None, Passive. Restores 5 SP for applying a new Body, Mind, Matter, Light, Dark, or Debuff status effect. (Poison or Held stacking does not count as a new effect.))
7) Blood Rot (Type: Body, Passive. When you apply Infection, Poison, or Paralysis, you have a 50% chance to reduce the target's offense by 20%.)
8) Flesh Rot (Type: Body, Passive. When you apply Infection, Poison, or Paralysis, you have a 50% chance to reduce the target's defense by 20%.)

Relic Upgrades:
Lifeguard (Reduces the MaxHP damage allied demons take from Demon Preservation by 50%. (This does not change the MaxHP required to be saved by Demon Preservation.))
Consume Demon (Unlocks the Consume Demon transmuation, which lets you reduce an allied demon's MaxHP to 1 to restore your own HP, SP, and MaxHP as a free action. Results are based on the demon's current MaxHP.)
Death March (When your demon allies are saved by Demon Preservation, their HP is restored (to their new MaxHP) and all their negative status effects are removed.)
Refine Brand (Unlocks the Refine Brand transmuation (available in the Brand menu), which raises the level of a Brand in your stock to match your own level. Does not change previously Applied copies of the Brand.)
Capacity Up I (Grants additional storage capacity for demon allies, allowing for a total of 7 at once.)

Just a simple rot/DOT build with added in hypnosis. I also had 2 demons with dreamstalker and sometimes instead of staking poisons I just used vile dance for flesh rot, allowing my dreamstalkers to almost oneshot most enemies. 3 magic there because of my mistake :D. Also that run I've seen Crumble in action for the first time.
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Name : Furious Shikome
Level: 32
MaxHP: 111
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 16
Magic   : 91
Vitality: 34
Agility : 59
Cunning : 57

Immune: Dark
Resist: Ice Body Mind Matter
Weak  : Light

Soul Brand:
Qu-Po-So (Lv.30)
  Is a Non-Unique Demon
  Magic: +26
  Agility: +26

Abilities Known:
1) Lich Touch (Type: Dark, 25 SP. 100 Power attack, split between HP and MaxHP damage. 66% of the MaxHP damage is drained to the user as bonus MaxHP.)
2) Possess (Type: Dark, 30 SP. Must target an enemy. Warps you adjacent to the enemy, and has a 70% chance to delay the enemy's next turn. This is not considered a movement ability. Free action. Cooldown: Charge (5))
3) Petra Glare (Type: Matter, 25 SP. 50% chance to inflict Harden on enemies, which quickly turns the targets to Stone. Cooldown: Presence (9))
4) Vengeful (Type: None, Passive. Responds to damage dealt to you by enemies by restoring 3 SP.)
5) Bravado (Type: Mind, Reactive. Resets your Presence cooldown when an attack reduces your health to 50% or less. Cooldown: Bravado (1))
6) Alluring Veil (Type: Mind, Reactive. 10% chance to Charm adjacent characters that deal damage to you, turning them against their allies.)
7) Crumble (Type: Matter, 25 SP. Must target a character that has been turned to Stone. 260 Power Attack, but misses if the damage would not be fatal.)
8) Ever Ready (Type: None, Passive. Increases SP regeneration by 200% when your SP is less than 15.)
That Shikome was nuts.
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Summoner Brandon...
was chosen by the Crown of Glory,
selected Slash as their starting element,
has earned a score of 312394 (presently on cycle 5),
is currently at Tower:19,
and is quite dead!



--==== Main Character ====--

Name : Brandon
Level: 27
MaxHP: 156
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 40
Magic   : 51
Vitality: 66
Agility : 40
Cunning : 10

Resist: Body
Weak  : Ice

Soul Brand:
Po-Du (Lv.24)
  Vitality: +11
  Magic: +11

Abilities Known:
1) Heavy Slash (Type: Slash, 10 SP. 85 Power attack.)
2) Vorpal Cleave (Type: Slash, 25 SP. 100 Power attack.)
3) Halo (Type: Light, 20 SP. Only affects enemies. 85 Power attack. Cannot miss. Cooldown: Light (2))
4) Shocking Touch (Type: Electricity, 5 SP. 70 Power attack. Has a 10% chance to inflict Shock, causing the target to miss their next turn.)
5) Exorcist's Mien (Type: Light, Passive. Your Light and Dark attacks deal 20% more damage to targets weak to Light.)
6) Vengeful (Type: None, Passive. Responds to damage dealt to you by enemies by restoring 3 SP.)
7) Hand of Light (Type: Light, Passive. Your Slash, Impact, and Pierce attacks that damage targets weak to Light also deal a 85 Power Light attack if the additional damage would be fatal to the target.)
8) Light Veil (Type: Light, Reactive. 50% chance to respond to damage dealt to you by adjacent enemies with a 40 Power attack. Cannot miss.)

