Temporal Rift

The year is 2050. The New Earth Alliance safeguards global stability and maintains a fragile peace after the Era of Wars. But not everyone accepts this peace. The techno-driven organization Citadel of Return consists of modern techno-radicals who believe they alone have the right to decide the planet's fate.

Citadel of Return's sabotage of the SABER-777 AI's trials sent several Alliance ships based on old designs, but armed with modern weaponry back in time. There, they are awaited by a modified flotilla of the Citadel, which had been hiding in secret World War II bases. Now these two forces stand face to face—and battle is inevitable.

Inside: Technology from the future.
Outside: A look grounded in the past.
This will be a brutal fight…

Update 14.10 welcomes Temporal Rift: a new PvE event battle type with explosive attack-and-defense gameplay and missile weaponry.

Temporal Rift consists of two Operations—Shattered Time and Rift Watch. They will be available sequentially during Update 14.10 for 2 weeks each. After that, both Operations will rotate randomly during the first 2 weeks of Update 14.11, giving you plenty of time to enjoy new battle type and collect all the rewards.

Read on to see what exactly the time warp has brought to the game!

Briefing Time: Event Rules

Shattered Time and Rift Watch have shared core mechanics, but your task in the first Operation is to press the offensive, while in the second—you're tasked with standing firm in defense.

Join a nine-player team to battle against waves of bots on a very large, Arctic-inspired map. It's divided into three defense lines, with three sectors in each containing varying numbers of Key Areas. The first two lines of defense lie ahead of the attacking team before breaching the enemy base in a climactic final battle at the heart of the anomaly.

A few additional rules govern this chrono-distorted battlespace:

• The next defensive line unlocks when you capture enough Key Areas in the previous one.

• Capturing each Key Area will destabilize an aspect of the enemy base defenses, reducing the effectiveness of artillery forts, repair ships, and aircraft carriers at the base.

• You will move to the next defensive line when the timer runs out regardless of whether you fail to capture enough Key Areas.

  • While capturing defense lines is the primary task, failing this won't end the battle. Defeat only occurs if you fail to capture the enemy base in time.

  • However, you should strive to win at each line. Even if you lose the first one, for example, capturing the second will still weaken the enemy base.

  • Moreover, capturing Key Areas as soon as possible both softens the base defenses and buys more precious time for your final showdown.

  • Hint: Check behind the isles for those pesky aircraft carriers and repair ships. You want to destroy them first, so look out for an unusual concentration of planes in the air or a red healing circle on the water.

• The enemy base has two small Key Areas; capturing one is enough to win the battle.

• When your ship is destroyed, the Rift will not expel you entirely. Similar to the Unbreakable Line event, you will rejoin the fight, though there are some changes to the mechanic:

  • You return with temporary buffs to speed, concealment, acceleration, and maneuverability.

  • Additionally, all of your consumables and missiles are replenished. Your torpedo launchers will be instantly ready even if they were in the process of reloading before you were sunk.

  • You can choose the exact respawn sector to return to and rejoin the fight.

  • As you push forward to a new defensive line, the respawn sectors shift forward as well, ensuring you can keep up with the advancing frontline.

Note that in Rift Watch, where your team will be tasked with defending the base and the Key Areas from bot attackers, you'll get to take advantage of the base's defense bonuses (artillery forts, repair ships, and aircraft carriers) as well. Beware though: Those advantages can be eroded if enemy bots manage to capture Key Areas.

Incoming: Missile Feature

Missiles are a new offensive feature that can inflict heavy damage and are available only in Temporal Rift—both for players and some bots (you will spot them by the "M" prefix in their ship’s name). Player ships are equipped with countermeasures to help defend against this threat. Missiles add an entirely new layer of gameplay and tactical approaches to Temporal Rift, and this is how they work:

How to Succeed with Missiles

To effectively use missiles in Temporal Rift, foresight is your greatest weapon. Plan your launches ahead and try to predict enemy vessel movements based on their speed and direction. Select target areas not just based on where ships are, but on where you think they might be. You can launch missiles against undetected enemies if you expect them to be in a certain area that you are not currently spotting.

It might be a good idea to synchronize with your teammates when launching missiles. If you target the same ship, there's a chance that it will be destroyed by your allies before your own missile hits, meaning a waste of precious ammo. Using voice chat in a Division might help with a more coordinated approach.

Take cover behind islands to stay out of harm's way while unleashing missile fire at the enemy, but be careful in positioning and aiming—while missiles will skip most low obstacles when flying high in their cruise phase, they can crash into terrain upon launch or descent as they don't skirt around mountains and hills.

Each ship carries a finite number of missiles, but don't hesitate to use them to bring down tough opponents. After all, in Temporal Rift, you get all your warheads back after respawning. That said, there are ways to get missiles back even when you're afloat: read the next section to find out how and pay close attention to your ships’ special features.

When caught on the receiving end, stay alert. When a hit is inevitable (signaled by a warning), activate the Defense Systems consumable to soften the impact.

