My suggestion for Shadow Servitor tweaks (and other thoughts)

[Anomaly963]

While I'd prefer to simply see the return of the original version of shadow servitor (my only complaint was expecting pure horror to be implantable when it was not) I'd still like to be productive, so here is my suggestion for a slight rework of the current version of the skill.

 

Taking the affinity unlocks the crafting recipes for the auto-grabber and exploiterator. With nothing implanted, both drones are fairly weak and are limited to 1 per chassis (I'd prefer a limit of 1 of each, but it could be limited to 1 or the other). The drones also do not have the shadow blob surrounding them at this stage. I'm thinking the auto-grabber is limited to picking up 1 item at a time, while the exploiterator offers only a 5% or 10% damage boost. Both drones move slowly and the exploiterator can only target 1 creature at a time.

Only shadow atrium and possessed shadow atrium can be implanted. Nightmare fuel and pure horror cannot be implanted, but are consumed for temporary power (and potentially temporary boosts to the drones). When a shadow atrium is implanted, the auto-grabber gains the ability to pick up all items in the stack it is targeting (same as current function), while the exploiterator damage boost is increased to 25%. Both drones also move faster and gain a shadow blob to show they are empowered. When a possessed shadow atrium is implanted, the auto-grabber begins collecting several items before returning to WX78, either collecting until a full stack is reached, or no more like items are nearby (similar to how Wobot collects items before depositing them). Meanwhile, the exploiterator gains increased range and AoE targeting, allowing WX78 to do increased damage to several targets at once. Both drones move even faster and the intensity of the shadow blob around each drone is increased.

Consuming nightmare fuel could let the auto-grabber send out shadows to grab nearby items whenever it picks something up, while causing the exploiterator to increase physical damage by 5 for attacks from WX78. An alternative effect for the exploiterator could be that enemies being scanned are slowed. Consuming pure horror could let the auto-grabber collect all items (of the same type) in a small radius, while adding 10 planar damage to attacks from WX78. Alternatively, the exploiterator could convert some (or all) of WX's physical damage into planar damage (the bonus damage could be dealt as planar instead of extra physical) or the exploiterator bonus could start applying to planar damage too. The duration of these buffs could be however long the power override buff is.

The possessed shadow atrium would retain the other effects it currently has (boulderbough-like effect and mimicreep buffs - though I'm not sure if the boulderbough-like effect is still present; I haven't noticed it triggering recently).

Specific numbers given above (particularly damage numbers) are just suggestions.

 

Justifications

Spoiler

Unlocking the crafting recipes by taking the affinity would remove the strange situation where the recipe is unlocked by implanting different items - then lost when removing them. It would also seem like the recipes are knowledge granted directly by the shadow queen.

Access to the auto-grabber recipe from the start has little difference to gating it behind a single nightmare fuel - we need nightmare fuel to craft it anyway. Access to the exploiterator so early is a buff, but a very small damage boost (even as high as 10% - 10.3% is needed to 2-shot a hound with a dark sword) has little effect on weaker enemies, only becoming noticable when fighting tankier enemies like bosses.

Reducing the drone count to 1 of each type would help reduce the clutter around the player. If the reduced crafting cost is not desired, the recipe cost could be increased.

Reducing the initial shadowy effects on the drones, then increasing them with more powerful shadow artifacts being implanted would help show a connection between the technology and the shadow powering it. This helps show that these drones need the shadow to function and are not just normal drones that WX could have crafted without an affinity. This effect is enhanced by the way that the drones become more powerful as WX installs a better source of shadow energy in the chassis.

Showing a clear empowerment of the drones as we use more powerful shadow artifacts would help my personal problem with the theming of the current version - I don't like the way that it feels like there is no connection between the implanted item and the state of the drones, implanting a better item just lets us craft more.

Limiting nightmare fuel/pure horror to only be consumed avoids strangeness and potential misclicks around implanting then consuming items. It also limits implantion to tangible, heart-like items, not the amorphous energy blobs of fuel and horror. This also leaves a clear progression for implanted materials, with a single end goal.

