Pop through portals in Everspace 2's final early access update, out now
A fine way to spend an endgame
Spaceship looter shooter Everspace 2 has launched one last update at the final frontier, with today's Ancient Rifts update constituting the sixth and final major early access content drop. The full game won't be out 'til next year, but what's there now includes an endgame where you head through rifts to blow up lost pirates "who've succumbed to madness". I'd leave 'em be, if I were you. Who are they going to pirate on in rift town?
Developers Rockfish Games also promise new missions, legendary items, and a "significant overhaul of our level-scaling approach".
I love it when people come up with an excuse for space to be purple.
More details can be found on the Steam update page, where community ambassador Erik Schrader explains those rifts are multi-stage affairs that see you slapping down bosses to net legendary items, while dying kicks you out with nothing. It's a roguelike mode, basically, where you choose between modifiers as you pop between stages, deciding whether you want say, your next enemies to have fatter shields or to drop mines when they die. Pumping up the "lunacy" rating before the rift starts or picking the modifier that the game deems nastier will net you greater rewards, "like a higher legendary drop chance and better loot overall".
The other major change seems to be that level-scaling overhaul. Rather than enemies always levelling to keep pace with your own abilities, meeting certain conditions like entering a new system, hitting a certain level or reaching major plot points now results in you being notified that the threat from enemies in previous areas has increased. It's supposed to be a more satisfying, natural way of providing a constant challenge - and an even harder challenge for those that want to jump ahead to late-game areas, which now won't scale down.
Elsewhere, there are new job types, a re-work for racing events, and a few new spaceship bits and bobs. You can read about 'em in the update notes here.
Schrader also mentions "the remaining star system and the rest of the campaign are reserved for the v1.0 release".
If you wanna fly through some rifts right now, Everspace 2 is currently 25% off on Steam, putting it at £24/$30/€28.50