Guardians of L.U.S.T. 0.7.0: Assaria, builds and a combat rebalance

Greetings, agents! Rocketman on comms.

Subscribers can already play the 0.7.0 early access build.

This update is about the whole combat route: difficulty settings, enemy variety, equipment progression and how your build develops from the prologue through Chapter 2. The goal is simple: fewer repetitive fights, clearer difficulty rules and more reasons to change gear and use different abilities. I’m still working on it, though.

Assaria’s questline is complete

Assaria’s questline now has its full sequence, her own knife-throwing minigame and a fully animated NSFW scene. Finishing it rewards you with a unique pair of blades.

Difficulty changes the whole fight

Difficulty now affects enemy durability, damage, defensive abilities and health recovery between battles.

• On Easy, regular enemies usually fall in one or two shots and no longer heal or use shields.
• On Easy and Normal, your health is fully restored between battles.
• On Hard, health carries over between battles, so attrition on an expedition is part of the challenge.
• Enemy damage on Normal and Hard is 30% lower, for a smoother difficulty curve.

The Hard description now states the health rule directly, so you know what you’re choosing before you start.

Enemies with their own style

Regular enemies now use different sets of two or three abilities, with different mana costs and attack pacing. Unique encounters keep their own rules: bosses, challenge battles and scripted fights are no longer squeezed into the same balance template as regular enemies.

Enemy behaviour should be easier to read, and fewer fights can be won by repeating the same attack pattern.

48 items, clear builds

There are now 48 items, eight for each of the six equipment slots. Eleven reworked items got their own icons.

The items support recognisable build directions:

• skulls and direct damage;
• frequent cheap abilities;
• expensive high-impact mana setups;
• fire, napalm and detonation;
• electricity and extra mana;
• water, oil and board control;
• heavy weapons and rare powerful attacks;
• medical, biological and defensive setups.

The names are placeholders, I’ll come back to them later.

For example, a fire build can combine gear with napalm and detonation effects, turning burning parts of the board into extra damage. An electricity build focuses on extra mana and cheap abilities, so you can use several different actions more often.

The point isn’t just more equipment. Every reward should help you recognise, continue or adjust a build.

Progression through the story

• Prologue. A gradual introduction to the core combat systems, with essential survival and tactical abilities as rewards.
• Chapter 1. Real customization begins: elemental and tactical paths that define your playstyle.
• Chapter 2. Strengthen your chosen direction with advanced synergies, high-impact attacks and better defences.

Other improvements

• The starting loadout has a clearer purpose: a weapon, armour, a starting-mana implant and a scouting visor.
• Tutorials come in stages: the basic shot first, then two-colour mana and board interactions.
• The story no longer gives you an item you already have in the starting loadout.
• Updated fonts across several game systems for more consistent, readable text.

I’m continuing the full proofread of the game’s text. It’s going slower than planned, because much of this update needed Match-3 work, but I’ll keep moving it forward. Thank you for your patience, for testing the new balance and for pointing out where the game needs clearer feedback or more variety.

End of transmission.