The Riftbreaker News

Hello Riftbreakers!

For the longest time our gameplay videos and news articles had one (well, three, to be accurate) things in common - the enemies. We had a small unit in the form of Canoptrix, a slightly larger, range attacking Arachnoid and the beefy Hammeroceroses. This trio was quite enough for us to test our ideas and the initial mission design - especially since we were confined to the jungle biome only. As the game expands, so does our bestiary, including the basic cannon fodder. They seem a little less important than bigger creatures, but don’t be fooled by their small size. They are a very important part of the game design and they take the spotlight today.

They might be small, but they are not safe to be around.

Each biome has its own type of small, close-combat creature that’s a counterpart of our good old friend, the rabid space doggo - Canoptrix. However, they are not carbon copies of each other with a slightly different model. All the small species have their own characteristics, posing a different kind of challenge for Ashley and Mr. Riggs. Make sure to collect samples and visit the Bestiary to learn how to approach them. Enough of beating around the bush, release the gremlins!

KILL THEM WITH FIRE!

Galatean deserts are home to Mushbits. They are insects, living in large colonies and always appearing in packs. These creatures have developed remarkable survival mechanisms to withstand the scorching heat and radiation of their home biome. Mushbits are incredibly quick, giving them a significant advantage over other species while fighting over territory or food. Yes, that includes you - trying to outrun these creatures is doomed to fail. Mushbits’ bodies are covered with an exoskeleton that grants them protection from heat and radiation. Their claws are also made of the same material - it’s razor-sharp, but also quite brittle. Physical damage should do the trick.

Granans jump with joy every time they see you!

Let’s travel to a different part of the planet - the Acid Biome. Life has found a way to adapt to this area quite well and the area is teeming with plants, mushrooms, and animals, including Granans. They are happy little critters that skip around the place using their two short legs. One of their most prominent features is the bioluminescent appendix on the top of Granans’ heads. It is used to lure small animals into the Granan’s giant maw. As if hundreds of teeth were not scary enough, these creatures can also spit acid, albeit at a short range. Better equip Mr. Riggs with some protective armor. On the plus side, Granans don’t handle fire too well, which cannot be said about our next species…

KILL THEM WITH FIRE! Oh, shoot, doesn't work on these guys...

Morirots dwell in the rocky Magma Biome. They are completely resistant to fire and heat, which makes sense, given that they live in areas of high volcanic activity. For a creature this small, they are really tough, so you should fight them only when it is absolutely necessary. And it will be necessary. They are a very aggressive species and will do whatever it takes to get rid of your presence in their domain. We heard good things about cryo mods, you might want to give them a try to make fighting with them a little easier.

...and they just keep coming...

Each creature we showed you today comes in three flavors, from the most basic one to the heavily beefed up Ultra version. All in all, these creatures might be small, but they are the bread and butter of the attack waves and almost all combat scenarios in The Riftbreaker. Do not forget about them while preparing your defenses. Don’t forget about the streams every Tuesady and Thursday, either! We go live at 3 PM CEST on www.twitch.tv/exorstudios. Join our Discord at www.discord.gg/exorstudios to receive notifications about them.

Hello Riftbreakers!

On Wednesday we published a news piece about our research tree redesign. Once again your feedback on the Prologue and streams has given us plenty of valuable information on how to improve the game. That knowledge and a dash of our own new ideas evolved into the research system that is very close to what we can call a ‘release candidate’. However, there is still some work ahead of us and we haven’t told you everything about the system just yet. Today we will dive deeper into the secrets of Alien Research!

Alien research is the third 'tab' of our research tree.

It’s been an ongoing meme that Ashley uses bullets and rockets to ‘investigate’ and ‘research’ the local fauna and flora. We’ve had plenty of lines of dialogue that suggested the importance of gathering alien samples for future experiments. Now the memes become reality and all the specimen samples that drop from fallen enemies have their purpose. Collecting samples of extraterrestrial organisms will unlock access to entirely new technologies for Ash to use during her mission on Galatea 37.

An intense research session.

The samples you gather are analyzed in the Laboratory. We showed this building to you some time ago. Laboratory works in conjunction with your existing Communication Hubs. The results of experiments conducted in the Lab are uploaded back to Houston, where teams of scientists and engineers develop new blueprints for equipment that further enhance Mr. Riggs and your base. These new inventions range from Environmental Shielding modules, designed to protect you from hazardous conditions, to entirely new weapons, such as Gravity Grenades or Railguns.

You won't find toys like these anywhere on Earth.

