Skyforge is a Free-to-Play Science Fantasy MMORPG developed by the Allods Team, the same people that made Allods Online, in collaboration with Obsidian Entertainment.
Set in the world of Aelion, which is protected by its gods, the twist is that in this world anyone can potentially be an immortal, they just wouldn't know it until they "died" for the first time, and the "gods" are only the most highly revered of those immortals. The custom player character's journey begins with discovering their immortality and progresses on to their rise to godhood.
The game has a total of 13 classes so far, three of which can be freely switched between from the start. The starting classes are Paladin, Cryomancer, and Lightbinder. In order to further develop a class, the player must obtain a resource called Sparks, which can be spent on unlocking nodes in the class talent tree, called the Ascension Atlas and can be obtained by completing adventures (dungeons), PvP battles or questing in open regions. Once a certain point is reached in the tree of at least one of the starting classes, the player gains access to the second level of the Atlas, which is the inter-class level. From there, players can further progress towards any of the other classes, which are Archer, Necromancer, Slayer, Knight, Alchemist, Witch/Warlock, Monk, Gunner, Berserker, and Kinetic. The game only allows one character per account because classes, once unlocked, can be switched to at any time outside of active combat at the push of a button. Every aspect of the character's appearance can also be re-customized so really there's no danger of Alt Itis setting in.
The combat falls squarely into Action RPG territory with cross-hair targeting, dodge rolls and combos, and all 13 classes having significantly different playstyles. The game does not, however, have a vast open world like World of Warcraft, instead utilizing a global map at the Divine Observatory from which the player can choose what adventure to embark on and be teleported directly to it. Adventures come in several varieties but primary among them are Squad adventures(meant for 1-3 players), Group adventures(meant for 5 players) and Regions, which are most reminiscent of other MMORPG due to their larger size and the multitude of other players running around in them. On top of that, the player can eventually start their own religious order since you wouldn't be much of a god without worshippers. They can then build their following, acquire adepts to send on various missions, and unlock provinces in which to build chapels, albeit the in-game representation of that is little more than a passive stat increase and resource gain.
Contains examples of:
- Alien Invasion: There have been several. You get to fight the stragglers that were left over after the invasions were defeated quite a bit.
- A more recent update introduced actual invasions, content only available to those that have achieved Godhood. They are quite a lot harder than previous 3 and 5-man content.
- An Adventurer Is You: Classes are divided into three categories: Damage, Tank and Support. The majority of classes are Damage, with only two Tanks and two Supports.
- An Ice Person: Cryomancers of course, slowing and even freezing enemies.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Divine Form. While far more powerful than normal Immortal form, it requires Faith to activate. The max amount of Faith an immortal can have is 1000. Special quests allow 100 to be obtained, but only once a week. During Invasions, it is possible to send your adepts on special missions every eight hours which rewards you with 12 Faith if the mission is successful, or 6 Faith if it is a failure. Activating Divine Form consumes 70 Faith (which can be brought down to 50 if a special perk is unlocked in Divine Atlas), however, in group activities, the cost is increased by a factor of ten, which prevents one from using it often there.
- However it becomes considerably lessed after the addition of Divine Specializations, which allow the Divine Form to be used for less Faith, making it much more useful.
- BFG: The Gunner's weapon of choice is one of these. It has to be, to fit all of its Swiss-Army Weapon functionality.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Gravedigger/Laertes. Or so it seems.
- Bug War: Against the Mantides when they tried to invade Aelion.
- Cast from Hit Points: Most of the Necromancer's stronger abilities carve off a percentage of their health. Thankfully, it is also the only class with the ability to self-heal.
- Chainsaw-Grip BFG: The Gunner's weapon is held in this way when in laser minigun mode. Plasma rifle mode uses a bazooka grip instead.
- Chainsaw Good: Berserkers wield a giant, pole-mounted chainsword into battle. Several of the attacks don't even bother swinging, they just hold the blade against the unlucky foe.
