Nobody will say that Inkulinati is a simple game if they've played it for more than a few minutes. Gamers must constantly manage the upkeep of their units, status effects, and avoid instant death. The simple style of the presentation is ridiculously deceptive.
For these reasons, it's so important to have the right talents in Inkulinati to help out behind the scenes. With so much to think about, players will need talents that enhance abilities or improve the battlefield in ways that they don't have to constantly manage.
Handy Business
- Grants 4 drops of living ink if a hand action kills a beast.
Players don't get to select all of their talents, so sometimes gamers will have to adjust and select the best talents available. Handy Business is inconsistent as getting hand kills isn't all that common, but those who play aggressively will find a kill or two. When farming up prestige on lower difficulties, this can be a nice living ink boost when attaching the weaker beasts on the field, converting offense into even more offense.
Healing Explosions
- Tiny Inkulinati will regain 2 health for every explosion during the battle.
Healing moves often have long cooldowns and are unreliable. But each map usually has a few explosives. It won't matter who detonates them, so opponents that count on dealing damage with explosions will find they are inadvertently healing the player's Tiny Inkulinati. Players can draw beasts that explode to control the healing on their own.
Healing Grief
- When a friendly beast dies, Tiny Inkulinati will regain 2 health.
Having the find out what quills do means dying and coming back. Starting the same fight over isn't limitless; eventually the quills will run out and players will have to start over from scratch. With talents like Healing Grief, this will be much less likely. Even in a disaster where the gamer's whole army gets wiped out, their Tiny Inkulinati will be topped off on health going into the next chapter.
Daily Supper
- Friendly beasts regain 2 health at the beginning of each chapter.
Especially with valuable units, Daily Supper is a heal that automatically happens as players progress. Two health points may not sound like much, but think of every time that a beast either gets killed or kills another but just a fraction. Those fractions will benefit the player who has Daily Supper keeping the team strong.
Mourning Business
- Grants 3 drops of living ink for every friendly beast that dies.
Getting more living ink will be a problem for even the most veteran players. As beasts die, they usually take all of their ink cost with them. But the Mourning Business makes these losses much easier to endure. A crafty gamer will intentionally create high-risk units early to attack once and get killed, paving the way for more expensive units to arrive on the field earlier than the opponent is anticipating.
Inky Business
- Grants 2 drops of living ink at the beginning of each chapter.
Many methods of getting living ink involve adjusting the preferred playstyle. Players will have to stand in certain, non-advantageous squares to acquire ink or perform a specific move they would rather save for a more meaningful moment. Inky Business is fantastic because it doesn't require a specific strategy. As the game goes on, the stacks of living ink will also increase automatically.
Scorching Flames
- Fire sparks deal an additional 1 damage.
It must be mentioned that Scorching Flames is only recommended for those using the best beasts in their army. The devils are immune to fire sparks, so increasing the damage of fire sparks is no harm to them, just be sure to move the Tiny Inkulinati to safety at the end of every chapter. For players who cover the battlefield with fire sparks, Scorching Flames becomes a direct damage upgrade, even for enemies that would ordinarily be tucked away safely.
For The Love Of Fire
- Fire sparks will appear on the battlefield at the beginning of each chapter.
In conjunction with the previous talent on the list, For The Love Of Fire will make covering the field in flames an inevitability. The bestiary doesn't say it, but these flames tend to target enemies more than the player's units, filling up their side of the field with fire while keeping the friendly side relatively clear. This creates pressure on an opponent's Tiny Inkulinati, forcing them to move toward danger. Keep in mind that a Bellow-Wielding Devil can instantly kill any unit in these flames, too.
Cheaper Than Cheap
- Beasts with a base cost of 6 or less are 1 drop of living ink cheaper.
Managing boredom stacks is only one way to keep beasts cheap. The talent Cheaper Than Cheap takes all of the units that cost six living ink or less and reduces their cost by one. Throughout a fight, this saves tons of ink and can turn one or two combatants into three or more. These waves of cheaper units might not seem threatening, but this talent will allow players to keep their army fully staffed at all times, often giving the opponent too many targets to try and take down at once.
Cheaper Beasts
- All beasts a 1 drop of living ink cheaper.
The only thing better than making cheap units cheaper is making all beasts cheaper. Cheaper Beasts makes those expensive units more affordable. Take all those times when living ink is just one short and suddenly that big, terrifying beast becomes affordable. This also stacks with Cheaper Than Cheap directly, taking a unit that costs five living ink and bringing it down to three. That's an absurd advantage for players who manage to get both talents in the same run.
Inkulinati is available now for PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.