Dev Diary – A Deep Dive into Creative Combat

Greetings Bloomtowners! 

We’ve been hearing from visitors to Bloomtown that there is a bit too much mystery behind the combat systems of the game. We wanted to take some time to go over some of the more technical information about Bloomtown’s combat and mechanics to make sure everything is as clear as a sunny vacation day!

Let’s begin with each character’s combat stats: Strength, Magic, Endurance, Agility, and Luck. While in battle, Emily and the other members of her group use these stats to enhance their performance, and they are pivotal in increasing your power as you play through the game. Your battle stats are modified depending on the demons you have equipped. Any hero (Emily, Chester, Ramona, and Hugo) gets the highest values for each stat from the values of their Defender demon and the second equipped demon (which you’ll have to catch and equip first). The common rule to understand here is that the higher your stats get, the better the character will perform in battle.

Let’s dive more in-depth into each battle stat:

• Strength – Determines the final damage from attacks, shots, and skills with physical attributes.
• Magic – Determine the final damage from all skills except physical ones.
• Endurance – Determines the final damage taken from attacks; it does not increase health.
• Agility – Affects your accuracy and evasion chance.
• Luck – Affects your chance of a critical hit. It also increases the chance of triggering status effects and your chance of avoiding status effects.

The next most important feature in combat is the Elemental System. Using demons, like with stats, Emily and her friends gain the ability to use spells in combat. Spells deal different types of damage, depending on their affinity: fire, ice, electric, wind, poison, or curse. The only other kinds of attack types that can be used are those by the heroes themselves; ranged and melee attacks both deal physical damage, and guns also have a unique type of damage.

Different demons tolerate damage types in varying ways, and it’s essential to consider their elemental affinity in two cases: when attacking demons or when equipping them to your heroes for combat.

• If a demon is vulnerable to a specific type of damage (a red down arrow), it will take increased damage when hit with an attack of that type and go into a “Down” state.
• If a demon is resistant to an element (blue up arrow), it will take a reduced amount of damage and be protected from the associated status effects.
• If a demon is immune to an element (two blue up arrows), it will take no attack damage and be protected from associated status effects.
• If a demon absorbs an element (three blue up arrows), it will regenerate its health by the value of that element’s attack damage. It will also be protected from associated status effects.
• If a demon reflects an element (also three blue up arrows), it takes no damage and reflects all damage to the attacker.
• If a demon is neutral to an element in any way (dash), it takes full damage from attacks and may be subject to associated status effects.

When equipping a demon to a party member, consider their elemental affinities for reducing your incoming damage. Your heroes will only inherit the best possible resistance a demon has from each equipped demon. A captured demon’s tolerance to a specific element can also be changed through fusion. The following changes can be made by chance through fusion by fusing them with a higher resistance chance demon: Vulnerable to neutral, neutral to resistant, resistant to immune, and immune to absorbing or reflective (randomly). These changes can only be made step by step, increasing by one resistance level per fusion.

Next, let’s discuss spells and how they function in combat. Bloomtown has several spell types available to the player: Attack, Status, Debuff, Buff, and Heal.

• Attack spells deal damage directly and can have a varying chance of inflicting a corresponding status effect of their elemental affinity. These attacks can also ‘Down’ demons vulnerable to that specific element. Players cannot be downed. Instead, they receive increased damage from the spell.
• Status spells have a 100% chance to inflict the relevant status effect if the target’s elemental resistance allows it. Do note that damaging status effects, like burn or electrify, cannot place a vulnerable demon into the ‘Down’ state. However, damage from Electrify on neighboring demons is affected by resistance modifiers, so it can be absorbed or reflected at the player.
• Buffs and debuffs quantitatively increase or decrease, respectively, the targets’s combat stats.
• Healing spells restore health, and they cannot miss.

Here is an explanation of each of the different status effects that can be placed upon you or the demons you face:

• • Frozen: Triggered by Ice attack spells – The affected target can’t take any actions for three turns but gets 90% damage resistance.

• Burning: Triggered by Fire attack spells – The affected target takes damage after taking an action for three turns. Guarding or using an item does not trigger this effect.
• Woozed: Triggered by Wind attack spells – The affected target can’t cast spells but can use physical attacks with 50% less accuracy for two turns.
• Electrified: Triggered by Electric attack spells – When the affected target takes an action, its allies get damaged. Guarding or using an item does not trigger this effect.
• Poisoned: Triggered by Poison attack spells – The affected target deals 70% less damage for three turns.
• Insanity: Triggered by Shadow attack spells – The affected target attacks its allies on its next turn.

The last thing to note is the ‘Combo’ damage system that comes into play when you use an attack spell on a status-afflicted enemy. Using this to your advantage can significantly increase your damage at pivotal moments in battle.

• Ice spells deal double damage to Burning and Woozed targets.
• Fire spells deal double damage to Electrified and Woozed targets.
• Wind spells deal double damage to Frozen and Electrified targets.
• Electric spells deal double damage to Burned and Frozen targets.
• Poison spells deal double damage to Insane targets.
• Shadow spells deal double damage to Poisoned targets.

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We hope that this blog helps expand your understanding of the systems that make Bloomtown’s combat mechanics so interesting even clearer, and aids you in defeating the demon threat that is threatening this wonderful city! Best of luck in your battles, Bloomtowners, and enjoy that Summer vacation. 🧡
 
The Bloomtown Team