In this devlog, I would like to give you a closer look at the gameplay loop of Idle Pixel Battle and introduce some of the systems I have implemented over the past few months.
From the different heroes and their abilities to randomized items and permanent upgrades, there are many ways to improve your party and progress further and further.
The Heroes
At the beginning of each run, you assemble your party from a selection of different heroes. Each hero has their own stats, equipment, and abilities, giving them a distinct role within the team.
Knight
The Knight usually stands at the front and protects the rest of the party. His abilities focus on direct damage, defensive effects, and controlling enemies. Here is a selection of his abilities:
Archer
The Archer specializes in high damage, critical hits, and special arrows. With the right equipment and upgrades, he can create particularly powerful damage combinations.
Mage
The Mage uses a variety of spells to weaken enemies and pressure them with status effects such as Burn, Slow, and Power Down.
By changing the positions of your heroes and combining their abilities, you can experiment with different party compositions.
- More heroes will be added alongside these three! -
Stats and Level-ups
Each hero has several stats that determine their strengths in battle:
LVL shows the hero's current level.
Power increases the damage they deal.
Crit determines the chance of landing a critical hit.
Armor reduces incoming direct damage.
Speed affects how quickly the hero attacks and uses their abilities.
Luck improves, among other things, the chances of receiving better rewards and rarer level-up options.
After winning enough battles, a hero gains a level. With each level-up, you can choose from several randomized upgrades and decide how the hero develops during the current run.
You might build an exceptionally fast Archer, an extremely resilient Knight, or a Mage with a high critical hit chance. The upgrades offered are different in every run.
Items, Potions, and Rewards
During a run, you will find various items that support you in battle.
Potions can be dragged directly onto a hero and used. They can restore health, grant Block, or alter status effects, for example.
Artifacts, on the other hand, provide passive effects that remain active throughout the entire run. Some artifacts strengthen your heroes, while others alter specific combat mechanics or trigger effects under certain conditions. Here is a selection:
Treasure chests may also appear after winning battles. They can contain gold, potions, equipment, artifacts, and other rewards.
Between battles, you can also visit a shop and spend your collected gold on new items.
Because the available items and rewards are selected randomly, every run develops a little differently.
Special Encounters
In addition to regular battles, special encounters can also appear during a run.
At the Slot Machine, you can risk your gold for a chance to receive various rewards. With a little luck, you may obtain potions, equipment, artifacts, or additional resources. Of course, a spin can also end without a reward.
The Altar gives you the opportunity to heal the entire party slightly, helping prevent your adventure from ending prematurely.
Enemies and Bosses
The different biomes are populated by numerous enemies. Even regular enemies have their own abilities and can fulfill specific roles within an enemy group.
For example, the Bee can inflict Bleed with its stinger and protect itself with the Thorns status effect.
At the end of each biome, a significantly stronger boss enemy awaits you.
Wondering which abilities this boss has?
You will have to find out for yourself.
Permanent Upgrades
Even when a run ends, your journey does not start completely from scratch.
You earn points for your progress, which can be invested in a large Upgrade Tree. There, you can unlock permanent improvements, new features, and additional options for future runs.
The Upgrade Tree contains more than 100 upgrades. These include stronger starting stats, additional gold, better rewards, new party slots, and quality-of-life features such as automated runs.
With every unlocked upgrade, your heroes become stronger and can progress further through the different biomes.
Thank you for reading and for your interest in Idle Pixel Battle!
Idle Pixel Battle is still in development. Many of the planned systems have now been implemented, but they are still being expanded, balanced, and refined.