Game Mechanics Secret Characters

[Aceplante]

Similar to secret seeds, there could be characters that have special mechanics that may not necessarily be able to be implemented as world seed. For example:

"Lifeless": Limited to 1 heart, cannot use heart crystals

"Brutus": No mana bar, cannot use mana crystals, and by proxy, magic or summoning weapons, meaning you are limited to range and melee

"Steve": No starting tools. That is all, everything else is normal, but you'd be amazed how much this can change things.

"Pockets": Inventory locked/can only use the hotbar. Also no vanity slots and only one loadout

"Merfolk": permanent gills effect, start in ocean/with fishbowl hat(?)

"Vampire": Permanent moonstone effect, but burn in the sun. Regain health by dealing melee damage and able to transform into a bat?

"Cinderblock": Unable to use wings, dashes, grappling hooks, mounts, and maybe even movement speed accessories? (currently doing a playthough like this, also with no melee weapons, and at the lunatic cultist)

"Wednesday": Controls are reversed/random every time you join a world?

"LihzardGeneral": start with a Lihzard transformation accessory, similar to "wolfpet"

"FreeZenith": start with a zenith, but thats it/no tools(?)

"ClassySummoner","ClassyMage" etc: locks you to only one weapon type.

"Scavenger": Unable to craft/specifically tools and armor(?), if you want any, must be obtained from a drop

"Legless": Unable to jump/walk (one or the other?), Start with a new "wheelchair" mount that's slow and can only go up a max of one block, but makes you 2 blocks tall.

"Timeless": Your player gradually loses speed over time giving your about 100 days total before you die of old age, unable to respawn.

"Dryad": Unable to kill animals of any kind, basically a built-in guide to critter protection so you dont need to waste a slot on it (since I always use it anyways)

"Midas": spread The Valor as you move to any block you walk on or into.

"Chaos": Randomly teleport (like the teleportation potion effect) every 5-8 minutes, additionally respawn in a random location when you die. (suggested by @J.K. Bun Bun)

In general, these should mostly have unique effects/impacts on gameplay, not just giving them an item to start and calling it a day. And of course, more ideas welcome

 

[BafflingEgg]

This sounds like a great idea, but I have some suggestions. The Zenith seed would mess with getting the achievement and would allow the player to essentially cheat for it and some of the other names are a bit too common so a new player might accidentally come across it in a first run. Otherwise, I’d love to see it in game!

 

[Orchamut]

I actually like the idea of adding more secret character names like this.

"Lifeless": Limited to 1 heart, cannot use heart crystals

Sounds scary, but good.

"Brutus": No mana bar, cannot use mana crystals, and by proxy, magic or summoning weapons, meaning you are limited to range and melee

Feels weird, but could probably work.

"Steve": No starting tools. That is all, everything else is normal, but you'd be amazed how much this can change things.

I like this idea (though you could also trash your items for a similar effect).

"Pockets": Inventory locked/can only use the hotbar. Also no vanity slots.

This also sounds good, but considering we have loadouts I don't see what the problem with the vanity slots is. Most of your inventory clutter is going to be random materials, tools, and ammo/bait anyway.

"Merfolk": permanent gills effect, start in ocean/with fishbowl hat(?)

I feel like the world spawn being the ocean should be more tied to the world than the character.

"Cinderblock": Unable to use wings, dashes, grappling hooks, mounts, and maybe even movement speed accessories? (currently doing a playthough like this, also with no melee weapons, and at the lunatic cultist)

Considering you could just choose to not use those items yourself, maybe it'd be more interesting if it, say, halved all movement speed.

"Wednesday": Controls are reversed/random every time you join a world?

This one would probably get old fast.

"FreeZenith": start with a zenith, but thats it/no tools(?)

While Terrasavr exists, this feels really cheap and I can imagine all the new players instantly rushing to transport a free Zenith to their main world.

"Scavenger": Unable to craft/specifically tools and armor(?), if you want any, must be obtained from a drop

Definitely sounds interesting but seems like it could become practically impossible very quickly?

"Legless": Unable to jump/walk(?)

Interesting, but no idea how this would work in earlygame.

"Timeless": Your player gradually loses speed over time giving your about 100 days total before you die of old age, unable to respawn.

Maybe..?

"Dryad": Unable to kill animals of any kind, basically a built-in guide to critter protection so you dont need to waste a slot on it (since I always use it anyways)

Honestly I would just make it give you the critter protection guide on character creation.

And of course, more ideas welcome

This seems too evil, but what about a character who respawns in a different random spot every time they die? (Like the teleportation potion effect.)

 

[Golden Heretic Snakeboat]

This seems too evil, but what about a character who respawns in a different random spot every time they die? (Like the teleportation potion effect.)

god ing yes i would love this to be a thing

although what would the name for it be? i can't come up with anything (like that's anything new

)

 

[Big Sammich]

I think the idea of imposing challenges on yourself with a special name is a good idea. I always liked it when Castlevania did that with things like Alucard/Julius Mode. I'd want the specific challenges to be ironed out a lot better, but the concept is good.

 

[Aceplante]

This sounds like a great idea, but I have some suggestions. The Zenith seed would mess with getting the achievement and would allow the player to essentially cheat for it and some of the other names are a bit too common so a new player might accidentally come across it in a first run. Otherwise, I’d love to see it in game!

yeaaa I agree some of them are too common, but I wasn't sure what else to name them, plus its more about the mechanics so the names are certainly up for change.

and good point in regards to the zenith one, didn't remember there was an achievement

 

[Aceplante]

While Terrasavr exists, this feels really cheap and I can imagine all the new players instantly rushing to transport a free Zenith to their main world.

Yea on second thought I agree this one may be overpowered. It was just a random idea I had

Definitely sounds interesting but seems like it could become practically impossible very quickly?

Perhaps the opposite? enemies you kill do not drop any items, so you have to mine and craft as intended?

Interesting, but no idea how this would work in earlygame.

I forgot to add it, but I was thinking of having some sort of "wheelchair"/"crutch" mount?

Honestly I would just make it give you the critter protection guide on character creation.

In general, I want to avoid the "just giving you an item to start and calling it a day" road. Plus, that would allow you to toss away the book resulting in the character being indistinguishable from any other with no evidence it was ever special. While it may be okay in a few cases, in general, these abilities should be built in, to distinguish these as unique characters. So with this name for example, you cannot kill animals at all, for better or for worse (perhaps with the exception of the prismantic lacewing if that is counted as a critter)

This seems too evil, but what about a character who respawns in a different random spot every time they die? (Like the teleportation potion effect.)

Perfect! Added

 

[LisanPaez05]

Archimage: Starts with 40 HP, you only increase your HP until 100 with Hearts, and 150 with Life Fruit, but you start with 100 and you can increase it until 400 mana, also you deal 50% extra magical damage