Relic Upgrades:
Capacity Up II (Grants additional storage capacity for demon allies, allowing for a total of 8 at once.)
Create Brand (Unlocks the Create Brand transmutation (available in the Brand menu), which lets you sacrifice a demon to create a new Brand based on its modifier. The new Brand's level will be equal to the sacrificed demon's level.)
Revelation (Unlocks the Revelation transmutation, which grants a demon a random ability based on the modifier it would pass if used with Fuse Demons.)
Refine Brand (Unlocks the Refine Brand transmuation (available in the Brand menu), which raises the level of a Brand in your stock to match your own level. Does not change previously Applied copies of the Brand.)

An attempt at holy crusader melee build with light/slash. Had heavy guard and triad ward at one point but couldn't get any more block abilities to make heavy guard actually useful.
I wanted to use this
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Ri-Po-Le (Lv.25)
  Speed: -30%
  Magic: +40
  SP Costs: -44%
and already made super speedy buffer to compensate the -30% speed downside
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Name : Furious Pelesit
Level: 28
MaxHP: 86
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 30
Magic   : 59
Vitality: 31
Agility : 48
Cunning : 57

Resist: Electricity Mind Dark Matter
Weak  : Fire Body Light

Soul Brand:
Ri-Po-Le (Lv.25)
  Speed: -30%
  Magic: +40
  SP Costs: -44%

Abilities Known:
1) Leech Bite (Type: Pierce, 10 SP. 70 Power attack. Heals the user for 50% of the damage dealt (affected by Body resistance).)
2) Short Jaunt (Type: None, 10 SP. Warp to a random nearby position you can see. This is not considered a movement ability.)
3) Petra Glare (Type: Matter, 25 SP. 50% chance to inflict Harden on enemies, which quickly turns the targets to Stone. Cooldown: Presence (9))
4) Bravado (Type: Mind, Reactive. Resets your Presence cooldown when an attack reduces your health to 50% or less. Cooldown: Bravado (1))
5) Crumble (Type: Matter, 25 SP. Must target a character that has been turned to Stone. 260 Power Attack, but misses if the damage would not be fatal.)
6) Alluring Glare (Type: Mind, 25 SP. 50% chance to inflict Charm on enemies, turning them against their allies. Cooldown: Presence (9))
7) Haste (Type: Buff, 35 SP. Improves speed by 33%.)
8) Meditate (Type: Healing, 0 SP. Can be used while Muted. Restores 10 SP. Cooldown: Cantrip (0))
but ghost got the better of me. I also had sainted fairy as my revelation subject, tried to fish for priesthood and emit sol, got one of them but was too low on credits to copy anything.
Now to my favorite "how I think the game should be" part. Scan brand feels like a lackluster, not at any point in time during those 5 runs I felt the need for it. I guess it's more useful for people who don't always clear floor, but still kinda meh. Maybe if there were more demons with inaccessible to player brands. Like 1-2 brands per floor don't spawn on the ground, but demons still can use them, because opportunity to use scan brand arises rather rarely, and when it does, the benefits are minuscule. After all, you can just recruit that demon with unique brand from corpse encounter and get brand's benefits at least on 1 party member. And more often than not their brands are very underleveled. Wa brands are weird. You can find "removes N weakness" brand without any downsides as early as Tower 2, but then on Tower 5 you can find "removes N weakness if X condition is met", like that's a straight downgrade. Brands that give resist or immunity always have either downside or condition to meet, even at highest levels. I understand that immunity shouldn't be given easily, but resistance brands could use some adjustments. They also don't scale well with refine brand. What if Wa brands would turn "removes weak" to "resistant" after hitting level 25 or so? Because at that point pretty much any brand that works or doesn't hinder your build is better. There are 11 elements (not counting buff/debuff) so chances at getting brand that turns your only weakness into resistance isn't that high. It's just silly seeing lvl30 brand that removes weakness to pierce next to something that gives 50+ stats or reduces costs almost by half for some negligible downside in return.

Also found two bugs. First one is easy (and I'm surprised it's went unnoticed for so long). Silver hand doesn't do anything. At first I thought I'm just lucky, but not a single mute from Yali in those 5 runs. Second one is weirder. Image That unicorn charmed me first, I derped for 1.5 turns, and then it felt pity and use panacea on me? Maybe it was because I had the same name as its owner summoner? That's my only guess. Here's that Unicorn
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Name : Mindbender Unicorn
Level: 25
MaxHP: 100
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 25
Magic   : 47
Vitality: 27
Agility : 24
Cunning : 47

Immune: Mind Light
Weak  : Body Dark

Soul Brand:
Ri-Sa (Lv.22)
  HP per Turn: +1.0% of MaxHP
  SP Costs: -12%

Abilities Known:
1) Heal Wounds (Type: Healing, 25 SP. 105 Power heal.)
2) Panacea (Type: Healing, 30 SP. Removes all negative status effects.)
3) Healing Aura (Type: Healing, Reactive. Each standard turn, grants a 10 Power heal to you and all visible allies.)
4) Vigorous Aura (Type: Healing, Reactive. Each standard turn, restores 1 SP to you and all visible allies.)
5) Lifeweaver (Type: Healing, Passive. Reduces the SP cost of Healing abilities by 5, to a minimum of 0.)
6) Mending (Type: Healing, 20 SP. Cannot be used on Mended targets or enemies. 150 Power heal. Applies Mended.)
7) Alluring Gaze (Type: Mind, 20 SP. 70% chance to cause Charm, turning the target against its allies. Cooldown: Presence (6))
8) Ever Ready (Type: None, Passive. Increases SP regeneration by 200% when your SP is less than 15.)
oneeyedjoe
 
