Kingsvein - new tactical RPG from Rad Codex set in subterranean world

[Yosharian]

Any thoughts on Bows vs Crossbows?

Good question. Crossbows obviously deal more base damage plus they can mount scopes, you can also ride the wyvern to make up for low movement of Artillery. Using a bandolier you can carry extras and rarely have to reload. There is a special crossbow that reloads with a melee attack, and another that deals +2 damage to blind enemies. Targeting can be a problem though, depending on how many melee guys you have.

With a Vast bow range is less of an issue, and there's an electric bow for blood zapping shenanigans. You can always grind heavily to make up for the damage loss (though that also would make crossbows even better). I thought the best use of bows would be a 'firing squad' team, since you don't need to reload you could give everyone the Marshal's 'Fire!' skill and attack up to 20 times per turn.

I didn't use Marksman in my run because the ranged classes have overall been nerfed since Horizon's Gate, which had handguns and shotguns, ranged push attacks, and big AoEs. Probably for the best considering how dominating they were in that game. For a sub class I think Fanger is meant to help you keep enemies at bay, otherwise take Melder and make them your backup healer? I agree that nothing really fits.

Not sure about Zavarde's second class - am sure I want Vanguard as primary, but wondering about Chisel for secondary, or Marshal.

Chisel is great, Shatter is busted.

Yeah my main issue with xbows is line-of-sight. Bows have a huge advantage there. Bandolier - you mean carry extra xbows and switch them in instead of reloading?

I guess I will experiment with stuff.

 

[jungl]

The metroidvania parts could of been handled better having to max out jump ability was jank. Cool setting but a eye sore to travel I would make light a toggle instead of a item you have to carry.

Combat definitely has a meta feel to it with blind shatter spam due to the high hp mobs. Your always usually fighting outnumbered so cheesing one side of combatants by making them waste turns avoiding stuff while killing their friends was a meta tactic. Then theres abilities that felt completely useless cause of being outnumbered like the doom spell. Overall its pretty meh combat system it is fun spamming the move abilites would of been interesting to see enemies be reckless instead of defensive ai use quake and aoe spells to make the players life miserable but that would be too op I suppose with their number advantage.

There is too little xp to try out variety of builds unless the player grinds a lot builds are set in stone early unless the player wants to waste their time. The bg3 itemization like +5 strength when at 1hp sucks here and in bg3. It just annoys veteran and filters casuals from your game makes the game a hoarder simulator which is not fun.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

It was odd I never saw a single enemy use Quake. Maybe on Ruin they do.

you mean carry extra xbows and switch them in instead of reloading?

Yeah, like a pirate carrying a bunch of flintlocks.

 

[Yosharian]

It was odd I never saw a single enemy use Quake. Maybe on Ruin they do.

you mean carry extra xbows and switch them in instead of reloading?

Yeah, like a pirate carrying a bunch of flintlocks.

Ok I just found the Bandolier, weird how I never found it before. So I have to give up my accessory slots for this strat? Dunno man.

 

[TwoEdge]

Just beat it, at around 18 hours. It's a great game overall, possibly my favorite Rad Codex game, even though I prefer the structure of Horizon's Gate. The toned-down values, clearer combat round structure, and synergies, allowed more thoughtful play and less of a kitchen-sink approach to encounters.

I went with:

MC - Wisp Slayer Dragoon/Eidolith - crossbow/sword - Amazing build, Spellstike+Flare with solid damage, racked up lots of kills, and blind is an excellent debuff. Being a Wisp Slayer meant that I had extra actions I could follow with another attack, set up a move sigil, a Projection, or remove my own blindness (and recover some mana) with Absorb. I had Storm Assault to use with The Eye, a crossbow that deals extra damage to blind targets, plus the inner eye passive (and support from the rest of the team) meant this dude was a great damage dealer and synergy incarnate.

Zavarde - Titan/Vanguard - fists - I used him mostly to reposition foes, throw them off of ledges with Crysolith support, spread negate to teammates that needed it, or suplexing class-based enemies (I was playing on Titan, so 1-2 p. atk enemies were common). Great support and a clutch killer.

