Hello Riftbreakers!

Last week you had a sneak peek at one of the most disturbing inhabitants of Galatea 37 - the Phirian. Well, to be completely honest we showed it to you even earlier, back in September, as a little Easter egg in one of our other news pieces. To be fair it was well hidden - which is fitting. Phirians are not the most sociable creatures on the planet. Today let’s take a more detailed look at this mysterious creature and discover all the different ways they are going to try and ruin your day.


All Phirian variants with the mech for scale. The mech is 5 meters tall, by the way.

The Phirian is unlike anything we’ve seen before on Galatea 37. It is a weird amalgamation of a reptile and a humanoid. The creature uses its five muscular tails to push its tall, slender body along the ground, almost like a snake, but the similarities end there. Phirians keep an upright position, giving them a great overview of their immediate surroundings, which means that if you see one, it can most definitely see you as well. This will give you a chance to have a closer look at one of the Phirian’s most prominent features - its arms.


Phirians are actually pretty chill when you are not around...

While the left arm of this abomination would be enough to deter most people from ever wanting to deal with the Phirian, it is the right arm that takes the spotlight. Yes, that’s a sword. Yes, it’s bigger than your sword. No, running away will not help you. Despite being almost 10 meters tall, Phirian’s signature attack is a blisteringly quick dash towards the target, accompanied by a powerful thrust of the sword arm right through the victim. This is preceded by a short preparation period when the Phirian coils its body up in order to get the most strength out of its horrendously long and muscular body. If you can spot that, you can also avoid the strike.


...but if you are around they are going to slash you into pieces, also destroying everything along the way.

The entire upper body of the creature is covered with thick armor-like plates, meaning you will need to work really hard to punch through. Gather all the samples that you find and make sure to use the bioscanner to find the Phirians’ weaknesses. You will need every edge possible in order to combat these creatures. Luckily for you, it doesn’t seem like these creatures’ population is that big and it is highly unlikely you will meet them in larger groups. If that happens, do the reasonable thing - just teleport back to base, pack your bags and go home ASAP.



Just kidding. As long as you don’t allow yourself to get cornered, Mr. Riggs’ equipment and weapons will take down even the toughest creatures you could find on Galatea 37. They may be scary. They may be ugly. They may be gross. But they are no match for you. You are The Riftbreaker, the best of the best, and the entire world is counting on you. Do them proud.

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… <drumroll> 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!

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

Hello everyone!

On Wednesday we showed you one of the creatures that are new to the game, but were ‘spoiled’ a little bit during our streams. Today we have a completely new one, never seen before and fresh from underneath the painter’s brush and the coder’s keyboard. The hero of this article is a nasty cross between Hedorah, a pile of mud, and The Groke from Moomins (if you have no idea what it is, you had a much happier childhood than I did). These things are called Hedroners. Get acquainted, you will see these guys a lot.


As usual, we kick things off with a size comparison between Hedroner variants and Mr. Riggs.

Hedroners are large and slow creatures. Their bodies have very few distinctive features - apart from the arms, claw-like hands and the giant, gruesome maw you can’t really tell which part is which. The creatures move around by sliding on the ground with considerable effort, which suggests that their bodies are really dense and massive. This fact comes into play a lot when trying to take a Hedroner down - regular bullets simply get lodged in its gelatinous body and seem to do very little in terms of stopping the beast.


They are so cute!

Hedroners spend most of their time around pools of liquids scattered across Galatea 37. In fact, most of the time you meet this creature in the wild, it will materialize straight up from the pool itself. Are they a really strange species, or perhaps the manifestation of the Galatean ecosystem fighting back against your exploits? You will have to gather samples and find out yourself, but it won’t be easy. If you manage to take a Hedroner down, It is highly probable that it will dissolve into a puddle of whatever they came out from.


Animations and state transitions are still 'work in progress'.

Our sludgy friends will fight you both with melee and ranged attacks. In close-quarters situations, they will flail their massive arms and try to slap you back to where you came from. When given the opportunity, Hedroners will utilize their strength to fling rocks at you and your base structures, making them dangerous even if you keep your distance. Moreover, Hedroners are not ‘bound’ to the resource pools they crawl out of. They will often attack your base along with other creatures during the regular attack waves. Ready your lasers and set them to ‘vaporize’.


Use Mr. Riggs' nimble movement skills to avoid attacks. Hedroners are not too big of a threat solo. They get much worse, when they come to your base!

You will get to see a lot of new creatures and features very soon, we can promise you that. Stay tuned, follow the news here and on Discord at www.discord.gg/exorstudios. Also, make sure to join our streams at www.twitch.tv/exorstudios every Tuesday and Thursday at 3 PM CEST.

Hi!

