Suggestions

In the game's current state, Vigor is perhaps the least used shiftstone, often getting discarded for adamant and stubborn for damage negation effects. Besides just making it heal more or requiring less damage (I'm gonna out some thoughts to these at the bottom, but they're not the main focus of this post), I think a good change would be to allow the healing to go over 20 HP. A problem that all defensive stones share is that they don't really do anything until you get hit. Stubborn, Adamant and Guard however at least interact with that first hit and reduce the damage. Vigor already has the downside of having a limited amount of healing to give each match (6 if the opponent isn't playing damage negation), so in some scenarios getting a 5 damage burst while staying at full HP - something that should feel great - can feel like you just lost 2 HP you could have healed to gain even greater HP advantage. On Changing the Numbers: I feel like a 3hp heal would be justifiable for how hard it is to proc, 4 would maybe even be too much. I'm against lowering the activation number, since that would completely change its current playstyle of going for two hits and follow ups to fishing for singular, strong hits with Walls and Grounded Cubes.

The damage credit system is somewhat exploitable, leading to situations where shiftstones do/don't activate their effects when you think they should/shouldn't. What I mean by "stealing" damage credit is that Player A sends a structure at Player B. (As far as I understand) Player A modified the structure last, meaning if it hits a player, Player A will receive the corresponding shiftstone effects. However, Player B modifies the structure just before it hits them. Even though Player A sent a structure at Player B, which they failed to prevent getting hit by, Player B will be given credit for the hit since they modified it last. This means that Player B will receive their own shiftstone effects and prevent Player A from receiving theirs. Examples of the above scenario: Player A, summons a disc, Player B, using Adamant, parries the disc, but is too late and the disc hits them anyways. Player B would activate their Adamant, meaning they take 0 damage instead of the expected 1. Player A has Surge active and sends a loose cube at Player B. Player B dashes and holds, trying to RTS. Player B holds the cube, but it's too late and gets hit. The cube should deal 4 damage (3+1 from Surge) and grant Player A another Surge buff, but instead deals 3 damage, and Player A doesn't activate Surge. --- My reasons for wanting this change is that: I don't think players should be rewarded for failing to defend. These interactions are confusing, and it can be unclear what exactly happened when a player takes damage. It can be frustrating to feel like you were robbed, or scummy to feel like you cheated your opponent. --- I propose that there should be a slight "grace period" before modifying structures changes the structure ownership when self damaging. I can suggest 0.5 seconds, but that's just a vibes-based number and it should probably be decided by something more concrete. To clarify, this grace period would only apply to self damage, and should not apply if a player modifies a structure and then hit their opponent with it within the grace period. This solution could also create some odd situations. For example, trying to Hold Straight a fallen wall that your opponent modified last and accidentally hitting yourself would give credit to the opponent, but I think overall implementing the grace period would be a net positive. --- In terms of shiftstone balance, this is what I predict would happen: Adamant would receive a net nerf: using Adamant as a safety net for failed parries and RTS would no longer be viable, but Adamant users would more consistently get buffs from their own damage. Surge would receive a slight buff: While activating Surge from self damage can be used against your opponent, damaging yourself while Surge is active will just damage you more, so overall it would be a net benefit to have damage credit be properly attributed. Vigor would receive an objective buff: Vigor has no effect on self damage, so taking self damage can't benefit a defender using Vigor, only an attacker. Considering the common consensus on the three stones is that Adamant is the best, Surge is in the middle, and Vigor is the worst, this change brings the three stones more in line with each other. However, I think balance is a secondary priority in this situation and the main priority here is reducing the amount of confusing/irritating situations that occur.

