Impressions After Playing the Pre-release of Eternal Crypt — Wizardry BC — (ECWIZ)
On October 19, 2023 (Thursday), “Eternal Crypt — Wizardry BC — (ECWIZ)” was pre-released exclusively for ADVENTURER GENESIS COLLECTION (AGS) holders. Having played for about a week, I’d like to share my experience. Hopefully, this will be helpful for those considering playing ECWIZ once it’s officially released.
<Author’s Introduction>
I’m @hametaro_bcg, in charge of Sakaba Research. Since 2019, I’ve been engaged with Web3 games, and I’ve been enjoying the unique experiences that blockchain & NFTs bring on a daily basis.
Table of Contents
- What is ECWIZ?
- The pleasure and addictiveness of playing
- The efficiency of dungeon exploration depends on the strategy
- Points of interest after playing
What is ECWIZ?
“Eternal Crypt — Wizardry BC — (ECWIZ)” is an idle & tapping game modeled after “Cookie Clicker”. It has a simple yet addictive gameplay that tempts you to open the app whenever you have free time.
There are two ways to progress in the dungeons of ECWIZ:
- Letting adventurers attack on their own
- Tapping incessantly (as the Guild Master attacks)
1. Letting adventurers attack on their own
Even when we’re sleeping or working, adventurers explore dungeons, defeating monsters and earning gold necessary for leveling up.
Often, monsters will afflict adventurers with status abnormalities, preventing them from attacking. Although these statuses heal over time, there are instances where adventurers can’t attack for up to 24 hours. When adventurers are afflicted, not only can they be left idle, but they can also be healed or swapped out to ensure they are in the best condition to challenge the dungeon.
Tapping incessantly (as the Guild Master attacks)
As Guild Masters, we not only rely on the adventurers’ auto-attacks but also join the fray by tapping. We can level up the Guild Master to increase damage per tap and deploy active skills to defeat powerful enemies. Using active skills provides certain benefits for a limited time:
- Increase tap damage
- Enhance critical hit rate & damage
- Boost gold acquisition
- Increase adventurer damage or attack speed
- Launch powerful support attacks
When facing powerful enemies, deploying multiple skills simultaneously can be an effective strategy.
The pleasure and addictiveness of playing
Starting with minimal damage, as you enhance your abilities, the damage numbers become astronomical. It’s exhilarating to see the numbers inflate at an abnormal rate. For instance, the screenshot shows a tap causing 1.4e051 damage (1.4 times 10 to the power of 51). It’s hard to express in words how addictive EQUIZ is, so I recommend giving it a try once released.
The efficiency of dungeon exploration depends on the strategy
Returning to town resets the levels of the Guild Master and adventurers, but unlocking the Guild Master’s skill board or collecting & leveling up legacy items is not reset. By repeatedly exploring dungeons and returning to town, you can gather the materials needed to become stronger.
Skill Board
As you unlock the skill board, the Guild Master becomes stronger. It’s challenging to obtain enhancement materials, so you’ll need to strategize which ones to prioritize.
For example, enhancing the amount of damage will facilitate manual progress by tapping. Increasing the amount of gold earned will make it easier to level up adventurers, facilitating automatic progress by leaving them alone.
Legacy Items
There’s a wide range of choices for enhancing legacy items, and strategies vary among players. Depending on whether you focus on idle progression or manual tapping, you’ll want to prioritize different legacy items.
- If you want to focus on automatic progression, strengthen legacy items that can increase gold acquisition efficiency so that adventurers can easily raise their levels.
- If you want to progress by tapping, strengthen legacy items that can enhance tap damage.
The choice of legacy items to enhance significantly influences the difficulty of dungeon progression. I might have tried to balance everything and ended up a jack of all trades but master of none.
Points of interest after playing
After about a week of playing the pre-release, here are some things that stood out:
Preparation
Relying too much on the auto-organization feature for adventurers. Manually adjusting due to numerous slots is daunting. It would be fun if there were a few preset formations or more variations in auto-organization.
Exploration & Auto-progress
The game promotes the ease of “automatic dungeon exploration” and “only planning team compositions upon return.” However, progress is slow when idling, and those who can tap for extended periods or quickly level up their Guild Master or adventurers when they accumulate gold seem to have an advantage.
Challenges
I initially imagined the game system to be one where the Guild Master would only join the battle (by tapping) when the adventurers face a stalemate. However, I constantly felt challenged.
Returning
Pressing the “Return to Town” button quickly takes you back to the dungeon after showing the item acquisition screen. Returning to the town should feel relaxing, but it felt quite stark. A more detailed town environment might enhance immersion.
Despite being in the pre-release stage, the game quality is high, and I found it incredibly engaging. The game seems playable without in-app purchases, so I’d recommend trying it out upon release.
Game Details
- Game Title: Eternal Crypt — Wizardry BC -
- Genre: Idle & Clicker
- Release Date: October 19, 2023 (pre-release)
- Official page：https://wiz-eternalcrypt.com/
- X (Twitter)：https://twitter.com/WizardryBC
- Discord：https://discord.gg/wizardrybc
- Development Company：Drecom Co.,Ltd. Thuringham Co., Ltd.
