Loop Hero seems to be a strange games to have the little pop of popularity that it has. Because at the core of the game Loop Hero is an idle game. While there are small active elements, the game itself revolves around the gameplay loop (lol) playing itself.
Basically the way the game works is your hero runs loops around a track that has random elements on it. At the beginning, these elements are basic enemies like slimes. The character moves around the loop, and fights automatically. You have absolutely no control over that part of the game. Where the actual gameplay comes in is from the loot generated by the monsters you kill on the field.
Loot comes in two types. Cards and gear.
Either you get terrain cards, which you can place on tiles on the map which can add monsters to the field that are more complex like spiders, skeletons, vampries, etc. Or you actually add scenery to the map like fields, mountains, rocks, etc. The monster tiles grant more powerful loot by adding more powerful monster, which the scenery tiles grant you building resources like wood, stone, gems, etc etc. More about resources in a minute.
Gear is the other type of loot and this is about what you'd expect. You character has typical RPG loadout capabilities, and monsters will drop random gear that you can equip to buff your stats thus letting your hero handle the stronger monsters that you are putting onto the field. The gear itself seems to present a lot of options for build diversity, with stats that allow you to hit every enemie at once, heal a % of the damage you deal, evade damage, and more. Of course the gear is dropped at random so each run is luck on whether you get gear strong enough to be useful or that works together.
So you basically let your hero loop around this randomly generated level, placing terrain and monsters and increasing your gear to the point in which you fill up the map so much that a boss spawns for you to kill, hopefully. Depends on your luck with drops really. You are likely to either die, or choose to return to base camp several times before you can kill the boss. The base camp is where those resources start to become important. Firstly if you willingly return to camp you will keep all the things you gathered, however if you die you only keep 60% chosen at random (so if you needed wood, you better hope the RNG doesn't decide to let you keep all the stone instead). These resources allow you to build things at your camp like a kitchen, smithy, tavern, etc etc. Each of these buildings provide benefits for when you return to your loop.
The loops themselves, much like rogue-lite games tend to do, reset completely each time you respawn back into it. So the process basically starts all over.
There is a bit more customization further on as well. The terrain cards you get are part of a deck that you collect and there is a limit to how many cards your deck can have. So before you set out on a new loop you can swap out cards for newer more powerful cards that you might discover along the way (and also unlock through building things).
Then there is even MORE because you unlock the ability to change your class. You start as a warrior but there are others like mages and I dont know what else because unlocking shit is hard.
What surprises me most about the buzz this game has gotten is that, for the most part, the game is an idle game. You don't really have much to do in the moment to moment gameplay other than swap gear to the biggest numbers, and place terrain cards if you want. For me this is the kind of game that pushes some very specific buttons that I have and quite enjoy so I am liking this game, but I can't really explain why it's gotten the press it has.
My best guess is the story behind it. It's very Dark Souls like, the world has been destroyed and nobody can remember it. So during your loop where you place mountains and shit, it is literally your character remembering the world itself. Then when you die, or go back to camp, your character forgets everything (which is why it all resets). As you build things in your base, more and more NPC's show up and they actually start remembering things, and help you start to remember as well. It has an interesting concept and twist on the "end of the world" thing that I think is what might be keeping people, who otherwise would grow bored quickly, playing.
All in all, it's a pretty interesting little game and worth giving a try. It's cheap, it's small, it's worth it.
Basically the way the game works is your hero runs loops around a track that has random elements on it. At the beginning, these elements are basic enemies like slimes. The character moves around the loop, and fights automatically. You have absolutely no control over that part of the game. Where the actual gameplay comes in is from the loot generated by the monsters you kill on the field.
Loot comes in two types. Cards and gear.
Either you get terrain cards, which you can place on tiles on the map which can add monsters to the field that are more complex like spiders, skeletons, vampries, etc. Or you actually add scenery to the map like fields, mountains, rocks, etc. The monster tiles grant more powerful loot by adding more powerful monster, which the scenery tiles grant you building resources like wood, stone, gems, etc etc. More about resources in a minute.
Gear is the other type of loot and this is about what you'd expect. You character has typical RPG loadout capabilities, and monsters will drop random gear that you can equip to buff your stats thus letting your hero handle the stronger monsters that you are putting onto the field. The gear itself seems to present a lot of options for build diversity, with stats that allow you to hit every enemie at once, heal a % of the damage you deal, evade damage, and more. Of course the gear is dropped at random so each run is luck on whether you get gear strong enough to be useful or that works together.
So you basically let your hero loop around this randomly generated level, placing terrain and monsters and increasing your gear to the point in which you fill up the map so much that a boss spawns for you to kill, hopefully. Depends on your luck with drops really. You are likely to either die, or choose to return to base camp several times before you can kill the boss. The base camp is where those resources start to become important. Firstly if you willingly return to camp you will keep all the things you gathered, however if you die you only keep 60% chosen at random (so if you needed wood, you better hope the RNG doesn't decide to let you keep all the stone instead). These resources allow you to build things at your camp like a kitchen, smithy, tavern, etc etc. Each of these buildings provide benefits for when you return to your loop.
The loops themselves, much like rogue-lite games tend to do, reset completely each time you respawn back into it. So the process basically starts all over.
There is a bit more customization further on as well. The terrain cards you get are part of a deck that you collect and there is a limit to how many cards your deck can have. So before you set out on a new loop you can swap out cards for newer more powerful cards that you might discover along the way (and also unlock through building things).
Then there is even MORE because you unlock the ability to change your class. You start as a warrior but there are others like mages and I dont know what else because unlocking shit is hard.
What surprises me most about the buzz this game has gotten is that, for the most part, the game is an idle game. You don't really have much to do in the moment to moment gameplay other than swap gear to the biggest numbers, and place terrain cards if you want. For me this is the kind of game that pushes some very specific buttons that I have and quite enjoy so I am liking this game, but I can't really explain why it's gotten the press it has.
My best guess is the story behind it. It's very Dark Souls like, the world has been destroyed and nobody can remember it. So during your loop where you place mountains and shit, it is literally your character remembering the world itself. Then when you die, or go back to camp, your character forgets everything (which is why it all resets). As you build things in your base, more and more NPC's show up and they actually start remembering things, and help you start to remember as well. It has an interesting concept and twist on the "end of the world" thing that I think is what might be keeping people, who otherwise would grow bored quickly, playing.
All in all, it's a pretty interesting little game and worth giving a try. It's cheap, it's small, it's worth it.
