How Progression & Upgrades Work In Hyper Light Breaker

screenrant.com:

builds on its predecessor in every conceivable way, including its progression systems. Like, is a roguelike game. Players go through it in "" — each time they spawn, they complete as much of the game as they can until they run up against a wall and their character dies. They then start the Cycle again from scratch, only this time, they find themselves in an entirely new procedurally generated world, with new challenges to face and new upgrades to gain.

But in order to ensure players are reliably able to complete the game, implements a variety of different progression systems to ensure the player character gets increasingly stronger over time. There are those that apply only within an individual Cycle, those that apply across runs, those that affect your character, and those that affect the world around them. Learning to use them is an important factor in powering up custom characters over time, and eventually ensuring that continued progress through the game is feasible. There are four different progression systems in; here's what each of them is and how it works.

Like most roguelikes, is all about collecting gear. Players will constantly search for new and better weapons and armor, unlocking new attacks, increasing your defenses, and defining your playstyle along the way. Gear is the reward for almost everything the player does in: chests contain it, secrets hide it, merchants sell it, and enemies drop it. Often, the randomly spawned gear can make or break a Cycle — but that's just the problem.

Screen Rant went hands on with sci-fi roguelite Hyper Light Breaker at Summer Game Fest to learn more about the adventure game's ever-changing world.

Roguelike gear is typically locked to the run in which the player finds it; once they die, it's lost forever, unless they're lucky enough to find it again on the next run. Enter 's first new progression system: The Vault. The Vault is a sort of gear repository where players can send their excess gear, then pick it up again on