Unit Promotions

As you advance through the game, your units will gain experience and level up. When a unit reaches level 20, they gain access to their Master Classes, which they can ascend to through the use of a Promotion Badge. 

Master Classes have higher stats, which give your units a raw numerical advantage upon promotion, although that is only the beginning! They also gain a variety of special abilities, specific to each Master Class and potentially alter their movement type through mounts or flight.

Choosing when to promote a unit into a Master Class has long-term gameplay effects. Promoting to a Master Class does not reset a unit’s level, but it does slow their experience gain by a small amount. There may be instances where keeping someone in a lower-tier class for extra levels is preferable, or there may be times when you need the immediate and drastic power boost of a Master Class. Keep in mind that you cannot swap a unit to a lower-tier class or a different Master Class once they promote, so choose wisely!

When you do promote a unit to a Master Class, there are a number of factors that affect what Master Class you might choose to promote them into. Each unit has two or three Master Classes available to them, distinguished by starkly differentiated abilities that guide the role the unit will play on the battlefield after their promotion. Therefore, you should feel free to promote a unit according to how you want them to function in combat, and build your roster and strategies around the Master Classes available to you.

Here are two examples of Keri’s possible Master Class promotions:

Assassin

Assassin grants Keri an extra attack per round if not adjacent to an allied unit, as well as increased defenses when fighting bosses. She also gains Execution as a Combat Art, which, like her Assassinate Combat Art, increases the amount of attacks against lower HP targets, but also has the further benefit of allowing her to move and attack if Execution defeats an enemy. This lets her keep the momentum after defeating a target..

The Assassin promotion focuses on increasing Keri’s raw damage, and allows her to travel away from her allies without putting herself in danger by winning more one-on-one engagements.

Moonlighter

Moonlighter grants Keri extra mobility by giving her the ability to move through enemies, as well as move after opening chests or doors, enabling her to gather side objectives while easily avoiding unneeded combat.

In addition, this promotion deepens her attunement to the moon, granting her additional Strength, Magic, and Speed at night. She also gains access to the Lunar Snipe Combat Art, which deals magical damage with a bow at long distance and gains increased Critical Hit Chance at night, though it can also be used during the day with reduced effectiveness.

The Moonlighter promotion acts as a more mobile counterpart to the Assassin’s solo playstyle.

Master Classes are an important part of the growth of your units, as they allow you to adjust your roster’s specializations to better fit your current or future needs, opening up new strategic possibilities and opportunities for experimentation that would not be available otherwise. On repeat playthroughs, the mutually-exclusive nature of Master Classes encourages you to play around with builds on units that you haven’t tried before, and to view the units you’ve grown familiar with from new angles.

See you tomorrow for first day of the Kickstarter Campaign! Share the word!
David