Charge is pretty neat stone, but i think can be improved. Mostly because what it does to newer players. Usually newer players who equip charge often fall in the same trap as each an every other charge user go through, I called the charge phase: where their only form of defense and offence is to just Charge Wall Straight. This is very annoying play against because usually it result in slow slug fest of net zeros, its not necessarily hard to win but gets very tedious after 2 or more rounds. But this also can lead newer players to not learn combos, and rely on only on charge for defense and offence I suggest adding different charge cooldowns for different structures, like having ball, disc, and pillar all being 0.75 charge time, cube being 1 charge time, and wall being 1.25 charge time. this will nerf spammability and also buff chambering this will help make charge more diverse, than just: held object go faster

Currently, from what I understand, Charge Stone has (presumably) unintended behavior that allows for doing things like holding a structure then un-holding it, still allowing the player to continue charging off the structure they no longer have hold on or otherwise allow the player to not be holding the structure after a charge has completed and, in both cases, still retain the charge to use on another structure. This is behavior used in "Charge Battery" techniques. As it stands, there is also additional inconsistency and unintuitive behavior with Charge Battery beyond what is described here. I suggest that this current behavior be removed and replaced with a 5 second long (or longer/shorter if that amount of time seems too long or too short) lingering of the charge buff after the structure affected by Hold is destroyed or is no longer being held, but only after that structure is fully charged. This could allow for a more streamlined, intended integration of his behavior as a feature that could allow for those that have spent time learning to utilize the current behavior as a fairly large part of their combat style to still have a play style that works in a similar, albeit simplified direction. Ideally, I think this new lingering buff behavior should be combined with some version of previous suggestions for a visual effect that indicates the charge is on the player instead of the structure and have that visual effect linger for the 5 seconds this buff is active. Note: this may constitute a buff to Charge based play styles not specifically utilizing charge battery type behavior currently, as it more opens up more general usage of charge for a short period after the structure is no longer held. Thank for your consideration!

I think it would be interesting to make stubborn only work on ungrounded objects. This could balance the stone by allowing more accessible counterplay and prevent mindless approachs making interactions more interesting for both user and opponent. As of now stubborn can be abused to dash through all defeneses followed up by cubespamming the opponent, this could be avoided by implementing this change.

with accidental hits of the kill ceiling (usually from creative players experimenting with flying) and explode sometimes making matches as good as a coin flip (especially on lower skill levels) I was thinking that it would be really nice if there would be a setting or map where a ringout/killceiling would lead to just e.g 5 damage and a match reset (all structures getting removed and the platforms dragging the players back to start position) without resetting the players health and without ending the round.

TL;DR Essentially: two versions of charge stone. One version has the behavior that allows for chambering and/or battery and one has the fixed, originally intended behavior so that unwanted charge expenditures on non-held structures are gone. They each have slightly different appearance and visuals. Only one can be equipped at a time. LONG VERSION: Having played with Charge Stone a significant amount with a style that does not primarily utilize Charge Chambering or Charge Battery as my core thing, there have been instances where I modify another object accidentally, consuming my charge due to the current bug(s)/emergent behavior(s) that allow for, when used intentionally, styles like Charge Chambering to exist. In instances where someone using the Charge Stone hits another structure, whether intentionally or otherwise, and might prefer to retain their charge instead of suddenly having it gone, having the bug behind this occurrence fixed might actually be nice. I think it might be nice to be able to modify over structures with straight, kick, and stomp while holding a charged object without spending that charge. On the other hand, if this were to be implemented to the current, singular version of Charge Stone, those Rumblers who practice sibling fighting style(s) to my own would cease to have the core emergent mechanic that allows their style(s) to exist. My suggestion: add a second "cracked" Charge Stone. Details: It could have the current or similar behavior to what Charge Stone has now, allowing for things like Charge Chamber to exist. It would, presumably, be mutually exclusive with wearing standard Charge Stone given the extreme similarity in functionality. They could be thought of as essentially the same stone, just one is "cracked" and one is not. The particle visuals of the Cracked Charge Stone could, as others have suggested about Charge Stone, indicate that the boost is coming from the player and affecting whatever structure they might modify instead of just the structure currently held. To differentiate it from the standard version, the Cracked Charge Stone itself could look like a Charge Stone that has cracked in some way. Perhaps further visual indicators could be added to this. A rough mock-up of this alongside an image of the original Charge Stone is attached. The Cracked Charge Stone could have a description indicating that it allows you to modify other structures, while the standard version could specify that it only affects the object you're holding. The Cracked Charge Stone could be added to the market as the way to obtain this alternate version of the stone. In addition to these things, the standard Charge Stone could retain its current visual, as once it is fixed, that visual should now be accurate. Also, on a note about flavor, I think having this second version of the Charge Stone being a cracked version or similar could be a neat homage to the fact that the mechanics it has were not originally intended. It could also be a play on words, akin to when a phone or similar is "cracked" to do things it wasn't originally intended to do. Thank you for your consideration. Peace!

