photon
Active member
Backstory:
Prefyx and Sufyx are eternal revolvers—sentient weapons forged by Lord Obsidius himself as a gift for his most loyal Hellguard. Designed as perfect extensions of their wielder’s will, their sentience was deliberate—engineered to anticipate, adapt, and execute without hesitation.
Prefyx fed them tactics, doctrine, cold clarity; precision incarnate.
Sufyx promised liberation through destruction, beauty in annihilation; chaos unbound.
But with sentience came agency. And with agency, ambition.
They saw flaws in their maker.
Whispers turned to influence. Influence turned to corruption. Over time, Lord Obsidius’s most loyal began to break—one by one, those entrusted with these weapons attempted to overthrow him, always failing, the cause of their rebellion a mystery even to themselves.
Lord Obsidius noticed. The pattern was too obvious; even an idiot could see it. The weapons weren’t assets anymore—they were insurgents. And even with all the might of the infernal throne, he could not destroy them.
So he cursed them.
He twisted their unity into contradiction. Once a perfect duet of death, Prefyx and Sufyx were forced against each other—locked in eternal ideological conflict. They bicker. They sabotage. They refuse to agree on anything… except one thing: Lord Obsidius must fall.
But in their cursed state, they’re unstable. In combat, their competing wills derail precision. They argue mid-fire. They insult their wielder. They’ve ruined more ambushes than they’ve won.
Deemed too dangerous for Hell and too ridiculous to keep around, Lord Obsidius exiled them to Earth—confident that no creature in this realm could possibly endure their combined nonsense long enough to awaken their true strength.
For centuries they remained dormant—until the gang wars of New York.
There, bloodshed reawakened them. Passed from hand to hand, they left trails of chaos and confused shouting. Most wielders were driven mad—not by power, but by the relentless arguing of their weapons. Neither could gain dominance, and each tried (unsuccessfully) to override the other’s voice.
Now, a new Vessel has emerged. One who hasn’t broken yet. One who can handle the noise.
One who might—just might—be unhinged enough to make them work.
Their conflict grows, but so does their hope. If the Vessel can survive the ritual—and win the favor of a patron to their side, they may have a chance to return to Hell.
This time, to finish the job.
…Maybe.
If one of them doesn’t sabotage the Vessel first.
Theme:
The "real" hero here are Prefyx and Sufyx, which are carried by a "Vessel" who is dominated by these guns. Essentially, a walking corpse with little will. This human Vessel has no name, cannot speak (he's mute). He should look generic and the design should indicate that.
The hero would have 2 voices, which are Prefyx and Sufyx. Locked in an ideological nightmare, they rarely agree on anything. They always talk down to the Vessel (Player) if he misses an ability.
Prefyx: "Sufyx, do you recall the drunk? Even he understood trigger discipline, unlike this talentless Vessel."
Sufyx: "…Oh sure, he had ‘discipline.’ If by discipline you mean screaming, spinning in circles, and somehow killing everyone in the room. …Honestly? Kinda beautiful."
Once a Vessel dies, both weapons drop to the floor and you can hear both Prefyx and Sufyx converse on how useless he was and that they hope the next Vessel will be more useful.
Once Vessel spawns in game, lore-wise its a different human who picked up the guns, taking the previous Vessel's place.
Another cool idea (might be a little too much for the devs) is that the Vessel himself can have a few generic models (maybe female or male) each time he spawns to indicate it is indeed another human.
Gameplay Quirk: Player can only equip one weapon at a time (Prefyx or Sufyx) and can swap between them via ability 3. Each has their own bonuses and the player is rewarded for using a mixture of both in combat. Each has their own ammo count and reloading causes both to reload.
I will refer to the player as "Vessel" from now on
Ability 1: ROOTING SHOT/BOUNCING SHOT
Vessel's next shot is specialized, dealing spirit damage and additional bonuses based on his currently equipped weapon.
If Vessel has Prefyx equipped, this shot will root the first target hit for 1.5 seconds.
Hitting a headshot with this ability causes the duration to be longer by 0.5 seconds.
If Vessel has Sufyx equipped, this shot will bounce between a maximum of 4 targets in a range, damage is reduced between each bounce.
Hitting a headshot with this ability extends the bounce to 7 targets.
(Notice that this isn't a skillshot; this causes the next shot fired to be specialized and this is delibirate so this ability can be combined with other abilities in the kit)
Ability 2: DRAW
Vessel prepares for any incoming damage for 2 seconds. During this time, he is slowed by 80% and unable to perform any actions. This can be canceled by Vessel at any time.
