STRAK'S PROFILE

Hey, thanks for reaching out. I am working on a guide for each of the missions, but there's still a lot of work to do, so it may be a while before I can release it. I appreciate the feedback though, it's tough to know how difficult a puzzle can be when I already know how to solve it. I'll give you some hints below.



Hope this helps. I'll get to work more on the guide when life doesn't get in the way as much.

Oh, water dungeons. Everyone loves them so much, right? They're everyone's FAVOURITE.

EDIT: And yes, as a developer I do experience a sort of schadenfreude from making a deliberately painful water dungeon. Doesn't everyone?

That dungeon can be pretty complex. I'm putting together a guide for how to complete each mission, but it's a little ways away from being completed so far. My best advice to you is to activate each switch at least twice to understand how they work. Some of the switches will turn a drain on or off, and some of them will rotate the flow of a set of three drains. What you're trying to do is clear the drain on the far left on the second floor, as well as the drain on the far right on the third floor. If you can do that, you'll have a clear path to the top floor. I'll see if I can put together something a little more detailed to help guide players through.

I came across an old review of the first demo I ever released for this game, back in 2010. It's a little hilarious to think about how absolutely terrible the game used to be, and how far it's come since then. But hey, we all start somewhere, and this was basically my first attempt at making my own game. I'm fairly certain there isn't a single thing left in the original demo release that remains unchanged today. Over a decade of progress and learning will do that. If you want a bit of a laugh, check it out! This was a first look at Bloodstained Hands by NAMKCOR, a veteran of RMRK back in the day.

Alright, version 5.7 is launched. I'll give a brief run-down of what's available now, since I made quite a few updates with this one.

First, and the reason why I made this update, I've modified the Equip and Status screens. There are several hidden stats that affect combat that could only previously be seen in the shop screen when purchasing or selling a new weapon or armour. With this update, you'll be able to see stat changes to Hit Ratio, Evasion, and Critical Hit rate when equipping a new weapon or piece of armour. While I was doing this, I also ended up with some dead space in the equip screen, so I went a little further, and now the equip screen will also display any elements that character is resisting, both from status buffs and equipment, as well as any status ailments that are being nullified. Hopefully this will help you make fully educated decisions about which weapons and armour you want, and not just based on the four previously visible stats.

Second, I've made some adjustments to the difficulty based on feedback from various players. Usually if one person complains, I ignore it, but if I get multiple players giving feedback on the same subject, I consider it worth adjusting. So to that end, I've implemented a method of earning money during the mission "Bombs Away." Normally when you accept this mission and travel to the related city, you're stuck there until the mission is complete and have no way of earning extra gold. Now, if you enter the pub within that city, you'll find a nearby assassin who will offer you jobs in the area for the duration of that mission. After the mission he will return to the Sanctuary, and you can continue accepting missions from him or the other assassins at that point.

I also added torches along the walls of the Nox Catacombs that you can light to keep track of where you've been. Kind of hard to determine how difficult a maze can be to solve when I'm the one who made it. It's still a challenge, but now at least there's a way to track your progress.

And finally, I realized I had made a huge oversight by not explaining how Spell Tomes work. Tomes are expensive, but can teach you some of the best spells in the game, and I'd hate for players to miss out on these and struggle just because they don't understand how they work. Now, when you reach the first shop that sells Tomes in Amethyne, the shopkeep will offer to explain how they work.

I've fixed a few other smaller graphical errors and bugs, but that's about it. I appreciate the feedback, and please let me know if you encounter any bugs as a result of this update. Previous save files should be fully compatible, simply move the old save files into the newly downloaded game folder. Thanks for playing!



And, StrangerByNight, thanks for the compliment! I appreciate it.

That's a fair point, I hadn't really considered earning money prior to the completion of that mission. As soon as you complete that mission you can accept side missions at the Sanctuary which provide a decent form of income, but once you've entered that city you're stuck there until the mission is complete. There are beds you can rest in for free in the basement of the castle, but money is an issue at that point. I'll see if I can find a way to implement earning money in that city. I may be releasing an update soon with some adjustments to the equipment and status screens to display the three hidden stats that armour and weapons affect, which are hit, evasion, and critical rate, so with that update I'll see if I can introduce a way to balance the difficulty somewhat.

Oh, and new game plus is unlocked after the first playthrough, but it can be extraordinarily challenging if you haven't leveled your skills much or if you sold any of your equipment after getting top tier equipment on the previous playthrough, as most one-of-a-kind equipment does NOT carry over.

EDIT: I think I've worked out a solution, although it still does require some effort and is only available temporarily. In the castle of that town is a woman who claims to be an alchemist. What I'll do for the next update to make that mission more bearable is allow you to trade herbs for potions from her. Instead of selling the herbs for gold, you can just trade them up for a tier two medicine or remedy, and maybe elixirs too. You can get herbs by fighting enemies, so this gives you a way to easily get fairly powerful potions at this point in the game without needing tons of gold, and it gives a purpose for purple herbs in the early game. You can still rest for free in the basement of the castle as well. After this mission, you won't be able to trade with her any more, however you will be able to accept side missions in the Sanctuary for extra gold and items from that point on. Hopefully this will balance that area of the game while keeping the spirit of the game, as I really didn't want to create a game where you can just grind out monsters for ridiculous amounts of gold.

I'll release this with the next update, keep an eye out for version 5.7. I won't release it immediately, as there's a few more things I'm working through first, but it should be available sometime this weekend.