Hey! It's been a while! I fell into a deep hole of fighting games (spectating CEO in person, playing Guilty Gear & Persona 4 Ultimax). Also have been playing Fire Emblem Three Houses so expect a post on that eventually! For today we're focusing on Into the Breach, a 2018 game by Subset Games (creators of FTL). It received a major (free!) update in July adding new content to vary gameplay and found a home on mobile through Netflix games very recently. So a perfect time to cover it! Into the Breach is a time-loop, mech, roguelite, tactics game about executing a constant loop of protecting civilians with fierce & ginormous mechs from large insect monsters. The combination of all maps being 8x8 tiles, lasting 5 turns, and given full information of enemy intent & abilities creates a game about careful risk management. If you like puzzle solving, you'll definitely love this. So dear friends, once more, unto the tactics talk. A 5 Turn LoopInto the Breach centers on the Vek, large insectoid monsters, overrunning and destroying the planet. Large hulking mechs have been developed to directly combat the Vek alongside time breach technology. Pilots can 'breach' to transfer their combat experience to another timeline at an earlier state of the Vek crisis. The gameplay core thus is defending civilians each map while completing as many given objectives possible. Each map you're given 3 units, 5 turns of action, 1-3 objectives to complete, and about 10 buildings to defend from the enemy. Every turn is separated into an enemy declaration phase, and player reaction phase. During enemy declaration, the Vek (large insect monsters) will mark a target and the area the attack will strike at the beginning of the next enemy declaration phase. The player then gets a phase to kill, move and block the enemy from attacking. The loop repeats until all 5 turns complete! A small review of mech pilot EXP gained, objectives completed, and buildings saved is given. Key to the triage management of the game is 'Grid Power', the electrical grid underlying the multi-island setting. The Grid powers the mech you control, and every destroyed building reduces Grid Power. If Grid Power hits 0, the current timeline hits a dead end and a game over state is hit. A quirk to mention later in covering objective rewards is that a building has a small chance of ignoring damage, acting as the lucky 'critical' hit for an otherwise decision heavy game So the player's goal is to prevent Grid Power hitting 0 at all costs. In fact this is the only fail state noted. Into the Breach constructs other systems to center this goal. Mechs auto repair at the end of every combat, so there's an incentive to see mech health as a 'free' resource to protect the Grid. In the case of a mech being fully destroyed in a map, the pilot dies but the mech is still repaired and now piloted by an AI that the player still issues commands to. Pilots unlock unique skills as they kill Vek or participate in maps, while AI cannot so you can't fully throw away your pilots. You still can complete a run with 3 AI pilots, though it would be difficult. At the end of a run, whether through completion or game over, you choose the pilot to send to the next timeline controlled. Any EXP and skills they accrued is kept, true to the time breach thematic setup. Where We Dropping, Mechs?On top of the basic map gameplay loop, two larger management layers are present in Area Order and Island Order. Area Order Each Corporate Island is separated into 7 areas and a Corporate HQ area. An area is only accessible if a bordering area has been defended or if bordering the Corporate HQ. Each area shows the number of optional objectives present and rewards even if the area is not accessible. There are 3 possible objective rewards: Grid Power, Corporate Rep, Reactor Cores. Grid Power as mentioned prior is the key resource preventing the fail state, so if your run is in a dire state it's best to go for Grid Power reward maps. If Grid Power is already at max, Grid Defense is instead increased. Grid Defense is the percent chance any damage is ignored by a building, up to a max of 49%. Corporate Rep is the 'money' of a particular run. At the end of a island, Corporate Rep can be exchanged for new mech weapons, mech pilots, Grid Power or Reactor Cores. Reactor Cores are for upgrading mechs and the rarest map reward. Mechs can use Reactor Cores to upgrade health, movement, and equipped weapons or passives. Certain pilots are designated as Sentient Robots (different from AI!) and have unique skills that require 1 Reactor Core to work. Since the possible rewards of all areas are visible, a specific path through the island can be charted for highest priorities. Typically, I would often rush toward an area with a Reactor Core reward just to strengthen the team but sometimes a few too many buildings were destroyed and those double Grid Power reward areas become a