| The Bazaar | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Gameplay & Story | Release Date | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
The Bazaar is an asynchronous action roguelike multiplayer game where you buy items, synergize builds, and try to reach the top. Read on to learn about our first impressions of the game, its story, and gameplay.
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The Bazaar Gameplay
The Bazaar’s gameplay loop kicks off as players select a Hero, which defines their general playstyle and narrows the pool of items available for that run, shaping their strategy from the outset.
After choosing one of three free starting items, players dive into their first day, structured around six unique hours. Each hour introduces a new event, bringing opportunities to improve their build through merchant interactions, NPC combat, and other miscellaneous events. The day’s finale pits players in an intense DPS race, where their carefully chosen items face off against other players' builds in an auto-combat showdown.
Auto-Battle Mechanics
In combat, players rely on an arsenal of Items that activate automatically on cooldowns. These Items do everything from dealing damage, empowering other Items, and healing, to shielding, burning enemies, or even dismantling opponent setups.
At the end of each run, rewards are given based on the number of player fights won, with a maximum of 10 victories. Prizes include cosmetics, new item packs, and unique collectibles.
Drafting, Buying, Selling, and Income Mechanics
The Bazaar offers players a rich array of opportunities to enhance, diversify, and personalize their collection of synergistic Items through an extensive drafting system. Players can gain new Items either by visiting a merchant or by defeating NPC creatures in battles. When they encounter a merchant, players can purchase Items with in-game currency, Gold. After defeating creatures, they’re rewarded with a random item from the defeated foe’s collection.
Gold serves as the game’s primary currency during each run, and players earn more at the start of each day based on their Income value. Income can fluctuate based on item effects and random events, with some items even scaling in power based on Gold or Income.
If players need more funds or no longer require an Item, they can sell it at any time, receiving half of its original selling price (or its adjusted value if affected by other item effects).
EXP, Item Size, Skills, and Stash Mechanics
In addition to Items, players have other ways to increase their chances of defeating the next opponent. The main mechanic that boosts player power as time progresses is the game’s EXP system. Players earn 1 EXP for every event completed in each of the day’s 6 hours, with additional EXP available through special items or certain in-run events.
When a player’s EXP bar fills, they Level Up, gaining access to a new passive bonus. These bonuses can enhance damage, add shields, boost health, or even provide free Items.
Leveling up also expands the player’s Stash and Rug areas. Both areas have 10 slots each, used to store active and inactive Items. The Stash can hold items not currently in use, where their cooldowns won’t activate, though some passive effects may still apply.
The Rug area, initially limited to 4 slots but expanding by 2 slots with each level up (up to a maximum of 10 slots), holds active Items that trigger both cooldown and passive effects during combat.
Each Item in The Bazaar has a size—Small, Medium, or Large—taking up 1, 2, or 3 Item Slots in the Stash or Rug, respectively. If there aren’t enough slots available in an area, the Item cannot be added there.
Stats and Status Effects
In The Bazaar, both players and Items have unique stats that determine their roles in battle and influence events between encounters.
The player’s primary stat is Health, which includes Max Health, Healing, and Regen. Health represents the total damage a player can take before losing a battle, while Max Health sets the limit on Health a player can maintain. Healing restores Health through specific Items or events, and Regen is a steady flow of Healing provided by certain Items and events.
Another key stat is Damage, primarily associated with Items. Damage determines how much Health is reduced from an opponent when an Item is triggered. It includes sub-types like Crit, Burn, and Poison. Crit delivers a boosted damage amount with a chance to trigger randomly. Burn inflicts ongoing damage over time, while Poison also damages over time but lasts longer and doesn’t decrease with time.
Shield is another frequent stat, acting as extra protection beyond Max Health that reduces incoming damage. When Shield is active, Burn and Poison effects are less effective, halving their damage and causing them to fade faster.
