Infra Arcana - Lovecraftian Roguelike

[WhiteShark]

Official Site

Infra Arcana is a Roguelike set in the early 20th century. The goal is to explore the lair of a dreaded cult called The Church of Starry Wisdom. Buried deep beneath their hallowed grounds lies an artifact called The Shining Trapezohedron - a window to all secrets of the universe. Your ultimate goal is to unearth this artifact.

The theme and inspiration for this game comes mainly from the horror fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft. There is a Lore section on this site that describes some of his mythology. The game also draws flavor from various B-horror movies, as well as the first-person shooter PC game Blood.

Infra Arcana adheres to the virtues of the Roguelike genre - high replay value and challenging tactical gameplay.

This is an excellent little roguelike that I just discovered a few days ago and got my first win on last night.

The central mechanic is the duo of Shock and Insanity. As time passes and as your character experiences ~spooky~ events, your Shock value increases. If it hits 100% or higher and stays there for several turns, it resets to 0%, you gain a semi-random amount of Insanity, and you have a chance of acquiring a permanent mental defect. 100% Insanity is game over. Shock resets to 0% every time you descend to a new floor and can be temporarily lowered by sources of light. In short, Insanity is the hunger clock of Infra Arcana.

Another deviation from the typical roguelike is that XP is only acquired by discovering new ~spooky~ things such as potions, manuscripts, enemies, hidden traps and doors, obelisks, and so on. Combined with scarcity of resources, this means that you want to avoid combat if possible. Of course, it's frequently unavoidable, and there are sometimes cases where you want to kill something you could have avoided just for the goodies it carries.

There are five classes in the game: Exorcist, Ghoul, Occultist, Rogue, and War Veteran. In brief:

• Exorcist: destroys ~spooky~ objects for xp, unique spellcasting, powerful against undead
• Ghoul: tough, frenzy at will, no natural regeneration but eats corpses for HP
• Occultist: biggest spirit pool, starts with spells, gets better at them
• Rogue: sneaky, rechargeable rod that makes enemies forget about you, good at detecting things
• War Veteran: tough, skilled with weapons, maintains armor well

At each level up your stats increase automatically and you pick a Trait. Most Traits are generic and can be selected by any class, but each class has a few unique Traits available. Some Traits have others as prerequisites. Since level-ups happen only about once per two floors, you'll want to consider carefully which Traits to take, especially early on.

One last point I'll add because the manual completely neglects to mention it: kicks cause knockback and paralysis, but the latter only if there was space to move backwards. As for the rest, I recommend you just play the game, read the in-game manual, and use the view function liberally. It's more fun going in blind.

Below are my personal notes for the amusement/interest of fellow veterans:

► secret notes DO NOT READ YOU WILL GO CRAZY AAAAAAAAA SAVE ME NIGGERMAN

Enemy magic (player magic too?) can target through creatures
Hug walls to find secrets, especially in suspicious dead ends
Secret doors *can* show up in corners if there are certain strangely shaped vaults behind, rare
Pylons have magical effects, they kick in after three turns adjacent
basic needs: killdudes method, HP?, shock resistance, spell resistance (this one can be handled with magic)
Enemies that drop goodies: cultist, cultist priest, mummy, wizard, archwizard
How to open locked iron chests? rod of opening
Most enemies forget about you pretty quick if you're stealthy and just walk away
Gas masks only use up turns when standing in gas
kick knocks back enemies, will paralyze if they were knocked back
Enemies do activate traps (sometimes? only if revealed?)
kicking oozes doesn't push/paralyze
Aura of Decay is really good if you can pillardance and handle the shock from scary enemies

And my VERY WIP bestiary (because I keep forgetting to add to it):

► for real DO NOT READ, play the game first or I WILL CURSE YOU BY THE UNHOLY MIGHT OF THE SIDEREAL HORRORS

Bot Tcher
	drops iron spikes and spike guns
	spike guns paralyze and push back, can also stick you to wall
Blind Zealot
	paralyzing strike
	hits hard
	decent hp
	sometimes wastes turns
Deep One
	throws nets
Cultist
	carries guns and goodies
Cultist Priest
	casts scary spells
	carries goodies, enchanted daggers
Worm Mass
	blind, splits when taking damage
	just ignore them lol just walk away
Reanimated Corpse
	tough
	infect
	gets back up once, destroy corpse
	corpse leaves zombie dust

Screenshots:

► I guess you can look at these

"DAN enters the cult compound hoping to do anything, now."

