The Riftbreaker - Survive All

"The Riftbreaker™ is a base-building, survival game with Action-RPG elements. You are an elite scientist/commando inside an advanced Mecha-Suit capable of dimensional rift travel. Hack & slash countless enemies. Build up your base, collect samples and research new inventions to survive."

Available on Steam, Epic, GamePass, Xbox, Playstation.

I'm about 10 hours in and just starting to venture off to the new zones. Really liking all the aspects of the game (except for the fact that I've had 10 meteor storms in a row). Curious how people are building out different things, where the synergies exist for certain elements, play styles etc. (Specifically if TychotheMad could chime in on how he is getting +44 carbonium/second because I'm stuck at +7).

I played some both on PC and on Series X. My biggest issue with the game so far is neither control scheme (controller, m&k) works for me. Building is way better with m&k, but I like the combat much better with the controller. I don't play a ton of games with m&k, so having to use the number keys for abilities in the heat of combat usually leads to me dying because I'm bad at it. If I play more it will likely be with a controller.

Besides that I really like a lot of what the game is doing. I've only played through the prologue and then a few hours into the campaign, so I'm still really early into the game. I worry it will get overwhelming. The tech tree has like 100+ nodes. I think as I get deeper I'll wish it was more tower defense that it actually is.

IUMogg wrote:

I played some both on PC and on Series X. My biggest issue with the game so far is neither control scheme (controller, m&k) works for me. Building is way better with m&k, but I like the combat much better with the controller. I don't play a ton of games with m&k, so having to use the number keys for abilities in the heat of combat usually leads to me dying because I'm bad at it. If I play more it will likely be with a controller.

Besides that I really like a lot of what the game is doing. I've only played through the prologue and then a few hours into the campaign, so I'm still really early into the game. I worry it will get overwhelming. The tech tree has like 100+ nodes. I think as I get deeper I'll wish it was more tower defense that it actually is.

One potential method of reducing the m&k issues around reaching for the numbers is to switch WASD to ESDF, and then use the letter keys that frees up for mapping skills.

As someone who has the opposite problem (I always bumble if I need to suddenly do things quickly with a controller), I realize that may not be sufficient to overcome the muscle memory (or lack of) issues.

hey staygold
you happened by when i was in a bit of a carbonium glut, so it's not entirely representative. but the thing to keep in mind is that higher level factories are more efficient, lvl 0 is 1 to 1 for how much resource you get vs how much you take from a patch. at level 3 it is 4 to 1, so with upgraded factories you can put 2 extractors on a patch that would normally hold 1 (3x3) and for awhile you'll be getting 8 instead of the 1 you would have by placing a single lvl 0.
I also was working on multiple maps at that point so i probably had a dozen or so carbonium mining patches going at once.
best piece of advice i can think of in general is expand whenever you can, take a patch of resources and turn it into a small bastion. when the resources dry up you can either expand it into a true military hard point (if it's in a good position) or delete it. also, research is life, if you can get a few weapons that work for you, upgrade as far as you can, make sure you always have as many research buildings as you can support.

i'll keep casting when i play in the evenings and anyone who wants to talk strats is welcome! i might do an hour or 2 for IGWJ day too.

This game would be fun with a coop mode where my son runs around in another mech mostly shooting stuff while I manage the bases.

I think that coop is planned, not sure of the time frame.

I am having a good time with it on GamePass! I just need to increase the efficiencies of my mining equipment a bit, so I can extract the most I can.

I am a ways into a campaign and the game is good and has some real issues. I would say make sure to go big, think big, think bigger. Bigger base, more mining, more energy.

MrJuiceBags on YouTube has a Let’s Play Brutal Campaign for riftbreaker that might help you with ideas.

I was interested but skeptical I would get too deep into this. Then as I was playing I was thinking it was too much base building for me and I'd probably fall of quick. Then I realized I played all night and was still playing at 3am.

Along the way I noticed that I was turning every mining site into too complex and self sufficient of a base and I should have been chaining them to my main power creation instead.

Now that I'm really into it I'm wishing it had cross saves so I could bounce between playing on PC and Xbox with same save state. I've put all my time on Xbox. Gonna try playing it over local streaming to a tablet so I can play when away from the TV and hope the latency gods don't curse me with a bad experience.

