Super Sonic Form currently gives 7 Strength and 7 Dexterity. I was considering revisions b/c the nature of Checkpoint + Super Sonic makes it very Heart-unfriendly.

One revision idea is to make Super Sonic Form a 1 cost card and
You'd have to play at least two rings in the same turn. But I thought it was too overpowered. I might include an option in the config to have it... but not until I figure out how to add music to this game.

Originally posted by MetalBall:

One revision idea is to make Super Sonic Form a 1 cost card and

Gain 7 Strength. Gain 7 Focus. Rings must be played to gain Intangible. DIE EVERY TURN.

You'd have to play at least two rings in the same turn. But I thought it was too overpowered.

That's hilariously thematic.

I've been thinking about how to adapt it suitably for this game without losing too much flavor. The possibility of staying intangible should be extremely difficult like looping nightmares and wraith forms, so perhaps it'd make more sense to look for a downside elsewhere.

Numbers can always be tweaked of course, so my tentative approach would be to keep the cost at 3 and gain 1 intangible so you neither die nor benefit much from the buffs that turn.
Then, to put the player on a timer, you exhaust cards from anywhere each turn.
The idea is that more cards means more time, so generating rings helps but only delays the inevitable because the "end of turn exhaust" picks random targets.
You're not strictly invincible but the buffs should give you enough tempo to seal the deal.

Another upside of this approach is that stacking the power also worsens the timer, so it'll be a special treat for runs with snecko eye but likely too tricky for most other runs.

Speed Break
On every upgrade, increment the number of random cards. Balance is tricky with Crest of Fire cards. I could manipulate the cost and the effect a lot and still end up unsatisfied.

It was a dumb idea I just thought of rn lol.

Originally posted by MetalBall:

Checkpoint: Shuffle 7 Chaos Emeralds into your draw pile. Chaos Emerald: Gain 1 Strength. Gain 1 Dexterity. Draw 1 card.

It was a dumb idea I just thought of rn lol.

Depends. Tentative tweaking yields this:


5 block to reimburse checkpoint's opportunity cost (~2) spread across 7 emeralds (so ~14 total from a 1-cost card that exhausts but does nothing), the delayed draw which is basically a discard (~2), and ethereal (~1).

If you wanna stick with "draw 1", cut ethereal to save space and reduce block to 2, but exhaust makes too much sense not to have it, imo.

Yeah it definitely has to exhaust if I go the Chaos Emerald route.

Honestly, shuffling 7 of anything is Really questionable b/c it just hurts card draw.

Maybe if I give it retain, make it act like a Ring, and if you have 7 of them in hand or in exhaust pile, exhaust all to play Super Sonic.

But I don't think I'm going to go the Chaos Emerald route. Shuffling 7 cards into the deck just feels bad in concept.

It might make sense as a relic (possibly from an event that can't spawn in act 1) where you meet certain objectives to unlock the ability to turn into Super Sonic, but the way that the official games handle this mechanic is always a lil different, so you have many options.

It could be on-demand, permanent, only for bosses, reset the objectives each fight, pay a cost upfront, put you on a harsh timer, worsen that timer exponentially, etc.


I don't think it's a necessary inclusion as it's typically the cherry on top, but that's also why I think it deserves to be more special than just a card that eventually leads to bonus stats.

Luckily there's the matryoshka approach where one thing opens into multiple things to expand its own complexity. In concrete terms, if a mod runs out of text space, they design cards that produce more cards (like your concept), relics that split in two, reusable potions, clickable orbs (see Conquer and Shion...I think), or a separate tracker (see Levelhead).

So yeah, go wild if you're in the mood. It might lead to some frustrating coding though, lmao.