Difference between revisions of "Valley 1:What Is The General Game Flow?"

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On each continent in the game, you'll go through the following general progression.
 
On each continent in the game, you'll go through the following general progression.
  
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=== Make Sure You Have Basic Supplies From Stash Rooms ===
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=== Prepare For Expeditions ===
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This is an ongoing need you'll have to satisfy, but on your first continent the need is going to be particularly strong right at first.  There are a few things that you absolutely need to keep well-stocked with.  These are usually found through side exploration of abandoned buildings.   
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There are various supplies that you'll need to periodically stock up on, as well as various equipment that you'll need to acquire once and then keep handy for certain situations.  For details, see [[Valley 1:How Do I Know If I'm Prepared For An Expedition?|How Do I Know If I'm Prepared For An Expedition?]]
  
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Look for the yellow "stash rooms" on your dungeon map in each building, and basically get yourself to that room and then get out of the building.  All the other rooms have minor trinkets and rewards in them, but nothing worth expending the time to go find if they're at all out of your way.  Better to quickly exit the building, then move onto the next, loot the stash room there, and repeat as needed.  So much better use of your time than trying to be "completionist" in a game that is infinite in size!  You could go crazy that way...
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=== Complete Missions For More Powerful Spells ===
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Before you undertake any mission, it will tell you what the rewards will be.  It will be a spell that has a random modifier to it. Try to find spells with modifiers that fit your playstyle.  For details, see [[Valley 1:Everything You Wanted To Know About Missions, But Were Afraid To Ask|Everything You Wanted To Know About Missions, But Were Afraid To Ask]].
  
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Some key supplies to keep an eye out for:
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=== Gather Common Ingredients From Exploration ===
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Crafting ingredients like granite, cedar logs, cherries and raw gems can be found simply by exploring the environment and destroying background objects.  Any time you see a spell cost that includes a given material, you can hover over that material to see where in general you ought to be looking for it.
  
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==== Wooden Platforms ====
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=== Defeat Lieutenants To Weaken The Overlord ===
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See a ledge you can reach, underground or inside?  Well, place a wooden platform and get up there. Don't have a wooden platform?  Well, then, you might be unable to proceed.  If you just fell off a big cliff in an underground hole, then you're ''really'' in trouble -- in fact, you might be dead.
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Every continent has four Lieutenants, who start at the same level as the continent they are on. Each one that you kill will raise the continent Level by one, making the enemies around you more difficult, but also drop the level of the Overlord by two, making him easier to kill. Killing a Lieutenant will also give you a chance to get a rarity orb, which you can use to craft better spells than you would be able to otherwise.
  
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Depending on the hole, you might be able to journey further underground and find a warp gate that will let you gate yourself back to the surface.  Sometimes this is possible, sometimes you're essentially just trapped forever. When that happens, you'll have to use the dreaded "Abandon Character" button in the Escape Menu (this suicides your character).  No-one who goes out properly prepared should ever have to abandon their character, so if you have to click that button you can take solace in the knowledge that it's your own fault. ;)
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=== Learn Higher Level Spells ===
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Once the continent (and the world) level go up, all the missions will offer better, more powerful spells. So, you should do a few more missions to gain these tougher spells.
  
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==== Wooden Crates ====
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=== Dispatch Survivors To Weaken The Overlord ===
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These aren't quite as vital as wooden platforms, but they are close.  See, wooden platforms have to have a wall to hang on -- hence their working great in caves and interiors.  But when you're outside and there's a sheer cliff you want to climb... well, the wood platforms just fall to the ground.  Sure, you can stack them up, but they are pretty short and so that's like stacking individual bricks to climb a skyscraper. Crazy!
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In addition to killing his Lieutenants, the Overlord can and should be weakened by sending some of the survivors you have been rescuing (you HAVE been [[Valley 1:Everything_You_Wanted_To_Know_About_Missions,_But_Were_Afraid_To_Ask#Rescue_Missions|rescuing survivors]], haven't you?) out on dispatch missions to his keep. Each dispatch a survivor successfully completes will lower the Overlord's level by one. The exact number of these dispatches your survivors will need to complete is dependent on your difficulty settings. A higher citybuilding difficulty adds more bonus levels to the Overlord.
  
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Wooden crates don't hang on walls, they just fall to the ground.  But they can be stacked up, and are substantially larger than wooden platforms, so you can make all sorts of impossible-in-reality structures with the crates.  Staircases right up those sheer cliffs, for instance.  The physics of Environ are such that no tower you make will ever topple over -- things fall straight down, but that's it, so you can build all sorts of crazy things with ease. Just be sure monsters aren't chopping away at the bottom of your structure!
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=== Kill The Overlord ===
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All your preparation has come to this.  You've improved your character, have a host of deadly spells, and you're itching to go try them out on the Overlord and all the monsters in his keep.
  
