Progression
You wake with nothing but a body and a temperament. What you grow into is earned: by fighting, by finding, by learning from people who should not have taught you.
Make the survivor
The character creator has three pages. Appearance: name, form, hair, eyes and clothing. Attributes: 12 points to spend at the start of a story, no more than 5 in any one. Personality: 15 points across Witty, Empathetic and Bold, the voice you will speak in.
Randomise any of it if you would rather be surprised. On a controller an on-screen keyboard takes your name. In co-op, every player builds their own survivor before joining, and everyone sees who you made.
Personality does not stop at the creator. The way you answer people keeps shaping it, and the game tells you when it shifts.
Levels and skill points
Experience comes from kills, from discovering the Cursed Doll’s waypoints (100 XP the first time each one is found) and from quests. Every level brings skill points.
In co-op, every player who hurt an enemy, directly or through their own summon, earns its full experience. The Doll’s training arena pays half. The PvP arena pays nothing; it is for pride.
Seven ways to get better
Melee
Critical chance, reach, raw strength and a weapon bash.
Reliefs
Unlock, enhance and master the spells of each tradition.
Sneak
Quick and Deadly for a harder shape to see; Feather Quiet for footsteps up to 75% quieter.
Speech
The Attuned Speaker: the only way to talk a Kingdom guard into taking a bribe.
Utility
Hold more food and water, get more back from them, and condition your body for the road.
Weapon Techniques
A mastery perk for each armed weapon family, enhancing every technique it knows.
Dirty Tricks
Longer blinding sand, snares that are harder to escape, bear traps that bite harder.
Unlock, enhance, master
Each tradition grows through its own perks. One perk unlocks spells one to four and then the Ultimate, rank by rank. A second enhances the spell of the same number. Mastery goes further.
Mastery changes what a spell is, not only how strong it is. A mastered Summon Demon stays bound to you. Mastered heals reach the allies standing in your aura. The magic.
Death is not the end, exactly
When you die you wake again at the nearest Cursed Doll, at full health, with your experience, attributes and perks intact. In co-op the others keep playing while you make your way back.
Food and water
Hunger and thirst fall by five every minute. Keep them up and the road gives back.
Food
Eating heals you over time.
Well Fed · Fed · Hungry · Starved
Water
Drinking restores stamina over time.
Hydrated · Thirsty · Parched · Dehydrated
You cannot eat or drink past full. Utility perks raise how much you can hold and how much it gives back.
New Game+ and New Game++
A finished story can be followed by a fresh one with more to spend: 18 attribute points in New Game+ and 25 in New Game++, against enemies with 1.2 and 1.4 times their health and damage. In co-op the session uses the host’s tier.
In development The tiers and enemy scaling work in the current build; unlocking them from the end of the story is still being finished.