Afaik getting a number of S-ranks (10) unlocks Anna, I assume it is the same for the other characters as well, although Matt and Natalie may just be unlocked by winning the first few stages, I'd have to reset my game to confirm this.
I got seriously bored after wave 20, I just upgraded my ship to a chockful of magnets and rockets, and the levels flew by, I didn't even need to do anything. All upgrades complete, of course...
Fun game, but VERY limited: only nine stages, little gold to experiment; I was always torn between upgrading my squad or replacing them with new ones. When the situation calls for both, I always end up underleveled. Also, tights have a problem with coming out faster than normal when I play a sped-up game, and they get decimated one by one. Didn't get a chance to try out any of the late-game units, because I had no gold left to spare and didn't want to potentially ruin the synergy of my squad.
@ Fitsch, the "miss" counter is for counting the times you get HIT. Assuming you kill 100% of the enemies, 2 or less misses get you S rank, while 3-5 get you A rank (it's in a protip).
@ G1d4n: character speed is reduced when you play as Natalie (naturally slower) OR when you're using focus.
@ Aitp17, to unlock Anna I THINK you need to get 10 S ranks. Speaking of which, she's probably the weakest character of the bunch: no use for main/sub recharge, average bomb, so all she's left with is main firepower and mobility. Definitely not one to tackle bosses with.
@ Tiberiumshox: walk to the lower right corner of the goblin camp and enter the undead owlbear woods. After you kill the boss there, you'll find the NPC for the next quest. Ironically enough, it is the one quest you can never finish, because it asks you to kill the wizard (end boss), which never counts since the game ends :P In any case, I went back to town at LV26, my final opinion is that you should start out with DEX/STR and a bit of VIT, and switch to INT with a bit of VIT and 11 LUK when you find Flynn and the Arturians, as the triple and quad magic combos deal about 300 and 500 damage respectively...in a second :D Ofc use of quad combo not recommended for bosses since fireball sucks your MP dry.
Magic damage seems to be flawed, my 26 damage from searing blade kills a 40 HP gumdrop for example, happens with many monsters as well. Also, the magic damage from the other spells is rather low for the MP they cost: one bolt deals about 2.2 times the damage of searing blade while costing 5 times as much mana. Normally I wouldn't really mind because in combat you get to use both of them for added damage, but with mana regen being almost non-existant, it became an issue late-game.
P.S: Love the fact that you can re-train for free at Flynn's!!!
Btw if someone missed the protip, your hitbox is ONE WHOLE PIXEL, combine that with focus and you got a real challenge when there's 500 bullets on screen :D Also note that bombs clear bullets, just in case...
Oh, and to all the Touhou fans, yes this was inspired by Touhou, among other things, like Ikaruga, Dodonpachi, Frantic, Death vs Monstars, etc. (says so in credits)
Hmm, once you clear an area boss, ALL of the monsters from that area and before give the same exp. For example, after taking out the top-hat goblin, the little spiders from the first forest gave 1300 exp each. Much better than grinding on golems and dark mages :)
Game's pretty cool, having different classes would be much appreciated though, and the stats need some balancing - as it's been said, DEX plays a far too important role, considering that spells can miss, and the mana regen is non-existant unless you're using dark stone, and even then it's 1 mana per 3 seconds, making a wizard build impossible (INT/VIT).
Ok, nice music, but what am I supposed to DO? There's no fixed encounter to predict what stats you should increase for the next 10 rounds or something, and since increasing your stats is all you can do in this game, it's just lol random...1/5 because it really doesn't feel like playing a game.
Necromancer starts out dominating, but skeletons won't improve after the spiked bone version, even though I added ~85 intellect...so after that I had to find items with ignite, bolt, etc. and easily roamed the dungeons, till I thought there's no point in going further and let myself die. Shouldn't the game end at some point?
Easy mode: scavenge, expand, fortify, expand again and win.
Harder/Nightmare mode: Blight strikes, your crops go bad, your scavenger got infected and took another two survivors with him, your soldiers committed suicide and the police station was taken over...
Overrun buildings can host over 200 zombies, although they are usually labs, the evil graveyard or the city hall, so tackle ONE OF THEM all the time, sending as many soldiers as you can spare, until you can reclaim it. Getting an early lab or two really helps with crops and the zombie killing!
Very fun game, I had reached a pretty desperate point but once I finally had enough survivors and farms, things became much easier. I think scavenging should yield more food, it's an extra action used and possibly takes a soldier along with your scavengers, so getting enough for a few days of battling over a farm should do it.
Kamikaze deck is imba, I got a win in 2 minutes with only gold mines, a crystal mine and 2 dwarf mines, 2x kamikaze, 2x fresh skeletons and cards that instantly add to my souls, gems and iron, and a triple decker to draw faster. Best yield so far is around 1800....and yeah I think the 10 dmg is a bug, as well as the card "Sacred Pact", because it increases gem production, not gold, as it says.
If you are still having trouble with Archers, here's two important tips:
1) NEVER spawn units if they are sure to die before reaching the archers. You're just wasting gold and troops. Sometimes it's better to just take some damage, that's what you got all that HP for.
2) Know your enemy. Archers are 1HKO'd by mages and fall fast to scouts or skeleton warriors. Two or three of them can take down a group of 4 archers. If you see the opponent rushing archers, get a mage set and protect him with a few mooks.
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