"DAN runs into some trouble with a cultist because he forgets that water is noisy and slows you down."

"DAN fails to live up to his name and instead does the one thing we all can do: die."

"Wraith discovers that some enemies have too much HP to coup de grace."

[rusty_shackleford]

You forgot to mention that it's completely free, both meanings of the word.
Download here: https://sites.google.com/site/infraarcana/downloads
You can find the source code here:https://gitlab.com/martin-tornqvist/ia

[fork]

The only roguelike I really enjoy. It has most of the flaws of other roguelikes, but the setting is cooler and it kinda plays faster.
And it has an atmosphere. Highly recommended.

[viata]

Interesting, it has a linux version so I'll give it a try and then post what I thought about it later.

[WhiteShark]

My winning run was a Rogue named @Eyestabber. This was very fitting because he ended up taking all the Traits related to stealth and stabbery. I actually started the run with the intent of taking screenshots and notes to post up as a sort of mini-LP, but once the run got going I entered a ~flow state~ and forgot all about it, so of course that's the one that ended up being my first win.

Some secret, spoilery thoughts about it:

► Show Spoiler

Rogue feels very strong to me. The unique trait that adds a second +45% to stealth is absurdly good even by itself. I didn't get a way to see invisible until very late but it hardly mattered because a lot of times invisible things wouldn't see me! Combine that with the stabby traits and a +3 dagger looted from a Cultist Priest and you can one-shot anything but certain uniques. The High Priest himself almost went down in two backstabs: once from regular stealth and a second after making him forget about me with the starting rod. After that he had so little left that I was able to finish him off with normal melee.

The late parts of the dungeon were a little bit tedious because it was almost entirely unlit. The Light spell helped a lot but spamming it would still run me out of spirit points so I spent a fair amount of time wall-hugging in the dark. Maybe this would have felt very tense if my character wasn't so stealthy, but as it was, monsters and my character were like ships passing in the night.

I couldn't get a read on how strong exactly some of the late monsters are because I spent all my time sneaking and stabbing. The few times I did end up having to duke it out fair and square taught me to avoid that like the plague. I got a wound from a stupid crocodile-headed mummy late in the game that I could never get rid of because for the last 10 floors or so I didn't find any more medical supplies. The lesson was clear, at least for that character: don't crab battle anything you don't have to, even if it's comparatively weak.

I took the treasure hunter trait which increases the number of items you find, but I'm not clear on how much of an effect that has. I'll probably have to consult the source code to know for sure. On the one hand, I ended the game with a fair number of potions, manuscripts, and explosives unused. On the other hand, I would have killed to find more medical supplies. On the other other hand, I probably wouldn't have needed more medical supplies if I had used my other resources a touch more liberally. And on the fourth and final hand (You find this unsettling! *shock value increases*), I did find a pretty strong artifact in the midgame; maybe I wouldn't have found it without the treasure hunter trait? Who knows.

I took down all of the High Priest's guardians save one with this One Weird Trick™: Aura of Decay + pillar dancing. Aura of Decay is a spell that causes you to do continuous, low AoE damage around yourself. Pillar dancing, if you're unfamiliar, is a traditional roguelike tactic where you find a single-tile or larger obstruction and walk circles around it while an enemy follows you, usually done to let your HP regenerate when there's no way to escape. The guardians were pretty beefy so it took a while, but it was safe and resource-efficient. The only drawback was that spending all that time with ~spooky~ enemies in view drove up my Shock quite a bit even with 40% shock resistance. I would have probably gained Insanity at least twice if I didn't have Astral Opium on hand to reset my Shock value.