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==== Upgrade Stones ====
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=== After The Overlord Is Dead ===
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As monsters gain tiers (more on that below), they get more health and generally better stats.  You, on the other hand, have no such progression system.  The only way to upgrade your character's stats directly and permanently is via upgrade stones, which you'll therefore want to collect in abundance.  For 16 stones you can double your health; for 32 you can triple it; and so on.  You can also upgrade your mana and your attack strength. But each upgrade gets progressively more expensive, and each character is limited to only 10 total upgrades (which can never be un-done), so spend with care!
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After the Overlord of a continent is dead, a new continent will be discovered and you can sail across the deep sea to find it and start the process of taking down the next Overlord.  See more about this below.
  
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=== Make Sure You Have Basic Equipment For Exploring ===
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But there are still things remaining to do on your current continent, too!  There are some unlockables that are level-gated, and you might be able pursue those. You may also have NPCs of specific professions on the older continents that can be brought over to help the new continent. But be careful about doing this, as they may not be happy about leaving their home behind.
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Some of this equipment can be found in the "stash rooms" noted above, but a lot of it is also enchants that you can unlock, or spells that you can learn, etc. Most of this sort of equipment is of a more permanent nature, rather than something you need to keep collecting and keeping a stock of.
 
  
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==== A Light Source ====
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== World Progression ==
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Windows and interior lighting make most buildings not completely dark, but there are still plenty of dark corners for monsters to lurk in. And if you go into basements or underground buildings, those tend to be even darker.  Underground caverns, on the other hand, are pitch black -- you won't be able to effectively maneuver in the dark, and will likely meet a swift end at the hands of monsters, falling into acid water or lava, falling damage, or simply getting stuck in some hole you can't even see to climb out of.
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Each continent has a level 1-5. In addition to that, the world has a level as well. As you go to each new continent, the continent level restarts at 1, but the world level continues to go up indefinitely.
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=== Things That Change Between Continents ===
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==== Enchants ====
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Enchants will only increase in quality a set amount per each continent. As you venture on to a new continent, you can get new and better enchants there.
  
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Fortunately, there are a wide variety of light sources you can employ.  The most basic, a Moderate Inner Light enchant, is given to you at each settlement.  The problem is, that takes up your valuable Torso enchant slot, preventing you from using any other enchants there (such as damage reduction, the ability to breathe underwater, etc).  The good news is that, with enchants being so heavily procedural, there are literally hundreds of thousands of enchants and a lot of them include light sources attached to them.
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==== Lieutenants And Overlords ====
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A lieutenant from one continent, if left alive, won't come to the aid of an Overlord on a different continent.  And each continent has its own "big bad guy" Overlord to harass you.
  
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If you don't want to go the enchant route, then there are a variety of spells you can use.  Ball of Light is the most basic, and basically just makes a miniature sun that provides light in a small area. Since mana regenerates pretty fast, and all it costs to use is mana, you can use this as much as you want.  But it definitely slows exploration, and forget about trying to use this during a fight unless you're extremely dextrous.
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==== NPCs ====
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The NPCs generally stay right where they are when a new continent is discovered. You can move them around if you need to, but they generally won't be happy about it.
  
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There are other spells like light snake that you can use to see down holes, and even some lamp objects that you can collect and then deploy to provide illumination in a pinch.  Sometimes dropping a lamp over the edge of a cliff is a great way to see what is down there without jumping down there yourself.
 
  
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Lastly, most of your spells provide some very dim illumination themselves, so casting something like fireball can help a little with seeing in the dark.  But it's really nothing compared to a proper light source. 
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=== Things That Don't Change Between Continents ===
  
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In summary, there are a variety of ways you can customize your character even in terms of how you light your way.  Just make sure that you choose one of them and bring them with you so you don't find yourself lost in the dark!
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==== Resource Stockpiles/Personal Inventory ====
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All those resources you have in your settlement stockpile on your old continent? Yep, they come with you.
  
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==== Bodysuits (For Extra Hot/Cold Areas) ====
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==== Learned Spells ====
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If you're exploring the lava flats, or going into some other lava-filled area (such as really deep caverns), you're going to need a Heatsuit in order to move around. These hamper your movement in a lot of ways, preventing you from using things like double-jump enchants and the like, but they keep you from dying from heat in seconds. There are even Advanced Heatsuits that you can find that help you not get sucked into lava so easily upon touching it.
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You will get to keep all the spells you've learned as you move into the new continent. But that doesn't mean you won't need more. All the enemies on the new continent will be stronger than any you've faced before. So you will quickly want to replace some of your spells so that you can continue to fight.
  
