I think one of the things that is holding this game back is that missions just don't feel epic enough? So here's my idea. Basically there should be a 3 hr mission line that gets you deeper and deeper into the gremlin underworld. It'd be really interesting to see what sort of lore can be used here. As we all know from the slime casino, slimes are apparently a sentient species capable of normal speech (they are just jerks normally). I feel as though we should have some lore building about the gremlin's interaction with slimes. That's actually something I never understood about this game. Why would these menders be healing slimes?

My idea here is that they are being kept as slaves to produce an extremely precious substance that comes from slime ooze. In particular it is valued for its lubricative properties. It also increases your movement speed and attack speed on consumption. There could be a lucrative trade of this stuff, and you'd slowly see how these slimes are being exploited. Now as we all know, Kora, the original space mom, is some sort of nerd so she takes an ethical issue with the slimes being mistreated all of a sudden. I don't really know what sort of details to put here, all I know is that someone needs to stop the gremlin cartel.

There should be a bunch of drama involved where you have to interrogate a bunch of interactable gremlins throughout the game. Our boi Rhendon joins us in in the interrogation mission, and he is sort of the bad cop. Naturally, you have to be the good cop. Seriously, after being tricked that one time by a gremlin, Rhendon has some SERIOUS prejudice and can freak the hell out. He'll even make Nonna cry! The only way to make her calm down and spill the info is for you to buy some accessories. In general, due to the fact you are working with a near-genocidal lunatic, you end up having to do a bunch of fetch quests to calm down all the friendly gremlins you end up making upset.

So you are basically playing a sort of cop/detective mission all over cradle. Interrogating everything and everyone. Even the chromalisks who try turning invisible to hide from your investigation because they know too much.

OK so that's the general plot, but I feel like there should be some special characters too that will colour the story. I feel like we should see more wanderers. We all know three rings actually implemented wanderer walking animations, so apparently they aren't trees dressed up by Kozma to rob you of crowns for items that really should be free if you are some sort of elite knight person. What this means is that they could also potentially fight. I feel like this would make sense since these guys seemed to have lived on this hellhole of a planet for a rather long time. Anyways, tl;dr we should have like wanderer samurais, it'd be really cool and awesome. I feel like their long arms provide them a lot of advantage with the blade.

There's also like a recurrent villain in the mission that pops up from time to time, usually at the most annoying times. So picture this design. It is like a gremlin, but instead of a normal gremlin head, he has like a skull for a head. I feel like this is already really interesting because I always wonder how gremlin bones look whenever I fight them. Anyways, when he shows up in really intense scenes, you should also make his left eye glow a blue colour. It'd honestly be really be awesome and inject a sort of punk aesthetic. Oh yeah, he is really fast. Like really fast. He also dodges 80% of the projectiles you fire at him because he is one of the elite guards of the ooze operation. Idk what to call him though. I'll call him Sand for now.

So yeah as I said he comes out at really annoying times. If your knight ever gets too low health, he appears and tries to get the quick KDA boost. Also sometimes he likes like jumpscaring you with wisps that try to shred you into pieces and also give shock status effect. Some levels you have to fight "him" too (each level he changes his strategy), and whenever you beat "him", it is just a costume that deflates. In it are a bunch of souls that all try to kill you. Also there are like 50 of them that end up popping out the costume in total. All of them drop a single crown if you were interested in optimizing your earning efficiency, but you should probably get out of there before you turn into toast. They are also like 40% charged up already so you either need to have had foresight or have quick reactions.

It would also be cool if there was like a retrode character named "Retrograde". One think I thought was really cool about the metal gear solid was like that character that would turn your controller off. Basically with Retrograde, he does a similar thing, but instead simulates bonus lag on your game client. Retrograde especially likes to show up in some compound sections to add some much needed challenge. Eventually you do defeat him, though it doesn't fix your connection to the actual servers.

Oh yeah also there's this rogue elitist knight that shows up from time to time and everytime he comes he gives you this really edgy dialogue about how he will be the best knight ever. Every time after, he also challenges you to a duel. He isn't a fair player and makes use of infinite spawning slimes to back him up. They also heal him if you aren't careful. The trick to fights with him is that you shouldn't not pay attention. He also has a striker special outside of the pvp map (though it is a bit edited so he does naruto run with it), and also a massive acheron that knocks you across the map and can tank a bunch of your health if you are careful. If you attack him with a gun, he makes fun of you for being a gun noob and how you should learn to duel the way duels are meant to be done... Like a real knight. He also has like a modified wolver set that makes him look so epic that if he was a player you'd think he is overcompensating for something. Also add in his occasional complains that Spiral HQ is dead because knights don't fight other knights as much as they should.

