In today's update we talk about one of the key mechanics in Rainbow Skies: How character upgrades work!

If you've played Rainbow Moon, you are well aware of the six key attributes each character has:

• HP: A character's health points.
• MP: A character's mana points. Used for casting skills.
• Strength: A higher strength value increases the damage caused in battles.
• Defense: A higher defense value decreases the damage taken in battles.
• Speed: Determines the turn order in battles.
• Luck: A higher luck value increases the chance of critical hits in battles.

These six key attributes will all return in Rainbow Skies, along with a few new additions that we will talk about later in this news post. However what is completely new is the way how permanent character upgrades work in Rainbow Skies.

Our good all Savant was sent into retirement and has been replaced by an all new Skill Stone System. Before you are getting too upset now, let's explain the new system in detail as it comes with a few really cool advantages.

About Skill Stones

Skill Stones are required to permanently increase the attributes of your characters and monsters currently in your team. Three different kinds of Skill Stones exist:

• Blue Skill Stones: Very commonly found and used to perform primary character upgrades and HP upgrades.
• Red Skill Stones: A lot less common than the blue ones and used to upgrade secondary attributes, such as your MP.
• Yellow Skill Stones: Very rare and used for special upgrades, which we will introduce later.

How to obtain Skill Stones?

Skill Stones can be obtained in many different ways. You will find them in loot bags, treasure chests, hidden treasures, as quest rewards or simply left behind by monsters after defeating them in battle. Later on you can even purchase them at some of the merchants.

Skills Stones also come in different sizes: Single Skill Stones (one golden corner), a pack of 10 (two golden corners) or even a pack of 50 (three golden corners).

Upgrade System

The Upgrade System automatically unlocks after you have played Rainbow Skies for a while and will permanently be accessible through your menu. Once you open the Upgrades Menu, you will find a couple of entries for each playable character and monster that are in your team, which you can upgrade using the Skill Stones that you have acquired earlier.

Each class in the game will develop in a slightly different way, which means different entries in the upgrade system will be available for each playable character and monster at a different time. For example while Damion will develop into a tank with a strong focus on Strength & Defense, Layne's primary upgrades will be Speed & Strength, and Ashly will turn into the best damage dealer.

New upgrades will automatically be added from time to time when leveling up. In the beginning this happens very frequently, while multiple level ups are required later in the game.

Compared to Rainbow Moon, this system no longer requires you to frequently locate a savant. Instead you can simply open your in-game menu and perform character upgrades as often as you like, as long as you still have Skill Stones left and your currently available upgrades aren't maxed out. That's pretty awesome as it basically allows you to increase your character stats after every single battle without much effort.

Upgrade Categories

In addition to the six main attributes mentioned earlier, a number of special upgrades can be performed through the same system:

• Sub-turns: While some sub-turns are automatically awarded when leveling up, others can be unlocked using Skill Stones.
• Skill Points: Exclusively unlocked through the new system. Required for equipping passive skills.
• Combo Pearls: Required for executing combo skills. We will talk more about this in another news update at a later time.

Yellow Skill Stones will be required for upgrading all these three special categories.

Sorting & Other Functions

For an ease of use, we have implemented a couple of neat functions.

• The upgrade list can be sorted by different criteria, including sorting directions. The settings will be saved for future calls.
• Completed entries are marked with a tick mark.
• Entries for which insufficient Skill Stones are available are also marked with a special symbol.
• Newly unlocked entries will be marked with a star symbol.
• Completed entries can be hidden.
• As soon as an entry has been completed, a new, meaningful entry is automatically selected.

We hope you've enjoyed today's news update. As always, if you have any questions or feedback, please leave a comment below or contact us on Twitter or Facebook.