Mistfall Hunter Review

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Mistfall Hunter is a dark fantasy extraction ARPG. Combine skills, talents, and gear for each class in thrilling combat! Whether you team up or go solo, one thing remains certain—only by fighting your way through can you return with a full haul. Good luck, Gyldhunter.

Set in the dying world of Weavereach, Mistfall Hunter puts you in the shoes of a Gyldhunter tasked with mending the Web of Fate. Brought back to life by Dew, guide of the Gyldhunters, you are told the gods have perished and you need to collect Gyldenblood in order to fix this “apocalypse without end.” With a camp seemingly detached from the corruption of the Gyldenmist, you will need to brave these corrupted lands, gather what resources you can, and safely return before the Gyldenmist retakes the area. While out on these journeys you will have to worry not only of the twisted monstrosities left by the Gyldenmist, but other Gyldhunters who are also trying to obtain resources from the world.

Ways to Play

There are 6 classes to choose from each utilizing different weapons and playstyles to choose from. Each class has specialized gameplans to focus on in the form of weapon choice, talent points, and skill selection. Levels in this game do not give you any increase in stats but unlock talent tree options, skills, and talent points with a max level of 12.

Mercenary – Equips a sword & shield and a warhammer, allowing 2 skills per weapon. Able to stay in close proximity to their target almost at all times with the largest pool of stagger resistant skills in the game. Both weapons are similar in what they provide in durability for a fight but play drastically different with their pacing and weight behind each swing. With the majority of skills and talents granting super armor or blocking frontal attacks, the mercenary is a well rounded melee option putting pressure on any target they decide to engage.

Sorcerer – Can only equip a staff while specializing in a magic type. You get a generic pool of skills to choose from for half your kit (3 skills), then must choose between Elemental or Stardust magic for the second half of your kit (3 skills). Elemental magic shines when utilizing the elements to create Elemental reactions, giving bonus effects to your spells. Stardust magic focuses on quicker casting and lower cooldowns. With diverse play options from skill choice and talent spread, the sorcerer has a lot of damage or utility to inflict on their target. All this while having to manage their own positioning in the fight, as they are more vulnerable when pressured and in melee (but do have access to a parry).

Blackarrow – Can only equip a bow but gets to choose 3 specialized arrow types. While the skills are impactful, your role in the fight heavily revolves around the arrow type choices. Ranging from on-hit effects like chain lightning to recon sonic arrows, you’ll have plenty of playstyle options with the 10 arrow types to choose from. Having access to 3 skills and 3 arrow types to swap between mid-match, Blackarrow gives constant ranged pressure in a fight with good options to disengage and re-engage targets.

Shadowstrix – Equips a dagger and dual blades with the option of 2 skills per weapon. While much more vulnerable to getting staggered as a melee class, they have access to stuns, gap-closers, and stealth to accommodate for this. Front loaded with a lot of damage and mobility, the Shadowstrix is an assassin of the battlefield producing a lot of damage and opportunities for follow-ups if they can get the jump on their prey.

Seer – Can equip a catalyst and a mace, but must choose between which weapon to specialize in. Unlike the other multi-weapon classes which can have skills equipped to both weapons, you must choose between Reverent and Blasphemer. The Reverent uses the catalyst as a more traditional ranged utility support class utilizing ‘Constructs’ and ranged attacks to assist the team. The Blasphemer pulls away from the traditional supportive role and applies more damage and displacement with their mace. While being able to equip both weapons and switch between them in a match, only one of your weapons will have skills equipped to them based on specialization.

Wither Knight – Can equip a greatsword and polearm & shield, gets the option of 2 skills per weapon or 3 skills on one weapon and 1 skill on the other. Most of the wither knights kit is based around applying a status to your target and using certain moves to trigger the status for a burst of damage or stacking debuff, depending on your talents. With access to limited super armor they focus on good mobility, parries, and blocking to gain ground and keep pressure applied in a fight. The wither knight is a versatile team player with the ability to apply relentless pressure or stall a fight with great defensive options.

