Understanding Variants — Breaking Down Familiars in Astral Revelations

What Are Familiars?

The various creatures you encounter and collect within Astral Revelations are known as Familiars. They fight on your behalf in battle and are an integral part of successfully progressing through the game. Without them, you're defenseless against the wide array of hostile forces you'll face.

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Element

Each familiar has an element when encountered:

• Fire (+++ATK)
• Air (+++AGI)
• Earth (+++DEF)
• Water (+++HP)

Each element provides a specific elemental stat bonus associated with its characteristics. This is the first and largest bonus a familiar receives when determining its overall stats.

When facing each other in battle, familiars can clash based on their elemental matchups:

Fire > Air > Earth > Water > Fire

Familiars receive a bonus or penalty during combat when attacking a familiar with a favorable (Fire vs. Air) or unfavorable (Fire vs. Water) elemental clash. Certain elements cannot clash (Fire vs. Fire or Fire vs. Earth) meaning no bonuses/penalties are applied.

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Race

Familiars also have an associated race:

• Daemons (++ATK)
• Avians (++AGI)
• Minogrin (++DEF)
• Aquarans (++HP)
• Fey (++FOC)
  • ?? (yet to be revealed)
  • Elementals

A familiar's race determines many things such as its elemental bias (the element its more likely to appear as), racial stat bonus, and possible evolution paths (i.e. Daemons cannot evolve into Minogrin).

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Type

Within each race, there are many types of creatures. Each race has at lease one type of familiar biased towards each element. This means that while Avians are primarily biased towards Air, there are types of Avians biased towards Fire, Earth and Water as well.

Summarizing Variants

Every familiar has an element, race and type that contributes to its overall stats. Despite carrying the smallest stat bonus, a familiar's type determines its "Base Form" and elemental variants. A Goblin, for example, is a Minogrin biased towards Earth:

Base Form

Because Goblins are biased towards Earth, Earth is its base form. The base form receives no additional primary stat bonuses, but it enjoys greater flexibility in evolution choices and a secondary stat bonus to Focus (determines how often elemental synergy is triggered).

Elemental synergy is a kind of combo system that generates additional combat effects when familiars of the same element are used together in battle. Base forms receive a Focus bonus to represent their greater ease in harmonizing with other familiars of the same element.

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Adjacent Variant

Since Earth is the base form, Air and Water—the two elements capable of clashing with Earth either favorably or unfavorably—are a Goblin's adjacent variants:

Earth > Water > Fire > Air > Earth

Adjacent variants are much less likely to appear than the base form and receive a modest bonus to all stats. This comes at the cost of fewer evolutionary paths and a less specialized stat distribution.

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Inverse Variant

This leaves Fire as the Goblin's inverse variant. It's called this because Fire and Earth are incapable of clashing while having the exact opposite (or inverse) elemental matchups. Inverse variants are even less likely to appear than adjacent variants, as they are the rarest elemental form for each familiar type.

These rare familiars receive large bonuses to all stats except Focus (meaning less elemental synergy) and have the fewest evolution paths available to them.

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More Examples

Using three other familiars we've revealed (Fire Orthrus, Air Hippogriff and Water Undine), here are their base forms and variants:

Next, we'll dig into the specifics for the Earth Goblin and its variants!

Special shoutout to @japex1226 for the amazing familiar art he continues to create!

Earth Goblin (Base Form)

Modifiers

Earth Goblins receive the following stat bonuses:

• Element: Earth (+++DEF)
• Race: Minogrin (++DEF)
• Type: Goblin (+DEF)
• Base Form (+FOC)

Evolution Paths

An Earth Goblin can evolve into any of the following familiars:

• Air/Water Goblin (adjacents)
• Fire Goblin (inverse)
• T2 Minogrin (all elements)

Ideal Uses

• Earth Adventure Team
• Generate $STELLARUM
• Forge T1 NFT Keystones
• Evolve into T2 Familiars

Air Goblin (Adjacent Variant)

Modifiers

Air Goblins receive the following stat bonuses:

• Element: Air (+++AGI)
• Race: Minogrin (++DEF)
• Type: Goblin (+DEF)
• Adjacent Form (++STATS)

Evolution Paths

An Air Goblin can evolve into any of the following familiars:

• Fire Goblin (inverse)
• T2 Air/Fire Minogrin

Ideal Uses

• Air Adventure Team
• Generate $STELLARUM/$ASTRA

Water Goblin (Adjacent Variant)