Altered Fleet: Ships and Upgrades

Firefights will be much faster and more explosive in the event thanks to special ships!

Temporal Rift exclusively involves event ships, with three of them granted to you right from the start. Lutèce, Chronos Carrier, and Walküre are pulled from an alternate timeline, and their parameters are significantly altered compared to non-event battle types.

• Each ship comes packed with artillery, torpedoes, and missiles.

• Artillery is much more precise.

• Shell flight speed and turret traverse speed are increased.

• Main battery is limited to Heavy Explosive shells.

• Maximum ranges are adjusted based on each ship's role; some have considerably longer range.

• Ricochets and overpenetration hits are rare.

• Even destroyers can suffer citadel hits.

• Modules can't be damaged or critically damaged.

• Economic bonuses cannot be used, but you can mount signals as usual.

All this ensures fast-paced, fun gameplay where shootouts are sudden, brutal, and immensely rewarding.

But that's not all! Three additional event ships—Stalnoy, Spectre, and Shinsei—can also join the battle on your side. They have their own specializations.

All event ships allow you to test out various tactics in Temporal Rift, which you can discover yourself just by playing the event.

Some of these ships come equipped with Combat Instructions that automatically restock your missile supply in battle when charged by main battery hits or sunk enemies.

Moreover, Temporal Rift has brought advanced upgrades from the future to enhance your event ships. These allow you to highlight ships' advantages even more or change their gameplay to something different. For example, some upgrades offer straightforward bonuses like increased maximum speed or lower detectability. Other upgrades notably improve specific parameters while downgrading some others, letting you tweak the ship's playstyle. For instance, Modified Ammunition Activation System increases your maximum shell damage to citadel and missile damage but decreases your missiles' target acquisition radius, emphasizing hard-hitting capabilities but demanding greater precision.

Read the next section to learn how to get upgrades and additional ships.

Spoils of Time: Progress and Rewards

In addition to the main goals, Operations have secondary tasks like capturing specific Key Areas, respawning no more than a set number of times, or preventing the enemy from entering Key Areas. Complete them to earn Stars and progress through the event's reward track. There are 15 stages for each Operation and 15 more when they rotate. If you complete all the stages before the next Operation or their rotation unlocks, you still can earn Stars for additional stages that will yield More Signals containers. If the Operations switch before you finish all the stages, you can still continue to earn them; the switch won't affect your progress in the reward track.

Temporal Rift Rewards

By completing all Temporal Rift progress stages, you will get the following items:

• 10x common expendable economic bonuses of each type

• 5x uncommon expendable economic bonuses of each type

• 5x rare expendable economic bonuses of each type

• 3x days of Warships Premium account

• More Signals container x15

• Blue Digital permanent camouflage

• 12,000

   Coal

• 5,000

   Free XP

• 3x commemorative flags: Alliance of New Earth, Citadel of Return, and Temporal Rift

• 4x Unassigned Commanders with 10 skill points

• 12 SABER Tokens

• 3 Alliance Tokens

Among the rewards are Alliance Tokens and SABER Tokens, a special event currency. You can use Alliance Tokens to obtain additional event ships: Stalnoy, Spectre, and Shinsei. SABER Tokens, on the other hand, can be exchanged for upgrades for your event ships. Each ship has three slots: for armament, defense, and specialized modifications. Once acquired, each upgrade can be freely mounted on all ships simultaneously and later changed to other modifications. During the event, you'll be able to collect all available upgrades, giving you a wide choice in how to tweak your Temporal Rift fleet.

To access the reward track and unlock additional ships and upgrades, click the Temporal Rift banner in Port with one of the Operations selected in the battle-type menu. You can also purchase upgrades on the Equipment screen of the event ships.

All unspent Alliance and SABER Tokens will not be compensated after the event ends.

New Heroes: Unassigned Commanders

Temporal Rift introduces four new Commanders from the event's story with 10 skill points each: Commodore Joanna Lee (with an individual voiceover), Admiral Wolfgang Crow, SABER-777, and Dr. Marcus Steel. You can unlock one copy of each Commander for your Reserve through the event's reward track for free, so they will be able to join you in other battles while you master their skills.

They are Unassigned Commanders—a new mechanic that will be expanded in the future. Here are their key features:

• These Commanders initially have no nation or ship specialization.

• When you assign them to a ship of your choosing, they take on its nation and specialization, plus get a flag proudly displayed in their portrait background.

• Be aware: Assignment of nation is permanent. You can't undo it once an Unassigned Commander is assigned to a ship.

• However, you can freely manage them as usual Commanders: retrain, send them to the Reserve, and move them between ships—but all within the assigned nation.

• If you have multiple copies of the same Commanders with no assigned nation, you can assign them to different nations independently of each other.

This feature provides you with flexibility in choosing Commander and nation combinations. Note, however, that this mechanic will not be applied to unique or skilled Commanders for balance reasons. Also, there are no plans for historical Commanders to be included in the feature.

Now, sync your time, turn on the power, and sail out to save our very existence!