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Duck and Cover
Apr 6, 2007

8 bucks early access on steam. It does have in game purchases. It's different enough. It's fun. The English translation is mostly understandable. Would recommend.

edit: It's free to play now.

Duck and Cover fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Jan 24, 2024

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Jossar
Apr 2, 2018

Current status: Angry about subs :argh:
Having played this game for a little bit, I concur. Let me try and demonstrate what a standard early game looks like.



At the beginning, you start off with a set of 5 cards, and an initial power or Fate. Mu Yifeng, the starting character that we are playing, has a very simple one. He can exchange one card for free each turn from his hand for a random draw from his deck without expending one of the limited number of charges you get each turn. The number of these charges is indicated in the bottom right, and is also where you drag a card in order to do so.



You slot 3 cards into your center board, trying to synergize them as best you can. In this case, I have set things up so I start with a power up card that grants Qi, the general consumable resource whose cost is listed as the blue backed number in the upper left of cards, as can be seen on the Flying Fang Sword all the way to the right. It also lets my next attack ignore any Defense value that an opponent may add as one of their effects (which will be indicated as a yellow number when relevant). The next attack is a relatively basic attack that also provides Sword Intent, which is an attack bonus that can be consumed for damage on the next card. Finally, there is the Flying Fang Sword, which does a good amount of damage and refunds Sword Intent if it manages to actually damage an opponent's health. In retrospect, I probably should have used the other Qi cost there for more damage, but I wanted to show off some of the abilities.

Cards you do not use can either be saved for later or fed into your character's portrait on the bottom left for Cultivation. I'll explain that in greater detail in a bit.





The game switches to a cinematic mode where both you and your opponent go through your abilities, starting with the person with the highest Cultivation, until one of you drops to the floor at 0 HP, defeated. This takes off a chunk of Destiny, which is the score counter that determines victory or defeat.



After the initial clash, you return to the card-playing screen and select a side-job which adds a deck of support cards to your character's deck. You start with only the Elixirist job unlocked, so it is selected.



I think you unlock a card slot and gain a little bit of cultivation each round so you don't fall too far behind. The primary ways of getting Cultivation are as mentioned, feeding cards to your character or fusing cards together, each of which gives a Cultivation point. Cards have up to 3 levels, and the higher level they are, the more powerful their effects are. Level 2 cards only need two Level 1s fused, but Level 3 cards require two level 2s. It should also be noted that feeding cards for Cultivation carries over in case you accidentally shove in too many. That Exchange effect there, by the way, triggers if you exchange the card back into your deck for another card.





With a better board, I go back in and win the clash.







I go back, feed another card in and break through. Breaking through has two major effects - the first is that you get a bonus power in addition to your primary. One is predetermined by your character but the rest are random. The next is that you get access to a higher tier of card. It's kind of awkward reslotting your board around new cards, but I've found that not trying to do so kind of ruins you in the long run because they have more powerful effects. That purple Consumption text there indicates that this is an item which only has one use during the battle sequence, though the card is not consumed overall.



This is about the point at which the game starts getting more chaotic, but really with the exception of things like this Omen which I think is guaranteed to pop up on turn 4 and gives you a card either now or at later tier, it's about mastering the system and learning what effects do than too many more surprises in what options you have.

The later on you get, the more Destiny damage is dealt, so things are guaranteed to come to a quick conclusion once you get to Incarnation (the final of the 5 cultivation stages), if not sooner. It's very on brand for the genre, starting weak and growing more powerful, and even having the ability to pull secret techniques out of nowhere since there's relative flexibility to switch things up. There is a cash shop, but right now the only thing that's not grindable out through playing matches is a single cosmetic or limited time event rewards which you can't get from the shop either. The only thing I don't like about the game is that the timers feel way too short for the number of decisions you need to make, especially when you're new at the game, but otherwise it's worth a look.