All in all a great game. It took me a very long time to get my first win in DCSS so I was a bit surprised to get my first in Infra Arcana so quickly. I suppose that's the natural result of a somewhat less complex game and my roguelike experience. Nevertheless, I won't consider myself done with the game until I've won with the other four classes, so there's still quite a bit of work left to do.

[WhiteShark]

I'm still playing this. I've moved on to trying to win with a War Veteran. So far I've only made it down to Depth 10 with one a couple times. I've tried speccing into firearms a few times but it's very easy to run yourself out of ammo, so I've switched back to melee focus. Some fun deaths: getting chain paralyzed from full health to dead by a White Giant Spider, getting chased by an invisible enemy into a wall of poison fungi with the stairs on the far side, getting swarmed by Deep Ones and a unique who weakened me, putting me over the encumbrance limit and making it impossible to flee...

Choosing a melee weapon is still a bit of a mystery to me. Hit chance is already kind of low even after traits, and the heavier hitting weapons make that worse. I haven't been able to discern yet where the sweet spot is between damage and accuracy. I believe sledgehammers and pitchforks also knock enemies away, which seems like a double-edged sword depending on the circumstances: fine if the enemy is melee-only and you can throw something while they close the gap again, terrible if the enemy has a ranged attack that you specifically don't want them to use.

EDIT: Oh yeah, almost forgot. I decided to record one of my recent runs while commentating with the intent of using it as the basis for a text+screenshots LP, but the tab I had open for that booted me back out to the log-in page for some reason and I lost my draft, so for now I'll just post the video:

[agentorange]

Started playing this. As usual my first character got the furthest. An Occultist. Died when I ran into a boss monster re-animated corpse who summoned a bunch of allies. I got trapped on all sides and started going insane. Drank a random potion out of desperation and it turned out to be a paralyze potion.

[agentorange]

Game reminds me a bit of Occult Chronicles. Another pulp weird horror derived rogue-like. That one is more of a board game though, made by the same guy who did Solium Infernum and Apocalypse Empires. I just went to check his website to link to the game and apparently his site no longer exists, which makes me hope that I still have all of his games that I bought on one of my hard-drives somewhere.

[Ratcatcher]

the same guy who did Solium Infernum and Apocalypse Empires

Solium Infernum was such an incline game. Incredible art, very fun in MP. I know the author, Vic Davis, recently sold the IP and there are some people working on a remake. Vic is just a consultant tho, as far as I can tell:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1893810/ ... 576718000/

Sry for the OT. I've not been able to check IA properly yet.

[agentorange]

Yeah I've seen that remake. Looks like shit IMO. Original had an absolutely great and unique style to it. I liked that it really looked like some esoteric board game. Remake looks like a Civ 6 mod.

I tried forever to get a SI game going on over on codex but it never materialized. Maybe we can get one going here.

[Ratcatcher]

I tried forever to get a SI game going on over on codex but it never materialized.

Iirc there have been one or two succesful games on the codex. At least I 'member reading some AAR/LP about it.

Maybe we can get one going here.

I don't currently own the game nor do I know how to procure it. Both problems are easily solvable tho. I'd probably be too busy atm but I'd love to play, once I'm a bit more relaxed.

Definitely something to consider. I agree the remake sucks donkey dicks. The original has its charm precisely because the author wanted to publish a boardgame but ultimately went for a digital version to cut down on costs. I only ever played (half of) a single MP game but I remember the scheming and conspiring via external messages was very juicy. The only other title I know where banter and PM mindgames are so integral to the game, is Dominions.

(sry again for OT. Mebbe I should start a topic about this)

[agentorange]

Any tips on how to deal with these invisible enemies that appear sometimes? Usually they appear out of tombs when opened, but sometimes elsewhere. They drain spirit and terrify, so when I'm playing a veteran they are able to kill me extremely quickly. Spells don't seem effective against them either.

[WhiteShark]

Any tips on how to deal with these invisible enemies that appear sometimes? Usually they appear out of tombs when opened, but sometimes elsewhere. They drain spirit and terrify, so when I'm playing a veteran they are able to kill me extremely quickly. Spells don't seem effective against them either.

