At its heart, The Lonesome Guild is a story about loneliness, and the strength that comes from facing it together. Developed by Tiny Bull Studios and published by Don’t Nod Entertainment, the game blends storytelling with party-based real-time combat, environmental puzzles, and exploration.
For today, let’s take a closer look at combat! Every encounter and challenge encourages you to think not only about how to fight, but who should fight and who they should fight alongside. Each character brings their own skills, combat style, and progression system, making every fight in the world of Etere a delicate dance between strategy and action.
The Guild is a group of six misfits, all brought together by Ghost, the protagonist. You control a group of three characters in combat. Each has a clear purpose, but the true magic lies in how they interact with one another.
- Da Vinci: Jack of All Trades, brings utility to the team, dealing both magical and physical damage while also providing healing support.
- Mr Fox: Glass Cannon, focuses on DPS using both ranged and melee abilities, magical and physical, and can boost the team’s attack speed.
- Ran Tran Trum: Tank, wields strong physical skills to engage enemies and taunt them. He also provides shields to improve the party’s durability.
- Mauhen: Magical Healer, uses magical ranged attacks to stay out of enemies’ reach. He can both heal allies and deal damage, as well as debuff enemies and remove their damage resistances, enhancing the party’s overall effectiveness.
- Chaska: Brawler, delivers high DPS, both magical and physical, and can grant lifesteal to the party, rewarding aggressive playstyles.
- Sarangalyn: Poisonous Witch, a sneaky warrior who primarily uses ranged magical skills and applies poison. She helps the party by reducing skill cooldowns, allowing for more efficient use of abilities.
As a core design pillar, we’ve always viewed the party as a single, cohesive entity, one whose build is defined by the heroes chosen to form it. We encourage experimentation; each hero has two equipped skills (out of four available), a unique support ability, and a customizable skill tree (the Relationship Tree). The result is a party with six active skills and three support abilities that can synergize in multiple ways. At on top of it all is the Ghost Power, a finishing move that can also be customized based on the party’s composition.
One of the simplest examples of character synergy is found in the supports. For instance, Chaska gives the party lifesteal, while Mr Fox boosts attack speed. Together they create a brief but powerful vampirism effect for the entire team. Another example is the combination of Davinci and Ran Tran Trum, who provide instant healing and a damage-absorbing shield, allowing for a more defensive approach to combat.
To further encourage switching characters during battle, allies will occasionally request to be controlled. If you switch to them, the hero will temporarily enter the Emblaze state, allowing them to deal increased damage, bypass resistances, and generate more Ghost Bar, which can be used to perform support abilities and the Ghost Power. Learning when and how to switch between characters is key to mastering each fight.
Every character has their own Relationship Tree, where you can spend skill points to customize your abilities and playstyle. Even at maximum level, it won’t be possible to unlock the entire skill tree, but you can respec at any time to experiment with new combinations and strategies.
However, the most powerful upgrades will remain locked until you reach a sufficient relationship level between Ghost and the corresponding character. You can increase relationship levels through dialogue choices, main or side quests, and exploration, by discovering special items that can be given as gifts to your companions.
For the completionists, it’s possible to max out relationship levels with all characters, while those who skip side content will need to choose which characters to prioritize, though you always have the option to backtrack and explore hidden content to strengthen the bonds between characters.
The Lonesome Guild offers a fun and fully customizable experience for everyone. Even though it’s narrative-driven, it packs a punch! Challenges and greater strategy wait for those who seek them. The game is ready to play your way right now on Xbox Series X|S!
