About

Salt the Earth is an RTS (technically) that is unlike any other RTS game. In Salt the Earth, there are no resources to gather, no buildings to construct, and no story or quest objective. Salt the Earth is primarily a multi-player pvp experience that focuses on a high degree of control over army composition and playstyle.

In Salt the Earth, you put together an army of different units that have abilities (this is called a build), and queue up for 1v1 or 2v2 matches. Each match is a best-of-three rounds deathmatch.

Races

There are currently 5 playable races in Salt the Earth including the Humans, Orcs, Undead, Demons, and Dwarfs. Each race is unique with its own roster of units and racial theme:

• The Humans offer a variety of uility spells and achieve victory through strong unit synergy.
• The Orcs crush their enemies with lightning magic and powerful spells to bolster their units.
• The Undead wear down their enemies through attrition, resurrecting from the dead until they are the only ones left standing.
• The Demons ravage their enemies with fire magic and by summoning more demons from the abyssal planes to aid in their fight.
• The Dwarfs shrug off almost all physical damage and utilize their intellect in engineering to construct machines of war.

Salt the Earth will continue to release additional races as the game progresses. We hope to have over a dozen races towards the end of the game. Each race will be released as a standalone 'DLC' product on Steam, for a very low price, and will be completely optional.

Units

There are currently 38 unique units in STE. Each race has a different focus on total numbers of units and which type of units they bring into the field. Generally units fall into these categories:

Infantry

These make up the bulk of any army. They often have only one or two abilities and they are usually passive.

Tanks

A sub-category of infantry, tanks are often larger, have more health, and some defensives abilities. These units are meant to take damage.

Champions

Another sub-category of infantry, champions are the damgae delealers of the front lines. Champions often have powerful melee attacks.

Ranged

Using ranged weapons like, bows, crossbows, guns, or thrown spears, ranged units provide offensive support from behind the infantry line.

Mages

Utilizing powerful magic, mages can provide helpful utility magic (teleportation, summoning, etc) or devastate enemy lines with magic.

Priests

Another sub-category of the mage, the priest is more heaviliy focused on providing support than doing damage. This sub-category includes priests, clerics, shamans, and other supporting casters.

Giants

Salt the Earth has a variety of large units that can be melee, ranged, or caster, but always brings something interesting to the field with its large size and high health pool.

Heroes

These are named units (ex: Orkhan, Ghorgamon, etc) and have a large number of abilities. They are extremely powerful and the center of attention on the battlefield.

Abilities

Abilities play a huge role in Salt the Earth. Almost every unit has some number of abilities, and the game currently has over 100 abilities at launch. Here are the basics of how abilities work:

• Each unit has between 0 and 5 ability slots.
• Each ability slot can hold either an active or passive ability.
• A passive ability is an ability that happens without the player having to do anything.
• An active ability is an bility that requires a key press from the player in order to activate (E, R, F, C, T).
• Each ability has an ability cost and raises the cost of that unit.

Basic Abilities

Some units have base abilities which do not need to be purchased and cannot be removed.

Modifier Abilities

Some units have modifier abilities which change the way another ability works.

Ultimate Abilities

Some units have ultimate abilities which enable the player to active extremely powerful effects.

Builds

Builds are a way of saving an army composition so that you can join the queue with that composition.

Each build represents a different way of playing a race. For example, you could play the dwarfs with a focus towards their engineering strenghts, or you could play lightning-heavy orc build, etc.

Changing the abilities or the number of unist completely changes how a race plays on the battlefield.

Progression

Salt the Earth has many races, units, and abilities. If a player were to have everything unlocked at the start of the game, the number of possible combinations would be overwhelming. Instead, Salt the Earth has a progression system built in.

This means that as players play games, they receive a currency to unlock new races, units, and abilities. Players earn more of this currency when they win a game, but some amoutn is awlays rewarded. Races are the most expensive to unlock, then units, then abilities.

Our progression system is structured in a simlar way that some games to 'talent trees'. The race unlock icon is in the center, followed by the units that race has. Then that unit is surrounded by its abilities, and if an ability has a modifier ability, then are shown even further out.

When you start the game, you'll be able to choose a starting race which will also unlock a few units. Additionally, you'll be given some starting money so you can choose to unlock a few more units or abilities. After that, you'll have to play games to unlock more races, units, and abilities.

In Salt the Earth, we believe that players should work to unlock new content, but also believe that this work shouldn't feel like a grind either. Unlocking everything will take time, but not an unresable amount of it.