Spiral Knights - Returning Player Questions

Returning Player Questions

7 replies [Last post]

Tue, 11/25/2025 - 13:05

Hengrik

Hello! It’s been so long.

I'm a returning player… or at least trying to be. Java is giving me a virtual machine error or something, and I'm still trying to fix it.

Anyway, I have around 1k hours in this game. I used to love it, but it kind of died after the lack of updates and the Free Elevator update, if I recall correctly.

That said, I still feel a lot of nostalgia and would like to give it another shot. But I’ve been watching YouTube and reading some forums, and a few things still worry me. I’ll number them here:

1. Is Normal damage still okay?
I used to run it all the time back when the Arcade required mineral collecting, and before the equipment terminals were added before each level. It was a jack-of-all-trades: never amazing, never bad. Since you couldn’t swap your loadout until a checkpoint (if I remember correctly), I always used Normal so I didn’t have to worry too much about equipment.
To be honest, I never had the crowns to buy enough loadout slots, so that was another reason.
That said, I still see elemental/shadow weapons outperforming Normal ones even against enemies that aren’t weak or resistant to them. For example, I would expect the Leviathan Blade to deal better damage against Constructs than Acheron, but that doesn’t seem to be the case (maybe I’m wrong—please correct me if so). I wonder if the devs (if they even maintain the game anymore…) will ever adjust this.
I’m not saying Normal is bad, or that I want it to better than everything else. I’ll still run my old reliable Leviathan. I’m just curious.

2. Are there any plans to make the game less grindy?
Ever since Fire Crystals were introduced, leveling weapons became a chore. It’s not very fun and it slows the game down so much…

3. New content being added mostly through lootboxes…
I don’t think lootboxes are necessarily bad, but I miss going out of my way in the Arcade to find Basil and buy stuff from him. Do I want the Hall of Heroes gone? No… but you get the point.

4. Classes?
I don’t mean locking players into classes—the magic of the game is combining gear. But ever since the beginning, I always see the same sets: Wolvers, Chaos, and more recently Gunners. Almost never Bombers or Guardians.
Are there any plans to make Guardian sets more viable? I own some, I use them, and I like them. I’m not asking for a tank role (I don’t think it fits the game too well… unless?), but I would love to see them perform the role the game advertises: pulling some aggro and protecting the team in their own way. I think it’s possible, just not with the current tools.
Personally I think the Plate line could use improvements. If the armor is really meant to make you tanky, then bump up those numbers. As it is now, the only enemy in T3 you can effectively tank is a Trojan—you can take both body and shield hits and it will still take ages for him to kill you as he only deals normal damage.(Somewhat).

5. Jesus, the UI.
I don’t mind the look: I actually like it. I mean the information. Can we see numbers? The defense bars seem to be meant to simplify stats for players, but in the end they just make me wonder how much damage a weapon actually does.
For example, if you compare Azure Guardian Armor with Skolver Coat, they look the same in-game, but on the wiki Azure has slightly higher Normal defense. (This isn’t a defense of Azure; I like it, but I know nobody uses it for that reason—it's just too plain as an armor set.)
I’d really like to see those numbers displayed in-game.

6. Do people still run the Arcade? When I left, every mission was just Vana runs, and it got pretty boring… I like the mission system—I don’t want it removed—but the Arcade used to be so fun. I still remember the arenas, the towns (which honestly should’ve been just as relevant as the main Haven hub, with auction houses and everything), and that guy at the door telling me “you’re not strong enough to continue, noob.” I really miss that. But every time I entered the Arcade near the end, it felt like a ghost town.

Edit: changed some numbers on the list, i messed them up.

Anyway, thx for reading and sorry for the lenght. I hope the best for this game, see ya!

Tue, 11/25/2025 - 14:58

Kavsta

I can count

3. Chaos is the second best set behind black kat, but is used as you dont need CTR on weapons; good for cost.
4. Still no clue about the defense bars
1. JVM machine error you gotta download java
1.5 Brandish lines are superior
2. Games still pretty grindy, nothing changes in that aspect
5. People run the arcade for fun and for recipes though most are just haven sitters (me included)

Tue, 11/25/2025 - 16:04

Zhaleor

Let's see...

1. Normal damage is just fine.
Some elitists may discourage you, but you can totally use only normal damage weapons and do not much worse than those with "proper" equipment. Feel free to use amputator instead of other brandishes, pepperbox instead of blitz/repeater, valiance instead of arcana/riftlocker/phantamos, and iron slug is actually more useful than callahan or winter grave. Some normal weapons (troika, calibur, blast bomb to name a few) are kind of bad, but not primarily because of their damage type.

2. Probably the opposite, considering the recent heart pendant nerf.
Upgrading weapons is still fine-ish though, since you can grind over a rad a minute in DaN and eternal orbs are now essentially free. A bit of a pain, but it is doable.

