Kingdom Death Review – Sun Claws Esther Beta Content

The weavers of mirages learn a solitary dance of intense passion, their posture embracing an absent partner. The lantern light shines off the polished teeth that adorn their costume, creating dizzying paths of light that cross and recross. A successful performance will create an illusion of the dancer in the embrace of their own image.

The Model

I'm not at all about this model, Esther is wearing the bikini form of the Sunstalker's Cycloid Scale Armor and while it's absolutely thematic to have variant swimsuits (Cycloid Scale armor's visual look is based on a vintage swimsuit) this one isn't it. Going back to the blurb and reading it explains why I'm not interested in it.

Esther is by far our most "Waifu" (and I mean that in only the most endearing and positive way) styled piece of artwork and miniature to date. The result of a new, lighter style exploration by a talented artist we are always thrilled to work with. We hope you enjoy the character as much as we did making it.

You are absolutely in your rights to feel differently about this, but personally I find the whole waifu thing to be very cringe worthy and the “pushed” aesthetic of this model doesn't speak to me. However don't let me yuk your yum if you like this, art is subjective.

The Gameplay

Crafting Cost: 2x Iron, 3x Leather, 3x Bone from a Node 3 Level 2+ Monster

This box is a weird one from the very start, the Parhelion Claws are a dual wielded “two-handed” weapon based on every single aesthetic in this box, but we do not get two copies of the card with paired, nor do we get the two-handed keyword. That feels off from a thematic standpoint in a way that I've never seen before. This might be the first thematic failure I've ever seen on a weapon card, which is a surprise in a game where weapons are incredibly thematic across the board.

Props for not having perfect resources in the crafting cost, I much prefer the Bones having to come from Node 3, 2+ monsters and also the mechanics of this weapon are pretty solid. It's about the right level of balance for a weapon that you can craft from Node 3 Level 2+ monsters. That's Phoenix, Sunstalker and Dragon King territory there, which feels right to get a 3 strength + sharp Katar. Though I will note that the accuracy on this (2/7+/3/Sharp/Sentient) weapon is wonky because that is something which is usually found on 3+ speed to balance out the 40% hit rate (this hits half the time in the blind spot), so the ability needs to be good to make up for that. I honestly don't quite understand why this weapon isn't two-handed with 3+ speed, it feels super reserved in its design.

Mirage: A Fleeting afterimage of a survivor spawned by certain gear effects. Mirages are represented on by certain gear effects. Mirages are represented by blue lantern tokens. You may also create your own mirage miniatures by painting extra survivor models blue. (No, no I won't. I've not even made shadows for the Sunstalker fight -- Fen)

When a mirage is placed, it gains an act (Knight, Activation) that must be completed immediately. Treat the mirage as if it has an identical survivor record sheet, gear grid and tokens as the survivor it spawned from. It cannot perform survival actions or spend survival.

If a Mirage suffers any kind of damage, knockback, gains a bleeding token, is knocked down, or finishes its act, it dissipates and is removed from the showdown board.

 -- Mirage Living Glossary Update (Not on the Living Glossary at the time of writing this review, so I had to type the entire thing out, woo.)

Mirage is the new mechanic that we have in this release and it is sort of in essence a “free” “surge” with extra steps (such as you can use this Mirage to run off and activate terrain), the big thing here is you don't have to worry about reactions hurting the attacker. That's strong, which is why this ability has a 3 survival activation cost, requires 3 red, 2 blue and 1 green affinities in the grid, is limited to working once per turn AND if a reaction so much as sneezes on the mirage that it'll end the attack extra. To be honest, just like the speed situation this is too many balance checks on the ability, it's extraordinarily fair to the point that I'm not going to pivot into Katars just for this weapon.

There is a potential play space in this game where being able to move and activate your Mirage might give you additional benefits outside simply just moving to attack from the best possible position (Note, with enough movement/mobility and the Synchronised Strike SFA it seems you can Sync Strike without any assistance from anyone else, that's interesting).

So, I will consider using it if I am already using Katars, but given how good the Crimson Crocodile's Indomitable Katars are this may not make the grade even there. 3 Survival is a really hard amount to pay when surge is right there (it doesn't even gel well with Surge because that's 7 survival spent in a single survivor act and that's insane). Maybe it's better in People of the Sun where surge is less common, so that's probably the place to explore this one, however I don't have enough time to roll up a People of the Sun campaign to test it again.

Summary

I think overall this one is another skip, not only is it Beta content which is really for the hardcore collectors, it's also adding another gimmick for a single weapon and that's more things to think about. I'm still struggling to remember that Fans are a thing now, cards like this are even more cognitive overload. We're at a real over-saturation point in respect to content that isn't indomitable, seed patterns or monster expansions.

However, the Mirage mechanic is a very interesting one, and when refined properly (plus baked into a monster expansion) it may shine with the promise it suggests. That makes this an interesting toy to play around with if you are so inclined. I think I'm probably not going to use this weapon again now I've played around with it.

So if you like the model, this is a fine purchase, but if you want a gameplay content with good katar to play with that comes with more content and has less unique abilities we already have the Crimson Crocodile or the White Gigalion (for People of the Lantern) and this isn't strictly replacing either of those beauties. There's a nice curiosity here for players who do want to experiment with Mirage, so that's something.