Jossar fucked around with this message at 19:58 on Jan 15, 2023

Jossar
Apr 2, 2018

Current status: Angry about subs :argh:
Other things I have discovered by delving into the game for a few hours:

- There's some alternate modes besides just challenging people on the Internet, there's card challenges (Sect Esoteric Inheritance) and a dungeon diver mode (Primitive Uncharted Realms) which culminates in a boss fight before resetting with the option to go again at a higher difficulty. Doing so at each difficulty unlocks Rule Fragments which provide bonuses that make future attempts easier for all characters. And while you do have to unlock the other characters for PvP (which is the primary focus of the game), you can run with everybody from the start in the start from the Primitive Uncharted Realms, although it looks like you can't level up characters that you don't own.

My big victory against the Level 0 dungeon boss involved getting knocked down after several attempts, then discarding everything but my best two cards (both Incarnation level - a Netherworld Seal I got for winning an event duel with a wandering Daoist and the Dharma Spirit Sword, an attack that drains all your Qi for big damage) and doing a 5 turn power up sequence before smacking the boss with the seal and to knock it off guard before blowing it away with a 125 damage anime finale attack. Very satisfying.

- Playing Primordial Uncharted Realms levels up individual characters. Levels 3 and 5 give them more Fate slots in game, which is kind of a big deal but after level 5, the remaining 20 levels are all just premium currency and emote grind.

- Beating Sect Esoteric Inheritance and a difficulty level of Primordial Uncharted Realms (on any character, no farming the easy level over with 10 characters) gives you spirit stones (the nonpremium currency) and level ups on a global Explore tree which can unlock several characters and a side-job/cosmetic or two for free. Level 5 is pretty easy to get, so if you want any of the characters on there, especially Yan Xue, just farm content rather than shell out spirit stones.

- I don't know quite what you get for Ranked yet. There's a bonus for spirit stones for winning something, but it's a bit engrishy, so I can't tell if it's winning 4 times a day or coming out on top in a large match as #4 or better.

I probably ought to try Ranked soon, but just wanted to post the dungeon story/show off that there's more than just the PvP bit, and stop anybody from accidentally buying the easy unlock characters.

Jossar fucked around with this message at 05:07 on Jan 16, 2023

Duck and Cover
Apr 6, 2007

Jossar posted:

Other things I have discovered by delving into the game for a few hours:

- There's some alternate modes besides just challenging people on the Internet, there's card challenges (Sect Esoteric Inheritance) and a dungeon diver mode (Primitive Uncharted Realms) which culminates in a boss fight before resetting with the option to go again at a higher difficulty. Doing so at each difficulty unlocks Rule Fragments which provide bonuses that make future attempts easier for all characters. And while you do have to unlock the other characters for PvP (which is the primary focus of the game), you can run with everybody from the start in the start from the Primitive Uncharted Realms, although it looks like you can't level up characters that you don't own.

My big victory against the Level 0 dungeon boss involved getting knocked down after several attempts, then discarding everything but my best two cards (both Incarnation level - a Netherworld Seal I got for winning an event duel with a wandering Daoist and the Dharma Spirit Sword, an attack that drains all your Qi for big damage) and doing a 5 turn power up sequence before smacking the boss with the seal and to knock it off guard before blowing it away with a 125 damage anime finale attack. Very satisfying.

- Playing Primordial Uncharted Realms levels up individual characters. Levels 3 and 5 give them more Fate slots in game, which is kind of a big deal but after level 5, the remaining 25 levels are all just premium currency and emote grind.

- Beating Sect Esoteric Inheritance and a difficulty level of Primordial Uncharted Realms (on any character, no farming the easy level over with 10 characters) gives you spirit stones (the nonpremium currency) and level ups on a global Explore tree which can unlock several characters and a side-job/cosmetic or two for free. Level 5 is pretty easy to get, so if you want any of the characters on there, especially Yan Xue, just farm content rather than shell out spirit stones.

- I don't know quite what you get for Ranked yet. There's a bonus for spirit stones for winning something, but it's a bit engrishy, so I can't tell if it's winning 4 times a day or coming out on top in a large match as #4 or better.