5. Most vanguards seem to just grind FSC endlessly, but arcade is still being played.
I personally do arcade runs more often than FSC runs and a good gate can easily get you as many radiants as a FSC run.

Tue, 11/25/2025 - 16:31

Hengrik

Pendant Nerf?

What did they do to the pendant? it was my favorite trinket.... shame

I assume that with DaN you mean Dreams and Nightmares, correct? If so... I didn't even know you could get that many crystals there, good to know. But eternals being free? what do you mean? did the price on energy exchange went down or something?

On a last note, the last thing i was setting myself to doing was getting a brandish with a high UV vs slime to max out amputator eventually, I like doing that stuff, pretty fun. I have a Cold Iron Vanquisher with Maximum damage bonus, and it's pretty good (Despite Levy doing better with just a very high uv, i know)

Tue, 11/25/2025 - 17:07

Zhaleor

All craftable heart pendants (so not TLL) lost one hp and star.

Yes, dreams and nightmares. Eternal orbs are essentially free because you get them MUCH faster than radiants, I would guess around half a dozen times as fast (proportionally to how many you need per item), so unless you craft a LOT of non-weapon items you will still be limited by radiants.

Wed, 11/26/2025 - 09:47

Everest-Wintersky

1, 4 & 6

Normal damage isn't "bad", some weapons are just stronger.

I have seen a few bombers but never a guardian (or striker for that matter), I once bought some guardian gear for solo runs but found Black Kat to be far more practical. Solving this would mean a significant overhaul of equipment. (A 5* sword with the random effect of sealed would sell normal and guardians as feasible to me though)

I do still run and see arcade lobbies but not often. The danger prestige missions are still run with full lobbies and feel less grindy because of the 1 completion per day and the rotation each day.

Fri, 11/28/2025 - 07:03

Bopp

my two cents

1. Normal damage has the same value that it always has always had. It works on everything, but specialized damage is better. Maybe there's one exception to note: Since the 2014 gunner update, the Magnus-line charge attacks have been so powerful, that you might as well charge Iron Slug rather than the theoretically better Callahan and Winter Grave.

2. The only big grind is for Radiant Fire Crystals. I have not heard of any plans to reduce that grind. The game has seen small improvements recently (thanks, Grey Havens), but you should not expect massive content expansion.

3. I'm not sure that I get your point. You want new weapons and armor? See 2. Or you want a more exciting after-market for recipes? That would require more new players.

4. Bombing is popular. Its popularity might decline, if more players are forced to play alone, because of general decline in player base. I have not heard of any plan to re-balance armor and damage, to make defense more important. That would be a huge change to the game design.

5. The statistics displayed on armor and weapons have been buggy, or at least difficult to understand, since the launch of the game in 2011.

6. I run the Arcade regularly. I haven't run FSC in years.

Tue, 12/02/2025 - 15:25

Hengrik

Point 3 Clarifitation

What i'm trying to say here is that, lootboxes are the only "new" form of content I see being added in terms of cosmetics. Maybe a weapon or armor here and there, or reskins for that matter.

If i recall correctly, the Mix Master and Orbit Gun were addded this way, since there is no recipe that i know of or equivalent with a different damage type or something. You can grab them from the Action Hall but come on... 2 million crowns? i understand why, I know this game revolves around money and market a lot, and that's okay. But as it is right now, the old ways, mainly the Arcade, aside from offering some exclusive recipies for armor that barely anyone uses, does not offer anything else.

What I'm trying to justify is, maybe, hopefuly, that Arcade players can get/craft/find someway of self expresion. That could be maybe craft unique accesories, trinckets, or cosmetics, just like lockdown players get their exclusive trinckets.

What I’m suggesting isn’t necessarily what should happen; I could be talking nonsense from a balancing standpoint. But the point is, Arcade needs some love because it’s still very fun and also the gateway for new players. When a new player — or even a returning player like me — walks in and sees veterans with amazing weapons, they get excited for the future, only to end up disappointed when they realize that the item they want is locked behind something probably unattainable.

I do not expect new content added really, it would be cool but I don't think that is the priority honestly. In my very humble opinion, the focus should be in just working on what it's already there. I don't know the inner works of the game's code, but if i'm completly honest, and being a designer myself, I do see a way thar this game can be massively improved in the way many people want just by changing a few numbers or practices.

That said, it's not a big issue, so it can be left alone. But it could be something the developers could/should look up. I would cernatainly do. But hey... I'm not Nick, so idk for sure what he would have wanted for the game as it currently stands, despite leaving years ago.

PD: Thank you all for the kind responses, I'm currently back to playing! Yay!.... and the game handed me a True Love Trincket on my most recent expedition on the Arcade as a welcome back gift... what a day

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Returning Player Questions