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Re: My first ghost on 20+ tower

Postby Ferret » Tue Oct 29, 2019 1:08 am

5 cycles is pretty remarkable, even for you. :D Congrats on that long of a haul. :)

Yeah, Mantra being None type prevents Mute from working on it. Given it's literally supposed to be a sound or words you repeat over and over, that won't do, so I've switched it to Buff in the next build after the upgrade one I just put out. :D (Neither Light or Dark is appropriate since it helps both.)

The -MaxSP w/ Warmth+Ever Ready is the sort of thing Brands are meant to encourage thinking about, so I'm glad that's working out. :)

I notice a lot of instant death abilities in your builds. :D Makes me glad I found a way to do it fairly in Demon: I wanted to do all the usual craziness RPGs usually throw around, but wanted to keep them fair too. Could argue Charm and Petrify maybe are still too ugly, but mostly I think I got it.

Scan Brand is now a half-price (5 point) Upgrade, which may help your concerns about it. I'd also mention it's useful for swiping brands from enemy summoners or, perhaps most importantly, Relic Wraiths. Relic Wraiths get particular note here because those will be brands that were "curated" by a player: they will likely be somewhat better ones than the random ones the AI usually settles for. :) You could still recruit to get the one demon with it as you say, but some Brands are worth having on multiple demons if possible.

Resistance (including Weakness Removal and Immunity) brands are a bit weirdo. You have to meet a certain threshold of Level + penalties before "Remove Weakness" flips to "+Resist" or "+Immune". If you don't meet that threshold, you can end up with "Remove Weakness" that has penalties. Not really certain of a fair way to "fix" that, and I consider these useful enough to not mind some of them showing up "flawed". I might be open to adjusting what that threshold is as you suggested though, I'll do some thinking/number tinkering and see.

I've added the Silver Hand and Panacea bugs to the post-upgrade build list. I have a feeling I know what may have happened w/ Panacea at least: I may have made the bonus for removing Charm from summoners so high it doesn't care you're on the wrong team. :D Though, I feel like we'd see this more often w/ Calm if that was true. Well, I'll find out. :)

Thanks for the multi-pack of reports, bug data, and suggestions. :) Enjoy the new upgrade system! :D
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Re: My first ghost on 20+ tower

Postby oneeyedjoe » Tue Nov 05, 2019 2:07 am

I thought you could just make exceptions for mute, like how inner fire or second wind are unaffected by mute despite being magic types, but I guess it only works in one way? What about quiet prayer then? Although it probably wouldn't be too much out of place if you still could use it while being muted.

Name : Vampire Lord
Level: 31
MaxHP: 113
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 10
Magic : 80
Vitality: 50
Agility : 78
Cunning : 10

Immune: Body Mind Matter
Resist: Slash Impact Pierce Ice
Weak : Electricity

Soul Brand:
Qu-Sa-So (Lv.31)
Is a Summoner
HP per Turn: +2.2% of MaxHP
Agility: +28

Abilities Known:
1) Vampiric Touch (Type: Body, 15 SP. 85 Power attack. Heals the user for 66% of the damage dealt.)
2) Shade Touch (Type: Dark, 20 SP. 85 Power attack, split between HP and MaxHP damage. 66% of the MaxHP damage is drained to the user as bonus MaxHP.)
3) Frost Arrow (Type: Ice, 20 SP. 85 Power attack. Chills the target, reducing their accuracy, evasion, and movement speed slightly.)
4) Snuff Out (Type: Dark, 25 SP. 130 Power attack, but misses if the damage would not be fatal. Cooldown: Dark (1))
5) Glacial Shell (Type: Ice, Passive. Provides a 100% chance to block Slash, Impact, Pierce, Fire, Electricity, and Ice attacks. This works even when Stunned, Paralyzed, etc. Triggers a Cold cooldown when activated. Cooldown: Cold (2))
6) Auraward (Type: Defense, Passive. If your last action was a Fire, Electricity, or Ice ability, you gain Resist against all three of these types.)
7) Gluttony (Type: Body, Passive. Provides a 50% increase in healing, SP restoration, and MaxHP bonuses from drains and abilities that heal based on damage dealt or restore SP based on SP drained.)
8) Innocence (Type: Mind, Passive. Increases offense, defense, accuracy, and evasion by 33%, and status accuracy and status resistance by 16%, versus opponents who are at full HP. (Bonuses are affected by Mind resistance.))

