Case study · Dust Walkers
Rewarding player creativity: Deep customization without intimidating complexity
A look into the weapon tree system I designed for the ARPG Dust Walkers. Every weapon has its own skill tree. Use a weapon and it levels up; every level gives you a point to spend on how it fights.
Try it in your browserSystems Designer · Guide Stone Studios · Dust Walkers on Steam CHECK: Steam link and credit OK to show
The problem
In most ARPGs I've played, picking a weapon means picking the bigger number. Find a weapon with a mechanic you love, and you'll drop it the moment something stronger turns up, whether you enjoy the new one or not. You end up playing the way the loot tells you to.
The approach
The weapon you love can keep up with you. As you use a weapon, your character gets more experienced with it, unlocking points you can spend on meaningful upgrades: rounds that pierce, bullets that ricochet into the next enemy, splash damage, elemental conversion. As you find Rarer versions of your weapon, you can choose to swap OR you can salvage those weapons to upgrade your existing, favorite gear.
What players get
The drop gives you the weapon. Your choices decide what it becomes.
Your favourite mechanic grows with you, so fun and power don't pull in different directions.
Found weapons arrive already built, so a new playstyle is one pickup away.
Same gun, two builds
Principle 1
Try anything. Keep what's yours.
I don't like feeling stuck with a playstyle just because it's the strongest. If players would have more fun doing something else, I want the system to make room for it.
You can build a weapon from scratch: start with a Normal one and choose every point on the way up. But new weapons keep dropping, and each one arrives partly built, so any drop is a chance to try something you wouldn't have picked yourself. Here's how one of those can go.
One weapon's story
- Tree thumbnailFour small panels, one per beat, each with a tree thumbnail taken from the web builder. The nodes you spent are filled; the pre-built ones have the builder's dashed blue frame (no text label).
The drop
You've been running a close-range pistol build when a Rare SCAR drops. Some of its points are already spent. You've never run a battle rifle, but it's strong, so you pick it up, and it works without opening a menu.
- Tree thumbnail
The try
You fire into an armoured pack. Every hit on armour stacks Savage Strikes, the SCAR's Legendary Track, and each stack makes that enemy take more damage. You like it more than you expected.
- Tree thumbnail
The keep
The SCAR earns XP as you use it. Every level gives you a point, and you spend each one on how you want it to fight.
- Tree thumbnail
The reshape
A few hours in, one of the pre-built nodes still isn't you. You respec that one node and keep the rest. The weapon is now part what the loot suggested and part what you chose.
Why it's built this way
A pickup is never homework. A pre-built drop works the moment you pick it up, so nobody has to fill in a blank tree just to try a new weapon. Its pre-built nodes are a suggestion: they point you toward something you might not have picked, and a respec always lets you take one back. Only the drop comes pre-decided. Every point the weapon earns as you use it is yours to spend, so the longer you keep a weapon, the more of it you built.
Principle 2
Easy to pick up. Deep enough to stay.
In my experience, deep build systems tend to lose players in three ways: too much information at once, too much text, and everything shown on the first day. The depth is there, but players never reach it. The trees are built to avoid all three.
I don't want anyone to need a guide before they're allowed to have fun. A deep system should feel safe to poke at: try a node, see what it does, and change your mind if it isn't for you. In my experience, when a choice feels permanent, players freeze or copy someone else's build. When it's cheap to undo, they experiment, and experimenting is how they learn the system.
So the trees open up a little at a time. The first one is taught, on a plain Normal weapon. Points arrive one per level, so each new choice comes with a moment to understand it. Every node says what it does in plain words, and the wording stays the same from weapon to weapon, so what you learn on one tree carries over to the next. You can always see what's further out before you can reach it, so there's something to look forward to.
Depth only pays off for players who reach it. Someone who just picks the nodes that sound fun still ends up with a stronger weapon. Someone who wants to min-max has plenty of combinations to work through.
Principle 3
Power you can see and feel
A +5% damage node is a number in a menu. A bullet that punches through one enemy and into the next is something you notice, remember and come back for. An upgrade I can only read about in a menu is one I barely feel.
Every ring changes the fight
In both trees you can play here, every ring has at least one node that changes what you see: bullets pierce, chain or split into a spread, a bonus round fires from a hidden barrel, a critical hit knocks an enemy back, enemies get marked, or a kill reloads your magazine. Those are the hexagons, so you can find them at a glance. Plain stat nodes like +2 Ammo or +1 m Range are circles. They still exist, but they sit next to a visible one, never in its place.
The Legendary Track grows where you can see it
A Legendary gets its Legendary Track for free at each Rarity. It runs up the centre of the tree, one step in each ring, and lights up by itself when the weapon reaches that Rarity. On the Noisy Cricket:
- Chirp
The first enemy you hit splashes damage onto everyone within 1 m.
- Chatty
Chirp also goes off on every enemy your bullet pierces.
- Scream
Chirp hits more than twice as hard, and its circle grows by half again.
Each step changes what you see on your next shot: a splash, then a line of splashes, then a bigger ring.
The demo shows its work
In the range, damage numbers are coloured by damage type, debuff stacks sit over each enemy, every dummy has a damage total and a 5-second DPS meter, and every point you spend shows a short note of what changed. You spend a point and see the result on your next shot.
Why it's built this way
I think players judge an upgrade by what they see in the next fight. When the effect is visible, the choice explains itself, the reward lands at once, and the build is something you can show a friend.
Play it
Build it. Shoot it. Change it. Shoot it again.
Two Legendaries with full trees, plus Fire Bolt on Q. Your weapon starts at Normal and earns XP fast here, so you'll unlock points in minutes instead of hours. Press Upgrade to raise its Rarity, then test your build on the dummies and in the arena.
Every hit splashes onto nearby enemies, and its Legendary Track takes it from Chirp to Chatty to Scream.
Savage Strikes stack a damage-taken debuff on armour and shields, and the stacks climb as you keep firing.
Controls: WASD to move · mouse to aim · click to fire · Q for Fire Bolt · Tab for the tree CHECK: key binding
Build and grow
Try a build without leaving the page.
Pick a weapon and click a node. Each point levels the weapon once, and each Rarity opens a new ring. Then roll a drop: it arrives already built, and its card tells you how much of it matches yours. Respec as often as you like here. In the game, a respec costs Upgrade Orbs, one node at a time.