- Combat Stilettos: Most, if not all of the female outfits come with high heels.
- Damage Over Time: While most damage classes involve some type of Damage Over Time effect, special mention goes to Witches/Warlocks (whose entire playstyle relies on applying, spreading, and consuming their basic DoT) and Archers (who have two different DoTs, and many, many abilities that deal more damage or have extra effects when used on a target affected by one or the other of them, up to an including one of them increasing the other's damage).
- Deadpan Snarker: The Argus System's advice is generally delivered in this manner.Argus: The pieces of equipment that you will find on your adventures might make you more powerful. Or they might not. Life is a lottery.
- Death by Origin Story: Your own character. You try to save a village from monsters, and at first it seems to go well. But then you are ambushed and killed, all of you. Nobody survives, but it turned out that your character was actually a latent immortal. Everybody else stays dead, while you resurrect yourself and take revenge.
- Death Is Cheap: Only for immortals, and this is the main thing which sets you apart from regular people. In other words, the fact that a character will respawn upon death is a core part of the setting, rather than the usual Gameplay and Story Segregation.
- Finishing Move: Each class has access to one, instantly killing a wounded mook (by way of disintegration, explosion, Forced Transformation or even being picked up and cracked open like a fortune cookie) and gaining some manner of bonus - usually some Mana-equivalent, but some classes instead give, for example, a damage buff or a moment of stealth to perform a Sneak Attack.
- First-Episode Resurrection: The tutorial mission, framed in a Flash Back as you tell Herida, has the player character fight in the army of Aelion and die against a reaper, only to spontaneously resurrect, showing that you are an immortal, one who cannot truly die.
- Flying Broomstick: The Witch and Warlock's weapon of choice, also used as a means of transport through a talent, giving the class the longest dash.
- Forced Transformation: The fate of any Mook or even player executed by a Witch or Warlock is to be turned into a small balloon-like creature.. For a few seconds at least. Then they go "pop".
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Averted in a way that many other MMORPGs play completely straight. While the other MMORPGs have NPCs talk about death as if it was finite & and final while ignoring the fact that characters actually keep dying & respawning, Skyforge has the NPCs be awestruck by your character's amazing ability to respawn upon death. It is miraculous enough for some of them to eventually start worshiping you.
- Glowing Eyes: Upon becoming a God, it is possible to customize appearance and enable glowing eyes and halo.
- God Of Human Origin: The goal of your character's personal story is to become a god.
- Gods Need Prayer Badly: Herida says that the faith of mortals is extremely important to the gods and that it grants them power. Once you achieve godhood you find out what she means, as faith becomes a resource to use your divine powers and access your divine form.
- It's revealed later that god's that aren't worshiped will eventually fade away over time and it's said that immortals that aren't worshiped start aging again.
- Holy Halo: Upon becoming a God it is possible to enable a floating halo, and it is always present when immortal takes Divine Form. Other Gods have it as well.
- Light 'em Up: Lightbinders, duh, with a honorable mention to Paladins (who use holy light and lightning) and Knights (who are assisted by a giant falcon seemingly made of solid light).
- Literally Shattered Lives: The fate of any Mook executed by a Cryomancer.
- Mana: Most of the classes rely on some kind of resource mechanic for most of their abilities except for the basic attack chain, often receiving a bonus for a successful execution. Still, there are some differences - the Archer and Alchemist build Concentration / Catalyst with each basic attack while the Paladin has to complete a full combo to receives Righteous Anger; meanwhile, the Berserker gains Rage from both. The Slayer only uses their small but rapidly regenerating pool of Dexterity for some (the strongest) attacks, while the Witch/Warlock has a hefty pool of Magic to cast nearly all of their spells with but has to risk performing a stationary ritual to refill it at any speed.
- The exceptions to the above are the Gunner (whose weapon overheats), the Monk (no resource to speak of except for stance change coodowns) and the Necromancer (who Casts From Hit Points but uses the spent health to enter - and stay longer in - Lich Form, which lets them heal back up).
