Round-based zombies is about survival, but in DREADVEIL you don't survive on guns alone. This devlog covers two systems that work together: Black Magic, the Voodoo Dolls you take into a match, and Ritual Blood, the living resource you use to collect more of them. Both are in development, and the details below may change as we balance them.
Black Magic: your Voodoo Dolls
Voodoo Dolls are cursed charms. Each one holds a single piece of black magic: something that turns the horde's attention away from you, pulls you out of trouble, protects you or your squad, or strikes back at the dead. They're one-use, so choosing when to spend one is part of the skill.
- Before a match, you build a Voodoo Doll Class: five dolls from your collection that you'll bring into the fight. You can save different classes for different maps or playstyles.
- During a match, you find a Black Magic shrine on the map, pay for a draw, and receive one doll at random from your five. You never get a doll you didn't choose, but you don't control which of your five comes out.
- Each draw uses up one copy of that doll from your collection, so the dolls you bring are the dolls you're willing to spend.
- The right doll at the right moment can turn a lost round around, or carry your team through the hardest steps of a map's Easter egg.
Black Magic is separate from Blood Rites, which are DREADVEIL's perks. Blood Rites make your survivor stronger for the rest of the match; Voodoo Dolls are single, decisive moments.
Ritual Blood: earned by surviving
Ritual Blood is a living crimson resource you earn by playing. It isn't handed out on a timer; it comes from the things you do in a match:
- Spending points: buying doors, weapons and upgrades can pay out Ritual Blood, and upgrades are the most likely to.
- Reaching round milestones: survive long enough and every milestone round pays.
- Completing challenges and objectives, and levelling up.
When you earn it, you'll see it on screen as it happens, and it's added to your saved balance for after the match.
The Blood Loom
Ritual Blood is spent at the Blood Loom, deep in a cursed forest, with the dead wandering between the trees. Make an offering of blood and the Loom answers with new Voodoo Dolls for your collection. Bigger offerings call more dolls, and some dolls are rarer than others.
We wanted this to feel like a ritual, not a menu: the blood moves, the Loom reacts, and each doll is revealed one at a time.
How it all connects
- Play a match and earn Ritual Blood.
- Offer it at the Blood Loom to add dolls to your collection.
- Build a Voodoo Doll Class from your favourite five.
- Draw dolls in the next match and use them when it matters most.
Your Ritual Blood and doll collection belong to your account. When cross-progression arrives, they'll follow you across PC, PlayStation and Xbox.
What's next
We'll reveal individual dolls closer to launch, along with what each one does. Until then, create an account or sign up for early updates to hear first about playtests.