Path of Achra v1.0 "the Outer Dark"

[getter77]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2128270/Path_of_Achra/

Path of Achra is a bleak, dark fantasy traditional roguelike, with a focus on streamlined controls and rapid hero customization. A "broken build sandbox." Fight through the deadly lands of Achra to reach the horrors of the Obelisk, and discover what lies beyond...

Before you lies the Path of Achra...

Inspired by Tales of Maj Eyal, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup and Rift Wizard, it is the ongoing passion project of a solo developer, who humbly thanks you for visiting

Merge culture, class and religion to establish a starting hero, unlock more options as you play, with 1000+ potential combinations

Customize your hero with 50+ elementally-aligned powers such as Pyrokinesis, Necromancy, Blood Retort, Obedient Ice...

Discover and freely equip unique weapons and armor with impactful abilities

Explosive synergies await...

A "broken build sandbox" - create devastating combos by combining triggered effects. Shoot bolts of lightning when you pierce enemies with vines, teleport while emitting psychic beams, etc...

If you wish, summon armies of powerful allies

Swiftly play through levels with automove commands. With caution! Enemies can be brutal...

Seek the mysterious Obelisk, as the world floods behind you...

Hello! What a delight it is to be here. Thank you for checking out the ongoing work of this solo developer.

This is the first version of early access - it represents the beginning of a path. For the demo players, there are new things to play with and combine, and many more to come. To the rest, welcome!

These notes will go over what is immediately new:

Steam

    Cloud saves
    Steam achievements for beating different stages of the game, high instances of damage, and unlocking prestige classes - more to come

General

    The initial "healing" prayer for several religions dramatically increased
    Added unique items to the Void: Toothed Sword, Lapis Glaive, Jade Helm, Thunderblade, and more (repeated items will now never happen)
    Strength now increases total Armor by 2% per point
    Dexterity now increases Armor and Block by 5 per point
    Enemies and allies now all have a different fixed % chance to recover from each harmful effect every game turn

Hero

    Culture

    Volkite, increase armor and retaliate with Fire damage through Encumbrance
    Ihra, gain extra scaling with Strength, Dex and Wil, but gain Encumbrance from increased Life
    Tengu, fragile, apply Charge when attacking
    Alhaja, extra prayer chargers, perform max damage Hits when praying

    Class

    Abdi, performs extra Hits when attacking for each fully charged prayer, starts with a ranged area-of-effect Varichakram
    Warlock, applies Inflame and deals Fire damage to the closest enemy on prayer and whenever an ally dies

    Prestige Class

    Mindpiercer, deal Willpower-based Pierce damage whenever you deal Psychic damage
    Blood Mage, apply Bleed in an area every turn, when you stand still, and when you damage yourself

Powers

    Martial

    Barbarism now increases your Hit by a %
    Stand Ground, convert standing still into extra attacks and Poise
    War Chant, summons axe-wielding Thralls, applies Poise to an area every turn

    Fire

    removed Order of Fire
    Master Scorch, protect yourself from Scorch's damage, convert it into area fire damage

    Lightning

    Chamakana, perform extra hits when dealing Lightning damage to full-life enemies
    Stormcalling, summon Ball Lightnings when attacking
    Sparkform, enter the level as an embodiment of Lightning damage

    Poison

    Plaguedrinking, apply Sickness to adjacent enemies, remove Sickness from enemies with attacks and heal off of the duration

    Death

    Hungry Grave, summon a motionless Grave Idol with a ranged area Death attack, gains hit and life when allies die

    Ice

    Order of Ice removed
    Frostpulse, deal Ice damage in an increasing area every turn based on your Encumbrance

    Astral

    Innervation now renders allies immune to damage dealt by you
    Astrostoicism, gain Meditate and teleport enemies when they hit you
    Shimmergang, summon swift Astrophytes when you teleport
    Star Cult, summon Star Priests, deal Astral damage to enemies whenever an ally attacks

    Psychic

    Mass Mind, deal Psychic damage to enemies in an increasing area every turn based on the number of summoned allies
    Psychic Retort, perform hits and gain Repulsion when enemies hit you

