Pre-Alpha Missions
The Pre-Alpha featured a set of missions to test various concepts and cave formations. Below is a list of all missions discovered from 2016 October 24th up to 2016 November 26th builds of the game.
1 PLAYER
| Objective: | Cave Type: | Enemies: |
| Collect 250 Gold | Linear (4 Rooms) | Spiders |
Since 1 PLAYER was meant to be played solo - cave leeches do not spawn. Otherwise it's a randomized linear mission featuring a total of four rooms each connected by tunnels.
2 PLAYER
| Objective: | Cave Type: | Enemies: |
| Eliminate 1-2 Targets | Linear (4 Rooms) | Spiders, Cave Leeches |
The 2 PLAYER mission features an "Eliminate Targets" objective which instructs players to destroy up to two Brood Nexuses. As the player gets closer to a Nexus, "OBJ" will appear on the compass (located at the top of the screen) marking the Brood Nexus's location. When a Brood Nexus is destroyed in the Pre-Alpha, a large spider creature (a placeholder for glyphids) will emerge from it, this mechanic bares a striking resemblance to Elimination.
The mission's map layout is fairly basic consisting of linear randomly generated rooms, although the number of unique rooms the mission can choose from is fairly small.
MINES
| Objective: | Cave Type: | Enemies: |
| Collect 250 Gold | Multiple Paths - Non-Linear (5-7 Rooms) | Spiders, Jellies, Cave Leeches |
The MINES mission mainly stands out with its unique cave layout. It attempts to generate two separate linear caves, but often one of the treasure rooms will merge with the spawn room making it trivially short, in some cases the tunnels wont properly connect to their expected paths leading to dead ends.
Cave Layout
- Spawn - Player's starting point.
- Nexus - Room which contains a Brood Nexus.
- subNexus - Small room closely linked with the adjacent room, it contains a Brood Nexus.
- Treasure - Contains an abundance of Gold.
- X - Dead end.
Spawn Treasure
| /
X---Nexus /
_/ | /
_/ Nexus /
Nexus | /
| Nexus---X
|
subNexus---Treasure---subNexus
SIMPLE
| Objective: | Cave Type: | Enemies: |
| Collect 150 Gold | Linear (5-6 Rooms) | Spiders, Cave Leeches |
SIMPLE can generate up to six rooms, but the objective can often be completed long before reaching the final room.
SPILBAR
| Objective: | Cave Type: | Enemies: |
| Collect 250 Gold | Static - Linear (5 Rooms) | Spiders, Cave Leeches |
This mission was specifically made for presentation purposes, in Denmark an event called "SpilBar" is hosted where various game developers gather to showcase their work. Ghost Ship Games attended this event and created a mission specifically to showcase their (at the time) upcoming game, hence this mission's name.
The rooms aren't randomized and always come in the same layout. Although smaller things such as gold placement is varied, they are still pre-determined to spawn in specific rooms.
Cave Layout
"two jagged tubes" "three pillars" "lava geyser cliff"
4 WAY DUNGEON
| Objective: | Cave Type: | Enemies: |
| Retrieve 4 Artifacts | Hub - Semi-Linear (6 Rooms) | Spiders, Cave Leeches |
4 WAY DUNGEON generates two linear rooms that lead into a giant "Hub" cave, this cave then branches out into three tunnels each ending with a room of their own.
This mission carries a unique objective of "Retrieve 4 Artifacts", the Artifact itself is a placeholder textureless floating cube, dwarves have to interact with the Artifact (Hold E) for 10 seconds to collect it. Usually three of the four Artifacts will be paired with a Brood Nexus.
- Only the server host is able to see and interact with these artifacts.
Cave Layout
- Spawn - Player's starting point.
- Artifact - Artifact's spawn location.
- Hub - Large room that contains tunnels to all rooms around itself.
Spawn
|
Artifact
|
Artifact---Hub---Artifact
|
Artifact
ENDLESS
| Objective: | Cave Type: | Enemies: |
| Eliminate # Targets (Incremental) | Linear (Incremental) | Spiders, Jellies, Cave Leeches |
The ENDLESS mission bares a striking resemblance to Deep Dives. At first, players are required to destroy one Brood Nexus and then reach an Extraction Zone to initiate a 60 second countdown for the escape pod's arrival. Each level further extends the escape pod's wait time by 30 seconds, increases the number of generated rooms by one and every second level another Brood Nexus is added to the objective's requirement.
- Gold is remembered between levels, making it so that the Gold Frenzy upgrades are kept as well.
| Level | Rooms | Brood Nexus(es) | Escape Timer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 1 | 60s |
| 2 | 4 | 1 | 90s |
| 3 | 5 | 2 | 120s |
| 4 | 6 | 2 | 150s |
| 5 | 7 | 3 | 180s |
DreamHack Gauntlet (SPEED MINING)
| Objective: | Cave Type: | Enemies: |
| N/A (Gold Collecting Competition) | Linear (2 Rooms) | Spiders, Jellies, Cave Leeches |
DreamHack Gauntlet was a time limited mission made for 2016's DreamHack event. Players would compete in an attempt to attain as much gold as possible within five minutes, all while having to successfully escape the cave.
The cave is fairly small, consisting of a spawn room connected to an open area where the majority of gold can be found. Glowing crystals were featured in this mission for the first time.
- Resupply Pods cannot be spawned in this mission.
- The Gold Frenzy upgrade system is disabled in this mission.
- This mission featured unique Mission Control voice lines for the mission's introduction.
SPEED MINING RANDOM
| Objective: | Cave Type: | Enemies: |
| N/A | Linear (2 Rooms) | Spiders |
SPEED MINING RANDOM is a randomized variation of the DreamHack Gauntlet mission, where the second room is randomized and allows for Resupply Pods to the called in. This mission is seemingly unfinished as the escape pod never arrives, leaving players trapped.
EXPLORATION
| Objective: | Cave Type: | Enemies: |
| Collect 750 Gold | Non-Linear (? Rooms) | Spiders, Jellies, Cave Leeches |
EXPLORATION features a random smattering of caves, making the room count very difficult to determine. As a result of its 750 Gold objective treasure rooms will often feature more than enough gold needed for completion.
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