Alchemy Packs and Cards (Formerly Astral)

[bold leaf]

See Attached. What I made is above the character limit

[teal needle]

This is an incredible idea!

Thanks for the thoughtful suggestion

[bold leaf]

Thanks! I imagine its a bit of an undertaking at this point. However I do think this would be the first mod i'd like to work on

[torn crown]

I can't read the file:(

[bold leaf]

can you download it? its a word doc

[torn crown]

i don't have 365

[teal needle]

This is the contents of the doc (not my writing)

Astral Packs (and cards)
I had only one minor gripe with the demo and that was how the consumable slot didn’t truly feel like a consumable slot. What I mean by this is for most of the “consumables” in the game, there was no value for using them in a round. The consumable slot for the most part is the place where the cards go to be immediately used or sold. Planet cards are either sold or used right away except when holding on to a few unwanted ones to avoid duplicates appearing. Tarots were slightly better but not by much. Most of the time it didn’t matter where the tarot cards were activated. The exceptions would be suit changers that you would want to hold on to in order to make a flush/flush house mid-round and death to make your Xoak. To a lesser extent there is devil and chariot. I would like the consumable slot to focus on cards that are to be exclusively used during a round.
Introducing Astral Packs (and cards). The best comparison to how these would work are potions from STS. These cards would have these unique effects:
1)     Can only be used while in a round (can’t be used in shop)  
2)     May either provide a:
a.     Temporary effect for some duration. Either some number of hands, the round, or the ante.
b.     Permanent effect once. Adding some number of chips or adding an edition or enhancement to a card/joker
Astral cards would be all things “space”. I’m thinking of a combination of stars, constellations, moons, comets, and galaxies. The smaller the body, the weaker the effect (lower rarity), and the larger bodies would be reserved for more powerful effects (high rarity). Or perhaps the body itself would dictate the rarity. The game would weigh lower tier rarities more heavily in packs. 
Some Examples:
Sirus (Common): +1 Hand for the current blind 
Vega (Common): Cards in the next scoring hand permanently gain +2 chips 
Procyon (Common): 2 random scoring cards from the next hand are given a random enhancement (occurs before scoring)
Tempel-Tuttel (Uncommon): Hands containing a pair this round receive +15 mult 
Sagittarius (Uncommon): The next 2 hands this blind containing a single suit receive x2 mult 
Pisces (Uncommon): Money gained from Jokers this blind is doubled 
Titan (Rare): The next 2 cards played are given a random edition (occurs before scoring)
Andromeda (Rare): Hands this ante receive an additional x1.5 mult 
Eris (Rare): Each hand played this round raises its level (max 3 per respective hand)
These examples are not to showcase perfect ideas but rather to show the amount of design space unlocked by including them. I don’t see such a huge overhaul being added to the final game, but I think this would be an excellent mod expansion.
Pros:
1.     A vast new design space for effects that would not be feasible on tarots/jokers
2.     More variety in shops. A late game issue I found was that once your joker slots are filled and you squeezed most of the tarot value by having a fine-tuned deck, you find a lot of time rerolling to high roll editioned jokers. These cards will always have a place at all places in the game and are a good money sink
3.     Consumable slots begin to actually feel like a consumable slot rather than the temporary storage for cards you were going to use right away anyways.
4.     Overall more diverse and interesting runs
Neutral: 
1.     Dilutes the shop. While the shop variety is overall a good thing, this taking the spot of a joker pack early game might feel bad. One remedy for this is every shop would have a dedicated astral pack or card slot. 
Cons:
1.     For effects lasting more than a single hand, there would have to be a portion of the game screen dedicated for listing the effects lasting for the next x hands/blind/ante
2.     The consumable slot would have to be revamped. Either consumable slots would have to be increased (preferred) or there would be separate slots for planet/tarot cards vs astral cards.```

[bold leaf]

Thanks for doing that. I've always had nightmares trying to format on discord

[native wraith]

this is a really cool idea

[bold leaf]

