It’s shaping up to be a good few weeks for Stormgate fans! The closed beta is coming up, as is the Kickstarter, and a new article just revealed a ton of Infernal Host info, including new units and faction mechanics.
Let’s dive right in!
New Infernal Host Units: Weaver, Magmadon, Flayed Dragon, Doombringer
A ton of new Stormgate information was revealed in an IGN feature focused on all things Infernal Host. We’ll kick things off with units – there were four new units revealed, as well as further information given about units that we already know of.
First up is the Gaunt. We saw glimpses of this guy in previous previews, but now we know what he does! The Gaunt has a glaive attack that can bounce to hit multiple enemies, and when upgraded it can spend some health to ‘infest’ enemy units on hit. When an infested unit dies, it spawns a Fiend.
For reference, Fiends are those fast two-legged snapping creatures we saw in the original Infernal Host gameplay reveal. It’s now been confirmed that Fiends lose health over time and eventually die, so they’re sort of temporary units.
Flayed Dragon
Moving onto the totally new units, we have the Flayed Dragon. This is a ‘capstone unit’ which, presumably, means you can only have one at a time. It is summoned through the Infernal Host’s unique mechanic Animus (we’ll explain that below), and is a large flying dragon that, as expected by the name, has seen better days. It looks like it has slow but powerful attacks and can inhale the infest effect, dealing damage and restoring Infernal Host shields.
Weaver
Next up is the Weaver. There’s not too much information on this unit beyond the short video, however, what we know sounds very interesting. The Weaver has a powerful melee attack and a unique ‘harpoon’ ability, which lets it drag an enemy unit to it.
Magmadon
Then we have the Magmadon. This is a large, slow four-legged creature (think Kodo Beast from WC3) that has a powerful melee attack and is able to charge forward, pushing enemy units out of the way.
Doombringer
Last but not least is the Doombringer. This is a flying transport ship that can carry up to eight small units (and probably fewer bigger units, if we go by how this kind of thing worked in WC3 and SC2). However, it also has a unique ability, it can land to spread Shroud around it, which makes it vulnerable to ground attacks.
New Infernal Host Mechanics: Animus, Infest, Shroud
Moving onto mechanics, there’s also a ton of new information! Let’s get right into it with Animus. This is a unique Infernal Host mechanic that acts as an Infernals-only resource. It is generated every time something dies anywhere on the map and can be used to perform special rituals. We don’t really know what those are yet, although one summons the Flayed Dragon.
The next mechanic is Infest. We mentioned it above in the Gaunt section – it is a debuff that is applied to enemy units (so far it’s only confirmed that the Gaunt can apply it) and if a unit dies with the debuff active, a Fiend is spawned.
Moving on to a short but sweet one is the way Infernal Host units are made. It’s a bit different than most traditional RTS – Infernal Host buildings have “spawn charges” and units are made instantly. However, a building only has a certain amount of charges and they take a while to recharge. So, for example, if you bank up enough charges you could make three units at a time from one building, but then you’d have to wait a bit until a charge is recharged. It definitely adds a lot of tactically depth.
Last but not least is Shroud. We already know a bit about this one from previous reveals, but we’ve received some more information in this update. Shroud swirls in a radius around Infernal Host’s main buildings and towers. It’s possible to build both on and off Shroud, however, when standing in Shroud, Infernal units fill up a secondary health bar, which is a bit like a shield, although currently referred to as “white health.”
That’s about it for this wave of news! The Infernal Hosts are honestly sounding awesome and we can’t wait to try them. If you want to get in on the action make sure to sign up for beta on the official website, and if you already have, check your emails – invites for the December closed beta are being sent out!
