The Balance Between Shadow and Moon – Wendy's Skill Tree

[pikexiclefable]

First of all, I would like to wish all the employees of Klei a Merry Christmas! Thank you for your continuous updates to DST, which allow us to experience such rich content in the game. Special thanks to Jason for his constant revisions to the skill tree—much appreciated!

Jason mentioned that the cost of reviving butterflies in Wendy's skill tree is too high, but I believe this is not an issue of cost.

First, we must clarify that Wendy can easily acquire butterflies (since she can easily gather silk to craft a Bug Net), and killing small creatures strengthens Shadow Abigail. Therefore, reviving butterflies almost exclusively benefits Shadow Abigail.

Moon Abigail should have a similar ability to maintain balance.

Killing butterflies and reviving them feels like a ritual—it's as if a suicidal young girl is choosing between disregarding and cherishing life, beginning to deeply reflect on the meaning of death and life.

Many players have provided feedback that the buff duration from killing small creatures for Shadow Abigail is too short. I suggest extending the buff duration to 4 minutes or 8 minutes, which would be quite fitting. In return, Shadow Abigail's damage could be slightly weakened during this period. Additionally, when saving life, Wendy could find strength in living and gain 1.0 attack for a set duration, either 4 or 8 minutes. This would not only align with her character design but also make the gameplay more comfortable for Wendy.

Following this design, Moon Abigail could have a similar ability—killing life would grant her powerful attack, while saving life would empower Wendy. When neither of these is happening, it would revert to the standard Abigail. This would address the issue of Moon Abigail's lack of flexibility in transformation, as noted by players.At the same time, I would love for Wendy's interaction with the Moondial to remain, as it’s a fun skill. Experienced players already know when the full moon happens (11, 31, 51, etc.),  the Moondial’s use is still too rare.

This is my reflection on the butterfly skill. I have a few more suggestions, so please bear with me.

Wendy climbing out of a grave isn't that interesting; it somewhat overlaps with the role of the Meat Effigy. Meanwhile, the Pipspooks skill is very useful—it resolves Wendy's lack of Mourning Glories.

Why not connect the two skills? Pipspooks always looks so sad, as if it's a wild ghost. Why not give it a home? Wendy could craft a beautiful grave and let Pipspooks live there. This way, Pipspooks would have a home, and Wendy could interact with Pipspooks whenever she likes. Even further, Wendy could exchange butterflies and Pipspooks for Mourning Glories.

Did you ever catch butterflies when you were a child? Did you catch them while playing with friends? I think this is very fun, and it ties into the previous "revive butterflies" skill.

I admit I have a personal preference—I want Wendy to be stronger, but I also want her skill tree to be fun. I absolutely love the design of the Mourning Glory Garland; it's so creative. Thanks to the designer! Would it be possible for Abigail to wear the Garland? It doesn’t need to serve any functional purpose—just for beauty.

Finally, thank you for reading this! I wish you a Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to Klei!

[Xplan]

this post is what we need right here right now

[Lee lol]

Such creative idea.

[Catapult 2.0]

I  am very supportive this view

[YuRinshue]

许多有趣的想法

[Yifei_]

I strongly support your viewpoint; it's rare to come across such a friendly and rational post in recent days.
 

[Koomin]

I don't disagree with the ideas behind some of the thoughts here, but Wendy's skill tree is already overtuned and this is proposing some pretty extreme buffs with little to no downsides.  Some hefty power reduction would be needed here or substantial downsides.
To summarize your post is proposing:
- extend Shadow Abigail bonus by about 50x
- remove Wendy's .75x damage reduction downside for half a day when she revives a single butterfly (costs a tiny fraction of a pipspook quest)
- add bonus powerful attacks to Gestalt Abigail
- remove moon phase gating on Abigail transition
- bonus Ability for pipspooks living in graves

The only tradeoff that was proposed was a small damage reduction for Shadow Abigail in return for the 50x time duration buff.  

Just since it seems that the recent updates have been getting a bit off track based on these types of posts not getting pushback: throwing in my two cents that this would be super unbalanced as proposed and remove a lot of the fun of the game.

I do love the Abigail garland idea though!

[Lee lol]

I like the idea of giving Aby a wreath.

 

Well, I agree to give the altar a unique role to distinguish it from the meat statue, but I think the grave is the home of pikspook, and it lives there.

 

Some suggestions I like about the altar:

 

Give the altar a light source to make the players resurrected in the dark more comfortable;

 

Make the altar a reusable resurrection platform (it needs to be repaired with mourning glory);

 

Make the altar a place for sacrifice. You can resurrect followers by offering ornaments to the altar (beefalo, merms)

 

[thesooz9000]

These suggestions are ludicrously over-tuned, and current Wendy in beta is already heavily over-tuned, these types of suggestions should NOT be added IMO.