Thanks glad you like it

[native wraith]

there'd be a lot of interesting design space in these

[bold leaf]

Just noticed in the examples I used "blind" and "round" interchangeably. Just in case there was any confusion

[jade sapphire]

That feels like the best suggestion so far wow 😍

[sonic nimbus]

A few more ideas for the sake of it

Astral: [Sol] (Common)
Cards in hands played this round that only contain one card become Gold

Astral: [Alpha Proxima] (Uncommon)
The first card in the next hand played this round triggers twice

Astral: [Crab Nebula] (Rare)
Polychrome cards and jokers this blind give x2 Mult instead of x1.5

Astral: [Supermassive Black Hole] (Legendary)
Select one Joker to become Negative

[slender comet]

The last one there is interesting but is definitely just a giga buffed spectral pack idea.
From my interpretation of the astral packs it was meant to be more of a mid round(blind)/beginning of round(blind) card used to gain a boost for a blind or two, not just give you a straight up buff for the rest of the run.
It also suffers from the fact that you don't want to use it during a round, since you wont be able to reap the immediate benefits of purchasing two more jokers

With that being said though the astral pack does seem like one of the few places you could have a game changing card like that put in, since none of the current packs really have "rarities". (I totally think that giving current pack cards rarities like jokers would be a cool idea though, I think having the "rarer" cards in packs show up more in mega or jumbo packs would be cool.)

[sour stirrup]

My perception of the idea is allowing the player to bridge consistency gaps, circumventing bad RNG during a fight with unique solutions. They're basically potions from slay the spire. In deckubuilders, consumables are usually insanely powerful but have a very high skill ceiling. They're thus very useful and interesting for high difficulty levels.

In the case of balatro they would be a very strong incentive to lower the number of discards, at least in high stakes runs.

some thoughts:

• I'm not sure space is the best theme for this. In the game space is related to poker hands. Planets and space joker level up hands, supernova levels up hands in its own way, constellation , satellite, telescope and observatory are related to planets.
• In order to keep it focused, I'd definitely remove permanent effects because that's a big overlap with tarot. Temporary effect is already a very strong identity.
• I'd not add seperate slots. More slots could be a thing, like 3 slots for the base difficulty and one difficulty stake lowers it to 2 slots

[lyric comet]

Oooh, yeah , this is really interesting. A whole new kind of consumable is definitely a lot of work, but I do agree that the consumable slot is underutilized, it's something I've had in the back of my head too. Would love to see something like this

[lavish summit]

I agree with the problems this is trying to solve and I think this is the right kind of approach. Nor sure about the specifics, but in general it does work well I think.

[bold leaf]

Appreciate the feedback. To address your points in turn:

1. The space theme was chosen on a whim. I have no particular attachment to it and if someone can think of something else, I’m all for it.
2. While drafting this idea I had the same thought about whether to include the permanent effects. I decided yes for two reasons.
   a. The tarot cards for the final game I imagine are going to stick with the Major Arcana. Meaning there is no space for other tarot-based effects. The solutions for this is adding minor arcana cards in the set or putting the effects in Astral Packs. I went with the latter.
   b. I think consumable effects can have some overlap with the other mechanics in the game. For example, I don’t think its off base to include an Astral Card that ranks up 3 random hands on use
3. I agree with just adding additional slots. Keeps the UI cleaner and to me seems more intuitive

[bold leaf]

Thanks for the ideas. I also was debating adding super rare cards on a similar tier as your black hole. I think they can be too warping in the base game but maybe they can be introduced after you beat the final boss and enter endless mode

[sonic nimbus]

Jokers have the same tiers, Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Legendary, however there are no Legendary Jokers in the current Demo

[bold leaf]

If there were Legendary Astral Cards they wouldnt operate like Legendary jokers though. You are limited to one legendary joker at a time. Unless you have it where you are limited to how many legendary astral cards you can use in a run

[sonic nimbus]

I was struggling for ideas tbh, I just wanted one of each, and Black Hole and Negative edition jokers seems to fit appropriately