Relic Upgrades:
Aux Guard III (Reduces incoming damage and increases status resistance by 17% per empty summon slot, up to 50%. No effect when Heroic.)
Aux Power III (Increases damage and healing dealt by 34% and reduces SP costs and cooldowns by 17% per empty summon slot, up to a 100% increase and 50% reduction respectively. No effect when Heroic.)
Copy Saver (Reduces the cost of Copy Ability by 25%.)
Soul Armor (Unlocks the Soul Armor transmutation, which lets you sacrifice a demon to copy its MaxHP modifier, Speed, immunities, resistances, and weaknesses to yourself.)
Refine Brand (Unlocks the Refine Brand transmuation (available in the Brand menu), which raises the level of a Brand in your stock to match your own level. Does not change previously Applied copies of the Brand.)
Consume Demon (Unlocks the Consume Demon transmuation, which lets you reduce an allied demon's MaxHP to 1 to restore your own HP, SP, and MaxHP as a free action. Results are based on the demon's current MaxHP.)

First run in new 27.10 update and first T23 heroic ghost. As the name suggests, I was going for a dark themed mage drainer build, and it was a success. On the first floors I hoarded as many abilities as possible: emit light, swiftness, chilling touch. If you are going to travel through the tower alone, you'll need some variety for sure. At least with a mage build :P. Also found a perfect escape brand that ended up saving me: +10% speed and 1% hp regen if last action was movement. Got really lucky with early innocence from friar rush, without it I probably wouldn't be able to 2 shot most things. Got auraward from Zaji which was really helpful in anomaly. Snuff out was added to the build only after anomaly though, so no oneshotting rampage was happening there. Early game was a bit of a struggle at first. I almost died to 3 orges in arcadia (the brand I mentioned above saved me, well, and swiftness too), had some troubless with Zaji and was basically forced to summon some back up, Paracelsus wasn't dying as fast as I wanted him to die, probably something else I'm forgetting. In post anomaly the most threatening thing for me was DoT stacking. Despite my heroic status resistance and innate body resistance I was infected and poisoned many many times. And I didn't even bothered to get cleanse (or relieve or calm for that matter) in the early game so I had to be extra cautious with packs that could induce scary status effects. Sleep or panic wasn't nearly as scary as usual though. Sleep was basically just giving some time to recover SP to all combatants because AI doesn't use damaging abilities on sleeping targets and just waits until their only possible target wakes up. Hmm, probably a missed opportunity to add some sleep/DoT oriented packs :twisted: ... Panic wasn't too scary either, most of the time it just meant that my target will be randomized. And since there were no allies to accidentally hit, panic didn't cause any problems, only some slight inconveniences. Hell, even charm wasn't a detriment, I didn't have any abilities that could hurt me, no allies that would turn on me or take hits because I turned on them. So when I got charmed by Eloko/Unicorn pack I was just chilling for 3 turns while elokos were desperately trying to bite through my heroism and glacial shell. It did get pretty scary once in Anansi's sanctum where I almost got eaten alive by Ya-Te-Veos and Elokos, but one Vampiric touch was enough to get my health back to safe amount. I also linked with Unicorn from that pack, it didn't last long at all, but at least I wasn't being focus fired for a brief time. Another close call happened during Mordecai fight. All because of my hubris, because I disregarded calm. Mordecai wasn't doing nearly as much damage as he usually does to me, so I decided to take him on head to head. I didn't have frost arrow at that time, so my best spell against him was chilling touch. Glacial shell also kept me safe, kind of (not really, damn bandits kept popping it every time). Well anyway, I decided to take them on and instead of killing bandits right away I wanted to use them as feeding stations for healing. It was working fine at first, I was sending chills down Mordecai's spine with my chilling touch and feeding on his friends after every other hit, but then suddenly I started missing. I was at half health and I couldn't land a single Vampiric drain on that darn bandit for 2 turns, and then Mordecai landed panic on me. That wasn't too bad at first, but it quickly took an unpleasant turn when instead of targeting at least something I was just fumbling around uselessly. I did manage to sneak in one vampiric touch during that panic attack. but it didn't help much (or actually it ended up saving my life now that I think about it) because on the next turn Mordecai massacred me and my maxHP dipped down to 1/26. Thankfully I had a single wind card on me so I managed to escape. I also used Zephyr card and threw Gi at bandits to make sure I won't get chased down. When I was safe I summoned my demons and drained them to red maxHP with wraith touch, makeshift consume if you will :D. Then I just continued to clear the floor, carefully avoiding spot where I saw Mordecai last time. Later I came back for him and just glyphed him to death without taking any chances.
Onies and Akateko also were causing a lot of troubles for my build. Something light and hard hitting like Humble would've solved all problems I've had with them If I wasn't so keen on keeping the theme of my build, so that one was purely on me.
Image Another really close call that was saved by a wind card. I tried to pull off some 500 IQ strats by linking with Aitvaras and hoping that it'd ask me to move closer so then I'd be able to feast on it and its bird friends but nooo, it never asked me to move closer, so I just ended up losing even more maxHP :lol: . On the bright side I recruited that Aitvaras, fused gluttonous modifier on it and got Shade touch.
Not much else threatened me after that, eventually I outleveled onies and was able to two shot them with frost arrows. Other heroes were particularly helpless against this build. Madevra, Adria and Antoria fell without putting up much of a fight. Snuff Out with Innocence and heroic buffs was able to one shot lots of things, especially if they were weak to dark or mind. At first I was like "holy crap this is op af, I'm literally just pointing my finger at a demon and it dies", but on the second thought when you are going up against packs that have like 4-6 demons on average, oneshotting one demon every two turns isn't that op. And you can't oneshot some of them even if you wanted to anyway.
On T20 I made myself a mindbender banshee armor and because pretty much immortal at that point. Only Shikome were a bit scary at the end with their insane maxHP drains. Thankfully they always had friends that weren't dark immune so I was able to restore lost maxHP pretty quickly. And that was kind of an ongoing theme with this build, especially in the early game: I had to leave out demons without dark/body resistance/immunity for dessert and feed on them later in a fight if my health was too low, even if I could've just one shot them with snuff out.
So to sum up my first impression of an AUX 3 build: it's really powerful, but you are vulnerable early on and if you don't kill things fast enough they will kill you. Also Innocence is really good on solo heroes, especially if you tackle enemies one at a time, that way you still have defensive bonuses against the rest of a pack. And I imagine some builds are clearly better than others, debuff oriented builds are probably the worst for a sole summoner. Or any support build for that matter, doesn't make sense to be a dedicated healer if you are not going to summon anything.

