Greetings, friends! Project Director Luke here. Today let’s talk about Perks and how they’re changing. For the benefit of those who need a refresher, let’s start by talking about what Perks are.

In MythForce, while Enchantments add new properties to your weapons, like elemental effects and greater damage, Perks are power-ups that improve your character’s innate abilities. They make you stronger and alter the way you engage with some mechanics. In the 2022 versions of MythForce, Perks were your primary way of gaining power throughout a run in the Cursed Lands.

Not only are Perks still available, we’ve also improved them significantly.

The first major change is that Perks have been decoupled from character levels and now are awarded regularly throughout the dungeon. Skill Shrines can appear between combat rooms, just like Mystic Forges. When you interact with them, they offer a selection of new or upgraded Perks, depending on which ones you’ve unlocked and upgraded.

One of the most frequently mentioned issues in playtesting was that you could easily run into “dead Perks”—choices that offered great utility only for certain characters. For example, “Mage’s Moxie,” one of Maggie’s former class Perks, granted faster MP regeneration, which didn’t benefit characters who rarely or never used magic. To address such issues, we changed the way we present Perks.

Where possible, we revised a number of Perks to make them more useful to all characters. Where not possible, we further iterated on one of the most well-received updates to our Perks in the December PTR: Perk filtering.

Now each character will encounter a specific set of Perks guaranteed to have some synergy or utility with the expected playstyle. Some Perks remain universal, like Giant’s Heart or Glass Cannon. Perks more specific to one character will show up only for the characters who can make the best use of them.

We’ve also added a new vendor building: the Conclave, run by the Aquilar Weaver Sylvia. Weavers harness the wild magics of Argyros, and Sylvia can help manipulate those same energies in the Cursed Lands, bolstering your Perks by increasing your pool of available Perks and by unlocking their greater potential.

At the start of the game, you’ll have access to only a portion of the full set of Perks. To gain access to all of them and to unlock their higher tiers, you need to work with Sylvia. Every new Perk purchased is added to the pool that can appear when interacting with a Skill Shrine. When upgraded at the Conclave, Perks become available at higher tiers, allowing you to choose a broader set of Perks or to focus on more powerful versions.

This new system gives you greater control over how you engage with Perks throughout the game while still retaining the “roguelike-ness” of MythForce’s core.

Next time, we’ll talk about Trinkets and the Emporium, run by Sylvia’s disciple Keaton.

Stay tuned!