Stoneshard January Updates

Stoneshard, an upcoming roguelike RPG from Ink Stains Games, received a couple of fresh development updates in January. The first one showcases the game’s weather effects, item identification, day and night cycle, and the Fields biome. And the second one explains how Stoneshard will handle its cursed items, a genre staple. Here’s an excerpt from the latter:

In this devlog we will talk about the cursed items, which were casually mentioned in the past devdiaries.

Cursed artifacts are the subtype of rare items. Cursed items are always generated unidentified. Equipping an unknown item is always a risk, and now we will explain why.

Let’s start a little from afar. Cursed items are a classic feature of many old RPGs and canonical roguelikes. Usually curses are various limitations, which make the player’s life more complicated. Often they cannot be taken off after equipment, which makes the cursed weapons and armor even more undesirable. However, this approach always seemed rather boring to us: in the end, the whole essence of the damned objects is diminished to avoiding them at any cost.

Therefore, it was decided to implement this mechanic the other way, in order to give players the choice and a certain room for maneuvers. We left the impossibility of unequipping the cursed items, but in return compensated it with greatly enhanced enchantments and additional bonuses. The cursed artifacts will always be much better than its usual analogues, which give a powerful incentive to actively use them. However, not everything is so simple: after all, cursed items aren’t called cursed for fun.

So, curses. According to Stoneshard lore, cursed items are the confinement places of evil spirits, defeated in times immemorial. Their souls were shattered into hundreds of fragments, which were reliably imprisoned in many magical artifacts around the world. Each demon had its own unique power. Thus, cursed objects hold a part of ancient powers, which you can use… for a price.

Each curse in the game has a special negative effect, triggered with a chance. With every turn this chance increases until it hits its maximum possible threshold. To slower this process, you have to kill enemies – the more and often the better. When playing with a cursed item you have to constantly blandish your imprisoned demons, engaging in battles and emerging victorious.

Here are examples of different Curses by different Demons:

• Deceiver’s curse: up to 15% to obstruct control at every turn. +1 Savvy
• Gorelust’s curse: up to 7,5% to lose some health at every turn. +4 Melee/Ranged Damage
• Sufferjoy’s curse: up to 20% to increase pain at every turn. +4% Critical Chance
• Gnawmaw’s curse: up to 15% to increase hunger at every turn. 10% Lifesteal
• Mindwrecker’s curse: up to 10% to decrease sanity at every turn. +2 Psionic Damage