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On the other hand, if you're exploring in the ice age, the bitter cold will make unprepared characters freeze to death pretty fast.  All the characters from that time period have built-in snowsuits that are really effective and don't encumber their movement at all.  But if your character comes from a warmer clime, they'll have to don an outdated and unfashionable snowsuit that encumbers them like a heatsuit.
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==== Your Character ====
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Whatever character you're playing as, of course can cross continents.  Thanks to the glyph transplant scroll that lets you swap characters, you can actually thus move NPCs around between continents if you really feel that strong a need to... though largely that would be a huge pain and not something worth doing.
  
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==== Acid Gills (For Underwater Exploration) ====
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As an aside, of course any modifiers to your character (such as from enchants, etc) also come across just like normal.
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If you're planning on venturing into the ocean or the ocean shallows, you're going to need acid gills in order to breathe underwater as well as to not be harmed by the acid that normally eats away at your health.  Some of the more advanced acid gills enchants actually make you a better swimmer as well, so you're not all sluggish in the water -- if you want to have any hope of dodging some of the viciously fast underwater denizens, you'll need these more advanced enchants. The oceans are truly one of the more dangerous parts of Environ!
 
  
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==== A Way To Make Yourself Smaller (For Exploring Tiny Passages) ====
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==== Enchants, And Progress Toward Your Next Enchant ====
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Sometimes there's a passage that you just can't get through, because you're just too tall.  Well, there are a few options for that.  One is the Miniaturize spell, which makes you tiny -- but also take more damage from enemies.  There are also Transmogrify Into Bat spell scrolls that you can find in underground stashes, and which let you turn yourself into a tiny bat that can fly around.  This lets you get past ''all sorts'' of obstacles (through small spaces, up tall cliffs, etc), but your ability to deal damage to enemies is all but nonexistent in this form.
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Everything enchant-related has nothing to do with any given continent.  Thus as you continue to play through the game, you're getting better and better enchants as you hit continents 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, etc.  Or however many continents you feel like playing, anyhow, is what we really mean.
  
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==== Storm Dash (Optional, But Highly Recommended) ====
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==== Unlockables, And Progress On Any Partially-Complete Unlockables ====
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This is one of those basic spells that you probably want in your inventory.  It allows you to double-tap to either the left or the right and then run extra fast.  If you want to get around quickly, especially after having already cleared an area of monsters, this is a must!  You do take increased damage while using it, however, so it's not recommended to be used right when you're around monsters, though.  There are rumors of "powersliding" type enchants that can let you do extra interesting effects when combined with storm dash.
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Like with enchants, everything unlockables-related has nothing to do with any particular continent.  This is the primary way that the game continues to change and evolve as you play.  On the start of your first continent you have unlocked very little, and so the enemies are more basic, the mission activities are fewer, and so on. And various regions don't even start appearing until continents 2 and 3.
  
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==== Some Way To Double Jump (Optional, But Highly Recommended) ====
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But as you play on each continent, you unlock more and more of the world's content -- for good and for ill.  You'll be finding new materials and new spells to learn, along with other helpful goodies to strive for.  But at the same time, as you demonstrate your proficiency against lesser monsters, you'll unlock more powerful monsters or even elite versions of the monsters you had already mastered.  You'll actually need those enchants that you've been carrying forward with you from continent to continent, the monsters on the early part of Continent 2 are nastier than the monsters on the early part of continent 1.
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Ride The Lightning is a spell that lets you double-jump, and it has a tech-tree path that can lead you to the Lightning Rocket spell that lets you ''really'' launch yourself high.  These both require mana to use, however, and are something you need to learn on each continent -- requiring valuable tier orbs.  That's certainly something to consider.
 
  
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On the other hand, there are various double and even triple jump enchants that let you do those sorts of moves mana-free, and without any need to learn any new spells.  But these take up your Legs enchant slot, preventing you from using enchants that might let you do things like run faster, fall slower, avoid falling damage, etc.  So there's a tradeoff either way, and again you can customize to your own personal taste.
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Since so much of what is unlocked is based on how you play the game and what interests you (and actually, to some extent that is true of enchants), no two players will have the same sort of experience from continent to continent.  Especially as the amount of content in the game continues to grow, player worlds are going to become increasingly divergent.
  
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== World Progression ==
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[[A Valley Without Wind]]

Latest revision as of 19:51, 1 February 2015

Continent Progression

On each continent in the game, you'll go through the following general progression.

Prepare For Expeditions

There are various supplies that you'll need to periodically stock up on, as well as various equipment that you'll need to acquire once and then keep handy for certain situations. For details, see How Do I Know If I'm Prepared For An Expedition?

