No. Shadow’s Kiss uses a City of Heroes style equation, where monsters 5 levels higher than you are incredibly difficult and monsters 5 levels below you are made of cardboard. All of your powers scale along that, and in PvP it additionally disables powers that are out of range of your opponent or unbalanced.

We do subscribe to a philosophy called “Pay to save time.” Many of the entitlements we sell, such as training stations in Lairs, allow you to train up your inspirations, do crafting, or otherwise shortcut things that would have you running around the city a little bit (Blood dolls are a good example of this: your blood dolls give you a free dose of blood daily to start your night on the right foot. You can otherwise do this through feeding).

It’s also important to remember that we don’t have EA or Ubisoft money, and we also aren’t charging $60 for a box or forcing you to pay a subscription. Lairs, powers, and pets are the primary way that we’re able to pay our employees and hopefully have enough to run our servers, pay our rent, market and promote our game, fund its development, and, if the fates are kind, actually work on a sequel and expansions.