I probably ought to try Ranked soon, but just wanted to post the dungeon story/show off that there's more than just the PvP bit, and stop anybody from accidentally buying the easy unlock characters.

Thanks for this I'm always too lazy to actually give detailed information in my game posts. I think you get extra currency if you've bought a character/side job before you've unlocked it it so it isn't a loss.

Jossar
Apr 2, 2018

Current status: Angry about subs :argh:

Jossar posted:


- I don't know quite what you get for Ranked yet. There's a bonus for spirit stones for winning something, but it's a bit engrishy, so I can't tell if it's winning 4 times a day or coming out on top in a large match as #4 or better.

I probably ought to try Ranked soon, but just wanted to post the dungeon story/show off that there's more than just the PvP bit, and stop anybody from accidentally buying the easy unlock characters.

Alright, so I figured I would try out a round of Ranked to round out the night.



Turns out that bit above's not Engrish. Ranked consists of dropping you directly into CHINESE THUNDERDOME. 8 players enter, one player leaves! It's round-robin solo rounds with, I think, a little bit of a weighted preference so you're fighting the people who are doing as well or poorly as you. Not all the time, though!





I thought I was gonna get my rear end handed to me. If anything the first screenshot there understates it, at one point I was second to last on the Destiny tracker with all players remaining. But I had a plan: Yan Xue (the fire themed sword cultivator you get for making it to Explore level 5)'s default 2nd tier passive is that she deals max hp damage every time you hit an opponent. Cloud Sect's Unrestrained Sword style has a bunch of 4th tier attacks that hit people a lot, and it syncs up well with Yan's 5th level passive, which counts as an Unrestrained Sword card for the style boosting and lets you play an additional card in a turn. So I just went full dervish madwoman and made it all the way up to 3rd place. Maybe I would've done better going full max-attack independent of style, but hard to tell since what finally did me in was people doing rapid-fire DoT chains.







Turns out you get a little bit of everything if you do well in Ranked, so as sort of the opposite of my last post, if you really don't care about the non-PVP aspect of the game at all, feel free to just familiarize yourself with the game and go brawl with a bunch of other people.

I think, partially because I spent a bunch of time familiarizing myself with things in the single player mode, what wasn't clicking for me back in Practice made a lot more sense in Ranked. I expect the further up you go, the more likely you are to get immediately pasted, but it turns out it's simple enough at the bottom tier to just throw yourself in and do okay.

Jossar fucked around with this message at 06:11 on Jan 16, 2023

Jossar
Apr 2, 2018

Current status: Angry about subs :argh:
I suppose I might as well give this one more chance to shine before letting it fall into the archives for good.





On January 18th, in addition to a new cosmetic being released for one of the preexisting characters, the game got a Tiger Man. Mu Hu belongs to the Five Elements Alliance, the faction focused around element themed cards. and he's pretty good at being able to force draws of some of the more powerful ones and just generally being tanky.



In addition there's a limited time event running for the next week for the Chinese Lunar New Year. It involves a couple puzzles and a special PvP mode: one player is chosen at random to be a Demon with a set of powerful cards revolving around causing internal injuries and slapping people who have a lot of them. All of the other players are given firecrackers, a card that can flip to one of the game's most powerful pets, and a whole bunch of treasures to try and keep up, although the Demon has a tendency to take first place most of the time. Because of all the Exchange cards, it's a great way to try and find out what some of the secret cards are for encyclopedia completionism rather than searching for them in regular PvP, and grabbing some limited time cosmetic items.

Jossar fucked around with this message at 01:33 on Jan 22, 2023

Duck and Cover
Apr 6, 2007

Duck and Cover posted:

Thanks for this I'm always too lazy to actually give detailed information in my game posts. I think you get extra currency if you've bought a character/side job before you've unlocked it it so it isn't a loss.

Turns out I'm pretty sure I am wrong and you don't get extra currency if you already have something unlocked.

edit: Turns out I'm a dumb I didn't have gourd guy so I think I was right before. Anyway try it and find out.

