Okay, so (Patreon)

99% of the time I don't make posts like this because I don't like announcing features to the game before we've all gotten it really fleshed out, but by god, this is getting in the game one way or another, so fuck it!

Right now, when you beat a boss, you get one powerup, something that's utility based and gets Talia around levels easier (like a dash, or double jump, or whatever else).

Originally, these abilities were going to do massive damage already, but we thought about it and were like "wait, that seems kinda odd to be spamming this movement based ability just to do damage." Then, we thought "What if we gave the player an extra charge shot for each powerup, that would only work when that powerup was selected?"

This would also solve the current problem where the "split charge shot" feels odd, as one level does medium damage and pierces all enemies, and the second does large damage but only to one enemy; no matter what path we take (whether it's sequential charge or button swapping them) it feels awkward in one way or another.

So, we'll likely change her charge shot to just simply be "charge for a bit of time, get a medium damage shot to one enemy, charge longer, get massive damage to one enemy"... and then stuff like specialty charge shots would be the THIRD charge level, only accessible if you've selected that powerup!

These charge shots would use up the same essence that the regular powerup utility abilities do, so we're still debating on how to best represent that (whether by a numerical mana bar, or by "charges" of some sort, or something else).

(For those of you wondering what would happen if you wanted to just keep your charge held the whole time, note that we'll likely implement an "opt out" feature if you don't want to waste your mana, possibly like pressing the down arrow key to duck and nullify the charge.)

So for example;

FIRE BOSS GAINED ABILITIES:
- Fire dash: causes enemies hit with it to suffer burning damage over time, but no direct damage, can be used in the air or ground
- Fire Charge shot: upon hitting an enemy, explodes and does decent damage in the area around the enemy, causing splash damage and burning damage over time to all enemies affected.

ICE BOSS GAINED ABILITIES:
- Ice shot: causes enemies hit with it to take no damage, but they are frozen solid for a few seconds, allowing Talia to use them as a platform. Works on enemies on the walls or in the air, freezing them right where they're at.

- Ice Charge shot: upon hitting an enemy, slows an enemy's movements to a crawl for 5 or so seconds, and does MASSIVE damage to a single enemy.

These specific abilities on the charge shots might change, but we just wanted to give you an idea of, well, the idea!