Mancer/Crysolith - A swiss-army knife of a character. Usually started by echo casting bless, and spreading that ice all around for pushing shenanigans. Desecrate is great AoE with careful positioning and despair paired nicely with the amount of debuffs I was throwing around. Doom was a great filler for bosses (and I think increased the debuff multiplier on Shatter).

Ashen/Gatekeeper - fire lamp - Ridiculous synergy overall, also explosions! Then Catalyze and do it all over again. Extinguish is great damage with all that fire lying around, and also a very reliable mana recovery tool. I'm considering another playthrough with all characters built like this. Had decent melee damage due to blaze adept+lantern amulet and a fire lamp.

Remir - Marshall/Chisel - spear - Chisels are almost mandatory given how good Sunder and Shatter are. Marshall is the cherry on top, being excellent support, debuff removal, and Strike! is amazing damage when set properly.

I built the Wyvern for Chomp/Brave and lots of HP to body block enemies, it worked alright. Of note is that physical attack can be debuffed into the negatives and that greatly buffs suplex.

And...

Spoiler

Byron - Ashen/Gatekeeper - by the point I got him I was desperately wishing for another of these guys and it just works better when you have multiples of them to spread the chaos around. The fact he creates wisp nodes every round to possess fallen wisps of your own just made the endgame that much easier. Poor Zavarde.

It surprised me that the game had choices, but I'll only know their reach and effect after some playthroughs. I want to try going straight for the bridge after killing 4 wisps and avoiding the Duke, Prince, the miners, and all permutations I can think of to see the results (if any). Congratulations Eldiran , this one's a blast.

 

[TwoEdge]

It was odd I never saw a single enemy use Quake. Maybe on Ruin they do.

you mean carry extra xbows and switch them in instead of reloading?

Yeah, like a pirate carrying a bunch of flintlocks.

Ok I just found the Bandolier, weird how I never found it before. So I have to give up my accessory slots for this strat? Dunno man.

Quick reload from Marksman allows you to reload all crossbows with one action, or to reload automatically when meleeing with your other hand.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

have to give up my accessory slots

Hey, it used to be a passive. Most of the accessories aren't great anyway.

 

[Yosharian]

It was odd I never saw a single enemy use Quake. Maybe on Ruin they do.

you mean carry extra xbows and switch them in instead of reloading?

Yeah, like a pirate carrying a bunch of flintlocks.

Ok I just found the Bandolier, weird how I never found it before. So I have to give up my accessory slots for this strat? Dunno man.

Quick reload from Marksman allows you to reload all crossbows with one action, or to reload automatically when meleeing with your other hand.

Does that reload all your accessory-held xbows too?

I ahven't found a scope yet =(

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Also you only need the bandolier in your accessories slot, the spare weapons go in the usable item slots. The marksman reload I think only affects handheld weapons. There is a xbow that reloads by making a melee attack though.

 

[Yosharian]

So here's the thing with xbow, yes they do +2 damage, but you're having to give up:

1x Passive slot (Quick Reload)
2x Accessory slots (spare xbows, bandolier)

So my thought is, well if I equip Shrapnel or Venom or Timed Shot or some other Passive, that's probably going to work out to +1 or +2 damage

The Scope is the issue, if I can find one of those then the xbow becomes dramatically better, but I haven't found one yet

Also the lower range is *really* annoying

 

[Grampy_Bone]

2x Accessory slots (spare xbows, bandolier)

See my prior comment, it's only one accessory slot. The extra bows go in your useable item slots (there are three).

But yeah it feels like a step down from all the ranged options in HG, where crossbows had a bigger damage advantage. Note that scope requires you to not move, so it's still not ideal, compared to HG where it was a flat damage boost. In fact if I used a crossbow build I'd probably skip the scope and just use trigger stones instead.

