Dev Diary #65 - The Tomes of The Silver Seas

Ahoy there, mateys! My name is Luis, senior designer on the Triumph Studios crew, and today I'll show you the plunder we've gathered for you in the upcoming expansion pack, The Silver Seas!

Tome of Hydramancy

To get your feet in the water, I will first tell you about the Tome of Hydromancy. More than just dealing damage, this tome focuses on controlling your enemies by pushing and immobilizing them.

The main unit unlocked by this tome is the Flowbinder Archer.

This Tier II Ranged unit stops enemies in their tracks using its Waterbind Arrow. The arrow's immobilization effect has a chance to trigger on any hit, but if the target is Wet, the immobilization is guaranteed.

Fortunately, most abilities in this tome, including the Flowbinder Archer’s basic attacks, inflict Wet, making it easy to lock down advancing adversaries.

The Flowing Imbuement enchantment applies to most ranged and magic units, allowing them to push enemies away on the third strike of an attack or via a chance on single-shot attacks.

Additionally, it inflicts Wet and adds bonus physical damage to attacks.

Staves of the River is a support enchantment that enhances support abilities, allowing affected units to heal more and cleanse 1 additional negative status effect.

Other Spells and Unlocks:

Riptide: This combat spell inflicts wet and damages enemies in a 1 hex radius. Units in the outer radius of this area are also pushed away.

The effects of this spell are doubled, both the damage and the push, if the targets were already Wet.

Summon Lesser Tide Spirit: Adds a summon spell for an existing base-game unit that previously lacked a natural home in any tome.

You can now summon these fighter units and evolve them into their stronger Tier III versions. In the free Manta patch, they have also been buffed slightly: they now have Slippery, Swift, and move 5 hexes in combat.

Revitalizing Rush: A strategic army spell that heals your units and grants them three turns of Haste at the start of the next combat.

Meditation Fountain: A Province improvement that can be built on land or water. It generates Knowledge and Mana, scaling up with each adjacent Ocean or River province.

Riptide

Tome of Piracy

Now that you have power over the water, it is time to set sail! The Tome of Piracy is all about pillaging, stealing, and, of course, explosions!

To this end, we are introducing two new status effects in this tome: Ember Dust and Rob.

Ember Dust does nothing on its own, but the next time an affected unit takes Fire damage, it explodes, dealing extra damage to the unit and its adjacent allies.

Rob steals gold from the target when triggered, with the amount stolen scaling based on the unit's tier. The unit that stole the gold also receives a morale buff.

Once robbed, a unit cannot be robbed again.

The Swashbuckler is a highly mobile skirmisher unit built around fast-paced engagements and explosive disengagements.

Dash Strike lets the Swashbuckler jump to a target within three hexes and strike up to its action points, like a base Melee Strike. This attack has a chance to Rob the target.

After closing in, it can use Dust Disengage to leap backward while applying Ember Dust and Blind. Like its primary attack, this ability also has a chance to Rob the target.

The Swashbuckler can then immediately trigger Ember Dust using its Shoot Pistol ability to set off the explosion.

Additionally, the Swashbuckler has a unique passive called Feint, which allows it to pass through enemies, ensuring you always have a clear path to escape and trigger the fireworks.

The Swashbuckler isn't the only unit making use of Ember Dust! The Ember Dust Residue enchantment applies to magic and ranged units, giving a chance to inflict Ember Dust on the third strike, or a lower chance on any Single Shot attack.

It also adds a bit of fire damage, allowing other units with this enchantment to trigger the explosion.

Now, no pirate crew would be complete without some mugging and looting. The Plundering Blades enchantment gives your melee units a chance to Rob their targets along some nice flat physical damage increase.

Other Spells and Unlocks:

Raiders of the Sea: A versatile enchantment that applies to all units except Mythics. It increases income from pillaging enemy provinces and grants the Sailor passive skill, which boosts damage and combat speed while on water.

Ember Cloud: A spell that inflicts Blind and Ember Dust on units within a 1-hex radius.

Of note, since Ember Dust deals Fire damage when detonated, it can trigger chain reactions when multiple units with this effect are close to each other.

Powder Keg Diplomacy: A siege project that breaches walls at the start of combat and applies Ember Dust to numerous enemy units.

Pirate Haven: This unique province improvement can only be built on water. Despite this restriction, it yields a generous Gold income, which scales higher for each adjacent water province. Additionally, it provides a city stability bonus for 10 turns whenever your units pillage an enemy province.

Ember Cloud

Tome of the Damned

If the pirate life isn't your style (or if you'd like to bring a more haunted vibe to your sailors) then the Tome of the Damned might be for you!

This tome revolves around applying Ghostfire, a Frost and Fire damage over time effect that counts as Burning. This makes it a great choice to bring to the water while still utilizing fiery chaos tomes, whose Burning effects are normally removed by Wet or Frozen!

This Tome also introduces a new status effect called Damned. The Damned status effect conjures an Accursed Wisp when the enemy dies. The initial chance of this occurring is 25% but the chance increases with each stack of Ghostfire the enemy unit had when it died, up to 100% with five stacks of Ghostfire.

