Greetings Seedings!

As we look out of the castle window we spy a disturbance in the twisted forests yonder.
Grabbing our telescopes, we spy dark dealings afoot.
Looks like it is time to open up the castle armoury and send cartloads of sharp, pointy weaponry off into the village, where our lovely community of villagers can arm themselves and go sort out the bother, because we are just far too scared.
Why do you think we work in a castle?!

And thus, we welcome you to ‘Hag & Slash: The Combat Update.

OVERVIEW

Simplewood is the first of 3 increasingly tricksy places to explore and test your skills against the first set of wonderful denizens we have cooked up for you in our development cauldron.
Within the glades you will find danger, but also some respite and intrigue...a sample of what is to come as we build out the 'fungeons', as we don’t call them.
Within this fabulous update you will also find new Reputation Perks for all your shops, and a lovely little new level to explore, with a very helpful new Master residing within, plus a bunch of fixes and other little bits & bobs.
So get your backpack dusted off, wear reinforced underwear, and prepare for a bit of the old Hag & Slash!

SIMPLEWOOD

To experience what combat has to offer, enter the depths of Simplewood, the easiest of our dark forests. You will find Simplewood at the top centre of Rivermoor. You should bump into Jogon, who will teach you the way of the blade.
However, if you do not keep your wits about you, then you can be something’s dinner before you can say “Ouch!”
Within each ‘dungeon’ you can elect to go right and stay at the same difficulty, or head deeper in, increasing the difficulty but opening up much more potential for tasty rewards!

LOADOUT

Prepare thyself!
Literally. Equip any weapons (up to 2 swords, madam), pack a good meal and stuff up to 10 combat items into your pack.
You can also take in 1 charm and 1 ward which will buff you and debuff your enemies.
If it is night, then maybe a lantern will be handy!
Items can be bought or crafted, and weapons can affect different creatures in different ways.

COMBAT

Kynseed had a sparkly new combat system that marries the look of a turn-based RPG, but has the reactions and strategy of an action combat game.
Think of it as a mix of One Step From Eden, the Super Mario RPG’s and Steamworld Quest.
You can attack your lane or diagonally adjacent, and each enemy position matches a button on your gamepad.
Combat is ruled by ‘Stamina’, and each attack uses one unit, although there are ways for the skilful to get free hits.
Moving and blocking deplete your stamina so make sure you have enough.
Stamina recharges and the rate of how fast depends on your stamina stat.

PARRY

By far the most useful and fun move, Parrying is something you will need to learn if you want to maximise your effectiveness (and it is FUN as we keep saying).
Time a block at just the right moment and you can reflect a projectile back at the slinger, or stop a melee attack and leave them open to a quick counter, the first hit of which is free.
Not everything can be parried though so watch out!

THE BOW

If you meet Moon the Archery Master, you may get a bow to aid you.
Bows initially don’t cause much damage, but are most effective at knocking enemies out of blocking, draining their stamina and stunning them...buying you time.
You have just 6 arrows per run but may find more on your explorations.

USE ITEMS

Those items you packed earlier? Well, you can use them anytime.
Some items can be used on yourself, or thrown onto what we call, ‘Nodes’...the halfway point of a lane between yourself and the enemy.
And some items can be hurled directly at enemies.
Bees. That’s all we will say.

NON-COMBAT ROOMS

As you travel from glade to glade in the forest, you may come across other room types.
These can be anything from little challenges to mysterious interactive elements...we will let you discover these.
You may also find a campfire to heal, although doing so will force you up a few levels of difficulty!



The update also contains a new region called Drownhill and some extra work on making the 3 shop types fun.
You can now raise reputation to earn perk points that you can spend on...you guessed it...Perks!
This is just the start of improving the business aspect of the game.
You will also find more proverbs filled in and a number of other fixes and little nuggets as detailed in the changelist which our scribe scrabbled to scribble.



We can’t wait to hear your feedback and watch your videos and streams as you battle the first set of foes in an update we are intensely proud of.
We poured a lot of hard work and love into this, and jugs of coffee into ourselves, just so we could send you to do our dirty work in the dark forest.
We want a cut of the loot by the way.

Until next time friends!

LOVE,