Own
Moderator
You have an awful lot of NPCs in your town who aren't contributing anything and you run out of ways to spend your Essence pretty quickly once you buy the three perks you want. Let's fix these problems together. Maybe Arcadia might need a new screen to the left or below, if all of these become popular enough.
Mumrik: In exchange for Essence, you can purchase individual songs to customize Arcadia with, along with choosing your basic floor music and boss battle music. Or maybe just Arcadia itself for simplicity sake. Songs only show up once you encounter them in Story Mode or Arcade Mode.
Ex: 1 Essence for Startington, 3 Essence for Pumpkin Woods, 10 Essence for Marino Bossfight.
Mr. Plott: In exchange for Essence, you can unlock individual bosses you have encountered in Arcade Mode to practice against. Stuck against that particularly hard boss and can't survive long enough to figure out how to fight it? Just have a few bouts with it in Plott's Arcadia Arena! Killing bosses awards nothing. You get a number of Skill and Talent points equal to what you would have on average when reaching the boss in Arcade Mode.
Example - 2 Essence for Bees, Vilya or Helloweed. 4 Essence for Gigaslime, Black Ferrets or Zoo.
Maybe you have to fund the creation of an arena building first? Or you use the Receptionist lady for this instead of Plott?
Fisherman: In exchange for Essence, he will offer several fishing related services. Examples,
For # Essence, he will add a small fishing pond to Arcadia. You can't keep the fish, but it will add something to do while waiting on friends to get ready between multiplayer runs. Or maybe after you catch a certain number of fish worth a certain number of points, you can trade them in for an essence. Like Wimp is 1 Point, but Frankenfish is 20 Points, and 100 Points in fish can be traded in for an Essence. Something slow enough to not be a better alternative to just running the Arcade, but still something to pass the time with.
For # Essence, he will give your rod a special upgrade that can be toggled on / off if you talk to him. This upgrade will display what you're currently fishing up, allowing you to cancel it if you desire.
Mr. Fabulous: A few ways Mr. Fabulous could work.
1) He sets up shop in town and allows you to pay # Essence (depending on the rarity/value of the gear) in order to purchase the last hat / facegear you died wearing as a permanent cosmetic item in Arcade Mode. Meaning, if you died wearing a Green Slime Hat and want to wear it cosmetically, you pay # Essence in order to have a cosmetic copy of it in your cosmetic hats section, as 'Fake (/Cosmetic?) Green Slime Hat'. This would give people who like hat collecting plenty to do, as well as better customize players who want a unique style in multiplayer games. I know I'd love to wear a Winter Knight Helmet forever.
2) He randomly shows up in the HP orb transition room before new floors, offering to transform one of your hats into a permanent cosmetic item for # Essence. This would potentially destroy the non-cosmetic version of the hat? Or not?
Chica: Tends to the chicken coop in Arcadia. Chica is essentially an Essence dump for the long game, when you have nothing else left to invest your Essence into, so you will forever have something to shove it into. You give her 1 Essence, you can get 1 Egg by talking to her before every Arcade run from then on, which sells for 10 Gold. You give her 2 more Essence, you now get 2 eggs for a total of 20 gold. 3 more Essence, another egg, total of 30. So you've invested 6 Essence to start with 30 gold in sellable eggs. Maybe hitting certain numbers of investment could upgrade Arcadia's chickens, turning them blue, green, black, silver or shining gold. Or it could upgrade the appearance of the coop, too.
Lumberjack: Can carve shortcuts to get you deeper into Arcade Mode while bypassing the early floors, but not with as much equipment as you would normally receive, or as many levels and a vastly lower score. Carving a shortcut costs (10 Essence * the number of the floor you're skipping), and must be done in order? So 10 to make a shortcut to floor 2, 20 to make the shortcut to floor 3, etc? Furthermore, you have to have beaten that floor at least # times?
Or maybe he, like Mr. Fabulous, appears in the HP orb transition rooms to receive payments of Essence over time. So he stays on floor 2 to allow you to pay # Essence # times in order to create a shortcut there, then he moves on to floor 3. After that you can talk to him in town to determine what floor you want to start from.
Choosing a shortcut and going into the Arcade Mode has you walk into a room with a large pinata in it, which bursts with enough EXP to get players to a decent level for that floor and an adequate number of random items for each player.
Candy: Has an assortment of cursed brews that make your game more difficult, but increases the score (and therefore Essence, assuming 100,000 score = 1 Essence?). Similar to the Temple in Bastion, where you choose to worship the gods to make your game more difficult. Unlocks new brews the more Essence you give her. Examples,
Flimsyhand Brew - Shield permanently has 1 HP, no matter what shield is equipped. Anything that isn't a Perfect Guard will shatter it. +10% to Score at the end of run.
Vitalhex Brew - Your HP and EP are completely blacked out, or always display as being 0. You never know how close to death you really are. +5% to Score at the end of run.
Blindball Brew - The spore effect of the Autumn Season Hydra is permanently on, leaving you only a circle of visibility around you. +25% to Score at the end of run.
Flamefoot Brew - Every step you take leaves behind a trail of ghostly fire - one that only harms YOU if you walk over it again. Lasts for # seconds, or doesn't vanish until the room is cleared? +20% to score at the end of run.
Slipstep Brew - Every step you take is akin to walking on ice. +15% to Score at the end of run.
