Affinities are special talismans that the player can choose from at the start of the run. The affinity system acts as the class-system in TOTA, in that the player can choose a single affinity that can slightly alter the playstyle of that run.
In order for the player to choose an affinity, they must have a single emblem to pay up. If not, they can choose to select an Empty Affinity which does nothing.
When entering the affinity selection room, the player will have a choice between 2 affinities. Each time the player re-enters the affinity selection room, 2 new affinities will be rerolled and placed on the podiums.
There is a small possibility that the affinity selection room will roll the same affinity twice on each podium.
Starting Relics[]
[v1.10] - Some affinities may also come with a starting relic which helps enhance the playstyle of that specific affinity. Starting items can be removed by the player or stored away if they do not feel like using them. Additionally, some affinities which have starting relics that the player has not unlocked yet on their save file will not appear when starting a run and must first be unlocked in order to play with them.
The Titan affinity revolves around the player having a larger health pool, but significantly slower movement speed. In order to best get around this hindrance, playing more passively from longer distances instead of training enemies is recommended.
Finding spells which can increase your movement speed will help greatly increase your survivability.
Scout
NONE
+10% Movement Speed every 15 levels
The Scout affinity will allow the player to slowly scale their movement speed as the run progresses. While having high movement speed is nice for being able to dodge attacks and train enemies, it can also be a downside. Learning when and when not to quickly run out of situations can help increase survivability.
Players can quickly earn EXP to level up their movement speed by abusing entity spawning mechanics from both spells and relics.
The Spirit affinity's playstyle works around the usage of collecting Soul Points, and using them to activate the starting relic.
It is recommended that you save up your Soul Points to use the starting relic is large waves so that you can achieve high damage outputs in certain situations.
Warrior
NONE
+Killing an enemy increases your melee damage momentarily.
The Warrior affinity will allow the player to deal small bursts of melee damage shortly after killing an enemy. In most cases, if the player is not playing close to hoards of enemies, it makes using this affinity's effect tricky.
It is recommended that the player tries and obtains spells and relics which compliments melee damage in order to deal massive damage outputs to enemies.
Additionally, using the player's wand to deal melee damage to enemies counts as using a melee weapon!
The Bloodthirsty affinity will allow the player to slowly scale their base melee damage over time as the run progresses. If the player manages to increase their melee damage to high enough amounts, it can become reliable in dealing high bursts of damage to nearby enemies.
Players can quickly earn EXP to level up their melee damage by abusing entity spawning mechanics from both spells and relics.
The Rushed affinity grants players faster overall mana production for their wand builds. Additionally, starting with an extra level of the Mana Recharge upgrade will allow the player to make stronger wands, while also sustaining them, much quicker into a run.
The Monarch affinity is a unique type of playstyle which encourages wand builds which produce high damage outputs at the cost of using large amounts of mana, while also discouraging wand builds which drain the wand's mana over time.
Using this affinity's starting relic can also allow for some specific effects occur which helps the player both defensively and offensively whenever they have downtime on their mana recharge.
It is worth mentioning that there are some specific ways in which the player can get around the locked mechanic of the Mana Recharge upgrade with items such as the 13 of Stars playing card.
Survivor
Voodoo Doll
+80% damage reduction at low health
The Survivor affinity is one of the safest playstyles in the game as it allows the player to take significantly more damage from all variety of damage sources whenever the player is at or below 4 HP(or 2 hearts).
If players are trying to experiment with new spells, relics, attempting to unlock new achievements, or even just wanting to play casually without much worry of dying, this affinity is best recommended.
The Growth affinity will allow the player to scale their max health over time the further their run progresses.
Using the bonus max health that is given by this affinity is also useful for other health-related game mechanics such as Blood Pacts.
If the player manages to make it to the final Spell Shop during their run, they will be able to gain up to 60% bonus max health(+6 hearts).
Chaos
NONE
+Occasionally applies a Madness debuff to nearby enemies
-Occasionally allow the Madness to consume you
The Chaos affinity is a dangerous playstyle which allows the player to passively deal high damage outputs to random enemies over time, while also keeping them constantly moving once they are affected by Madness.
The Madness effect that is applied to a random enemy occurs every 5 seconds. Additionally, the player will be effected by Madness every 60 seconds- meaning that the player will undergo the Madness effect at least once per wave.
The Brewer affinity is a utility-type of playstyle which will allow the player to easily obtain more special-type flasks which can only usually be sold from the Flask Booth.
The affinity's starting relic encourages players to build into different types of material spells in order to summon large amounts of temporary familiars more often.
Arthropod
NONE
+Occasionally zap a vex-type enemy
-Lightning produced can damage you
The Arthropod affinity is one of the more dangerous types of affinity which will allow the player to worry less about attacks from enemies in the Ethereal faction, but instead on where they currently are in relation to the player.
The lightning strikes that attack vex-type enemies will spawn every 10 seconds and will target a random enemy on the floor. Being able to keep distance from those enemies is greatly recommended in order to not take large amounts of damage to the lightning spawned.
Vampiric
Hemo Bombs
+Standing in blood heals you slightly
+Enemies occasionally create small blood pools when killed
-You lose health over time
The Vampiric affinity's main mechanic revolves around playing quickly and carefully in order to not lose too much health. The main downside of this relic is that the player will receive -1 HP of damage every 20 seconds whilst a wave is active.
Utilizing the starting relic that this affinity starts will help provide some additional health, as well as AoE damage, whenever the player uses bomb pickups.
Certain far more powerful spells which can easily produce blood pools such as Giblification and Blood Cordyceps will have their priority and effectiveness increase tenfold.
