What Would You All Want to See From WX’s Affinity Skills?

[YouKnowWho142]

This is just moreso speculation, I don’t want anybody to get their hopes up imagining a super crazy affinity skill like willow’s and then get disappointed if it isn’t. I’m just curious what you all would like to see out of them and how impactful they should be.

[hhhhddh]

I think at least it shouldn't be circuits. I assume they would have an effect on current circuits.

For example, shadow skill can be a active skill like "overload", all your current circuits are buffed, but when skill time limit ends, you lose all your energy for a period of time.(power-off time maybe base on how long you overloaded and have a upper limit, if you overloaded longer than upper limit you'll die immediately.)

And lunar skill warps the way circuits works, like Processing Circuits make you be in "enlighten" mode like on lunar island, and reduce the sanity instead of increase it. Bean Booster Circuits deal dmg to enemies around instead of healing yourself.

I think it will be really, really interesting but I kinda doubt if klei have enough time to design such amount of new effects. But they said "it's a beta branch ahead of time" so I will look forward it.

Edit: And maybe both of them could trigger by eating pure Horror/Brilliance

Edited April 4 by hhhhddh

[ZeRoboButler]

Y'know I'm not really sure...

affinities tend to make pretty big changes to what a character can potentially do, not to mention the inherent bias with picking the affinity for more damage against the opposite side or less from the one you chose.

I had some kinda lofty and silly ideas at one point, I remember me and my buddy would play Wx and Woodie all the time. Good ol' twigs and sprockets, like the steam card with Woodie and Wx on it. It would be so cool for the Wx mech concept to make an appearance, . Man that would be so cool, a buffed up were-moose and a mechanized evil robot smashing up a spider quarry. Of course that seems a bit much lol. 

14 minutes ago, hhhhddh said:

For example, shadow skill can be a active skill like "overload", all your current circuits are buffed, but when skill time limit ends, you lose all your energy for a period of time.(power-off time maybe base on how long you overloaded and have a upper limit, if you overloaded longer than upper limit you'll die immediately.)

I could see a shadow side named like "Over-lord Over-load" referencing Wx as a evil robot lol, plus the idea of over charge making a return could be neat. 

Tough call honestly... probably not circuit related, that already has a lot going on and a lot coming to it since we have more changes intended. 

Wx and Wagstaff inspired tools/weapons/synergies? Wx laser/lighting eyes?

Some sort of upgrade similar to the living artifact in hamlet? Drone enhancements? Making enemies more vulnerable to electrical damage or making it so ones that are ordinarily immune temporarily effected by electrical damage? Charging up using nightmare fuel? Throwing shadowy ball-lighting at the cost of fuel causing an electrical stun but none of the fire affects associated since its shadowy? better interactions with clockworks? (already super strong as is)

My inferior flesh brain can only come up with so many concepts on the spot lol. I'll post more if it comes to mind with my phone.

[Jakepeng99]

I dunno. I feel like he is like Wortox where he doesn’t need an affinity skill. I rarely pick affinity skill on Wortox, it’s just “Oh, I guess it’s riffs now, I should pick it I guess…” his other skills are just much more competitive. WX skills are kinda competitive.

[Cuernito.]

My biggest disappointment is that right now we still dont have a  circuit to turn invisible like so many fantasy robots can do, its a shame, but for affinities i think a way to make some circuits synergy allowing for more powerful effects could be great.

[Kvetevk]

I would like them to give Wx78 a visual effects like shadow/lunar bernie have.
Like if they are gonna upgrade his bodies even further, I would like them to look cool, thats all I want.

[cropo]

This is the perfect opportunity to give WX the ancient artifact from Hamlet on the Lunar side. Wagstaff has now introduced himself as a character, the pieces of scrap used to build it are "infused", something that was a thing before the rifts were even introduced. Hamlet was the stage of an epic battle between the shadows and something else, and other than the player they are the only things(pre-rifts) that are able to detect and attack shadow creatures. 

Wagstaff has been absorbed by the lunar side, or something, and all of that knowledge is presumably in them now. the most recent boss is literally trying to be a mechanized war-machine in the same vein as the ancient hulk from Hamlet.

THE SIGNS ARE ALL THERE, WX WILL GET THE ANCIENT ARTIFACT! No, it will be a time before it was an "ancient" artifact. 

Edited April 4 by cropo

[Baark0]

Originally I was kinda hoping for an overcharm mechanic like Hollow Knight has for their lunar affinity, now I'm just hoping the shadow maul gets some extra flair with the shadow affinity.

[Evelo]

I mostly hope the description doesn't state "The Enigmatic Founder" and instead refers to the Moon itself, Alter, much like Wormwood. WX clearly loves and craves the power of Alter while simultaneously detesting Wagstaff. So I think canonically, WX would "side" with Alter, even if they have the choice between Charlie and Alter (not Wagstaff)

[TheFalseKing]

1 hour ago, Baark0 said:

now I'm just hoping the shadow maul gets some extra flair with the shadow affinity.

