Turn-Based Tactics Into the Breach: Advanced Edition - mech tactics game from FTL devs with Chris Avellone writing

[lightbane]

Finally, this took too long. Of course the first new character shown is a LGTBshit violet-dangerhair, but thankfully you can simply not pick that pilot.

 

[3 others]

As glad as I am to hear about this, I'm still mildly apprehensive about ITB Advanced Edition. The game famously had a difficult development process and they only managed to make it work by cutting everything except the core game by the time it was released. The core game is VERY good though, and it has room for more meat around the bones, so maybe they've found ways to make this work after getting some distance from the original release.

There's some screenshots and stuff in the press kit at their site. 4 new pilots, 5 new squads, lots of new tools and enemies. The new stuff seems very powerful, and they've included a new 'Unfair' difficulty mode. Hopefully things stay balanced and the old stuff remains viable in the Advanced Edition as well.

 

[Dickie]

Of course the first new character shown is a LGTBshit violet-dangerhair

Primary Objective: Avoid misgendering Kai (xie/hir) for 5 turns
Secondary Objective: Defend the satellite launches

 

[ValeVelKal]

Pretty cool surprise considering how long ago it came out, but unfortunately it sounds like they didn't do anything to improve the main weakness of the game, which is the barebones progression system/strategy layer in between battles.

Three more levels of progression for the pilots could go a long way.

 

[Black]

More grid defense!

 

[---]

Hey hey:



https://subsetgames.com/itb_ae.html

We are excited to announce the free Advanced Edition update for Into the Breach, coming out on July 19th! Nearly every aspect of the game will be expanded with new content.

New Mechs and Weapons: Five new mech squads and nearly forty new weapons.

New Challenges: More enemies, more bosses, and more mission objectives that add additional challenge and variety to any run.

New Pilot Abilities: The expanded roster includes four new pilots and triple the amount of skills any pilot can earn through promotions.

We’ll be elaborating on all of this new content over the coming weeks before launch and can’t wait for everyone to check it out.

Alongside the Advanced Edition, we will also be bringing Into the Breach to Android and iOS devices! We have partnered with Netflix for this mobile version, so it will be free to play on both phone and tablet devices for everyone with a Netflix subscription.
The mobile version is unaltered in its content, containing the same game found on other platforms (including the Advanced Edition content). The touch interface was revisited and redesigned to ensure an excellent experience on smaller touch devices like phones.



Into the Breach will be getting a physical Switch version coming out in October 2022. Pre-orders and more information can be found on Fangamer here: fanga.me/r/into-the-breach-physical
Into the Breach will be adding support for 7 more languages, bringing us up to 17 languages supported! The new languages are Arabic, Thai, Swedish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, and Spanish (Latin American).

Downloading right now

 

[Maxie]

Into the Breach: Advanced Edition Update - Now Available!
Once more unto the breach, dear friends!

Advanced Edition is a free major content update that will be available on all platforms today!

The following is the primary change list, but there’s a lot of small bug-fixes and tweaks here and there.

Major Additions

• 5 New squads & 15 new squad achievements!
• 7 new Vek, 3 new Psions, & 10 new boss battles!
• 12 new missions & 3 new bonus mission goals!
• 4 New pilots & 10 new random pilot abilities!
• 39 New weapons & equipment!
• 2 new music tracks from composer Ben Prunty!
• Even more challenging difficulty mode, Unfair Mode!
• 7 New Languages! (Arabic, Thai, Swedish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, and Latin American Spanish)

Other Changes

• Optional Content Toggles
  - All of the new content (enemies, pilot skills, etc) other than balance changes are possible to turn off if you would like the base-game content experience.
• Weapon reactor usage reduced
  - We wanted to encourage players to immediately try out equipment they find, so we reduced the reactor power to equip most gear.
• Store Changes
  - Since you can now instantly equip most weapons without needing an additional reactor core, the reputation cost to purchase weapons has increased by 1 and the store options are limited in the first 2 islands.
• New weapon mechanic: KO effects
  - Certain weapons will trigger an additional effect if the primary target is killed by the attack.
• New tile mechanic: Cracking
  - Certain weapons will cause the ground to crack. If the tile is damaged again, it will shatter, destroying the tile and anything standing on it!
• New status effect: Boost
  - This will increase the next attack’s damage by 1. Highly effective for AoE attacks!
• Unlocking Squads with Coins Change
  - The cost of unlocking squads with coins has been reduced to account for the extra squads.