The invisibles that come out of sarcophagi are Ghosts. Thankfully ghosts don't wander very far from the room they spawn in, so you can essentially just walk away. It is possible to kill them with both regular and magic damage, but there's no need.

There are a couple of other types of invisibles, but the ones you really have to watch out for are Polyps. These are immune to physical damage, have high hit points, and their attacks have a chance to paralyse. It's never worth it to try and fight them. You can recognize them because if one hits you the verb in the message log is 'sting'. They are kind of hard to escape from, but you have one hope: they are blind and only remember you for at most 7 turns. Thus, much like the other low level creatures, if you can break line of sight and stay quiet for a few turns, they are likely to forget about you. I think they also cannot pass through doors, so if you can somehow gain a space on them, you can escape that way as well.

The only other invisibles of which I can think off the top of my head are shadows and invisible stalkers. These are both killable with regular physical damage and are much less dangerous.

[WhiteShark]

Started playing this. As usual my first character got the furthest. An Occultist. Died when I ran into a boss monster re-animated corpse who summoned a bunch of allies. I got trapped on all sides and started going insane. Drank a random potion out of desperation and it turned out to be a paralyze potion.

That guy is pretty much the picture-perfect use case for a molotov cocktail. One of those babies can easily kill him and his entire horde.

[Rigwort]

I've tried many roguelikes but couldn't really ever enjoy them. Except this one, this one stuck. Currently trying to build a warhammer fantasy flagellant, focusing on melee and using prolonged life to survive battles I could have died in. Not doing the best, but it would be fun. Am I correct in thinking that most of the exorcist spells are a drain and not really useful? Or are there some that would be useful?

Any tips on how to deal with these invisible enemies that appear sometimes? Usually they appear out of tombs when opened, but sometimes elsewhere. They drain spirit and terrify, so when I'm playing a veteran they are able to kill me extremely quickly. Spells don't seem effective against them either.

I found that if you're playing as an exorcist you can also use the purge spell to get rid of them.

[WhiteShark]

Currently trying to build a warhammer fantasy flagellant, focusing on melee and using prolonged life to survive battles I could have died in.

Are you playing a version that contains an actual flagellant class, or was that just your description? I noticed that the source code on github makes reference to a flagellant class but at least in the version I downloaded from the site there is no such class yet implemented.

Am I correct in thinking that most of the exorcist spells are a drain and not really useful? Or are there some that would be useful?

I'm not sure yet myself, but my intuition agrees they aren't that good. Exorcist is the class I've experimented with the least, though.

I haven't been playing much the last week but when I do I'm still trying to ram through an Occultist win. Died on Depth 12 with one today. As usual, I was playing too hastily and went for a greedy play instead of a safe play. I still can't see how going guns could ever work out in the long term. I burned through all of my ammo except spikes on Depth 10. Seems like going all in on guns is suicide. Invoker Occultists can get away with just paralysis from darkbolt and a melee weapon in most cases, fortunately.

[Rigwort]

I'm just playing the version off the website, flagellant was just the description of my playstyle, though I might want to see about that version existing... Yeah, I just play exorcist, grab the "prolonged life" trait and then focus melee, spirit, and shock resistance.
Depth 12? I'm lucky to get to 6. I'll see about getting better at this... But this is really great, definitely one of the roguelikes that jive with me the most so far.

[WhiteShark]

I'm just playing the version off the website, flagellant was just the description of my playstyle, though I might want to see about that version existing... Yeah, I just play exorcist, grab the "prolonged life" trait and then focus melee, spirit, and shock resistance.
Depth 12? I'm lucky to get to 6. I'll see about getting better at this... But this is really great, definitely one of the roguelikes that jive with me the most so far.

If you're not actually casting I think you'll get more mileage out of Dextrous/Lithe in terms of survivability than stacking spirit for prolonged life. In game descriptions don't tell you how much enemies do, but yeah... in most cases, you're far better off avoiding the attack entirely than trying to tank it with Armor or HP.

[rusty_shackleford]

v22 released
https://sites.google.com/site/infraarca ... 24thwwtgoq

[Dead]

Yesterday I died on floor 16 surrounded by a bunch of random spiders that I could've probably defeated, by intending to throw a potion of blindness but drinking it instead.

