Barklord, the dog - February 17, 2022

One of the bigger new additions to The Demon Rush: Legends Corrupt is Barklord, a pseudo-party member who can be customized and summoned in Story and Endless Dungeon (he can be recruited through a cutscene event in Story Mode or randomly in a treasure chest in Endless Dungeon).

In order to call Barklord, the currently-controlled player character must press the up button on Playstation 4 or Z on PC (default key) while blocking. When they do so, EVERY ability of that character will go on cooldown for 5 seconds (or have 5 seconds added to its active cooldown) and Barklord will appear and charge at the current party target with his main attack, Bark Raid. Barklord is invincible while on the battlefield, and he will disappear only on colliding with a wall or boundary -- he actively turns towards his target for up to one second before running in a straight line the rest of the way. Barklord will then be on a short cooldown of 5 seconds before being able to be called again.

Bark Raid is an attack that deals 20 base damage and inflicts Knockdown -- however, unlike other Knockdown attacks, Bark Raid IGNORES the Knockdown lockouts on recently or already knocked down enemies, making him the only character in the game (player or enemy) who is able to force Knockdown on enemies that normally can not suffer it at that time. Bark Raid is also considered a collision dash attack with no expiry, so Bark Raid can hit any and all enemies that come into contact with Barklord during his entire appearance on the battlefield.

Every time Barklord is called onto the battlefield, he gains 10 XP. Every 100 XP grants him 1 Daugmentor, which are his personal customization points. Like the playable characters and their Augmentors, Barklord can gain a maximum of 20 Daugmentors for customization.

Barklord's Customization

Barklord can be toggled off if you do not wish to use him, and he can also have a chosen Field Effect gain toggled on hit (Body, Mind or None), which makes him valuable for maintaining Body/Mind Field Effects (as playable characters already have elemental Weapons for Siphon Field Effects).

As stated above, Barklord can gain up to 20 Daugmentors, which can be applied to 6 different options up to a total of 10 times each.

A lot of Barklord's customization options are focused more on Bark Raid -- its base damage can be boosted up to 100, its Knockdown damage modifier can be boosted from 1.5x up to 2x, and Knockdown time can be extended from 2 seconds up to 3 seconds.

Barklord's other customization options are passive in nature -- he can apply a party HP regen of up to 5 HP/second while he is on the battlefield, he can reduce the ability cooldown his "summoner" suffers from 5 seconds down to 3 seconds, and he can reduce his own cooldown to be called again from 5 seconds down to 3 seconds.

Using Barklord effectively

Outside of calling out Barklord early on frequently to gain XP for him, he should only be called afterwards when needed, especially in optional endgame battles. If he is called too frequently or when he is not needed, the character calling him will frequently be unable to use their own abilities. Barklord is best called when your allies need some breathing room (or some HP Regen, if he is customized that way), or during a disadvantageous Field Effect, such as low movement for non-Earth characters during the Earth Field Effect, too many waterpools to navigate during the Water Field Effect, or the Body Field Effect being too dangerous to initially approach enemies.

Barklord's Future

Currently, there are plans in future expansions to provide Barklord with additional abilities and customization, which also includes plans to have higher maximum Daugmentors on gaining these abilities. More details will be provided as new abilities for Barklord release in these future expansions.