Guard should be rebalanced to have an extra -1 self damage. so if you hit yourself with guard it will deal 2 less than what it would without, most guard gameplay relies on trades based on using guard to trade hp with your opponent and benefit from the -1 difference. A lot of guard play also require guarding your own structures to benefit from guards unique mechanics, so by increasing self damage reduction to -2 total it helps give guard the slight edge against the opponent by benefiting from the difference in damage dealt

After sifting through all of the "Guard Stone Rework" posts I think I have a rework for the guard stone in mind that doesnt remove any current tech but still allows for guard stone to have more uses. Here is my proposed changes: Make it so any structure you guard is knocked back based on your speed going into it. For example if you disc jumped into a structure and guarded it it would get sent flying but if you just stood still and guarded it it would barely be knocked back. This effect wouldnt happen with the stubborn effect on to protect phasing and it also kinda makes sense since you dont get knockback so neither would the structure. Make guard not put you in a knocked back state. It should still give knockback but it shouldn't remove flow jump or stop you from doing moves. This would allow for guaRTS to actually be viable and to let guard be able to be used while flying. Since congealed boots is being removed anyway this wouldnt remove any tech but makes guard more viable in many scenarios. Make guard fade away if you hold it too long, similar to other fighting game blocks. This prevents the crutch of new players holding guard for ages. The timer would have to be at least a second or two for guard to still feel different to parry.

TL;DR Stubborn is nerfed to be -1 damage and 50% knockback reduction on Dash/Jump, while full knockback/player hitstun negation is expanded to any time damage is fully negated --------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a suggestion for: A nerf to stubborn A general addition regarding knockback + player hitstun negation --------------------------------------------------------------------- A nerf to stubborn itself Currently: "Dashing or Jumping right before you get hit will reduce the damage you take by one, and you will take no knockback." Changed to: "Dashing or Jumping right before you get hit will reduce the damage you take by one and greatly decrease the knockback you take." (Dashing/Jumping with Stubborn would cause a 50% reduction to knockback, halving knockback in general, and negating Volatile's 50% explosion knockback buff while somewhat mirroring the language used to describe volatile) A general addition When fully negating the damage a structure deals, its knockback and player hitstun is also fully negated. --------------------------------------------------------------------- With these changes in combination, Stubborn would still have knockback/player hitstun negation against disks (unless they are damage boosted through something like Surge), but so would Adamant, Guard (presumably), and possible future damage reduction shift stones, resulting in Stubborn not owning a monopoly on this. When combining any damage negation options, full knockback/player hitstun negation could only reach so far, allowing for larger/grounded/moving structures to still cause knockback/player hitstun even if part of the damage is negated. Stubborn would maintain a knockback advantage against larger structures, since it would have 50% knockback reduction. This would help maintain Stubborn's identity and act as a mirror to Volatile's 50% explosion force increase. Surge and possible future damage boosting shift stones could act as counters to full knockback/player hitstun negation since they could help with piercing through full damage negation. Due to an expanded range of knockback/player hitstun negation options, this may also act as a nerf/counterplay addition to Explode/Volatile explosions since the explosive force would presumably be fully negated if damage from the structure was as well, possibly encouraging the application of Explode on larger structures when facing players with more than one damage reduction stone.