Dev's Notes: Hex Education 4

Dev's Notes: Hex Education Part Four

This week's weekly devblog is actually coming in on time for once! What a novelty. As the last two of these things covered the new skills and mechanics that Ria and Jameson will be able to unlock in the coming update, this one is rounding off that little series by doing the same to Trismegistus.
Making new skills for Trish was easy. Or rather, coming up with the ideas for new skills was easy. Implementing and using them on the other hand....Well, that's just Trish's whole deal, isn't it? Anyone who's used Trismegistus in the previous demo is probably aware not only of her versatility and power but also the level of busywork she requires to use to her full potential. She's all about class-switching and mode-changing and having a skill for every single situation but often having it gated behind her class and mode gimmicks. To keep Trish's new skills in the spirit of her design, they've got to be needlessly baroque. They've got to result in you pressing more buttons in her turn than you have to in everyone else's. They have to be a little bit of an inconvenience to keep track of.
But the flipside of that is that any player who chooses to pay that cost and engages with her gimmicks wholeheartedly is rewarded with a great swathe of power and versatility on the other side. In the current demo Trismegistus is the second-most versatile character in the game, second only to Dorothy and her infinite blue magic. And while Ria has the highest DPS in a more lackadaisical playthrough, a playthrough that really knuckles down and delves into set-up strats and combos will find their Trish outstripping even Ria in the damage department.
She's a troop-clearer, an utility mage, a weird support and, if her Pure Flames are backed up by supporting skills like Hot And Cold, Neutral Foe and Cosmic Crown (etc), an absolute boss melter. But ultimately, what you get out of her is equal to what you put in. She's a reward for players who enjoy spinning plates, so to speak.

Here are some more plates.

Most of Trismegistus' skills are bound up in her class-swapping mechanic, between Theurge, Astrologist and Alchemist. The three new skills she'll be receiving in the update will be no different. One for each!

In her Theurge form, she'll have the new Void skill OIVZ. OIVZ is an Instant-cast skill that, upon being cast, acts a little like Three Masteries in that it'll present you with a list of options. Those options are:

• Word of Flame
• Word of Frost
• Word of Storms
• Word of Oceans
• Word of Stone
• Word of Air
• Word of Radiance
• Word of Shadow

After selecting, Trish will call down a 'minister' to bind itself to her and to speak, granting her a state where she channels the chosen element for the rest of the battle (she lacks the expertise for elemental Crab or Physical however). Once she's channelling an element, Trish is immune to damage from that element and all of her skills that deal damage of that specified element deal 25% more damage.
Being in this state also unlocks a temporary skill called Hermetic Cannon. Like Hermetic Bullet, the elemental damage of this skill changes depending on Trish's current nature. In this case, the element of Hermetic Cannon will match the element chosen by OIVZ. Hermetic Cannon is a mana-intensive spell that releases the element you're channelling, dealing massive AoE damage and cancelling the 'channel' state.
Trismegistus can only use OIVZ once per battle so you better pick your element and your Cannon timing wisely!

In her Astrologist form, Trismegistus will gain access to the new Void skill, Cardistry. This skill lets Trish draw a card from her opponent's fate, draining their MP for an amount equal to her LCK stat and drawing a random card. How many possible cards are there?
Seventy-Eight.
Trish's deck is comprised of four suits: Fire, Air, Water and Earth. There are 14 uniquely named cards in each suit and 22 Trumps that sit above them. Drawing each card is mostly without fanfare, though each of the Trumps has a unique on-draw effect. But once Trish has assembled a 3-card spread, she reads the future and attains an 'Ascendency' state that lasts for five turns. The exact details of this state depend on the elemental makeup of her Spread and how many Trumps make it up.
For example, if the Spread is predominantly Water and has no Trumps, Trish will gain the 'Water Ascendant' state that will grant her +20% M.DEF. But if there was a single Trump in the hand, it would be 'Water Ascendant+' and grants +40 M.DEF instead. And on for all the four elements like so:

• Water: M.DEF
• Fire: M.ATK
• Earth: DEF
• Air: AGI

But each of these Spread-induced states also unlocks a Magic skill called Horoscope, which is usable as long as Trish remains in her astrological state. Horoscope is a damaging elemental attack whose elemental type depends on which elemental star-sign is reigning over the Spread. And just as the number of Trumps contained within the Spread effects the potency of her passive stat buff, it also improves the power of Horoscope.
Cardistry is an Instant skill with a Cooldown of 1 so it can be done once every turn for free for as long as Trish's Mastery is Astrology. Furthermore, the cards in the Spread carry over between battles, allowing you to assemble the first two cards for free against random mobs and then being able to finish the Spread on the very first turn against a boss. And while Cardistry requires Trish to be in Astrologist mode, all Horoscope requires is that it be within at least five turns from completing a Spread. You can swap her to Theurge or Alchemist in the meantime and the Horoscope will still carry over!

