Last minute skilltree concept for WX-78

[Armonia]

Thought up an entire skilltree worth of various skills for my beloved automaton, complete with some editing skills to put them together. Divided into Upgrades for general improvements, Circuits for, well, circuit buffs, and Affinity for some more circuit content.

Roughly going from left to right, top to bottom, starting at Upgrades:
[Automation 1 & 2] - Repeatedly doing the same action several times in a row boosts said action speed, up to 10%/25%. Applies to chopping, mining, picking, crafting, rowing, cooking, and attacking.
[Hollowing 1 & 2] - Each one grants an extra circuit slot, at the cost of increasing total damage taken by 10%/25%.
[Fly-Thru] - Bio Scanalyzer scans and moves a bit faster.
[Passive Presence] - Creatures are less afraid of being scanned.
[Global Scan] - When deploying the Bio Scanalyzer with no nearby scannables, it instead points at the closest creature in the world whose circuit recipe WX doesn't already know. If all recipes are learnt, points at the closest visible (not underground or in water) scannable.
[Overfeeding] - If eating past their max hunger, a small portion of lost hunger is converted into HP instead (20%?)
[Scrappy Digestion] - WX can now eat electrical doodads, frazzled wires, and scrap.
[Mechanic] - WX can use the Auto-Mat-O-Chanic to heal themselves, by 60 HP + 20 HP over time.
[All-Terrain Stompers] - Less slowed down by honey, webbing, and cracked ground.

[Quick Swap] - Learn to craft the Quick Swapper. One can insert 6-8 pins (depending on if one has Hollowing) worth of circuits into it and once finished, can use it to quickly swap your equipped circuits with the Quick Swapper, not losing any circuit durability or charge in the process. Has a cooldown. Additionally, can socket a gem into it, for colour coordination.
[Extra Hardy] - Grants a flat damage reduction (1.0/2.0 - 2/5) for each Hardy Circuit plugged in. Damage reduced after armour takes effect.
[Flamethrower] - Using dual Thermal Circuits allows WX to spew flames in a direction. Drains 1 charge every 5 seconds while active.
[Chilling Blast] - Using dual Refrigerant Circuits allows WX to freeze everything nearby. Drains 2 charge per cast.
[Nutritious Gains] - Gain 5%/15% extra nutrition from food.
[Lightweight] - Increases charge rate. Unplugging only drains half the used charge.
[The Bigger the Beast] - Electrification Circuits deal bonus damage depending on the strength of the hit.
[The Culling] - Processing Circuits grant sanity when killing organic foes. Bosses grant extra.
[The Overlord] - Beanbooster Circuit increases tame duration and follower damage.
[Danger Sense] - Illumination Circuit reveals nearby threats, such as tentacles, depth worms, and treeguards. Dual Illuminants increase detection range.
[Soothing Lullaby] - Chorusbox Circuits slowly put nearby foes to sleep, at a rate of one sleep dart every 5 seconds. The mob being hit resets the progress. Dual Chorusboxes increase range and sleep rate.

Affinity has one skill that's *not* locked out if the other side is chosen, and the second tier is unlocked by scanning, not killing, their respective bosses.
[Portable Lunacy] - Learn to craft a 1 pin circuit that inflicts permanent Enlightenment. Requires a crown shard to make.
[Moon-Powered] - Learn to craft a 4 pin circuit that grants speed, sanity, and planar defense depending on the phase of the moon (the fuller the better) with a small bonus if post-CC.
[Dreadstone Tongs] - An upgrade to the Circuit Extractor, needing dreadstone and nightmare fuel. Uses said fuel to fix cracks in your circuits, meaning they take no damage when unplugged. Has a durability, repaired with nightmare fuel.
[Nightmare Monarch] - Learn to craft a 5 pin circuit that inflicts a passive sanity drain and makes natural nightmare creatures fight for you.

These ideas all came over the span of a few months, put together in a post or two. Let us know what you think?

[Golden Daemon]

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[Automation 1 & 2] - Repeatedly doing the same action several times in a row boosts said action speed, up to 10%/25%. Applies to chopping, mining, picking, crafting, rowing, cooking, and attacking.

Automation is really neat! seems like it could add some cool unique and fun interactions to certain things in the game which im all for.