Duck and Cover fucked around with this message at 06:30 on Jan 22, 2023

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches
Hihi, I finally got around to trying Yi Xian. I like Teamfight Tactics and Storybook Brawl, so I've been looking forward to this. I had a good time on my first day, but I think I might eventually be unhappy with how much arithmetic you can sweat. But I'm really happy to have a real single-player mode, which TFT and SBB lack.

I spent my unlock points to unlock all the professions first, after which unlocking a profession by leveling my account did refund all the points I already spent to unlock it. Presumably the same is true for characters.

I tried one Ranked game so far, and I got 1st. I was bizarrely ahead on Cultivation compared to the runner-up at the end; a Steam discussion thread speculates that this may have been because it was a bot.

Jossar
Apr 2, 2018

Current status: Angry about subs :argh:
Yeah, the lower levels have kinda turned into a ghost town at this point, but mid-high level play still remains active. I don't play too much any more, but I still pop in for the occasional single player run/Event/1-2 games of Ranked from time to time. Glad to see you're enjoying it.

Snooze Cruise
Feb 16, 2013

hey look,
a post
Oh completely missed we had a thread for this

I love this game. The new farming side job is a lot of fun and is one of the more rewarding ones for actually looking at your opponents decks before match ups so you can play counters.

Some new characters are coming out this month
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1oCIAG7Jhk
Kinda annoyed with another person in the sword school since it feels like we got a lot of them already, but his gimmick of being built around upgrading just one card is interesting. I only play the ladies in this game though so I won't experience it lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t4mV8pT_PE
Look I just barely understand this archetype already, I just play pokemon and swords. She looks cool though.

e: i really hope the game gets a fourth archetype soon. I know those are like going to be WAY harder to balance than new characters, but I want to see what other weird stuff they can come up with mechanics wise.

Snooze Cruise fucked around with this message at 03:39 on Jun 18, 2023

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches
The new guy looks almost exactly like the default guy.

Snooze Cruise
Feb 16, 2013

hey look,
a post
And the new update is out: looks like we didn't just got some new characters but apparently there is a single player story mode now?

quote:

New mode in "Explore": Heavenly Path Restoration
"Heavenly Path Restoration" is a single-player story divided into chapters, which tells the story of a group of immortal cultivators in the process of cultivating and repairing the Heavenly Dao.
More chapters will be opened gradually in the future.


New features: Collection and Share
You can click the button "Favorite" in the upper left conner when checking the battle records. You can also click the share button in the upper right conner.
By entering the code (you can find it in the personal file → Record → Code), you can check others battle record to replay/ recap.

Jossar
Apr 2, 2018

Current status: Angry about subs :argh:
Sheesh game, why do you have to tempt me back into playing again just as I've gotten a ton of other stuff to play from the sale?

(Would help if there was a known goon circle of people who play, though.)

EDIT: I see they reset/redid the Sect Esoteric Inheritance at some point, well that's one way to get more xp...

SECOND EDIT: The Sect Esoteric Inheritance change was just adding additional challenges before the big ones, so if you beat those, the new ones are relatively easy. The story is fun, but they only added Chapter 1. Not really enough here to truly tempt me back into playing again on a regular basis, but was nice to pick up the game again for an hour or two.

Jossar fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Jul 1, 2023

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches
Started playing again. Here are some guides:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/920146363432468530/1162546264924229682/Yi_Xian_Beginner_Guide.pdf
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1036888482439761951/1163323322554134588/swordintent.pdf
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/920146363432468530/1162546265284944022/longyau.pdf
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/920146363432468530/1162546265624678430/Short_guide_for_Yao_Ling.pdf
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/920146363432468530/1162546265964433458/Beginners_Guide_to_Du_Lingyuan.pdf
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/920146363432468530/1162546266333519872/Hua_Qinrui_Guide.pdf

Also, about card pools:

Each player has their own pool. There are 8 copies of each card, except only 6 copies of Incarnation cards.