Unfair Mode Tips
This mode is for veterans looking for even more of a challenge but it might require different strategies than you're used to.

• There will be many more situations where damage is inevitable so it’ll be more important to take losses strategically - depending on the situation, it might be better to lose grid power, sacrifice a pilot, or fail a mission objective.
• Grid power gains are doubled which means it’s much easier to pull back from the brink of defeat. Don’t give up after a few setbacks.
• There is a limit to how many Vek can spawn so sometimes it’s more advantageous to leave some weak Vek alive rather than wiping them out early.

 

[Sarathiour]

• Weapon reactor usage reduced
  - We wanted to encourage players to immediately try out equipment they find, so we reduced the reactor power to equip most gear.
• Store Changes
  - Since you can now instantly equip most weapons without needing an additional reactor core, the reputation cost to purchase weapons has increased by 1 and the store options are limited in the first 2 islands.

Haven't played the update yet, but this seems pretty great.

It was often mandatory to spend you first star on reactor uppgrade before anything else, unless you had an ultra gimmicky mech that needed a weapon change for something less memey.

 

[---]

New squads are pretty cool. In comparison, the old ones feel very "straightforward".

Mist, Heat and Cataclysm squads are sort of updated versions of Smoke, Fire and Judoka squads. The other two are based on minions: the Bomb squad should be very powerful (that Swap mech...), but I find it hard to master; the Spider squad, on the other hand, seems a bit gimmicky and underpowered compared to the others.

The Mist and Heat are my favourite, for the moment. The first has the amazing mind control mech, which is extremely useful (it can be used on allies too, and it neglects web, resulting very helpful to free them from Vek spiders), and the offensive mechs are very strong; the "heal-with-smoke" mechanic is very handy too.
The Heat squad is tons of fun. Starting with the Zoltan pilot with 2 inner cores, you can basically set the entire map on fire from the beginning, damaging enemies AND empowering allies thanks to the new Boost mechanic. Quick-Fire, in particular, is very strong: it's a sort of Janus Cannon, but it's actually usable, since you can direct the two shots. Incidentally, the Heat squad has also the coolest mechs


The new level-up abilities add much more variety and randomness compared to the base game, which had only four options, and only two were really useful (+1 move and +1 core).

 

[Reality]

Still think it's too easy and doesn't rise above puzzle box status. The devs dud fix my bugged save file after I pinged about it tho so that was nice

 

[HansDampf]

It was pure coincidence that I bought this game right after the big update came out. It's mostly great. Very addicting, just-one-more-mission-y gameplay. The best thing is how every squad requires completely different strategies, different kinds of thinking about the same problem. Now you are thinking with smoke clouds. Then you burn everything down, effectively marking enemies for death in the next round. Or you destroy tiles and throw enemies into pits, etc. Most fun for me were the Steel Judoka with the Vek-vs-Vek damage bonus. Feels like calculating tactics in chess.

But the squads aren't well balanced. For example, I had a lot of trouble finishing the game with the Cataclysm squad (on Hard). Destroying tiles to your advantage is a cool idea for a squad. But when you are faced with flying Vek, that advantage just vanishes, and then you don't have the necessary firepower. Burrowers are even worse because they can't be moved/thrown, so the Pitcher Mech can't even attack them at all. I managed to finish it by choosing 2 islands with the least amount of flyers, and then went straight to the volcano.
The Bombermechs, otoh, made the game so easy, it felt like cheating. I took the pilot that can shoot twice if the mech doesn't move, which means I could shoot 4 walking bombs per turn. Missions often ended like this:

