(For the best viewing experience, please read the original copy of this post on Shatteredpixel.com)[shatteredpixel.com]

Hey Dungeoneers, v3.0.0 and the Cleric are finally ready for beta!

In this blog post I’m going to share more details about the Cleric! Just as with the Duelist, I’m releasing the Cleric’s beta a little early. There’s still one subclass and two armor abilities to implement before the Cleric is content-complete and ready for release.
Note that visuals and specific balancing are still a work in progress. Details may change significantly before full release.

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I went over a lot of the Cleric's base class features in the last blog I wrote[shatteredpixel.com]. As a quick recap, the Cleric is an ability-focused spellcaster who gains access to a variety of supportive spells through the talent system! They cast these spells using charges from their holy tome artifact, and the variety of spells they can access makes them very flexible. I already shared several T1 and T2 spells last time, but here's a couple more, with animated GIFs!

Recall Inscription lets you spend tome charges to repeat the effect of the last runestone or scroll you used. There are almost 40 different items you can duplicate, though some are more expensive than others.
Bless increases accuracy, evasion, and shielding when the Cleric uses it on themselves. When used on allies it offers a longer buff and healing instead!

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Each of the Cleric's subclasses include a new innate spell, a buff to some starter spells, and three additional spells that are learned via talents. As usual both subclasses also get two shared talents, one of which is a spell as well.

Probably the two flashiest spells the Priest gets access to are Holy Lance and Hallowed Ground. Holy Lance is a devastating ranged spell that can absolutely obliterate a single target, but comes with a hefty charge cost and cooldown.
Hallowed Ground, meanwhile, is a much more strategic spell that creates advantageous 'hallowed' terrain for 20 turns. This spreads grass, lightly heals allies, and impedes enemy movement.
Unfortunately I haven't implemented the Paladin yet, and so don't have anything to show you, but here are some spell designs I'm pretty solid on:

• Smite is a fantasy Paladin staple, and will be the Paladin's innate spell. I expect it to be a fairly straightforward physical attack buff, granting the Paladin a guaranteed hit, and probably some mix of extra damage and enchantment power.
  
• Lay on Hands is another Paladin classic, and will probably be the Cleric's only 100% direct healing spell in the game. Lay on Hands will grant a nice chunk of shielding if the Paladin uses it on themselves, or healing if it's used on an adjacent ally.
  
• Cleanse is actually the spell that's shared between both subclasses, so Priest gets it too. It's a useful defensive spell that removes debuffs from the Cleric and allies, applies shielding, and can even grant brief debuff immunity.

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I'm going to be a bit lighter on info here to avoid lategame spoilers, and as two of the abilities aren't implemented yet. Just like with subclasses, each armor ability has three unique spells that are learned and upgraded via talents.

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The Cleric is shaping up to be the most complex and strategically flexible hero in the game, and I’m very excited for people to start playing with them. I expect they’ll be a treat for experienced players in particular, who are going to have quite a few options available via all the different spells. Please let me know what you think of the Cleric in v3.0.0’s beta!

I expect the beta to last a fair bit longer than usual, both due to the work still needing to be done, and the upcoming holidays. I’m going to be taking things easy for the next week or two, so expect for the Cleric to start getting filled in during January, and for v3.0.0 to start getting ready for release around late January or early February.

Finally, some of you may be wondering about the in-game visual improvements I shared in the 10th anniversary blog post[shatteredpixel.com]. I'm afraid there's nothing new to share there yet, but I might have a couple other visual improvements cooking for v3.0 instead...

Please keep in mind that while I always try to keep to the ETAs I provide, they are just estimates. If you don't hear from me by the ETA, it means I'm still busy with the update!

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I’ll be a little quiet over the holidays, but if you’d like more frequent incremental updates on Shattered’s development (including further work on the Cleric!), you can:
- Subscribe to the Shattered Pixel Newsletter[shatteredpixel.com]
- Follow me on Mastodon[mastodon.gamedev.place]
- Follow me on Bluesky[bsky.app]

You can discuss this Blog Post here on the Steam Community, or on the Pixel Dungeon Lemmy Community[lemmy.world].

(For the best viewing experience, please read the original copy of this post on Shatteredpixel.com)[shatteredpixel.com]

Hey Dungeoneers! Progress has been made on the next major update to Shattered Pixel Dungeon, and it's finally time for me to start showing some things off!

v3.0.0 will feature the game's second new hero: The Cleric! This blog will go over some of my design thoughts and early implementation work on this new hero.

