Do people still complain about Hecate’s Essence? Not sure. It’s probably still relevant.
!!! This suggestion does not change anything about Hecate’s Essence. You can still explore the Far Reaches and hit the 1/12 to find a Hecate’s Essence on any generated island. This is an ALTERNATIVE METHOD that would exist alongside the current method.
TL;DR
“The Ritual of The Witch” is a Dark Sea mini feature that can be attempted in order to change your First Magic. Lore-wise and reward-wise, it is the same as finding a Hecate’s Essence, although you’re calling her directly rather than stumbling across her randomly. It is also (hopefully) about the same amount of effort as finding a Hecate’s Essence. However, the method of obtaining it requires more active, risky gameplay rather than safe, tedious gameplay.
The Method
To create The Ritual of The Witch, you’ll first need to travel to the Far Reaches of the Dark Sea, just like with Hecate’s Essence. You’ll also need a Paintbrush. Don’t forget it.
In the Far Reaches, all Monstrous Atlantean spawn structures (those little rocks or shipwrecks they guard with the chests) will additionally have a “Sealed Connection Fragment”, which is a large purple rock that emits a faint whisper (Hecate’s voice). This is a heavy object, and you’ll have to pick it up like you would a Sealed Chest and place it down manually. Additionally, picking up a Sealed Connection Fragment will cause the Atlantean guarding it to immediately aggro onto you, regardless of positioning or any potion effects (basic anti solo cheese, also intentionally adds multiplayer cheese). Bring it to your ship and sail away to escape the Atlantean’s wrath.
You can perform The Ritual of The Witch once you have 6 Sealed Connection Fragments. To create the ritual, bring the six onto stable land (it MUST still be inside the Far Reaches) and place them close together. An interaction prompt will appear, and you can then hold E to draw a hexagram. If the fragments weren’t already in a hexagon pattern, you then must place each one at an individual corner of the hexagram. Doing so will enable the ritual, at which point all you have to do is simply stand in the middle for ~5 seconds, which will give you the Hecate’s Essence prompt and allow you to change your First Magic. This, of course, destroys the ritual after changing your magic, so only one player can use it.
This obtainment method, compared to finding a Hecate’s Essence randomly, flips the Monstrous Atlantean dynamic by forcing you to interact with them rather than stealthily avoiding them. You can create The Ritual of The Witch much faster than it would take you to find a Hecate’s Essence, but it’s also much riskier because you have to figure out how to consistently and safely steal something from a level 300+ fucked up killing machine without dying. It’s not for every player, but the players who wouldn’t like this method would probably be fine with finding a Hecate’s Essence with the current method, and thus this method exists for the more skilled players who can figure out how to safely extract the Sealed Connection Fragments.
What’s the Point?
- I’m personally fine with how hard changing your First Magic is, and I personally don’t mind the grind to find a Hecate’s Essence. However, most players do mind, and several types of players (PVPers, people who can’t do long playsessions, etc) simply don’t have fun trying to get Hecate’s Essence. This alternative method doesn’t aim to be any easier, but instead appeal to those types of players, so that they can get the benefits of Hecate’s Essence by utilizing a playstyle they prefer. Rather than making the current method any easier, it can co-exist alongside this new method as two equally daunting tasks for the same reward, but requiring a different type of skill in order to appeal to a wider audience. It’s a good way to solve the complaints about Hecate’s Essence without making it substantially easier.
What About the Lore? - Hecate is pretty important, right? I think randomly finding a phone booth to her in the middle of the Dark Sea kind of undermines her prestige. In comparison, knowing about the ritual and having to go out of your way to try and contact her better establishes how important she is. This isn’t to say Hecate’s Essence should be removed, but I think The Ritual of The Witch fits just slightly better for establishing who Hecate is, and it’s still a fairly reasonable way of contacting Hecate, especially since you still have to be in the Far Reaches of the Dark Sea.
- Plus, this is still pretty hard to do. I think the difficulty of baiting/juking/outsmarting 6 Monstrous Atlanteans is hard enough to fit in the requirement of “changing your First Magic has huge implications and I don’t want it to happen very often”. I don’t believe there’d be any issues there.
- The Ritual of The Witch also opens up the possibility of non-magic users going to extreme lengths just for a chance to contact Hecate and learn magic that way. It’s not super relevant and doesn’t have to be possible, but you could totally use that at some point in the story. It’s a pretty fucking metal backstory for a strong character, anyhow.
How does the MC know how to do this??
Good point. If need be… - You could have to learn about Hecate through an Island secret or a book from a treasure chest before being able to perform The Ritual of The Witch. This would likely end up level locking this method, but that’s probably fine? Finding a Hecate’s Essence randomly wouldn’t be level-locked still.
- Alternatively or additionally, you could require the player to get Ritual Chalk from a treasure chest instead of using their Paintbrush, which would be a decent hint as to this existing. Obviously, the subtext when carrying a Sealed Connection Fragment could be used as a better hint, but every little bit counts.
This suggestion is a bit out there, and I know Vetex is very jaded regarding this topic, but Hecate’s Essence seems to be heavily disliked by many players because of the way you have to play to find it, and I think adding another method of contacting Hecate to accomodate for different playstyles would be the easiest way to address those complaints without harming the lore.