Coming soon: the new Trophy Trial game mode

Published on 22nd December 2015 by Colm | Post a comment

We're working on a new way to play Guild of Dungeoneering called Trophy Trial. It's a special highscore challenge mode, completely separate to the existing campaign, and it will be a free upgrade for everyone who owns the base game. Want to know more? Read on!

Trophy Trial

Here's how it's going to work. You start a new Trophy Trial run by choosing which region you want to play in. You then do a little bit of pre-Trial preparation by picking from one of two possible Dungeoneers, Blessings, Loot upgrades and the special twist that is Fates. More detail on these below. The challenge then is to take your chosen dungeoneer & upgrades and take on an ever-more-difficult series of boss fights. As usual you start each boss fight at level 1 and need to level up and find the right equipment to emerge victorious.

Every time you beat a boss you gain a Trophy towards your high score, and then we alter the rules to make things more difficult. Just simple little things like adding health to every monster from here on out, that kind of thing. You are then given a choice, do you think you can take on another boss with these new rules, or do you want to head home with your current haul of trophies? If you push your luck and die in the next dungeon you score NOTHING!

It's all about knowing when to quit!

High Scores

For each class of dungeoneer in the game we will keep track of the highest Trophy Trial score you managed with that class. We also give you a global score that is made up of your four best classes at each tier.

Trophy Trial will be the perfect way to show your friends just how good you are with that class they keep saying is terrible! (none of these screens are finished by the way, hence the unusual amount of Chumps you see here!)

What are the special rules of a Trial?

When you start a new Trophy Trial you need to make four choices that define the rules of the Trial. Remember, this is all completely separate to any saved games you have where you might have unlocked classes & loot for your guild. In Trophy Trial mode everyone competes from the same blank slate.

First, you need a hero. You are given a choice of only two volunteers who were willing to undertake this Trophy Trial. They will be of two different classes of the tier that matches the region you are in. So if you are doing a Trial in the grasslands you might get to choose between a Mime and a Cat Burglar. They might also be carrying some Battle Scars, too, so you'll have to factor that into your choice!

Second, you get to unlock some loot. For the duration of the Trial the loot that shows up will be the basic starting loot, plus any loot upgrades from lower tiers than the region this Trial is in, plus ONE upgrade of your choice out of two we offer at random. By loot upgrades I mean the ones you can build in your guild in the single player campaign, each of which adds 4-6 new items. For example, if you are doing a Trophy Trial in the Jungle then all tier 1 upgrades will be added to the loot pool, and you can pick one of two possible tier 2 upgrades to add to that.

Third, you get a blessing. We will pick two possible blessings at random and you pick the one you want. The strength of blessing will again be tied to the tier of Trial. So running the Dwarven Mines will give you maxed out tier 3 blessings and running the grasslands you'll only have a choice of the starting blessings.

Finally, it's time for a twist. The final choice is the one that changes everything. You will be given a choice of two possible Fates and must choose one. Each Fate has a helpful positive effect AND a terrible negative effect. They change the rules of the game slightly and will be in effect for the entire Trophy Trial run. I've listed some of the effects we're thinking of below.

Then you start the trial with a random boss fight suitable to your tier. Just like in the campaign, you'll need to build out your dungeon, place monsters, and get strong enough to take on the boss or die trying. If you succeed you gain a Trophy, we turn up the difficulty, and it's time to choose: take your Trophies home and commit to this score, or risk it all and take on another boss!

Fate effects

We're building up a set of positive and negative Fate effects. One of each is chosen at random and combined to form that Fate. You must take both the good AND the bad effect together, but maybe you'll be able to work around them thanks to your class or blessing choice. Or just by being that good at dungeoneering!

Here are some of the positive effects:

Nimble: All monsters gain the Predictable trait
Resourceful: Hero gets one more loot choice than normal
Piercing: Hero’s Unblockable attacks gain 1 magical damage
Prepared: Hero’s starting hand size increased by 2
Overachiever: One of the loot choices is at +1 level than normal

Here are some of the negative effects:

Prey: All monsters get the Aggressive trait
Cursed: All monsters get the Blessed trait
Clumsy: The first card in every fight is concealed
Stupid: Hero gets +2 Stupidity
Nihilist: Hero gets one less loot choice

So in a given Trial you might be choosing between one Fate that is (Nimble AND Clumsy) and a second Fate that is (Prepared AND Stupid). As you can see these are really going to change how the entire Trial plays out!

Daily Challenges

We are also going to use the wonderful Daily Challenge idea in this new mode (hat tip to Spelunky!). Once per day you can have ONE attempt at the daily challenge Trophy Trial. Everyone in the world will get the same set of four choices to set up their Trial and then we will see who gets the highest score!

Questions?

We're still building Trophy Trial but hope to have it ready sometime in the next couple of months. Got suggestions? Feedback? I'd love to hear what you think about this new game mode! Here's the thread to tell me about it.

Thanks for supporting us!

Finally I'd just like to take a moment to say THANK YOU to everyone out there who has given our tiny team a chance on our first game. You have really made 2015 a wonderful year for us here at Gambrinous! Have a wonderful Christmas & New Year's celebrations wherever you are.

Thanks,
Colm Larkin