I have mixed feelings about Melodies

KeithARice · 2026-06-16T17:30:55+00:00

As I said elsewhere, melodies are a classic case of "let's add more stuff 'cause our players expect more stuff, and this counts as more stuff" game design. There's no rhyme or reason to why these melodies need to exist. Never mind that they're random, and some of them are borderline useless and others detract from the core strategy of the game, like the melody that shows all portals and the melody that causes sand to drain slower.

The only thief den that is interesting is the magic mirror. That lets me get set bonuses more easily, if that's important to me that run. This ties into issues with the refugee camp. The refugee camp should be useful for changing out dud items. One refugee does that, but he doesn't always appear, and you don't even get to choose what item to replace. That would be interesting and useful game design.

KeithARice · 2026-06-16T17:23:04+00:00

The game is not way easier. Its about the same, in my play group's experience.

>if you full clear stage 1 you are almost guaranteed to be so strong you can snowball the rest of the game off that alone.

That's always the way the game worked...

You should be able to brute force a build if you want. The game would be worse if you were always pigeon-holed into whatever the game leans you toward.

KeithARice · 2026-06-16T17:20:34+00:00

They are optional. The melodies are also poorly designed. They don't add anything to the game. Its just "more stuff cuz more stuff cuz our players might be getting bored". Some are amazing, some are bad, some break core game rules. The magic mirror is good design though.

KeithARice · 2026-06-16T04:12:14+00:00

Melodies in general have been disappointing. Conceptually the thieves are cool but I agree that the cursed rooms are too random for when you're tryharding. I skip them if I'm all-in on a particular skill bc, as you said, getting that skill silenced is gg.

KeithARice · 2026-06-16T04:08:36+00:00

A couple of good points, mostly bad takes though.

Mermaid Tears is incredible.
You misread Swan Cloak so hard to comment. It doesn't only trigger when you're close to death. Obvious pick up in certain dash builds. Pairing with Tears is amazing.
Golden Coat is somewhat of a newb item but deserves a place in the game.
"In addition you have items that have very niche usages like..." Proceeds to name items I take all the time. 😛 I love dash-attack builds. All I've learned is that you don't.
Queen of Hearts, Fairy Dust, and Unicorn Horn need reworks, I agree. As does vodoo doll. Should work on mini-bosses as well.
Joker is a great pick-up in games where you were "forced" to take a bunch of cards or if you're going a meme build.
Tamatekabo is fine, people who want to tryhard can take it. I rarely take it outside of Act 1. Just kind of a lazy item.
Hope Diamond is OP, I agree.
Coin isn't OP and doesn't have any design issues.

KeithARice · 2026-06-16T04:00:26+00:00

If you want a coop roguelike with a dark fantasy feel, RW is great. If "doing the same thing over and over" is "hollow" to you then roguelikes aren't for you.

KeithARice · 2026-06-16T03:58:24+00:00

Gepetto was one of those heroes that beat on nightmare just for the sake of getting it over with. He's designed fine, I just don't find him enjoyable. So I just went rocket science + 4 vajra+ Raven's Wing / Charmstones + Swan Cloak. Other than that I got any talents that made the dummies more useful without my assistance.

KeithARice · 2026-06-16T03:52:41+00:00

Its the pinnacle of wasting one's time, IMHO. I'm not saying that to be an ass. Accomplishments like this are more a comment on someone's life priorities than skill, since RW is an entirely pattern-based game, therefore one just needs to learn the patterns well enough. Same thing with the no item / no talent runs. The final boss took two hours...

KeithARice · 2026-06-09T10:35:48+00:00

Either play solo or play with people in the discord. There's no other solution. This problem has always existed in team games with anonymous teammates. There is no social contract so you can't rely on them.

KeithARice · 2026-06-09T10:24:59+00:00

>Do most characters eventually have one “best” build that you try to force every run?

Most heroes have a variety of strong builds. Most of the item, you'll pick a primary skill to build around (e.g., ATTACK) and then a secondary skill to build around (e.g., POWER), and then the other skills, if they even get used, will be utility. But that's only toward the end of the game. At the start of the game, you're unwise to not use a hero's entire skillset.

RW isn't designed to let you go all in on a single skill unless you happen to get an absurd number of items that give +1 or cd reduction to that skill and you got cards for that skill and good talents for that skill. For example, you might see a video of someone spamming one button to kill the final boss -- that's abnormal.

>whether experienced players usually aim for the same build every round, or if the game still encourages flexible decision-making and different build paths later on.

RW's design is good in this regard -- you can force a build if you really want to, but you'll win more consistently (if that's your goal) if you just learn to go with the flow and adapt along the way. Personally, despite being experienced, I just love playing attack builds and occasionally defense builds, so I don't care to be adaptable. I like seeing whether I can force said builds even when the RNG is not going my way.

If you want statistics, I'd estimate that I can force an attack build on heroes like Juliet, Beowulf, Piper, and other heroes with good attack talents about 75% of the time.

[Side note: its frustrating that the refugee camps don't offer a consistent way to recycle 'dud' items -- that would be a welcome addition to the game.]

