Text-based game, divided into two areas of gameplay -- a safe twisty skein of the Magopolis that functions as a distributed base and mazelike Dungeons which are brutally dangerous.
Pulls in ideas from multiple text-based games. Materials/crafting/combat/fishing/magic are definitely in play and mastering and/or breaking them is absolutely essential because of the difficulty of the dungeons.
There are eight dungeon types and a gigantic amount of actual dungeons -- things in them are palletized but the palette is wider than normal. Beating the game requires unlocking all eight Seals which are found at the end of a Dungeon's maze after beating a rather difficult boss.
Dungeons are procedural mazes. They use numbered keys (this can overflow 9 and reach 10, 11, etc) which only work in that dungeon.
Dungeons are single-use -- if you leave a dungeon for any reason, or die for any reason, the dungeon is erased. You do keep any items you found in it and lose whatever items you used while in it. Breaking the dungeon's Seal will also erase the dungeon.
In addition to the keys/door mechanic, there is an Artifact for each of the 8 elements that will allow you to progress beyond the halfway point -- it essentially manipulates environmental stuff corresponding to the element.
Dungeons also have side passages -- these can either be open or require an attacking element to access, such as the water artifact clearing Earth boulders. Side passages tend to have better Loot.
Dungeon Systems
There's a lot of stuff to Loot, though granted your inventory space is limited and will be occupied by extra equipment, potions, food, etc. More on some of this in the Resources section.
If you have a Fishing Rod, you can fish areas of water. This can actually be dangerous without precautions.
There are Traps that deal you damage. They're accompanied by Tells in the description, which change from game seed to game seed; basically adjectives or nouns that accompany trap locations. More on this in the Traps section.
There's Combat, which is essential to overall progression.
There's a handcrafted boss at the end of the dungeon based on the ideas in caverlasting. If you can farm enemies then you can farm Bosses as well, otherwise there's nothing in the boss room or maybe there's some valuable loot or something. Or maybe you get it after beating the boss. Idk yet to any of that.
Other resources can be pulled out of the environment with the appropriate Tool (like using a Pickaxe to pull Ore from the walls). This can also be dangerous.
Resources are exclusively found in dungeons, scattered around. They fall into the following categories:
Wood -- used as a fuel source, to make arrows and in some crafting.
Metal ore -- in its smelted form is used to craft various things.
Food -- recovers health, stamina or Mana. Sometimes a combination. Can also be poisonous and lower them instead, or deal status effects, etc.
Scrolls -- blueprints / lab unlocks essentially for more advanced features which are plugged into the base game.
Potion ingredients -- allow you to make Potions. More on that in the Potions section.
Artifact -- there are eight of these and they allow you to get around various dungeon barriers.
Gold -- the currency of the game.
You can also rarely found crafted items as loot:
Weapons
Armor -- these are single items, they aren't subdivided into pieces as there's no point.
Potions -- this game is rare in that potions aren't quaffed, they're exclusively poured or thrown. More on that in the Potions section.
Jewelry -- This type of equipment alters your intrinsics. They can either be found blank where they need Auras to be attached or can have Auras already attached.
Each dungeon also contains one of each of these:
Spellbook -- the magic system. Spells do various things. Individual spellbooks do take up inventory slots. Spellbooks can also be used to upgrade magic or turn one type of magic into another type (useful if you hit the same Spellbook you already own or something you think is useless).
Crystal (ruby, sapphire, etc) -- allows you to capture enemies you've defeated and turn them into Summons. More on that in that section. Alternatively, Crystals also allow you to Meld Auras together to get around jewelry inventory limits / equipment Aura slot limits.
