Papercraft Tactics is a run鈥慴ased, grid鈥慽nventory roguelike with semi鈥慳uto, turn鈥慴ased combat. You don鈥檛 just equip items鈥攜ou wire them. Put swords next to potions, feed power from wands into shields, and rotate gear so inputs meet outputs. When a turn starts, your backpack comes alive: links fire, effects cascade, and enemies learn to fear tidy layouts.
Between rounds, draft new items, shop, and re鈥慳rrange for ever鈥慴igger chains. During fights, play a handful of clutch cards to tweak the queue鈥攄ouble a hit, purge a debuff, or force a trigger now. The joy is in the planning: make a build that plays itself, then nudge it at the perfect moment.
All of this unfolds in a warm paper鈥憈heater aesthetic鈥攃ut鈥憃ut characters, stage鈥慺lat scenery, and a subtle handmade vibe.
The Core Loop
Loot & Draft new items with distinct inputs/outputs and tags (elemental, heavy, fragile, scaling, mimic).
Arrange items on a grid; rotate to align green inputs and yellow outputs; place for adjacency bonuses.
Battle (auto鈥憆esolve, turn鈥慴ased): At turn start, linked items trigger in order, adding Actions to the queue (Attack, MagicCast, Recover, Block, InflictEffect, Special).
Play Cards to manipulate the queue (duplicate, remove, reset exhausted, trigger now) or inflict effects.
Progress through events, shops, and escalating encounters; refine the build; beat the boss; try a new hero.
Heroes, Stats & Resistances
Pick from distinct heroes with unique passives and stat profiles. Core stats include HP, SP, MP, STR, DEF, MND, SPR, Evade. Resistances cover physical types (Slash, Thrust, Strike, Projectile, Spell) and elements (Fire, Ice, Wind, Thunder, True). Synergies are predictable and readable鈥攂uilds reward planning, not twitch.
Key Features
Living Backpack: Your grid inventory is the build. Rotate, link, and position to forge synergies.
Chain鈥慠eaction Combat: On OnPlayerTurnStart, items trigger and fill the action queue鈥攃ombos you designed go off automatically.
Tactical Card Play: Limited鈥憉se cards let you push the queue鈥擠uplicateNextAction, ClearAttacks, ResetExhaustedCards, and more.
Readable Triggers: Clear events like OnSlashHit, OnReceiveFireDamage, OnEvade power effects without hidden rules.
Scaling & Mimic Items: Effects that grow from HP/MP/SP or copy linked behavior to extend chains.
Run鈥態ased Variety: Shops, events, elites, and bosses with different resist profiles make placement matter.
Paper鈥慣heater Style: Hand鈥慸rawn lines, cut鈥憃ut layers, and cozy stage lighting.
No Dead Turns: Even defense builds feel active via blocks, conversions, and smart queue tweaks.
Learnable Depth: Simple pieces, deep compositions鈥攍ike building a Rube Goldberg machine that fights back.
