Warchasers: Vanguard​

A co-op dungeoneering RPG for Warcraft III

Made by: Alucard Vanguard

Overview​

Warchasers: Vanguard is a large-scale, non-melee RPG built for cooperative play, with roguelite elements layered on top of a structured dungeon crawl. Players form a party of 3–5 (5 recommended) and fight their way through a pirate town and the dungeons beneath it, battling boss encounters and their attendant trash mobs while building out their characters through a deep, discovery-based item crafting system.


This isn't a hero-arena or tower-defense map — it's a dungeon crawl where no two runs play out the same way: enemy spawns are randomized and weighted, bosses are randomized rather than fixed, and drops vary run to run. Progression is driven entirely by what you find and craft, not by a save/load system, so each session is played start to finish.

Story / Premise​

You are a spirit seeking redemption. Bound to one last task before you can be free of your past, you're sent into a pirate town to hunt down and destroy the Pirate Lord who rules it. Whether you succeed or fall, this is your chance to make things right.

Key Features​

• 5-player co-op campaign through a pirate town hub and connected dungeon areas
• 15 playable heroes across 4 roles (Tank, DPS, Support, Healer), each with a distinct kit and mechanical identity rather than palette-swapped abilities
• Roguelite run variety — enemy spawns are randomized and weighted, bosses are randomized rather than fixed, and item drops vary, so each run through the town and dungeons plays out differently
• Boss encounters with dedicated trash waves, each managed by its own spawner logic so fights escalate predictably rather than via random spam
• Discovery-based crafting system — no recipe book handed to you up front; items hint at what they combine into, and figuring out the crafting tree is part of the game
• No save/load — each playthrough is a self-contained run with the party

Heroes​

Warchasers: Vanguard currently features 15 heroes spread across 4 roles: Tank, DPS, Support, and Healer. Many heros are inspired by WoW but some fully original.

The Crafting System​

Gear in Warchasers: Vanguard isn't found pre-rolled — it's built. The crafting system centers on 100 unique craftable items, organized in a tiered structure around two consumable catalyst items:

• Catalyst and Greater Catalyst — used to combine and upgrade items up the tier chain
• Tier 2 items — intermediate items, each built around a single primary stat or defensive trait, designed to be combined further
• Tier 2.5 items — unique boss-drop items, distinct from the standard crafting progression
• Tier 3 items — final-tier unique items, the end product of the crafting tree, each with a distinct named identity and effect

On top of the craftable set, there are 25 additional unique items that drop directly and cannot be crafted, giving runs extra item variety outside the crafting tree.


There's no recipe list handed to players — items are designed to hint at their own combinations, so working out the crafting tree is part of the discovery loop. Nothing is saved between sessions; you build your kit fresh each run.


The system is deliberately built to cut down on analysis paralysis: rather than scrolling through dozens of recipes to find the right combination, the hint-based design is meant to get you to a craft faster, keeping crafting time low without sacrificing the discovery element.


Planned: Crafting Coupons — a rare drop that reveals the recipe for a specific item and grants a rebate when that item is crafted.

Boss Encounters​

Each game draws from a pool of 20 unique bosses across 6 encounters, with boss selection randomized rather than fixed — though the randomness is only partial: each of the 6 encounters has its own consistent core mechanic, and what changes run to run is which boss fills that slot, not the underlying fight structure. So the lineup you face — and the drops you get from it — won't be the same from one run to the next, even though each encounter still tests the same fundamental mechanic.