[sonic nimbus]

I didn't know you're limited to one Legendary at a time

I was more thinking in terms of sheer rarity

You can use the same terms, just different rules for different cards

[bold leaf]

Maybe im wrong but thats how i remember them operating. And yeah i understand what youre saying

[sonic nimbus]

Either way, I think these are a really cool idea

Given that we have Planet cards, I think Astral cards are too close in theme to do something so different

[bold leaf]

Yeah the point was made above. I have no attachment to the space theme it was just the first thing that came to mind. If you think of a better alternative im all for it

[sonic nimbus]

I'm trying to think of things now, but honestly I'm a bit stumped haha

You could call them Material cards or something like that

And they're called things like Gold, Silver, Copper, Lead, Platinum, Uranium, or even exotic names like Strange (as in the quark type)

[sonic nimbus]

Matter cards, maybe

[bold leaf]

There are certainly better options than what i have. I just went with space because it seemed somewhat on theme with the inclusion of planets already and choosing names for the cards would be easy

[sonic nimbus]

Elemental cards?

[bold leaf]

i could have gone cliche and named them potions but who wants that

[sonic nimbus]

Could do something with alchemical stuff, so gold, salt, saltpetre, carbon, or a philosopher's stone

[sonic nimbus]

I agree that it was easy, but they would still feel good and satisfying of they were called that

[bold leaf]

Im about to whip out the periodic table and just go with elements lol

[sonic nimbus]

Hell, what about the deadly sins or the contents of pandora's box, or even Greek mythological figures?

[bold leaf]

The possibilities are endless. The only requirement would be that there are enough options in the category to make a substantial amount of cards

[teal needle]

Welcome to my world

I do like thinking of other card 'set' themes and the art direction fot that set

Like a 'machinery' visual set where everything is steampunk/machine inspired. There would be quite a few options there. Or I had considered adding constellations as a set

[sonic nimbus]

Do you do all the art yourself?

[teal needle]

I do yes

[sonic nimbus]

That sounds dope

And that's awesome, I love the art style

It feels simple because it's pixel art, but it's actually genuinely just good art

[teal needle]

Or even just animals, I like animals

Save up a couple Giraffes for a tough boss

Proc a frog and an eel

Things found at a circus? Lion tamer, trapeze, cannon, elephant, trained seal

[sonic nimbus]

Circus themeing is super appropriate

[teal needle]

Those do feel more like Jokers though

[sonic nimbus]

Card called Ringmaster that skips the blind but loses all your money

[teal needle]

There already is a Ringmaster Joker

[sonic nimbus]

Ooh, what does it do?

[sour stirrup]

What's the difference between minor and major arcana ? I've seen arcana in many games (tboi is an obvious example) but I don't know much about tarot.
I feel like one common theme in balatro is mystery. Tarot feels mysterious, space is mysterious, jokers are stange things too. Sometimes it even has some kind of ominous feeling (spectral packs). Not sure how to put that into words but I really feel it

[sonic nimbus]

In that case Alchemy could work for the Astral packs

[teal needle]

If I had an idea board the words 'occult' 'magic' 'ethereal' 'mysterious' would be on there

[sonic nimbus]

IDEA DING DING

[teal needle]

Oooo Alchemy would be great

[sour stirrup]

alchemy sounds super cool

[sonic nimbus]

Shit my train derailed

[teal needle]

It fits the potion theme way too perfectly too

[sonic nimbus]

Like "classic" Alchemy, with philosopher's stones, gold, aqua regia, etc.