The game starts off with only two options of play, solo or as a team of 3 on the map Hallowgrove, giving players a static place to learn their class and the pacing of combat. Players are given a timer for when the Gyldenmist will consume the area and have that time to do as they see fit. In the map you have extraction points, in-raid side missions, high value loot chests, elite creatures, and the Mist Lord displayed. Using this information you can start to gauge your plan of attack. Once the timer reaches zero the Gyldenmist will consume the entire area and attempt to corrupt you, like the monstrosities you’ve been fighting. A bar will start to fill above your healthbar of Gyldenmist corruption, once filled you will start taking constant damage until you extract or die.

Upon getting a character to level 5, a map with much more layered verticality, Brandrgarde, will be available to play. Brandrgarde has a gear value prerequisite and two map variants without the option for a solo queue, but unlike Hallowgrove the Gyldenmist acts more like a traditional battle royale. There will be a circle on the map representing the next ‘safe area’ and a timer indicating when the mist will start to encroach on said area. As the phases of the mist enclosure progresses, Returner Woodlings will spawn in next to players. Visible to all players through walls as pulsating sound waves, these woodlings drop bells so you can extract, unlike spawning a tree to interact with. Once a bell is acquired the player can choose the best time to use it, giving the player complete freedom on how long and how greedy they wish to be.

Rarer Loot and Harder Challenges

Once you have gotten a good feel for the game and your desire for more Gyldenblood, rare loot, or difficult challenges (both PvE and PvP) each map has a harder variant you can queue into.

Chaos mode for Hallowgrove, requiring a gear value of 800 (basically a full set of green gear)
Cataclysm for Brandrgarde, requiring a gear value of 2500 (full set of purple gear).

These map variants have stronger enemies with higher tier loot tables, giving the potential of massive payouts.

These greater rewards come with a greater risk, for the players you meet will also be better geared and more experienced on average.

Players in Chaos mode are rewarded for killing other players with an additional extraction method through a Soul Ferry, allowing players to extract if they can hand over 2 Soul Threads, a unique item dropped only by a dead player. If these layers of challenge were not enough to sate your desire and wish for only the rarest of loot and hardest of challenges, you can use the item Dried Flower Knot to upgrade the Mist Lord fight to their Einherjar difficulty. These variants of the Mist Lords are much harder with a higher demand for clean play and high damage output, but rewards the players with a chance of gaining the highest rarity of gear and items the game has to offer.

The Camp

What seems like the one safe place in this world, your camp is where you return after each expedition. The camp gives you a place to store your items, post items on the player market, forge new equipment, or just take in the scenery without the risk of death.

Upon getting a character to level 5 you gain the ability to upgrade the locations in your camp, 10 total. These upgrades and your Storage Box are shared amongst all your characters, with one of the locations unlocking more character slots as you upgrade it. The Tavern will be visited every time before queuing for a match. Sigrid at the tavern lets the player choose from up to 4 tiers of drink quality, giving the player increased stats of their choosing. These stats are in the form of Affixes, stacking passives that can compliment the player’s build. Each with its own unique purpose and max level, the camp gives you some of the game’s most essential mechanics to keep you playing inside the brutal world and genre the game is placed in.

A Brutal Genre that Lets You Play

The extraction genre is a very unforgiving and cutthroat genre, with you dropping all your hard earned loot and gear upon death. There are mechanics in place to help ease this punishing gameplay. First off there are items called Combat Bags, giving the player a ‘free’ loadout set at a certain value and rarity. You can obtain these Combat Bags consistently from a node in the camp, Twigs Mercenaries.

They can also be obtained as rewards during limited time events and given the devs as a thank you. You also have a way to secure pieces of loot regardless of death through an item called Pip’s Pouch. A way to soften the blow of death, Pip’s Pouch gives the player the ability to store 1-3 items, depending on the pouch’s rarity. The pouch can be upgraded temporarily with vouchers, ranging from 2-14 days. These vouchers are obtainable from a few quests and purchasable from the store once you upgrade it to level 4, which unlocks the Secret Shop tab. Since not every teamfight is won flawlessly, the game does have a system in place to return your lost gear if your teammate extracts with the gear you were wearing. After your teammate extracts your gear, it is immediately returned to you via the in-game mail system. No messy gear swapping after a death at the start of your next game.

