As I posted on the roadmap, I've been working on a Brutal mode for fans who enjoy a really difficult challenge. I also wanted to make it a fun community event with a friendly competition, with an in-game prize immortalizing the winner. It's almost ready, and I'm ready to announce the start date:
June 7th, 10 AM PST (UTC−07:00)
Brutal Mode Changes
- EXP gain reduced by 20%, scaling down sharply when overleveled, leading to no gains once 4+ levels over the average enemy on a map. Healers happens sooner at 2+.
- New powerful elite abilities meant to counter popular strategies. More bonus stats to elites. More elites throughout the game.
- Scaled up enemy stats, with extra scaling depending on the class' strengths. More enemies and reinforcements.
- AI behavior tweaked in almost every chapter to better act in groups.
- More loot provided through chapters.
- Permadeath always enabled.
Rules
- The winner will be the first person to send me the save file of their completed Brutal mode run. Emailed to [email protected]. Winner is decided on first to hit my email inbox. I'll take a few days to process and verify all the entries.
- This is not an ironman challenge, you may restart chapters as many times as you need.
- You may still choose between random or fixed growths.
- I've decided to not require a video recording of the entire playthrough, as I know this will make it too cumbersome on many people who'd like to attempt the challenge. Instead, I've added some protections against cheating, and detection for any tampering.
- Hacking or save tampering of any kind will disqualify you.
- Knowingly abusing a bug to gain an advantage will disqualify you. If you run into one on accident, please email me so I can patch it out instead.
- If I don't receive any finished runs within 3 weeks, I may tone down the difficulty a bit.
- In the off chance you run into any game breaking bugs/freezes, you may send me your save file and I'll try to fix it ASAP. I'm not aware of any currently in game.
Prizes
- The first person to complete the game on Brutal mode difficulty will get to commission a custom in-game character that will appear in other Brutal mode play-throughs. We'll work together to create a mood-board we'll send to the character artist, as well as their stats/classes/personal skill. I will then work to get that character into the game on other Brutal mode play-throughs.
- The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place will all get a special shout-out in the post-game credits.
We're also currently on an all-time high sale of 30% for the #TurnBasedThursday Fest, so now is the best time to pick up the game if you're wanting to prepare!
This new content will be completely free and optional. I hope it allows those of you who relish challenging content further enjoy the game.
Again, thank you everyone for your support thus far. I couldn't have asked for a better community around the game, and I'm truly humbled by the level of attention it's received. Hoping I can continue to deliver these kind of experiences to you all for many years to come!
Best,
Eldin T.