This tome introduces two new Accursed Fiend units. The Accursed Wisp is the unit spawned by the new Damned status effect. It is a simple and relatively weak Battle Mage with an attack that applies Ghostfire.

It has a new passive skill, Damned Body, an upgraded version of the passive normally seen on Accursed Fiends, which applies Ghostfire to attackers. This version has a 60% chance instead of a 30% chance.

Its Melee Mage passive allows it to remain effective even when spawned adjacent to enemies, as it can still cast Ghostfire Bolts while engaged.

The Accursed Lamenter is the main unit of this tome, a Tier III Support unit that excels at applying Ghostfire with its haunting Dirges.

Dirge of the Damned applies Ghostfire and Damned to enemies in a 2 hex radius.

This ability can only be used once per combat, but its cooldown refreshes whenever an enemy unit affected by Ghostfire dies, thanks to the Lamenter's Damned Conduit passive ability.

When this passive triggers, it also heals friendly units in a two hex radius for a small amount of Temporary Hit Points.

Dirge of Sorrows is a single target ability that heals a friendly unit, dispels negative effects, and applies Ghostfire to all adjacent enemies.

Mark of the Damned is an enchantment for ranged and magic units. It guarantees a Ghostfire stack on targets that do not have one, and applies the new Damned status effect.

Accursed Blades imbues your melee units’ weapons with otherworldly flames, applying Ghostfire and granting bonus Fire and Frost damage to their attacks.

Other Spells and Unlocks:

Curse of the Damned: A strategic spell that applies a province wide effect lasting for three turns. Affected units start combat already Damned, and upon death, they spread Ghostfire to adjacent units.

Fiend units, both Accursed and Infernal, are not affected.

Accursed Undertow: A combat spell with a 2 hex radius that inflicts Ghostfire, deals Fire and Frost damage, and pulls affected units toward the center of the area of effect.

Accursed Grave: Like the Pirate Haven, this province improvement can only be placed on water. It provides a flat Mana income along with Knowledge and Gold for each adjacent water province.

Additionally, it spawns an allied Accursed Lamenter when fighting within this city’s domain.

Curse of the Damned

Tome of Eternal Ice

The Tome of Eternal Ice is the capstone tome of this content pack. It is a Tier IV Shadow tome focused on Frost, Freezing and offering your units ways to sustain their health and improve their staying power.

With this tome, we are also introducing a new status effect called Chilled, which Freeze will always apply on failure. It deals a small amount of Frost damage per turn, and upon reaching five stacks, it converts these into a 1-turn Freeze.

The Tome of Cryomancy and Cold Dark have also been updated to utilize the Chilled status effect, alongside a balance pass for their items and units, which will be available in the Manta Free Patch! Speaking of which:

The Ancient Hoarfrost Manta is a new Tier V unit unlocked by the Tome of Eternal Ice. This simple yet devastating long-range Mage unit specializes in Freezing your enemies and rejuvenating your allies.

Its Freeze Ray has a high chance to Freeze a single target, while the Sleet Storm attack is a 2 hex radius area of effect ability that inflicts Chilled and Wet on all enemies within range.

The Eternal Hoarfrost passive triggers whenever an enemy unit is Frozen, healing all of the Manta’s allies within a 2 hex radius.

To fully embrace the cold, the new Ice Fusion transformation can be used to turn your units into Elementals, strengthening their Frost resistance at the cost of a slight Fire weakness.

It grants immunity to Frozen and Chilled, a new passive called Rime Healing (which grants Natural Regeneration when in Water, Snow, or Ice provinces), and Water Walk, allowing units to walk on water by freezing it beneath their feet instead of embarking.

The Eternal Ice Blades enchantment for melee units adds the Chilled effect to their attacks. Upon successfully applying this effect, the enchanted unit gains a stack of Regeneration. It also grants bonus Frost damage.

Ice Focus applies to your Mages, granting their attacks a chance to inflict Chilled on enemies. It also grants an additional ability, Ice Nova, which guarantees applying Chilled to all enemies in a 1 hex radius.

Other Spells and Unlocks:

Deep Freeze: An area of effect combat spell that damages and Freezes enemies.

Whiteout: Covers the target and adjacent provinces in deep frost, reducing enemy status resistance and granting a small chance to inflict Chilled at the start of each turn.

It also alters the terrain to Ice and Snow, which works on water as well! This freezes water sectors over, allowing all of your units (not just those with the Ice Fusion transformation) to walk across the water.

Permafrost Nexus: The province improvement unlocked by this tome. It spreads the Whiteout effect throughout your domain while granting Mana and Knowledge income. It can be built either on Land or Water.

Deep Freeze

That's all the plunder I have for you today! I hope these tomes spark your imagination, inspiring cool new builds and letting you play out your favorite fantasy archetypes.

These tomes and much more will release on November 3rd, so I hope you and your crew will join us then!

You won't have to wait long for more news however as next week, crewmate Thomas will introduce the new Mercantile culture coming in The Silver Seas expansion pack.

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