It's pretty much the same as in real life. You kill monsters and you get Experience Points (aka XP). Get enough XP to level up. When you level up, you get to pick a Perk among randomized selection.
Perks perks perks!
There are exactly 55 Perks in the new Crimsonland. There's basic predictable stuff like Regeneration which replenishes your health at a slot rate. Or Out of Thin Air which spawns once in a while powerups at random spots over the game field (normally powerups are spawned only when you kill a monster). Or Jinxed which does all sorts of strange strange stuff.
There are some changes to how they work in the new game compared to the 2003 edition. How many of you playing the original game ended up having like 10 unpicked perks at the end of a level because you forgot to pick the perks by pressing the button? Well not any more! This time each time you Level Up, you'll automatically trigger the Level Up Ring which pushes back the mob a few meters to give you some breathing room (not to be confused with the Perk Breathing Room which instantly kills all monsters on screen for a fee). You're also given the forcefield for a few seconds so that when you get back from the Perk selection dialog, you have a few seconds to undisorient (that could be a word) yourself and get back to action. This is what it looks like:
Burning ring of Level Up.
Perks aren't enabled by default in the Quest mode because the levels tend to be so short that the level is over before you really get to benefit from the perks. (And by default I mean you'll have to find the Secret Control panel which you can tweak these things with. But I've probably said too much already.)
So picking the right Perks can be vital for scoring high in the Survival mode. There are probably millions of different combinations you can try. All I am hoping right now is that none of the combinations prove to be too powerful like we've withnessed several times during the testing.
Until the next time. Maybe Green Cheryl has been to 13 places by then...
© 10tons 2014