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[Hollowing 1 & 2] - Each one grants an extra circuit slot, at the cost of increasing total damage taken by 10%/25%.

It would make more sense if it increased hunger rate and/or give permanent black health (similar to  when you are revived by telltale) rather than increasing the damage taken since it also affect armor durability.

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[Fly-Thru] - Bio Scanalyzer scans and moves a bit faster.
[Passive Presence] - Creatures are less afraid of being scanned.
[Global Scan] - When deploying the Bio Scanalyzer with no nearby scannables, it instead points at the closest creature in the world whose circuit recipe WX doesn't already know. If all recipes are learnt, points at the closest visible (not underground or in water) scannable.

Nice Qol stuff, though im not sure if they are worth points, unless they are some of those mandatory filler perks.

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[Overfeeding] - If eating past their max hunger, a small portion of lost hunger is converted into HP instead (20%?)

converting hunger to health seem a bit out of place here, and to be honest, i would like to see such effects reserved for characters like warly which could really benefit from them.

instead of this i would rather have wx be less affected by negative food values as hes supposed to be a robot. maybe it could reduce negative values of foods by half instead to match his ability to ignore rotting food.

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[Scrappy Digestion] - WX can now eat electrical doodads, frazzled wires, and scrap.

[Mechanic] - WX can use the Auto-Mat-O-Chanic to heal themselves, by 60 HP + 20 HP over time.

Both scrappy digestion and Mechanic feel like they should be baseline wx traits and shouldnt require a perk. but since they are not i guess its an ok alternative. i like the Mechanic one specially.

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[Quick Swap] - Learn to craft the Quick Swapper. One can insert 6-8 pins (depending on if one has Hollowing) worth of circuits into it and once finished, can use it to quickly swap your equipped circuits with the Quick Swapper, not losing any circuit durability or charge in the process. Has a cooldown. Additionally, can socket a gem into it, for colour coordination.

Having the ability to swap your entire circuit board is very valuable (maybe a bit too much, considering the fact that it almost completely negates the downsides of having utility circuits installed instead of combat related ones). still a neat idea that i believe could be made to work with a bit of tweaking.

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[Extra Hardy] - Grants a flat damage reduction (1.0/2.0 - 2/5) for each Hardy Circuit plugged in. Damage reduced after armour takes effect.
[Flamethrower] - Using dual Thermal Circuits allows WX to spew flames in a direction. Drains 1 charge every 5 seconds while active.
[Chilling Blast] - Using dual Refrigerant Circuits allows WX to freeze everything nearby. Drains 2 charge per cast.
[Nutritious Gains] - Gain 5%/15% extra nutrition from food.
[Lightweight] - Increases charge rate. Unplugging only drains half the used charge.
[The Bigger the Beast] - Electrification Circuits deal bonus damage depending on the strength of the hit.
[The Culling] - Processing Circuits grant sanity when killing organic foes. Bosses grant extra.
[The Overlord] - Beanbooster Circuit increases tame duration and follower damage.
[Danger Sense] - Illumination Circuit reveals nearby threats, such as tentacles, depth worms, and treeguards. Dual Illuminants increase detection range.
[Soothing Lullaby] - Chorusbox Circuits slowly put nearby foes to sleep, at a rate of one sleep dart every 5 seconds. The mob being hit resets the progress. Dual Chorusboxes increase range and sleep rate.

Adding extra effects to already existing circuits could help with preventing bloat and keeping things fresh, but the things is that most of the new effects are partly what other characters are already providing through their abilities. it would be better if some circuits with entirely new effects were added, or even new item integration mechanics being introduced to wx.

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[Portable Lunacy] - Learn to craft a 1 pin circuit that inflicts permanent Enlightenment. Requires a crown shard to make.
[Moon-Powered] - Learn to craft a 4 pin circuit that grants speed, sanity, and planar defense depending on the phase of the moon (the fuller the better) with a small bonus if post-CC.

portable lunacy seems a bit too powerful as it removes shadow creatures and sanity mechanics entirely when on mainland without any downside.

Moon powered's interaction with moon phase seems interesting.

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[Dreadstone Tongs] - An upgrade to the Circuit Extractor, needing dreadstone and nightmare fuel. Uses said fuel to fix cracks in your circuits, meaning they take no damage when unplugged. Has a durability, repaired with nightmare fuel.
[Nightmare Monarch] - Learn to craft a 5 pin circuit that inflicts a passive sanity drain and makes natural nightmare creatures fight for you.

