Item Stacking

Lore & Background

The items scattered across the planet are described by game lore as the space freighter's cargo. When survivors collect multiple copies of the same item, the benefits stack, allowing for increasingly powerful combinations. The game's difficulty scale increases with time, requiring the player to choose between spending time building experience or completing levels quickly before monsters become more difficult. This creates a tension where stacking items can provide the power needed to survive, but takes time that allows the difficulty to rise. The developers, Duncan Drummond and Paul Morse, were aware that with all available items to collect, it is possible to 'break the game' by acquiring specific combinations of item drops which would make the player overpowered or invincible. They believed this was acceptable since it was highly tied to the game's random generator.

In Their Own Story

A survivor scavenges through a level, hunting for the teleporter placed in a random location. Along the way, they encounter monsters that drop in-game money upon death. The survivor uses this money to open chests and buy items at stores, hoping to find multiple copies of the same item to stack their benefits. As they collect duplicates, their offensive and defensive capabilities grow. The survivor must balance this accumulation against the rising difficulty timer, which increases every five minutes up through ten levels, with newly spawned monsters having more health and stronger attacks. On the final level, the survivor must fight a final boss character; if they survive, they escape the planet and win the game.

Reader's Guide

To maximize item stacking, focus on collecting money from monster kills and using it to open chests and buy items at stores. Shrines offer a random chance of dropping items, but with no guarantee. The teleporter activation triggers a timed countdown event ranging from 90 seconds on Drizzle (easy) difficulty to 120 seconds on Monsoon (hard), during which many more monsters and at least one boss appear. After the countdown, no new monsters spawn, and players must kill all remaining monsters before proceeding. Any remaining money is converted to experience points upon exiting the level. At the penultimate level, players can choose to take the teleporter to the final level or run through previous levels again to gain more experience and items. Item drops are based on meta-game progress through repeated playthroughs; defeating certain boss characters for the first time unlocks an item that can then drop in future playthroughs. Other items are unlocked by completing goals such as winning the game a number of times or performing specific objectives with each character. In Rainstorm or Monsoon modes, monsters rarely drop log books that describe the monsters, which itself unlocks more items and a playable character.

Did You Know?

• Players can collect many passive items, including multiple versions of the same item, stacking the benefits of these items.
• There are over 110 items in the game, providing benefits such as passive bonuses or a special usable with a cooldown.
• Players can only hold one usable at any time, but can collect many passive items.
• Defeating certain boss characters for the first time unlocks an item that can then drop in future playthroughs.
• In Rainstorm or Monsoon modes, monsters will rarely drop log books that describe the monsters, which is used to unlock more items and a playable character.