Evercore Heroes: Ascension News

[h3]Join the Dev Q&A Live stream![/h3]

We are live streaming Evercore Heroes for the very first time on this stream!

Come join us as we will be playing a few runs for you as well as answer any of your questions in between games. Can we make it till the end of the run or will we die horribly? Come and find out!

Don't be shy and say hi in the chat!

[h3]Be first to play the all new Evercore Heroes![/h3]

We are getting really close to the next playtest! We've opened the gates and are ready to receive sign-ups ahead of time on our Steam store page! Requesting access gives you the chance to be one of the first to be chosen to play the all new Evercore Heroes when we open for the next playtest!

You do this by going to our store page and pressing the 'request access' button as shown below. Once the playtest starts we'll randomly select & allow access from among the group of signups!

Play as one of 6 mighty and heroic sentinels in this next playtest and set out with your friends on the very first mission in the seven peaks of Kru! Can you create a build powerful enough to get till the end and beat the boss!?

We'll be sharing more information about the next playtest, what you can expect and when we'll allow access really soon!

(go to our store page, look for this button and click!)

[h3]Come join our first developer Q&A live stream![/h3]

Can't wait till the next playtest and want to get a first taste of the game in action? Come watch live as we'll be streaming Evercore Heroes for the very first time this Wednesday the 31st of July here on Steam!

Join our CEO & game director 'Volibar' as well as the dev team to get a first look at the game and ask your burning questions. Will we make it through till the end or die horribly trying? Let's find out together!

We'll be broadcasting Wednesday July 31st on our Steam store page from:

8 - 10 PM CEST
3 - 5 PM EST
11 AM - 1PM PST

We'll be there to answer all your questions so make sure to tune in and we'll see you there!

[h2]Greetings Heroes![/h2]

Today we want to give you an early look at our version of power-ups called 'Shards' and how you can use them to complete your run in style!

(Don't these magical creatures look familiar!??)

One of the most fun core gameplay elements of Roguelites is to try a different build every time you attempt a run to see how far you can get. Evercore Heroes is no different, it will offer you different rewards and island challenges every time you play. This means you'll have to learn and adapt if you want to succeed!

Totally unique to Evercore Heroes is that it's not just you working on a build. You will also need to keep your team composition, their builds and your role in mind! Will you pick something that increases your power, go for a combo piece or will you choose something that might work well with what your team is going for? This will be up to you!

We are still working on the game so all the Shards and thematic categories we are discussing today could change as we further develop the game. Do let us know what you think as we love the feedback and ideas!

Let's dive in and see what we can build!

[h3]What actually are Shards?[/h3]

To help you on your mission to beat big baddies, every island will come with some kind of reward to help you on your way to become more powerful. Rewards come in different shapes and sizes but the most common ones you'll encounter will be Shards. These magical artifacts can be compared to items or power-ups in other Roguelite games that will enhance your sentinel with powerful magical abilities!

Some Shards will grant you a total new ability, others grant you a temporarily boost if a requirement is met while others are more meant as combo pieces or grant you raw power. For example, you could find a Shard that lets you put enemies on fire after you dash and combo this with a shard that lets you explode enemies that are on fire with your abilities and compliment this with a raw percentage ability power boost! Keep in mind that party members can assist you with combo's as well!

Outside of Shards we are also working on ability modifying rewards that will change how an ability works, and can be used to create builds around. This will further diversify how you can play your sentinel. More on those in a future blog!

(Do you prefer to shrink enemies or grow allies?)

[h3]Chase your build![/h3]

As you can imagine, there are quite some shards to explore, collect and experiment with! To make it easier to find certain shards and chase builds we've categorized them for you. Every category has a different theme and a set of shards to fit this theme that will show up as choices to pick from represented by a cute and fierce magical creature!

Here are examples of some of the themes you can encounter, but there are more on the way!

Fury; Deal damage and gain raw power from the mountain peaks of Kru!
Wild; Poison your enemies with toxins found in the deep jungles of Moxie and gain its benefits!
Flame; Put your enemies ablaze and explode them in Noktra style!
Invention; Luumtech inventions from Bios. Gain shields, gadgets and utility skills!
Mischief; Do you like chance? We like chance! Roll the dice and try your luck.

This means that when you see a certain theme pop up on the teleporter, you'll know what kind of shard rewards you can expect if you choose to pick this island as your next destination.

(A symbol will showcase what theme pops up next - can you guess which one this is?)

[h3]How does Shard selection work?![/h3]

You might have some questions about receiving one of these awesome mystical Shards! Selecting one works slightly different in a team than if you'd be playing alone.

As you complete an island with a Shard reward, your team is faced with the reward selection. On this screen you can see a multiple of reward options from the pool of shards available for this theme, which both you as your team can pick from. Highlight the Shard you'd like to have and use this time to discuss what you'd like to go for. Just make sure to keep an eye on the timer! Your teammates will see you what you highlight and select to make coordinating easier. Once happy, select the Shard you'd like to have.

And yes, it's possible for party members to pick the same Shard. You will not be locked out if somebody picks the same Shard as you. We can't wait to see what kind of crazy builds you will come up with!

(You can see the selection of your team to help you make your choice!)

We'll talk more about specific Shards and other upgrades in another blog in the future! Until then!

[h2]Greetings Heroes![/h2]

Today we'll have a look at how you traverse and navigate the lands of Lumerea on your run.



Evercore Heroes takes place in a sci-fantasy world called Lumerea, home to many great regions like the snow covered mountain ranges of Kru! Every region will not only have its own aesthetics but will also hold a set of unique content specific to this region. It's not hard to imagine that some enemies that love the snow and ice of Kru won't do well in the deep humid jungles of Moxy!

