“Yup…that’ll do it”

Advices for anyone who wants to play this game: Getting a ranged weapon, if you're able to halve the enemy's health before they can reach you is very useful, especially early game. Get a knife and unlock skinning, you can get a lot of money out of selling pelts to the Tailor in the starter town. Sell the stuff that you find in dungeons or enemies to the appropriate vendor, you'll get a lot more money from selling metal weapons and gear to a Smith than a Carpenter, who'll pay more for wooden weapons and gear. (You can also ask the vendors what they'll pay you more, what do they want most, and what they don't want from you) Please save before you go and accept a contract. go to the Inn, pay 15 coins for a bed, and save because the contract you accept might be way out of your league and you'd just be stuck with it. Don't disarm traps unless they're directly blocking your path, you'd just get yourself either stabbed and have a bleeding effect as a result, gassed...which is fine I guess, or worst of all, be set on fire and waste your waterskin extinguishing yourelf and be left dying from thirst later. AVOID BEARS! I might be wrong at some of those and left out some other advices and maybe you want to have a different play style, from my experience EVERYTHING can go south real quick the most you can do is minimize the upcoming collateral damage headed your way, and also get the most payment out of your contracts because a splint kit or a bandage, spike balls and better quality armor and weapons can mean life and death. Edit: another thing to note, the game isn't particularly hard, sure you'll die a lot but once you learn how the game is supposed to be played you'll actually start kicking some ass.

There is a skill line that allows you to craft a bed and sleep on the open world. So, it's more of a thing of build planning. If saving often is something you want, you need to invest a bit into survival.

I started to play this game when Splat dropped 1st video about it. I have 450+ hours in it. RPG with roguelike elements with plenty of build options and high difficulity. Development is slow, but every patch changes game a lot and adds lots of new stuff. This game beautiful and full of detail. Definitely recommend.

I've been playing this game on and off after every new update and it's always fun seeing how much it has progressed. Thank you for covering it Splat!

Once they get the magic skills and feat trees fully implemented, I am definitely getting this. Just the right amount of detail and semi-fantasy realism. Very nice.

Stoneshard is such a Diamond in the Rough. I've played a number of hours, and I love the gritty feeling that it has. From combat, to dungeons; Stoneshard has a plethora of things for you to do. My only complaint would be that as it is right now, it doesn't have any sort of Co-Op feature. The reason I wish that it will is that this game would be so much fun with 1-3 friends. I can't wait for Ink Stains to finish this remarkable game.

They did add Bedrolls that you can use to save once, even inside a dungeon. They are probably not cheap. Also, in addition to saving progress, "Bedrolls provide halved Restoration benefits, don't replenish Morale and Sanity, and can cause Body Aches. Using a bedroll in a dangerous location may result in an ambush."

Nice of you to play this game again!❤️

Found this because of you early last year. Thanks, it's been fascinating to watch it develop and a solid game.

"I think we'll run away to town to lick our wounds. It's always better to err on the side of caution." - A Dwarven berserker, apparently

I really dig you showcasing games a few hours in, as well as taking time cuts on games with long intros. Just wanted to let you know.

Awesome review and primer on the current state of Stoneshard in 2022 Splat! Thank you for showing off some later game content, as it gives people an idea of the gear and power curve coming. Though, watching you walk back and forth from dungeon to town has reminded me of one of the main suggestions / critiques I have had for Stoneshard: the need for a more approachable and user friendly travel system. I’ve suggested a system where you could auto travel through areas you already uncovered, with a series of encounter rolls on your way back, depending on the difficulty of each tile you travel through, taking you back through the path you took through each zone. The key is that it does NOT teleport you to town; it merely retraces the steps you took back to town. This would be fair, as it serves to save the player time, but is of no advantage to the character, as they are just going back the way they came. It could be a button on the map screen that says: “Retrace Steps back to Last Visited Town”. When clicked, it shows the character quickly traveling on the map screen, rolling for encounters per tile danger lvl, and putting the player into battle if an enemy is encountered. This could even have a toggle for stopping the travel if a non hostile hunt-able game is encountered, in case the player wants to hunt on the way back. This change would remove so much dead time, dead time that really builds up in Stoneshard, removing the slow, repeated, usually uneventful walks back to town through mostly cleared zones, and this is a double issue if someone is trying to stream the game! Let me know if anyone thinks I’m off base with this, but this seems a good, visible place to test the waters on this. Thanks for reading.