    Blood

    Blood Link, continuously summon Hemogoblins, heal yourself whenever an ally is healed

[getter77]

mind knight

Apologies for the long delay! Things are back in the saddle --- here's an update of accreted features / bugfixes from all the awesome launch month feedback (notably, a rudimentary search bar where you can type in keywords and it will filter your powers / prestige classes)

There are also new enemies and several "reactive" enemy traits distributed amongst existing enemies, along with rebalancing of some game mechanics and a general rework of items that redeal one damage type as another

General

    can now search for text (such as "on hit" / "fire" / "summon" etc) to highlight relevant powers in the powers and Prestige Class menus (this will later be expanded to the start menu)
    added "wide log" option, creates a larger left-aligned message log at the bottom of the screen
    repeated messages condensed to x2 / x3 etc if identical to previous
    "attack" and "hit" messages added to the log, to better show the sequence of combat events
    the Log screen now shows current highest damage and total game turns
    game now tracks total game turns, shows up in the score screen, will add an achievement for this once a better idea of "fast" is determined
    added a flashing animation to enemies in higher cycles that have received a Hit bonus
    the player gains an initial HP bonus based on the cycle # (to somewhat alleviate the level 1 unfairness of higher cycles)
    total cycles increased to 24
    several new background colors added
    fixed the infamous Fire Healing exponential Scorch application bug



Effects

    meditate now grants +10 damage but loses 50% stacks on step
    charge, Anoint and Evasion now lose 50% stacks on stand still
    inflame now loses 50% stacks on being hit
    stasis now loses 1 stack on being attacked
    the log will now display a message if you reduce the stacks of an effect on yourself, and if you remove an effect
    dream is now removed from summons when they step / attack (granted through Paragon)
    batform no longer raises Hit
    snakeform healing reduced to 1 per stack



Hero

    added the "Familiar" trait to certain summons, makes them not limited by Willpower
    if armor is penetrated, the initial damage roll is limited to 90% of max life
    STR % damage reduction removed (it never actually worked), doubled % Hit scaling
    arba vinespawns now summon adjacent to the player
    the Tugar now has the new Impact trait and is considered a "familiar"
    skeleton no longer weak to Astral, and gained 25% pierce and slash resist (one day it will have a more interesting trait)
    ihra given 25% psychic and astral resist



Powers

    added Gore Tide,Blood, deal blood damage every game turn in a 3 tile range, damage scales with missing life and skill level
    added Ice Familiar, Ice, summons a Grika familiar on entrance, Grika heals and gains Hit when you apply Freeze, all allies gain armor when you apply freeze, Grika performs extra attacks when you stand still
    added Asi Malak, Astral, increase attack range when two-handing, deal Astral damage to random enemies on hit
    Master Scorch no longer removes Scorch from self, Scorch applied to self when attacked now scales with skill level
    Electromancy now gives -1 inflex
    Puglism cost increased to 3, Hit damage no longer scales with skill level
    Psychomorphism now causes you to deal 25 Psychic damage to yourself when a non-psychomorph ally dies
    Blood Link now causes you to deal 25 Blood damage to yourself when a Hemogoblin ally dies
    Plaguedrinking no longer removes sickness from the target
    The Grave Idol now has maximum range and is counted as a "familiar," and the power itself causes all allies to gain HIT when either an enemy or ally dies
    Mass mind and frostpulse costs both changed to 3
    Astrostoicism cost changed to 2
    perhaps other cost tweaks I forgot to record



Prestige Classes

    normalized prestige class requirements to 20 points
    Oozemancy reworked, Oozes now become "familiars" (unlimited by WIL)
    Shapeshifter now deals Poison damage
    Ice Shah now summons Living Ice next to you
    Venite now correctly adds 3 attacks instead of 1
    added Arsonist, Fire + Life, deal fire damage in a path on summon and on kill, summon 10 Roots on entrance
    added Exultite, Fire + Blood, deals damage every game turn to adjacent units, increases with Inflame stacks, gains Inflame stacks when damaging allies
    added Mind Knight, Martial + Psychic, apply Repulsion to self when attacked by an adjacent enemy, IF two-handing gain Hit and Dodge from Willpower