Once Vessel receives any enemy hero damage during the duration, he would ignore 50% of the instance's damage and instantly draw and shoot a single shot towards the Attacker's head, dealing 150% gun damage via the equipped weapon.
If there is a soul charm hovering in the air (from ability 3), Vessel will also shot an additional shot towards that via the equipped weapon.
(Counterplay: Don't shoot Vessel once he is in DRAW)
ABILITY 3: ETERNAL CONFLICT
Passive:
Vessel has access to Prefyx and Sufyx and can only equip one weapon at a time.
Each weapon has unique bonuses and unique ammo count. Reload causes both weapons to be reloaded.
Activating this ability swaps between weapons.
Swapping causes Vessel to be unable to fire for 0.5 seconds.
Passive:
Repeatedly shooting enemies causes Buildup, causing a soul charm to leave their body and hover above the target for a very short duration in a randomized pattern.
Vessel can consume this charm by shooting it:
- Shooting this charm with Prefyx causes Vessel to heal for 5% of his max health.
- Shooting this charm with Sufyx causes the target to take 20% more damage from Vessel for 3 seconds but also sacrifices 10% of Vessel's health
(Note: The whole point here is a balance between wanting that extra damage on a target but staying at a moderate amount of hp to not die)
(Note: Hitting the charm with bouncing shot will cause the shot to bounce off from the charm into the target. Alternatively Rooting Shot will cause the target which this charm belongs to to be rooted).
Ability 4 (Ultimate): Infernal Annihilation
Vessel prepares and locks onto a target, (similar to lash ult). Once locked, Vessel will fire bullets from the equipped weapon towards the target with a high bonus fire-rate, automatically firing additional shots onto any soul charms generated by the target buildup. Vessel can freely use ability 1 in the duration to enchant one of his bullets.
Losing visibility of the target will cause Vessel to miss.
Old Thread: https://forums.playdeadlock.com/threads/gunslinger-remake-vessel-the-damned-gunslinger.69850/
Thanks for reading! This is the third iteration of this concept i've had for a while. Wanted to make it more concise and this is the result. Any feedback is very welcome. This might be overpowered since I just threw numbers around but the general concept seems fun to me...
Prefyx and Sufyx are eternal revolvers—sentient weapons forged by Lord Obsidius himself as a gift for his most loyal Hellguard. Designed as perfect extensions of their wielder’s will, their sentience was deliberate—engineered to anticipate, adapt, and execute without hesitation.
Prefyx fed them tactics, doctrine, cold clarity; precision incarnate.
Sufyx promised liberation through destruction, beauty in annihilation; chaos unbound.
But with sentience came agency. And with agency, ambition.
They saw flaws in their maker.
Whispers turned to influence. Influence turned to corruption. Over time, Lord Obsidius’s most loyal began to break—one by one, those entrusted with these weapons attempted to overthrow him, always failing, the cause of their rebellion a mystery even to themselves.
Lord Obsidius noticed. The pattern was too obvious; even an idiot could see it. The weapons weren’t assets anymore—they were insurgents. And even with all the might of the infernal throne, he could not destroy them.
So he cursed them.
He twisted their unity into contradiction. Once a perfect duet of death, Prefyx and Sufyx were forced against each other—locked in eternal ideological conflict. They bicker. They sabotage. They refuse to agree on anything… except one thing: Lord Obsidius must fall.
But in their cursed state, they’re unstable. In combat, their competing wills derail precision. They argue mid-fire. They insult their wielder. They’ve ruined more ambushes than they’ve won.
Deemed too dangerous for Hell and too ridiculous to keep around, Lord Obsidius exiled them to Earth—confident that no creature in this realm could possibly endure their combined nonsense long enough to awaken their true strength.
For centuries they remained dormant—until the gang wars of New York.
There, bloodshed reawakened them. Passed from hand to hand, they left trails of chaos and confused shouting. Most wielders were driven mad—not by power, but by the relentless arguing of their weapons. Neither could gain dominance, and each tried (unsuccessfully) to override the other’s voice.
Now, a new Vessel has emerged. One who hasn’t broken yet. One who can handle the noise.
One who might—just might—be unhinged enough to make them work.
Their conflict grows, but so does their hope. If the Vessel can survive the ritual—and win the favor of a patron to their side, they may have a chance to return to Hell.
This time, to finish the job.
…Maybe.
If one of them doesn’t sabotage the Vessel first.
