Invincible: The Hero-Building Game Design Diary 2 – The Makings of a Hero

May 28, 2024

Now available for pre-order!

The Guardians of the Globe are dead. The greatest heroes the world has ever known were all murdered in a single night. Which is why the fate of humanity now depends on a small handful of hormonal teenagers who happen to be able to fly and make things blow up.

Today, we’re going to take a look at the four playable heroes of Invincible: The Hero-Building Game. If you read our first preview article, you know that every game you’ll get to build a unique tableau of powers for your hero. That tableau starts with one of four hero characters: Atom Eve, Rex Splode, Robot, or, of course…

Each hero consists of three parts. First there’s the hero board itself, which offers an array of basic abilities. These differ in simple but meaningful ways from board to board. Invincible is super strong, and he tries his best to keep people safe, so he starts with a 2-damage basic attack and a Rescue ability.

Rex Splode on the other hand is a daredevil showoff who specializes in chucking exploding objects at bad guys. So his basic attack is weaker, but has Ranged, and in place of Rescue he starts with a Thwart ability – he’s more focused on messing up bad guys than saving civilians.

In addition, each hero gets two power cards to help define their playstyle and battlefield role. One is a Starter Power, which offers a tactically interesting means of attacking the bad guys. Invincible has the ability to knock bad guys around, pushing them away from endangered civilians…

…or maybe maneuvering them into position so that Rex can hit more than one of them with his Big ‘Splode attack:

After their first game, heroes will expand their capabilities with a “signature” power. Invincible’s “Going to the Limit” lends his teammates some of his Viltrumite endurance, letting them pull again safely.

Rex on the other hand isn’t really a “safety” guy. His Fire Up ability grants access to combustible Red Cubes, which can unlock some pretty potent damage combos (including with Big Splode!). And sure, they might hurt a little bit. What, are you scared or something?!

The Many Faces of Invincible

What hero you play only determines your starting point. From there, any hero can learn any power card, meaning they’ll evolve in different ways each game. Maybe you’ll have Rex bulk up and deliver a Beatdown, so he can put +1 damage counters on Big Splode. Or maybe Invincible, finding that he’s doing most of the rescuing for the team, will take a page out of Eve’s book and Turn the Tide.

But your hero’s starting powers do provide a subtle nudge towards on-theme builds, thanks to power types. Each power card has an icon in the upper left corner marking it as a might, energy, or tech power.

Some cards encourage you to specialize in one of these types, so if your starting powers already have that type, you’ve got a head start. For example, Big ‘Splode is an Energy power, so Rex can pump it up with Super Charge.

Other cards have the “Combo” keyword, which grants a bonus if you’ve used at least one other power of the same type this round. For example, Airlift will always let you move and thwart, but if you can use a might power first, it’ll also add a yellow cube to your bag:

That’s perfect for Invincible, both because he starts with two Might powers, and because his 2-damage basic attack means he’s especially happy to draw yellow cubes.

That said, if Invincible looks at his opening hand and sees a Defensive Mastery and a Utility Drone, he might decide this is the game he expands his technical horizons:

This freedom to explore different builds and combos guarantees that Invincible: The Hero-Building Game never plays the same way twice. It’s also key to making that theme of character growth shine through. Sure, in the comics Mark never gained a telescoping robotic arm, but he is constantly discovering new things about himself and new ways to approach problems, and that’s what we wanted to capture in the game.

That’s all the time we have for today. Next time, we’ll take a look at the villains and challenges you’ll face. See you then!