Next thing I tried in this update was new starting relic.
Code: Select all
Summoner Vlad...
was chosen by the Horns of the Hunt,
selected Pierce as their starting element,
has earned a score of 61889,
is currently at Tower:23,
and is still alive!



--==== Main Character ====--

Name : Vlad
Level: 31
MaxHP: 163
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 53
Magic   : 53
Vitality: 60
Agility : 50
Cunning : 10

Resist: Body
Weak  : Fire

Soul Brand:
Mi-Po-Sur (Lv.23)
  Base Vitality is 32 or more
  Magic: +13
  Strength: +13

Abilities Known:
1) Slash Dance (Type: Slash, 10 SP. 70 Power attack, enemies only. Also considered a movement ability. Cooldown: Breath (1))
2) Cryopulse (Type: Ice, 15 SP. 70 Power attack. Chills the targets, reducing their accuracy, evasion, and movement speed slightly.)
3) Ghost Shock (Type: Pierce, 15 SP. 85 Power attack, split between Pierce and Electricity. Has a 10% chance to inflict Shock. Moves you to different, randomly selected, position adjacent to the target.)
4) Icebreaker (Type: Ice, Passive. Your attacks that damage Chilled targets also deal a 70 Power Ice attack if the additional damage would be fatal to the target.)
5) Arctic Veil (Type: Ice, Reactive. Responds to damage dealt to you by adjacent characters with a 20 Power attack that inflicts Chill, reducing the target's accuracy, evasion, and movement speed slightly. Cannot miss.)
6) Glacial Shell (Type: Ice, Passive. Provides a 100% chance to block Slash, Impact, Pierce, Fire, Electricity, and Ice attacks. This works even when Stunned, Paralyzed, etc. Triggers a Cold cooldown when activated. Cooldown: Cold (3))
7) Juggernaut (Type: Defense, Passive. When your last action was movement or a movement ability, you have 25% improved defense and your next turn comes faster when damaged by enemies (excluding status effects and reactions).)
8) Heavy Guard (Type: Impact, Reactive. Responds to attacks by adjacent enemies that you block or parry with a 40 Power attack that has a 35% chance to inflict Stun, causing the target to miss their next turn. Cannot miss.)

Relic Upgrades:
Create Brand (Unlocks the Create Brand transmutation (available in the Brand menu), which lets you sacrifice a demon to create a new Brand based on its modifier. The new Brand's level will be equal to the sacrificed demon's level.)
Refine Brand (Unlocks the Refine Brand transmuation (available in the Brand menu), which raises the level of a Brand in your stock to match your own level. Does not change previously Applied copies of the Brand.)
Capacity Up IV (Grants additional storage capacity for demon allies, allowing for a total of 7 at once.)
Aux Guard I (Reduces incoming damage and increases status resistance by 17% per empty summon slot, up to 17%. No effect when Heroic.)
Aux Power I (Increases damage and healing dealt by 34% and reduces SP costs and cooldowns by 17% per empty summon slot, up to a 34% increase and 17% reduction respectively. No effect when Heroic.)
Far Summon II (Increases the range of Summon by 4.)
Call Demon (Unlocks the Call Demon transmuation, which calls forth a non-unique demon of your choice from among every variety you have successfully linked with. Demons called forth in this way are hostile, though not Distrustful.)


