Storybook Brawl is an interesting new draft-based autobattler with more strategic gameplay than some of the others in the field. There’s still plenty of luck involved, but even so I’m enjoying it a lot. Unfortunately it lacks a tutorial, and there’s little in the way of in-game advice. Players familiar with the genre will probably guess much of what’s going on, however others could find themselves puzzled. To alleviate that frustration, this is the first of a number of posts going into some details as to how the game systems work. Here I’m dealing with the mysterious Hero Level.
What Is Hero Level?
When you start a game of Storybook Brawl, you choose a Hero. That Hero has a Level that usually starts at Level 2 (exceptions: Peter Pants and Skip, The Time Skipper) and rises throughout the game. Normally, you gain one experience point (XP) every turn and your Hero Level increases by one for every three XP. So your Hero normally goes up one level every three turns, although some characters and treasures such as The End, Turkish Delight and Wish Upon A Star can change this.
Your current Hero Level is shown at the top right of the portrait and the bar around the number shows how close you are to the next level. So Merlin on the left here is currently Level 4 with one of the three experience points needed to become Level 5. He’s played four rounds and already lost 14 life points, not my finest hour…
Note that Hero Level is not kept from brawl to brawl. Every time you start a new game, your Hero starts afresh. In fact, unless you buy Heroes, nothing is kept between games.
OK, but what does it actually mean? What does your Hero Level do and why should you care?
Hero Level Effects
The most obvious effect of your Hero Level is the characters available for you to purchase (draft) each turn in the ‘shop’. These are selected at random from all possible characters with a level (cost) less than or equal to your Hero Level. So a higher Hero Level means more powerful characters avaiable to buy (although, as always with Storybook Brawl, various effects can alter this).
When you ‘promote’ a character by obtaining three copies, the level of Treasure you get depends on the level of character. So Hero Level also indirectly affects possible Treasures.
The other place where Hero Level matters is when you win a fight. Your opponent takes damage equal to your Hero Level plus one for each of your surviving base characters and three for each surviving promoted character.
Hopefully that’s explained the mysterious Hero Level. Basically, it keeps going up and as it does so, you get more powerful. Most of the time this ‘just happens’ and you can ignore it, but knowing the details should help you decide if and how to play certain Heroes and Spells.