Exchanging and absorbing return cards to the pool.

Card gain effects take from the pool. In contrast, card upgrade effects like Enlightenment Elixir don't affect the pool, making it possible to have the equivalent of "9 copies" in hand. (No one has reported testing absorbing a card upgraded this way.)

Discord chatters speculate that each time you break through, it removes a (fixed?) number of (random?) cards from your card pool before adding the cards of the new phase. Probably the usual draw probability is equal for each copy of each card in the pool. However, the Sword Intent guide I translated states that each round your first exchange has an increased chance to draw a current-phase card.

If your cultivation is high enough to break through, but you don't break through, you become increasingly likely to draw Deviation Syndrome, a blank card. (This happened to me once, but I think the threshold is so high that it's not strategically meaningful, and the mechanic might as well be deleted.) The text on Deviation Syndrome says that the card pool is depleted, but that's practically impossible except in alternative game modes; I suspect that that was originally the only way to get it, and this mechanic was added later.

Xom fucked around with this message at 00:08 on Oct 20, 2023

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches
Riddle this!

Only registered members can see post attachments!

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches
I love this picture:

Only registered members can see post attachments!

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches
I surveyed the final rounds from each of the 22 matches I played in the last few days, and viewing the game as a puzzle generator, there's some impressive variety in the situations, especially given that I'm playing one of the simplest deck archetypes in the game (make qi, Inspiration Sword (makes sword intent equal to qi), consume sword intent, Dharma Spirit Sword (consumes qi); and a few games with only sword intent).

7 of the matches ended in my win (1st out of 8 players) and the other 15 in a loss that eliminated me. 11 of those 15 were at least theoretically winnable if I played that last round differently! But imagine 2x2 quadrants with columns labeled "Winnable with standard plays" and "Winning requires doing something weird", and rows labeled "Opponent’s setup was predictable, or at least part of a standard guessing game" and "Opponent’s setup was too unpredictable". It turns out that those 11 were evenly distributed among the quadrants. Only the top left quadrant is realistically winnable. The 7 rounds I won are all in the top left quadrant, of course, except maybe the one where I spent my first two turns just to cast Predicament for Immortals (I didn't have Chord In Tune), which is borderline weird.

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches
Here's a better-formatted listing of guides. As of v1.0, there's an in-game deck gallery, which also contains some advice; it's accessible from the main screen, and also in the top left when playing a match.

General:Cloud Spirit Sword Sect:Heptastar Pavilion:Five Elements Alliance:Duan Xuan Sect:Other guides in Chinese:

Xom fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Apr 17, 2024

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches

Xom posted:

Also, about card pools:

Each player has their own pool. There are 8 copies of each card, except only 6 copies of Incarnation cards.

Exchanging and absorbing return cards to the pool.

Card gain effects take from the pool. In contrast, card upgrade effects like Enlightenment Elixir don't affect the pool, making it possible to have the equivalent of "9 copies" in hand. (No one has reported testing absorbing a card upgraded this way.)

Discord chatters speculate that each time you break through, it removes a (fixed?) number of (random?) cards from your card pool before adding the cards of the new phase. Probably the usual draw probability is equal for each copy of each card in the pool. However, the Sword Intent guide I translated states that each round your first exchange has an increased chance to draw a current-phase card.

If your cultivation is high enough to break through, but you don't break through, you become increasingly likely to draw Deviation Syndrome, a blank card. (This happened to me once, but I think the threshold is so high that it's not strategically meaningful, and the mechanic might as well be deleted.) The text on Deviation Syndrome says that the card pool is depleted, but that's practically impossible except in alternative game modes; I suspect that that was originally the only way to get it, and this mechanic was added later.
Revision in progress:

Each player has their own pool. There are 8 copies of each card, except only 6 copies of Incarnation cards. Exchanging and absorbing don't return cards to the pool!

