Starting Note

Another few days have passed, and all of the coding/art for the update is complete! Now I'm on the final testing phase for the update, so expect it to release sometime soon!

Now, without further ado, here's the final dev log for v0.2, all about Power Charger:

Base, Up To Tier 2 Upgrades and The Ability

Power Charger got another rework regarding its charge. Overall I wanted the charge to feel more impactful, but you won't see that until the later tiers.

• Base

  • Pierce increased from 2 to 3

  • Price increased from $610 to $625

  • Charge mechanic reworked

    • Charge gain, cap, and loss are all reduced

    • Charge gain is now 20 per attack, plus 10 per base damage dealt

    • Charge cap is reduced to 1000

    • Charge loss is now linear instead of exponential, and delay is doubled

    • Charge no longer influences pierce, and attack speed boost is +1% per 20 charge

  • Due to the charge overhaul, all the below upgrades will be summaries of what the upgrades do

• Faster Charge (1/x/x) - $600

  • Charge gained per attack increased from 20 to 30

• Uncharged Boost (2/x/x) - $1250

  • Base attack cooldown reduced from 0.5s to 0.4s

• Piercing Orbs (x/1/x) - $750

  • Pierce increased from 3 to 6

• Burning Orbs (x/2/x) - $1000

  • Damage increased from 1 to 2

  • Projectiles can damage Metals

• Increased Capacity (x/x/1) - $1000

  • Charge cap increased from 1000 to 2000

• Reduced Decay (x/x/2) - $1500

  • Charge loss delay increased from 2s to 2.5s

  • Charge loss base rate reduced from -20 to -10

  • Charge loss increasing rate reduced from -20/s to -15/s

• Overcharge Ability (2/2/2)

  • Increases damage, pierce, and attack speed for 10s

  • Charge is capped while active

  • Prevents natural charge loss for 5s afterwards

  • Has a 40s cooldown

Power Charger is still going to be a tower that relies primarily on its charge to become most effective. While that won't be entirely clear based on the new lower tier upgrades described above, it'll become way more clear with all of the Tier 3 and Ultimates.

The primary reason I decided to use lower numbers here is cuz I didn't feel like the charge needed to display in such a large number, which also allows me to just use a linear decay rate instead of exponential.

Charge now only influences attack speed, instead of also increasing pierce and damage of the orbs. However, to compensate, the orbs now gain charge per base damage dealt. Incase you don't know what I mean by this, "base damage" refers to the damage the orb has prior to buffs from stuff like Brewing Station.

You'll also notice that the Orb-itals aren't part of the new tier 2 upgrades, the primary reason for this is that I wanted it to be a path specific focus instead of something all 3 paths could have.

Lastly, the Overcharge ability. In the original, the ability would just bring charge up to 150% and prevent charge for a while. Here, it'll now overcharge speed, pierce, and damage, as well as capping charge while active. I felt it was important to have Overcharge influence pierce and damage since charge itself no longer influences them.

Top Path - A Helping Hand

Top path is the support path for Power Charger, using its charge as a means to boost other towers.

• 3/x/x - Power Spread

  • Ability changed to Power Spread, making the Power Charger to give all of its charge to a tower of choice.

• 4/x/x - Excess Power

  • Upon hitting charge cap, any excess charge gained is spread to nearby towers.

If you're looking for an extra bit of support, it's best to use top path Power Charger.

Power Spread replaces the Overcharge ability with Power Spread, so you'll lose a powerful offense ability for a support ability. This ability allows you to exchange all of the stored charge to apply a boost to a tower of your choice. This is similar to the original 3/x/x Hyper-Charge, however it uses a decay and boost system similar to if the tower was a 2/0/2 Power Charger.

Don't worry if your Power Charger doesn't have any stored charge however, as Power Spread gives a minimum of 1000 charge itself, then the additional charge given by the ability is equivalent to 50% of the Power Charger's charge.

Excess Power now allows the Power Charger to spread its charge to nearby towers once it reaches maximum. This contributes to the same effect as Power Spread's ability. Excess power is spread at a 20% rate, so if the Power Charger gets 50 charge, it'll spread 10 charge to all nearby towers.

Middle Path - Using Charge To Produce Charge

Middle path focuses on more single target damage, providing a bonus to damage based on charge.

• x/3/x - Charged Up

  • Power orbs deal more damage based on current charge, however attacking costs more charge based on the damage boost

• x/4/x - Destructive Charger

  • Power orbs deal more base damage and Charged Up effect ramps up faster and has a far higher cap

This path brings back the damage ramping that Power Charger had in the original, and does it in a way where charge feels more important.

Charged Up provides +1 damage per 500 charge, up to a cap of +3 damage, however it'll take 25 charge to attack per bonus damage gained. This damage ramping effect applies to the attack's base damage, meaning that you'll get more charge from hitting enemies.

It'll be impossible to reach the full 2000 charge while attacking just a singular target, as eventually the charge lost per attack will be greater than the amount gained per hit.

Destructive Charger increases the ramping to +2 damage per 200 charge, up to a cap of +18, but also increases the cost per attack to -40 per bonus damage gained. There's not much else to it.

The ability stays as Overcharge. This is insanely beneficial as capping charge for 10 seconds will also have the damage boost capped. Note that the cost per attack will kick back in after the 10 seconds is over, as it's not the natural charge loss mentioned before.

Bottom Path - Orbital Destruction

Bottom path focuses on close-ranged group destruction.

• x/x/3 - Orb-ital Pulse

  • When above half capacity, periodically release a high-pierce orb-ital

• x/x/4 - Surrounded

  • All orb-itals are stronger, and release 2 permanent orbitals

Similar to the bottom path upgrades in the original, these upgrades release orb-itals that have a high amount of pierce. However, they are not permanent, aside from the 2 perma-orbs provided by Surrounded.

Orb-ital Pulse causes the Power Charger to release the orb-itals every second or so, depending on its charge, once it reaches half charge. These orbitals have an extremely high amount of pierce, and last for a maximum of 10 seconds. Similar to Charged Up, reaching maximum charge off a single target alone won't be doable without the use of Overcharge, as the orb-itals cost 200 charge to release.

Surrounded adds extra orbs that circle the Power Charger is alternate directions, at a larger range than the normal orb-itals. Additionally, normal orb-itals are released faster and take less charge, as well as dealing more damage.

Ending Note

There's not much else to end this with, but the update is planned to drop within the next few days, but I'll have to see how testing goes.

See you all soon with the patch notes!