Pure Brilliance before rifts!

[WaPi8]

i think it would be really cool to see pure brilliance be able to be obtained by a player before opening rifts! right now pure brilliance cannot be obtained in any way. its counterpart (pure horror) can be obtained by defeating nightmare pig or a small chance of finding it with winona and her glasses. personally this has quickly lead me to commonly pick the shadow affinity over the lunar affinity due to me being able to get to use the skills before opening rifts! i think it would be nice if pure brilliance to be added as a drop from a boss fight and maybe make it a rare drop from the cashebox

[YouKnowWho142]

I’ve been advocating for this for a while. If it helps, you will at least get all the materials to make the celestial portal to respec the skill tree by the time you unlock the lunar rifts due to celestial orb being a part of progression and cc dropping a ton of moon rocks, but I really wish lunar got a fairer treatment. This was definitely a result of werepig coming out before the rift content and throwing a lot of things off, and combined with the fact that it takes way longer to fight cc than it does to fight fuelweaver it has never sat right with me that you get pure horror and dreadstone so much earlier 

[Mike23Ua]

43 minutes ago, YouKnowWho142 said:

I’ve been advocating for this for a while. If it helps, you will at least get all the materials to make the celestial portal to respec the skill tree by the time you unlock the lunar rifts due to celestial orb being a part of progression and cc dropping a ton of moon rocks, but I really wish lunar got a fairer treatment. This was definitely a result of werepig coming out before the rift content and throwing a lot of things off, and combined with the fact that it takes way longer to fight cc than it does to fight fuelweaver it has never sat right with me that you get pure horror and dreadstone so much earlier 

Walter can spec in crafting DreadStone rounds without even having Affinities unlocked first, I think the only place you can even obtain DreadStone is from the Werepig??? The Lunar equivalent ammo is Moon Glass… which can be found in both the Lunar Grotto and on Lunar Island. Although the resource itself before rift stuff is rare and limited.

all I’m saying is Walters skill tree feels Out of Balance if you don’t have affinities unlocked.

[YouKnowWho142]

18 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

Walter can spec in crafting DreadStone rounds without even having Affinities unlocked first, I think the only place you can even obtain DreadStone is from the Werepig??? The Lunar equivalent ammo is Moon Glass… which can be found in both the Lunar Grotto and on Lunar Island. Although the resource itself before rift stuff is rare and limited.

all I’m saying is Walters skill tree feels Out of Balance if you don’t have affinities unlocked.

Firstly, dreadstone outcrops are the primary way of getting dreadstone and are unlocked post rift. Dreadstone rounds do have high dps and pre rift require construction amulet deconstruction staff shenanigans with dreadstone armor to be produced consistently, making them a sidegrade to the aoe focused moonglass rounds.

Second, Neither dreadstone or moonglass rounds are tied to affinity skills. However, Walter (or any character in general) is able to not only craft the shadowcraft plinth pre rift but Walter is able to craft pure horror rounds pre rift that way as well, which is a very strong ammo type. It’s the same for other characters like Wurt, Winona, and Wendy, and it hasn’t really sat right with me

[Chewabacca]

Is there a reason for Nightmare Werepig to drop pure horror pre-rifts in the first place? Can't really think of any.

[YouKnowWho142]

8 minutes ago, Chewabacca said:

Is there a reason for Nightmare Werepig to drop pure horror pre-rifts in the first place? Can't really think of any.

Actually, that’s a really fair point. It wouldn’t fix the issue since Wilson can turn dreadstone into pure horror anyways, but there really isn’t a need for pure horror to be present in pre rifts imo. I’m just thinking that both should stay post rift or both should be pre rift, and it seems like with Winona they already committed to making pure horror a pre rift resource

[lowercase skye]

16 minutes ago, Chewabacca said:

Is there a reason for Nightmare Werepig to drop pure horror pre-rifts in the first place? Can't really think of any.

8 minutes ago, YouKnowWho142 said:

but there really isn’t a need for pure horror to be present in pre rifts imo.

You need pure horror for either piece of dreadstone armor.

