Category Archives: Roguelike

How do Kali altars work in Spelunky?

Kali altars are altars which are covered in blood. These can be found in almost any level except for Olmec’s lair, King Yama’s lair and bonus levels that are not the Haunted castle. If an altar is destroyed the player will lose favor with Kali. If enough of this favor is lost then Kali will inflict punishments such as summoning spiders, a ball and chain or a ghost that can instantly kill you.

You can also place knocked out or dead creatures on the altar to sacrifice them to Kali. If you sacrifice enough creatures Kali can reward the player with items like a cape, jet pack, compass, spectacles, spiked shoes, climbing gloves, bomb paste, spring shoes, a bomb box and a pitchers mitt. It is also possible to be given the Kapala an item that collects blood from enemies to restore your character’s health. Another possible reward from the altar is invigoration which gives 8 health to the player character.

Creatures that can be used for a sacrifice include mantraps, shopkeepers, black knights, yetis, hawk men, scorpion, devils, spelunkers, damsels, hired hands, scorpion flies, tiki men, Vlad, cavemen and vampires. Different creatures are worth different amounts when they are put on the altar.

Damsels, hired hands, spelunkers and the black knight are worth 8 points when alive and 4 points as corpses. Shopkeepers, hawk men and scorpion flies all are worth 6 while living, hawk men and shopkeepers give you 3 when dead (scorpion flies don’t have corpses to use). Scorpions and yetis obtain you 4 points when in a living state, yetis also give 2 favor when dead (scorpions don’t leave a dead body). Devils, tiki men, cavemen, vlad, vampires and mantraps give 2 points when alive, devils, tiki men and cavemen give the player 1 point when they are dead (vampires, mantraps and vlad don’t have corpses upon death).

What do stats/runes do in Rogue Legacy?

Rogue Legacy Review

Stats

Health

The Health stat allows you to take multiple hits before dying and can be upgraded in the mansion by spending gold. This stat can also be modified by playing as different classes.

Mana

This stat allows you to use spells more often and can be upgraded in the mansion by spending gold. This stat can also be modified by playing as different classes.

Armor

This stat reduces damage to your player character and can typically be added via wearing more powerful armor pieces.

Strength

Strength increases the amount of damage you can do to enemies. You can increase this stat by using better swords or choosing certain classes.

Intelligence

Intelligence increases the power of attacks that use mana. Classes like archmages tends to have a higher intelligence than other classes.

Runes

Vampirism 

While playing Rogue Legacy you may see a stat on some armor sets or on runes for your armor named vampirism. You may wonder what it does when you see it. Well if your character has this stat on them via whatever means they gain the ability to heal small portions of their hp when they defeat enemies. This ability will also become stronger if you have a higher vampirism stat.

Sprint

While playing you might see a stat on some armor sets or on runes for your armor named sprint. You may wonder what it does when you see it. Well if your character has this stat on them via whatever means they gain the ability to dash short distances in the air or on the ground. This ability will also become better by allowing you to dash in the air multiple times by having a high stat amount.

Bounty

While playing you might see a stat on some armour sets or on runes for your armour named bounty. You may wonder what it does when you see it. Well if your character has this stat on them via whatever means they gain more gold than they would usually. This ability will also become better by increasing the amount of gold further by having a higher stat amount.

Siphon

While playing Rogue Legacy you may see a stat on some armour sets or on runes for your armour named siphon. You may wonder what it does when you see it. Well if your character has this stat on them via whatever means they gain the ability to regain small portions of their mp when they defeat enemies. This ability will also become stronger if you have a higher siphon stat.

Vault

While playing you might see a stat on some armour sets or on runes for your armour named vault. You may wonder what it does when you see it. Well if your character has this stat on them via whatever means they gain the ability to jump multiple times in the air. This ability will also become better by allowing you to jump in the air multiple times by having a higher stat amount equipped to your character.

Balance

This rune has the abilities of both the Siphon and Vampirism runes combined however it’s recovering abilities are not as powerful as Vampirism or Siphon. Each time you go into a new game plus the power of balance increases.

Air

A rune of this type gives you the ability to float in the air for a short amount of time which can be increased by using more runes of the same type.

Haste

This type of rune increases how fast your character can move and can be increased further by adding more of this type of rune.

Curse

Using this rune makes enemies you encounter harder to defeat however if you do defeat them you gain more gold than usual. You can also increase the gold earned by using more of this rune.

Grace

This rune makes enemies you find easier to defeat however as a result you earn less gold. This rune effect increases the more of them you use.

Retaliation

The ability of this rune allows you to take half of any damage you receive and make the enemy take the damage as well.