[teal needle]

Literally perfect

quit digging you hit gold

[sonic nimbus]

Or elemental metals as common cards

[teal needle]

With their dope latin names

Wolfram

[sonic nimbus]

I'm going to continue mining the full ore vein babyyyy

[teal needle]

Aurum, Ferrum, Cuprum

[sonic nimbus]

Hell yeah

[weary prism]

plumbum (lead) could be a common

[sonic nimbus]

Depends how sciencey you want to go with it. You can go more classic with the naming, as they would've called stuff in the 1700s, or you could go more modern with the recent discoveries

[whole sparrow]

Unununium

[teal needle]

lmao I'm on the wiki for alchemical substances

[sonic nimbus]

111 through 118 did get actual names within the last few years to be fair

[weary prism]

Rotgenium is 111

[whole sparrow]

😆

[native wraith]

Alchemy for consumables would be cool as hell

[sonic nimbus]

Let us know exactly how perfect the idea is haha

[teal needle]

Look at the whiplash here from how good the main name is to how awful the common name is

[sonic nimbus]

Baloney stoney

[teal needle]

They did Lapis Solaris so dirty

[whole sparrow]

The Oscar Meyer stone

[teal needle]

Anyway I see like 30 great ideas from this list
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_alchemical_substances

[bold leaf]

oh i like what we are cooking here

[teal needle]

Don't expect anything for release - but I do like this idea that I might consider something like it for a post release update

Tarots once filled this niche but I had to redesign them all to work when there was no blind active

So this would fill in that other half

[whole sparrow]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemical_symbol#Alchemical_processes

Even links to the Zodiac

which ties into stellar theme

[sonic nimbus]

If this gets added, just credit this whole thread as the source 💀

[weary prism]

I'm learning love2D just to mod this in

Maybe

[sonic nimbus]

There's like 3 or 4 people that have given ideas for this

[whole sparrow]

Yeah... good ideas though!

[bold leaf]

Adding a handful of more ideas. Now Alchemy inspired. I tried to take advantage of a few new mechanics with the expanded design space. Not sure how much of them are feasible but I like them in theory

Cadmia (Common): Leftmost joker triggers twice on the next hand this blind
Verdigris (Common): Add 1 card from used card pile to hand
Caustic Potash (Common): Next hand played this blind is unaffected by boss effects
Sal Petrae (Common): Triples the sell value of all jokers this blind
Bismuth (Common): Add 50% of the required blind value to score (Doesn’t work on bosses)
Zaffre (Common): The first tarot/planet card used this blind appears in next shop
Galena (Common): Add 3 Temporary Stone Cards to hand (Temporary cards are removed from deck at the end of blind)
Sweet Vitriol (Uncommon): Destroy leftmost joker and add a joker 1 rarity higher (Destroying a rare joker creates a rare joker).
Colcothar (Uncommon): Next hand played this blind has chips and mult equalized
Salt of Hartshorn (Uncommon): If blind is won with one hand, all items in next shop are free (Excluding rerolls)
Aurum (Uncommon): Interest cap is removed this blind
Plumbago (Uncommon): Add 5 temporary Aces of Spades to hand
Lapis Solaris (Rare): Activate only in the first blind of ante. Reach the next ante without any discards to gain $50
Bluestone (Rare): Blinds this ante are reduced by 30%
Purple of Cassius (Rare): Next 3 cards drawn this blind are given a random edition
Aqua Regia (Rare): After the first hand for each blind this ante is drawn, add a temporary card of any rank and suit to hand

[tribal jetty]

For eye and mouth, if this is the first hand, how does caustic potash work?

I imagine it just scores and does nothing for the boss effect (can still score this hand type/no restriction yet on the one hand type)

[bold leaf]

Activating it before your first hand (if I remember their effects correctly) would do nothing. Using the Potash would disable the boss on the hand you activate it on when their effect is active

There are some funky interactions like with wheel where the effect would just flip up all the cards in hand

[tribal jetty]

Water gives discards back only for one hand, needle gives another hand, ect.?

[bold leaf]

There are some bosses where the interactions might be awkward and unintuitive like Water. I think using the potash on water should grant a discard but I wouldn't know how obvious that is. With Needle you would be getting a free hand

[tribal jetty]

Maybe it can say in the notes like joker stencil how it works for the current boss blind?