Modifiers

Water Goblins receive the following stat bonuses:

• Element: Water (+++HP)
• Race: Minogrin (++DEF)
• Type: Goblin (+DEF)
• Adjacent Variant (++STATS)

Evolution Paths

A Water Goblin can evolve into any of the following familiars:

• Fire Goblin (inverse)
• T2 Water/Fire Minogrin

Ideal Uses

• Water Adventure Team
• Generate $STELLARUM/$ASTRA

Fire Goblin (Inverse Variant)

Modifiers

Fire Goblins receive the following stat bonuses:

• Element: Fire (+++ATK)
• Race: Minogrin (++DEF)
• Type: Goblin (+DEF)
• Inverse Variant (+++STATS, except FOC)

Evolution Paths

• T2 Fire Minogrin

Ideal Uses

• Any Adventure Team
• Minogrin Adventure Team (advanced Keystone build)
• Generate $ASTRA

What About Prismatics?

If you've read our whitepaper or perused our Discord, you've probably seen "Prismatic" mentioned at one point or another. Prismatic familiars lack an elemental bias, as they are equally likely to appear as any element. This means they don't have variants in exchange for a small overall stat bonus and a large Focus bonus.

Prismatic familiars are intended to help fill gaps in elementally themed Adventure Teams and/or provide significant elemental synergy for triggering attack combo effects.

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Evo Fodder

Without variants, some of you might be wondering, "Why bother?"

In many pet evolution/fusion/merging games, a specific class of "fodder" exists for no other reason than to facilitate the upgrading of the main pets you're trying to collect. This feels like a wasted opportunity, so we've supplemented our "evo fodder" with additional utility.

In addition to being some of the most commonly required familiars for evolution paths, prismatics come in at slightly above average (thanks to bonus stats) with massive potential for combo plays (i.e. Focus stacking). For example, Adventure Teams built entirely of base forms and matching prismatics will have particularly high team Focus totals for triggering synergy effects.

Note: There will be Keystone upgrade paths that enhance elemental synergy.

Let's Recap!

Variants

Base forms provide the most flexibility, adjacent variants balance power with synergy, and inverse variants pile everything into one basket—raw stats. Greater power means (much) lower appearance rates and fewer (or more costly) evolution paths.

It's also worth pointing out that each variant will have different abilities aligned with their element. Variants will even provide unique opportunities for completing tasks or satisfying specific requirements during the main story, side quests, and other forms of content.

Having a good selection of variants will provide you with additional gameplay options.

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Prismatics

As an alternative to raw power, prismatics stack Focus to help fuel combo-based teams. They're equally likely to appear as any element—though they appear less often than base forms—and they forego variants altogether for above-average stats.

Prismatics make great filler and will rarely let you down in terms of performance.

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Stat Bonuses

Familiars receive bonus stats based on their element (+++), race (++), and type (+). Variants pile on even more stats (++ or +++), while prismatics pump the breaks on general stats (+) to take a detour towards Focus (++). Here's a handy cheat sheet:

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Staking Rewards

As alluded to in the usage section for each variant, not all NFT familiars are equal when it comes to generating $STELLARUM and/or $ASTRA when staked. Here's a list of what each kind of familiar generates when staked to Expeditions and/or Attunements:

(These amounts are proportional to the tier of each NFT involved in the staking process)

This means that stronger (Inverse) familiars aren't just useful for combat strength, they're also some of the best token generators when staked. If you plan on running Attunement generators, you'll first need to decide whether or not to stake some of your strongest familiars.

Getting Involved

If you're just now learning about Astral Revelations, come mingle in our Discord to get regular updates, ask any questions you might have, and hang out with your fellow gamers!

The first 500 people to do so can also receive a free NFT Wisp of their choice through our Wisp Giveaway, and you can learn about the current Starter Pack Presale if you're interested in participating in the Closed Alpha/Beta testing phases.

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You can also check out some of our earlier posts below:

INTRODUCING: Surgent Gaming — A Web3/Hive Game Development Studio
Astral Revelations — An isometric turn-based pet tactics RPG (built on Hive)
Astral Revelations — Whitepaper, Roadmap, Presale, and Giveaway!
Astral Revelations — Starter Pack Presale Details (Pre-registration Available!)
$STELLARUM — 1st Airdrop Complete & An Economic Preview!

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Stay tuned for more Astral Revelations deets!
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