EmergenHex
Wishlist & Demo on Steam!
The memories of a fallen civilization are trapped in a field of hostile hexes. Every node is a combat puzzle. Read the encounter, assemble a loadout, forecast the result, and deploy.
EmergenHex is a deterministic buildcrafting idle game about understanding systems rather than rolling for luck. Combine skills, passives, artifacts, gear, damage types, delivery methods, and status effects to break enemy defenses. Conquered memories generate Exploration Points while you plan the next answer, and automation lets proven victories work for you.
The map keeps changing what it asks of your build. Resistances, immunities, auras, composition rules, adaptive enemies, and multi-phase bosses punish one-size-fits-all loadouts. The forecast and Loadout Check explain why a build succeeds or fails, so every defeat gives you something useful to change.
Reach the ending and the record opens again. The Second Reading transforms every encounter with new rules, new ranks, new resources, and a final confrontation hidden beyond the first conclusion.
Features:
- 60 handcrafted deterministic combat puzzles
- Three saved loadouts with skills, passives, and gear
- Detailed forecasts and player-facing build analysis
- Idle income and automation built around victories you have earned
- A complete First Reading and a more demanding Second Reading
- No random combat outcomes
This is an early itch.io release. If something is unclear, unbalanced, or simply not fun, join the Discord and let me know!
Independent Game Developer with a focus on the idle and incremental genre.
Development log
- Steam Playtest Available!39 days ago
- New update, game breaking bug fixed42 days ago
- Itchio Demo Release!47 days ago
Comments
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Maybe I'm not good at the game, but I beat spar mines and sunken yards, and then nothing. I was grinding to upgrade, but nothing does enough. I seem to have hit a big wall of no synergy. (This is after the initial 6, which are what I consider the tutorial.)
I will take a look and address it. Worst case, you can see the intended build by looking through the Challenge View to see what should clear the node.
Found the bug, it was an old piece of code that I forgot to delete. It should be good now, no more penalty for not using the "intended" build.
Despite the information given, it's very much unclear what lets some builds win over others. In particular, I found a situation (the Spar Mines) where the game really wanted me to equip a lv1 Chalk Rune (granting +1s Shocked Duration) instead of a lv2 Storm Rune (granting +5.2s Shocked Duration and +41% Lightning Damage, on my lightning-damage only build). Somehow, equipping the apparently worse gear made the difference between winning and losing? This made no sense to me.
Thanks for that. I will take a look and get this sorted.
Poking around a bit more, I've found the issue. Most enemies have a 'wrong answer penalty', a huge nerf to damage (sometimes -90%) if the player doesn't have the exact intended build equipped. This is incredibly unfun; instead of it being a game of trying to make a build that beats the challenge ahead of you, it's a game of trying to guess a secret code that the developer left cryptic hints about.
If the player can devise a non-standard build that works, either through unexpected interactions or brute force, you ought to let them. Giving a huge nerf whenever the player doesn't do exactly what you wanted them to do is just bad game design.
Thanks for that feedback. Penalizing builds is not at all intended. I’ll have a new update by this weekend
Found the bug, it was an old piece of code that I forgot to delete. It should be good now, no more penalty for not using the "intended" build.