- More Dakka: The Gunner's laser minigun provides lots of dakka, but the crown goes to the Archer, with an attack that fires off about a dozen arrows in rapid succession, each of them splitting into a volley of about a dozen fiery projectiles each.
- Overheating: A key mechanic of the Gunner class - the laser minigun heats up as it fires and has its rate of fire halved if maxed out, while the plasma rifle consumes and requires the built-up heat.
- Mind over Matter: The Kinetic's speciality.
- Physical God: Plenty of them but, even among their ranks, the Great God, Aeli, is revered as the ultimate deity who saved the world that is now named after him. Other inhabited worlds are said to each have their own Great God as well. Player characters are immortals trying to (and succeeding) become this.
- Right before/when you become one yourself, you fight the greater god of death, Thanatos. Another mission has you helping an allied God fighting off Nerion, another powerful God who threw in with the Mantides.
- Power Glove: The Kinetic's weapons of choice.
- Power Floats: All over the place, from gravity-defying martial arts used by most classes, through rapidly floating while in a friendly Kinetic's gravity field, to something as simple as changing your class. Best exemplified by high level players who achieve godhood - while in your Divine Form, your character floats instead of walking.
- Recursive Ammo: The Gunner can upgrade his missiles to split into area-affecting bomblets, while the Archer has several attacks that involve firing arrows that subsequently split into entire volleys of projectiles.
- Resurrective Immortality: If an immortal's body sustains too much damage they simply dematerialize into the ether and then reassemble themselves elsewhere, good as new. There is no known way to actually kill them and building a prison that could hold one eternally becomes a plot point. By extension, blowing said prison up with the immortal still inside is a valid escape plan. There does however seem to exist a way to permanenty kill them, if a greater God consumes or possesses a lesser God or immortal, they are effectively erased from existence and cannot be saved.
- It's revealed later that god's who lose their followers and end up forgotten fade away, Asterius mentions that it happened to many immortals from his time.
- Robot War: Against the Mechanoids when they tried/try to invade Aelion.
- Shock and Awe: Several of the Paladin's and Kinetic's attacks use lightning.
- Stance System: Key feature of several classes' mechanics:
- The Gunner uses his laser minigun to build up heat which is then consumed to fuel the plasma rifle. The rocket launcher is a third stance that ignores the heat mechanic and relies on a somewhat slowly regenerating ammo system.
- The Monk has access to three stances, each with its own animations, powers and specialization - the resilient Earth, the damaging Fire, and the nimble Air. In addition, the first attack chain after a switch has additional effects, incentivizing changing often.
- The Witch/Warlock switches freely between two stances, Curse, which lets them apply various Damage Over Time and debuff or control curses, and Extermination, full of direct damage spells that tend to only work on cursed targets, often consuming the curse in the process.
- More than half of the classes have access to strictly temporary effects (often a Super Mode on a long cooldown) that replace their abilities with different ones, by way of becoming invisible, a mutated monster, an undead wraith, a flaming incarnation of rage or a being of pure light, kneeling down and so on.
- Shield Bash: One of Knight abilties. Unlike other examples though, the Knight grabs their large shield with both hands and leaps towards their target, smashing them with such force that they burry them almost neck deep in ground incapacitating them for couple of seconds.
- Swiss-Army Weapon: The Gunner's eponymous Gun, incorporating a laser minigun (with coaxial flamethrower), a plasma rifle (in the same way as a bazooka is a "recoilless rifle"), and a deployable mortar firing homing rockets and mines.
- Telescoping Staff: The Monk's weapon of choice. It adjusts length as needed.
- This Is Reality: Invoked by NPCs who are annoyed that some immortals don't seem to take the war seriously enough.
- Trick Arrow: The Archer comes with a wide variety of incendiary, explosive, electrified, gas, smoke and submunition arrows.