I dunno that it's necessary to have power chains to bases, i think it depends on the map. There hace been a few times I've chained power but mostly I've made self sufficient islands so if somethibg does get overrun it doesn't tend to start a chain reaction.
At this pint I'm at endgame i think(time to calibrate and start up the rift home) and I've found some things to share.
0 scan all rocks and vegetation!
1 get a foothold in the acid or lava biome quickly and research their powerplants (lava is more plentiful in lava maps, sludge is less but available on more map types, take your pick).
2 get the carbonium and ironium synthesis plants and make a big ass base in your chosen biome that produces a ton of power and put as many synth plants as you can.
This will give you a good base carbonium and ironium income for use and to supply your turrets.
3 stake a very large area with good mud access on headquarters and get its defenses tip top.
This will become your garden. Every material you can mine can be grown and while it is not super fast, it is way easier and more efficient then chasing the odd 10k special material mine all the time. I'm not 100% certain of the efficiencies yet but i think the best ratio seems to be 1 cultivator to 4 or so collectors.
Click the plant button in the center of the cultivator select menu to choose what to plant. I'm pretty sure this is not signposted. At least i only realized by accident.

Tycho the Mad wrote:

At this pint I'm at endgame i think(time to calibrate and start up the rift home) and I've found some things to share.
0 scan all rocks and vegetation!

I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum, having played about 30 minutes of the first mission! So my first (and only) question is, how do I scan rocks and vegetation?! Have I missed an instruction on how to do this? Or is it something to unlock in the intimidating tech tree? I'm quite good a hacking down vegetation with my sword, but that's about it...

Middle mouse button. I missed it for hours upon hours till I saw it on Reddit.

Hockosi wrote:

Middle mouse button. I missed it for hours upon hours till I saw it on Reddit.

Thanks! There was a screen that showed the controls right at the beginning, I bet it was mentioned on that...not the best way to tutorialise something that important if that's the only place it's shown...

One of the main failures of the game is tutorialization, the only reason i knew some things was because i had spent hours in the demo pre-launch. And i also missed the scanner for almost 10 in game hours.

I do wish the game pushed or guided you to explore more. I think the outpost system and exploring to progress is one of the strengths of the game but it’s definitely not communicated very strongly.

I started for about 5-6 hours by building up a base on the main map but it quickly becomes almost impossible to maintain huge spatial areas with the constant attacks and weather events, at least while you still have lower tier buildings. Now that I’ve explored 3-4 other maps I have many more research options available and the passive trickle of resources from other bases is really really nice.

I got to the mission to harvest the first of the major rift resources. Got an unstable can’t save bug. Went back to a save before that planet, got a ways in, can’t save again. Can’t save then you can’t leave the area, can’t complete the game.

Welp.

Don't forget the Geothermal Powerplant produces mud as a byproduct which makes it a great way to start a farm away from a mud source.

Sad to say it took me way too long to realize that if I hold left trigger when building it builds the max upgraded version right away. I wasted so much time doing upgrades afterwards. I need to try this on PC and see the controls there because building with a controller sucks.

Finished the story today, it was fine and there's actually a choice at the end with different endings. Not exactly mass effect, but neat.
One option allows for continued play. Only thing missing for me so far is that there isnt a way to continue research once the tech trees are done. Would be nice if there was something to do with those labs.
Still a lot to do though, so many species to scan and i have a sneaking suspicion that if i do something cool might happen. Maybe, maybe not, we'll see.

Overall review, it's a wonderful game top to bottom, factorio style gameplay without having to aquire a masters level understanding of logistics and fun combat.
There are some fun dialogue bits and the story is perfectly serviceable. I hope it's a hit and EXOR is making stuff like this for a long time.

I just played the Prologue and it seems like a cool game that will eventually grind me into dust because I’m horrible at switching modes and doing things quickly -especially switching to keyboard to build and controller to fight.

I've given this about 8 hours now and I'm not sure it's for me.

I feel like there's not a lot of strategy in your resource management, and most of it comes down to spamming as many generators/research buildings/turrets etc. as you can. Whenever I ran out of something, I went "oh well" and just held down the construct button until the problem was solved.

Meanwhile, you're just waiting for research meters to fill.

Perhaps I've been spoiled by Factorio and They Are Billions. I was really hoping it would be a nice mix of these two games. It just lacks nuance to me. It feels good enough to play, I like shooting and getting weapons, but I don't feel like I'm making any meaningful decisions while I build my base.

Just rolled credits. Enjoyed it and will keep recommending it to others. They aren't going to win any awards for plot but the gameplay was compelling and kept me interested start to finish.

The late game buildings are significantly better than what you start with but require lining up a series of things to get the right input materials. Not only does the Fusion Powerplant generate obscene amounts of power it also produces byproduct Plasma that I then use to power Heavy Artillery that can shoot about 1/3rd of the map away. Collecting and routing Supercharged Plasma to storage tanks in strategic parts of my main base gave me pretty good map coverage with artillery and backup plasma if lines break.