[bold leaf]

Maybe the wording can be changed to: Disable the current Boss Effect until after next hand is scored

would clear up interactions between wheel and water

[tribal jetty]

But not for mouth and eye. This is why I think notes are better solution

[bold leaf]

yeah i just caught that.

the notes are a good place to start

Ideally most of the effects can be straightforward where you read the effect and be like "yeah ok this is what this does"

Thunk already copied it above

[gritty vortex]

oh xd

didnt even notice

nvm then

[tribal jetty]

But wheel can also be this as well: the cards drawn until the next hand including the refills for it, can't be drawn faced down

Which is another reason for notes

[bold leaf]

A quick and dirty solution is just have a popup on bosses where the Potash would be unusable

like incompatability warnings with blueprint

[tribal jetty]

I still think notes is the best solution. For bosses that it doesn't do anything, it can be "doesn't work"

I would like to have one "consumable" that while it's held triggers a random consumable at the start of the boss blind. Probably a rare or legendary but I don't know for sure. Also I don't have any ideas for name

[bold leaf]

without the demo im struggling to remember what the "notes" exactly look like on stencil. Just wondering if it would be appropriate on a consumable

[tribal jetty]

It's saying in a smaller font joker stencil included

[bold leaf]

ok yeah i think I remember

I suppose that would be fine on a consumable

[bold leaf]

lol pick a random alchemical ingrediant and you are good to go. I do like the idea of consumables that trigger effects by holding in inventory. I don't know though if there is anything that having a consumable in inventory active can do compared to a consumable you activate for x-blinds cant. Like for your effect above, have a consumable that for the next 3 blinds, trigger a random consumable in inventory

[tribal jetty]

I just realized that this thread has more messeges than the meme thread

[bold leaf]

i guess the advantage is that it reduces screen clutter since you would not need space dedicated telling you this effect is active

and lol we are more powerful than memes

[tribal jetty]

Fool will be able to spawn this type of cards probably. I think it should be able since it can spawn planets

[bold leaf]

If these cards ever make it into the game there can be some adjustments on current cards (Fool like you said)

but superposition in its current state could give one

and there could be a batch of new jokers that interact

[tribal jetty]

A scaling xmult for each use(already a thing for planets and tarots) for sure

[bold leaf]

Alchemist Joker is inevitable

[weary prism]

The philosopher's stone could "reroll" every nonnegative consumable held at the start of each blind (tarots turn into a random tarot), etc.

[bold leaf]

I just thought I'd rather have a "Mr. bones" like effect on a consumable rather than a joker so this idea can have some traction. Going forwards I'm gonna think of some consumables that would have a temporary triggered effect rather than an activated ability. Some more unexplored design space

[bold leaf]

Trying my hand on some passive effect consumables. There are 2 rules I wanted to follow when creating them. The first is that I didn’t want to overlap with possible joker effects. They would be more like general support cards that would be too niche/limited to use a joker slot on. Second, I wanted there to be a logical reason for making the effect passive rather than something you activate. One thing I like about passive effects is that they reduce UI clutter. You wouldn’t need screen space dedicated to showing active effects from multihand/blind consumables. Obviously, everything can’t be passive since there are some effects you want to have control over when they activate. Also, I do prefer activated effects since they increase player autonomy. I think their best use case is with shops. The general rule is that alchemy cards cannot be used in shops and these cards still follow that rule. They are unable to be activated AT ALL but have a positive effect on shop interactions. I put the number of uses each card will have before it is “used up” and removed from your consumable slot. Most passive cards will have a limited amount of uses but I could see a few examples that can remain indefinitely. I like including “uses” on passive cards to differentiate them from cards you would activate. Some stuff may be a bit wacky but I’m just theorizing some cool interactions you wouldn’t get anywhere else

Vermilion (Common): Purchasing a voucher in shop immediately adds its upgraded version in its place (Uses:1)
Cuprite (Common): Upon entering a shop, add an additional random pack (Uses:2)
Calome (Common): While in the consumable slot, incremental jokers don’t deteriorate (I’m using incremental as a keyword that captures jokers which can increase or decrease in either value or scoring) (In this case this would prevent jokers like popcorn and ice cream from decreasing in scoring)
Spiritus Fumans (Uncommon): Common jokers encountered in shops are upgraded to uncommon (Uses:3)
Venetian White (Uncommon): When an adjacent consumable is consumed, add a copy of it to your consumable slot (Uses:2)
Thion Hudor (Rare): Jokers purchased without an edition gain a random edition (Uses: 3)

[tribal jetty]

Calome can prevent ride the bus from resetting?

