Sacrifice Item Brainstorming

[TheVampire100]

Then I want to suggest the "Glass Cannon". It's an energy weapon that costs 100 energy to fire (basically the entire energy tank for most mechs) but does damage similiar to the nuke. The idea behind this is, you have a god-tier weapon but you can fire it only once per room.

I also thought of something like the nanite leeches as energy weapon. Costs 50 energy per shot, maybe more.

And as last, full shield. I think this might be too strong and probably is a bad idea but the idea is it works like the guardian shield but with a full circle (or almost full circle). It drains more energy per second, so you cannot block an entire boss fight but it could help to protect in rooms full of enemies where you cannot track all the different shots that come at you.

I don't have any clue about the health costs actually, so fell fre to decide yourself (if any of those ideas are even acceptable).

[Logorouge]

Then I want to suggest the "Glass Cannon". It's an energy weapon that costs 100 energy to fire (basically the entire energy tank for most mechs) but does damage similiar to the nuke. The idea behind this is, you have a god-tier weapon but you can fire it only once per room.

Balancing it around "one-shot per room" is pretty risky though when you got the Blue mech running around with easily over 300 energy.

[Mánagarmr]

Wait, what?  7 or 8 health at the END?   ....surely you don't mean max health?

I... what?  How.... how is that happening?  I took TWO sacrifice room items on my last run with the damn flame mech of all things, and I still had like 28 max HP at the end.  That was at Terminus: I probably had, ah, 22 at the Warden.  This all being on Hard mode.

What is your playstyle?  I'm wondering where this HP is either going, or NOT coming from.

Never picking health upgrades when I level up, rarely coming across health rooms and only going for shards kinda leaves you sub 10 by the end game. Or at least it DID before the balance patch. I haven't played since then because broken save, education and Stellaris. But yeah, I think my highest HP level ever when killing Terminus was 12. I just don't see health as useful in a game about NOT GETTING HIT.

[Draco18s]

Never picking health upgrades when I level up, rarely coming across health rooms and only going for shards kinda leaves you sub 10 by the end game. Or at least it DID before the balance patch. I haven't played since then because broken save, education and Stellaris. But yeah, I think my highest HP level ever when killing Terminus was 12. I just don't see health as useful in a game about NOT GETTING HIT.

Health Upgrade rooms are kind of a tossup, but dropping a few max-missiles for +4 hp is pretty good.  One of the others is +4 hp at the expense of 1 shield (little less valuable unless you've got a good line on regaining that shield point, which is possible, and there's a max 2 shields, so if you're at 2 already it can be worth it).

[Atlar]

Wait, what?  7 or 8 health at the END?   ....surely you don't mean max health?

I... what?  How.... how is that happening?  I took TWO sacrifice room items on my last run with the damn flame mech of all things, and I still had like 28 max HP at the end.  That was at Terminus: I probably had, ah, 22 at the Warden.  This all being on Hard mode.

What is your playstyle?  I'm wondering where this HP is either going, or NOT coming from.

Never picking health upgrades when I level up, rarely coming across health rooms and only going for shards kinda leaves you sub 10 by the end game. Or at least it DID before the balance patch. I haven't played since then because broken save, education and Stellaris. But yeah, I think my highest HP level ever when killing Terminus was 12. I just don't see health as useful in a game about NOT GETTING HIT.

Funny how play styles differ... I go with the rougelike approach "survival first", so I will pick up health upgrades whenever I can. Usually I'm looking at 25-35HP vs Warden and 40-50HP vs Terminus

[Mánagarmr]

For me damage and possibly utility trumps raw health. I kinda live by "that which is dead can't hurt me", so killing stuff faster is better than living longer.

[Misery]

I could always make the HP seem a bit more necessary, if you want....   

[Mánagarmr]

I could always make the HP seem a bit more necessary, if you want....

I either win, or I die. Nothing you do will change that. Maybe I'll just die faster

[Pepisolo]

Thanks for all the ideas so far, guys. Here are the ones I'm thinking are the prime contenders so far:

Coupon Cutter -- decreases shop prices.
Health regen -- Gives you 1 health per room.
Evasion booster -- Gives you a big boost to chance to not take damage.
More resource drops -- Sacrifice some health for more resource drops (maybe possible in engine).
Chance to not use ammo -- Gives a chance to not use ammo (not sure if possible in engine currently)

What do we think of these ones?

[Logorouge]

Health regen -- Gives you 1 health per room.

This one I would add a limitation to. Like "Gives you 1 health per new room."
Just to avoid some silly dance in the doorframe.

[Draco18s]

Oh, definitely.  Just like the module that hurts you until you leave the floor.

[Pepisolo]

Health regen -- Gives you 1 health per room.

This one I would add a limitation to. Like "Gives you 1 health per new room."
Just to avoid some silly dance in the doorframe.

Good reminder, yeah. Thanks!

[Pepisolo]

A couple more ideas.

x4 missile damage -- just a simplified version of an idea from this thread.
skeleton key -- basically you won't ever need keys.

How about these? This brings us to about 7 solid-ish ideas so far (maybe). Presumably we need to get to 21 sacrifice items overall so that the player never gets an empty sacrifice room during a run. Any ideas I've missed the potential of? Or just more cool ideas?

[Draco18s]

Skeleton Key would either need to be cheap, early, or both.
Past floor 2 I always have more keys than I know what to do with.
(I don't open most of the locked chests though, I end up disappointed more often than not)

[Mánagarmr]

Skeleton Key would either need to be cheap, early, or both.
Past floor 2 I always have more keys than I know what to do with.
(I don't open most of the locked chests though, I end up disappointed more often than not)

That's more a problem with pickups not being worth it most of the time, than keys being too many.