Monster Train

Monster Train

Unofficial Balance Patch
Rising_Dusk  [developer] 8 Nov, 2020 @ 12:52pm
(v1.0.3.0/v1.0.3.1) Balance Discussion
Solgard (Titanchannel)

One of the biggest points of Feedback I hear about Titanchannel on the public Discords across multiple communities playing this game is that it feels bad that the Incants are wasted on him once his Phased is removed. This tweak rebalances his Incant trigger to grant HP and simultaneously lowers his starting HP to line up with his previous HP at the number of Incants to remove Phased +5. Obviously you can have insane Incant synergy in a run that causes this to ultimately become very strong, but on an average run where you hit 30-35 Incants when Seraph reaches top floor, this is rewarding and not overperforming.

Little Fade (Eternal Flame)

I have heard feedback repeatedly that it feels bad for one of Little Fade's paths to have no immediate synergy with Primitive Mold. In her base-game form, this path having Endless completely negates reform strategies and nullifies the value of countless of Melting's cards. It's clear that the developers wanted her Ember cost to balance her strength, but in practice you can't keep getting her killed infinitely anyway because you need her to be clearing heavies. While testing, allowing her to be reformed but at a slightly worse Extinguish rate felt comparably balanced to the current form while additionally adding so much value to Primitive Mold and Melting cards in general.

Steelworker

His playrates were still low even at a raised Armor rate on Resolve, and in discussion it made sense why. A tank that doesn't have any interaction for increasing its performance just does worse than the other tanks in this game, and so Steelworker was never really worth considering unless you were desperate. This rebalance makes him require a lot of interaction to double his Armor gains, but turns him into the prime Armor target in Hellhorned.

One thing to note is how Railhammer interacts with this card. Railhammer on Fortify shows Armor 9, but when you cast it on Steelworker yields Armor 14. This is consistent with other ways that Railhammer interacts with cards (only applying once at the end), and is correct mathematically because (5x2)+4=14. I canvassed a lot of feedback on this, and this was universally the preferred behavior.

Lady of the Reformed

She was underperforming pretty significantly, so she got slight tweaks. She's still very strong with Railhammer in the right clan combination, but this change didn't really adjust that a lot.

Sacrificial Resurrection

Have you ever used Sacrificial Resurrection with 0 Ember left because you thought it'd work and then, woops, the Draff still costs 1 Ember? This addresses that issue.
Last edited by Rising_Dusk; 14 Nov, 2020 @ 6:46pm
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Rising_Dusk  [developer] 14 Nov, 2020 @ 6:46pm 
Wyldenten (Strangler)

Rank 1 of Strangler is incredible and one of the best splashes in the champion; I've made no changes there because none were needed. Ranks 2 and 3, however, are just increases in raw stats and the amounts aren't even worthwhile. Taking either Thornlord or Predator after Strangler 1 is just outright better in every possible case, so I set to task of developing a justification for those ranks. Scaling defensively into boss combats is one thing that Wyldenten is worst at right now, so in the right archetype and with some support a bit of Regen on Slay can go a long way. It also creates an interesting min/max optimization when playing him, and in practice felt meaningful and worthwhile.

Transcendimp

I've received a lot of feedback about Imps with the changes to Imp Parade, and I am still doing a lot of testing here. Given the raw strength of Transcendimp within its archetype, it's a wonder that it is still only 1 Ember cost on live, so this is a step in the right direction.

Current Balance Tests/Thoughts:

Something I am evaluating right now is changing Imp Parade's Summon ability to function the same as it does now, but not actually be a Summon. Obviously, Summon synergizes with Ashes of the Fallen and Transcendimp itself, so the question comes down to if it's too strong when you've already hit the insane highroll Imp build.

My other consideration right now is Formless Child. You look at a rare synergy card hit like Transcendimp being so potent and then you see something like Formless Child and you wonder what happened. I'm developing plans here now, but am open to ideas of course.
KuponutLatte 29 Nov, 2020 @ 11:27am 
What no comments? Gotta have a comment, just to show appreciation.
I enjoyed reading your thoughts on these changes, and I look forward to the next batch!
Rising_Dusk  [developer] 29 Nov, 2020 @ 4:45pm 
I'm glad to know that you enjoy the reasoning! I'll be sure to keep it coming for future changes.
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