DreadTongs looks good but Nightmare Monarch is way too powerful for a cost that affects other players mostly. also how does it interact with other players when they are insane? do the shadows ignore the insane players in favor of wx's target? lowering the pin number from 5 to 3 and changing its effect to lowering sanity threshold for shadow's aggroing the player by 7.5% (from 15%) seems like a better way to balance this.

Overall i enjoyed reading through your skill tree!

Cant wait to see what klei will come up with.

[Armonia]

Bonus Idea that I completely forgot about when making the skilltree:
Moon Glass Chainsaw - Make a chainsaw out of the new moon glass saw by attaching it to your hand (I'd imagine holding it to be a bit different: it instead replaces your hand entirely with the sawblade.) This sharp and fast-moving blade attacks and chops twice as fast as regular weapons/tools, but slowly drains hunger for continuous use. Can also have a durability, though likely buffed to handle draining it twice as fast.

On 10/24/2024 at 7:08 PM, Golden Daemon said:

converting hunger to health seem a bit out of place here, and to be honest, i would like to see such effects reserved for characters like warly which could really benefit from them.

instead of this i would rather have wx be less affected by negative food values as hes supposed to be a robot. maybe it could reduce negative values of foods by half instead to match his ability to ignore rotting food.

WX-78 uses they/them, thank you very much.
But a good idea. How about mixing [Overfeeding] and [Scrappy Insides] intooooo:
[Anything Goes] - Stat penalties from food is reduced. WX can now eat certain raw and mechanical "food": By raw, this includes the "horrible" foods, like pig skin and bunny tufts, as well as raw birchnut and uncracked stone fruit. Not great, but edible. Also makes wet goop give a smidge of hunger.

On 10/24/2024 at 7:08 PM, Golden Daemon said:

portable lunacy seems a bit too powerful as it removes shadow creatures and sanity mechanics entirely when on mainland without any downside.

How about a nerf, then. 3-4 pins, inflicts a sanity gain, makes gestalts more aggressive, and maybe require beanbooster to craft, too (upping it to 3 boss kills,,,)
3 is a good pin number, as some other full immunities (Charlie, heat/cold, sanity to an extent) also come in 3 pin slots. Though that'd also mean it could potentially co-exist with the shadow circuit,,, my idea is that, if one tries to plug in both, they clash and crash, unplugging both, losing your charge and durability.
 

On 10/24/2024 at 7:08 PM, Golden Daemon said:

DreadTongs looks good but Nightmare Monarch is way too powerful for a cost that affects other players mostly. also how does it interact with other players when they are insane? do the shadows ignore the insane players in favor of wx's target? lowering the pin number from 5 to 3 and changing its effect to lowering sanity threshold for shadow's aggroing the player by 7.5% (from 15%) seems like a better way to balance this.

Another nerf or two? Shadow Circuit now reduces the amount of nightmare creatures you can create, and the shadows will not turn on their own kind (won't attack shadow-aligned mobs)
I'd also imagine dreadtongs' "healing" effect to not work on the lunar circuits, cuz nightmare fuel doesn't like that. But in exchange, the tongs won't break if they hit 0%, instead just becoming the same as the usual Circuit Extractor.

[Armonia]

Bonus idea part 2: an upgrade to the moon glass chainsaw, using a spark ark, perhaps adding planar damage. Similarly to how Wigfrid buffs her new spear with restrained static.
A completely different bonus idea would be WX-exclusive crock pot food. Made using gears or other mechanical components. Gear soup, wires and meatballs, doodad pierogis, scrap lasagna. Cookable by anyone, but only edible by WX. Maybe even non-perishable if it's all mechanical bits.

In addition, some reworks and buffs.
[Nutritious Gains] - Reworked. Now only gives some bonus sanity and health from food, instead of hunger. Think of it like converting fuel into other parts of the automaton's body. Also slows down the hunger drain when sleeping.
[The Culling] - Reworked into [Superior Mindset] - Each processing circuit slightly decreases the sanity drain of monsters and the dark.
[Danger Sense] - Now also de-stealths Rictus nearby. In addition, buffs the light radius of any light-emitting equipment. Silly part I'd imagine to be that dual Illuminants would make a lantern or miner's hat lighten up the entire screen.

