Pasha and Willow: Gameplay Content Review (Patreon)

So last month we got not one, but two pieces of beta content in the shop. Now before we get into it, I do want to express some concern about this acceleration of broken promise that this represents. We were told that there would be no more store sales until the Gambler's Chest was complete – we've not had that completion announced, but these sales returned and they've somewhat escalated in scope with not just a sale that has one piece of beta content, but two.

At this point I think it is very important that your mantra in respect to anything you read or hear from Adam Poots Games (APD) should be taken with a huge amount of scepticism and instead you should just them entirely on their actions. Because we're now at a point where we've had statements, promises, vows and similar constantly turn out to be, let's be generous here, incorrect. The King of Average put out a video in recent times with a bit more title hyperbole than I use, but the points given during the video were, to be frank, mostly fair and accurate. I don't always land on the same side of opinion as KoA (I disagree with his points back on Frost Haven and cultural consultants), but here? We're mostly in accord.

So, I write all of this at the start because I want to be clear, I don't think you should be purchasing this beta content, if it wasn't my job to look at this stuff (and other games) for reviewing and/or lore purposes I wouldn't be picking them up at all at this stage. But also I realise that kind of protest is close to pointless. The shop sells out to hobbyists and collectors almost every sale, and if nothing else, you have to marvel at the chap who provided the business model to APG – it's more than a bit exploitive, but for shifting resin, plastic and cardboard? It really works (The same individual is advising Succubus Publishing if you're curious).

However, I'm here to provide some thoughts, insight, critique and all that reviewing something involves. But I did want to note strongly that this double release represents yet another slipping of the standards that were self set by Adam and at this point I'm surprised anyone trusts the company statements at all. It's a sad, sad situation and we really shouldn't be here, but we are.

For those of you who are wondering where the other Early Game Expansion Visual Guide is, I'm still working on it, but beta content and Dark Herald releases take priority for me because they represent new content, and new content is the thing which grabs my attention and interest most of all.

(As before, thanks to patrons charles and timberwolfl for the scans of this content)

We'll start with the simpler of the two:

Pasha and her Ashen Shears.

The Ashen Shears introduce a new, cringeworthy, ability with Cleavage X. It's called cleavage because that's what Pasha has lots of. Get it? I wish I didn't.

Cleavage X: A gear special rule. When you attempt to wound a hit location with a persistent injury, gain +X luck for that wound attempt.

Name aside, Cleavage is a good ability which we've seen in action before – it previously appeared in the Frog Dog Gencon demo on the Vertebrayonet:

(Screen grab from TWIST's video, which is why it's oddly slanted).

Yup, that's Cleavage 1 with different wording. So we can now see how this beta content is mining into stuff that's eventually turning up in Wave 4.

The ability itself is very good, persistent injuries are often a solid critical wound to inflict on a monster because they do a few useful things, they disable certain AI attack cards which causes the monster to skip turns, they provide negative effects that can help debilitate the monster and they reduce the size of the hit location deck, increasing the chances of hitting the trap which will refresh all the desirable resource generating hit locations back into the draw pile.

It's a more successful creation than Savage ever will be, so I do hope that it makes multiple appearances in future content.

The Ashen Shears themselves are crafted at the Weapon crafter and cost 1x Perfect Hide, 3x Scrap and 1x Organ. Their stat line and affinity layout should remind you of a very popular weapon:

Yes, I would absolutely call the Ashen Shears an alternative Zanbato, though there are a few marked differences which change the places where you would use each weapon. In fact, I believe that for the main build that utilises the Zanbato, the Leather Tank, the Ashen Shears are an excellent alternative main weapon choice.

The crafting cost is very similar, the Zanbato costs 1x Perfect Bone, 3x Scrap and 1x Hide – so the reskinning of that popular perfect weapon is clear at this juncture. However, the Shears exchange Deadly for Block 1 and Devasating 1 for Cleavage 3. This makes for a more specialised weapon, one which will be used not for repeated attacking, but for surgical strikes against key locations - great if you also have a second weapon, like say a shield.

The largest difference between the two however is the loss of a relevant keyword, the Shears have 'scissors' instead of 'grand weapon' which means that currently there is no weapon proficiency available. While the existence of Scissors as a weapon type and the Scissor Knights suggests that we'll be seeing Scissor Proficiency in the future (I hope), right now it's still not a large drawback because a survivor who wields the Ashen Shears could easily be working on Shield Proficiency or even Fist & Tooth. They only need to wound once with their proficiency weapon, the rest of the time they can be blocking or chopping off vital monster bits.

For the rest of this weapon's usage, much of what applies about the Zanbato applies here – it's a slow, frail weapon with average accuracy and excellent strength. However, it cannot be calcified which does mean in campaigns that use the Dung Beetle Knight it has less value than the Zanbato.