Controversial Mechanics

There are a few game mechanics that Mistfall Hunter has which people have very strong opinions on. In a game where speed, path routing, and gap closing can mean the difference between life and death, there is no sprinting. There are movement speed buffs tied to certain skills and Affixes however. There is no lock-on system in the game. Yes, what is considered to be a staple to Action RPGs is missing. A very intentional choice from the devs, the lack of lock-on allows the player much more freedom in their movement in both offense and defense, because everything can crit. Your melee swings, projectiles, and even spells can be targeted at a weak point and gain bonus damage.

This means your fireballs can headshot players.

This combined with the lack of lock-on rewards players for aiming their spells or swings to get the most out of their damage.

Next, your stamina is not tied to your dodge rolls nor does doing your basic attacks consume stamina. Only your skills or heavy attack equivalents consume stamina. You have a separate dodge energy resource which allows 4 dodges in a row by default, number of dodges can be increased with Affixes. Additionally, there is a Breakaway mechanic in the game. When you take two hits in quick succession, you can Breakaway from your opponent giving you a large dash while invulnerable to damage. Breakaway has its own internal cooldown and does not consume your stamina or dodge resources. There is no animation canceling in the game. There might be follow-up attacks for certain skills, but everything you do is very committal and prone to being hit or staggered out of your skill if you don’t have super armor. All of these elements combined creates for a unique PvP experience that is both rewarding and very punishing.

The game is designed to be a 3 person team game, it does give you the option to play solo on the Hallowgrove map, but you can tell the intent behind their developmental choices were based on 3 person teams. This can be a deterrent if you don’t have friends that are interested in the game as well, but they do have an in-game matchmaking you can fill your team with or an official discord to find players with. Lastly, there is a global chat… and as you would expect, they don’t have anything productive to talk about in it.

Graphics– A very nice looking game with a lot of effort and detail put into the models and environment. Each class expresses their own identity, with gear rarity expanding upon that identity. Very fluid animations for both players and enemies. Gritty dark fantasy sprinkled with a bit of goon’ing.
Gameplay– An attempt at creating a freeform combat system in an ARPG that doesn’t fall too short from the mark. Simple at face value with a fair bit of nuance to learn if you are to master it. A good blend of PvPvE with built in systems to help ease the brutal nature of extraction games. One of the most consistent enjoyment factors I have experienced in the extraction genre.
Sound– Not much in the sense of music, but has what you would want from an extraction game. Skills, player movement, interactions, and enemies all have identifiable sounds to assist or obscure your situational awareness. You generally know when players are nearby and at times what class is present due to audio cues
Controls– The controls are simple and each class gets its own keybinds to allow comfortable play across all classes. Weapon swapping feels a bit rigid. Manipulating the menus, looting, or accessing the map is not a chore for either input method. Each menu or vendor might have a bit too many tabs with even more sub-tabs at first glance, but you only need to interact with about a quarter of them regularly.
Story– The game has a story to set the dark fantasy setting they want to portray. A hopeless world on the brink of destruction/rebirth more so giving you tasks just to give you something to focus on in your runs. Nothing too standout’ish but pretty easy to follow.

Final Thoughts

Pros:

Dark Fantasy setting

Unique classes that play differently from each other

Rewarding combat system to master

Cons:

Daunting number of menus at first glance

Female armor skins are goon-pilled

Server latency can make combat difficult to pilot at times

I highly recommend Misftfall Hunter

If you are a fan of extraction games or action RPGs, you’ll find something for you in this gem. Was not the highest of highs or the lowest of lows, but was easily the most consistent enjoyment I have had in any extraction game I have played. The combat feels rewarding when played well and punishing when not. My biggest complaint past not having enough friends who play it would be if you have a build or gameplan based around weapon swapping, you’ll be having a harder time than others. Most everything feels fluid in the game, but weapon swaps. The amount of times I thought I swapped weapons after an animation finished and didn’t or thought it didn’t swap and re-equipped my first weapon is far too many to count. There are also the occasional server issues and heavy sexualization of the female vs male armor skins, but not quite as impactful as the rigidness of weapon swapping for me.