Final DLC Part 1/4: All about Divergences!

[p]Hello Heroes! [/p][p] [/p][p]We hope you’re doing okay announced that the third DLC of The Last Spell would be the final DLC for the game, and that the DLC would be available in early 2026. [/p][p]We’ve been working all summer on this DLC, and right now, we’re starting to have every system nicely implemented in the game. It’s all VERY WIP, as most of the systems don’t have any UIs yet, and there’s no balancing yet. But we’re happy with our direction so far, and we can’t wait for you to experience it! [/p][p]We also organized some closed betas that allowed us to refine the different systems (a HUGE thank you to our very special beta testers A new formula [p]In the last announcement, we clarified that this would be the last DLC for The Last Spell, and that it would be different from previous DLCs. So, you might be asking: why exactly, and in what way? [/p][p]After finishing Elves of Amberwald, we made a clear observation: it would be extremely difficult for us to make another “race + map + 3 weapons” DLC that would meet our standards in terms of quality. When we make new content for the game, we want it to be fun, interesting and refreshing. It’s not that we have no ideas for new maps, weapons or races, but they would either be too similar to some existing content, or cost way too much to develop. [/p][p]Instead, we decided to focus on something else entirely: game systems and mechanics. Now, what kind of new systems do we want? We decided on three main points: [/p]

[p]The new systems should make runs more diverse and different from each other [/p]

[p]The new systems should add short or long-term goals/challenges to create new motivations during runs [/p]

[p]The new systems should be “optional”: players can ignore them during a run if they don’t want to use them, preserving the “vanilla” experience [/p]

[p]You can keep these points in mind for future blogposts, as all new systems respect them. Now that the scope of the DLC has been set, I’m here to introduce one of the new systems that will be part of it: Divergences. [/p][p] [/p]

Introducing Divergences

[p]To make it simple, a Divergence is an optional challenge for the coming night. Divergences will appear every 2 to 3 days, at the start of the production phase, and will offer a choice between 3 options: [/p][p][/p][p]\[UI Work in Progress] [/p]

[p]Standard Divergence: an effect that will make the coming night harder for the player. It’s the basic version of the Divergence. [/p]

[p]Strong Divergence: a “hardcore” version of the Standard Divergence. It has the same effect, but boosted. In exchange, it grants more rewards. [/p]

[p]Refuse: this option will keep the coming night unchanged but does not give any rewards. [/p]

[p]Divergences can have a wide variety of effects, like adding more enemies, boosting enemies, or even handicapping the Heroes. When a Divergence appears, its effect is chosen at random, so you will see different divergences every run, even if you play the same map over and over. I will tease a few of the possible effects later in the blogpost. [/p][p]The main objective of Divergences is to give players the opportunity to take a risk and increase the difficulty of the coming night – a frequent mechanic in roguelikes. But it also brings something else: the player can potentially plan the night more carefully, as divergences give a more precise idea of the challenges awaiting them. This is already something that exists using the seer, but Divergences really extend it. For example, if you see a Divergence that adds a lot of Accursed to the wave, you may want to equip one or two more Heroes with a magic weapon. [/p][p]The difficulty of Divergences scales with nights and maps, so a divergence on Elderlicht night 10 will probably have much stronger effects than a divergence on Lakeburg night 2. [/p][p] [/p][p][/p][p]Here, the night 9 Divergence is much harder, but also grants better rewards. Would you take the risk? [/p][p] [/p][p]As a side note, you might be thinking “what the hell are Memories ?”. The answer to that will come in another blogpost. In the meantime, think of it as a resource you will most likely want to collect during runs, just like Materials or Gold. [/p][p] [/p][p]We are currently testing and tuning this new mechanic, with the help of our lovely beta testers, along with the rest of the new features in DLC3. Getting early feedback from players has helped us a lot and has already helped us make much needed improvements and adjustments. For example, following the first round of playtests, beta testers told us that they always got the same divergences and that the system lacked variety. We have since added a few more and tweaked their chances of appearing, which has made the feature much more enjoyable. [/p][p] [/p]

Examples

[p]Before we end this blogpost, here are a few examples of Divergences you might encounter during your runs with the upcoming DLC. Keep in mind that all values you see are likely to change in the final version, as we are still doing a lot of testing, tweaking and balancing. [/p][p][/p][p]\[UI Work in Progress] [/p][p][/p][p]\[UI Work in Progress] [/p][p] [/p][p]\[UI Work in Progress] [/p][p] [/p][p]Enabling a Divergence adding 18 Elite Runners maybe wasn’t a bright idea! [/p][p] [/p][p]And that’s it for today, I think we went through everything there is to know about Divergences. But stay tuned for future blogposts, as this is only one of the new systems we are introducing in DLC3. [/p][p][/p][p]We hope you’ll enjoy this DLC as much as we did working on it! [/p][p]The Final DLC of The Last Spell will be released in early 2026! [/p][p][/p]

Future blogposts!

[p]To tease you a bit of what's next to come, here are the upcoming blogposts for the DLC:[/p]

[p]Ordalies[/p]
[p]Epiphanies[/p]
[p]Eposes[/p]

[p]Intriguing, don't you think?[/p][p] [/p][p]Take care