I'm liking with some of the videos you've been doing that you don't showcase the very beginning, while you're getting a handle for things. Some games take a bit to get rolling and understand what's going on, so I think certain games for sure lend themselves to you actually playing it for a bit and getting your feet wet with it and then picking up with the actual video there after you've had some time with it. Really solid videos man, you're filling up my wishlist hard. haha

People say "difficult save system" I hear "lenient roguelike" lol. I like the system a lot. I'm glad the devs are exploring alternatives between reloading quicksaves and full on permadeath. Anything that makes me fear death without completely nuking my save is a plus.

thanks. i've always wanted to see videos containing early/mid/late game content for games. coz a lot of games are content heavy in the start and then practically barren and rushed in the late game. there's also a lot of games that introduces gamechanging stuff mid game that sometimes turns an otherwise boring game into something awesome, and vice versa.. which is why i prefer your videos that are well researched, coz i learn a lot more from that compared to videos done as blind playthrus.

love the content you make splat, i bought this game back when you made the first coverage, totally worth it

It looks and feels very interesting, after playing a bit of it and watching a video or two of yours about it, game definitely has to offer a lot of fun and enjoyment. Personally I don't like hard games but this one has something special about it like very few other similar games that ended up being in top 10-15 my favorite games of all time... More simple said, Stoneshard is like Battle Brothers meets Rogue's Tale meets Neo Scavenger and I'm loving it! :) Thank you so much Splatt for another gem you introduced us to, this title could have been easily missed in the sea of Indie games but I'm glad it didn't. Huge kudos to the tough work you are doing for us! :)

i love this game so much and im so glad to see you covering it from time to time. Im now more than 300 hours into the game and Im not gonna stop anytime soon.

man, watching you play this rocks! Thanks amigo!

I just started playing this again. Such a great, brutal game. Love it.

Very nice one Splattercat. Personally I love the punishment because I love the sweet flavour of success. Maddening at times, but elating at other times.

I just bought this game from your last gameplay of it, im glad to hear it got a big update!

Glad to see you're covering this again. A hidden gem amongst indie games. Has so much potential!

A couple of tips I learned: Passing time or resting adyacent to a bonfire reduce the wet debuff relatively quickly, you just need 4 sticks to make one. If you use metal armor is helpfull. And right clicking enemies to gather some info is very valuable.

My favourite RPG currently challenging with huge replay ability.

I knew from the moment it hit EA that it wasn't my kind of game, but it is SUPER fun to watch.

So glad you're covering this again! I love it. I think 0.8 is gonna be the last time I play until release (although I say that every patch :P)

'Back 9' is golf, Splat. 'Back 40' is farming.

3 month old video so I doubt anyone will read this, but I still feel passionate enough to write this still. It's perfectly fine for people to not like a game. Too many people seem to believe that every game should be fun for them, even if they have wildly differing tastes than the next person. I think that sort of thinking is a huge detriment to the creativity of game development and it's widespread right now, especially among devs who appear to care more about sales rather than making a great game.. We'll instead get soulless garbage made with decisions made with the results of focus group tests and polls rather than it being a passion project of the developer. We'd never get another Dwarf Fortress or Dark Souls - games that in some other world, with just some minor differences, they would be unknown games. And that would be a travesty.

Was just thinking of getting this. Great timing!

one of my fav games of all time

Man, I love this game. Already sunked about 170 hours in it.

Thanks for your thoughtful commentary, Splatty!

