Dark Cathedral Leaks

Over on the Russian site VK they seem to have a better idea about what to expect with the new game mode “Dark Cathedral”. Below is an unedited translation of 2 of their posts about it; where all previous speculation is consolidated.

So, the Dark Cathedral. New PvE mode coming soon. What do we know about it?🏰

✨ In this activity, you can go to the depths of the Cathedral and fight against many powerful opponents for unique rewards – Manuscripts. The mode becomes available from the 6th level of the Throne Room.

🗝 It will be possible to pass the Dark Cathedral for apples and for the Keys (it’s like the Torch in the subway, but the Key). The campaign for the key guarantees you a chest with manuscripts for defeating the guards of the floors

🔮 Perhaps this mode will be somewhat similar to the Portal, because you will have to go through the floors (Go through all the floors; Defeat the guards of the floors), and the Dungeon (You have one attempt to pass the point, in case of defeat, the point is considered passed; You there is one attempt to pass the point!). A floor is completed after you have found and defeated the floor guard. In addition, there will be some kind of Arena of Torment (here one could joke that the name is just like a regular arena 8 * 100). One attempt will be given to pass this arena, in case of defeat it will not be possible to attack again. (You have found the Arena of Torment! A dangerous opponent awaits you here, but also a great reward! Be careful, you only have one chance to win!)

😱 The Cathedral will be available on 3 difficulty levels: Normal, Hard and Nightmare. To open subsequent difficulties, you must complete the Dark Cathedral at least once on the current difficulty. You have 24 hours to complete the Dark Cathedral. After the time runs out, the tour will automatically end.

💫 You can earn Particles of Light for winning battles. Keys and Beacon Catchers (similar to Soul Catcher and Valor Catcher) will allow you to get even more rewards. In addition, as we already know, the Hero will also have a Banner of Light, which will increase the production of these particles.

⬆ There are 3 floors in the Dark Cathedral. The more points you pass, the more your reward will be. After passing some points, you will be given a choice of one blessing out of 3 (with a rarity from rare to legendary). In addition, a blessing can be obtained by sacrificing part of the health of your fighters (there is a special point for this Altar of Blood). Blessings strengthen your squad. They stack and only work in battles and only during the trip to the Dark Cathedral. You can see the currently collected blessings in your backpack. You can always check out the Cathedral Master’s shop to stock up on supplies to help you on your journey.

🫐 In the shop of the Dark Cathedral (Shop of the Cathedral Master) you can buy Healing Berries (These berries fully restore the health of the living soldiers in your squad. They can be used during the passage of the Dark Cathedral) and Soul Stones (This stone returns the soldier to life. It can be used during the passage of the Dark Cathedral). Well, also Keys, Catchers and more. We will also buy manuscripts there. Well, and get when you go for the key. The currency of this store will be Motes of Light.

📈 Modifiers will work at the points. In addition, there will most likely be many special points (like the Altar of Blood already mentioned above).
For example, there will be a point where you will apparently need to roll a die or a coin with some mysterious traveler to try to get a reward (Risk for a chance to get a reward. If you fail, you will take {}% damage to all your fighters from their maximum health). This point can be skipped.
Or a point, thanks to which it will be possible to clone and take a random fighter from the squad into the squad (Your random fighter was mysteriously cloned with all his equipment. Take him to the squad, he will be with you until the end of the campaign). There is also a point called “Camp” (or “Tent”), where you can escape from the battles and relax a bit.

🏆 A reward for passing a certain number of points in the Dark Cathedral will be added to the Personal progress of rewards (perhaps it will be called Alone in the Dark, but this is not certain). There will also be some achievements for completing all floors at different difficulty levels. There are also quests (perhaps they will be added to various events) where you need to defeat a certain number of floor guards, earn Motes of Light, or completely clear a certain number of floors.

👀 In general, we tried to collect in this post everything that is understandable (by the way, there is also a huge amount of some kind of buffs (possibly blessings), but this is not very interesting information).

And now let’s try to systematize everything that we already know about Specializations.

Residents now have Specializations. With the help of Glyphs, you can make your fighters much stronger. Glyphs are upgraded with Manuscripts. To activate the Glyphs, a certain number of manuscript scrolls are required. Manuscripts range in rarity from common to legendary. Each activated cell adds a parameter (stat) to the glyph. Once all six glyph slots have been activated, it will level up and the next six slots will become available to further increase the glyph’s parameters.
As you can see, the glyph as a whole will have 12 cells, as well as the parameters of the inhabitants. We assume that each cell will be associated with a certain parameter of a resident (but these are only Gaidodel’s assumptions, thinking out loud, so to speak).

Glyphs are also divided by class of fighters. Thug, Assassin, and Sniper are the glyphs for the Archer class. Enchanter, Astrologer and Magister are glyphs for the Mage class. Guardian, Berserker and Knight are glyphs for the Warrior class.

Some glyphs are only available at a certain level of the Throne Room, and in order to activate the glyph slots, you will need to upgrade the Fighter level of the villager.

There are also three Zodiacs – the Zodiac of the Serpent (for the Archer class), the Zodiac of the Phoenix (for the Mage) and the Zodiac of the Cerberus (for the Warrior).

After activating the bonuses of these zodiacs, the activation and improvement of the bonuses Power (Cerberus + Phoenix), Confidence (Cerberus + Serpent) and Ferocity (Phoenix + Serpent) will become available. By pumping all the glyphs in the Zodiacs, you improve the bonuses.

Once the Power, Confidence and Ferocity bonuses are raised to a certain level, the Specialization Master Bonus becomes available. It increases all obtained Glyph stats.

As for the manuscripts, as we have already said, they exist of varying rarity. There is an assumption that in order to activate and improve glyphs of different levels, manuscripts of a certain rarity will also be required. If there are not enough manuscripts (for example, epic ones), they can be synthesized from manuscripts of lesser rarity (maybe even with the involvement of gold).

Actually, we can get the manuscripts in a new activity – the Dark Cathedral. Well, the developers will not be able to leave us without a special offer (“A Few Manuscripts” and “A Mountain of Manuscripts”), where you can buy these same manuscripts for money. Well, in the castle store for diamonds, most likely, a chest with manuscripts can be bought (as well as chests with totems, elixirs, etc.).