Blood rites

[wanton plover]

Hey guys I really really love the "Blood rites" from HoH1: Witch Hunter DLC. I wanted to suggest that you'd maybe also add them here in HoH2, I even think it would be ok to pay for a DLC(or maybe even accepting it when a player already bought the dlc for HoH1) to get this functionality.

Very important for me is not the Blood rites as is but the core mechanic of them where you e.g. spend a part of your max HP to increase some kinda stat scaling based on ng level and if you manage to win the run you would keep that buff for the next run. Also this was the main reason i invested over 300 hours in HoH1. based on this mechanic there were so many new possibilities and cool new ways to experiment with your characters.

I just posted this because I didn't find a similar post yet, well aware that you prop. already thought about adding Blood rites

[sick sandal]

With bloodrites, isnt there a limit because eventually the character becomes like 1hp? I think just like trinkets, bloodrites should only last for the run and then get reset. The game should reward materials/gold for surviving with more bloodrites.

[wanton plover]

Nope there's not, that's how we did NG+ 300 in HoH1 & yeah you could still accept them with 1hp but playing with 1hp isn't quite the best.

I'm absolutely against them only being active for the current run because you lose them on every death anyway, since there's limited space on the map you would never be able to apply enough blood rites in one run to manage high NG levels or you would just be going from blood rite to blood rite and not really fighting anymore

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I think I'm speaking for the main part of the high NG runners when I say we loved how they worked and the main reason we liked them so much is because you kept them if you didn't die in a run, that's also the only valid way you could win the big runs talking about NG 200+

[cloud oak]

I was under the impression (as somebody who played the high NGs and had over 300 hours in HoH1) that blood rite save scumming being required to push very high NGs was kind of the lamest and by far worst designed part of the original game

like in lower level play the mechanic was fine, but once it got to the point where optimal play demanded running NG+0 over and over again and save scumming floors to stack specific blood rites before making an attempt on a very high NG was super lame

[sick sandal]

Save scumming in hoh2 is no longer possible btw, if you leave and re-enter a saved floor all shops or trinkets are no longer interactable

[cloud oak]

can you still make 7 copies of a save, enter a floor on each of them and then get a different roll on each save?

because that's how it worked in HoH1 and it would probably still work here, albeit with a little more effort

[sick sandal]

Currently if you choose to leave a game and return back to that floor, all potential upgrades on that floor are no longer interactable (as if they were taken already) so you effectively LOSE the option to interact with upgrades by save scumming. So there is no exploit anymore

[cloud oak]

I'm referring to saving multiple profiles while on one floor, and then ascending to the next floor on each profile individuallly, allowing you to reroll the loot on the next floor

in this hypothetical you've already full cleared the current floor before saving

[sick sandal]

yes but when u enter the next floor the chance of a blood rite is not guaranteed. so at least it's much harder than before where u could literally save profile beside an altar and spam attempts on the spot. Right now it would roll next floor which is really big RNG and is not very time effective.

[cloud oak]

Sadly it doesn't have to likely, or even good, it just has to be 'possible'

[sick sandal]

Tbh I wish bloodrites would be an interactive room where activating the altar spawns waves of tough enemies as a event and the altar only becomes available after clearing the enemies who's blood is used to fuel the blood rite altar. So the bonus can be given without downside and just last for a given run. gets wiped on run clear. No persistence beyond a run. But the enemy event should be very challenging, almost like a boss so players must consider the risks of trying

[cloud oak]

And if it's possible on paper, people will make 30 towns every single floor to farm optimal blood rites so that they can run optimal high NGs

Yeah I don't think any run buffs should continue into the next run

[sick sandal]

The solution is to remove blood rite persistence

[cloud oak]

Yup

Nuke that shit

[wanton plover]

oh yeah absolutely it absolutely was but I thought that's pretty much patched now or at least harder to do cause that's the only thing I disliked on the blood rites

[cloud oak]

idk that they could make it truly impossible, but if they brought back blood rites just without letting them persist between runs I'd be down

[wanton plover]

Would be kinda hard for a rougelite tho --> completely reasonable for a rougelike

[wanton plover]

K I see, I'd love the persistence bc it makes it more interesting but I really didn't like the save scumming..

maybe there's some good middle approach like e.g. how the statues worked

[cloud oak]

I liked statues, the only problem with them was the infinite blueprint farm

[wanton plover]

yeah that's the hate xDD but better then save scumming