ZEPHON News

Join our Discord to follow each segment of a reveal as it happens every Monday.

[h3]Voice Path[/h3]
A mysterious creed followed by certain Acrin and human mystics, its followers experiment with total sensory deprivation to get closer to true cosmic understanding. Those who achieve this inner silence, can finally hear something in the background of the universe—something infinitely ancient and wise—that they call The Voice.

The path of The Voice is the path of universal comprehension, hidden secrets, inhuman understanding, physical corruption and ancient wisdom. Your progress is idealistic, but leaves many monstrosities in its wake—failed mystics or those who understand The Voice only partially, and are changed utterly by this shortcoming.

[h3]Abkluth Dragoon[/h3]


When they crashed, the Acrin brought creatures with them—monstrous lizardthings, tearing Earth wildlife apart. Given their docility around the Acrin, I suspect they were meant for pets or food, but that didn't stop the Voice Cults using them for war.

The first specialised unit of any Voice affiliation, this cavalry troop consists of three Cult Militants mounted on the fearsome alien Abkluth. Their light armour means that they can’t survive prolonged firefights, so instead rely on their speed to close on enemies before they attack with their toxic spears and bite. Understandably, they are also experts in taming free-roaming Abkluth, allowing Voice-aligned players to increase their armies quickly.

[h3]Dark Vassael[/h3]


Not all who hear the Voice can comprehend it. Not all come back from the edge. Or not alone. Is it better to come back like this—a bag of aggregated human systems and minds—or not at all? What must it be like to be in there?

This horrifying agglomeration of man and alien is a Voice terror unit. Its strange weapon fires living larvae that do limited damage but cause enemy units to suffer morale debuffs, reducing their ability to fight back. Later in the game, the Vassael can summon Shoch’itris Lairs that deploy short-lived deformities which attack on their behalf.

[h3]Aegyllan Worm[/h3]


Hearing the Voice didn't change everyone the same. Some kept looking for that dark, quiet place, came back changed to find it, delving into the black depths of the Earth. To see a friend's face on one of these, dragging itself out of stone and dirt, that was hard.

The Aegyllans are best deployed as shock anti-armour troops. Their tunneling ability allows them to bypass terrain, defenses and other units—especially when upgraded in the late game to massively increase its range. Once at a target, their pointblank bioacid is exceptional against armoured units and large numbers of troops—and damages their armour too, allowing your other troops to finish them with ease.

What do you think about the Voice Path?

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Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to receive regular reveals and exclusive closed betas to your inbox: https://newsletter.proxy-studios.com/

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ZEPHON is being featured in 2021 Gamescom Awesome Indies from IGN with a short exclusive teaser! The segment is set to air TODAY, August 26th, at 12:28 PT / 21:28 CEST on IGN's Twitch channel: https://twitch.tv/ign

Join our Discord to follow each segment of a reveal as it happens every Monday.

[h3]ZEPHON: Paths[/h3]
Your story follows the mandates of survival to start with—gathering support from the other survivors, overcoming human rivals, and securing recurring sources of basic goods so that your base is stable enough to go further. During this, you encounter representatives of the three paths you will choose from, and determine how each is a threat to the continued survival of humanity on the planet.

[h3]Human Path[/h3]
Continuing down the human path will bring you closer to the human survivors. This is the path about struggle, human suffering, moral values, bloodthirstiness, greed and hesitancy. Your progress will be pragmatic and follow traditional military decree. Bulky tanks and troopers. A variety of transports, scouts and many versatile gadgets. You might even get your hands on a nuke.

[h3]Militant[/h3]


Everyone who survived fought. Every one of us could have been a soldier. We called ourselves 'militants', though, because it reflected that we now fought for a purpose, political or social. The survival of mankind, whatever that took.

The militants are the basic unit of human survivors. Six people equipped with light military equipment, they’re the mainstay of any Commander’s early game, especially useful when confronting the Earth’s new diverse and hideous wildlife. They are fragile, though, so they need to mutually support each other.

[h3]Outrider[/h3]


Ex-military fast transports, driven by militants. Never designed to go toe-to-toe with the new enemies of mankind. But then nothing was—artillery, nukes, carriers, all had failed. At least in an Outrider, you had a chance of getting away—that's why there were so many left.

These seem like fast scout vehicles, familiar to players of many other strategy games. However, they have transport capacity as well as better armor and morale than the Militants. This enables them to take on a tanking role against enemies with low armor penetration, before speeding out of range when they’re too damaged—and later on, they can leave mines behind them as they go, slowing pursuers.

[h3]Engineer[/h3]


Some had formal training, most didn't. Scientists, construction workers, technicians. The thing that distinguished the people we called engineers from everyone else was that they had the skills to get the job done, whatever the job. The ones who hadn't...? Well, they weren't around anymore.

ZEPHON may take place in a destroyed world, but it’s not just about war. Your Engineers are the unit you look to when you want to do something more peaceful—whether that’s create new cities, repair damaged mechanical units, or clear tile features. Later on, they also unlock the abilities to build bunkers and ‘tune’ mechanical units, meaning that they’re a necessity throughout the game.

If you enjoyed reading this, help us out and tell your friends to wishlist ZEPHON—it's the only way we can encourage Steam to show ZEPHON to more people.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1481170/ZEPHON/
Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to receive regular reveals and exclusive closed betas to your inbox: https://newsletter.proxy-studios.com/

They know their 4Xs so they asked all the good questions!

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We had a blast doing it!

Let us know what you think by chatting with us on the Discord.

[h3]ZEPHON Reveals[/h3]

Starting next week, we're slowly revealing the world and gameplay of ZEPHON. Each reveal will be segmented into 4-5 parts, posted every Monday on our Discord, and then summarized on our newsletter on the last Monday of every month. After 3 months of that, we'll be doing an AMA where you can have a chat with us and ask us questions!



Have a great week!

-- Rok