Thion Hudor is pretty much 3 guaranteed wof on newly bought jokers

[bold leaf]

For Calome I didn’t consider the bus interaction, but I like it. The wording isn’t perfect, but it would be something along the lines of “incremental jokers don’t deteriorate/reset)”.

[bold leaf]

My thinking for Thion Hudor was the following. It’s a rare so its going to cost a fair amount of money. In the early game the first order of business is usually buying some scoring jokers. It is unlikely you will be able to spend a chunk of cash on this and then stay afloat long enough to buy the 3 perfect jokers. In the late game, you already have your joker lineup mostly established so this would hit suboptimal jokers. I think it’s a strong midgame consumable where you have some cash to hunt and your joker lineup is fluid enough to allow for a new joker. WOF is not guaranteed but it’s aiming at jokers you are holding on to (jokers you want to have an edition). Thion Hudor while a guaranteed hit, you are either going for less desired jokers or you are going to have to sell a joker you want to hit for a chance to encounter it later. Overall, I think it’s fair an interesting enough to be its own thing.
The quick fix is just up the rarity to legendary (if this ever comes to be) and call it a day

[torn crown]

What if Calome made the jokers unchangeable, like loyalty always being at its activation

[bold leaf]

Thats an interesting thought. There could be some sort of consumable that has these "Countdown" jokers activate every hand

[cold rain]

I think it would be too broken if not implemented that way. Especially if you have jokers like hit the road, it would get out of hand fast given it wouldn't reset either

jokers being frozen might be a cool concept for some builds, but it has some significant drawbacks too

say, ride the bus would stop growing

[sonic nimbus]

Could add a special deck that synergises with the Alchemy Deck called the Alchemists' Deck, Witch's Deck or something like that, and each at the end of each blind it awards you an alchemy card

[bold leaf]

Thanks for creating some art @sonic nimbus ! This is just a proof of concept but I'd love to see some iteration of this make it into the full game or a modpack. Having some art pushes this goal one step closer to reality

[sonic nimbus]

I ended up doing something else for a bit, but I'm back to working on it

[bold leaf]

Don't feel obligated to create anything but id love to see what you come up with

[sonic nimbus]

Nah I'm having fun lmao

[sonic nimbus]

@bold leaf

Hey local, here's some art inspo for the alchemy packs

One is 71x95, the other is 710x950

Maybe make the material bigger, and add some flasks and tomes nearby on the desk, but how is it?

[bold leaf]

I like it. The only suggestion i can think of is making the material a more prominent piece on the card

[sonic nimbus]

Yeah, I agree

[sonic nimbus]

What shape should I make the gold?

Some kind of ingot, or a chunk?

[sonic nimbus]

@bold leaf How's this?

[bold leaf]

I like it but I am not an art expert. I'd be interested in hearing Thunk's opinion

[sonic nimbus]

Can't ping him, so I guess we wait for them to notice

Also, if you do see this and respond Local, please ping @me

[bold leaf]

Nice i like it!