Shadow maul is already super strong with spin module so I doubt they'll make it stronger.

Personally I hope lunar affinity will result in a laser ability or maybe a radio projection(like wagstaff) ability where your body goes in its inactive state and you temporarily control a radio projection of WX78.

For shadow im not sure but maybe a short invis that gives you 1 high damage shadow strike could be fun.

[flamboyant wolf]

5 hours ago, Jakepeng99 said:

I dunno. I feel like he is like Wortox where he doesn’t need an affinity skill. I rarely pick affinity skill on Wortox, it’s just “Oh, I guess it’s riffs now, I should pick it I guess…” his other skills are just much more competitive. WX skills are kinda competitive.

I never pick Wortox's affinities, they feel quite unnecessary, but I also just don't like them thematically much. Though I guess I'm getting off-topic.

I thought one of the affinity skills affecting back-up bodies in some way could be neat, but it wouldn't make sense since you don't need to unlock them to access affinities. Of course, it would be possible to have like, circuit affinity skills and back-up body affinity skills, that you need to take an ammount of corresponding skills to access, similar to how Walter has one for woby and one for ammo, but that's not what the tree layout is looking like so unlikely to happen. So honestly idk.

[doritosdamafia]

it's probably gonna be the same gain resistance to the side you choose and deal more damage to the opposing side, with the plus of eating their respective factions fuel the same way as gears

[Frashaw27]

Luner Vessel - Gain the ability to control a backup at the same time, Jacob and Esau style. They would match that ever movement you do but you cannot access their inventory. You can also hot swap between them with 0 delay.

Shadow Servitor - Can process Nightmare Fuel to charge up a smaller energy bar that goes down over the course of like 3 minutes. During the duration, circuits will gain a different modifers. Examples:
Acceleration Circuits: leave a tail of shadows that deal 5 damage to enemies that walk over them, frequency increases with # of Circuits
Electrification Circuit: Getting hit prolongs the meter
Spin-Cycle: Expands the range to be a couple of extra units
Blocking: Provides a Bone Armor esc effect

Pure Horror extends this bonus for a lot longer

[hhhhddh]

51 minutes ago, Frashaw27 said:

Jacob and Esau style.

I really bad at them, I found it even harder than lost

[Weevious]

1 hour ago, Frashaw27 said:

Luner Vessel - Gain the ability to control a backup at the same time

That sounds hard to code but oh my god I would love this ability more than any other ability to ever ability. Just make sure you keep the same amount of Acceleration Circuits plugged in for both Chassis, or you'll quickly learn why Jacob and Esau share a speed stat.

2 hours ago, doritosdamafia said:

it's probably gonna be the same gain resistance to the side you choose and deal more damage to the opposing side, with the plus of eating their respective factions fuel the same way as gears

Honestly I'd like this, it's a very simple affinity but it parallels Winona's generators, which WX can recharge at, so I just find it nice thematically. If WX was able to eat nightmare fuel for the same stats as a raw blue cap I could see that being really useful, not only do you heal but you would also lose sanity to gain more nightmare fuel, you can't stop winning! Honestly I'd eat nightmare fuel for the stats of a butterfly wing, I stockpile that stuff and am a wasteful fool.

I don't have my hopes set super high for the affinity since it's only 1 skill point, there's only so much you could do for one skill point before it becomes an obvious pick, I'd be disappointed if there were too many obvious picks on the skill tree because that limits variety in every player's WX-78. Regardless of how strong the affinity ends up being I just hope one of them isn't clearly better than the other (I'm looking at you, Woodie).

My original theory was the affinity was going to be a gamma circuit, because Gamma refers to screen brightness and brightness is related to the moon and shadows, but gamma circuits are implemented (sorta) and the affinity still isn't. So either they're going to be really COOL gamma circuits or it's something else. I do feel like if it was something as easy to implement as WX being able to eat a new lunar/shadow object it would've been implemented already. Honestly I have no idea WHAT Klei is cooking but I trust them. If WX truly ends up underwhelming after all this, I will simply learn LUA and mod the game to fix them.

[Jussatoon]

All I know is, if the affinities were something so simple, it wouldn't be taking this long.

[DVGMedia]

well we can kind of get ideas based off the names of the skills for the affinities.

Lunar Vessel and Shadow Servitor 
Vessel Being an empty container 
And servitor being a mindless droid that does monotonous tasks. 

shadow seems pretty obvious lunar though only states storage which could be underwhelming

[YouKnowWho142]

32 minutes ago, DVGMedia said:

well we can kind of get ideas based off the names of the skills for the affinities.

Lunar Vessel and Shadow Servitor 
Vessel Being an empty container 
And servitor being a mindless droid that does monotonous tasks. 

shadow seems pretty obvious lunar though only states storage which could be underwhelming

You’re taking the definition of vessel too literally. Its second definition is a boat, and I’m pretty sure we aren’t going to see WX turn into a boat.