dream. Notably, all the areas on an island aren't completable! Once 4 areas are completed, the last 3 are lost and the Corporate HQ is attacked by a Hive Leader Vek. Time for a boss! The Hive Leader Vek are unique in only appearing at Corporate HQ defense battles and unique attacks or mechanics new to them. Corporate HQ events always have objectives to defend the Corporate Tower and kill the Leader Vek, so preparation should be tuned for that. And on the other end of objectives, any area can have a surprise bonus objective: Time Pods. A pod containing remnants of another timeline will land on a random tile. If a pilot stands on the pod or the tile is undamaged until the end of the map, a reward is given often in the form of a Reactor Core, a pilot, or a new mech weapon. Island Order Island Order has quirks as unlocking freedom across different runs as the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd island is completed. It's a good way of handling easing into the complexity of management but eventually opens to allow the 4 Corporate Islands to be tackled in any order. So we'll talk from the perspective of the introductory period has already passed. From the beginning of a run, general information about all 4 islands is presented to allow for larger planning. The general enemy Vek and eventual Hive Leader Vek are stated for each island. This is really important as different mech teams vary in which enemy Vek they can handle with just base equipment. The Corporate Islands also have particular objectives and quirks to expect as tied to the Corporation helming it.
Cycles of Roguelike, Repeating InfinitelyOnce 2 Islands are completed, the choice is available to tackle the Volcanic Hive final encounter. This is rapid 2 map encounter where you are essentially 'cashing in' current Grid Power and mech team strength against the hardest tier of enemy. Instead of civilian buildings, power pylons stand in as Grid Power defense points. In the 2nd map, a Renfield Bomb is also deployed as the final objective to defend. Once it's defended the run is won! The flexibility in being able to choose when to tackle the Volcanic Hive is a great spin on handling ending a roguelite run. It allows you to choose to continue a run to build a higher score, strengthen your team, or experiment longer with a team gimmick. You can also choose to try to end a run earlier and avoid difficult island/enemy combinations or end the current session if the current team weapon set isn't interesting. This contrasts interestingly against Subset Games' prior game, FTL, and its final encounter being a 'final exam' boss fight. The Rebel Flagship is brutal and requires any run constantly prepare for it, which may contrast drastically from 'basic' enemy preparation. Most runs of my 100 hours there were lost against the Flagship. With Into the Breach, the final encounter is essentially the Corporate HQ Defense encounter but remixed with harder enemy variants and scales to how many Islands have been completed. Being able to 'win' runs consistently was a huge boon to replaying. But why replay if the loop is so consistent? Well beyond different enemy types, there are 13 Squads with unique configurations of 3 Mechs & 17 unique pilots to bring into runs. Each squad has a unique focus in handling the Vek; the Steel Judoka team focuses on moving Vek around to hurt each other, while the Blitzkrieg team focuses on chaining a lightning whip attack through adjacent units. New Mech Squads are unlocked through special currency attained for achievements completed with specific teams. This helps encourage pushing Squad gimmicks to their extremes to unlock new squads, and helps a player reach the 'intended' basic strategy for a team. Pilots also come with their own ways to give variety to runs. The 17 pilots have a unique skill that can drastically change strategy for mech squads. For example, Harold Schmidt pushes enemies on repair so he can be put in mechs that like to get up close and take damage and have a fall back plan. Pilots are unlocked as a option for start of run through recruiting from time pods or as a possible reward for completing all objectives on an Island. And of course the new Advanced Content that's the reason I returned to the game recently! They added new Mechs, Pilots, and new enemies! It adds a lot of new complexity to 'solved' encounters which new combination of enemies. Of the new pilots, Kai Miller is an absolute favorite with their constant damage buff when they're at full health. At the end of it, Into the Breach is an absolute gem in refining small number tactics to an extremely replayable package. That's it for now, I'll see you all in the next timeline!
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AboutTriangles, Tactics, and Tabletop, Kupo! is a blog discussing thoughts on tactics games and tabletop rpgs I've played. Archives
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