Spoiler

I had set my goals to 1) unlock the secret squad and beat the game with it, and 2) to beat the game on Unfair difficulty.
But now I regret spending 25 credits on the secret squad. It's not worth it. Sure, you are playing as Vek vs. Vek, and that's kinda cool. But their abilities and strategies are so ordinary. They play almost exactly like the Rift Walkers. I could have unlocked 4 more other squads instead that all sound way more interesting. Now I don't have any credits left, and I'd have to grind the boring achievements to unlock more squads.
Unfair difficulty was also disappointing. I even think it's broken. I was expecting having to sacrifice grid points left and right, then gaining them back throughout the game, always being on the edge of defeat. I played with the Mist Eaters, and it was one of the easiest playthroughs I've had. It seems the AI can't handle it when there are too many Vek on the cramped playing field. They don't have enough room to attack properly. Most turns have one or multiple Vek just idling, and most of the others tend to attack my mechs instead of buildings for some reason. Makes avoiding grid damage super easy.

Also, I've noticed Chris Avellone in the credits. Eh? Not sure what exactly his job was, but... What a waste. The story is the least important aspect in a game like this, and in this case also the least interesting. I almost never read the dialogue and speech bubbles, like who cares? Characters also look like standard, boring, corporate diversity squad, designed by committee.

Overall good game but too easy.

 

[Comrade_Xi]

I wish there were more games like ITB, the core gameplay loop is really fun. The fact that you know what your enemies are going to do but you rarely have the resources or time to stop them all is compelling from a tactical standpoint. The only problem is that it feels a bit too limited in scope and it's way too short, I would have liked a longer campaign with maybe bigger maps and more mechs/special abilities/enemies the more you progressed in it.

 

[NorwegianWolf]

I started it yesterday. I enjoyed my first defeat. I'm not 100% whether I understand the gameplay loop. The only thing I get to keep after defeat is one chosen mech pilot, no other upgrades?

 

[Gandalf]

I started it yesterday. I enjoyed my first defeat. I'm not 100% whether I understand the gameplay loop. The only thing I get to keep after defeat is one chosen mech pilot, no other upgrades?

I think that I lost one battle in this game, so I might not remember how it really works, but after defeat I do think it is a wipe and you forever loose pilots and a timeline. On the other hand upgrades stay if you keep winning.

 

[3 others]

You get to send one pilot back in time if you're defeated (or if you're victorious), and the pilot retains his experience points and perks. The other 2 spots in the next starting squad will be filled with default pilots.

Nothing is forever lost in this game. All unlocked special pilots stay unlocked (and you can pick one of them as your starting pilot, just without any starting XP).

Starting mechs are always in "factory settings". There's no way to bring additional reactor cores or weapons with you to start a new game.

 

[3 others]

Played some ItB after a while and damn, I'm still in awe with what they achieved with this game. As nice as FTL is, this is Subset Games' masterpiece. The squad designs are so good - all of them have a central theme/gimmick that fits the mech composition and requires a fresh perspective for dealing with the enemy. The Unfair mode is there if you really want to turn this into a desperate grind against a flood of alien bugs after you've mastered the game mechanics. The UI design is so clear - you can see everything relevant with one glance. Balancing the difficulty level in a game like this has such a slim margin for error but ItB straddles that tightrope so well. When it's firing on all cylinders - and it does that often - each turn becomes a quality chess puzzle. How do you neutralize 5 enemies with 3 mechs of your own? The solution(s) are there, they're not obvious but they do exist. Almost always.

All the mechanics are consistent, and when there is some ambiguity with edge cases, the devs tend to opt for the fun interpretation. You can have a passive booster that grants HP each time you kill an enemy, and you can have a self-destruct 'weapon' that also kills everything around you. If you get the idea to combine them, you can build a mech that fights enemies by barging next to them, exploding itself and then miraculously coming back to life after the HP gain from kills is added.

The stuff added in Advanced Edition fits the game well. The new squads are on the powerful side but require more thought to use properly. They present more 'degrees of freedom' without necessarily adding any more crude damage output. The new enemies and weapons are fresh, inventive and interesting.

What are the good similar games? Invisible Inc. manages to do the same 'turn-to-turn procedural puzzle generator' experience about as well, but what else is there? How good is Fights in Tight Spaces for instance?

