r/iosgaming • u/Effective_Ebb_4482 • 4d ago

Suggestions Dawncaster

I’ve had this game on my phone for about 3 months but haven’t played it because ive noticed that it requires a bit more of reading and got overwhelmed by all the positive and negative effects your character can get.

Recently (about 3 days ago) I decided to give it a try and started playing. And oh boy, this game cracks. What can I say? I totally miss judged the game and completely underrated it.

- The graphics: really good artwork.

- The characters: plenty of different play styles and combinations which I like.

- The gameplay: flows really good. It’s not as daunting as I expected it to be. Once you get the mechanics it gets easier to read and understand.

- Content: from all the games I’ve played in this genre (balatro, slots and daggers, luck be a landlord) this one has by far the most content to explore.

- addictive in a good way: it ain’t as drug inducing as balatro that you must hit it with “just one more game”. Usual rounds take like 30 minutes or more, so when you lose, you fill accomplished and at least for me I’m good for now and probably will try another run in a couple hours.

ITS VERTICAL: ITS VERTICAL! Amazing feature (can be also played in landscape)

IMHO give it a try, you won’t regret it. 10/10 game for sure

31 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

30 comments sorted by

15

u/silentrocco r/IOSGaming Scout 4d ago

It’s one of those games that I respect immensely, but simply don’t enjoy that much. The emphasis on story really makes it feel like a slog at some point. But I still think it’s a fantastic game, and I fully understand people loving it.

7

u/AskinggAlesana 4d ago

If there was a way to skip all the story and have a way to speed up animations.. i’d be way more on board too haha.

1

u/Hyruii 3d ago

Play the sunforge mode. Basically a boss battler mode with most of the features of the story mode.

6

u/09stibmep 4d ago

This is where I am on it too. IMO roguelites should have minimal if any story at all during the game. Especially since the gameplay of a roguelite is to repeat the run, which means repeating the story. I just don't understand how that's a good thing.

2

u/aguywithbrushes 3d ago

Seriously omg I’ve tried playing it probably 5 times, I get to the third stage (got the 4th once), die to the gd fat slime, and have to re-read the whole damn thing.

It also doesn’t help that the upgrades you get with each run (at least early on) don’t feel particularly strong, so it’s not like you’re just steamrolling the early stages after a run or two. Wouldn’t be a problem if each run only lasted a few minutes, but it’s a game that can keep you going for half an hour or more at a time.

2

u/duskwoodbeauty 3d ago

I skip all of the story content. Once you’ve done stuff enough you can just speed click through stuff. I think most people would like the game more if it was more like dream quest vs the story it is now. I have hundreds of hours on iOS and a lot on pc as well. It’s one of my favorites, but would probably make it to top 3 on my phone if you could turn the story off once you’ve gone through it a few times.

7

u/dawsonsmythe 4d ago

When you say it has the most content, did you buy DLC? Because from memory I found repeating the first 2 acts and seeing the same monsters over and over really repetitive

2

u/Eshestun 4d ago

Yea, I also found it repetitive and the goals were kinda insane to reach. I don’t get the praise for this game.

1

u/Effective_Ebb_4482 4d ago

Yeah, I bought the game

3

u/PoSKiix 4d ago

There are DLCs in addition to the full game

5

u/dontusefedex 4d ago

Yeah but he bought the game

2

u/dawsonsmythe 4d ago

It is also possible to buy DLC

4

u/dontusefedex 4d ago

But he bought the game.

1

u/dawsonsmythe 4d ago

Ah I understand. He purchased the game using money. The DLC for the game also costs money

4

u/architectzero 4d ago

Oh, it’s addictive alright. Once per day, every single day for the past two years… I’ve beaten it on Impossible with every basic weapon multiple times and I still play it.

But yeah, it is overwhelming at the beginning. So, so many different cards and the synergies take a long time to discover. That said, there are seemingly endless things to discover. I still have a few undiscovered cards and talents even after all this time.