On 10/24/2024 at 7:08 PM, Golden Daemon said:

It would make more sense if it increased hunger rate and/or give permanent black health (similar to  when you are revived by telltale) rather than increasing the damage taken since it also affect armor durability.

Small problem with that is that it'd be easily negated by a gastrogain or hardy circuit, respectively. Though I guess extra damage taken is also negated by having more health. But a decent idea.

[cameron8800]

On 10/24/2024 at 8:53 AM, Armonia said:

 

Overall, I think these perks are great. I think they match very well with Wx’s intended play style of upgradability and modification. I could only critique Shadow Monarch. I wouldn’t allow shadows to fight for Wx as historically Shadows have only ever been able to interact with Player Chatacters with very few exceptions. 

[Armonia]

20 hours ago, cameron8800 said:

I could only critique Shadow Monarch. I wouldn’t allow shadows to fight for Wx as historically Shadows have only ever been able to interact with Player Chatacters with very few exceptions. 

Even with the nerf? Understandable, though.
Only other ideas for Shadow Monarch are uhh. Makes passive nightmare creatures neutral (like the bone helm it requires to craft) and boosts the potential of shadow equipment, similarly to old Wanda or Maxwell. Maybe a little tied to the ruins' nightmare cycle, to match Moon-Powered's cycle mechanic? Throw in a bit of affinity-based planar defense, too.

I'd also wanna buff Moon-Powered to grant light similarly to illuminant circuit and the crown it requires to craft. Maybe only if moon's half or more full.

[Armonia]

Buff ideas for the Circuits branch!
First, halving the skill total, but making it so each skill buffs two circuits at once.
Then, adding five more skills that give the ability to Merge said two circuits from initial buff together. The benefit is the merged circuit costing 1 pin less than the sum of its parts. Creating the million different merge options would be too much work, so they're limited to certain combos. Maybe have additional skills for different combinations, but this is just what I thought about initially:
[Healthy Body, Healthy Mind] - Combines Super Processing and Super Hardy into a 3 pin circuit.
[Ideal Coolant] - Combines Super Acceleration and Refridgerant into a 4 pin.
[Flamelash] - Combines Electrification and Thermal into a 4 pin. Also ignites attackers and grants some fire immunity.
[Enlightening Presence] - Combines Chorusbox and Illumination into a 4(?) pin.
[Hungry for Power] - Combines Super Gastrogain and Beanbooster into a 4 pin.
Merged circuits also get the buffs from skills affecting their component circuits.

[HopelessBot]

Considering how they under tuned Wendy's skill tree because "she was already powerful" im not getting my hopes high for our robot boy and Maxwell.

[Armonia]

What I'm hoping for is for them to take my cool awesome plethora of ideas into consideration when crafting WX's skilltree. No one else's tree, regardless of quality, will squander this hope. But I also think Wendy's is fine so who's to say

[HopelessBot]

1 hour ago, Armonia said:

What I'm hoping for is for them to take my cool awesome plethora of ideas into consideration when crafting WX's skilltree. No one else's tree, regardless of quality, will squander this hope. But I also think Wendy's is fine so who's to say

Yeah i hope that they do a good job with Wx's skilltree because i main it.

Skilltrees are build from the vision klei has on that character.

Look at Willow's skilltree for example its nothing short of a rework and on the other hand we have wolfgang's skill tree that doesn't really affect him that much and his gameplay is the same as always.

Maxwell is currently the most powerful character both in terms of damage and utility so his skill tree is likely going to be weakest of the bunch, Wx's skilltree is going to be affected the same way.

[Armonia]

More minor tweaks and buffs!
[Hollowing 1 & 2] - No longer increase damage taken, but instead requires an Elastispacer to gain the circuit slot (after picking up the skill). Despawning via celestial portal drops 1-2 enlightened shards depending on the elastispacers used, and reverts the slot buff.
[Fly-Thru] - Gets 1 more bio data per scan. 4 for giants, 6 for CC/Fuelweaver.
Thermal and Refridgerant Circuits - Now only needs one inserted to do special attack. If both are inserted at once, freezes first, then sets frozen mobs aflame with cold fire when they defrost.
[The Bigger the Beast] - Deals extra planar damage back, if hurt with a planar attack.