After a couple of weeks without much news, we are back with another portion of updates from development. We’re sorry for the break in content delivery. We promise we spent that time well and you will be able to see the results in April. We have loads of announcements to make. Follow closely! Let’s kick off this week’s news cycle with a reveal of a new creature. If you’re an avid viewer of our streams you’re probably familiar with this one - it’s Kermon.


All Kermon variants compared to Mr. Riggs.

Kermons are humanoid creatures that could serve as the definition of an apex predator. They live and hunt in small groups, targeting animals of all species as their prey. There is no direct evidence as of yet to confirm their ability to communicate with each other, but their cooperation and teamwork strongly suggest that. Kermons ambush creatures of all sizes and take them down with ease using their razor-sharp forearm blades. Seeing a pack of dismembered Canoptix should put you on high alert because you might be next.


Kermons are very aggressive and try to kill all creatures they encounter just for sport.

Getting sliced in half or being made into a giant, robotic kebab will be the least of your worries, as these creatures can also turn invisible at will. Well, not exactly invisible - Kermons employ an advanced camouflage technique that makes them almost entirely transparent. Noticing them in that state is very difficult, but not impossible. You can see a slight distortion of the image in the area occupied by a cloaked Kermon, comparable to vibrations of the air on a hot day. Additionally, their bodies still affect what’s around them. If you see grass or bushes bending on their own, run or prepare to fight.


Invisibility deliberately turned off. Kermons are not as tough as they look, but then again, nukes solve most problems.

Luckily, it’s not difficult to break Kermons’ stealth - they become visible every time they are attacking or taking damage. If you suspect that a Kermon is around the corner, fire off a burst from your minigun or sweep the area with the flamethrower. That should reveal any nasty, unwanted surprises you might have otherwise walked right into. Trust us on this one, we learned to do it the hard way!


Again with invisibility off. Kermons' strength lies in burst damage and surprise factor. As long as you don't get caught by them you are fine.

Who knows what researching these creatures might lead to? Well, we do, but we won’t tell you just yet. Are you looking forward to meeting Kermons in the wild? If you are, then we don’t know what to say other than that we are concerned. You have no survival instinct. It’s okay though, your Mecha-suit will keep you alive, but try to be more careful next time... If you enjoyed this little article, there is a chance you will enjoy our biweekly streams as well - we’re live every Tuesday and Thrusday at 3 PM CET (we’re shifting to CEST next week, mind you) on www.twitch.tv/exorstudios. You can also catch us on Discord - www.discord.gg/exorstudios.

See you there!

Hello everyone!


The stronger the tower, the more muzzles it has. Facts.

Another week, another portion of news from The Riftbreaker camp! For the past couple of weeks, we haven’t been as active here as we usually are, but we have a good reason for that. There is a new trailer coming your way with LOADS of great new content. We have finished recording all the scenes and the post-production should wrap up in the coming weeks. Fingers crossed! Here’s a sneak peek at some of the new content you will be able to find in the upcoming video: even more new towers!


Midrange attackers stand no chance against the power of rockets!

The Rocket Tower fills the void between the Artillery Tower and more short-ranged solutions. These new defensive towers use explosive projectiles (as the name suggests) but fire them in a straight line towards the target. This way when the initial target moves away from its initial position that the tower was aiming at, the rocket still has a decent chance to hit some enemies coming towards your walls. The splash damage from the explosions is a nice addition as well, allowing the Rocket Tower to take down a couple of smaller targets at once. Compared to the Artillery the downside here is that you won’t be able to hit the targets further in the back. The key is to find the right balance between these two types. When you do, you are in for a great spectacle of alien blood, gibs, and explosions.


We may not have disco lights (yet), but we have shiny Plasma Towers.

The next tower we have for you today is the Plasma Tower. It’s a high rate-of-fire defensive structure that uses the energy from your power grid to create its own ammunition. During intense combat scenarios that usually means a big spike in the power consumption for your base you have to account for. However, the firepower you get for your trouble is really worth it. The plasma cells fired by these towers deal a lot of damage and since the fire rate is really high it is not a problem for the Plasma Tower to switch between targets on the fly. It is a high-cost and high-maintenance weapon, but with an all-purpose spectrum of uses. We’re sure it will be a common sight in your bases!


Plasma towers keep pew-pew-pewing until they have nothing to pew-pew-pew at anymore.

Both of the defensive tower variations we presented to you today are available in 3 power levels. Getting access to each of these levels will require additional research, so it’s a bit of an investment, but it will pay off really quickly. We hope you enjoyed this little presentation of the new tech available in The Riftbreaker. More information is always available on our Discord at www.discord.gg/exorstudios and during our streams on www.twitch.tv/exorstudios - every Tuesday and Thursday at 3 PM CET. We have been doing some live testing of the new research tree lately, so check out the VODs if you’re interested in that and leave us a follow to get notified when we go live.

