00-Evan/shattered-pixel-dungeon

Rare enemies balance

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With the rat skull trinket now, I think rare enemies should get a bit of a revisit. My concerns:

  • There is no rare enemy in the first 2 floors of the Halls
  • Some rare enemy rewards feel bad / enemies too strong or weak

Specifically:

  • Red wraiths
    AFAIK, they don't give weapons that are particularly more likely to be upgraded or enchanted. For most of the game, they feel like a waste of a scroll, as I could be using that scroll for a cursed ring/artifact, or a weapon or armor obtained with the sacrificial altar or tomb respectively, which are almost guaranteed to be upgraded. Or a cursed weapon I happened to equip. Remove curse scrolls are too vital.
    If I were to change them, I'd make it so they're guaranteed to drop something that is inclusive or upgraded or enchanted.

  • Armored Brutes
    Almost every other rare enemy drop is useful to get in repeats but this one isn't. At that point in the game I am thinking about saving resources for plate armor. Chances are high that I will have gotten scale armor from another source (it is a rare enemy, after all). The plate armor drop chance is too low and going to the blacksmith with mail armor repeats feels like a waste when I could be coming back later with plate armor.
    If I were to change them, I'd make them give some token that lets the blacksmith reforge scale armor to +2 (+3? maybe not) without lowering the favor, but nothing else. That token should go into one of the bags to save on inventory space. This will help with duplicates and the player would also be encouraged to do that quest sooner instead of saving it for later.

  • Chaos elemental
    This one just feels too weak. I think it should be a bit stronger. Before, I hadn't even realized it was a rare enemy, I thought it was just a variant.

  • Acidic scorpio
    IMO scorpios are in general too strong, and acidic ones have the same issue. Scorpios force you to play around them too much, they're a headache to deal with solo and they get infinitely worse with other enemies around. Waiting for them to come to you through a door or around a corner is too random and doesn't feel fun.
    Maybe their AI should be changed to rush you more? If there is some trick to these enemies I'm missing, I'm willing to concede on this.

Thanks for the feedback, but this is a place to report technical issues with the game. You're better off emailing me with such things.

I'm aware that not all rare enemies are as useful or powerful as others, that's intended. I would also like to add more in the demon halls, but this isn't a priority at the moment.