The largest area where this weapon fits however is in its valuable opportunity cost. In order to get a Zanbato these days you have to find a Perfect Bone; the Ashen Spears instead cost a Perfect Hide – and while you won't want to use your first perfect hide for anything other than the Scavenger Kit (Barber Surgeon); the second Perfect Hide turning into an alternative Zanbato is quite valuable indeed.

There is also a secondary option on the builds for this weapon, you can lean into Fist & Tooth and then use this weapon as the primary attacking weapon for a survivor wearing a lighter armor set. When you do that, they gain access to Block 1 (something which isn't valuable for the Leather/Shield tank mentioned above, but it's great on a survivor without a shield) and that means they can act as a secondary source of blocking during a fight for the times where the main tank is out of position or has too little armor. That also has some value.

What this weapon does most of all is provide more breadth of use for resources and that is a valuable thing in games of this nature because it means you have twice the odds of making a 'Zanbato-like' weapon in a campaign and getting your Leather Armor + Shield survivor something excellent.

Overall I'd rate the game impact this has one a B+.

Willow, Novel Proficiency and the Refined Lantern Sword

Our second offering is probably the more exciting of the two concepts we've had offered because it's offering a solution to all the underused weapon types in the game, but before we get to that we're first going to move through the bland portion of the beta release. The Refined Lantern Sword.

Lets just look at the sheer insanity that this weapon costs to construct. In addition to paying its original costs, you have to pay a second set in order to remove Early Iron and add Refined to the Lantern Sword. That means the weapon costs:

• 1x Iron, 4x Bone, 3 x Hide
• 1x Endeavour, 1x Perfect Bone, 5x Resource from a L3 Monster (Requires Scrap Smelting)

And in return you lose Early Iron, gain Refined and +2 Strength. It is not that good a deal, especially for People of the Lantern campaigns because they have to use a lantern anyway, so it might as well be the Polishing Lantern. You'd need to be very resource rich to make this update over an Oxidized Lantern Sword for sure.

So right now, this is something for only People of the Sun and People of the Stars. People of the Sun are not normally opening up the Blacksmith location anyway because most of the gear can't be used without Hellfire, but some do want access to the weapons, so for a very rich People of the Sun settlement, maybe you'll craft this. Refined giving a reroll is alright, but it would be better on a weapon with some form of wound based trigger (like Deadly or Barbed X).

So that's the bottom line with this thing, you need to be a very resource rich settlement in order to want to take a Lantern Sword and upgrade it. There are just many other superior options out there, even within the sword category alone.

Still, for all of the mundane and overpriced nature that the Refined Lantern Sword has, Novel Proficiency represents a growth in the play space, and also hope for the more maligned and neglected weapon types. Here's the text.

This is just a straight up expansion of options for a settlement and I do hope that we're going to see alternative Novel proficiencies for all weapon types. Not only can you pick a Novel Proficiency in order to add a different play style to a weapon, but also you can now combine Sword and Novel Sword proficiencies in the same settlement. Perhaps even on the same survivor in the case of an Ageless Swordsman, Vagabond Armor set or Storm Constellation.

This Novel Proficiency even gives something extra for the Seven Swordsman variant, as those survivors all start with Sword Mastery, they can now focus on improving their swordplay even further rather than diversifying the way that the campaign normally does.

It's a sweet and exciting concept and exactly the kind of thing which the game needs in order to make the older content fresher.

The Novel Sword Proficiency itself is also a fairly fun concept. It attempts to take the design of swords with Block/Deflect and make it actually relevant in game (currently it's always better to just use a Shield with a higher level of Block/Deflect).

The Specialization offers a stylish and mechanically neat little mechanic which even works with Sword & Board and/or Blood Paint Bruiser strategies. You get a free extra retaliatory attack if you've used block. This is, of course, a mechanic directly translated from the Souls-like series (most recently Elden Ring) and it's known as Guard countering. It means that we have a new way of playing Tanks, and they might not even need to use a shield some of the time. Swords may finally have a home?

The Mastery side doesn't even try to disguise how many hours Adam's spent playing Elden Ring. This is an almost direct translation of the Two Handing mechanic from Souls games. It's a pretty neat little ability that means you can use absolutely any sword you like with this Novel Proficiency (Black Sword anyone?) and gain access to the entire guard counter suite and you don't even have to use Block, you can use the cooler block with Deflect.

It's a small change, and only really relevant in advanced settlements, but this is an exciting, refreshing update to a weapon type that was sat very much in the doldrums. Another wonderful part of this design is the fact that Vagabond Armor doesn't interact directly with it, you don't get Novel Mastery by wearing that armor set. You can use it as a shortcut to get both Masteries on one survivor, but you'll still have to work hard to get the novel version unlocked normally.

As someone who adores True Blade/Vagabond Armor/Sword builds this is an exciting development, but what I am really hopeful for is the release that gives us Novel Whip Proficiency and maybe something to do with Thrown weapons.

So Willow is a decent release and I'd be giving her mechanical design an A, because the Novel Proficiency is ground breaking and enticing.