Effects that gain a specific card create an additional copy of the card, including Daoist Rhyme Omen choices other than At Own Pace. Generally, effects that draw specific kinds of cards create additional duplicate copies of cards in your pool, notably, Immortal Fates like Mental Perception and Inheritance of Cloud Sword. At Own Pace takes a card out of your pool, and the same is probably true of other simple draw effects such as Thunder Tribulation. Wu Ce's Virtuoso Immortal Fate, Best Choice, probably takes a card out of your pool, and the same is likely also true of other effects that draw card(s) from a specific phase. Wonderful Strokes creates new copies. Card upgrade effects like Enlightenment Elixir don't take anything out of your pool.

Still investigating the rest.

Xom fucked around with this message at 00:14 on Oct 20, 2023

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches
I found the original version of the Sword Intent guide I translated, which the version I found before had plagiarized. Here's the fixed translation, which now has a bunch of content that was missing: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1036888482439761951/1164783561535127632/swordintent.pdf

I've updated my guides listing post.

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches

Xom posted:

Each player has their own pool. There are 8 copies of each card, except only 6 copies of Incarnation cards. Exchanging and absorbing don't return cards to the pool!

Effects that gain a specific card create an additional copy of the card, including Daoist Rhyme Omen choices other than At Own Pace. Generally, effects that draw specific kinds of cards create additional duplicate copies of cards in your pool, notably, Immortal Fates like Mental Perception and Inheritance of Cloud Sword. At Own Pace takes a card out of your pool, and the same is probably true of other simple draw effects such as Thunder Tribulation. Wu Ce's Virtuoso Immortal Fate, Best Choice, probably takes a card out of your pool, and the same is likely also true of other effects that draw card(s) from a specific phase. Wonderful Strokes creates new copies. Card upgrade effects like Enlightenment Elixir don't take anything out of your pool.

Xom posted:

Discord chatters speculate that each time you break through, it removes a (fixed?) number of (random?) cards from your card pool before adding the cards of the new phase. Probably the usual draw probability is equal for each copy of each card in the pool. However, the Sword Intent guide I translated states that each round your first exchange has an increased chance to draw a current-phase card.

If your cultivation is high enough to break through, but you don't break through, you become increasingly likely to draw Deviation Syndrome, a blank card. (This happened to me once, but I think the threshold is so high that it's not strategically meaningful, and the mechanic might as well be deleted.) The text on Deviation Syndrome says that the card pool is depleted, but that's practically impossible except in alternative game modes; I suspect that that was originally the only way to get it, and this mechanic was added later.
Not only do exchanged and absorbed cards not return to the pool, exchanging or absorbing a card makes the remaining copies of the card less likely to be drawn. The exact workings of the mechanic is unknown. It doesn't apply to Practice Writing, and probably not to other cards with absorb or exchange abilities either.

Each round, your first exchange has an increased chance to draw a current-phase card.

If you stay at a phase and keep exchanging long enough, you become increasingly likely to draw Deviation Syndrome, a useless card with the text "There are no other cards!". In Meditation phase, it happens after seeing approximately sixty to seventy cards (not always the same number). I think it takes long enough to happen that it shouldn't deter you from early-phase reroll strategies, but you should probably move on if it does happen to you in a game.

One hypothesis I thought of that's almost plausible is that perhaps whenever you exchange or absorb a card, a random number of additional copies of that card are removed from your card pool. But it doesn't explain why sometimes you get a couple more successful exchanges (drawing normal cards) after drawing your first copy of Deviation Syndrome.

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches

Xom posted:

I found the original version of the Sword Intent guide I translated, which the version I found before had plagiarized. Here's the fixed translation, which now has a bunch of content that was missing: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1036888482439761951/1164783561535127632/swordintent.pdf

I've updated my guides listing post.
I just queued with Lin Xiaoyue into the author, 雪团 (which is also the name of Lin Xiaoyue's cat), (playing Yan Chen) and lost to their Strike Twice + Cide in the finals. :wave:

Xom fucked around with this message at 10:50 on Oct 20, 2023

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches

Xom posted:

I found the original version of the Sword Intent guide I translated, which the version I found before had plagiarized. Here's the fixed translation, which now has a bunch of content that was missing: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1036888482439761951/1164783561535127632/swordintent.pdf

I've updated my guides listing post.
I forgot to account for Catnip in the math on page 5. I'll update it with a fix tonight.