Items

    changed the "rumors" of more items to be more descriptive
    various items can now have the "shield" attribute (specific to the item, similar to area attack), which grants +75% block chance if wielded in off-hand
    added Blight Sabre (slash to death)
    added Veni Spear (pierce to poison)
    added Anga Cudgel (blunt to ice)
    added Nadra Kamarband (poison to death)
    Bone sword now redeals Slash to Blood
    Bone Skirt now redeals Blood to Death
    Blight Sarabara now redeals Death to Astral
    Mindhunter Sash now redeals Psychic to Blood
    Brazen Eye now does Blood instead of Blunt damage
    Bramble Sash changed to Hemlock Sash, now redeals Poison to Blood
    Tikaani Sash now redeals Ice to Psychic
    Jade Shield / Spear bonus per-effect increased to +100
    Khedira and Death Staff damage now scale flatly with number of allies
    Blight Helm now applies Doom to an adjacent unit when you take non-physical damage
    Shaakara now applies Doom when you apply Bleed



Enemies

    added Inflaming aura, applies inflame to self and allies on game turn
    added Charging aura, same except with charge
    added Death Curse, applies Doom to killer
    added Tracking, applies Inflame to self when the player moves
    added Gati, applies Repulsion to self when the player moves / stands still
    added Prescience, applies Meditate to self when the player stands still
    added Warding, applies Meditate to self when the player summons
    added Impact, deals damage on attack based on a % of total Hit
    aforementioned traits added to a lot of existing enemies
    added another ruler of the Obelisk
    added Kolec, void, spike-themed, big aoe
    added Gora, void, very fast and deals high slash + blood
    added Void Wasp, very fast and quickly applies Freeze
    added Malaga, blood elemental serpent that teleports and applies bleed
    added Pentot, astral swordsman that teleports and force-teleports the player
    added Agni Idol, motionless shrine, deals delayed fire damage and force-teleports the player
    added Ferod, a lower-level enemy that applies entangle with hits

[getter77]

Lapis Gate

This update implements some specifically requested features while going over some content and adding some too (trying to always add content (at least more prestige classes) every update as a rule). Wanted to add a unique ability-having starting item to all the classes to make them at least equivalent in that way too, so that's been done. Really appreciating the bug reports and deeply enjoying the many win and death screens. Thank you! As always this update does about half of what I wanted (this mentality is what slows it down to being with) but more is coming, steadily, down the path...

General

    starting items with abilities now have a purplish icon in the start menu
    you can now right click / hold down right click to automove in-game (in menus it still just closes the window)
    Familiars no longer take summons slots
    now also shows the sprite of each item to be found in the next land
    Achra now always provides at least 2 lands to choose from for your path (not enough items to do this in the Void yet)
    Added uncommon Lapis Gate, Brass Temple and Jeweled Crypt lands, lots of treasure, single floor, dangerous enemies from the void (tangential result: more total items are in the world)
    you can now view all powers and prestige classes in a window accessible from the start menu

Hero

    Ihra reworked, now simply limits enemy Hits to 75% of max life
    Druid summons are now all types of snake, staff deals 50 poison damage to closest enemy on summon
    Warlock Staff now summons 3 Bleeding Dead on entrance
    Mubarizun Hood grants evasion on attack
    Zealot now has a Hood and an AOE cudgel, Hood summons Fanatic familiars on entrance based on fully charged prayers
    Abdi's turban now cleanses Sickness, Corrosion and Doom on prayer
    Amir's pilum now increases the attack of all allies by 10 on-attack
    Gala now has a shield, staff deals Psychic damage to attackers equal to 5% of the attackers' max life
    the starting options in general need a larger pass and perhaps further expansion...

