Hey everyone!

After the Alpha test last September we decided to add a new Break Mechanic into the game. Now you can see a small shield icon above each enemy with a certain number. We call them Shield Points, and players can break these points down to zero by attacking and casting different spells. This new game mechanic will encourage the players to engage more in closed combat. In the previous Alpha test, we noticed that the ranged combat turned out to be pretty overpowered and more preferred compared to the closed one. This means that now players will be able to benefit more from approaching the enemies with closed combat weapons. So let's talk about how it actually works.

Break Mechanic

As you probably noticed, each enemy now has a shield icon with a certain number of points. Stronger enemies usually have more Shield Points. Like Fire Jeter, for example, has 5 Shield Points:

Basically hitting with a normal attack will reduce 1 Shield Point from any enemy. But here is when things get more interesting. A player can reduce another 1 extra Shield Point in two cases:
1. A player is standing right next to the enemy and successfully lands an attack/spell (in one of the surrounding tiles around the enemy);
2. An enemy is in state of charging an attack or casting a spell and gets hit by a player during this particular turn.

If you hit both of the conditions above at the same time, then you can reduce 2 additional Shield Points and get 3 points in total. That's actually a lot!

Also, don't forget! Some certain weapons have a skill buff for combo attacks. Which also gives you a chance to reduce an extra shield point in one turn.

Combo Mechanic

So why all this hustle with Shield Points? The thing is, once you break enemy Shield Points to 0, the enemy will get stunned for several turns and you get a juicy damage buff for the following 5 turns. And that's when the Combo Meter kicks in.

You will have exactly 5 turns before the Level 1 Combo Meter and damage buff disappear entirely. But you can continue the combo chain by breaking another enemy shield and increase the Combo Meter to Level 2. By doing this, you will be able to get an even bigger damage buff. And on top of that, you will get additional Blinks recovery in the same room.

The Break and Combo Mechanics really matter because it redefines your combat strategy in a very different way. It encourages players to use more skills and close combat attacks to break the Shield Points as quickly as possible. It will definitely make you think twice before doing your next turn!

These are basically new core gameplay mechanics, and combined with other aspects of the game it offers a totally unique battle experience. So according to this, we also made a couple of adjustments on MP and Blink usage.

Changes in MP (Mana Points) Recovery

We made MP in Crown Trick somewhat unique compared to traditional RPG games. Rather than saving MP for later during your typical dungeon crawl, we encourage players to use it as much as possible in the early game. The MP system now is not merely about spending and recovering, but more about the strategical use of skills.

1. Now your MP is fully refilled every time you enter a new room.
2. During a boss battle, you can recover some of the MP when you reduce the boss's HP to a certain level.
3. MP cost for skills is now much higher than before.

Blink Adjustments

In previous versions of Crown Trick, Blink ability required some MP and you could only teleport in one of the four directions that the main character was facing. But now:

• You can blink to any spot of an area around the character;

• Blink doesn't count as a turn itself anymore, which means you can blink right next to the enemy and attack right after the blink in the same turn;

• You can see a new bar directly beneath the character with 3 standard and 4 additional slots. This shows how many blinks you still have.

• You will have a basic of 3 blinks each time you enter a new room. And every time you perform a combo chain, you can get 1 extra blink (the maximum amount is 7).

This way the blinking ability will now become a very precious trick in your pocket that will help you significantly if used properly.

That's it for today. We hope we didn't overwhelm you guys with so many balancing changes in the game. Let us know your thoughts about all of this in the comments!