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches
Fixed the math on page 5: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1036888482439761951/1165811332923273216/swordintent.pdf

Guides listing post updated.

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches
Updated two TL Notes: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1036888482439761951/1166310129927462922/swordintent.pdf

TL Note posted:

Starting with Round 10, you gain 4 exchanges instead, and with Round 15, 5 exchanges.

TL Note posted:

As of August, you’re guaranteed at least one Catnip. According to Eng. Discord, how it works is same as before except the last surprise card is 100% Catnip if you didn’t get it yet. If true, expect the last card to be the sole Catnip in at least 20% of games.
Guides list updated.

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches
I've migrated my translations (and my notes on card pool mechanics) to Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1948800/guides/?browsefilter=mostrecent&browsesort=creationorder

I made some minor edits to the Sword Intent guide. Most notably, the screenshot at the end of the qi delay section is now captioned "Round 7: another example of qi delay vs. Earth Spirit Elixir".

I've updated the guides list post to point to the guides on Steam.

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches
I have completed my latest translation:

Xom posted:

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches
Surreal_Memoir, who told me much of the information in the original version of my card pool mechanics guide, has now published a full guide. I've rewritten my guide to be a summary of Surreal_Memoir's guide. One-line summary: Absorbing or exchanging a card doesn't return it to the pool. Exchanging a card also causes two copies of the same card to be deleted from the pool. (:ms:)

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches

Xom posted:

Update: I fixed the translation of the last paragraph in II. 4. Breaking through to Immortality. Previously, I was a bit puzzled by the original text, and I was guessing at what it was saying when I translated it as:

quote:

Most situations at this stage are just boring calculation; after calculating your damage and seeing the opponent with no defense, if their max HP is low, move Flying Fang Sword and attack directly with Spirit Cat Chaos Sword first, so that they can’t surprise you by blocking Flying Fang Sword.
Compare the fix:

quote:

Most situations at this stage are just boring calculation. After calculating your damage, take a look at whether the opponent has defense; if vs. Weak / early DEF, then avoid it; make sure Flying Fang Sword doesn't get blocked. Against Heartbroken Tune, lay out a four-turn kill. Then you can AFK.
With that said, I think it may sometimes be a good idea to attack directly with Spirit Cat Chaos Sword first, then win with follow-up damage, in situations where Flying Fang Sword is risky.

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches
Have another translation!

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches
Since each character is defined by their five character-specific Immortal Fates, this one is basically an overview of the Cloud Spirit Sword Sect characters:

Xom posted:

Irony.or.Death
Apr 1, 2009


You successfully lured me over from the roguelikes thread and I made it through the tutorial, any suggestions for early character unlocks/other getting started stuff? The actual gameplay feels pretty intuitive but I know games like this traditionally have a billion progression traps.

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches
There are no traps AFAIK. Specifically, if you unlock a character with Spirit Stones, then unlock it again via player XP, it refunds the Spirit Stones. Another tip is that beating Primitive Uncharted Realms Hazard 10 (or at least I think it has to be Hazard 10? unsure) gives enough character XP to reach character lv.5, at which point all Immortal Fate choice slots are unlocked. (Though the last character I unlocked, I didn't bother, I just played a bunch of multiplayer games with the incomplete slots.) Or you could just pay 520 Spirit Stones to reach lv.5; Spirit Stones are abundant.

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches
...and Heptastar:

Xom posted:

StrixNebulosa
Feb 14, 2012

You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Is this a live-service game / games-as-a-service or a regular game that's still in early access and being developed?