That feel when you're running from a bear, cursing yourself for playing on permadeath, then you hear the howling of a pack of wolves

Playing this again i was just about to comment on your latest vod with this big update glad you already did do aplay through

Don't sleep on the electromancy tree, Splat. It's damage values may appear low but the skills have low cd and push back enemies as well as stun them which allows for guaranteed hits with a crossbow. I have kited entire dungeons with just the first electromancy skill and the seal of power from the magic mastery tree, shooting my crossbow at any stunned enemy I could find. It's a honest blast. Many enemies hardly ever reached me before they died, which is a great boon in a game where even some random bandit could kill you on your way back to town. This game is hellishly ruthless, so you have to be as well.

Thanks for reviewing this. I'm definitely going to get it at some point. Probably sooner than later.

Hey Splattercat and thanks for (re)playing this one. Ive played the early patches, and fell off in favor of more content being added, and I knew this game would take a long time, I'm gonna guess as of right now, this game'll take at least 2 more years till we see a v1.0+. I also agree with all you said, describing the game. Its not a game I personally got overly frustrated with, as the only real "problem" I found with it, is the sometimes bs-seeming r&g, as you mentioned. But this game has SO much going on, I was and still am blown away by the sheer amount of item variety and semi-realism, so much so, it grotesquely outweighs any gripe I might otherwise have found with it. This game'll be something really special, once it comes out of EA. Tmv~

Looks awesome this pal. Thanks for another cracking review and making me buy another game!🤣👍. Don’t ever stop doing what you do.

I feel like them adding a campsite feature that lets you save while you are out and about would be a good idea. You'd have to find a safe(ish) place and you'd run the risk of getting attacked in the night by bandits/monsters. Upside being you don't have to run 20 mins back to town because you want to set the game down for awhile... (Or get absolutely savaged by a peasant with a pitchfork because it just so happened to get a lucky crit...)

In old dungeon crawler tabletop RPGs you didn't get a lot of reward for non-magical weapons either. It was not a game about walking around emptying the cleaning cupboard of detergent and trying to sell it on the black market. You could sell a bunch of knives and chairs and tin mugs for a little cash but it was not worth the You could improvise dungeon solutions with the junk. Build a barricade of the chairs. Stack them on eachother to climb a place. Finding resources like rope or oil was sometimes almost better than coin. At higher level, AD&D gets more survivable. But injuries and resource expenditure lingers. You can get into a fight with some fools and take them, but you might sorely miss the hp you lost and the spells you used when you run into something nastier. Each meeting with random gnolls or a small trap or getting lost and using more food becomes a "resource tax" that slowly ticks down. And here they do it with persistent injuries, food, water, healing items. In AD&D you had to return to camp or town more often as well, you didn't rest or heal in the dungeon. You could use a healing spell, but that was also a dwindling resource. Which also had to be recovered by leaving the dungeon and going to camp.

love your channel, and the way you review, cheers mate :)

I can see the kenshi inspiration from it and I’m lovin it.

This game is amazing. It is my most anticipated game. I chomping at the bit for updates.

Although I watch just about every new video you put out since finding you 8-9 months ago. This one really helped me a ton! I really like/hate Stoneshard I was feeling the missing bits and taking some bad losses and thinking I didn't understand the game "I've got to be playing this wrong". This Video really helped explain the missing bits as well as that the losses aren't so much that I wasn't catching on as it was simply a damn hard game combined with the possibility of bad dice rolls crushing your best laid plans. I'll likely still like/hate this game, but now that I know the backstory of why, I think I can enjoy the carnage more. . . .even when it is my own.

dude i feel that. this game is really immersive and i love the tone. i actually went elec and it pretty powerful once you get the cycle. i started off with geomancer in previous versions and it seemed op after getting to tier three spells. feels like they nerfed it hard, and elec seems stronger than that now at tier 2. ill tell ya what though. i got a boss now that summons tentacles and im lost on how to deal with it. great vid. brutal game. love it though.

Thank you for covering this great game.

I really like this game, a New Boss has been added since he last played It. I would recommend it for anyone who wants a more difficult open world game with survival elements.

@22:15 "This is like the roguelike single party character version of Battle Brothers" now that you mention it, it does seem alot like BB. If only the development speed was faster, this has potential.

I love playing as the pyromancer. can't wait till they bring out the make your own character feature. It's a punishing game on permadeath mode. Lots of fun and lots of potential.

