Dualborn: Dragonfall

Dualborn: Dragonfall

Dualborn: Dragonfall is a compact, top-down fantasy action RPG made in PICO-8. As Prince Theodor, explore Azuraan, fight roaming creatures, gather gold and combine two of four character classes before facing the red dragon.

The twist is in the order: your first class grants an exclusive primary bonus, while your second provides only its two standard skills. Choose carefully—Warrior/Wizard and Wizard/Warrior are not quite the same hero.

Your journey

Explore the land, defeat enemies and open chests to earn gold and XP. Seek out class trainers, learn two complementary classes, equip your preferred abilities and improve them as you level.

Enemies award XP and drop gold. Levelling grants one skill point, raises maximum health and mana, fully restores both, and opens the Attributes menu once you have chosen a class.

Defeat restarts the adventure, so each attempt is a complete run through Azuraan.

The dual-class system

Your first class costs 10 gold and becomes your primary class. It provides two standard skills and an exclusive primary bonus.

Afterward, visit a different trainer to learn a secondary class for 30 gold. Secondary classes grant their first two skills, but not their primary bonus.

Warrior

• Sword: Fast, dependable physical melee damage.
• Axe: A heavier physical attack that can briefly halt and slow enemies, while piercing some armor.
• Primary bonus — Armor: Spend points to reduce incoming physical damage.

Hunter

• Bow: Fires arrows in the direction you are facing and pierces part of an enemy’s armor.
• Trap: Place traps that damage, slow and may hold enemies in place. You begin with one active trap; higher Trap ranks allow two and eventually three.
• Primary bonus — Tame/Pet: Hold the assigned Tame button near a bat, crab, bird or wolf to befriend it. You may have one pet, which follows you and attacks nearby enemies. Pet ranks increase its damage.

Flying creatures do not trigger traps.

Wizard

• Fireball: A magical projectile that can leave enemies burning.
• Ice: A magical projectile that slows enemies and may freeze them completely. Ice ranks improve the freeze chance.
• Primary bonus — Mana: Each rank increases maximum mana.

Fireball costs 10 mana and Ice costs 7. Some creatures resist magic or react differently to fire and ice.

Druid

• Wolf Form: Hold the assigned button to transform. Wolf form is quick and uses a fast bite attack.
• Bear Form: Hold to transform into a slower, harder-hitting bear with additional health and stronger knockback.
• Primary bonus — Roots: Fire a seed that can root an enemy and damage it over time.

Wolf Form costs 15 mana and lasts 30 seconds. Bear Form costs 40 mana and lasts 15 seconds. Roots costs 30 mana. Mana does not regenerate while transformed, and your other assigned button is unavailable until the form ends.

Example pairings

A primary Warrior with secondary Wizard gains Sword, Axe, Fireball and Ice alongside the Warrior’s Armor bonus.

Reverse the order and you receive the same four attacks, but Mana replaces Armor as your primary bonus. Class order matters.

Skills and attributes

You can carry many learned abilities, but only two may be active at once—one assigned to X and one to O.

Open Skills from the PICO-8 pause menu to choose your assignments. Open Attributes to spend skill points on abilities belonging to your learned classes. Each upgrade costs one point and may reach rank 5.

Attack ranks generally improve damage. Certain attributes also improve special effects, including Ice’s freeze chance, Trap capacity and Pet damage.

Controls

Default keyboard controls

• Arrow keys: Move
• X: Use the skill assigned to X
• O/Z: Use the PICO-8 O button and its assigned skill
• Enter or P: Open the PICO-8 pause menu

In menus

• Up/Down: Choose an option
• X: Select, purchase or assign to X
• O/Z: Assign the highlighted skill to O
• Left: Close the current game menu

Interacting

Stand beside a trainer or chest and press X.

Attacks and projectiles follow the hero’s horizontal facing direction. Holding a ranged attack button keeps that direction locked, allowing you to move backward without turning around.

Combat and survival

Weapons deal physical damage, while Fireball and Ice deal magical damage. Enemies may have armor, magic resistance, elemental weaknesses or immunity to burning, so changing tactics can make a large difference.

Mana regenerates automatically outside transformations. After four seconds without fighting, health also begins regenerating quickly as a percentage of maximum health.

Snow is dangerous: it slows movement and steadily drains health. The right trainer purchases can make snowy journeys considerably safer.

The HUD shows health, mana, XP, level and gold. Running out of health ends the run.

Gold, trainers and purchases

Gold comes from defeated enemies, loose coins and treasure chests. Chests contain 5–15 gold and also restore 10 health and 10 mana while granting 10 XP.

Training costs:

• Primary class: 10 gold
• Secondary class: 30 gold

Each trainer also sells a permanent item:

• Warrior’s Coat — 45 gold: Prevents health loss in snow.
• Hunter’s Boots — 35 gold: Improves movement speed in snow.
• Wizard’s Amulet — 55 gold: Penetrates half of an enemy’s magic resistance.
• Druid’s Talisman — 65 gold: Extends Wolf and Bear transformations by 50%.

After purchasing a trainer’s item, that trainer can provide a full heal for 100 gold. This is easy to overlook—and occasionally very useful.

A few useful notes

• You begin with a simple stick before learning any class skills.
• Attacking an enemy alerts it, even from outside its usual detection range.
• Traps replace the oldest placed trap when you reach your current limit.
• Pets only seek enemies near the hero and return when no target is nearby.
• Some attacks push enemies backward; Bear Form produces stronger knockback.
• Chests must be opened from an adjacent tile with X.
• Hitting a berry bush with a melee weapon, grant a bit of health.
• Keep an eye on resistances, status effects and terrain rather than relying on one attack for every encounter.

Made for PICO-8

Dualborn: Dragonfall is a PICO-8 game. Your purchase includes standalone versions for Windows, macOS and Linux, plus the original PICO-8 cartridge.