Powers

    Immolation removed, damage bonus from scorch added to Pyromancy
    Obedient Ice removed, damage bonus added to Cryomancy, Cryomancy no longer does damage but repeats Freeze application per level (like Morbumancy), cost reduced
    Morbumancy now applies fixed 10 sickness, still repeats per level, cost reduced
    Training reworked as Heavyweight, now only adds armor, adds some encumbrance, and deals encumbrance*level blunt damage to an adjacent unit on shrug off
    Guard reworked, now only adds block and provides +% block from wielded weapons, performs a 50 damage hit against an adjacent enemy on block, per level
    Master Doom now grants +1 armor per Doom stack

Prestige Classes

    Alizeh reworked, no longer deals on entrance damage, now deals lightning / astral damage to 2 random enemies on step
    Ice Shah reworked, now summon 8 Living Ice on prayer, deal 200 Ice damage when an ally hits an enemy, apply 2 entangle when you deal Ice damage
    Angiok now instead deals Ice damage in a path on apply freeze, WIL * 10
    Mind Knight now gains +1% block chance per Willpower
    added Mesmer, applies extra Repulsion, applies Repulsion on stand still and on dodge, Repulsion grants +10 dodge per stack and deals its damage in a path
    added Flame Knight, deals +20% fire damage per STR if two-handing, deals fire damage on adjacent attack, gaint Inflame on shrug off, Inflame grants +10 armor per stack
    added Gallus, deals Blunt damage in a 4 tile range on game turn and shrug off equal to encumbrance, +50 encumbrance
    added Destroyer, deals Astral and Death damage in a 10 tile range on game turn, gains Meditate on kill

Items

    Zasadzka Claw now performs an hit for every enemy
    Kaza Whip now performs a hit for every ally
    Mask of Blood now instead applies Bleed to the damaging enemy equal to your DEX
    the robes (dream etc) now correctly only remove their effects at 50 or more damage
    more changes to come for other low-powered treasures

Enemies

    added Firebird, an emanation of the goddess Pheonix, roams the void
    added Hamidrake, and acid drake of the green tower, early taste of corrosion
    added Robak, writhes through the tall shadows of the Obelisk

[getter77]

v1.0

early access no more, added Apophis, Myrmidon, Arjana, more cycles, music, poems +other stuff

At long last, the first "official" version of PoA. This has been a very new experience for me, not just the computer stuff -- I've never worked on and thought about a single project for 2+ years like this. I have a lot of appreciation for you all who helped me do it, and tried to describe it in this credits screen:

new stuff for version 1.0

    Added 8 more cycles, can now right click the cycle bar to go down in cycle
    Added Arjana, culture, apply 1 Blind when attacked, +1 stacks of Blind applied by you
    Added Myrmidon, class, +1 Inflex per 5 points of Dexterity, Block doubled against non-adjacent enemies, shield retaliates with block-scaling death damage
    Added Apophis, religion, grants you strength every time you enter a level, causes you to inflict % max life astral damage to yourself whenever you are attacked
    4 new starting poems, from the tablet of the vizier-imp
    3 new tracks to round out the theme of the recent ones
    Added a brief "credits" screen

other tweaks -- as always, ongoing

    Kull now grants +1 stacks of Evasion applied by you
    Baghatar's Kilij now grants +2 physical damage per point of speed
    Takhal 2nd prayer now deals 100 * (number of enemies) damage to yourself
    Stormbringer changed, now instead gain charge on dealing ice (not freeze on lightning), removed on kill part, area damage now also triggers on divine intervention (previous freeze from lightning was causing an infinite combo involving crystal hand)
    Crowform self-damage changed to flat 15
    Zealot Hood heal reduced to 5% of max life
    Ill Manica changed, now deals poison damage on attack, applies meditate to self on dealing poison damage (previous form had an infinite combo involving cobra staff)
    Arja Spear ice damage changed to your total Block
    Xyston now increased physical damage by 20% of your armor
    Prayers no longer charge if you're dead
    Eris no longer continuously gains upgrades in the Path of Dust
    Skeleton is now treated as having a full bag in the Path of Dust

some plans for beyond v1.0

    more special void areas
    more interesting / flavorful feats
    the eternal tweaks / rebalancing of items / powers
    potentially other stuff, depending

Thank you again for joining me here. Makes me seriously very happy

*also thank you for the bug reports / typo-finding, you've caught more than I ever could alone, it's been tremendously helpful