Welcome wanderer. With the "Legacy" content update released just a few weeks ago Striving for Light has seen the biggest update until now and we are already working on the next massive content udpate. So with this post we will reveil some of the new features and improvements coming to Striving for Light with the next Not-So-Far-Away-Content-Update. The next content udpate is named after the new introduced endgame system "Pathfinder". In this post we will give a deeper insight in what you can expect from this new endgame system and how it actually works. Please note that all presented information is subject to change as we are in active development. Numbers and artworks are not final.

Overview

The pathfinder endgame system replaces the old rather static map progression system. You will now gain more control over which map you are visiting next. The pathfinder system guides your way through all the different maps you will visit. The pathfinder is a very dynamic and flexible system which expands endlessly the deeper you delve into the darkness. The further you delve the bigger the challenges grow which you have to overcome.

Maps

You will always have access to the pathfinder system by using a hotkey so you can in advance alter the modificators of future maps. When you finished your current map by defeating the gatekeeper you will now find a pathfinder portal which lets you activate the next map.

Map Modifiers

The deeper you delve the more modifiers will be active on the maps you visit. These modifiers grant buffs to enemies or the environment but therefore also increase the rewards you will receive when playing on this map.
There is a variety of modifiers which can appear on each map. Here are a few examples for modifiers and their effects.
Rooted The modifier "Rooted" makes all enemies on the map immune to knockback effects. The mod will therefore grant a bonus to all received experience, increased drop chances.
Treacherous The modifier "Treacherous" increases enemy and trap damage and increases your experience and shard drop rate.
Armoured The modifier "Armored" increases enemy and boss health pools and increases your experience and heart drop chance.

Map Shards

There are plenty of ways you can change the modifiers on a map. With the pathfinder update we are adding a variety of different map shards to Striving for Light which can be collected from nearly everywhere in the game.
Shard of Augmentation Adds a new random modifier to the map.

Shard of Chaos Replaces all map modifiers by new random map modifiers. Amount of modifiers remains unchanged.

Shard of Enhancement Adds enhancement modificator to the map. Enhances all map modifiers by 30% and all reward modifiers by 20%.
Shard of Mitigation Adds mitigation modificator to the map. Weakens all map modifiers by -20% and all reward modifiers by -30%. There is also a shard to change the current map into a new random map. These are just a few of the shards you will be able to collect and use on map nodes to alter the existing modifiers or add new modifiers. There is also the possbility that faded maps occur. On these maps you will not know what you will encounter but these maps grant you an additional experience bonus.

Endgame & Early Game

The pathfinder system is designed to bring variation into the endgame but also into the early game. Once you have collected some shards which can be used on the maps you can alter the early game to your liking. You can switch the first map to an other map to have more variety or you could even add modifiers directly to the first map which will increase the difficulty but also grant you additional experience setting you ahead of others if you manage to prevail.

• With the pathfinder update we are upgrading our enemy scaling system so that enemy health pools scale with the map you are currently playing. So you could start your run with the forest map or the swamps if you want to.
• The frenzy experience bonus will be reworked since the experience bonus turned out to be the dominating mechanic to gain insane bonuses and trivialising game difficulty in the endgame. The frenzy bonus will get harder and harder to maintain the higher your bonus rises.
• The resource regeneration system will be overhauled to remove the current cap of 1 resource per frame and make regeneration frame rate independent.
• Enemy AoE effects receive a visual overhaul making borders much clearer to see.
• All older map environments will be visually reworked.

These are just a few of the further improvements coming to the pathfinder content update. So stay tuned for the upcoming update annoucement. Let us know your thoughts about the new pathfinder system and participate in the ongoing development of Striving for Light. The best way to get engaged is our Discord: Official Discord

[ 2022-08-23 21:11:23 CET ] [ Original post ]