Overview[]
This is a mod of Sprouted PD developed by reddit user SmuJamesB, which has been first released on November 28th, 2019. The developer describes in his github repository the last released version 1.1 as most likely to be the final version, so this mod can be considered most probably as completed.
The presentation of this mod by the developer himself in reddit directly follows below, along with a few extra notes added by the wiki:
"This version fixes most of the end game bugs of Sprouted PD, as well as improving balance. Note that the "Harder" part of the name is specifically referring to the early and mid game (other than the first couple of depths). The Dolyahaven mines are not really any harder, and are certainly more fair.
Bugs from Sprouted PD fixed include:
- Alchemist's Toolkit sometimes requiring an egg which wasn't selectable.
- All dew being able to be picked up even with full vial and HP.
- Colored dew not evaporating.
- SanChikarah softlock (now they simply can't be dropped once obtained)
- Save file not found
- Most pet crashes
- Transmuting removing reinforcements
Balance improvements:
- Ankhs were removed from the Book of the Living and spawn generally in a small amount. On a side note, in that depth the honeypots are also less, but they are "replaced" with a good amount of Mr. Destructos.
- Bosses improved - though they are still a little spammy, particularly Shadow Yog, an effort was made the minions themselves to become tougher while having their numbers reduced.
- Corruption Gas from Gullins/Kupuas was nerfed considerably to match.
- Dew upgrade limits have been reduced at the start, but scale faster, capping at +15 (+16 for mages), and reaching about the same as regular Sprouted PD at depth 10. The general progression of dew upgrades is calculated by 2 + (depth/2), so there is a +3 dew upgrade cap in depth 2, +4 in depth 3, +5 in depth 4 etc. Also high grass drops relatively more dew in comparison to Sprouted PD, even occasionally yellow dew without the footwear artifact equipped.
- Enemies throughout the early game are stronger, because their damage and evasion scales up with depth unlike Sprouted PD (this is almost also a bugfix, because this is was supposed to also be happening in Sprouted judging by parts of its game code, but it doesn't).
- As a result, all classes start now with their familiar weapon and armor upgraded to +3 (the Huntress with her boomerang instead of a knuckleduster) to be able to fight the stronger enemies, and also with an Otiluke's journal already in the inventory.
- Scrolls of Magical Infusion can now upgrade non enchantable gear - they just don't enchant it. They also can't pass the upgrade limit anymore and have the same behavior with the scroll of Upgrade, so to get items above level +15 with any means of upgrade you have always to get them reinforced.
- There are always 85 tombstones per game => 320 scrolls of Upgrade (taking into account upgrading ring of Wealth).
- Wands are rebalanced, some getting certain characteristics from Shattered PD. Also, wands when equipped and used in melee combat by mages deal a fixed tier 2 weapon damage with up to 50% bonus damage scaling with charges.
- Zot has been almost completely reworked.
General improvements & some secondary changes:
- The Amulet of Yendor no longer draws enemies to the hero.
- Many Classes/Subclasses have been reworked:
- Berserker does more damage scaling with visible enemies.
- Gladiator can combo infinitely (but caps at 2x dmg from combo).
- Battlemage has now melee effects similar to Shattered PD.
- Warlock has soul marking similarly to Shattered PD (5% chance at +0, up to 48.4% chance at +100 etc.) but no longer automatically heals/restores hunger after defeating any enemy.
- Rogue's Cloak of Shadows has been buffed.
- Warden has most of Shattered PD's effects.
- Fleecing traps now always boot heros out of the Sokoban depth instead of taking their Armor. This was added as the Sokoban puzzles no longer provide worse rewards on later visits.
- The Dolyahaven Mines have now a new purple-ish theme, derived from an unused tileset of plain Sprouted PD.
- An Egg very often spawns on depth 1 (but not always).
- The Elastic weapon enchantment has been added.
- A few Enemies have been changed in their details: Dwarf Liches now cause Blindness to the hero in addition to all the other familiar effects of their attacks, and Sentinels in the Stone Golem Otiluke depth now carry weapons updgraded to +30 level or more. It has already been mentioned that enemies in the regular dungeon are stronger, so the developer has advised current players of his mod that the hero should have 2 * depth as their level for the main dungeon and fight Zot at approximately level 90.
- A few new Items have been added: two new thrown weapons, named "Wave" and "Skull" and two new types of enchanted shurikens (incendiary and curare). These new shurikens already existed in Sprouted PD's code but have just never been used.
- The game Logo has been changed to the chest that you see in the infobox.
- Relic melee weapons can now be transmuted and augmented.
- Each chapter's Shop now sells a weapon, armor and wand upgraded to +6 at a rather high price and with tiers following the order of the game chapters: a tier 2 weapon and a leather armor in Prison, a tier 3 weapon and a mail armor in Caves etc.
- The Royal Spork is again obtainable by searching in bookshelves with the Spectacles equipped, so it has become an alternative drop along with the familiar Dragon Cave and Vault journal pages.
- Thrown weapon system was reworked, and now all classes can regain missile weapons from enemies and at least one will always stick. Also, thrown weapon damage scales with hero level (and doubles after visiting the Book of the Dead depth) and they don't have a fixed damage value anymore. Huntress gets a flat +50% damage on this.
- Note also that bugs of previous versions of Harder Sprouted like the wand of Avalanche doing negative damage and even overfilling health or the crash with Dragon's Cave have been fixed."
Any other aspect of this mod which is not described above remains the same with "plain" Sprouted PD.