[bold leaf]

Alchemy Packs and Cards (Formerly Astral)

[bold leaf]

Adding future ideas here for my personal notes

Alkahest (Uncommon): While held, Jokers, Tarot cards, Spectral cards, Alchemy Cards, and Most Used Planet Cards, can appear multiple times

2 fixes on showman

think this effect is better as a passive consumable (too narrow to waste a joker slot on) and fixes the issue of the anti-synergy with celestial packs

[tribal jetty]

Already exists as a joker called ring master

[native wraith]

It’s named showman now

[tribal jetty]

Didn't know

[native wraith]

And now you do :)

[bold leaf]

yeah i was underwhelmed by it in the invitational. Prefer the effect on a consumable with the fixed celestial pack interaction

[undone bridge]

am i the only one who saw minecraft gold ore

[light zodiac]

yes

[weary prism]

No

[delicate heath]

oh this is awesome

[bold leaf]

Thanks man 😎

[bold leaf]

Some really nice artwork inspired by this idea in the fanart section. Credits to @lyric comet @compact jetty and @sonic nimbus above. Reposting them below so they are all in one place for easy reference.

[sonic nimbus]

Nah, Distill, Diffuse, Dissolve and Boil take the cake, those are dope

Also,

[bold leaf]

I like them all. Also its interesting how there is a direction for both ingredients and alchemical actions

Kind of comes together with my ideas. The passive consumables would best be represented by the ingredients, which would be "used up" after a certain number of rounds. And the activated effects would best be represented by the alchemical actions.

[compact jetty]

Thought i'd post a progress update

[radiant dagger]

holy these look amazing

[radiant dagger]

what do they do

[fallen crow]

@bold leaf , Sorry to bother you, but did you make a post or comment which had all of the ideas so that newcomers can find and read them, if so, could you post a link? if not, could you please do that? I would appreciate it

Also, did anybody put in Coagulate, Subliminate, and liquefy in yet/

[bold leaf]

Incredible stuff. Thanks for sharing

[bold leaf]

Everything is contained in this thread. The general idea is that alchemy cards would be a consumable type that fills in the gaps left by others

Either effects that could only be activated in a blind or holding on to them would provide some sort of passive effect

[fallen crow]

No, I meant is there a list of all of the alchemy cards so far?

[bold leaf]

There is no formal list as of yet. There are alchemy card ideas above in various posts.

Also a few awesome people provided some art along the way

[fallen crow]

Dang, I guess I have to scroll through the 200 comment post 🙂

[bold leaf]

lol its not too bad. If you have any ideas or thoughts yourself feel free to contribute

this is the place to brainstorm and I love hearing peoples takes

[fallen crow]

Thanks, will do

But somebody's got to make a list

Like, reading through 200 comments is a daunting task yk

[bold leaf]

If i have time this weekend ill throw something together

[fallen crow]

Thx, maybe I should do it, since I don't have anything to do rn

Unobtainium : While held, Level up each normally unobtainable poker hand (5oak, Flush Five, etc...) by 2 every time they are played (Uses : 3)
Also, I think the consumables slot has to get like +1 or +2 if this makes it in the main game

[bold leaf]

Yup i think i suggested that in the original post. Would be great overall since on higher antes, an easy modifier would be removing 1/2 consumable slots

[radiant dagger]

what i meant was that i read through the thread and i couldn't find anything on what the distill,diffuse,dissolve,etc. cards did

are those the new ores or what

[fallen crow]

This is what I mean by needing a list lol. There are going to be a lot of duplicative ideas
If we aren't organized, no pressure tho

[fallen crow]

Ruby (Rare): When used, Retriggers all cards played on next hand
Prism (Uncommon): When used, make 3 other copies of chosen card with them all being different suits
Amethyst (Rare): When there is no other consumable in consumable slot, spawn 1 tarot card after blind
Prismarine (Common): When used, give tag of next blind (excluding boss blinds)
Catalyst (Legendary): While held, XMult Jokers (Baseball, Obelisk, etc...) Gain X2 XMult (So, Baseball would be 3X per Uncommon Joker, Throwback would now be Gain X0.5 Mult per skip, and so on)

[past rover]

I mean, this is all theorycrafting right now, it’s not a design document. I don’t think it’s a big deal if we have some repeated ideas, or some unfinished ones (like the distill/diffuse/dissolve stuff)

[fallen crow]