Consuming nightmare fuel for help with picking things up is in line with the lazy forager (refueling). Wanda uses nightmare fuel for high physical damage with her alarming clock, Walter slows enemies with ammo crafted from shadow aligned resources (purple gems and icker jars; ickers even drop nightmare fuel).

Consuming pure horror for a planar damage boost is in line with Winona's planar strike abilities and Wendy's super elixirs. Replacing physical damage with planar damage is in line with Wurt's affinity abilities. Adding a global damage multiplier to planar damage would directly outclass Wolfgang's affinity, which only functions against 1 alignment (so allowing the exploiterator bonus to apply to planar damage is probably best avoided).

Other thoughts

Spoiler

If we're keeping the current state of shadow servitor, with little adjustment to it's function, I'd like to see the exploiterators be able to move while maintaining their scan, so they don't lose their target so frequently. I'd also like to see them automatically acquire targets that come near to WX, so you can get the bonus damage even on the first attack. Even with a guaranteed 25% damage boost, many low hp targets take the same number of attacks to kill. For 100hp enemies, only the axe and pick/axe see any improvement; 150hp enemies are generally killed 1 hit sooner, except when using tentacle spike/ham bat; tentacle spike and dark sword don't improve vs 200hp enemies; It's only at 300 hp that pre-planar weapons consistently benefit from a 25% boost - but this is often lost if 1 or 2 attacks don't get the damage increase. I would personally prefer that the damage boost is consistently applied, even if it is reduced.

I'm just starting to play with the mimicreep buff and I'm quite excited to put it to use. Realising that I can be frivolous with things like the star-caller's staff as I can just use duplicated staves is great, I'm thinking of creating a special duplication area to create a supply of important items. I remember seeing something about a limit to the number of mimicreeps allowed in the world at once - I hope that WX carrying several mimic items doesn't stop the mimicreep summoning from working. I've noted that mimics cannot be used with the moonstone event or used in crafting, which is probably for the best. I'm a little disappointed that we lost the construction amulet mimic trick completely - especially as now WX can get so many free items, while the exploit only allowed for reduced crafting costs (which admittedly allowed duplication of certain materials). At least it gives more of a reason to farm green gems now.

I still haven't actually tried the lunar affinity in normal play, but seeing all the improvements it's received makes me excited to test it out properly. The big increase in utility that using the vessels now has (with full access to their inventories), does a lot to offset the loss of utility from losing backup chassis. My biggest concern currently is them joining in with dangerous boss battles and getting killed, when I would rather they backed off and avoided the fight entirely. I'm hoping we can get some sort of wait command (or hibernate, as another user suggested) so that I can take dangerous fights without risking my non-combat-focused vessels. Perhaps if I equip them with sufficiently long range weapons (like the zaptrocuter) they will stay safe, but I'd still like the choice to make them wait as it can be useful in other ways too (e.g. not triggering sticky webbing). It would also be great if they automatically picked up items that they drop (in particular, weapons knocked out of their hands).

I'd still like to see an ability wheel for WX, picking which ability to activate when blocking and sonic-invoker are both installed is an important choice, and ease of use is significantly improved with activation via ability key rather than clicking yourself. I'm also hoping we get a bulk option for processing rot with redigestion and the option to toggle off auto-grabbers and spin-cycle without destroying/unplugging them.

I like the new chessmaster circuit, it helps fill out the empty slot you could be left with. It's also very good for clearing the ruins, and exceptional for preparing many backup clockworks when spawning new clockworks under a full moon. I did expect each circuit to raise the cap on clockwork followers by 1 per type, not 1 total - it's especially confusing/counter-intuitive if you try to befriend only 1 type of clockwork, then find that circuits 2, 3, 5 and 6 have no effect. The way it currently works, you need to befriend all 3 types of clockwork to get any use out of several of the circuits when stacking them - which is dangerous when considering the destructive capabilities of the rook. I'm not sure if going from 5-5-6 clockworks to 10-10-10 would be too strong or not, though. As it is, I think there is little value in stacking this circuit.

I hope that something I've shared here can inspire progress towards a version we're all satisfied with.