All About Trinkets
Hey there, it’s ModusPwnenz again from the design team and I’m going to chat about Trinkets: what they are, what our goals for them are, and where we see them evolving as the game matures and opinions coalesce.
Trinkets are equipment selected in the Atheneum that give large amounts of power throughout a Dive. The power can come either from gaining raw stats over time, increasing the options you have during a run, or from narrowing the pools of rewards down to more usable Vestiges and Font upgrades. Everyone initially starts with four available trinkets to pick from, but more are unlocked via keys gained through the level progression.
Here are some of the main goals for what we wanted Trinkets to cover:
I’m going to give a Trinket as an example of meeting these goals. Although, many Trinkets can and ideally do fit in multiple buckets, such as giving both an impactful upgrade and supporting a core playstyle.
[h3]Give impactful upgrades[/h3]
Heart of a Hero is one of the starting Trinkets, and a good example of giving a nice impactful upgrade. Legendary Fonts are supersized in effect so they can feel really good to get. Even though they are super powerful, this Trinket is balanced around the fact that it is delayed power, meaning it doesn’t have any effect at all until after the first Guardian is defeated. Also, there is both randomness and opportunity cost when selecting a Font upgrade. If you don’t have any glyphs you might get a Font upgrade you don’t want… which can lead to other interesting outcomes where you may need to pivot your build to take advantage of it.
[h3]Support core playstyles[/h3]
There are currently a handful of Trinkets that affect the core keywords, giving them an initial boost and building up into something stronger later in the run. Essence of Quillion is one of them, building up Spiked by utilizing sources of Shield, and eventually creating both naturally at the start of each turn. The main idea here was to build into the tank fantasy, but also give an option for a more supportive role as well, since the shield bonus applies to all allies.
Additionally, these Trinkets have something we internally call “Tilt”, meaning they make certain keywords show up more often. Like many systems, it’s something we’re still iterating on and improving but generally we like how it can help with solidifying a build without outright forcing it.
[h3]Have crazy effects that shift how you play[/h3]
Sometimes people just want to see what happens when you spin the wheel of fortune, and that’s what this next Trinket is all about. One of my personal favorites, the Blessing of Kwills will continually upgrade the rarity of a Draft’s choice as long as you keep rerolling the options. Aside from the dopamine of getting an epic or legendary upgrade, this Trinket is also interesting as it really changes how to approach rewards. Glyphs have higher value, so taking more hard battles for Glyph Globes is a viable strategy, same with going to more Tethered Shrines or Binding Empowerments to get the extra juice.
[h3]Assist in completing quests[/h3]
One piece of feedback we kept hearing is that people wanted ways to help tackle the more complicated quests in the game. Trinkets are one of the solutions to that problem, as seen in the Chart of Stars guaranteeing that the Derelict Starship shows up in the first book selection, making any Starship based quests easier and more efficient to complete. Although we recently made a change that enforces all Books show up as a selection during a Dive, sometimes it’s just nicer to get your quests done in the first book!
[h3]Process of creation and iteration[/h3]
Almost all of the Trinkets went through several stages of updates for balance and fun factor, and many didn’t make the cut for the initial addition. Generally we want to make sure each Trinket hits multiple of the goals listed above, and if not it should be a standout selection in the goal that it does achieve.
Balance was also a big factor for Trinkets. The one issue we did not want to cause is that there would be a clear meta in terms of power level; if any Trinket was always clearly the best one to choose regardless of the circumstance that would lead to stagnant gameplay and dissuade people from trying out more fun Trinkets or ones that they personally enjoy playing.
[h3]The Future[/h3]
More Trinkets are on the way! As people play with them and we see what’s working and isn’t working as well as we hoped, a heap of new ideas spring out of that data and discussion. Also, we want to make sure that all of the core playstyles are supported, so I wouldn’t be too surprised if we had a Critical Charge focused Trinket, or a Bleed Trinket, or a movement based Trinket on the horizon. What else would you like to see? Let us know in the comments or in discord, we’re always listening!