 

[Phinx]

Played some ItB after a while and damn, I'm still in awe with what they achieved with this game. As nice as FTL is, this is Subset Games' masterpiece. The squad designs are so good - all of them have a central theme/gimmick that fits the mech composition and requires a fresh perspective for dealing with the enemy. The Unfair mode is there if you really want to turn this into a desperate grind against a flood of alien bugs after you've mastered the game mechanics. The UI design is so clear - you can see everything relevant with one glance. Balancing the difficulty level in a game like this has such a slim margin for error but ItB straddles that tightrope so well. When it's firing on all cylinders - and it does that often - each turn becomes a quality chess puzzle. How do you neutralize 5 enemies with 3 mechs of your own? The solution(s) are there, they're not obvious but they do exist. Almost always.

All the mechanics are consistent, and when there is some ambiguity with edge cases, the devs tend to opt for the fun interpretation. You can have a passive booster that grants HP each time you kill an enemy, and you can have a self-destruct 'weapon' that also kills everything around you. If you get the idea to combine them, you can build a mech that fights enemies by barging next to them, exploding itself and then miraculously coming back to life after the HP gain from kills is added.

The stuff added in Advanced Edition fits the game well. The new squads are on the powerful side but require more thought to use properly. They present more 'degrees of freedom' without necessarily adding any more crude damage output. The new enemies and weapons are fresh, inventive and interesting.

What are the good similar games? Invisible Inc. manages to do the same 'turn-to-turn procedural puzzle generator' experience about as well, but what else is there? How good is Fights in Tight Spaces for instance?

Have you tried any of the mods by any chance?

New islands that come with their own unique gimmicks, new mission types, new enemies, and bosses. The custom squads need to replace one of the official games squads through a menu, but you can pick and choose.

Iron Legion, Electric Shamans, Root Outers and the Death Metal Squads I've really enjoyed.

 

[3 others]

No, haven't tried any ItB mods.

Thanks for the squad list, I'll check those out. Are there any islands / enemies that you'd recommend specifically?

 

[Phinx]

No, haven't tried any ItB mods.

Thanks for the squad list, I'll check those out. Are there any islands / enemies that you'd recommend specifically?

No, haven't tried any ItB mods.

Thanks for the squad list, I'll check those out. Are there any islands / enemies that you'd recommend specifically?

Mod list: https://subsetgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32999

Candy land is probably my favorite.

Lemonymous mods adds almost as much new content as the free expansion. The new enemies in this I've really enjoyed. https://subsetgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=38233
But make sure to remove the timer which is enabled by default for this mod. As it limits your turn by a timer which is super annoying, especially when you are learning new things.

 

[Richard Leaks]

Played some ItB after a while and damn, I'm still in awe with what they achieved with this game. As nice as FTL is, this is Subset Games' masterpiece. The squad designs are so good - all of them have a central theme/gimmick that fits the mech composition and requires a fresh perspective for dealing with the enemy. The Unfair mode is there if you really want to turn this into a desperate grind against a flood of alien bugs after you've mastered the game mechanics. The UI design is so clear - you can see everything relevant with one glance. Balancing the difficulty level in a game like this has such a slim margin for error but ItB straddles that tightrope so well. When it's firing on all cylinders - and it does that often - each turn becomes a quality chess puzzle. How do you neutralize 5 enemies with 3 mechs of your own? The solution(s) are there, they're not obvious but they do exist. Almost always.

All the mechanics are consistent, and when there is some ambiguity with edge cases, the devs tend to opt for the fun interpretation. You can have a passive booster that grants HP each time you kill an enemy, and you can have a self-destruct 'weapon' that also kills everything around you. If you get the idea to combine them, you can build a mech that fights enemies by barging next to them, exploding itself and then miraculously coming back to life after the HP gain from kills is added.

The stuff added in Advanced Edition fits the game well. The new squads are on the powerful side but require more thought to use properly. They present more 'degrees of freedom' without necessarily adding any more crude damage output. The new enemies and weapons are fresh, inventive and interesting.

What are the good similar games? Invisible Inc. manages to do the same 'turn-to-turn procedural puzzle generator' experience about as well, but what else is there? How good is Fights in Tight Spaces for instance?

You can check out Mainframe defenders, but it's not much of a puzzle game, its much more about making broken builds.