Didn't have any particular build in mind when I started this run, but then game handed ghost shock to me and I decided to try out dancer hybrid build with a little heroic buff. Also got glacial shell+heavy guard combo for more damage opportunities and arctic veil for faster shell recharge. At first I wanted to get some more blocking abilities to make heavy guard proc more often, but then I got icebreaker from a lucky fusion. I recruited Barbergazi just for cryopulse and decided to fuse it onto Shisa and got Wintry touch and Icebreaker. This run went pretty smoothly, don't remember anything particularly interesting. Well, I had a nice brand that worked really well with my aux i upgrades.
Code: Select all
Name : Imbued Oni
Level: 27
MaxHP: 116
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 90
Magic   : 14
Vitality: 47
Agility : 29
Cunning : 28

Resist: Fire Body Dark Matter
Weak  : Electricity Light

Soul Brand:
Mi-Ri-Vu-Al (Lv.21)
  2 or less visible allies
  Weak: Slash
  SP Costs: -33%
  Strength: +28

Abilities Known:
1) Shellbreaker (Type: Impact, 10 SP. 70 Power attack. Has a 70% chance to reduce defense by 20%.)
2) Double Impact (Type: Impact, 15 SP. 85 Power attack split between two Impact attacks.)
3) Juggernaut (Type: Defense, Passive. When your last action was movement or a movement ability, you have 25% improved defense and your next turn comes faster when damaged by enemies (excluding status effects and reactions).)
4) Heavyhanded (Type: Mind, Passive. Provides a 20% chance for your Slash, Impact, and Pierce attacks to apply Stun, causing the target to miss their next turn.)
5) Haste (Type: Buff, 35 SP. Improves speed by 33%.)
6) Guarding Cry (Type: Buff, 15 SP. Briefly improves defense by 25% for you and your allies. Cooldown: Presence (3))
7) Leadership (Type: Buff, Passive. Accelerates the next turn of a nearby ally when you use Slash, Impact, or Pierce abilities to deal damage to one or more characters.)
8) Tormentor (Type: None, Passive. Restores 5 SP when you deal damage to one or more characters that have negative status effects.)

Oh and that Ehlose was very durable
Code: Select all
Name : Hulking Ehlose
Level: 26
MaxHP: 110
MaxSP: 100

Strength: 60
Magic   : 11
Vitality: 55
Agility : 25
Cunning : 24

Immune: Body
Resist: Ice Electricity Light Dark
Weak  : Fire

Soul Brand:
Wa-Ri-Le-Lif (Lv.24)
  Base Strength is 33 or more
  Speed: -30%
  SP Costs: -45%
  Immune: Fire

Abilities Known:
1) Mightbreaker (Type: Impact, 10 SP. 70 Power attack. Has a 70% chance to reduce offense by 20%.)
2) Warning Cry (Type: Buff, 15 SP. Briefly improves evasion by 25% for you and your allies. Cooldown: Presence (3))
3) Relief (Type: Healing, 15 SP. Removes Blind, Melting, Harden, Stone, and Held.)
4) Crusader (Type: Light, Passive. Provides a 35% chance for your Slash, Impact, and Pierce attacks to apply Guilt, healing those who damage the target (excluding reactions).)
5) Quake Hammer (Type: Impact, 30 SP. 85 Power attack.)
6) Bull Rush (Type: Impact, 10 SP. Must target a character. Charge to the target with a 70 Power attack. Inflicts Stun, causing the target to miss their next turn. Cooldown: Charge (6))
7) Normalizing Rain (Type: Healing, 10 SP. Removes Ignite, Chill, and Shock. Free action. Cooldown: Cantrip (3))
8) Numbing (Type: Body, Passive. Provides a 20% chance for your Slash, Impact, and Pierce attacks to apply Paralysis, causing the target to frequently miss their turns.)

I like create brand, but like I mentioned before, would be nice to have it appear as an option in transmutation menu when you are forced to delete demon. I used create brand on every floor 1-3 times on average, but I had to dedicate one slot for a throwaway brand fodder demon, and sometimes that slot had to be taken for something more interesting which led to some create brand opportunity loss. HH wraith looks really badass btw, when we are getting new HH hostile summoner?
I also finally used Call Demon in this run. Picked it up just because I wanted to see the costs. I was sitting on 15 upgrade points and didn't feel like I need anything, so I decided to see how much Far summon upgrades cost. Was pleasantly surprised to see that up to far summon III they all cost just 5 points, and then I remember that call demon was buffed. I used it on T23 to restore maxHP through unicorn/mandrake links after fighting my vampire ghost. The damn ghost btw refused to die, I had 2 demons with wraith touch draining it, but it took it only 2 shade touches to undo 10 turns worth of work, and it still had 3 demons in the pocket to consume, so after some pointless skirmishing I just let it be. That ghost had 3 demons with eternal glory and wellspring. The idea was to use consume, then throw away 1/1hp demon, let it be gloriously reborn, then consume it again. Never had to use that strat during vampire run, ghost didn't feel like using it either. In fact, heroic ghosts seem to never summon anything ever. I was fighting ghost named Cat somewhere in the middle of the tower, but it never summoned anyone, even when it was dying. And it had a dedicated healer in its stable too. Another thing that hero ghosts seem to ignore is insta kill abilities. Cat had snipe shot in its arsenal but never used it. Similar can be said about vampire ghost, who used snuff out only once on a unicorn that was near death. Honestly it's probably for the best, otherwise they will be really obnoxious to fight.
Back to Call Demon. It's such a weird upgrade that has many not-so-obvious uses that almost feel like abuses. Like how else are you going to see something like this? Image That's from mandrake link. And you can call some lame 1lvl demon at tower 20, give tier 3 modifier to it and fish for tier 3 abilities via revelation for cheap. If only demons in these links could spawn with brands, then it would had sick synergy with scan brand too ;) .


