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Hello, Trailblazers of the Unknown,
in today’s update we talk about a topic that has emerged here and is also mentioned in the video trailer, but we still did not have the right moment to feature properly: corruption mechanics.
Scouts are among the few humans who dare to cross the Land of Night and are in close contact with the shadows. But humans are not made to spend all that time in the dark, and this slowly has an effect on the mind and, in SHEOL, also on the body.
As you noticed, all scouts wear a respirator mask. They are not meant to screen them from air pollution: inside the mask, there is a luxfilter that destroys the shadow particles in the air. When a scout finishes the lux vials attached to his or her suit, shadows begin to enter the body; that is one of the reasons of the corruption. Other causes of corruption can be the direct contact with the Sheol tide, or the touch of some powerful shadows.
At the gameplay level, you get corrupted when you remain without lux. In that case, you have to flip your character board and your vial board. In a state of corruption, you still have 5 lux points available before you die, but in return you gain special powers. In particular:
Each weapon in SHEOL has a standard attack and an enhanced attack, which we call disruptive, because it could temporarily destroy the weapon. For example, the Pioneer’s light gun normally deals 2 damage, while using the disruptive attack it deals 3 damage, allowing you to destroy shadows such as the Devourer (which has 3 life points) or more easily knock down the Heralds. However, each time a disruptive attack is made, a shadow die must be rolled. If a value other than a “null” comes out, the weapon suffers 1 damage (marked by placing a special token), while if a critical comes out, the damage is 2. If the damage equals the resistance of the weapon, this breaks and the card must be flipped. Weapons can be repaired using a certain amount of umbra and actions. Some characters, like the Wrench, have also specific skills to repair the items of the party. Lanterns also have a disruptive power that allows either to extend the lantern pattern, or to build additional lightstream paths.
A corrupted scout can use these powers (excluding construction) not only without paying the cost, but without risking to compromise the weapon or the lantern!
A corrupted character draws 1 less lightshield card, so he is more exposed to enemy hits, but at the same time he has advantages such as increased movement points, and a better critical hit. In SHEOL, in fact, each character has a different critical hit, which reflects his archetypes and his abilities. For example, the Pioneer who makes a critical hit can quickly build a path, while the Maenad can jump to the nearby enemy and make an additional attack. These critics are empowered during corruption.
The biggest advantage of corruption is certainly the ability to move freely on the map. A corrupted character is no longer tied to the lightstream and can move on the dark spaces of the map. This allows you to reach your goals quickly, or to slip through the enemy lines, but it has 2 downsides: if a scout ends his turn in a dark cell he loses 2 lux points; also, a corrupted scout cannot build new lightpaths. In addition, a character who recovers lux in a state of corruption could not get out of it and he can’t exceed the maximum of 5 total points.
In short, corruption is very powerful, but still represents your last resort to complete your missions.
In our expansion packs, we included 5 miniatures for each basic shadow. They are sufficient most of the time, but occasionally you may want to have a few more – and who does not like to get more miniatures, anyway? So, our daily goal today is to add 3 miniatures to the Luminary Monks expansion, which will now include 8 Sentinel shadows!
