I recently read the Horatio comic for ES2 and it got me really excited about a Horatio hero in Dungeon of the Endless (and I'm not the only one). Since Amplitude revisited Endless Legend this month, it's not out of the question that new content could be added to DotE, but even if not, I was too excited about sharing this design idea I had, which is inspired by Horatio's faction design in ES2 and his actions in the comic.

So here's the pitch: Horatio is a relatively weak hero to start with, but he has (starting at Level 2 or 3 or so) a unique active ability called Gene Splice:

• Gene Splice can only be used if Horatio is in a room with exactly one other hero.
• It costs a certain amount of food to activate, based on the level of the other hero in the room.
• The other hero in the room dies instantly (but painfully).
• A new Horatio hero is created instantly, at the same level as the sacrificed hero.
• All Horatios gain all of the passive skills of the sacrificed hero.
• All Horatios gain a boost to the "primary" stat of the sacrificed hero (not sure how to define this, but the idea is that for "high-Wit" heroes this is Wit, for "high-Speed" heroes, this is Speed, etc.

The idea is that you start out as normal, and recruit other heroes as normal, but after awhile, you start splicing the other heroes, converting them into Horatios, until you end up with a team of four Horatio clones, thus making the dungeon more beautiful. If you find more heroes, you can even dismiss one of the Horatios to recruit that hero, then splice them, making all the Horatios even stronger, and repeat this process as many times as you like. As in ES2, this means your Horatio starts out fairly weak but by the end of the game you have a pile of buffed Horatios with a bunch of useful passives, customized based on which other heroes were spliced. Spice Opbot, and all Horatios have the Operate skill and increased Wit. Splice Sarah, and all Horatios have Neurostun Lite and increased Speed.

The ability ties into the comic, where Horatio sacrifices his dungeon-mates for personal gain. Slowly picking off his buddies one-by-one seems perfectly suited to his character. I wanted to make sure you can only use Gene Splice when there is exactly one other hero in the room, so the other two heroes don't realise what's happening (though they might suspect). The high food cost ties into the Horatio faction in ES2, which needs lots and lots of food.

I'd love to see a Horatio hero in DotE, just to more strongly tie the games together lore-wise. But if not, I thought you all might enjoy thinking about the design anyway.

That would be great indeed.

*whispers*

This is a bit of a spoiler, but in DoTE you're playing as Horatio, that's why in the comics they call him Doc (b/c you heal people with food) and why you're the one who makes all the decisions in the game. B/c Horatio is in charge of the team (also why the Journal has little hints in the pictures the reference Horatio preparing to leave Auriga with the new tech). 

I had tried to convince Amplitude to make a Horatio hero with a gene splice ability back when the game was stil being developed. Even send them design notes and stuf :)