Will post more ideas on how to splurge on Esssence and upgrade NPCs later, unless this is a bad idea and unlikely to be worth considering.
Mumrik: In exchange for Essence, you can purchase individual songs to customize Arcadia with, along with choosing your basic floor music and boss battle music. Or maybe just Arcadia itself for simplicity sake. Songs only show up once you encounter them in Story Mode or Arcade Mode.
Ex: 1 Essence for Startington, 3 Essence for Pumpkin Woods, 10 Essence for Marino Bossfight.
Mr. Plott: In exchange for Essence, you can unlock individual bosses you have encountered in Arcade Mode to practice against. Stuck against that particularly hard boss and can't survive long enough to figure out how to fight it? Just have a few bouts with it in Plott's Arcadia Arena! Killing bosses awards nothing. You get a number of Skill and Talent points equal to what you would have on average when reaching the boss in Arcade Mode.
Example - 2 Essence for Bees, Vilya or Helloweed. 4 Essence for Gigaslime, Black Ferrets or Zoo.
Maybe you have to fund the creation of an arena building first? Or you use the Receptionist lady for this instead of Plott?
Fisherman: In exchange for Essence, he will offer several fishing related services. Examples,
For # Essence, he will add a small fishing pond to Arcadia. You can't keep the fish, but it will add something to do while waiting on friends to get ready between multiplayer runs. Or maybe after you catch a certain number of fish worth a certain number of points, you can trade them in for an essence. Like Wimp is 1 Point, but Frankenfish is 20 Points, and 100 Points in fish can be traded in for an Essence. Something slow enough to not be a better alternative to just running the Arcade, but still something to pass the time with.
For # Essence, he will give your rod a special upgrade that can be toggled on / off if you talk to him. This upgrade will display what you're currently fishing up, allowing you to cancel it if you desire.
Mr. Fabulous: A few ways Mr. Fabulous could work.
1) He sets up shop in town and allows you to pay # Essence (depending on the rarity/value of the gear) in order to purchase the last hat / facegear you died wearing as a permanent cosmetic item in Arcade Mode. Meaning, if you died wearing a Green Slime Hat and want to wear it cosmetically, you pay # Essence in order to have a cosmetic copy of it in your cosmetic hats section, as 'Fake (/Cosmetic?) Green Slime Hat'. This would give people who like hat collecting plenty to do, as well as better customize players who want a unique style in multiplayer games. I know I'd love to wear a Winter Knight Helmet forever.
2) He randomly shows up in the HP orb transition room before new floors, offering to transform one of your hats into a permanent cosmetic item for # Essence. This would potentially destroy the non-cosmetic version of the hat? Or not?
Chica: Tends to the chicken coop in Arcadia. Chica is essentially an Essence dump for the long game, when you have nothing else left to invest your Essence into, so you will forever have something to shove it into. You give her 1 Essence, you can get 1 Egg by talking to her before every Arcade run from then on, which sells for 10 Gold. You give her 2 more Essence, you now get 2 eggs for a total of 20 gold. 3 more Essence, another egg, total of 30. So you've invested 6 Essence to start with 30 gold in sellable eggs. Maybe hitting certain numbers of investment could upgrade Arcadia's chickens, turning them blue, green, black, silver or shining gold. Or it could upgrade the appearance of the coop, too.
Lumberjack: Can carve shortcuts to get you deeper into Arcade Mode while bypassing the early floors, but not with as much equipment as you would normally receive, or as many levels and a vastly lower score. Carving a shortcut costs (10 Essence * the number of the floor you're skipping), and must be done in order? So 10 to make a shortcut to floor 2, 20 to make the shortcut to floor 3, etc? Furthermore, you have to have beaten that floor at least # times?
Or maybe he, like Mr. Fabulous, appears in the HP orb transition rooms to receive payments of Essence over time. So he stays on floor 2 to allow you to pay # Essence # times in order to create a shortcut there, then he moves on to floor 3. After that you can talk to him in town to determine what floor you want to start from.
Choosing a shortcut and going into the Arcade Mode has you walk into a room with a large pinata in it, which bursts with enough EXP to get players to a decent level for that floor and an adequate number of random items for each player.
Candy: Has an assortment of cursed brews that make your game more difficult, but increases the score (and therefore Essence, assuming 100,000 score = 1 Essence?). Similar to the Temple in Bastion, where you choose to worship the gods to make your game more difficult. Unlocks new brews the more Essence you give her. Examples,
Flimsyhand Brew - Shield permanently has 1 HP, no matter what shield is equipped. Anything that isn't a Perfect Guard will shatter it. +10% to Score at the end of run.
Vitalhex Brew - Your HP and EP are completely blacked out, or always display as being 0. You never know how close to death you really are. +5% to Score at the end of run.
Blindball Brew - The spore effect of the Autumn Season Hydra is permanently on, leaving you only a circle of visibility around you. +25% to Score at the end of run.
Flamefoot Brew - Every step you take leaves behind a trail of ghostly fire - one that only harms YOU if you walk over it again. Lasts for # seconds, or doesn't vanish until the room is cleared? +20% to score at the end of run.
Slipstep Brew - Every step you take is akin to walking on ice. +15% to Score at the end of run.
Will post more ideas on how to splurge on Esssence and upgrade NPCs later, unless this is a bad idea and unlikely to be worth considering.