► Show Spoiler

[WhiteShark]

v22 released
https://sites.google.com/site/infraarca ... 24thwwtgoq

Guess I'll need to update OP once I get around to trying the new Flagellant class.

[Dead]

Something I noticed about the mirrors:

► Show Spoiler

It looks like the mirror can cause creatures to spawn if left unused for a long time. I may be wrong.

[Dead]

I've been playing as the flagellant and the game's been kicking my ass. The slow movement penalty is awful against fast enemies. Being a flagellant, he should be able to self-flagellate; hopefully the developer will add that ability in the future. There may be tactical value in having the choice to enter combat in a moribund state.

[Dead]

Encountering Richard Upton Pickman is a guaranteed death. How do you deal with him?

[WhiteShark]

Encountering Richard Upton Pickman is a guaranteed death. How do you deal with him?

Not sure, sorry. I haven't really played in a while and since my one and only win was on a stealthy character I simply didn't encounter a lot of scary enemies.

[Dead]

Guess I should take more stealthy traits. Feels bad taking stealth traits with non-rogue backgrounds. Vigilant didn't help enough.

[Dead]

I'm ambivalent about the change of pacing after depth 21. Before dlvl 21, I need to carefully balance exploration and shock to gain maximum experience and items while minimizing insanity. After dlvl 21, I'm much more likely to survive and beat the game if I try to reach the staircase as quickly as possible; I'd skip an entire level after dlvl 21 if the staircase were placed next to my character. Enemies become so strong and fast, or numerous, after dlvl 21 that there's often little I can do to position myself advantageously or avoid confrontation, even if I play cautiously, unless I have teleport (random), invisibility ("tenebrous") or crimson passage (costs health). While these changes make thematic sense, since my character is trying to acquire the trapezohedron in the final level, and enemies should become more supernatural near the end of the game, they greatly detract from the game's tension and tactical combat.

[Dead]

Got my first win for the new develop version (v22.2.0 - work in progress). changelog
Map generation felt improved: wider corridors leading to more opportunities to face multiple enemies, interconnected corridors, less extremely long corridors. The new Occultist trait "Sage" was moderately useful for conserving spirit when casting Light frequently, and occasionally casting Haste at a higher level. Invoker doesn't have many good options for late-game traits, so picking Sage didn't require much thought. I tried to hold about two of each thrown explosive instead of maximizing dynamites carried throughout the descent. Smoke grenades helped with positioning and spell targeting by blocking my view of enemies that I didn't want to hit. Mature Khagas were the hardest enemies to manage, as I never found Pestilence.

► screenshots after defeating the final enemy

I threw the dynamite once, not seven times.

[Dead]

I reached depth 19 with the flagellant before being electrocuted to death by the Mi-go.



After reaching character level 5, where I gained the Callous trait (adds 1 to armor, resulting in a total of 5 armor with no armor equipped on the body), most enemies felt easy to manage, and I didn't feel close to dying until encountering the Mi-go. The Galvanization trait (temporarily increases health regeneration after casting spells in the Blood domain) enabled frequent use of blood magic; with high armor greatly lowering damage received, my health often resulted higher after casting Thorns, then fighting and killing multiple enemies at melee range, than before.

As far as I'm aware, the Mi-go can't be made to deviate much from their patrolling paths, so they can't be lured out reliably. The Mi-go encampment has many open areas with 2-3 Mi-go units within a 5 tile radius. I don't know how a pure-melee flagellant would manage such areas, as it's slow and vulnerable to paralysis and multiple spells cast in a single turn. Flagellants with guns could cast Crimson Passage before entering the Mi-go's fields of vision, to avoid spending up to two turns where they're exposed to electrocution and spells. Taking the Vigilant trait before reaching dlvl 19 could help flagellants avoid walking into areas with multiple Mi-gos waiting to paralyze and kill them.

[Dead]

I want to add that I didn't need to die there. I wanted to get close and smack them with my melee weapon when there was no need to.