Sprinting ‘n Sneakers 'n Speed Stuff

Two days in a row, this is a new record!

Today I’d like to talk about footwear.

First though, let’s continue the last post’s discussion of with some talk of the changes made to speed in particular.

SPD has always been one of my favorite stats, even in spite of the glaring drawback of quick movement being a bit of a liability in the deadly Catacombs. A sort of double-edged blade, speed was just as likely to help you to escape from a group of enemies as to send you hurtling into a pit of spikes. Of course moving quickly is pretty satisfying, but many parts of the Catacombs encourage caution and more methodical progress.

With that in mind, SPD has been modified a bit. It still increases your normal movement speed - up to a certain amount. The more important factor is that it increases your sprint speed. Oh right, you can sprint now. Everybody can sprint. Whee!

With lower SPD, sprinting might not help much more than walking normally, but as the stat increases so does the speed boost from sprinting. This allows for the player to have more control over their own speed - kickin’ into high gear when they need to, without relinquishing the finer control needed in situations that call for more tactful maneuvering.

So that brings us to shoes!

Feet are pretty useful things in Catacomb Kids. You can jump with them, run with them, and even in certain cases kick with them. In fact they’ll probably be the point of contact for many interactions in the game, such as with trap-activating pressure plates and various types of terrain.

Shoes are the equipment which modifies all these interactions, doing everything from dealing more damage via kicks and jumps – such as with Spiked Boots – to jumping higher, falling slower, giving traction on ice (or taking it away), and even walking on water. They won’t generally affect your stats in any way, unlike weapons and armor, but their passive effects will be well worth consideration.

And of course I’ll leave you with a gif!

Here we have a kid getting gutsy with some Sandals of Blazing, which replace damage normally done by kicks and jumps with setting fools on fire. They also leave a trail of flames behind when sprinting. Fire, being fire, doesn’t tend to distinguish between friend or foe, so dashing in footwear with the blazing suffix can be quite a risk to all parties involved…and of course they probably wouldn’t be of much use against a grumbul Fire-Warrior. In the proper hands however – or on the proper feet, as it were – the benefits can be well worth the risk.

Also look at that. Trails of fire. I mean how cool is that?