Love the look and sound of this game - looking forward to the full release.

This is a great game, I started playing after you put out that first look video of this game.

Very amusing to watch you run away after bandits at the start. This game in a nutshell.

Thanks for showcasing! ^^

you had me with the "battle brothers" comparison.

Great video as always.

I like to think of Stoneshard as Battle Brothers: Adventure Mode.

I may like it, as I played many many hours in the first version of ADOM as a young teenager. Man, save scamming was necessary coz that was a true rogue-like permadeath game. Stoneshard is beautiful and challenging and has some vibes that ADOM had. I'll add it to my wishlist.

such an amazing game that keeps getting so much better!

You’re doing video game god’s work. You are much appreciated.

After seeing this video, I picked it up and have put several dozen hours into the game in the last month. It's fantastic. The potential is huge; they said they're several years out from a "full" release but, the updates will keep coming, which is great, because this game is awesome.

As rogue-like fan who missed the originals and was first introduced to them through LucasArt's Desktop Adventures and Yoda Stories, I've fallen more in love with them through the hardcore games you'v efeatured on here, like Qud, Stone Soup, TOME, and Cataclysm:DDA (though that one still kicks my ass every time within like 10-15 minutes). Stoneshard looks increasingly like a game I would be absolutely willing to sink hours and hours into, and the fact that it's on GoG as well is really awesome, I think. This one definitely seems like a keeper.

I'm going to watch this video in 2024 just to get that mysterious time capsule vibe sent by SplatterCat.

I normally like RPGs, but the quirks that you point out that not everyone would like applies to me. And that's why I watch your channel! On to WarTales!

This one of those games i don't play until it complete. Because you know it will be fantastic experience.

This game is pushing all my buttons. (in the best way)

I finally cracked the code on how to survive on perma death buildwise after dying countless times: staff + low tier geomancy battle mage stacking block, reduced damage taken, resistances, heaviest armor possible, multiple mobility skills, staggers, dazes, stuns and knockbacks for days. The new boss was hitting for 1 damage whenever it occasionally got past blocks. Enemies are allowed to do just about as much damage as to how lazy you are about setting things up at the start of an encounter.

0:45 Let gaming bring us all together!

Watch your channel a lot - but happened to find Stoneshard before watching. I found your take dead on - grew up on 2ed AD&D as well and I love this game. Is it frustrating? Hell yes. But that needs to exist for the joy of victory to be as high as it is in Stoneshard. I have not followed the Dev so was very glad to hear Devs are sticking to their guns. This game is a ton of fun for their intended audience. Haters should just move on rather than pound away on something not intended for them.

I did put that one on my wishlist in 2019. Am taking it off now, thanks for the advice. Don't think I will reacquire the frustration tolerance needed to enjoy this in the years that i have left.

I love how the game gave you a spike-tile at the entrance of the dungeon so that you drag everything back there to cheese them, but then if you run away from the necromancer boss, he'll end up going to the entrance where you left a million bodies for him to bring back! lol

I remember that the prologue didn't catch my fancy, so, here's hoping that their sweeping changes are enough for me! ;) 5:29 I think I'd prefer (might not work due to game mechanics etc.) if the new zones were loaded with you in the middle. As in, let's say that Splat is leaving the map (let's say that the world map is a 100×100 grid, each containing a 100×100 grid (the arrows) 345, 1:10 (aka upper left corner of the map)). Then the thing that loads at 5:32 should be pretty much map 244 (columns 60-100) and 245 (columns 1-60) - If that makes any sense - Pretty much so that you don't start in corners. 6:27 Unless I'm misremembering, there's on treaty who describes a way to do it - And yes, it's running away and randomly swinging at the person closest to you (especially their legs) while you continue to utilize your points in stamina - Like Brave Sir Robin! 21:20 Nice! 25:49 Any reason for throwing away a blue, unidentified item?

If you are thinking about buying it. Buy it. Bought this last time splat made a video on it. Was great.