Spoiler:

Was it just me or did Mr Riggs accent change significantly a few times along the way? Could swear they had some voice clips in there with a completely different voice actor. Was there some part of the plot that explained that and I missed?

It's not you, it happened to me several times and once Ashley commented on it. Im guessing it was a bug at sone point during dev and they decided to lampshade it?

I'm finding this both enjoyable and exhausting. So many tech upgrades, so many buildings, such a convoluted menu system (controller friendly but ugh). Everything just keeps coming. I like that I have a little control of some strong waves, but early defenses are so weak that little outposts around the map are hopeless and will take the brunt of the damage, then you have to rebuild and there's no just 'rebuild this area' option so you get the additional tedium of redesigning a base you already built.

I liked the little bit of Factorio in there, convert resource X to resource Y and pay attention to output/input ratios... but then having to rebuild that when the bugs get them is just no thanks.

You can find patterns in where the enemies come from and build strong defense points strategically to pull enemies there instead of your resource points. Over time you won’t need much defenses on the internals of the map but I’d put a teleport point at most important bases so you can jump quick as needed.

I played for another couple of hours (playing on PC cloud gaming by the way and its been great) and was doing much better. built lots more static defenses and Artillery towers and that put my 'bait base' on auto-pilot. Things got better after that.

polypusher wrote:

I played for another couple of hours (playing on PC cloud gaming by the way and its been great) and was doing much better. built lots more static defenses and Artillery towers and that put my 'bait base' on auto-pilot. Things got better after that.

Once I had a good idea of where the major attacks came from I started building buffers of walls near the edge of the map that the monsters would get stuck on then used long range artillery to slaughter them. Later I put mine layer towers out by those outer walls (with triple walls around the tower itself) so that anything coming in ran into mines and artillery right away. Taking advantage of the natural rock formations to create death alleys helps as well. The bottom of my main base had an awesome alley of rock where major attacks would always come and never even make it close to my base.

heavy artillery is fricken amazing once you have the resources to deploy it. i've got 2-4 of them at each of my major combat bases and they just wipe out most of incoming heavy waves like it's nothing. it's not a standalone defense, but it turns massive attack waves into something that can be taken care of 1 or 2 turret clusters.

This game is 10x better with a mouse and keyboard. I suppose that should have been obvious, but I first played on the Cloud player which is controller only (for... reasons)

Now that I've downloaded it I can lay out a base in a few minutes from scratch. I'm on my 3rd 'start' and finding I dont really mind restarting. Is Survival mode any fun? Basically just the campaign without so much dialog?

After you finished Riftbreaker did you find another game like it? Or at least close enough to capture some of what was great about Riftbreaker? I'm looking.

pandasuit wrote:

After you finished Riftbreaker did you find another game like it? Or at least close enough to capture some of what was great about Riftbreaker? I'm looking.

I don't think there's a 1:1 comparable for Riftbreaker. To help tailor my answer, what were the specific elements of Riftbreaker you enjoyed the most? If you can rank order a few, I can come up with some games that could be candidates:
- Mining/Resource Gathering
- Crafting
- Basebuilding
- Horde Defense
- Exploration
- Story

staygold wrote:
pandasuit wrote:

After you finished Riftbreaker did you find another game like it? Or at least close enough to capture some of what was great about Riftbreaker? I'm looking.

I don't think there's a 1:1 comparable for Riftbreaker. To help tailor my answer, what were the specific elements of Riftbreaker you enjoyed the most? If you can rank order a few, I can come up with some games that could be candidates:
- Mining/Resource Gathering
- Crafting
- Basebuilding
- Horde Defense
- Exploration
- Story

My son recently finished Riftbreaker and I’m looking for something new for him.

I asked him your question and he said the best parts are base building and setting up towers to fight the horde of monsters. He didn’t feel strongly about the mining, crafting, exploration, story, or using his mech to fight enemies.

So I guess tower defense games? Maybe ones with more base building elements?

He likes space RTS games as well. Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds is one of his favorite games. Unfortunately he mostly plays on Xbox. I may have to get him playing on PC more if RTS is his thing. On Xbox he plays Halo Wars 1/2, Age of Empires 2, TABS, Plants vs Zombies, etc. He likes Roblox games where he builds armies and bases and they automatically fight for him.

While he said the mining/crafting stuff in Riftbreaker weren’t interesting he does like Minecraft and similar games. He’s often asking me to get him PC games with similar elements. I really need to setup a PC he can use more often.