Hope you’re having a good time playing the Fingeance Alpha Demo! If you’ve played it a few times, you’ve no doubt come across an enemy or part that applies freeze. That is an example of a debuff. A debuff in most games weaken a target’s abilities in some way, and in our game they work the same way.

Debuffs are generally not used in shmups, but the way Fingeance is designed allows for the utility debuffs provide. The potency of each debuff scales with the power of the enemy. This means that even bosses can be affected, though they’ll be affected more briefly than standard-issue enemies. Here are a couple of the ways you can mess with your foes.

Freeze

This debuff I’ve talked about before. Freeze causes a target to slow down significantly, both in movement and rate of fire. This is likely the most common debuff you’ll see in the game as while it can be a strong effect, the impacted target still has plenty of agency. Freeze is best used on fast moving targets to make them more easily shot, or fast shooting enemies to lower their potential danger.

Stun

Stun works just as you’d expect; the target is unable to do anything for the duration of the debuff. This debuff is used sparingly in the game right now  (the only part that has it in the demo is the Bouncing Burst) and the durations are left deliberately short. The ability to stun is a powerful strength especially in a genre of game where movement is vital, so we’ve tried to limit its benefits to creating openings in enemy shot patterns. Super fast shooting turret won’t let you pass? Hit them with a stun!

There are also regular buffs you can use in the game  (the Frenzy Engine is an example of one in the demo) but I’ll save those for another time. See you next week!