Finally, Cooldown controls the timing of each Item’s activations. This timer, set by an Item’s profile, can be influenced by effects like Slow, Haste, Freeze, Multicast, and Charge. Slow decreases the speed of Cooldown progression, while Haste speeds it up. Charge fills a portion of the Cooldown instantly, and Freeze stops Cooldown progression temporarily. Multicast allows an Item to activate multiple times in one go, enhancing its impact.
Skills, Upgrades, and Item Tiers
Players can also acquire powerful Skills through Merchants or random events, providing passive boosts that enhance one or more of their stats or those of their Items. Skills are highly situational but can make a significant impact when used strategically.
Both Skills and Items can be upgraded through four tiers: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Diamond. Each tier upgrade brings a substantial boost to the Skill’s effect or the Item’s stats. Upgrading is achieved by acquiring duplicate copies, with each new copy advancing the tier by one level.
The tier availability of Items depends on the progression of days in the game. Early days only offer Bronze Items, while later days unlock higher-tier Items in ascending order. Some Skills and Items are exclusive to specific tiers, meaning certain powerful effects only appear on later days, increasing their likelihood of being available when players need them most.
The Bazaar Story Plot
The Bazaar Story
In The Bazaar, players take on the role of different colorful characters, each with their own ambitions and motives for coming to the Grand Bazaar.
A bustling marketplace where seemingly anything and everything can be found, travelers come from the farthest reaches of the galaxy to attain their deepest desires. Some want revenge, others want redemption, and some just want to cook. At the Bazaar, all walks of life can be found.
The Bazaar Setting
If there’s a dream to chase or a fortune to seek, The Bazaar is the place to make it happen. Known across countless worlds as a land of opportunity, it welcomes everyone, from the downtrodden to the ambitious, each hoping to make a name for themselves in its bustling heart.
Within its sprawling marketplaces and specialty shops, treasures of every kind await eager hands. Here, artisans, adventurers, rogues, and the noble-hearted alike stand on equal ground, competing for influence and fame in The Bazaar’s ceaseless game of power. Yet, in this ever-shifting arena, no one knows who will ultimately claim victory.
The Bazaar Characters
Vanessa
Vanessa hails from the island nation of Pelagos, where she and her loyal crew have been resisting a brutal tyrant who recently seized control of their homeland. She’s come to The Bazaar to rally resources and gather allies, and she’s not afraid to use intimidation or cunning to get what she needs. In The Bazaar, Vanessa embodies pure aggression and dominance, and her playstyle mirrors this intense approach.
Pygmalien
Not much is known about Pygmalien’s backstory, but his gameplay style has been a focal point in recent balance patches due to his impressive stat-ramping potential. Unlike other contenders, Pygmalien’s strategy in The Bazaar revolves around accumulating wealth and bolstering his strength over time, rather than relying solely on weapon damage.
Dooley
Though Dooley takes the spotlight as the protagonist of The Bazaar’s main trailers, their backstory remains largely mysterious. What we do know is that Dooley’s playstyle is shaped by their robotic nature, allowing them to integrate with other robots around The Bazaar and evolve through upgrades centered on their core.
Mak
Mak is a master alchemist whose playstyle focuses on his potions, tinctures, tools, and infusions. Built with limited, but powerful, buffs in mind, Mak uses his knowledge of substances that burn, freeze, slow, and poison to his advantage...if he doesn't run out of ingredients first.
Stelle
Stelle is a skilled mechanic and pilot who sees the skies as her home. Currently, she runs her own workshop in the Tower District of the Bazaar, proving affordable repairs to those with lesser means. She specializes in using vehicle items and capitlizing on the Flying mechanic.
Jules
The center of a true rags-to-riches story, Jules started out on an unnamed "gross, dead planet," where gathering food was a deadly affair. Now, Jules is a successful restaurateur and celebrity chef in the Bazaar. Aptly, Jules' builds revolved around using food to buff herself and debuff her opponents.
Karnok
Having grown up surrounded by death and danger, Karnok is a hyper-aggressive and skilled combatant. Deadly as he is, Karnok can transform into a savage, bloodthirsty beast at will. His builds revolve around straight-up aggression, stacking up Rage to unleash immense amounts of damage.
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