The Codex of Roguelikes

[Machocruz]

Trying the Path of Achra demo. Trying to make some kind of melee blood build work. The top 4 attempts so far (5 hours):

I'm not an expert at RLs, but the sudden damage spikes that kill me in this seem kind of sus. Is the final game tuned any differently?

 

[Kabas]

Things will get easier once you figure out what works and what doesn't. First cycle of humility is doable even with a somewhat suboptimal build.
Regeneration from the life tree is nice skill to pump if you want some survivability for your blood warrior. Synergizes well with healing you get from blood.
Not sure if you have enough skillpoints but i noticed that none of your characters have a prestige class. Lifedrinker, Executioner and Blood Mage all seem like a solid choices for a blood warrior build.

 

[Cogemesiter]

Trying the Path of Achra demo. Trying to make some kind of melee blood build work. The top 4 attempts so far (5 hours):

I'm not an expert at RLs, but the sudden damage spikes that kill me in this seem kind of sus. Is the final game tuned any differently?

I went from Demo to full game and yes, the full game doesn’t feel as “sudden” as the demo. However I’m still pretty bad at it, and trying out some weird builds that kick ass at first and I steamroll everyone and then all the sudden get wrecked by some enemy.

 

[Arrowgrab]

My first victory was an Ape Assassin of Humbaba dual-wielding daggers. Apes get bonuses for not wearing armour, I found a dagger that gave extra attacks for not wearing armour, and ramped my DEX sky high to get great dodging ability to compensate for my lack of armour. High DEX also meant high speed, so my multiple attack routine could be triggered even more often. For skills, I only took martial ones: the most expensive one that gives extra attacks, one that improves the use of small weapons (since daggers), and maybe a third one, don't recall.

 

[Machocruz]

Fuuuuuuuck. Almost. Last board of last location

Got hemmed in by blood resistant golems while getting pelted from afar. Minions killed in seconds.

 

[Kabas]

Fuuuuuuuck. Almost. Last board of last location

Got hemmed in by blood resistant golems while getting pelted from afar. Minions killed in seconds.

Maybe you should try going for technique instead of guard. It's expensive but absolutely worth it methinks.

 

[jakkis]

Trying the Path of Achra demo. Trying to make some kind of melee blood build work. The top 4 attempts so far (5 hours):

I'm not an expert at RLs, but the sudden damage spikes that kill me in this seem kind of sus. Is the final game tuned any differently?

I went from Demo to full game and yes, the full game doesn’t feel as “sudden” as the demo. However I’m still pretty bad at it, and trying out some weird builds that kick ass at first and I steamroll everyone and then all the sudden get wrecked by some enemy.

This is a classic roguelike experience is it not?

 

[Machocruz]

This is a classic roguelike experience is it not?

The internet kept saying how "overpowered" you become and how they got their first win in only a few runs, so my expectations were for different. But it's fine, I'm not into super casual games anyway.

 

[sser]

You have to look at what enemies are coming up and see if they'll nuke your setup. Once you got them squared away, it's mostly a question of scouting items, either to bundle more for sacrifices or, of course, pairing them with skills. I've won runs with builds completely opposite of what I intended to build, so I think items/skills being properly paired is far more important than anything you actually start with. The starting char-style-god thing is just the extra juice for mega OP shit now and again.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

Trying the Path of Achra demo. Trying to make some kind of melee blood build work. The top 4 attempts so far (5 hours):

I'm not an expert at RLs, but the sudden damage spikes that kill me in this seem kind of sus. Is the final game tuned any differently?

I went from Demo to full game and yes, the full game doesn’t feel as “sudden” as the demo. However I’m still pretty bad at it, and trying out some weird builds that kick ass at first and I steamroll everyone and then all the sudden get wrecked by some enemy.

This is a classic roguelike experience is it not?

It's not. Achra is kinda a "condensed" buildfag kind of game. The game focuses on making your build work and then doing combat in small area (terrain kinda matters, using chokepoint and so on as melee). There is no big world to explore (everything is stage based) nor there is item focused gameplay like Nethacks or even ADOM. Most equipment has passive components that could synergize with your build.

 

[Machocruz]

You have to look at what enemies are coming up and see if they'll nuke your setup. Once you got them squared away, it's mostly a question of scouting items, either to bundle more for sacrifices or, of course, pairing them with skills. I've won runs with builds completely opposite of what I intended to build, so I think items/skills being properly paired is far more important than anything you actually start with. The starting char-style-god thing is just the extra juice for mega OP shit now and again.

I briefly watched someone play the final release and it seemed to tell you every enemy that will be in an area, while in the demo it will show you one, maybe two of the enemies and the rest are a question mark, and those unknowns are the ones that get ya. Maybe people complained about information being withheld like that and the dev changed it. But yeah, you learn pretty quickly that not paying attention to that info will hold you back. Overall it's a cool system. Kind of reminds me of DCSS where you have to consider if you will do certain branches on a run based on what gear and/or resists you have

Also, no sacrificing in the demo.

 

[stephensmall]

Played some Sulphur Memories: Alchemist a while back. It's a crafting-based roguelike where you don't get any XP for fighting and instead progress your character by finding/buying books and unlocking recipes from a skill tree. Kind of like Underrail but with 3 different XP types.
It's a cool idea but the game is currently way too grindy and content-barren. Also, for an alchemy game it's sorely lacking in the experimentation aspect, which is really dumb. Will still keep an eye on it.

Any recs for other non-combat-based roguelikes? They don't need to be completely devoid of combat, just gotta have a bunch of other elaborate mechanics. LCS and Elona come to mind but I've already played them to death.

 

[getter77]

Elin coming soon on Steam as well as Creator of Another World...want to say there's some amount more that are semi-active or on the near horizon---but such within the niche remain a rarity due to the precarity of dev.

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

Does Elin have trannyism?

I saw the latest versions of Elona have tranny pronouns.