Cheers!
EXOR Studios

Hello Riftbreakers!

It’s been quite some time since our last new creature reveal. It is high time to change that. World, meet the Lesigian!


Mommy Lesigian, Daddy Lesigian and Lesigian Jr. What a happy family.

Lesigians are some of the strangest creatures you will have to face off against in The Riftbreaker. One of the first things you will notice is the fact that instead of walking on two or four legs, like any other creature, they choose to hover above the ground instead. What is more, they do not even use wings or any other mechanical means to lift off the ground. How is that even possible? The answer is magnets, of course! At least, to some degree…


Lesigians are pretty chill when you don't disturb them. NOTE: ALL ANIMATIONS AND EFFECTS ARE WORK IN PROGRESS!

These creatures have the unique ability to manipulate the electromagnetic field in their vicinity. There are several ways that Lesigians manifest this property and levitating above the ground is only one of them. You will find out about the other ways they use their skills on your own skin (or Mr. Riggs’ armor). Lesigians are not particularly aggressive, but if you get on their nerve, you might be shocked to find out that they are able to cause lightning strikes! Directing a bolt of electricity at their target is their main distance attack, so you’d better watch out.


The comets falling from the sky will be changed to lightning strikes at some point down the road!

If you manage to close the gap between you and the Lesigian, one of two things will happen - either it’s going to slash you with its blade-like arms, or it’s going to vanish into thin air. That’s one of the most clever defensive tactics we’ve seen so far. These creatures are able to teleport from one place to another in order to throw the attacker off balance and gain the upper hand in combat. The mechanisms behind their teleportation technique are still unknown but, does it really matter how, or why they do it? Adapt, or die.


These creatures also have a tendency to explode upon death. That can be useful!

Once you do get a decent shot at them you should be able to take them down with relative ease. Lesigians are not heavily armored, their strength lies in high mobility and the ability to thwart your plans by relocating quickly. Make sure to dodge their long-range attacks and try to anticipate where they might go next and you should come out of the battle with just a few scratches.

We hope you enjoyed this preview of a brand-new creature that will undoubtedly make your Riftbreaker playthrough a little more electrifying. Make sure to tune in to our streams - every Tuesday and Thursday at 3 PM CET on www.twitch.tv/exorstudios - and doin our Discord at www.discord.gg/exorstudios not to skip a beat!

Hello Riftbreakers!


All three levels of the new Minigun Tower, just chilling.

If you have been watching our streams lately (which you totally should, but no pressure, twitch.tv/exorstudios, Tue and Thu 3 PM CET) you already know that we have started modifying costs, power level of weapons, weapon properties, as well as the creatures’ stats. The game feels much more solid as a result - it is not that easy to reach the state where Mr. Riggs has so much firepower that nothing can hurt you. However, there is no need to worry - we have also introduced new variants of defensive towers! We are going to present them to you one by one over the course of the next couple of weeks, starting today.


Is 'dakka' the term you use these days, fellow young people?

The first one we’re going to show off is the Minigun Tower. That’s right - our favorite brrrrrrrt machine is now available in a building form, plus it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg! The Minigun Tower is a great tool for crowd control and dealing with large groups of small enemies. It’s similar to the good old Flamethrower Tower in its function, however, the bigger range of the new tower makes it a bit more versatile. It also can be equipped with any modifications you could install in your regular minigun, so it is possible to increase the number of projectiles, the amount of damage dealt, or even reduce the ammo cost. Plus, it’s super fun to watch them shred the enemies to pieces!


The area around our testing facility started changing color, for some reason.

Another cool toy that you will get to try out in The Riftbreaker is the Laser Tower. Unlike the Miniguns we discussed before, these puppies are meant to deal with single targets with a high hitpoint cap or a lot of armor. The way the Laser Tower works is very simple - it takes energy from your energy grid (no additional ammo required!), concentrates it into a single beam, and fires it at the target. Moreover, the longer the beam is able to stay on target, the more damage it deals, making it a perfect solution for those nasty Ultra Hammeroceroses. With more and more creatures joining The Riftbreaker bestiary we are sure you will find plenty of uses for this weapon.


Close-range, long-range - doesn't matter. You're about to be fried!

These two are just the tip of the iceberg, we have a lot more towers coming your way and we’re sure you will be eager to try them out as soon as possible. While you’re waiting for them to arrive, why don’t you check out our Discord at www.discord.gg/exorstudios? You can spend some time there getting to know us, chatting with your fellow Riftbreakers, checking out the latest community mods and many more. Remember that being active in the community increases your chances for Alpha access.

EXOR Studios