Starting Note

This is going to be the final dev log before the release of v0.1. I plan on releasing the game sometime this weekend, as testing has concluded for the most part.

There's nothing more I wish to reveal at this time, so let's jump right into Brewing Station.

Base, Up To Tier 2 Upgrades And The Ability

Brewing Station has been a solid support tower, focused on its buffs while being able to somewhat fend for itself in the early rounds. For the most part, the base remains unchanged aside from shifting top path up a tier.

• 0/0/0 - Base

  • Price increased from $500 to $550

  • Potion splash pierce is now capped at 15

• 1/x/x - Boosting Blast

  • Moved to 2/x/x

  • Renamed to "Stimulating Boosts"

  • Stimulation buff cooldown increased from 6.25s to 8s

  • Stimulation attack can now only target 1 tower maximum

  • Stimulation attack targeting option removed

    • Now defaults to the closest tower

  • Buff stats readjusted

    • Pierce boost increased from +1 to +2

    • Range boost increased from +7.5% to +10%

• New 1/x/x - Larger Potions

  • Increases potion explosion pierce by 5

  • Increases potion explosion radius by 15

• x/x/1 - Faster Brewer

  • Moved to x/x/2

  • Renamed to "Faster Brewing"

• x/x/2 - Longer Effects

  • Moved to x/x/1

  • Now increases potion acid debuff duration by 25% instead of +2s

    • Also fixes interaction with x/1/2

Just like with Magic Orb's fireball, the potion here is getting pierce capped. This shouldn't matter all too much, as enemies are spaced enough in the early rounds that the cap won't be reached. The only point of concern is again, Time Trials, but there are usually better options to start than Brewing Station, even if the massive splash debuff did a ton.

A more interesting point here is that the entire buffing path was moved up a tier. I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with 1/x/x, so I just decided to make it a pierce and splash size upgrade. Additionally, the buff got a few stats rearranged just at the first tier. My main reason for doing this is, since the buff is so powerful, I may as well restrict it behind higher tiers, therefor locking the tower out of the other 2 paths if they choose to push forward with it.

The buff target limit is something I choose to experiment with. Currently, even if the stimulation attack happens fast enough to buff several towers, it will only focus on the tower closest to it. I chose to do this because I want Brewing Station's buff to be more focused instead of area buffs like Aura Booster does, and while it was already pretty focused, I felt that it being able to target too many towers at once would not only break what I want, but also ruin its uptime rather significantly.

The bottom path upgrade swap felt like a good decision to me, as speed and then longer duration didn't feel right.

The ability, Great Boost, still does exactly what it used to do, handing out the buff to all towers on screen. Only difference is that it inflicts the weaker buff since that's now 2/x/x.

Top Path - Simulating Stimulation

Now, based on the previous section, you can probably guess that the 2/x/x and 3/x/x upgrades in the original were shifted to 3/x/x and 4/x/x for this version. Besides that, the buffs themselves have also received changes.

• 3/x/x - Stimulation buff provides more pierce, range, and attack speed, and lasts longer

• 4/x/x - Stimulation buff provides even more pierce, range, and attack speed, lasts far longer, and can be given to several towers at once at a faster rate

This path is centered around buffs, with the effects and duration increasing every tier. Now, the main thing you may notice, is 4/x/x. Unlike the original, the master brew no longer provides extra damage compared to the other tiers, however still provides increased pierce, range, and speed. The main focus of the upgrade is providing very good uptime to multiple towers within its range, which is good for spam towers like Crossbow.

The ability for this path continues to be like Great Boost, where it provides the buff to every tower on the field. Unlike the original, the ability buff duration increases per tier and 4/x/x now provides the main buff instead of a separate, weaker buff.

Lastly, both of these upgrades can increase the amount of targets they can buff at maximum with x/x/2. This is situationally useful for 3/x/x, as currently it can mess up the near perfect uptime with slower towers as it would start trying to buff other towers.

Middle Path - Brewing A Deadly Toxin

The middle path focuses on the explosive toxin that the middle ultimate had in the original.

• x/3/x - Potion is replaced with a toxin potion every few attacks, causing bosses to give a portion of their max health as damage on death

• x/4/x - Increases toxin potion rate, toxin creates harsher explosions, and the normal debuff hits faster and harder

Figuring out how to do the toxin effect with the tier 3 and then justify why you'd want the ultimate made this a little challenging. So I decided that the tier 3 should inflict the ability toxin that the middle ultimate inflicted in the original. Additionally, I made it slightly less consistent as it tosses the potion at a slower rate.

One of the main things between the two tiers is that the ultimate gets a new ability, Deadliest Toxin. Deadliest Toxin functions identically to the ultimate ability from the original, where it automatically inflicts the tier 3 toxin to all bosses on screen. While it is useful for lategame rounds in case the Brewing Station itself can't cover everything, it is primarily used for Time Trials to still clear basically everything on screen instantly.

At first, I considered getting rid of that ability, but I felt that wasn't the right move, especially with tier 3 upgrades being added.

Bottom Path - Coverage Cycle

This path focuses on various forms of crowd control, in a more unreliable way unlike Magic Orb's Nature Shifter ult. The difference here is that this path is far cheaper, and has some better options that Nature Shifter may lack.

• 3/x/x - Increases attack rate, and now cycles through 4 more special potions, through a 5 attack cycle

• 4/x/x - Increases attack rate again, as well as improving all 4 special potions

The structure of this path's cycle remains identical to the original, with the special potions composing of the frost potion, red potion, shock potion, then the knockback potion.

There have been a few changes involving each individual potion, excluding the Red Potion. The frost potion now inflicts the slow in an area instead of single target, the shock potion shock delay is now stackable, and the knockback potion knockback aura now has a pierce limit and rehits at a slow rate instead of every frame.

The tier 3 takes all of the special potions and weakens them to be more fitting of an early-mid game tower. It can't handle all that much on its own, but it can give a helping hand in case a tower can't handle everything very well. Just be warned that this tower can be overrun fairly easily.

The ability, The Ultra-Potion, merges all of the special potions into one, just like the original. The major difference, besides all of the individual potion changes, is that the shock now has the delay instead of exploding instantly. Getting all of the effects at once for a few attacks can be incredibly useful, especially in dense groups, as the knockback, slow, and delayed stun and shove everything back.

Ending Note

Brewing Station still remains that one support tower that has an offensive element that the rest don't have. All of the paths should show some form of usefulness in different circumstances, as they all cover vastly different roles.

That's all for the towers coming back in v0.1, and probably done for the dev logs for this release. I'll see you on in the next post, which should be the patch notes for v0.1's release!