 

[TwoEdge]

So here's the thing with xbow, yes they do +2 damage, but you're having to give up:

1x Passive slot (Quick Reload)
2x Accessory slots (spare xbows, bandolier)

So my thought is, well if I equip Shrapnel or Venom or Timed Shot or some other Passive, that's probably going to work out to +1 or +2 damage

The Scope is the issue, if I can find one of those then the xbow becomes dramatically better, but I haven't found one yet

Also the lower range is *really* annoying

There are other factors at play. In my specific case, I used a scoped unique crossbow that gave +2 damage against blind enemies (which my enemies usually were). It also gave me the option of using Storm Assault for 80% damage in a cone AoE, or Twin Fang, which attacks with my main hand crossbow at range, then advances to melee and attacks with my offhand sword (which, incidentally, reloads the crossbow because of quick reload).

 

[Yosharian]

...what.

Also, now I just tested the Ore xbow vs the Ore bow and they have the same range, wat

 

[Yosharian]

2x Accessory slots (spare xbows, bandolier)

See my prior comment, it's only one accessory slot. The extra bows go in your useable item slots (there are three).

But yeah it feels like a step down from all the ranged options in HG, where crossbows had a bigger damage advantage. Note that scope requires you to not move, so it's still not ideal, compared to HG where it was a flat damage boost. In fact if I used a crossbow build I'd probably skip the scope and just use trigger stones instead.

Ah yes I forgot about the movement thing, good point. I think I might just use a bow.

 

[Yosharian]

Twin Fang, which attacks with my main hand crossbow at range, then advances to melee and attacks with my offhand sword (which, incidentally, reloads the crossbow because of quick reload).

Ah that's pretty neat. Don't you find that Dragoon requires a ridiculous amount of XP though?

 

[Yosharian]

Also you only need the bandolier in your accessories slot, the spare weapons go in the usable item slots. The marksman reload I think only affects handheld weapons. There is a xbow that reloads by making a melee attack though.

OH MY GOD

I didn't realise there was 3 item slots below the accessory slots LMAO

 

[TwoEdge]

Twin Fang, which attacks with my main hand crossbow at range, then advances to melee and attacks with my offhand sword (which, incidentally, reloads the crossbow because of quick reload).

Ah that's pretty neat. Don't you find that Dragoon requires a ridiculous amount of XP though?

Somewhat, yes. My MC ate most of my xp crystals, but it was well worth it. I had all the skills I wanted in a timely fashion. The stat stars were a problem, though. I wanted to raise swords, archery, blaze adept, evasion, meditation, and endurance equally, which I obviously couldn't. I had to pick and choose in the end, but it worked out extremely well.

 

[Yosharian]

Hmm I see. Maybe I'm underestimating how much XP you get by the end of the game.

 

[Yosharian]

blaze adept+lantern amulet and a fire lamp.

Explain how this works, I'm not getting it

 

[Modron]

If you do the map encounters everytime you rest you could have 10-20+ thousand extra xp without deliberate extra resting even.

 

[TwoEdge]

I never figured out how to activate the 'good' damage of stone toss.

This also stumped me for a bit, but it's pretty simple. It works on the same logic as the super sledge you find in the mines. You need to target a stone block (not a boulder) with an empty space behind. It changes the area of effect, though, to three square wide and one square long. It's even harder to use than charge skills, due to positioning and the lack of stone blocks in convenient locations. If I have one item in my wishlist for a mod/official addon is for a geomancer type caster that can conjure stone blocks at will on the battlefield.

 

[TwoEdge]

blaze adept+lantern amulet and a fire lamp.

Explain how this works, I'm not getting it

Attacking with a fire lamp in one of your weapon slots hits for 1 fire damage plus your blaze adept stars. Equip the lantern amulet in an accessory slot and this earns a +3 damage bonus. It works in a pinch when you're low on mana and could potentially synergize with Spellstrike.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Dragoon requires a ridiculous amount of XP

I think it ultimately does, given that Shatter works almost as well as any of the Dragoon power combos. But Dragoon is the only class that can really use these type of synergy-tastic setups. It comes down to whether you just want to finish the game or beat it to a pulp.

If you do the map encounters everytime you rest you could have 10-20+ thousand extra xp without deliberate extra resting even.

I got into a loop of doing all the map encounters, then resting to get my max HP back, then doing them all again. But you can always ramp up the difficulty at that point.

Also once you beat it you can unlock an XP multiplier, make it easier to grind or even harder.

 

[Yosharian]

Not a big fan of the random loot tbh

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Wait, it's random?