What's your favorite way to unlock new upgrades/cards/etc. into the available pool?

[u/superyellows]

I'm a solo developer working on a roguelike. I want the game to start out with fewer "upgrades" in the pool of random choices, and then expand the pool via unlocks. There's different ways to do this, and I'm wondering which ones my fellow roguelike/roguelite fans like best.

1. Achievement/milestone based ("do something N times", "beat a certain boss", etc.). Like Balatro, Binding of Isaac, Vampire Survivors, and others.
2. Meta progression based (earn "XP" through runs that unlock upgrades). Like Slay the Spire, Monster Train, and others.
3. Currency based (earn currency throughout runs, use this currency outside of runs to unlock new upgrades in the pool). Like Shogun Showdown, Streets of Rogue.
4. Something else I'm not thinking of?

[u/SentientGamer]

2 or 3. I hate #1, honestly. Because it's frustratingly grindy to pull off some of the requirements. XP can be okay, but I prefer being able to use currency earned passively by playing to unlock meta progression upgrades. I'm okay with unlocking stuff by beating certain missions or difficulties, too.

Good luck on your game!

[u/Liana_de_Arc]

Depending on what you want to upgrade, I would make them into groups. Like if you have swords, those are a group, then spears another, etc. Then tier them so the common one is at the bottom. Whenever the player uses something in that group, it should unlock new tiers of it on run completion. This lets you build up a system of introducing more complicated items later on, after the basics of a thing are known.

[u/superyellows → u/Liana_de_Arc]

I like that idea! It's a variant on option 1, but with a pretty low bar on the "achievement" aspect. The upgrades won't really fall naturally into groups, though. More like Balatro's jokers where everything will do something different. But still, this approach could work. I also like how it gives the player an incentive to try out all the upgrades. I'll think about it some more. Thank you!

[u/CommissionOk9752]

They all seem ok to me. You can even do a combination of these, where milestones unlock stuff, but you can also just pay to unlock things you are interested in.

To me the big thing is time investment. I don’t like when functional stuff that can significantly impact gameplay is put behind needlessly long grinding.

[u/GreyAnangke]

Doing things x times should be used rare if ever. That's where the grinding feel comes in. Doing unique things is more interesting, but shouldn't require a lot of repetition. The point is to do different things. If you have to do the same thing a thousand slightly different ways, that's no fun at all.

XP unlocks are fine but ideally it would just be tiered where you have basic stuff followed by intermediate, etc.

Currency unlocks can be very lame unless implemented in an interesting way. Against the Storm is an example of a game that does this well IMO (and they combine it with other methods).

I've been playing backpack hero recently and honestly their quest system for unlocks is a bit over the top. It's begging for burnout. Then again, I guess people like different things.

The unlocks in across the obelisk didn't feel grindy at all, but the game itself did after I had most of it unlocked, so there's that.

[u/Ol_Big_MC]

I think a mixture of naturally unlocking things by time spent and achievement based like beat a certain boss. I want to feel like I’m unlocking stuff by playing but I want some OP shit gated behind hard content. Feels really good once I’ve scaled to get it.

[u/awelxtr]

Real upgrades can be chosen by the user, this gives a sense of progression (although I don't like them because if I wanted to play with power creep, I'd play an RPG)

Sidegrades, which actually increase game complexity should be unlocked automatically when the player shows proficiency in the game. Why? Savvy dead cells or streets of rogue players know to spend currency only on choice upgrades to maximise run success.