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Two years ago, when I started work on the Duelist, I talked about how I wanted six heroes: two fighters (Warrior & Duelist), two agile tricksters (Rogue & Huntress), and two magic users (Mage & Cleric). You can also look at this in terms of game mechanics: two simpler equipment focused heroes (Warrior & Mage), two environment focused heroes (Rogue & Huntress), and now two ability focused heroes (Duelist & Cleric).

So what would an ability focused magic user looks like? The Duelist's ability focus took the form of a special attack being given to every melee weapon in the game. For the Cleric I'm taking a bit of a different approach, the Cleric's abilities tie into the talent system!

The Cleric will posses a holy tome artifact which they can use to cast a variety of spells that mainly focus on defense and utility. The Cleric unlocks and upgrades spells via the talent system!

Here's an early low-res peek at their splash art:

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(Note that the visuals below are a work in progress and subject to change)

Currently talents are all passive or triggered effects because I didn't want them to warp Shattered's gameplay too much by being too complicated or powerful. In a way the Cleric is an exploration of the inverse approach, with more powerful talents that are active abilities.

The Cleric's holy tome artifact makes this possible, as even though most of their talents are now stronger player-triggered effects, they're all accessed from a single place in the UI, and all share a charge system. Scrolls of upgrade will still be the biggest source of power for the Cleric, of course, but expect talents to play a much bigger role for the Cleric than other heroes.

So what sort of spells can the Cleric actually cast using their tome? Firstly, the Cleric starts with three innate spells:

- Guiding Light is a basic ranged attack option that deals a little damage and guarantees the next physical attack on its target will hit.
- Holy Weapon is an offensive buff that's best early on when you have no weapon enchantment. This spell temporarily replaces the weapon's enchantment with a damage boost.
- Holy Ward is Holy Weapon's defensive counterpart, adding a temporary glyph that increases damage blocking.

Here's a little GIF showing off those three spells:
All the other base Cleric spells are tied to talents. Most Cleric talents let you cast a new spell at +1, and make the spell more potent at +2. Here's a few examples:

- Detect Curse is a T1 talent/spell that acts as the Cleric's talent option to help with identification. For a fairly hefty charge cost, the Cleric is able to tell whether an unidentified item is cursed or not.
- Shield of Light is a T1 talent/spell that is a great defensive panic button. For a short duration, the Cleric gains a significant armor bonus against a single target, and the spell is cast instantly!
- Sunray is a T2 talent/spell that gives the Cleric a stronger ranged option. The spell deals a bit more damage than guiding light, and blinds the target for a few turns. Casting the spell twice in a row will upgrade the blind to a stun, but this can only be done once per enemy.
- Divine Sense is a T2 talent/spell that gives the Cleric a visibility option. For a moderate charge cost the Cleric gains temporarily mind vision in a fairly wide (but not level-wide) area.

And here's a little GIF showing off sunray, the flashiest of these spells:
Of course this just covers some of the Cleric's powers up to level 12. It's looking like there will be about 30 Cleric spells in total. Some of these are tied to the base class like the ones above, but others are tied into things like subclasses...

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I'm currently working towards Cleric subclass choice being about choosing a set of abilities/spells that each synergize with different classes of items.

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Unfortunately the Cleric isn't quite playable in their current state. I want to at least have the base class, one subclass, and one armor ability fully implemented before starting the beta.

Things might be a little rough, but I would like to try and push for a beta release of v3.0 around mid to late December, just before the holiday season. That'll give everyone a chance to try the Cleric out and for me to gather feedback to start to push for a release in the new year.

...Of course, I do also release Alphas on Patreon[www.patreon.com] a bit before betas go out, and am less concerned about the Cleric not being fully playable there. I'm not able to commit to an exact timeframe, but I expect Patreon folks will be getting Alpha access sometime this week...

Please keep in mind that while I always try to keep to the ETAs I provide, they are just estimates. If you don't hear from me by the ETA, it means I'm still busy with the update!

In the meantime, if you’d like more frequent incremental updates on Shattered’s development, you can subscribe to the Shattered Pixel Newsletter[shatteredpixel.com], or follow me on Mastodon[mastodon.gamedev.place]!

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You can discuss this blog post here on the Steam Community, or on the Pixel Dungeon Lemmy Community[lemmy.world].