Skills news - Kyn

Skills

Let’s talk gameplay, and more specifically the skill system! Kyn’s skill system is built to be simple to use, but with enough depth for different tactics. Each time you complete a mission your warriors gain 5 stats points that can be spent on Mind, Body, or Control.

Mind increases casting abilities by giving warriors a larger spirit pool and spirit regeneration, but it comes at the cost of health and inability to wear strong armor. Body gives you access to the most powerful armors, increases your weapon damage and increases your health, but heavy armor reduces your attack speed and your spirit pool will be limited. Control is a bit of a middle road between the two, giving a bit of spirit and a bit of health, but more importantly control increases your attack speed which is useful to overcome attack speed penalties.

Kyn has three skill trees and each skill tree corresponds with one of the attributes. Every 15 points invested in an attribute will unlock a new skill tier. For example if you have 25 points invested in mind your mind skills are at tier 2 (25/2 + 1). You get access to tier 1 and tier 2 skills and each skill is at level 2.

There are various reasons why we have it setup like this. For one we want you to experiment with different skills and adapt to different battle situations, all skills will stay at equal power and are always usable. But it still allows you to specialize a warrior. If you put 90 points in mind it gives you access to more specific spells buried deep in the tree and it makes all your spells level 7, but this is also a risky move since it will leave you with a very small health pool and limited armor.

Terror
Terror is a mind skill used for crowd control. When cast its victims run away in fear, buying you some precious time to heal up, place a trap, or deal with a smaller group of targets.

Burning Shot
Burning shot is the shotgun of Kyn and is part of the Control tree. It shoots out up to 7 arrows that each deal fire damage. It can be used in close range to let multiple arrows hit a single target, or at longer range to spread burn damage over a larger group.

Grenades
Although hard to control, grenades are still very fun to play with. They bounce off walls, roll down hills and can reach enemies in tough places. Don't throw them up-hill though, because they might roll back.

Shockwave
Shockwave is a two-handed weapon skill that not only damages, but also stuns the enemies it hits. It is especially useful for locking down enemies that you'd like to flank or outmanoeuvre.

Rebirth
Rebirth is used to revive humans that aren't past their expiration date and relatively intact. It can be used on your own warriors, but also on other inhabitants of the world. And who knows, they might even reward you for bringing them back to life!

Feed skills

In addition to the two skills a warrior can use, there is a third special skill slot reserved for feed skill. Feed skills are skills that are formed by combing a feed stone with a feed skill. Instead of using spirit the feed stone is used as a source of energy. Each feed skill – stone combination results in an unique skill. Feed skills are more situational than ordinary skills, but also more powerful. There are 9 different feed stone types, 3 for each tree, each feeding on a different environment factor. For example the fire stone feeds on nearby fires. Once a stone is full, the skill can be unleashed.

The 3 skills associated with the avatar feed skill all summon a being that protects or strengthens the player.

Shard
The proximity stone feeds on nearby life forces. The more life forces are near the stone, the faster it fills up. Shard can be cast once the proximity stone is full. Shard absorbs all damage for a short time. Each time shard absorbs damage it shoots out shards dealing the negated damage back to anything it hits.

Death
The death avatar can be cast when the death stone is full. The death stone feeds on nearby deaths of any living being. Once cast, the death avatar increases the warrior's damage output and attack speed each time something dies nearby.

Ember
The ember avatar can be cast when the fire stone is full. The fire stone feeds on any nearby fires, this can be one of your own fire skills, but also a nearby torch or enemy fire skills. The warrior is surrounded by armor that makes it immune to fire. When the warrior is hit, a flame springs from the armor that deals fire damage on impact. Your armor becomes increasingly powerful when hit by fire, each flame dealing extra fire damage.

Feed stones are rather rare and finding them requires solving puzzles or exploring the environment.

Conclusion

So there you have it, a quick introduction to Kyn's skills. At this point we have over 80 skills in Kyn, so there is plenty to play around with. We are currently adding more levels to Kyn. I am not sure yet what I will talk about next week, so maybe I will show some of the latest gameplay!