In a recent Game Rant interview with Dwerve developer and Half Human Games co-founder Percy Legendre IV, he spoke to how the game’s various turret synergies, among other game features, set it apart from traditional types of tower defense games like Orcs Must Die. Although Legendre said Orcs Must Die was one of Dwerve’s key game inspirations, as well as other games like Zelda: A Link To The Past, he highlighted some different features that set Dwerve apart in its combat mechanics.
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Turret And Trap Synergies In Dwerve
Like in Orcs Must die, Dwerve has various traps and trap combinations that players can utilize. It has many fun and unique turrets, including Spinblade turrets, Chakrams, Mortars, and the electrocuting Tesla turret that “goes round corners because it chains from enemy to enemy.” However, Legendre explained that one of Dwerve’s key differences that sets it apart from Orcs Must Die is the concept of the build phase.
There is no build phase in Dwerve, except for its recently introduced Classic Tower Defense. Instead, in its main mode, Legendre explained that players must rely on and recall their turrets to fight by building or rebuilding them as needed using their Power Stones, with their ability to pick up, place, and reposition turrets freely in an “intense high strategy experience”. Although the blue-haired dwarven hero Dwerve does possess a boomerang to knock back enemies, Legendre added this doesn’t mean traditional action gameplay, with the boomerang functioning “more as an extra turret.”
Dwerve Turret Synergies, Upgrades, And The Environment
In Dwerve, players can upgrade traps and turrets and can make either floor traps or stand-up turrets. Legendre also explained in Dwerve that “each turret has its own upgrade tree” in Sla’s Workbench. As players upgrade their turrets, “the synergies also kind of lean into each other further,” indicating that upgrades have an impact on how trap synergies perform as players progress and experiment with different combinations, which is exactly what Legendre hopes players do.
Although in many tower defense games, there is usually a set meta for upgrades and improvements, Legendre added that Dwerve “really encourages experimentation,” particularly with turret combinations and upgrades. Experimentation also extends to level design, as another noteworthy feature of Dwerve’s turret mechanics is how they synchronize or work best with features of the game’s levels.
For instance, the narrow corridors of dungeons effectively encourage players to use turrets to stop enemies in their tracks or use particular turrets in map areas with design features like water or lava to the player’s advantage. An example could be deploying turrets that knock enemies into pools of water while trapping others with Spinblade turret, in comparison to Orcs Must Die’s various types of weapons for the hero to pick off stragglers. It’s similar, but it has a slightly different gameplay effect. Ultimately, how players choose and upgrade their turrets is up to them in a game that factors player options throughout, and it is all part of the fun as players learn and discover all the exciting ways to play in Dwerve’s range of unique turret synergy systems.
Dwerve is available on PC and is coming to Nintendo Switch in Spring 2023. It is currently part of the East Meets West Festival hosted by Curve Games and has 15% off on Steam till January 23, 2023.
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