Shrine Items

Hermes’ Boots

These boots prevent you from taking damage due to floor spikes but not from trap spikes, spikes on the walls or on the ceiling.

Charon’s Obol

This item allows you to enter the castle with giving up any gold you currently carry however after using it once you lose the obol until you find it again.

Hedgehog’s Curse

The Hedgehog’s Curse item cause you to drop gold onto the ground every time you take damage.

Calypso’s Compass

This compass shows you an arrow when using it. This arrow leads you a room that contains many treasure chests with valuable blueprints or stat ups contained with in them. The Calypso’s Compass room disappears when you leave it.

Nerdy Glasses

These glasses fix the Color Blindness, Stereo Blindness, Nearsighted, Farsighted, Nostalgic, and Vertigo traits if your character has them on the run they are on. You can’t find this item at a Spiritual Shrine unless your character already has one of the traits that the item fixes.

Helios’ Blessing

This item increases the amount of loot you can obtain via killing enemies and makes enemies who would not drop any loot drop a minimum amount of gold.

Hyperion’s Ring

This Ring allows you to come back to life after dying however you return with a third of your health and the ring breaks after you use it.

Khidr’s Obol

This obal gets automatically given to Charon before going back into the castle. Once given to Charon you will then be able to fight the Remixed version of Khidr.

Alexander’s Obol

This gets automatically given to Charon before going back to the castle. Once given to Charon you will then be able to fight the Remixed version of Alexander.

Ponce de Leon’s Obol

This item gets automatically given to Charon before going back to the castle. When given to Charon you will then be able to fight the Remixed version of Alexander.

Herodotus’s Obol

Herodotus’s Obol gets automatically given to Charon before going back to the castle. When given to Charon you will then be able to fight the Remixed version of Herodotus.

Traitor’s Obol

The Traitor’s Obol gets automatically given to Charon before going back towards the castle. When given to Charon you will then be able to fight the Remixed version of Johannes.

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Rogue Legacy Review – A Rougelike done right

Rogue Legacy Review

Rogue Legacy Review

Story:

The story is up to interpretation for the most part except for some diary entries you can find throughout the game.

Gameplay:

In Rogue Legacy you play as a knight who enters a castle. The goal of the game is to defeat the 4 bosses to also unlock the giant door at the start of the castle. Every time you die your character is permanently dead. However their heir heads to the castle hence why the game is named what it is. Any gold you gain inside the castle gets given to the next heir when your character dies.

The castle is randomly generated each time you die however you can use a service run by the Architect who will lock the castle in place so it does not randomize it’s self on the current attempt. However your gold earnings will be decreased if you do so. Throughout the castle you may find rooms which contain fairy chests which can only be opened if you complete the rooms challenge without failing.

Runes are attachable upgrades for your character that will be applied to a specific piece of your armor. As a result of choosing a now heir they will have randomized abilities and classes such as a sorcerer.

One of things I find the most noteworthy in the gameplay is the variety of enemy types.

Music:

The soundtrack is composed by Gordon McGladdery and Judson Cowan. It has a nice amount of variety throughout the whole game. Examples of the musical variety include themes of the final boss, the maya, the dungeon and the forest.

Graphics:

The graphics are 2d pixel art which has a lot of detail put into all of it and because of this ends up fitting all of the locations quite well.

 

Score: 7.5/10

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Spelunky Review – How to make randomness fair

Spelunky Review

Spelunky Review

Story:

The story is that the main character has left their home behind to search a cave filled with Mayan relics to look for treasure.

Gameplay:

Spelunky is a 2d roguelike platformer in which you explore levels in order to reach the end. The default character is a nameless adventurer with clothes that look somewhat similar to Indiana Jones. You are also able to chose from other characters after unlocking them in the levels by finding coffins. Your starting items are a whip, some bombs and some ropes. You also start out with 4 hit points that you can gain more of by rescuing damsels and then bringing them to the end of the level.

Each level has 4 parts before you can move on to the next world. In the levels you may find crates which contain items for you to use such as more bombs and rope or machetes, shotguns and jetpacks. In each level you may come across a shop from which you can use the treasure you have earn so far to buy various items. The game’s levels layout is randomly generated each time you play and if you die you go back to the start no matter where you were at.

Music:

The game’s music somehow doesn’t become repetitive and is mostly made up of Jazz tracks.

Graphics:

It is a 2d game with detailed backgrounds.

 

Score: 8/10

The game does surprisingly well at making it’s randomness feel fair by keeping some of it’s elements the same each time an example of which is the enemies you can encounter. It’s price to buy it is also reasonable for how long you are likely to play the game. For anyone who likes a good roguelike platformer that has fair difficulty and a good amount of content I would say it is a good game to buy.

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