In order to start researching alien technologies, you need to gather enough samples of an alien species. They do not drop often, so you will need something to track your progress. That’s where the Bestiary screen comes in. Here’s what it looks like:

Oooops, we seem to have leaked a creature... Or did we? Perhaps we showed it to you before but no one noticed?

The Bestiary records your encounters with alien species and counts the number of specimen samples you collected. The higher the number of samples, the higher your Familiarity Level. Familiarity Levels unlock additional information about the species, such as their statistics, weaknesses, resistances and possible loot drops. These levels are also required to gain access to new technologies in the Alien Research category.

If you are not a fan of decimating the alien population of Galatea 37 there is another way of collecting samples - the Bioscanner. It is a non-invasive device that allows Ashley to scan creatures from a safe distance and synthesize samples on the basis of the scan results. It is especially useful in the case of very rare creatures - they do not appear in large numbers and killing them does not guarantee a useful sample. By scanning the aliens first you give yourself two chances at finding out something noteworthy. The same goes for non-aggressive species. There’s no need to kill these innocent creatures. Just scan them and be on your way.

I said there was NO need to kill them, you maniac!

That’s a lot of information to drop on you at once, huh? Do you know what the best part is? These are not just concepts. We have all of these features working in the game already! We are going to update our Alpha with the new Research System soon, so be on the lookout for that! Additionally, you can always drop by on the stream to see how it all plays out in real gameplay situations. Follow us on www.twitch.tv/exorstudios and join www.discord.gg/exorstudios not to miss a beat.

Hello Riftbreakers!

This week we would like to show you one of the major changes we introduced to The Riftbreaker in the past couple of weeks. Ever since we let you play the game in the form of the Prologue or the closed Alpha you have been giving us tons of feedback about the Research screen. We read all of your suggestions and spent hours thinking about how to make it right. The result is a complete overhaul of our research system. Those of you who joined our stream in the past month have already seen it in action (we stream every Tuesday and Thursday, 3 PM CEST, by the way). Now we’re taking a closer look at it.

You can click the image to view the full-resolution version. The visual design is mostly done, but the order of unlocks and everything else is not final and will change before the release.

The Communications Hub doesn't seem too important, but if you want to develop your base, you will have to protect and upgrade this building at all costs.

Our initial version of the research screen was a simple list of blueprints that Ashley can download using the Communications Hub. It was quite easy to navigate both using a gamepad and the mouse + keyboard combination, but it had its issues. It was not easy to see the relations between various research items. To combat this we have moved, as many of you suggested, from the ‘list’ style research screen to a more visual representation of technology development in the form of a tree. Now it is much easier to see which research items are related and what their requirements are.

The old style of our research tree was easy to navigate, but difficult to understand.

This style also makes it easier for us to clearly show you technology tiers. Most of the available research options are now connected directly to Headquarters upgrades, showing that the HQ is not just a building you respawn at after ‘accidentally’ aggroing half the planet’s population. The Headquarters level is the focus of your base development, as it gives you access to more advanced research opportunities. Completing them will give you a better chance of surviving tough missions in other regions of the planet by giving your infrastructure and equipment a much-needed boost.

There's nothing stopping you from rushing out some key technologies if you like. Example chosen for no particular reason.

Naturally, it is not necessary to research all of the technologies in any given tier. If any of the research options do not fit your playstyle you can skip them completely. In the previous version of the research system, it was a risky move since you had no way of knowing whether you are locking your path to a technology you would actually want to use. With the research tree redesign, it is now possible to study all the possibilities, plan ahead, and download only the blueprints that are relevant to you.



That’s quite enough information for now. Join us on Friday for the second part of this article, where we are going to tell you more about the research tabs, as well as alien research and… The Bestiary Screen! If you can’t wait until Friday, you can join us at www.twitch.tv/exorstudios tomorrow at 3PM CEST and see all the new developments live. Also don’t forget to join our Discord - www.discord.gg/exorstudios.

See you on Friday!

www.twitch.tv/exorstudios

Hello!

Spring is in full force here for us in Poland. It’s warm, sunny, the flowers are blooming, which also means that Easter is coming! Although this year’s celebration of this holiday is still taking place in the looming shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, most of our team are taking a couple of days off. We’re going to use this time to rest and clear our heads before taking on the final challenges of The Riftbreaker project.

To everyone reading this, whether you celebrate Easter or not, we wish you and everyone around you safety and good health.

This week we won’t be posting any articles and we won’t have a stream tomorrow. However, we have a couple of nice surprises waiting for you after we come back. We know for sure that at least one of them will get you excited for things to come!

Happy Easter!
EXOR Studios