AND FINALLY, LET ME PRESENT YOU THE ULTIMATE WAR MACHINE BUILT FOR NOTHING BUT MAYHEM AND DESTRUCTION :!: :!: :!:
Image
WHAT INITIALLY WAS CREATED AS AN ANTIPODE TO MY EVIL VAMPIRIC BUILD ENDED UP BEING EVEN MORE EVIL :twisted:
Hah, but seriously, game just handed this one to me. Look at these brands too
Code: Select all
Ra-Al (Lv.31)
  No visible allies
  Speed: +46%
Sa-Le-Al (Lv.2)
  No visible allies
  Speed: -20%
  HP per Turn: +5.7% of MaxHP
Wa-Po-Al (Lv.2)
  No visible allies
  Magic: +12
  Resist: Slash
Mi-Al (Lv.6)
  No visible allies
  Strength: +20

Speed up one was found on freaking tower 1 and initially had 28% speed bonus. Then on tower 2 I found barometz with execute, then malingee with sure slice. The perfect setup for all strength no agility build. And even Artemis (well technically Actaeon) showed up later for that sweet Sure Shot. So I grabbed alter self as my first upgrade and relocated all that stupid puny magic and agility that I foolishly was upgrading at first into strength and a little bit into vitality, with 4/1 ratio. Got innocence from Friar Rush again, and by anomaly I already was running around oneshotting things with execute. To my surprise, 1 agility and innocence was enough to have a reliable hit rate with my executing slices. Up until later floors I was hitting about 90% of my swings. Elokos were first who didn't want any of this, not only they were dodging most of my attacks, but my strength wasn't enough to execute them from full health. AND THAT'S WHERE ALL THOSE 100% ACCURACY ABILITIES CAME IN HANDY, YEA, I CHOPPED THOSE STUPID PLANT DWARVES REAL GOOD. AND I'M YELLING NOT ONLY BECAUSE THAT BUILD WAS LOTS OF FUN, I ALSO MANAGED TO GET THE MIGHTIEST ROAR FROM MIODCHAONIN, AND THAT THING DOESN'T MISS TOO. But the build really took off once I got massacre and unconquerable from Mordecai, who btw DIDN'T STAND A SINGLE CHANCE AND JUST GOT STUFFED BY MY 9000% ACCURACY SHOTS BEFORE HE COULD EVEN APPROACH ME. I remember how that one time I was able to three shot a hostile summoner, well with this build I two shot all of them. The only time when I was slightly in danger was me fighting with 3 powers head to head, and even then I didn't even use no healstones and my maxHP wasn't reduced. My accuracy gotten a lot worse by the end. Mind immune enemies started showing up more often, disabling my one and only accuracy buff, lots of high agility demons. Scarabs with EVD UP, Polongs with ACC DWN, freaking Bruchas with 100+ agility thanks to a brand. BUT NOTHING THAT A LIL BIT OF YELLING COULDN'T HANDLE. Status effects? Ha! Didn't worry about that either, with haunt, innocence and massacre I was killing pesky drujes, pixies, incubi, gorgons before they even got a chance to see me. +Speed brand helped a lot with that too. Well to be fair I was turned to stone twice, well, once. One time I used pure stone to remove harden because getting your head beaten in by 4 onies for 5 turns isn't fun. Second time I didn't even bother because I was up against gorgon banshee pack and I managed to sneak in one but MIGHTY roar, so while I was chilling in a stone form they were too busy attending their wounds. Needless to say, not at any point in this run I felt the need to summon anything. So far both of my hero builds turned out to be extremely OP but at the same time I got really lucky with abilities/brands, so I can't say for sure that Titan's fist is the ultimate "win the game" button. It is really powerful though for sure.
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Re: My first ghost on 20+ tower

Postby Ferret » Tue Nov 05, 2019 5:01 pm

Currently the exception only goes one way: I could make it both ways, but it's almost functionally equivalent and less disruptive to just go ahead and make Mantra Buff-type. :D Quiet Prayer makes sense to be usable while Muted, so yeah, no problem on that one.

+10% Spd and +1% HP/turn while moving is definitely a good escape Brand. :D Could also be amazing in a Spin Slash build, but you were pretty solidly going a different direction. :) Of course, once Thrones are added to the game there will be a new main attack option for Spin Slash builds...

Fully Aux'd out summoners will definitely be able to one-shot some demons under some conditions, so yeah, I'm not too worried about that yet.

