…is something that a bunch of you might bee asking yourself now.
Well, fret not, for I am here to provide some slight insight in the creation of the set! Mostly because I can already expect you all to start discussing it.
Click on the sprite of the item to see its exact stats!
Starting from the top, the katana:
The Kiritsukeru (which means something akin to “slash”) is basically the A.S.S. of the katanas. Yes, you may refer to it as the “butt” - that was its placeholder name for a while: the Broken Untamable Traitorous Tarnisher…or something like that!
Originally, Aurum was making this Samurai set, but he eventually scrapped it. Of all pieces the katana resembles the latest iteration of Aurum’s original set the most; however, one earlier version of Aurum’s katana was more like a Void Blade lite; it fired off boomeranging shots in an alternating |-- pattern. Because of how it was set up, doing that with two shots ended up being impossible - as that was a complaint during testing, you just kept missing that third shot!
As for DPS, it sits a little bit below Masamune; however, you may find yourself easily slashing through weaker enemies. Additionally, it has slightly more range (5 tiles), but the shot speed is on the slower side (10 t/s compared to most other katanas’ 13).
Next up:
The Watarimono (which means something akin to “traveler”) is the strongest waki in the game. You know how tiered wakis and the like can pierce through enemies, and must thus sacrifice some potential damage before they become too strong? Well, this waki says “fuck that, I’m just going to not pierce enemies then”.
It also sacrifices the Exposed effect, and the dex boost you’d get from a tiered waki - but the payoff? 2800-3200 damage if all shots connect - which isn’t too terribly hard: the shots (2 from both sides) form a tiered staff-like wavy pattern that converges on your cursor.
It might not be as ideal for cleaning through godwalls, but I think you’ll have great fun melting bosses with it.
In addition, you can also reach a bit further with it - 5 tiles, instead of 4.4. It perfectly complements the katana’s range like this.
The Reinforced Root Armor is the least “basic” part of the set. It’s a mixed breed of Zaarvox’s Heart and the Resurrected Warrior’s Armor, offering some speed and MP, with a fair bit of def still.
Its proc might seem a bit weird: you might think “hey, this armor doesn’t really give that much for such a proc! what gives?”
Well, the armor itself is not so much balanced around the proc, but the full set is! I’ll get to that in a second.
For a bit of backstory: I initially wanted to give the armor more of an inverse “Weak Armor” ability, increasing your def while reducing your speed when hit for a certain amount of damage. However, I just…couldn’t get it to do both. It only chose the one at the top of the XML, so I eventually snapped the def boost.
The Traveler’s Trinket is a compass, as Toastrz desperately requested. It shares its stats with the Honey Circlet (gee I wonder why, almost like I use that on almost half of my active characters), but sacrifices 10 HP and 1 attack for 2 speed. Consider it a slightly speedier swapout! Other than that, well, it’s an ST accessory. Not much to see here.
The set bonuses cater mostly towards attack, defense, and speed.
With the full set, the bonuses are:
+110 HP, +110 MP, +12 ATT, +31 DEF, +15 SPD
If you look closely, with all pieces equipped, you have exactly 61 def, allowing you to bypass the speed penalty from the armor for any attacks dealing 120 or less damage. This makes the set very effective at rushing an Abyss, as you’re always moving at top speed while easily slicing through demons in 1 or 2 attacks.
Heck, if you’re a bit lucky with spawns, you can even rush a Sewers with this!
That’s the set’s main strength: the high speed allows you to rush, with the def keeping you safe, and the attack allowing you to instakill weak minions. Against bosses, the waki shines, with its gargantuan damage output.
As for the speed reduction, try to think of it as both a limiter to your rushing capabilities, but also some form of self-speed control. Let’s face it: 70 speed makes things a lot harder to dodge than with a more comfortable 55 speed.
Ultimately, though, you’ll have to see for yourself how it feels. So just…wait 6 more weeks til they start dropping. While you wait, though, tell me your initial thoughts about it! After all, I could always be convinced to try and convince Deca to buff a part of it - like bringing back the def boost for the proc, which turned out to be fixed later during development!
(small addition: here’s also my own initial sprites for the set. The cooler current ones, bar the projectiles, were made my Lily (katana, waki, armor) and bonk/CrystalPX (compass))
I had no idea if it was real or not til the end of the post