1. Those Who Rule
  2. News
  3. Brutal Mode Challenge: June 7th

Brutal Mode Challenge: June 7th

Hey everyone!

As I posted on the roadmap, I've been working on a Brutal mode for fans who enjoy a really difficult challenge. I also wanted to make it a fun community event with a friendly competition, with an in-game prize immortalizing the winner. It's almost ready, and I'm ready to announce the start date:

June 7th, 10 AM PST (UTC−07:00)



Brutal Mode Changes
  • EXP gain reduced by 20%, scaling down sharply when overleveled, leading to no gains once 4+ levels over the average enemy on a map. Healers happens sooner at 2+.
  • New powerful elite abilities meant to counter popular strategies. More bonus stats to elites. More elites throughout the game.
  • Scaled up enemy stats, with extra scaling depending on the class' strengths. More enemies and reinforcements.
  • AI behavior tweaked in almost every chapter to better act in groups.
  • More loot provided through chapters.
  • Permadeath always enabled.
Rules
  1. The winner will be the first person to send me the save file of their completed Brutal mode run. Emailed to [email protected]. Winner is decided on first to hit my email inbox. I'll take a few days to process and verify all the entries.
  2. This is not an ironman challenge, you may restart chapters as many times as you need.
  3. You may still choose between random or fixed growths.
  4. I've decided to not require a video recording of the entire playthrough, as I know this will make it too cumbersome on many people who'd like to attempt the challenge. Instead, I've added some protections against cheating, and detection for any tampering.
  5. Hacking or save tampering of any kind will disqualify you.
  6. Knowingly abusing a bug to gain an advantage will disqualify you. If you run into one on accident, please email me so I can patch it out instead.
  7. If I don't receive any finished runs within 3 weeks, I may tone down the difficulty a bit.
  8. In the off chance you run into any game breaking bugs/freezes, you may send me your save file and I'll try to fix it ASAP. I'm not aware of any currently in game.
Prizes
  • The first person to complete the game on Brutal mode difficulty will get to commission a custom in-game character that will appear in other Brutal mode play-throughs. We'll work together to create a mood-board we'll send to the character artist, as well as their stats/classes/personal skill. I will then work to get that character into the game on other Brutal mode play-throughs.
  • The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place will all get a special shout-out in the post-game credits.

We're also currently on an all-time high sale of 30% for the #TurnBasedThursday Fest, so now is the best time to pick up the game if you're wanting to prepare!

This new content will be completely free and optional. I hope it allows those of you who relish challenging content further enjoy the game.

Again, thank you everyone for your support thus far. I couldn't have asked for a better community around the game, and I'm truly humbled by the level of attention it's received. Hoping I can continue to deliver these kind of experiences to you all for many years to come!

Best,
Eldin T.