Oops, if you did mention Create Brand being on the Transmutation list before, I totally blanked on it. That should be doable. :D

Far Summon is one of those upgrades I always surprised people don't use more often, and is one I'm hoping people are more willing to try now that it's 50% cheaper. :)

Yeah, currently, the AI for Aux'd out summoner ghosts is basically "don't summon". I could and probably should add some nuance to that, but was having a bit of trouble getting it right so I decided to release with "don't summon" for now and work on it later. Probably better to err on the side of wimpy with new types of ghosts anyway. Not sure why they wouldn't use insta-kill abilities though, I'll look into that.

Call Demon was pretty much designed to be the "think of creative ways to bend the rules" upgrade. :D Part of why it used to be so expensive to actually use. I'm not ready to Ctrl+Z the discount yet, but I'm keeping an eye on it.

No visible allies, +46% Speed. Whew. That's kinda ridiculous, even if you did have to Refine it to that point. :)

I'm glad you've been having fun with the new version of Titan's Fist. It's definitely powerful: with new player goodies, I tend to be okay leaning towards OP a bit at first. I'd rather something be exciting and fun (if a bit OP) than seem weak and pointless, even if it means I have to make small nerfs later.

Congrats on the wins, and thank you for the reports and feedback. :D
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Re: My first ghost on 20+ tower

Postby oneeyedjoe » Tue Nov 12, 2019 9:39 am

Image
Another hero build I wanted to try since aux upgrades were added. Frigid squall, innocence and icebreaker are key components here. Icebreaker was quite an overkill to be honest, with innocence and 60% bonus magic humble and agony were wiping off about 70% of hp from normal to dark/light targets. Weak to those elements sometimes experienced even quicker deaths. Writhing mass was there just as a reliable aoe attack to proc icebreaker. Build in its final form was ready only in early 20s level, as I got transpose soul only by then. Took alter self as my first upgrade somewhere at level 15 to get rid of extra agility I was raising at earlier levels. Before its final form build looked like a random mess with a little bit of everything. I had halo, poison breath, ice arrow, destructive matter beam, vile touch, mind spike (not necessarily at the same time, just throughout early levels). Which is btw is also very reliable strat, just throw at enemies everything and something is bound to hit them hard enough. But making setups that can wipe the floor with entire pack of enemies in one turn is more fun.
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Re: My first ghost on 20+ tower

Postby Ferret » Thu Nov 14, 2019 12:30 am

I expect to see a lot of "instant death" based builds using Titan's Fist. :D

Out of curiosity, how do you feel about the overall power level of the Aux upgrades? It's actually hard for me to see in a case like yours: yes, you're clearly winning with it, but on the other hand, you were doing that already. :P
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Ferret
 
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Re: My first ghost on 20+ tower

Postby oneeyedjoe » Thu Nov 14, 2019 3:04 am

I feel like it's "win more" situation with titan's fist. There are quite a few fist ghosts scattered around the first half of the tower, so definitely not every run with this relic is a guaranteed win. And starting with it can be pretty hard if you don't get any form of AoE early on, it's very easy to get overwhelmed. Early swiftness can be the difference between life and death, just like in my last run.
Image
Tower 1 1/2 was the closest I've been to dead in this hero streak (well mordecai situation in my first fist run was probably scarier, but at least I had a build ready, here I was pretty much naked). Failed Kasha link caused distrust so I couldn't ally with headless. In my attack department I had flame dart and mind spike and that's it. (I always go with familiar in my hero builds btw just for the mind spike, mind weakness is pretty common early on). So basically 3 modified zombies and 2 uniques were enough to send me running around level hurling flame darts around. I used 3 heal stones and 2 pure stones in that fight. After that it was a smooth sailing though. Smooth-ish. But then I got consume vigor from a corpse somewhere in anomaly and the game pretty much won itself.
Image I also was pretty lucky with essences. I think I drank like 5 of them and still had a few in my inventory. No innocence or instakills this time, just some elemental variety and survivability. Inner fire with fiery veil and resolute acted almost as well as reshape with unconquerable. Solar nova didn't get to see much action unfortunately, the only thing I got to use it against was ghost of Hanz.
If you are going to nerf the fist I'd suggest removing aux III upgrades first. That way it still would have potential to become fully heroic but wouldn't be so op right out of the gate. And if players would go for aux III upgrades they'd have to wait on defensive upgrades like soul armor and consume even longer. Not like a fully heroed summoner needs those to win. In fact I think it's possible to win an aux III build without any upgrades. There are still plenty of good abilities you can get without transpose soul, without alter self you'd just have to plan ahead, without refine brand you have to be a bit lucky, although you can simply settle for something less epic and do just fine anyway, and as I mentioned above defensive upgrades aren't a must either. Oh and credits :D are not a problem at all. In all my fist runs I end up with 40-50k because I barely have anything to spend them on. This gimp of a build wouldn't be running around with the speed of sound and oneshotting everything but it's still good enough to pull through.
oneeyedjoe
 
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