Speaking of Alchemist however, Trish's third and final new skill that she'll be picking up in the update is the Void skill Magnum Opus and can only be used while she is in her Alchemist form. Magnum Opus functions as essentially another, more limited version of Three Masteries and one that can overlap and stack on top of the effect of Masteries. That is to say, Magnum Opus gives Trish another 3 classes to swap between, classes that grant skills and exist independently of Trish's usual triple-class mechanics. On the fly multi-classing!
Of course, it's not a 1:1 comparison. Unlike Three Masteries, which can be used by Trish whenever it's not on cooldown, Magnum Opus requires her to be in Alchemist form. It also costs mana, unlike Three Masteries cost of absolutely nothing. And the new forms unlocked through Opus are also time-limited, lasting for 10 turns each.
That said, these alchemical form changes are absolutely worth the trouble.

When using Magnum Opus, you will be presented with a menu with 3 choices: Nigredo, Albedo and Rubedo. Your choice here will not only transform Trismegistus' skill list, it'll also effect her appearance.

Each of these three colour forms represent a different stage of alchemical transcendence. That said, an attempt has been made to balance them with one another. Regardless of which one you choose, it will give Trish a passive effect and two new Skills that she will be capable of using for the duration of her transformation. And though Magnum Opus requires Trish being in Alchemist form to use, there's nothing stopping you from class-swapping out afterwards. This will let you freely mix and match Trish's 3 'natural' classes with the three alchemical transformations unlocked here. A lot of combo nonsense potential.
But what do these 3 coloured transformations do?

While Trish is in Nigredo, she talks only half damage from magical attacks of any kind. Trismegistus has always been very physically fragile but when it comes to magic? That's her domain! Nigredo also allows her to use the Magic skills Royal Water and Handful of Dust. Handful of Dust deals Earth-aspected damage to all enemies and sharply debuffs their M.DEF for 5 turns. Royal Water, on the other hand, deals powerful Water damage to a single target and inflicts 'Decomposition' on them. Decomposition is a DoT that lasts forever and cannot be removed through any means. And rather than rely on percentage damage (like Frostbite) or the number of stacks (like Ill), it simply deals damage equal to Trismegistus' M.ATK every turn forever. This works off her M.ATK when you first apply it so make sure that her magical power is buffed up before using Royal Water for maximum effect!
And lest you think that the addition of this parameter-defined DoT is marking a new approach to damage-over-time effects in Unborn Daughter, this kind of effect is specific to Decomposition only and will never apply to anything else. And Decomposition as a status is specific to Trismegistus alone.

When Trismegistus is in Albedo, on the other hand, she gains a +10% boost to all of her non-HP and MP related stats. It also gives her the Void skill Distillation and the Magic skill White Flash. Distillation is simple: it buffs her M.ATK. For 50 turns, ten times as long as the default length of buffs/debuffs in this game. White Flash is also pretty simple, a costly spell that deals a very large amount of Thunder damage to a single opponent. It's stronger than Pure Flame, essentially replacing it as her premier single-target damage spell but is much harder to access and use.

And then we have Rubedo, the 'Alchemist' to Nigredo's 'Astrologist' and Albedo's 'Theurge' respectively. Rubedo is supposedly the perfect state of the Magnum Opus, the stage where one may transcend themselves through alchemy. Game balance forbids that but I hope that Rubedo's passive effect, a 20% chance for Trish to gain an extra action every single turn, helps convey that regardless.

As you may note from this picture, which shows Trismegistus in Rubedo form while also being in Astrologist form, Rubedo temporarily unlocks two additional Void Skills and they both have alchemical costs. Immortal Metal costs 1000G to use but, provided that you can meet that cost, will provide a full heal to any ally. And Sun/Moon Master, somewhat cheekily named given the circumstances, allows Trismegistus to apply a state called 'Dyad' to any ally, including herself. This gives the target an extra action for this turn only, allowing for all sorts of godawful nonsense. Sun/Moon Master is also an Instant-cast spell, to allow Trish to bestow Dyad upon people who go before her in the initiative order and instead of costing MP or TP or HP, it costs a single regular Potion.
Who knows, maybe carrying around those basic Potions long after they've stopped being relevant might be useful now?

This game has always been about a character who can basically do anything. That's Dorothy's whole deal. But Trismegistus should never be that far behind. But like anything to do with Trish, why would it be easy and simple when it could be needlessly painful instead? That's the price she pays for being merely human.
I hope you enjoyed this monstrosity of a dev-log.