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches
It's mainly an online ladder game. It has the structure of a f2p game with a f2p currency (Spirit Stones) and a paid currency (Jade), but the developers released it with an up-front price, supposedly because they needed money and they didn't have microtransactions ready. Spirit Stones are used to unlock characters, side jobs, and emotes. Jade can be used to buy character skins (of which there are now four or five) or converted to Spirit Stones (don't do it). There's no gacha. The game is generous with Spirit Stones; I heard it was changed to be so three days after release.

The last characters were released in June, and there has yet to be another character announced. According to the monthly report a few days ago, a mobile version and a new skin are in development. The current ranked season (October thru December) has a new mechanic: Immortal Fate choices (equivalent to TFT augments) can be rerolled, and there are some new cards that can only be gotten by picking the Immortal Fate that gives you that card. Nobody knows if any of that will remain after the end of the season. The previous season didn't have a new mechanic, but there were the three new characters. There are also "tavern brawls" with wacky rules, and other transient events.

EDIT: Huh, I didn't realize it's still marked Early Access. It felt close to done when I bought it in March, much less now.

Xom fucked around with this message at 12:28 on Nov 1, 2023

StrixNebulosa
Feb 14, 2012

You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Xom posted:

It's mainly an online ladder game. It has the structure of a f2p game with a f2p currency (Spirit Stones) and a paid currency (Jade), but the developers released it with an up-front price, supposedly because they needed money and they didn't have microtransactions ready. Spirit Stones are used to unlock characters, side jobs, and emotes. Jade can be used to buy character skins (of which there are now four or five) or converted to Spirit Stones (don't do it). There's no gacha. The game is generous with Spirit Stones; I heard it was changed to be so three days after release.

The last characters were released in June, and there has yet to be another character announced. According to the monthly report a few days ago, a mobile version and a new skin are in development. The current ranked season (October thru December) has a new mechanic: Immortal Fate choices (equivalent to TFT augments) can be rerolled, and there are some new cards that can only be gotten by picking the Immortal Fate that gives you that card. Nobody knows if any of that will remain after the end of the season. The previous season didn't have a new mechanic, but there were the three new characters. There are also "tavern brawls" with wacky rules, and other transient events.

EDIT: Huh, I didn't realize it's still marked Early Access. It felt close to done when I bought it in March, much less now.

Hey, thank you! This tipped me over into picking it up now instead of waiting - this may sound weird but I enjoy f2p mechanics.

I already like cultivation and slay the spire and autobattlers too, and I just finished the tutorial - yeah! I like this! Building and refining the perfect turn is tapping into my Factorio-loving heart, too, haha.

Thank you!

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches

Xom posted:

There are no traps AFAIK. Specifically, if you unlock a character with Spirit Stones, then unlock it again via player XP, it refunds the Spirit Stones. Another tip is that beating Primitive Uncharted Realms Hazard 10 (or at least I think it has to be Hazard 10? unsure) gives enough character XP to reach character lv.5, at which point all Immortal Fate choice slots are unlocked. (Though the last character I unlocked, I didn't bother, I just played a bunch of multiplayer games with the incomplete slots.) Or you could just pay 520 Spirit Stones to reach lv.5; Spirit Stones are abundant.
The Immortal Fate slots are the only gameplay unlock, and lv.5 is enough to get them all, but the other levels give you a little bit of Jade. Max-leveling eight characters gives you enough for a skin. There are currently fifteen characters, so theoretically you could get one skin this way without paying more money. I guess there is one trap, the option to convert Jade into Spirit Stones. (According to a review, the option to unlock characters with Jade was removed eight hours after release.)

Xom posted:

the developers released it with an up-front price, supposedly because they needed money and they didn't have microtransactions ready
I think this means they didn't have (enough?) skins ready. It sounds like Jade was implemented.

Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches
And finally...

Xom posted:

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Xom
Sep 2, 2008

文化英雄
Fan of Britches
Here's something from the current season:

Xom posted:

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