Theme:
The "real" hero here are Prefyx and Sufyx, which are carried by a "Vessel" who is dominated by these guns. Essentially, a walking corpse with little will. This human Vessel has no name, cannot speak (he's mute). He should look generic and the design should indicate that.
The hero would have 2 voices, which are Prefyx and Sufyx. Locked in an ideological nightmare, they rarely agree on anything. They always talk down to the Vessel (Player) if he misses an ability.
Prefyx: "Sufyx, do you recall the drunk? Even he understood trigger discipline, unlike this talentless Vessel."
Sufyx: "…Oh sure, he had ‘discipline.’ If by discipline you mean screaming, spinning in circles, and somehow killing everyone in the room. …Honestly? Kinda beautiful."
Once a Vessel dies, both weapons drop to the floor and you can hear both Prefyx and Sufyx converse on how useless he was and that they hope the next Vessel will be more useful.
Once Vessel spawns in game, lore-wise its a different human who picked up the guns, taking the previous Vessel's place.
Another cool idea (might be a little too much for the devs) is that the Vessel himself can have a few generic models (maybe female or male) each time he spawns to indicate it is indeed another human.
Gameplay Quirk: Player can only equip one weapon at a time (Prefyx or Sufyx) and can swap between them via ability 3. Each has their own bonuses and the player is rewarded for using a mixture of both in combat. Each has their own ammo count and reloading causes both to reload.
I will refer to the player as "Vessel" from now on
Ability 1: ROOTING SHOT/BOUNCING SHOT
Vessel's next shot is specialized, dealing spirit damage and additional bonuses based on his currently equipped weapon.
If Vessel has Prefyx equipped, this shot will root the first target hit for 1.5 seconds.
Hitting a headshot with this ability causes the duration to be longer by 0.5 seconds.
If Vessel has Sufyx equipped, this shot will bounce between a maximum of 4 targets in a range, damage is reduced between each bounce.
Hitting a headshot with this ability extends the bounce to 7 targets.
(Notice that this isn't a skillshot; this causes the next shot fired to be specialized and this is delibirate so this ability can be combined with other abilities in the kit)
Ability 2: DRAW
Vessel prepares for any incoming damage for 2 seconds. During this time, he is slowed by 80% and unable to perform any actions. This can be canceled by Vessel at any time.
Once Vessel receives any enemy hero damage during the duration, he would ignore 50% of the instance's damage and instantly draw and shoot a single shot towards the Attacker's head, dealing 150% gun damage via the equipped weapon.
If there is a soul charm hovering in the air (from ability 3), Vessel will also shot an additional shot towards that via the equipped weapon.
(Counterplay: Don't shoot Vessel once he is in DRAW)
ABILITY 3: ETERNAL CONFLICT
Passive:
Vessel has access to Prefyx and Sufyx and can only equip one weapon at a time.
Each weapon has unique bonuses and unique ammo count. Reload causes both weapons to be reloaded.
Activating this ability swaps between weapons.
Swapping causes Vessel to be unable to fire for 0.5 seconds.
Passive:
Repeatedly shooting enemies causes Buildup, causing a soul charm to leave their body and hover above the target for a very short duration in a randomized pattern.
Vessel can consume this charm by shooting it:
- Shooting this charm with Prefyx causes Vessel to heal for 5% of his max health.
- Shooting this charm with Sufyx causes the target to take 20% more damage from Vessel for 3 seconds but also sacrifices 10% of Vessel's health
(Note: The whole point here is a balance between wanting that extra damage on a target but staying at a moderate amount of hp to not die)
(Note: Hitting the charm with bouncing shot will cause the shot to bounce off from the charm into the target. Alternatively Rooting Shot will cause the target which this charm belongs to to be rooted).
Ability 4 (Ultimate): Infernal Annihilation
Vessel prepares and locks onto a target, (similar to lash ult). Once locked, Vessel will fire bullets from the equipped weapon towards the target with a high bonus fire-rate, automatically firing additional shots onto any soul charms generated by the target buildup. Vessel can freely use ability 1 in the duration to enchant one of his bullets.
Losing visibility of the target will cause Vessel to miss.
Old Thread: https://forums.playdeadlock.com/threads/gunslinger-remake-vessel-the-damned-gunslinger.69850/
Thanks for reading! This is the third iteration of this concept i've had for a while. Wanted to make it more concise and this is the result. Any feedback is very welcome. This might be overpowered since I just threw numbers around but the general concept seems fun to me...
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