[Chewabacca]

10 minutes ago, YouKnowWho142 said:

Actually, that’s a really fair point. It wouldn’t fix the issue since Wilson can turn dreadstone into pure horror anyways, but there really isn’t a need for pure horror to be present in pre rifts imo. I’m just thinking that both should stay post rift or both should be pre rift, and it seems like with Winona they already committed to making pure horror a pre rift resource

I don't have a problem with characters having abilities to get pure horror without having to go through rifts, since that's just the consequence of the alignment skill being active before the rifts get opened. It doesn't feel quite the same as pure horror just existing in the world.

Edit: didn't catch your message till I reloaded the page, @lowercase skye, sorry about that.

Quote

You need pure horror for either piece of dreadstone armor.

This is a good point, forgot about that. Not really sure then. Either remove both pure horror from the drop and the recipe, or make pure brilliance available in some way before rifts like OP suggests.

[Cassielu]

No. It's an important manifestation of the difference between Lunar and Shadow in gameplay and lore, Pure Brilliance and Horror should not be just reskin mirror item of each other. It doesn't need change, but things like Wigfrid, Wendy, Wilson and Wurt skilltrees should be changed to better accommodate this.

[YouKnowWho142]

20 minutes ago, Cassielu said:

 Pure Brilliance and Horror should not be just reskin mirror item of each other

Why wouldn’t they be though? They’re consistently suggested to be on similar power levels, and the names only support the intended parallel. They seem intended to be lunar and shadow variations on the same resource (shown further with their crafts also being parallels) but shadow is just significantly easier to obtain early, which is an obvious problem when skill tree crafts often come down to “shadow affinity costs pure horror and lunar affinity costs pure brilliance” as we have consistently seen. The game has treated them this way without accounting for the inherent advantage that pure horror gets

sure, you can fix the skill trees to not really involve pure horror or pure brilliance, but that would require a lot of changing and considering 2 of the three characters in the last skill tree update can make shadow aligned crafts with pure horror pre rift they seem committed to treating pure horror and pure brilliance on the same level, what this post advocates for is just to put them on a closer level 

[Well-met]

Other than character specific crafts you can't actually do anything with pure brilliance though, so it's pointless to do this.

[GamePlayer42]

1 hour ago, Well-met said:

Other than character specific crafts you can't actually do anything with pure brilliance though, so it's pointless to do this.

not entirely pointless and they can add a pre-rift blueprint for pure brilliance just as they did with the nightmare werepig

[_mylilsunshine_]

4 hours ago, Well-met said:

Other than character specific crafts you can't actually do anything with pure brilliance though, so it's pointless to do this.

it's only pointless right now because of how things are right now. if they do implement something in the future, i figure there would be a lot to do with pre-rift brilliance

[Creatorofswamps]

[Anis5240]

14 minutes ago, Creatorofswamps said:

unfortunately people would rather play anyone else but Wilson 

side note: I've been thinking that Crab King should drop some pure brilliance too, maybe like 4 at best.

[WaPi8]

On 3/4/2025 at 4:03 PM, Anis5240 said:

unfortunately people would rather play anyone else but Wilson 

side note: I've been thinking that Crab King should drop some pure brilliance too, maybe like 4 at best.

true wilson does have an ability to make this item but need i remind you that you can get infused moon shard only in moonstorms that are only able to spawn near the time you would fight cc, you can fight shadow werepig much faster and not have to be a specific character to get pure horror! also crab king dropping some pure brilliance would be an ok idea, making people want to fight him even more to get pure brilliance!

side note: I LOVE WILSON AS A CHARACTER AND I PLAY HIM SO FREAKING MUCH (pretty much my 3rd main)

[DegenerateFurry]

I don't really buy into the "shadow is available sooner because it's one of the differences between the sides" argument. This isn't Star Wars - the shadows aren't the Dark Side, granting you power more quickly and easily at the cost of being evil. The moon is evil too, it wants to possess and mutate things. They're seemingly meant to be equal sides of a war we decide the outcome of (and thrive and suffer from either way), so shouldn't the gameplay experience reflect that?