Now on to game design. I feel like most people who play this game can agree on this one, spiral knights does not have enough compounds. By far the most enjoyable late game content. Probably the only reason some players are even logging in. So basically I feel like 80% of the mission should involve them. Hell, maybe have a stage in the mission in which the gremlins make like artificial samurai wanderers that have the usual infinite respawn, HOWEVER, unlike the usual compound enemies, I feel like they should steal crowns or something when they die. This should add a bunch of depth to the mission and truly make it a thinking man's game.

(OK, so this is like technically spoilers so we hope most players don't see this thread) This should happen near the end of the mission. Basically you feel as though you are finally past all of the compounds, and then Sand says something really creepy like "I hEaRd yOu lIkE cOMpOuMdS" (this should be in like a creepy font), then all of a sudden the entire level is transformed into a really massive compound maze. It has the infinite spawning slimes, zombies, sometimes slimes that explode like the zombies too. Also I feel like to make to challenging there should be a bunch of souls spawning out of nowhere. Gun puppies too that obviously inflict shock (the best status effect in the game). The flanks of the map (that you eventually have to go through) have those gremlin rockets shooting down them. You know that one mechanic in Built to Destroy where you have to flip switches in order to guide the rockets so that they eventually break the blocks and allow you to progress further? Yeah, so that's how you get out of this compound maze thingie.

So after you get out of the maze, you have to fight him for the last time. It is also where I feel tensions really start mounting, cause this weirdo has been stalking you for the last 2 hrs even after he was fired from his job that one time (I guess after being fired it became personal lol). This time however, it is the real guy. The setting is like a massive forge which is an even more elaborate compound. He is effectively invincible, and he laughs at you for being a sub T6 pleb. The only way to deal damage to him is to upgrade your gear temporarily to level 15. How is this done? Well in this room only, you can overcharge your heat (that's actually a somewhat cool idea oops), which allows you to have an option to like level up your gear on this one level to defeat him. The only problem is how to get heat.

Basically you need to keep killing monsters in the area to fill up your gauge. Also note that this is a really massive forge, like really really big, and you need to travel all across it (while the Sand jerk is chasing you along with the compound creatures attempting to double haven's population in one instance) to get your overcharge crystals. After that you make your way to the centre of the forge and offer your weapon to the forge gods. Oh yeah, since we want to up the tension and since players love this mechanic, there is only a 25% chance of succeeding for level 11 and it goes down to 5% for level 15. Basically, this really tests your speed running skills.

So when you get level 15, you basically one shot the stupid Sand nerd. Whew. So now you make your way through this section of a metropolis populated with tons of gremlins and devilites. As you explore here, you really get to see the effects of the ooze on the lives of these monsters. Sometimes you see really long line ups just for the stuff. You even come across some homeless devilite bathing in it on the cement floor, not at all caring about your grace. Occasionally though, some body guard orders everyone to attack you and they get free ooze. This prompts tons of them to all swarm at you in desperation. Some of them yell about how their boss doesn't pay them enough to buy the good stuff and that you should just submit.

After that mature critique of contemporary civilization, you are finally there at the boss. He is a big boss. A really really big gremlin. Maybe 2/3rds the size of Vanaduke? So yeah, by his size you know he means business, and he has tons of lackeys to back him up. Maybe you should think about turning around, amigo. Oh yeah also I feel like an obligatory harem of female gremlins would be fun too cause we never see female gremlins, and the only ones we do see get harassed by Rhendon or whoever. I feel like it'd be a fun boss fight. Just some classic fun. Maybe like 6 stages to it. I think a new gimmick should be added on each one. When you are done, he tries giving a farewell speech but the massive token smashes him flat.

Ok now for rewards. I definitely feel as though this mission should warrant a bunch of cool new weapons. For instance, how about an alchemer that bounces back towards you. Not only does it do more damage to monsters, but after bouncing off a monster, if it hits you, it does even more damage. The charged attack turns into a bullet hell of bouncing projectiles that can shred your own health. I imagine this would be a devastating weapon in player vs player for both the enemy and the ally team. It'd also be cool if there was like a katana in this game like the ones that the wanderers use. Your charge attack makes you launch a hurricane and there is a 0.01% chance of it giving you a key. This should spice up the grind. Oh, maybe you inherit the business since you beat the boss and now there is a ooze tycoon management system. I don't know, I don't really play spiral knights other than to roleplay so I might need to meditate on other cool rewards.