Welcome to our first map-focused update for Eldritch Wars.
This post walks through the Tutorial Dungeon, an overview of the rural City of Nature map, the Tavern mini-game, and the Shrine that anchors the "Alms of the Nine" quests.
Tutorial Dungeon - Rootwake Depths
Design goal: Teach core mechanics while foreshadowing the Sundering’s fallout.
Narrative beat: You awake beneath overgrown ruins into a living cave system where spores, bones, and broken ward-stones hint at a failed containment ritual.
What you’ll learn/play:
- Movement & interaction: Navigate the map, engage with NPC's
- Combat basics: Thorncoils/Mycoforms (weakened variants); kiting and positioning.
- Resources: first drops for inventory (potions, weapons).
Overworld Map - City of Nature: First Continent
Design goal: a compact zone, supporting tutorial → exploration → early quests.
Key locations:
- Ruin Approach: surface entrance to the Tutorial Dungeon; first safe road.
- Rootwake Glade: Yarnith’s camp; onboarding quests and vendors.
- Shrine Square: quest board + the Blooming Stone shrine.
- Forest Roads: roaming encounters, forage nodes, and faction envoys.
- Tavern at Streambend: social hub + mini-game
- Coastline & Cliffs: early gathering, fishing
Tavern Mini-Game - Runeshift Table
Design goal: a quick, social puzzle with replay value and daily hooks.
How it works (alpha rules):
- Board: 8×8 wooden grid in the tavern’s center.
- Objective: slide rune-gems to match the clue card (pattern/sequence).
- Turns: limited moves; fewer moves = higher score.
- Rewards: tavern tickets → cosmetics, emotes, and small bounties.
- Social: weekly leaderboard on the notice board; patrons react to streaks.
Tuning levers: pattern complexity, wild-runes, obstacles, and seeded daily puzzles.
The Shrine
Design goal: early quest hub + lore anchor tied to the Pillars.
Functionality:
- Quest Board: Beginner “Alms of the Nine”, and additional weekly quests.
- Attunement: interact to save progress; respawn and light heals.
Testing Focus (what we'll be watching for)
- Time-to-first-fight and time-to-first-reward
- New player pathing between Dungeon → Shrine → Tavern (no map dead ends).
- Mini-game retention (daily return rate; average solves/session).
- Combat readiness Weapon/Spells, hit points, combat balancing
- Screenshot hotspots (tavern, coast, shrine) for social missions.
🌑 September - The Rift Opens
Public Alpha 2nd launch arrives in September. Will you restore balance or rule the chaos?
🔥 Join us. Shape the world. Burn the token. ⚔️
About Vendetta Games
Vendetta Games is a web3 gaming publisher known for its Wild West metaverse adventure RPG, Chalk River. Utilizing the Immutable zkEVM blockchain, Vendetta Games delivers an immersive gaming experience with dynamic NFTs, including Genesis Steeds and Genesis Characters, alongside unique gamified DeFi mechanics. The company maintains a notable presence on Discord, Telegram, and Twitter, positioning itself at the forefront of integrating blockchain technology with interactive storytelling.