Hello Riftbreakers!
As we promised last week, today we will look at all the special skills we have developed for the most powerful enemies in the game - Omega creatures. These additional abilities expand the skillset of the creatures you regularly encounter in the game beyond anything you’ve seen. The Omega skills come in all roles - offensive, defensive, and supportive, requiring you to adapt your combat style for each encounter. This article will show you all the skills individually, clearly explaining each. We will also tell you about our experience while developing them, including discovering some absolutely overpowered combinations we experienced first-hand. Let’s dive in.
First, let’s quickly recap what we know about Omega creatures and their skills so far. They are special remakes of the creatures you have seen on Galatea 37. The difference is that the creatures of this strain are much more dangerous than their regular counterparts - which is reflected in their unique appearance. Omega creatures are beefier stat-wise and can also receive additional traits. The higher the game’s difficulty level, the more abilities a creature can receive. In the game's early stages, you won’t encounter Omegas at all, or they will only receive an HP boost. However, as you progress, they will start receiving additional skills. One Omega creature at the highest difficulty level can have up to four abilities. Now that we’re all up to speed on what they are, let’s see the full list of the Omega abilities.
We used a regular Fungor as our example skill "carrier", because it is a slow unit that does not have any additional skills. This will allow you to take a good look at each skill individually.
These attacks come in various shapes and forms. The attack patterns get more complex as the Omega creatures grow stronger.
Cascade Attacks - These attacks are telegraphed by warning zones appearing on the ground. After a few moments, acidic explosions, lighting strikes, or underground rocks appear in the marked areas. On higher difficulty levels, more danger zones appear. You will have to move around a lot not to get hit!
Unless you can outheal the damage, melee weapons against Aura-equipped enemies are not the best idea.
Damage Aura - A true classic. The radius around the Omega creature is lava (or some other equally unpleasant element)! If you stand close to the creature, you will continue to receive a steady stream of damage. Attack the target from afar or find a way to outheal the damage.
Drones are always on the move and you have to be as well!
Drone Spawner - If you thought that Baxmoth drone swarms were terrifying, just wait until you see an Omega with this ability! This skill allows the creature to spawn an endless stream of aggressive drones that will happily attack you and your structures. You must never stop moving unless you want an express trip to the HQ.
This Omega has no time to waste - there are millions of eggs to lay!
Egg Spawner - This ability allows the Omega creature to spawn eggs that will hatch into full-sized creatures after a few seconds. This supplies the attack wave with a never-ending stream of cannon fodder. However, it’s not as bad as it would seem - you can destroy the eggs before they hatch.
Fungor recovered all its lost HP in just one lap around the lake. However, if you keep dealing damage, the heal won't trigger.
Healing Aura - A support skill that restores the health of all enemy units in a large radius around the Omega creature. The creature endowed with this ability can also heal itself, meaning you can’t leave the fight halfway and return another day. You have to defeat it all at once.
The meteors get more powerful and accurate later in the game. However, since they don't target you specifically, meteors are a threat for your structures as well.
Meteor Spawner - The Omega creature can send a targeted meteor strike at you with this ability. There is a big difference from the cascade attacks we mentioned earlier - the meteors do not follow any pattern. You only have a fraction of a second to escape, so practice dodging!
Taking down the source of the Resistance Aura is a priority.
Resistance Aura - Thanks to this ability, all the creatures in a radius around the Omega will receive a meaningful damage resistance boost, including the big guy! This makes your targets significantly harder to take down.
How do you like chaos and a never-ending stream of cannon fodder?
Resurrect Aura - Omega creatures have been taking lessons from Necrodons. Thanks to this skill, they can revive units that have fallen in battle. If there is no one they can revive (unlikely), they will instead summon a pack of creatures out of thin air.
Shockwave will punish you for getting too close. It will also prevent you from teleporting around the map.
Shockwave - This ability triggers when you get too close to the enemy unit. It will send a shockwave pulse, dealing damage in a radius around the creature and also turning off your minimap and the ability to teleport. It is better to stay away as far as possible when you see it.
In case you're wondering - this is just a regular version of the Swarm Spawner skill. Omegas can also be surrounded by Ultra Canceroth. You're welcome.
Swarm Spawner - The Omega creature with this ability is surrounded by a swarm of Canceroth cells. They serve as additional protection from attacks and deal a fair share of damage. You have to destroy these cells before you get to the Omega. Be quick - they will grow back after a while!
You can either fight, or try to escape. Be quick though - these walls can pop up very quickly.
Waller - A creature with this ability will create walls that severely limit your movement options. You will have to break through these walls to escape or press on despite the limited maneuverability and deal with the source of the problem.
Now that you get the whole picture, you can see that Omega creatures can get more than one ability (but not multiples of one!), which can lead to some overpowered combinations. Imagine our shock when we first encountered a creature with both Healing and Resistance Auras on a Survival run. We had only reached Advanced weapons at that time. The beast was absolutely unkillable for us and ended our run prematurely. Similarly, the combination of Waller and Drones or a Damage Aura has almost halved the population of gamepads around the office. Based on the playtesters’ feedback, we preemptively excluded some combinations of Omega skills to prevent further emotional damage. We will continue making changes to ensure that Omegas remain tough but fair and beatable.
Do you have any ideas for more skills that we could use? Let us know in the comments! If you want to have a chance to fight these creatures before the official release, sign up for the Closed Co-Op Beta below. Everyone who signs up will receive access to the Beta for them and their friends before the testing period is over.
To sign up for The Riftbreaker Multiplayer Beta please fill in the following form:
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A very important PS: We are aware of an issue that causes the game to crash on Nvidia RTX GPUs when raytracing is enabled. This issue arose with the release of the new drivers for these GPUs. We are working on the issue and we are narrowing down on the source of the problem. However, in the meantime, if you are experiencing crashes turn raytracing options off in the Advanced Graphics menu. We apologize for these issues and we are doing our best to fix them as quickly as possible.
EXOR Studios