Hello, crafters! How is everyone? Summer is basically over here. It's that time again, to reveal the next upcoming character of Crafty Survivors. The development of the new content and character has been going quite well, so it shouldn't be long before we can release the next update. Meet: [h2][b]Monet, the Banker[/b][/h2] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42919706/f8ff029c5484897acd63fd7e98251a252ecd4d0a.png[/img] As some people in the community have already guessed, the Banker will be a playable character. We began her concept with the release of the Bank as a building in the Village and started brainstorming her mechanics during that time, but thought she would be best as a late character than an early one because of one simple detail on her mechanic: using Gold. Monet is the first AND ONLY character to use Gold as a resource in battle, as the masterful Banker she is. She will bring forth the power of money to fight and dominate the arena! She is a melee character with a varied sized basic attack and all her mechanics involve Gold: the more you have the stronger she can become. Monet has different types of skills and all of them involve Gold in some way: either spending gold, earning more gold or even spending gold to earn even more. Good planning of her skills can result in massive damage and enormous amounts of gold at the end of the Stage, as some of her passives can boost her gold gain even further. But be careful not to overspend your Gold or the only gold you get at the end will be from the Boss Chest. The amount of Gold required for her skills is variable depending on the Stage, in order to make her viable in earlier Stages as well. Balancing the requirements around her area would make her impossible to use in earlier areas and overpower her in even later Stages, so every requirement around her skills uses the End of Stage Boss Chest amount as the base for calculations for her skills, which also influences her gains. Some of her skills even have different thresholds depending on the amount of gold the player has available and can increase the effectiveness and power of said skills even further! Even her basic attack is influenced by the amount of Gold the player has and becomes stronger as thresholds are met, turning this classy lady into a powerful fighter. Show the enemies the power of money with the Banker and help her and the others protect their hometown! [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42919706/6749d30737a6f678d803ae5e39cc11227501e17f.gif[/img] The new area, the Desert, will also become available with the new character, with new challenges to conquer and new materials to collect. The buildings will have more levels available for them so players can power themselves up even more. Hope everyone is excited to meet the Banker and put her money to use! Now, an important announcement regarding Crafty Survivors: [h3][b]The game will increase in price soon to match the price of the Full Release.[/b][/h3] With the current amount of content, once again the price of Crafty Survivors doesn't fit anymore on what it should be. As we stated since the beginning of the Early Access and is shown in the Store Page, the game would increase in price after certain milestones were met throughout the development process until we get to the price the game would be on Full Release. We believe it will be a good time to reach that price a short time after the release of the next character, Monet. [i][b]Why is Crafty Survivors increasing in Price?[/b][/I] Compared to the Early Access release version 0.1 back in March 2023, the amount of content had a major increase. There were only 4 characters available, 15 Stages in total with 1 boss, none of the current Village Systems. The last price increase, version 0.5, had 8 playable characters with a total of 154 Skills, 67 Stages in total with 6 bosses, 6 Elixir Skills, and 8 Village Systems that allows players to customize their runs even further, with 108 talents summing up all characters in the Smithing and Weaving Systems. The next version 0.9, will have 12 playable characters with a total of 231 Skills, 121 Stages with a brand new area, a total of 8 areas (counting the Colosseum), and 20 bosses, 21 Elixir Skills, and a total of 256 talents summing up all characters in the Smithing and Weaving Systems. With the final version (1.0) taking the playable character count to 15 with an estimate of around 300 skills in total, 9 areas (with the addition of the last area of the game), more than 150 stages in total and more bosses to fight, possibly more than 30 bosses, an estimate of around 36 Elixir Skills, and an estimate of over 350 talents summing up all characters in the Smithing and Weaving Systems. With all this difference in content, Crafty Survivors [b]cannot[/b] be the same price as it currently is. [i][b]Is this going to be final price of the game?[/b][/I] Yes! This will be the final price of the game for the Full Release of v1.0 of Crafty Survivors. We know that some people might not agree with this change, but we must do what we believe is the best and most fair course of action for the game and the hard work put into its development. Thank you all again for being a part of this journey with us and playing Crafty Survivors. As the development of the Banker is being completed, I have already began the visual work on the 13th character. Hopefully the development of this new content will continue to go smoothly and it won't be long to finalize the Desert area.