Complete Missions For More Powerful Spells

Before you undertake any mission, it will tell you what the rewards will be. It will be a spell that has a random modifier to it. Try to find spells with modifiers that fit your playstyle. For details, see Everything You Wanted To Know About Missions, But Were Afraid To Ask.

Gather Common Ingredients From Exploration

Crafting ingredients like granite, cedar logs, cherries and raw gems can be found simply by exploring the environment and destroying background objects. Any time you see a spell cost that includes a given material, you can hover over that material to see where in general you ought to be looking for it.

Defeat Lieutenants To Weaken The Overlord

Every continent has four Lieutenants, who start at the same level as the continent they are on. Each one that you kill will raise the continent Level by one, making the enemies around you more difficult, but also drop the level of the Overlord by two, making him easier to kill. Killing a Lieutenant will also give you a chance to get a rarity orb, which you can use to craft better spells than you would be able to otherwise.

Learn Higher Level Spells

Once the continent (and the world) level go up, all the missions will offer better, more powerful spells. So, you should do a few more missions to gain these tougher spells.

Dispatch Survivors To Weaken The Overlord

In addition to killing his Lieutenants, the Overlord can and should be weakened by sending some of the survivors you have been rescuing (you HAVE been rescuing survivors, haven't you?) out on dispatch missions to his keep. Each dispatch a survivor successfully completes will lower the Overlord's level by one. The exact number of these dispatches your survivors will need to complete is dependent on your difficulty settings. A higher citybuilding difficulty adds more bonus levels to the Overlord.

Kill The Overlord

All your preparation has come to this. You've improved your character, have a host of deadly spells, and you're itching to go try them out on the Overlord and all the monsters in his keep.

After The Overlord Is Dead

After the Overlord of a continent is dead, a new continent will be discovered and you can sail across the deep sea to find it and start the process of taking down the next Overlord. See more about this below.

But there are still things remaining to do on your current continent, too! There are some unlockables that are level-gated, and you might be able pursue those. You may also have NPCs of specific professions on the older continents that can be brought over to help the new continent. But be careful about doing this, as they may not be happy about leaving their home behind.

World Progression

Each continent has a level 1-5. In addition to that, the world has a level as well. As you go to each new continent, the continent level restarts at 1, but the world level continues to go up indefinitely.

Things That Change Between Continents

Enchants

Enchants will only increase in quality a set amount per each continent. As you venture on to a new continent, you can get new and better enchants there.

Lieutenants And Overlords

A lieutenant from one continent, if left alive, won't come to the aid of an Overlord on a different continent. And each continent has its own "big bad guy" Overlord to harass you.

NPCs

The NPCs generally stay right where they are when a new continent is discovered. You can move them around if you need to, but they generally won't be happy about it.


Things That Don't Change Between Continents

Resource Stockpiles/Personal Inventory

All those resources you have in your settlement stockpile on your old continent? Yep, they come with you.

Learned Spells

You will get to keep all the spells you've learned as you move into the new continent. But that doesn't mean you won't need more. All the enemies on the new continent will be stronger than any you've faced before. So you will quickly want to replace some of your spells so that you can continue to fight.

Your Character

Whatever character you're playing as, of course can cross continents. Thanks to the glyph transplant scroll that lets you swap characters, you can actually thus move NPCs around between continents if you really feel that strong a need to... though largely that would be a huge pain and not something worth doing.

As an aside, of course any modifiers to your character (such as from enchants, etc) also come across just like normal.

Enchants, And Progress Toward Your Next Enchant

Everything enchant-related has nothing to do with any given continent. Thus as you continue to play through the game, you're getting better and better enchants as you hit continents 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, etc. Or however many continents you feel like playing, anyhow, is what we really mean.

Unlockables, And Progress On Any Partially-Complete Unlockables

Like with enchants, everything unlockables-related has nothing to do with any particular continent. This is the primary way that the game continues to change and evolve as you play. On the start of your first continent you have unlocked very little, and so the enemies are more basic, the mission activities are fewer, and so on. And various regions don't even start appearing until continents 2 and 3.

But as you play on each continent, you unlock more and more of the world's content -- for good and for ill. You'll be finding new materials and new spells to learn, along with other helpful goodies to strive for. But at the same time, as you demonstrate your proficiency against lesser monsters, you'll unlock more powerful monsters or even elite versions of the monsters you had already mastered. You'll actually need those enchants that you've been carrying forward with you from continent to continent, the monsters on the early part of Continent 2 are nastier than the monsters on the early part of continent 1.

Since so much of what is unlocked is based on how you play the game and what interests you (and actually, to some extent that is true of enchants), no two players will have the same sort of experience from continent to continent. Especially as the amount of content in the game continues to grow, player worlds are going to become increasingly divergent.


A Valley Without Wind

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