Its third definition, however, is an individual imbued with spiritual or divine purpose. Seeing as the affinities are treated as gaining the favor of one side or another, we can basically see it as a contrast to a servitor.

Applying your same logic of going off the names alone, the only bit of knowledge we can gain is that they will possibly mirror each other in effects, though we cannot even say that with certainty.

i just thought the conclusion you came to was really strange, and wanted to comment on it.

Edited April 5 by YouKnowWho142

[Edible Coal]

55 minutes ago, DVGMedia said:

well we can kind of get ideas based off the names of the skills for the affinities.

Lunar Vessel and Shadow Servitor 
Vessel Being an empty container 
And servitor being a mindless droid that does monotonous tasks. 

shadow seems pretty obvious lunar though only states storage which could be underwhelming

wx is gonna be 

the hollow knight

[Cheggf]

1 hour ago, DVGMedia said:

well we can kind of get ideas based off the names of the skills for the affinities.

Lunar Vessel and Shadow Servitor 
Vessel Being an empty container 
And servitor being a mindless droid that does monotonous tasks. 

shadow seems pretty obvious lunar though only states storage which could be underwhelming

Vessel and Servitor are basically synonyms for robot

[Jussatoon]

I remember seeing someone theorize something along the lines of this:

- Lunar Vessel: You can apply a captured Gestalt to a backup chassis to bring it to life and follow you. 

- Shadow Servitor: All clockworks are neutral by default, and can presumably be befriended with gears without electricity. 

I thought it was interesting because of how they'd parallel each other: do you want to easily amass an army of followers, or have one follower that's as strong as what you kit them with?

Although, in this hypothetical scenario, the lunar affinity seems much cooler, which I suppose makes sense given how late in the game it'd be.

[doritosdamafia]

19 hours ago, Jussatoon said:

I remember seeing someone theorize something along the lines of this:

- Lunar Vessel: You can apply a captured Gestalt to a backup chassis to bring it to life and follow you. 

- Shadow Servitor: All clockworks are neutral by default, and can presumably be befriended with gears without electricity. 

I thought it was interesting because of how they'd parallel each other: do you want to easily amass an army of followers, or have one follower that's as strong as what you kit them with?

Although, in this hypothetical scenario, the lunar affinity seems much cooler, which I suppose makes sense given how late in the game it'd be.

aren't we kind alread able to do the robot recruit part?

Edited April 6 by doritosdamafia

[YouKnowWho142]

After thinking about this a bit, since both shadow and lunar have a bit of possession going on it’d be cool if WX’s affinity skills allowed them to be possessed by gestalts or otherwise for benefits. Just an idea, though.

[GaryTrain]

It's all about the role WX-78 plays in DST.  Much like Walter being an explorer/combat support role, riding Woby around removing FOW, having Woby transport supplies back to the base, using Ickies sling shot to slow objects' movement etc.  Zaptrocuter is so great as a combat support drone, which most likely will be incorporated into the final skill tree as well as Portable Storage drone.  I have to agree with YouKnowWho142's comment on April 4th, the final result solely depends on the DST development budget.  Klei does not have many networked games on its shelf, and DST is considered an hot item. If Klei really want to brand it further then the final result can be as impressive as Willow's since both Willow and WX-78 are not popular chars in DS. What I like to see,
Lunar Vessel
able to reconfigure itself into a big Bazooka or a missile launcher and use encapsulated Greater Gestalts from Grotto inside of Cave or Grazers by Lunar rift as power source to fire super charged missile. WX-78 is finally able to compete with WARBOT on who has bigger missiles.

Shadow Servitor
I always wonder why Klei bother to create a robot char in DS and how it is different from all other chars. Well, hopefully this robot has dark tech of its own this time. Even all other DS chars including Wagstaff himself are able to put on iron-man's suit in Hamlet. WX-78 is able to rip its own heart out and infuse itself with a shadow atrium. Afterward, it is able to consume pure horror, dark tatter even dread stone to turn on shadow cloak, which allows WX-78 travel under the radar in a shadow form, kind like Rictus' stealth ability.

[Mr Giggio]

On 4/4/2026 at 10:03 AM, YouKnowWho142 said:

This is just moreso speculation, I don’t want anybody to get their hopes up imagining a super crazy affinity skill like willow’s and then get disappointed if it isn’t. I’m just curious what you all would like to see out of them and how impactful they should be.

Shadow perk probably has interactions with fallen clockworks from ruins. Untill now he didn't get much in that area and I bet it might have some to do with them. Corrupting regular clocks to be like those and give them renegeration over time using nightmare fuel from your inventory[or maybe make Jimmy have the scan area of effect to be used as healing for them] and Icker slot for food preservation. 

And would be cool CC lasers for lunar I guess

 

Edited April 6 by Mr Giggio