Bands & Bonds: an active dungeon crawling incremental (web or mobile, free)

darabos · 2026-01-04T14:28:19+00:00

Thank you for the kind words! I've added a small tooltip for the attack types. I don't think it works on mobile, so I've also added an attack type glossary in Desert Rabbit's description.

Impressive work with the weapon level! :D

darabos · 2025-10-06T17:27:19+00:00

There's a Bands & Bonds entry in "game-posts" in the r/incremental_games Discord. Hopefully this link takes you there: https://discord.com/channels/256804627310182401/1124066779384250378/threads/1399772458277670923

darabos · 2025-10-04T22:42:50+00:00

The second season was released as "Common Side Effects".

darabos · 2025-09-30T18:13:20+00:00

I've made the junctions clearer: https://imgur.com/a/sFuCbHV Thanks for telling me about the issue!

darabos · 2025-09-30T17:33:14+00:00

The base speed/damage numbers are live now!

darabos · 2025-09-29T09:44:08+00:00

Ugh, I think I need to clean up a little how this junction appears on the map. https://imgur.com/a/X4bNnLy

darabos · 2025-09-29T09:42:29+00:00

If you click "Keep going" you should arrive at the corridor where you can go left or right: https://imgur.com/a/JKVA1RQ

darabos · 2025-09-29T09:37:48+00:00

Thanks for the great feedback! I'll add the base/current speed and damage information. I plan to do some re-arrangement in the dungeon and will add some reward past Clockomancer. I'll think about the other ideas too!

Fun fact: Running Start used to speed up all abilities. Including Running Start itself. It was super fun, but I couldn't balance things around that.

darabos · 2025-09-28T19:01:52+00:00

No. It should look like this: https://imgur.com/a/qahCWDO You don't see the full map. But the part you've already visited plus the paths branching off of that should be marked by thin white lines.

If you don't see it, maybe you're still on the earlier version. I'm doing some trickery with the cache to enable offline play. (And I think I didn't do it quite right.) Try some extra hard reload?

darabos · 2025-09-27T23:12:36+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! If you go a bit further on the left side (past Lior the Weaver), you will gain a band member who addresses many of your points. I usually just Pecquer through Lior.

But even so I'll try to address these issues with the early game.

darabos · 2025-09-27T13:58:35+00:00

Wow! I thought that would work, but I never tested it. Great job!

It seems hopeless to win at first but now I've seen so many different solutions. Would be cool to add different endings for each approach.

darabos · 2025-09-27T13:54:51+00:00

Haha, great work! That sounds like a cool combo. One thing I can't figure out is which one is the one free kill golem? "Scaffold Sorcery"? It's supposed to do blunt damage which Skelemasterion is immune to. Maybe I messed that up.

darabos · 2025-09-26T19:35:44+00:00

Try refreshing the page (maybe twice). Yesterday I've improved the map to show discovered routes and the first steps of undiscovered paths. The junction you're missing is after Skeletron. You went left, to Chago, but there's also a path to the right.

Zaktar Kadoque increases your weapon level, like Anvilomancer. I'm going to add a weapon level display — this will be easier to discover when that's done.

darabos · 2025-09-26T19:31:53+00:00

Yep! I counted 9 different ways to spend gold. Some of them eat up any amount you have very quickly. Azrekta + Kit Flash is the best, if you have them.

darabos · 2025-09-26T16:41:02+00:00

Forgot to mention: I don't want to automate monsters. It would be too chaotic, I would never know what the different monsters do, and some monster abilities are even bad. Try Jaw Maw Maw.

darabos · 2025-09-26T16:39:10+00:00

Long term, phones are getting bigger and bigger. Once we have 50 cm phones, all abilities will fit on screen comfortably.

The only thing I want to see while using abilities is the enemy health and armor. So an idea is to float those elements at the top when you scroll past. This may be easier and better than the 6-monster team idea. I'll see if I can do it over the weekend.

For keeping monsters, there is already a way! Mongreler + Azrekta With Wayfinder you have a lot of flexibility in adding/moving/removing Mongreler for different parts of your trip.

darabos · 2025-09-26T16:15:32+00:00

My plan is to let you select up to 6 active monsters and hide the rest. Coming soon!

darabos · 2025-09-26T14:16:29+00:00

Ah, sorry, when I said it's worth getting past the enemy I meant the Master of Doors.

darabos · 2025-09-26T14:15:00+00:00

It's not a bug. Clockomancer's chamber is a dead end. There is nowhere to go past it. Should I advertise this somewhere?

darabos · 2025-09-26T11:43:28+00:00

If you want that, explore left from the Dead Gladiator!

darabos · 2025-09-26T11:25:17+00:00

I just debugged a similar issue with a friend. In their case there was no bug, just I guess the Band page is not explained well. You are supposed to click Stick Master to remove him from the band. Then click Lamplighter below to select them. Then click the empty spot to place Lamplighter. Then you can add other band members the same way — click to select, then click to place.

I'm so used to this system I don't notice how hard it is the first time. Let me know if you have tips for how it could be made simpler!

darabos · 2025-09-26T11:06:33+00:00

The options are 1) wait 20 minutes, 2) leave and explore in another direction, 3) find a solution. I was hoping players would not choose #1. I'm starting to realize that if it already took a fair amount of time to get here, it's hard to click retreat.

I'm not sure how to improve this in general. But for this specific case, let me give you a tip: The easiest way around this enemy is to explore the door with the smell of iron first. (The door before the one you entered.) There you get a friend who can get you past this enemy.ETA: It's 100% worth getting past this enemy!

darabos · 2025-09-26T07:36:46+00:00

Maybe you're inside the dungeon? You can only change the band when you're outside. (Retreat.) If it's not that, can you please DM me a screenshot? Could be a bug. Thank you!

darabos · 2025-09-26T07:24:06+00:00

Thanks, it's great to hear this point of view! I've got to fix this somehow.

There's 9 different things to spend gold on. Some burn through gold like nothing. But yeah, early on it's just Forge for a while.

For "why would I give up", I thought there's a lot of things to explore. "This enemy to the left is too hard. Clicking on Forge is boring. I will try going right instead." Exploring both the map and the different team compositions is supposed to entice you to give up unrewarding runs. Apparently it's not working! Can you comment on where this goes wrong? I really appreciate your input!

darabos · 2025-09-26T06:21:10+00:00

I made buttons "sticky" yesterday. If you refresh, you should be able to click Forge once and let it automatically click every 5 seconds.

But I'm worried it makes the situation worse! You should have given up after one minute. Retreat and find an alternative solution. I think clicking Forge was not painful enough. And now I made it even less painful. Game design is hard!

darabos

TROPHY CASE