A huge update happened a couple of days ago that greatly increased the playability for those without elevator passes, so I'm going to poke around for interest on this game.
For those that haven't played before: Spiral Knights is a top-down action MMO that is comparable to the older Legend of Zelda games. Using swords, guns, or bombs, you fight your way through the ever-changing Clockworks, crafting new gear and facing increasingly powerful monsters as you advance. For instance, a basic sword can be upgraded to launch fire/electric/freezing waves and armor can be crafted into different variants (such as the bomber armor being upgradable into a fire-resisting variant or a "glass cannon" variant with poor status resistances or a variant that increases movement speed), while enemies gain new behaviors (wolves, for instance, will eventually learn to dash around ranged attacks and then burrow underground as a form of teleportation) as you advance through each tier. The game is mostly PvE, but a couple of PvP modes exist: "Blast Network" (Bomberman, basically), and Lockdown (point-capturing mode with actual combat).
There is also a non-zero chance of death by stapler, so be warned.
For those that have played before but quit, a bit of a timeline (excluding most balance changes) so people are slightly less "omg what does this do where did this go":
- Nov 16, 2011: At the beginning of most levels, there is now an Arsenal Station that you can use to change and (as of Battle Sprites) level gear (more on that second one in a bit)
- Dec 12, 2011: EU servers added (same account works on EU and NA, it's just a switch in the options), Scenario Rooms were added
- Dec 19, 2011: Drones added: Obstacle mobs that move in a set pattern and can only be damaged at specific times. Usually only drop hearts and are sometimes immortal.
- Feb 22, 2012: Missions! Until later updates, these were mostly storyline quests. Also contains the Hall of Heroes, where all non-boss/PvP recipes can be found. Also changed the Antigua upgrades to single damage type guns
- Feb 29, 2012: Operation Crimson Hammer added, the first (and currently only) Expansion Mission. Note that OCH is controversial because it contains three equips only obtainable from that mission. You can trade Energy for it via Steam.
- April 18, 2012: A bunch of knight customization stuff: Previously you could change your personal color, now you can change your height and eyes, with some options being buyable with crowns and some being found in Mirrored Lockboxes from the Prize Wheel.
- May 9, 2012: Only exception to the balance change thing: They buffed all bomb damage by 15% and gun damage by 10% uncharged, 20% charged.
- June 19, 2012: Party Finder added, letting you see parties in progress around your rank
- June 28, 2012: The first Danger Mission, Legion of Almire, added. Danger Missions are two-floor Prestige Missions that are very difficult but contain a reward level afterwards with a ton of red treasure blocks. LoA is undead-based.
- July 25, 2012: The next Danger Mission, Compound 42 added. This mission is Poison/Fire-based, with Gremlins and Oilers as the main enemy groups. Is also total hell without Dragon Scale set. Danger Missions now go through a cycle each day.
- Aug 1, 2012: Heart of Ice, the third Danger Mission added. Freeze/Fiend based.
- Aug 8, 2012: Shard Bombs changed entirely. General consensus is that they were nerfed to oblivion, as not only are they much harder to use effectively they also have a buggy hit limit. There IS a bomb for every damage type, making it the only viable Shadow damage bomb outside of OCH
- Sept 12, 2012: Ghosts in the Machine, the 4th and currently last of the Danger Missions. Shock/Undead/Construct theme.
- Nov 14, 2012: Guild Hall update added. It is now customizable, and can have functionality added to it like vendors, storage, and an auction house.
- Jan 30, 2013-Feb 13, 2013: Kataclysmic Confrontation event, although it's closed for now. Added a new boss and some new helmets.
- April 3, 2013: UI Overhaul
- April 10, 2013: Compound levels added, with new "mini monsters" added that are weak individually but spawn in huge numbers.
- May 1, 2013: A new fiend mob, the Gorgos, added. Greavers moved to "Elite mob" status (aka ohgod fiend/undead arenas)
- May 22, 2013: Two new knight techniques added: a Dash that gives you a quick burst of movement on a 10s cooldown, and the Shield Bash that charges forward stunning and knocking back all enemies hit at the cost of half your shield
And that leads us to two days ago:
- Battle Sprites were added. After doing a few low-level missions, you will obtain your choice of three battle sprites. These sprites can assist you through their abilities and through Perks that add passive bonuses (such as increased health or damage vs specific families). Sprites are fed materials to level up, and will change in appearance as they are levelled.
- Mist Energy has been completely nuked.
- The energy cost for elevators is gone completely. You can play as long as you'd like now!
- The energy cost for crafting has been replaced by Orbs of Alchemy. It takes three of the specific tier of an orb to craft an item, and orbs can be found in treasure blocks or purchased at the Supply Depot.
- Revives were completely overhauled: The first death of a level will result in an Emergency Revive, restoring up to 30 pips of health. After that, the only way to revive is to spend a Spark of Life (or pay a flat 50 energy fee if you're caught without any) or get an ally to use a Spark on you. Sparks are found in treasure blocks or can be bought in 10-packs from the Depot. The Spark revive does come with a massive attack buff for 10 seconds. HP-share revives are completely axed.
- Gear levelups were revamped too. You level an item to a full heat bar as usual, but after that you must head to town or an arsenal station to use the Forge. Here, you spend tier-specific Fire Crystals (they drop in packs of 3 from treasure blocks or can be gotten from the Depot) to level up the item. Spending more crystals can grant bonus perks such as accelerated heating for the next level, skipping a level entirely, or getting a prize box with a bunch of items.
- Difficulty levels have been added, and as you can guess upping the difficulty improves drops.
- All loot is now instanced. This means no more pill hogging, but it also means that any loot that drops must be manually collected.
Spiral Knights is available on Steam for free, or directly from the site at
www.spiralknights.com in a browser version or downloadable
here.
IGN is Volkani if you want to poke me.