Although the environment changes between regions, your goal remains: Survive and become powerful enough to get to the end of the run and beat the endgame encounter! So, what does a run look like and how do you get to the end?

We want to add that, as the game is still in development, the content we are showing today might change as we further develop the game and make adjustments based on feedback.

[h3]Hop, skip, and a jump![/h3]

Like in typical Rogue-lite fashion, you'll be traveling from room to room to collect rewards with the aim to get stronger and beat the final encounter. To keep things simple. we will call these rooms 'islands' for now. Every island is a piece of land set in a biome within the region you are visiting where you'll be tasked to do something before you can gather your reward and progress your run.

Some islands will have you face challenging monsters, others will require you to complete an objective while others will let you by without a fight and for example allow you to shop. The amount of islands on a run, aka how long a run is, will depend on which mission you select.

(The sacrifical pit is one of the objectives you can face on your runs ~ you might want to help there Beko..)

[h3]Types of islands[/h3]

With so many different islands to explore, we currently divide them into the following types (not their official names):

• Monster challenges; THE slay-the-monsters type islands. Beat a certain amount, survive a horde, clean out the room or kill as many as you can for gold! You know what to do here!
  
• Objectives; these house an objective for you to beat. Examples would be to hold a capture point against waves of monsters, survive a dark sacrificing ritual or break a tower that shoots lasers at you and more! Cool hero stuff!
  
• Calm islands; these are islands without enemies on them and generally won't offer a reward for completing them. On these islands you'll find something different that will aid you on your adventure. Like for example a shop to spend your hard earned gold in or a way to buff your party for a limited time. You might even meet a familiar face here.
  

(The shop gives you the chance to spend your hard earned gold during a run!)

[h3]Selecting your next island as a team![/h3]

Part of the fun is that you won't know what the next island is going to be. No two runs will ever be the same and you will have to adapt on the fly! But, how will you be able to create the best build I hear you ask?

Every island will hold one or more dormant teleporters that will activate after you complete the island. Each one of them will give a visual clue of what kind of reward you can expect from the next island and will help you make a decision. Unique to Evercore Heroes however is that you are not alone, so you will have to make this choice as a team!

Important to note is that every team member will benefit from an island reward after completing it, but we all know that sometimes you really REALLY want to focus on a certain build or combo and increase the chances of completing it by picking one path over the other.

Once the team has decided which reward to go for, you will have to stand on one of the pads right below the portal along with your teammates. It will open the portal for all team members to teleport to the next island. The journey continues!

(Select the next island as a team - majority wins!)

We'll be talking more about rewards and what they look like in one of our future articles! Let us know what type of island you'd love to see in the game and we'll see you again in the next article!

[h2]Greetings Heroes![/h2]

In todays Steam update we'll dive into the world of flinging fireballs, casting power shields and revitalizing your allies on the battlefield! We'll have a look into casting spells and ability resource (Luum) management within Evercore Heroes.



As you know, in Evercore Heroes you'll have to work together as a team of three to make it all the way till the end to achieve glorious victory. To enhance the teamwork experience, we've been looking into more ways to create moments of teamplay where players have to lean onto each other a little bit more.

One of the ways we did this is by introducing a new resource to the game we call 'Luum' (also the driving magical force in the world of Lumerea!).

[h3]Using your abilities - Pew pew[/h3]

Luum is the magical essence of the world that's giving our heroes their magical properties and allows them to perform their heroic feats! Every sentinel will play wildly different and will have a different set of abilities for you to use, experiment and theorycraft with.

We quickly noticed that without any type of limitation in place, players would use an ability the moment it was off cooldown. And why wouldn't you? They are powerful abilities that have a greater effect than auto attacking (or help enhance them). There wasn't too much thinking involved, you'd cast it the moment you could or would wait on a completed island challenge until your biggest abilities were off cooldown before advancing to the next so you could use it again.

To combat this we introduced 'Luum'! Abilities will have a Luum cost attached to them and depending on the sentinel and the ability this will be higher or lower. You start the game with a full Luum bar (the blue bar under your character) but this will diminish once you start using your abilities.

Your Luum count will however not replenish between island challenges by default. This means that you'll have to start thinking about when you want to use that projectile blocking shield or stun to save your allies, as when the Luum bar is empty, you will no longer be able to use abilities that cost Luum!


(When out of Luum your abilities turn grey)

[h3]I can recharge my Luum, right?[/h3]

Good question! It doesn't sound like too much fun if you can only use your abilities a few times each run. We agree and got you covered! Currently there are two ways to refresh your Luum bar.

The first is by defeating enemies! Now and then a foe will drop an essence of Luum on the floor which you can pick up at any time by walking over it. Some are small, restoring little, while others are big and restore more of your Luum bar. A small orb in the middle of a fight can mean that all of a sudden you can produce a lot more power during that fight, or if low on Luum, can just get you that boost to save your ally in a pinch!

The second way is hidden in destructible objects around the world of Lumerea, currently we have barrels in the mountain peaks of Kru. Outside of it being super satisfying to break them, they will occasionally drop Luum for you to pick up. These barrels could mean the difference between life and death when you run out of Luum!

It's up to you whether you break them all right away or keep some up during the fight in case you need them. Most of them were left empty by their previous owners, while in others you'll find other shinies... So make sure to get them all before you advance to the next island!

The Luum gathering vs usage balance is designed in a way that you get rewarded for smart usage of your abilities versus spamming. This means that if you use your abilities wisely and at the right times, you'll not find yourself short of Luum very often.


(Pick up blue orbs to refresh Luum)

Let us know in the discussion area what you think and whether you can think of other cool ideas to refresh Luum!

We'll see you again in the next article! Do let us know if there's a topic you'd love to learn more about.

~ Evercore Heroes team