Yeah, I know, but I guess i'm just a perfectionist

[hollow shoal]

50 likes, jeezzzzz

[broken flint]

*52

[hollow shoal]

weve made it to standard deck size of likes

[broken flint]

lmao

[compact jetty]

And we stay silly

[sonic nimbus]

I am glad this thread is getting decent traction, I think it has good potential, not to mention how Local himself said he liked the idea, and especially liked the theme of Alchemy generally

[compact jetty]

Nearly done with these

I'll come up with my own effects for them all in future

[inland crane]

its crazy how good these are

[sour stirrup]

my current fav is evanesce

[radiant dagger]

my idea for absorb is like a plant with its roots absorbing smth

[violet kettle]

for evanesce you could use libra as the symbol? It represents sublimation which I think is another name for evanesce (solid -> gas without liquid)?

[lyric comet]

I think straying away from the zodiac symbols is a good idea considering the astrological bits of the other packs

[compact jetty]

Ah that version isnt fully updated, latest one the gold nameplate on evanesce is morphing up too

[broken flint]

🔥

yo the fire is melting the tag up

[bold leaf]

very sick art thanks for sharing

[radiant dagger]

i may have an idea: we add 3 new card modifier called solid, liquid, and gas(could change the border, solid could crumble, liquid could drip, gas could be smoky at the edge)
solid: +5 mult per scoring liquid or gas card
liquid: +25 chips per scoring solid and gas cards
gas: x1.1 mult per scoring solid or liquid card

[radiant dagger]

instead of putting these in a pack, we could add a new joker:
Alchemist Joker(rare): Gain 2 of the (insert consumable name) when blind is selected(must have room)

[compact jetty]

So complicated

[bold leaf]

as someone said above this is all just theorycrafting and every post is welcome. However @compact jetty has a point. The conception of alchemy was to fill in the role that that tarots mostly excluded. I value keeping the idea simple

[radiant dagger]

true

[compact jetty]

I've got plenty of ideas for what i want them to be but i'll list them out once ive finished making them

[radiant dagger]

aight

[inland axle]

hows this coming along

[compact jetty]

[inland axle]

wat

[compact jetty]

Ive not done anything else on this since last time i posted pretty much

Idk about anyone else

[inland axle]

ah

shame

[compact jetty]

Too busy making jokers and playing the game

[weary prism]

The game is just too fun

[fallow ocean]

ok, i feel like the philosophers stone would have to be the spectral card in the pack (like black hole or the soul)

maybe it could make every card in your deck into something?

i feel like with the other 2 legendary useables there isn’t much risk

so maybe instead of that it could introduce a new seal

like rainbow seal or something that when played and scored would add a random edition to an other card that was played

[warped ember]

hmmmm

well, since alchemy packs are the most consumable of the consumables (like effects while playing) or whatever

what if the philosopher's stone balanced the chips and mult?

like in plasma deck

[undone bridge]

what if philosophers stone was a spectral

like soul and black hole

oh wait someone already said that nvm

[fallow ocean]

i was thinking about this last night and i feel like a cool effect would be making all jokers polychrome for a blind

[bold leaf]

I don't have the talent to make this into a full mod. If anyone wants to take this idea as their own and make it happen feel free. There are some good ideas and art in this thread contributed by a ton of people

[gritty crater]

maybe for Melt put a melting ice cube

[sonic nimbus]

Just saw the Codex Arcanum mod. Looks like someone made it into an actual thing @bold leaf
https://github.com/itayfeder/Codex-Arcanum

[bold leaf]

ive been playing this since the day of release 😂

[sonic nimbus]

Honestly I'm super chuffed it made it to full release, sad you didn't get any credit

[inland axle]

yeah

i hope it puts some of the stuff in here to use

like the card sprites

or something like that

[bold leaf]

All good. Creators came up with this idea on their own.

[sonic nimbus]

I mean the ideas are pretty close to what you suggested, but I suppose no-one has a patent on Alchemy haha

[inland axle]

yeah

but the ideas are very similar