Part 16: Fate roundup #1
Part 16 - Fate roundup #1Apprentice (YouTube)
Explorer's Gift (YouTube)
Hoarder's Desire (YouTube)
Monk (YouTube)
In these bonus videos, I showcase some of the modifiers the game allows us to play with that we didn't get to clear in story dungeons. I'll go over their encounters and give you a brief look at their rewards. I'm starting with four easier ones:
Apprentice
Apprentice is easy mode. Playing this Fate adds extra Gain cards to your deck, makes you stronger, makes enemies weaker, and locks a couple of achievements (but not many—I only found one so far, but someone will probably correct me).
The Apprentice encounters are all about teaching you how to play the game better by making you focus on one single mechanic in an easy setting. Finishing the final token encounter gives you two cards: Battle Practice and Nymphs of the Sweetwoods. Battle Practice is a very useful deck card, as it makes you fight a small amount of any monster unlocked so far in exchange for a single Gain card; it's practically a freebie. Nymphs of the Sweetwoods only appears in the Apprentice Fate, resets your avatar status to exactly as he was when the run started (equipment, curses, blessings, health, and food), and gives you the Sweetwood Blessing aka a Gain card every five steps.
If you're just trying to play a chill session through the game, just use this. Everything unlocks quickly.
Explorer's Gift
I showed off Explorer's Gift during an Endless Mode video. It's all about exploring every nook and cranny of a map, it adds food Gain cards to the deck, and revisiting spaces costs no food. The inability to wear heavy armor seems like a downside, but it also means events which depend on your armor class will be easy. I would call this Fate a pseudo-easy mode; it's not necessarily easier, but if you know what you're doing, it's hard to kill you.
The Lost Island encounters attached to this Fate are a balance of gathering resources, chance events, and fighting. The requirements are not very steep, though you may find yourself doing the second encounter quite a few times to get a good result. It might be worth doing it in an earlier dungeon where few things affect your chance pulls.
You're rewarded with a generic Lost Island card, letting you pay some gold and food for a series of chance events which can lead to many gain cards, and with a ring which grants food for revealing all encounters on a map.
Hoarder's Desire
I showed off Hoarder's Desire in an Endless Mode video. It's about managing equipment, loss, and Goblins. You start off weak and low in health, and need to accumulate equipment to be strong.
The Treasure Trove encounters attached to this Fate force you to wear the Fate's helm, then give up all your non-default equipment in exchange for a token. This is a huge inconvenience in the middle of a run, as it resets your stats to the default. All three encounters are identical. You're rewarded with a generic Treasure Trove card, which has the same mechanics but lets you pick one of four pieces of random equipment, and the Fate's helm, which is only really good with goblins and the aforementioned encounter.
I'm not a huge fan of this Fate. It seems a bit underdeveloped, and I don't find its equipment of significant use.
Monk
Monk is all about Undead as your only Gold source. Its helmet gives you health when you gain a blessing.
The Holy Quest encounters attached to this Fate are a mixture of combat and chance, forcing you to fight against increasingly difficult combinations of the Court of Skulls, and also find a tomb where said monsters are. However, you need to have defeated the relevant Court member in the story before you can actually finish the Fate properly. By the way, the last fight can be brutal: the Jack, Queen, and King of Skulls together in a trapped chamber can be pretty tough (I died twice). The last fight used the King's explosive buddies against the others to great success.
Finishing the final encounter rewards you with the Monk helm and its corresponding health gain, and a generic Holy Quest encounter. This encounter is a chance event that can lead to Pain, monsters, Gain, or a piece of the Skeleton King's equipment. I don't like the Monk helm that much myself, but the encounter could be useful if you like your chances.