I wanted to give the new Trove update a try last week but unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be. Both Wednesday and Thursday the server was taken down for hotfixes which started right as I was able to play and ended after I was able to play. I finally had some time this weekend to spend time with the new content.
At first, Blades and I were worried. With Shadow Towers basically gutted we didn’t know how easy or hard it would be to obtain those needed rewards from Delves. We actually miss read the patch notes and thought it said you needed to clear 25 levels of delves to have a chance at getting a Shadowy Soul Cache to get a chance at these rewards. Which would have been insane considering each level takes 6 -9 minutes on average to complete. Turns out these actually spawn randomly after a boss fight after Delve level 25. Which is way more reasonable.
I think the old shadow tower rewards are actually much easier to get with this update. It’s the same limit as before on Despoiled Divinity, Titan Souls, or Lunar Souls. Since Monday’s “Delve Day” bonus doesn’t increase the amount of these rewards like “Shadow Tower Day” you end up getting the amount you used to get on Monday any day of the week. Plus you can run these by yourself if you don’t want to find a group that adds less friction to getting these rewards.
We ran exactly two public delves to see how they were and to gather enough crystals to make a private delve. It went exactly how I thought it would. Most people either ignored the objective, were AFK, or spent the time mining instead of fighting. It’s new content so it may get better once people understand what their suppose to do. The problem is the delve level is based on the collective level of everyone in it. If there’s not 100% participation from everyone it’s almost impossible to progress.
Private delves are where this whole update shines. The private delve portals are a one time use and the level is based on who places them and who joins them. Delves are broken into two parts: The first is the delve objective which can range from kill x number of creatures, kill x number of a specific creature, clear x number of rooms of creatures, mine x amount of ore, or find and activate 4 monoliths. The second part is defeating the lair boss that spawns at the end of the map once you complete the objectives. The delve objective is on an 8-minute timer and the lair boss is on a 3-minute timer.
Jay and I were placed in Delve level 118 using our highest Power Rank classes. We were able to make it to level 124 before we couldn’t kill the boss in time. The trickiest parts were the monolith objectives. Once the monolith is activated a bunch of creatures spawn and you have to kill them all to complete that monolith. The issue becomes when you think you’ve cleared it and move on. I can’t tell you how many times we ended up in the boss room and then had to rush backward to find the one enemy we missed hiding under the stairs…
We also found a bit of cheese here too. If you open a private delve with a low power rank class and have another low power rank class join you’ll end up at a very low-level delve. Once inside the private delve, you can switch your class to a high PR but the delve level won’t change. I’m not sure if this is intended but I’ll tell you it very easy to get all your rewards for the week when you start out at level 85.
Private delves don’t let you use mounts or wings that aren’t bought with inert geodes. I had forgotten just how painful it is to navigate Trove without these things. Once we got our mounts we were in a much happier place with the update. Now we’re working on getting wings so we can glide around in the caves which will make traversal even easier.
Delves also attempt to mix the combat side of Trove with the Geode non-combat side. There are some utilities from the Geode tool kit that are nice like a grappling hook and increased movement speed but I haven’t found a use for much else. Jumps and mounts can replace these for the most part so I don’t find myself switching into Geode mode very often. There was a new vacuum utility added that seems useful so I may have to do some Geode to get that.
All in all, I think Delves is a fantastic update with a lot more to do than the Leviathan update. I was a bit worried about Trove for a while there. The last few updates had been nothing to write home about after Gamigo took over. Gardening was overhauled which was needed but wasn’t something I was interested in. Leviathans added randomly spawning mega bosses to Geode Topside which had some rewards but wasn’t something that pulled me back into the game. Delves give me some new goals to work toward and I already have a few projects in mind. I’m sure I’ll be able to get a few month’s worth of playtime out of this.
Many Welps 