Hello Everyone! Today, its finaly time to reveal more about second playable character. It was hard to make the decision what character should be implemented next as it was tempting to just add another “ranged” oriented character and start focusing on next dungeon, or choose hard way, pick up the challenge and implement melee class.

The task was challenging, implement melee character in to top down shooter environment while keeping the gameplay apealing, challenging, but not frustrating. It ll be up to you to judge if i was succesfull as new build is almost ready for release and you ll have chance of testing this new hero by your self sometime during weekend.

THE BLADE DANCER

While Boris was designed to be “introduction hero” easy to pick up and start shooting at everything that moves, Gudrun is bit more complex and difficult to play when tried for first time, but once you ll get the idea how the hero works it only takes few more deaths(yes, you ll probably die a lot when picking her up for first time)and you should find the extra effort very rewarding.

When played for first time, Gudrun is difficult to play because she is melee character, while all enemies are shooting and some are even throwing grenades if you try to hide behind cover. However she is very mobile when played right and have few other tricks ready for players willing to take the challenge and quickly become even more capable than straighforward Boris if the player is willing to take advantage of her abilities. Lets have a look at them:

BASIC ATTACK

Basic attack is what it is. Gudrun swings her sword in desired direction, dealing damage to first enemy in the line. In addition, basic attacks deflect enemy bullets back at the enemies. However basic attack have another and very important function, its basic energy builder as with every enemy struck it replenishes 5 of your precious energy whitch is required by other abilities.

360 ° spin & bullet time

If you hold your attack button for a little while(0.1 second to be accurate) you enter bullet time state and start draining energy. During this short time you slow down all enemy bullets nearby so they are quite easy to dodge, but whats more important you start charging your 360 degree sword swipe and after another 0.3 seconds actualy perform it. This swipe has AOE efect and much greater range than basic attack, it deflects bullets and recharge energy in the same way as basic attacks.

It sounds complicated at first, but belive me, after couple of tries it feels very natural and easy to use.

DASH

Another core ability is to quickly dash across the screen if there is no solid obstacle between you and destination. When you click your dash button Gudrun starts moving really fast to the desired point, its ussualy as fast as blink of an eye(depending on distance). During the dash you are invulnerable to all enemy projectiles. Dash cost quite a lot of energy so you have to choose wisely where to dash as it can drain energy pretty fast leaving you in the middle of enemy fire out of energy without your “slow mo” ability and aoe attacks.

TALENT TREE

Talent tree is again divided in to two sections. The first one “Bladedancer” is all about enhancing your core abilities and adding different effects to them. Talents from this branch ll turn gudrun in to mean bloodthirsty monster with ability to quickly travel across the level using her cheap dash and even damage enemies while dashing.

“Dronemancer” branch is all about gundrone and enhancing their firepower. If you invest to reach final talent you can even have two gundrones orbiting you and firing constant streams of bullets at enemies.

Expect Gudrun in next game update whitch is almost ready and will be released this weekend!

Thanks for reading!

Tryzna