Progression

Skill Over Gear — The Core Principle

The bounded power gap is the structural heart of Godmaw. A fully geared, fully progressed character is roughly 1.8× more effective than a fresh character — no more. A skilled player who reads bullets and positions well beats an unskilled player with better gear. This ceiling is enforced by a hard stat-max clamp on all equipped items and is verified continuously by the balance simulation oracle.

The Full Progression Web

Progression splits cleanly between what you build during a run and what survives death permanently.

Per-Run: The Skill Tree (lost on death)

Each run, your character earns Skill Shards from boss and dungeon kills. These are soulbound on drop — they cannot be traded, bought, or inherited from another character. They buy picks in your skill tree.

The tree is a 3-path × 6-row lattice tied to your equipped ability item. You pick exactly one node per row, for a maximum of 6 picks. Every row is a forced tradeoff between three options.

Node types:

• Tradeoff tweaks — bend two stats in opposite directions (cheaper to cast but weaker, or more expensive but harder-hitting).
• Behavior rewrites — change how the ability works entirely, not just how hard it hits. A new playstyle in the same slot.
• Capstones (row 6) — the build-defining ultimate pick. The biggest behavior swing in the tree.

No node is a flat “+X% damage” upgrade. Every node must have a real downside or an opportunity cost. The balance oracle flags any node that out-performs across contexts and it gets adjusted before release. OPEN: all 180 node names across five classes are taste picks pending Jay’s decision.

Skill Shards drop fast enough that a focused boss-killing session fills a tree. A tree is meant to be rebuilt often — it is a run investment, not an account grind.

Respec is free at the Rig workbench. The picks reset; the Shards themselves die with the character.

Account Layer: What Always Survives

These never reset on death and are what “never sunset earned content” applies to:

Wealth (Tokens) — your currency balance persists forever. The Auction House moves earned power between players; the market is liquid because the account layer holds wealth.

Collection Log — every item species, enemy, biome, and rare variant you have ever recovered is logged. Shinies get their own separate checkmark. Rewards are cosmetic and QoL only: borders, titles, a Nexus statue, dye. Never power, never loot-rate bonuses.

Class Mastery — a long per-class track of cosmetic unlocks (borders, titles, flair). Infinite chase with zero raw power. Stays safe against the skill>gear principle by design.

Exaltations (proposed name: Imprints) — a small permanent per-class stat bonus earned from contribution-gated endgame dungeon completions. Fully Imprinted represents the reserved final ~5% of the 1.8× power budget — a fresh-maxed character at perfect gear reaches roughly 1.71×; full Imprints bring the ceiling to exactly 1.80×, no further. Each stat axis is clamped at approximately +3% of the class maximum. These survive death; a class you keep playing keeps accumulating them even after characters die. OPEN: final name (“Imprints” is a candidate Jay has not confirmed).

Prestige Stars — an account-rank ladder visible to other players. Pure status and flex, no power. Unlocked by class-quest fame thresholds per class; completing all classes reaches an apex rank. At most, cosmetic QoL gates (an extra vault tab, Nexus visual) — never stats.

The Coherent Web

The full picture at maximum progression:

“Never sunset earned content” means the account layer. The per-run tree’s loss is the point of permadeath — you feel it, and that tension is what makes each dive matter.