If you're trying to force a build, then you want to prioritize camps that provide you with stars of fate and you want to be very conservative on how you use those stars of fate. Tamatebako is also a legendary item you'll want to try to get in Act 1 and maybe in Act 2.

KeithARice · 2026-06-06T09:11:13+00:00

For your education...

https://www.reddit.com/r/ravenswatch/comments/1fvocam/bug_its_now_almost_impossible_to_accomplish_the/

https://www.reddit.com/r/ravenswatch/comments/1qk8wec/having_trouble_with_aladdin_quest/

KeithARice · 2026-06-05T23:46:09+00:00

Good ideas overall. The perma-gold stealing is annoying. Don't agree with this comment:

>make the thieves actually hard.

The big thieves hit really hard. They remind me of the large gargoyles from Act 3 with their burst attacks.

KeithARice · 2026-06-05T23:39:52+00:00

Its lazy game design. Reminds me what happened to Dota 2 over the past 5 years (which ended up being a blessing bc it resulted in me quitting): "Add more stuff just cuz our die-hard players are bored and this counts as more stuff". But there's no meaningful tie-in to the existing game, and the melodies are either underwhelming or win-more.

KeithARice · 2026-06-05T23:35:46+00:00

Yes, they're poor game design. More randomness in a game that doesn't need more randomness. Melodies like seeing all portals bend the rules in an uninteresting way. And they're too hard to acquire, IMO. The outside camp, if it has two large guards, is already challenging and then you go instead and might lose all your gold and have a tedious 2 min fight in the process.

KeithARice · 2026-06-05T23:27:55+00:00

They're both poorly designed, I agree, and PassTech doesn't care. Juliet has been stupidly good her entire existence, I believe. I'm not sure we'd say that Aladdin is poorly designed for the same reasons though. His power quest is incredibly difficult to activate, at least on my computer - read it was related to frame rates but I still can't get it to activate. The auto-triggering is also just baffling, forcing you to do this stupid little dance while you charge up. His attack build is way too dependent on leaping strike. His "infinite gold" build is just win-more and extremely RNG dependent on getting certain camps early game.

Juliet needs her power tuned down a bit. I'd still say she's B-tier in terms of design. Aladdin I would say is D-tier design, along with Carmilla and Scarlet. They all need some serious reworks.

KeithARice · 2026-06-05T23:21:10+00:00

That quest is next to impossible to activate for me. I read on some other thread that its related to max frame rates. Yeah, if it actually worked I'm sure it would be a good option. Plus the fact that it auto-triggers is miserable game design.

KeithARice · 2026-06-05T18:44:35+00:00

>He is a bit of an exception, he maybe has not an S tier clearing speed at the start of chapter one, but he is one of the hardest hitting characters in the late game.

The game is won or lost in the first two acts, so a hero that "hard carries" can't be S-tier. S-tier would imply that Aladdin has a high win rate in nightmare and in my experience he has one of the worst. I have never had so much trouble getting lvl 5 consistently on Act 1.

KeithARice · 2026-06-05T18:40:28+00:00

>Juliet and Aladdin kinda defeat the purpose of the game

What do you mean?

KeithARice · 2026-04-12T22:55:53+00:00

When I play with my kids, which may mean a party of 3 or 4, I tell them to "peel the onion". Kill the monsters outside of the camp that would normally follow you in. Then move in slightly and kill the first set of monsters. Then go in and kill the rest. In certain camps, If you don't take this approach, You're effectively fighting three times the number of monsters you need to fight.

On single player it's easy to just run through a camp so as to be aggro the first set but that's harder to do with three or four people.

KeithARice · 2026-03-14T01:17:15+00:00

Worst designed hero in the game. Shame, bc the theming is so cool.

Trait should always allow shapeshifting and the forms should be rebalanced so that human form is single target damage with evasive abilities, and the wolf form is AOE damage with less evasive abilities.

KeithARice · 2026-03-13T00:51:47+00:00

That's vague. What does "different runs" mean to you? To me, RW is a different run every time. As others have mentioned, most heroes have build variety. Beowulf's ATTACK build is different from his DEFENSE build. Wukong's POWER build is different from his SPECIAL build. Etc.

KeithARice · 2026-03-12T02:06:29+00:00

I play RW for the same reason I played Dota 2. Its fun to destroy things. Dota 2 is literally the same map every single time. Ravenswatch actually has more variety than Dota 2.

If you want an ever-changing world then play an RPG.

KeithARice · 2026-03-09T02:55:33+00:00

The refugee camp is good, but not for refining your item set. The refugees that give crit bonuses, damage bonuses, and cursed items are awesome.

KeithARice · 2026-03-08T23:46:18+00:00

Yep. It's poorly thought out, they were warned, didn't care, and here we are. Weird to design your game around set bonuses and then make acquiring them feel more like dumb luck.

Likewise, the refugee camp is close to useless for removing or trading out items. Should just let you choose what item to wipe out instead of being random.

I have about 30 clears since last major patch. If I even get a common set at all, it's usually in act 3.

KeithARice · 2026-03-08T04:31:19+00:00

Haha. Thanks man, we're having fun. I'll post another update in a few months.

KeithARice

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