I found Stoneshard to be a game about preparation and risk assessment. The tool you bring to the many violent encounters. It encourages you to be less than frugal. For example if you decide to get that bear pelt the tailor asked for. You could wait for the Hunter Npc to have it and pay for it and get a small profit and reputation. Or you could pay for some supplies like a bear trap, get some ether, invest in talents like skinning and a piercing or crushing weapon. Also get your medical supplies which you should already have. Spirits to throw to intoxicate it. Extra food and water skin since you can't expect the bear to be convenient about your hunting it. It may take you a few days to hunt down a bear and it's dangerous.

This is my favourite game of all time. I must have played it for 10 hours a day over the past week, cannot wait for more updates even though they just released a new patch 😂!

One change I'd love is for smoother/faster movement when out of combat. I find travelling very tedious

This really is like Battle Brothers RPG. Edit: Now Splat is making the same comparison.

I play it for a few Hours...it was hard. Will wait for the game to be finished. Did like it. Would be awesome with the crafting and many elements they are working on.

They could go the route of Dead Cells where they add accessibility features. They could include the requests as options.

This game looks amazing! It's a pity you feel the need to stress that the modern gamer beware simply because it has actual consequences for failure. It'll be nice to play a game where progress actually feels earned instead of inevitable. They're such a treat these days.

Just casually tossing away an item called "Oaken Shield"? And you call yourself a Dwarf!

tiger balm lmfao i love ya splatty

Hold shift and left click on an item from a container to immediately take it, you dont need to drag and drop everything. Conversely, in the inventory, holding ctrl and left clicking on an item tosses it out quickly. Dont keep you cursor on the world map when you pres s ctrl or your character will go into attack mode, and attack anything you click on. If this happens, simply press ctrl again to disable.

For electromancy you need to use the knockback to push things into walls objects or other enemies to get bonus damage and stun.

Dang this game looks promissing, this is the kind of niche that i love Jesus how i love this channel

Game looks awesome, I love the RNG and I love that theirs no respec

I think it would benefit the devs greatly to keep sticking to their guns, but to add some gameplay options that the player can toggle.

Holy shit... dwarves??? I'm in. I can tell from how you talk about it that you seem to really enjoy this one. It looks incredible to me, this is exactly what I'm looking for

Considering I thought this was a roguelike where it's game over when your character dies, that save system doesn't sound so bad. Going to give it a shot now!! Edit: Right after I left this comment you mentioned CDDA. I feel called out right now.

What did you think of "Cult of the Lamb" BTW, pls mate? I need to go and check after this and see if you did a video. I like it so far. A couple of friends though have remarked on how you never get any combos or anything, it's all just basic attacks (then your spell) but I don't think that's going to be too much of an issue for me, given what the game is. It's a hybrid so the systems tend to not be totally fleshed out in any one direction. Will have to see how it goes though as I just started it, but I did spoil it for myself by watching Retronation play it all last week.

I've been looking forward to Stoneshard for a long while now. I don't buy into early access anymore so I'm holding tight for 1.0

looks interesting. if it comes out of early access i might give it a try

I think there is an easy way to mitigate the saving issue. At the start of the game you should be able to pick the Ironam setting which would be unchangeable for the whole playthrough for that character.

Yes this is the one I was waiting for

Incredible game, I have hundreds of hours and cant get enough. Not for the weak of heart though!

I'll probably enjoy "Stone's hard" in another 10 years when it releases.

There really is a right answer on that save game question, or any difficulty related topics and they got it objectively wrong. The answer is let the player choose. If a player wants the added difficulty, let them play a mode where saving only works on sleeping. If they don't don't like it, let them play a different mode where saving works differently. Forcing such decisions on players just means you made a bad game.

Damnit Splat... Mac Dre did the ice cream song.. 🤦🏾‍♂️🤦🏾‍♂️🤦🏾‍♂️

Quick tip: Use alt or control (I don''t remember which one) to pick up specific items and not accidentally disarm traps. Honestly I feel like this game has a bit of a weird idea. Basically: If this was to some degree about maintaining a party of mercenaries I'd get it. The game goes out of its way to mechanically call solo adventuring into question and it becomes just really tedious to play. the save system doesnt help either but it is very secondary to that initial problem.