The only thing Shroom loves more than their plants is helping heal their friends! Although they're not the first one into the battle Shroom is always nearby to soak up the souls of the fallen creatures in the station. You see, souls are a key ingredient in the most potent healing remedies.
Breathe deep, it's good for you!
As someone will say: "May the herbs be with you!"
Shroom plays around harvesting the souls of monsters in order to heal the rest of your teammates.
- Wincense! (Passive) - A "Soul" is created for every 10 monsters eliminated by this Hero
- Soul Patch (Special) - Heals a targeted Hero by spending "Souls"
- Special Mix (Ultimate) - Increases Health regeneration and Defense, and prevents knockout of all nearby Heroes (including herself)
Let´s talk a bit more about the Narrative, the Art, and the Game Design perspective of Shroom.
For that, we will host Jeff, Narrative Director, César, Expert Concept Artist, and Victor, Game Designer.
NARRATIVE
As you can imagine we cannot say that much without entering into "spoilers" territory.
At the start of the game, Shroom is not going to participate in the early runs as she is sort of an outcast for backstory reasons:
- She was the undertaker before the Reloader was fixed, and was used to earning a pretty good life that way!
- Once that changed she was seen as relatively useless, lost the esteem of her fellows (who had always complained about her price gouging), and so she turned inward and became introverted.
- She is a bit of a hippie as well, into her potions and all the great things you can get from plants and mushrooms...
Shroom was terrified when she went down into the Station to get the Reloader running (the event that is in the very first trailer) because she really assumed she was not coming back. But there were so few heroes left that she didn't really have a choice! Plus, she wanted to show Zed that she could be brave and cool...
Art Direction
When we started we knew we had to include an Haroshem.
Sketches: Early concepts of Shroom
Considering that the Haroshem are known to be a pacifist agricultural Faction, it was seemed logical to associate them with medicine.
We went to work ,However, our first sketches didn't quite hit the mark. They were too aggressive and had a warrior-like vibe:
Sketches: Aggresive Shroom
Since we are in a more Stylized Art direction we can explore wilder ideas so we thought, let's go a bit crazy and give the character a more shamanic vibe. That way, she won't look too techy, and we can throw in some cool non-tech stuff in her design. We Imagined her like a wild botanist, making her own medicine using whatever she finds in the station
Sketches: Shamanic Shroom
We thought it would be nice to have her collect carry a bit of everything useful she finds on the station that’s why she has all this stuff on her. And she would use all that stuff to create her own breathable air and her potions.
We like the idea of her having an incense burner, it made sense design wise and we thought it would be cool for animations and FX.
Sketches: Shroom carrying potions
Sketches: latest stages of designing Shroom
GAME DESIGN
As previously said, the main mechanic of Shroom is to collect souls by killing monsters to be able to heal other heroes. Her ultimate is the strongest “panic button” of the game as it heals and prevents the KO of heroes.
Shroom holds a special place as she is the healer of the team. She needs to be mobile to get souls and to reach hurt allies and she has to be resilient; if she falls the lifeline of the team is broken. She is by definition a team player, allowing a riskier playstyle to be a strong safety net.
She is one of the more “support style” heroes in Endless Dungeon and is suited for players that like this kind of role and are able to keep track of other players' health. And, she is also a great addition to the team for players that tend to take too much damage, taking tricky playstyle or challenges.
During a run, Shroom will be able to upgrade her abilities, her health, defense, and speed (and a little of her wit but we might change it to her damage). She can become a “healing tank”, a “speedy ambulance” or a strange “return damage healer”, usually a mix between the three.
Thanks! we hope you will enjoy Shroom in your runs in the station!
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