Yes, I do know that there is something called a challenge mode in development, but since it is probably gonna be a long time 'til it's gonna be released, I decided to post a suggestion. Maybe a dev reads it and finds it really great (JK, devs don't read this forum. Keep on dreaming-_-)
The idea is to give people at the start of a arcade run (arcade only!) the option to choose 1 or more challenges. These are modifications who change the game in a special way: rather than just giving monsters higher health and damage, some features will be changed severely or even be completely disabled.
Since it makes the game harder, you will get a exponential crowns, heat and rarity drop chance bonus for every challenge activated. To prevent people from activating too much challenges and becoming rich instantly, there is a cap to this. The harder the challenge, the higher the loot bonus.
But there is a second reward. If you manage to complete a whole tier with challenges activated you will get a special reward based on the difficulty (and the tier). This can be fire crystals (new way to get rads!), UV tickets, orbs of alchemy and if you are very lucky even equipment. The more challenges you have activated and the harder they are, the higher the reward.
Challenges can be activated/changed only at the beginning terminal (depth 0) or at subtowns, and the party is locked once you take an elevator.
You may not use sparks of life when you have challenges activated, to prevent people from using sparks instead of skill to complete it.
Here are some example challenges (if you know some more, feel free to post):
Easy:
- No pickups: all pickups, including health capsules, are disabled
- No sprite: your sprite, including its perk, is disabled
- 1 weapon type: you may use only use either swords, guns or bombs through the run
Moderate:
- No arsenals: you may not change your equipment once you go. You may forge however.
- Complete randomness: any monster has a 25% chance to be ANY random monster. A trojan instead of a wolver, why not?
- Extra resistance: monsters are resistant to damage types they are normally neutral to. So beasts are resistant to both shadow and elemental, slimes to pierce and elemental, constructs to pierce and elemental, etc.
- No emergency revives: no emergency revives-_-
- Star limit: you may only use equipment up to a certain level. 4* in T3, 2* in T2 and 0* in T1.
- 1 weapon: you may use only 1 weapon. No, extra weapon slots don't work
Hard (some might be actually too hard):
- Weakening: your damage decreases as your health decreases.
- 1 set weapon: you may use only 1 weapon through the whole run.
- No shield: hope you have good dodging skills...
- 1 weapon ONLY: 1 weapon is your only equipment. Armors, helmets, shields, trinkets and battle sprites don't work.
- Heartless: there is absolutely no way to heal. So any hit you take is permanent.
- Instadeath: you have only 1 health bar. Vitapods, health trinkets, etc. don't work of course. Try doing a S6 compound with this...
Some of these (like no shield and 1 weapon ONLY) obviously don't stack with each other.
The idea is to provide a new challenge for people who have mastered the whole game and want a new kind of challenge which is not based on having the best UV'ed gear or the most sparks (COUGHGRINCHLINCOUGH) but fully on skill, not locked behind a paywall (COUGHSHADOWLAIRCOUGH) and that also gives good rewards.
Feel free to give feedback, I won't cry if you say it's completely stupid (maybe a little bit)
TL;DR
Challenges, mods for arcade, make game harder, increased rewards, no sparks, mainly skill, additional challenge