I know that item unlocks carry forward and that’s how we progress in the mode but I can’t help but feel like an actual upgrade system of some kind would have made each successive playthrough feel a little more meaningful. As it is you get items that are all one-time use and a couple of refillable permanent items, that’s it.
I feel like an actual skill tree menu or some kind of unlockable perk bonuses that stick with your team would have been great. You’d have an XP system of some kind in Shadow Lords that you can level up and each stat has say ten pips you could add skill points to and eventually max it out. For example something like walk speed or damage resistance on block. Things that would carry forward and give you a sense of progression that is permanent and locked to your team, eventually you’d be able to max out all of the skills and have a much better time progressing through the difficulty settings as you physically get stronger alongside the buffs and trinkets you can equip.
I love what we have but the consumables are a little fleeting if you ask me, sometimes I want to play a match and use buffs but I don’t want to waste them if I don’t need them. Having some sort of progression system would have been great, something to show for your time invested that isn’t going to vanish if you accidentally taunt after doing a triple ultra on Gargos because his punkass deserves it.
I agree with this… besides, refilling the consumable guardian energy is expensive and time consuming. sometimes it takes multiple matches just to get one point back
Keep playing, my astral energy has only been building with each session and I always use guardians. Well once you start recycling guardians at least; before that play the multiplayer a bit if you need more astral feed.
Or just don’t use Guardians for some missions. I sparingly used mine at first and now I have 2 Ram and about 500-600 Astral Energy to recharge them when I have to. Astral energy drops are pretty reasonable right now.
My suggestion : full fight buffs,character exclusive
Equip them instead of consumables. They grant one full fight unique buffs. Useful against Omens, Gargos, and multiple enemies
Some examples:
-Aganos: rechunk grabs two chunks,peacemaker and walls last 6 hits, placing a wall puts 2 instead of one
-Aria: all of her bodies are the 3 combined, switching only changes the assist, so you always have all the specials. Instinct soaks the damage between them, otherwise only active body takes damage
Stuff like that. Hard to collect, it would be a universal item which changes its effect depending on who is applied (so there is only a item for 26 chars, not 26 items)
Yeah I’ll be curious if they add in some sort of progression system. I thought I read somewhere that health would be displayed as a number in a future patch (unless I misinterpreted it) so you’d know what you were getting in to, but it also makes me wonder if your own character’s health will increase by playing or if that defeats the need for buffs and it’s just a matter of using stronger buffs against stronger characters.
I dunno, I splurged on some KI gold last night (“accidentally” buying more than I’d intended) and wound up buying the most expensive SL pack more out of curiosity than anything else, which gave me a perfect Snake, but instead of being excited, the whole experience kinda made me feel dirty because I hadn’t earned it in game, like I just bought my way in to advancing more easily through the use of real world money. I know that many games let you do this now, but I always avoid it. Eh, that’s on me, I guess.
Oh and count me among the people that think it costs too much to refill guardians right now. I also think it costs a little too much to get health and revive scrolls. Maybe those become easier over time as well?
Honestly, it’s really hard to tell right now how progression works. Will I just be swimming in astral gems and other currency later with more play-throughs since I’ll theoretically be able to take on and win harder missions? That would seem to be the case, but right now, it really feels like things are stacked against you on your first few play throughs.
It’d be nice if the first few play throughs could be a little softer on the cost and difficulty and then ramp up accordingly so that the challenge increases but so too does your inventory. Is that even possible? Does this mode start off hard and get easier? Does it get harder? Not really sure how it’s going to work yet. Guess I just need to play more and find out.
I think team bonuses would be cool. Examples of this could be, if you pick all ultra tech you get a special bonus. Picking Wulf, Spinal, and Mira could give a bonus called “classic monsters”