Trinkets are equipment selected in the Atheneum that give large amounts of power throughout a Dive. The power can come either from gaining raw stats over time, increasing the options you have during a run, or from narrowing the pools of rewards down to more usable Vestiges and Font upgrades. Everyone initially starts with four available trinkets to pick from, but more are unlocked via keys gained through the level progression.
Here are some of the main goals for what we wanted Trinkets to cover:
- Give impactful upgrades
- Support core playstyles
- Have crazy effects that shift how you play
- Assist in completing quest
I’m going to give a Trinket as an example of meeting these goals. Although, many Trinkets can and ideally do fit in multiple buckets, such as giving both an impactful upgrade and supporting a core playstyle.
[h3]Give impactful upgrades[/h3]
Heart of a Hero is one of the starting Trinkets, and a good example of giving a nice impactful upgrade. Legendary Fonts are supersized in effect so they can feel really good to get. Even though they are super powerful, this Trinket is balanced around the fact that it is delayed power, meaning it doesn’t have any effect at all until after the first Guardian is defeated. Also, there is both randomness and opportunity cost when selecting a Font upgrade. If you don’t have any glyphs you might get a Font upgrade you don’t want… which can lead to other interesting outcomes where you may need to pivot your build to take advantage of it.
[h3]Support core playstyles[/h3]
There are currently a handful of Trinkets that affect the core keywords, giving them an initial boost and building up into something stronger later in the run. Essence of Quillion is one of them, building up Spiked by utilizing sources of Shield, and eventually creating both naturally at the start of each turn. The main idea here was to build into the tank fantasy, but also give an option for a more supportive role as well, since the shield bonus applies to all allies.
Additionally, these Trinkets have something we internally call “Tilt”, meaning they make certain keywords show up more often. Like many systems, it’s something we’re still iterating on and improving but generally we like how it can help with solidifying a build without outright forcing it.
[h3]Have crazy effects that shift how you play[/h3]
Sometimes people just want to see what happens when you spin the wheel of fortune, and that’s what this next Trinket is all about. One of my personal favorites, the Blessing of Kwills will continually upgrade the rarity of a Draft’s choice as long as you keep rerolling the options. Aside from the dopamine of getting an epic or legendary upgrade, this Trinket is also interesting as it really changes how to approach rewards. Glyphs have higher value, so taking more hard battles for Glyph Globes is a viable strategy, same with going to more Tethered Shrines or Binding Empowerments to get the extra juice.
[h3]Assist in completing quests[/h3]
One piece of feedback we kept hearing is that people wanted ways to help tackle the more complicated quests in the game. Trinkets are one of the solutions to that problem, as seen in the Chart of Stars guaranteeing that the Derelict Starship shows up in the first book selection, making any Starship based quests easier and more efficient to complete. Although we recently made a change that enforces all Books show up as a selection during a Dive, sometimes it’s just nicer to get your quests done in the first book!
[h3]Process of creation and iteration[/h3]
Almost all of the Trinkets went through several stages of updates for balance and fun factor, and many didn’t make the cut for the initial addition. Generally we want to make sure each Trinket hits multiple of the goals listed above, and if not it should be a standout selection in the goal that it does achieve.
Balance was also a big factor for Trinkets. The one issue we did not want to cause is that there would be a clear meta in terms of power level; if any Trinket was always clearly the best one to choose regardless of the circumstance that would lead to stagnant gameplay and dissuade people from trying out more fun Trinkets or ones that they personally enjoy playing.
[h3]The Future[/h3]
More Trinkets are on the way! As people play with them and we see what’s working and isn’t working as well as we hoped, a heap of new ideas spring out of that data and discussion. Also, we want to make sure that all of the core playstyles are supported, so I wouldn’t be too surprised if we had a Critical Charge focused Trinket, or a Bleed Trinket, or a movement based Trinket on the horizon. What else would you like to see? Let us know in the comments or in discord, we’re always listening!