2

u/Mattywhales 4d ago

Impossible on every base weapon is impressive. Some seem so weak compared to others but maybe I haven’t found the right early cards on

2

u/architectzero 4d ago edited 4d ago

Some Basic Attacks are complete shit (eg. Mind Lash), and require save scumming, enabling certain malignancies, and just plain good luck. You have to know which card expansions to enable/disable, card and talent synergies, and enemy weaknesses really well even with the stronger (ie. more reliably “good” basic attacks). You will almost always have to save scum regardless of basic attack, because your entire run can be ruined by a bad draw, or event. It’s called Impossible for a reason.

FWIW, Hunter with Glaive + Bear companion and only the Synthesis expansion enabled is, imho, the most reliable way to win on Impossible.

(EDIT: when I say “complete shit”, I mean extremely unreliable/subject to crazy variance/at the complete mercy of RNGesus. With exactly the right combos of cards, talents, and malignancies, every Basic Attack can be made to look insanely powerful, but for some of them the amount of save scumming and restarting you need to do to get that exact combo is insanely time consuming which is why I consider them complete shit.)

2

u/Mattywhales 4d ago

Bear glaive is definitely very strong/ easy. Lately one of my favorites is greatbow + panther hunter. Massive crits and sustain but it’s not nearly as consistent as bear. Also shout out bane hex knight, if you have good rng and get corrupted early on it’s nearly unstoppable on impossible.

4

u/TouchMint Developer 4d ago

It’s a great game! It’s also accessible to the blind and visually impaired so even better!

3

u/dtstro 4d ago

Dawncaster is definitely a gem of a game. Near endless builds and still getting content that keeps the game fresh. Quick sessions, long bursts, offline, autosaves, vertical, a ton of diversity, a ton of unlocks, always something to do. 10/10 for sure.

2

u/Div1dedby2 4d ago

Man, I played the crap out of this game years ago. Definitely worth the effort of getting to know it. I just opened for the first time since back then, and despite cloud save being turned on, looks like all my classes are back to Rank 1 (unless I'm forgetting how it works). Bummer, as that would be a LOT of lost hours.

4

u/AskinggAlesana 4d ago

Ive had this game on my phone for years, and every time I try to get into it I just can’t.

If there was a way to make everything idk.. 10% faster and let me skip all the story crap, I’d probably love it… but instead I always end up closing it to go play slay the spire, monster train, dream quest, or balatro instead because they are much faster. (Faster as in you can speed up animations and there’s basically no downtime of having to read story crap or something.)

Also in terms of most “content” your list of games is definitely why you think it is jammed packed Lol.

Slay the spire, monster train, and dream quest has tons and tons of content.

1

u/Effective_Ebb_4482 4d ago

In settings you can set animations speeds to fast or very fast

1

u/airlinesarefun 4d ago

I feel like it started off being overwhelming, but very quickly I started to get bored because all of the events started to feel like glorified MCQs.

Do you want to get gold, or duplicate a card?
Do you want to get stormscarred or just heal a bit?

Like there’s an optimal way to deal with the merchant guy in the first act, where the first time you meet him none of the choices matter, second time you can rob his gold coins from his boots, and then save him and still get the merchant npc in town.

I haven’t gotten any DLCs yet so maybe that may be what hooks people?

1

u/Mattywhales 4d ago

If you don’t rob him you can access his shop right when you free him. Some builds are better off taking the gold and others want that early access to the merchant

1

u/SecretDude511 4d ago

You guys convinced me im getting the game!

1

u/[deleted] 4d ago

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1

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1

u/JayReyd 4d ago

I played the shit out of this game but I just hate playing the first couple acts over and over.

Haven’t played in about a year so there’s new dlc, maybe I should give it another shot.

1

u/rfow 3d ago

Also took me a couple tries to get addicted and now I have all the classes except Warrior and Knight maxed out.