Gameplay - Equipment and Loot

I'm going to start doing some short articles to explain some of the gameplay systems in Unto the Breach, with the hopes they'll help players understand everything that's going on. There's a lot of different topics to cover, so let's get started! First up: equipment and loot!

Loot/Item Quality

While basic items only have one type of each, weapons and armor fall into a number of different tiers of quality based on the number and strength of extra effects granted to them by the random loot system. Every time you pick up a new weapon or armor, its attributes are randomly generated from a massive pool of possible effects. These effects are also divided into a number of tiers based on their relative strength and overall effects. Additionally, the names of items will be tinted certain colors based on their quality tier. The tiers are as follows, with their names, text colors, and general description:

• Inferior: yellow. Items with a detrimental effect of some kind. Overrides other tiers for display purposes.
• Common: white. Unmodified items with no special effects beyond their standard stats.
• Improved: green. The first tier of improvement. Usually minor effects, buffing a single stat by a small amount.
• Exceptional: turquoise. The second tier, effects are stronger and buffs to multiple parameters become more common.
• Master-Crafted: blue. Early game, this will be the highest quality possible. Effects are exceptionally strong.
• Legendary: purple. Exceptionally powerful, and incredibly rare. Might include things like buffing all primary stats, or granting high degrees of elemental or state resistance.
• Absolute Unit, aka Artifact: orange. Unique items obtained only after difficult quests or as super-rare drops in special circumstances. Will probably last you the rest of the game if you get one.

The bulk of items will be white, with successive tiers above it being increasingly rare. Playing through challenge areas in Hardcore Mode will result in higher tiers being more likely.

Some example weapons at different tiers.

Weapons and Armor Differences

Gear falls into several categories in Unto the Breach beyond just weapons and armor, and each character follows the same system. Each character will have the following equipment slots:

• Main weapon
• Off hand/weapon (if not using two-handed weapons)
• Primary armor
• Secondary armor
• Accessory
• Ring

Weapons: Weapons have several different categories, and each character uses a specific category, or two categories in some cases (e.g. Alex can use one-handed swords and axes). If a character is using a one-handed weapon in one hand, they can use either a shield or a second weapon in their other hand. If a character is using a two-handed weapon (e.g. Conrad's spears), they will only have the one weapon equipped. The different types of weapons in Unto the Breach are as follows, along with some basic descriptions:

• Swords: One-handed. Medium damage. Uses standard attack. Typically includes small buffs to DEF and Evasion.
• Axes: One-handed. Medium-high damage. Uses standard attack. Typically includes penalties to Hit Rate, and buffs to Crit Rate.
• Spears: Two-handed. High damage. Uses special attack (lower base damage but higher defense penetration). Typically includes penalties to Hit Rate and AGI, and buffs to Crit Rate.
• Rods: One-handed. Low damage, medium magic. Uses standard attack. Typically includes buffs to MDF and Magic Evasion.
• Daggers: One-handed. Low damage (individually), can be dual-wielded for medium damage. Uses standard attack. Typically includes buffs to Hit Rate, Crit Rate, and Evasion.
• Bows: Two-handed. Medium damage. Uses special attack (lower base damage but significantly higher defense penetration). Typically includes penalties to AGI, and includes a chance to inflict Stun with attacks.
• Tomes: Two-handed. Medium damage. Uses special attack (deals physical damage against target's magical defense). Typically includes buffs to SPI and can have built-in elemental damage.
• Hammers: Two-handed. High damage. Uses special attack (higher base damage but lower defense penetration). Typically includes penalties to Hit Rate and has a high chance of inflicting Stun when attacking.

Armors: Likewise, armor falls into a number of different categories. Each character uses a specific type of primary armor and secondary armor. The primary armor types are:

• Cloth: Low physical defense, low magical defense. Typically buffs SPI and Evasion.
• Leather: Medium-low physical defense, no magical defense. Typically buffs AGI and Evasion.
• Medium Armor: Medium-high physical defense, no magical defense. Typically buffs HP, SP, and Evasion.
• Heavy Armor: High physical defense, no magical defense. Typically buffs HP and SP to a higher degree than Medium Armor.

Secondary armor types are completely independent of primary armor types, and while certain types clearly synergize, they can be mixed and matched. The types are:

• Headgear: Provides additional physical defense. Typically includes penalties to AGI and buffs to MDF Rate (reduced magical damage).
• Gloves: Provides minor additional physical defense and additional Agility. Typically also buffs Max SP.
• Cloaks: Provides minor physical defense and modest magical defense. Typically also buffs Magic Evasion.

Accessories: Accessories are assorted bonus items that provide specific secondary benefits, typically immunity to various status ailments, but there are a number of Tonic items that will boost some stats at the expense of others (such as boosting ATK by 10% while decreasing DEF by the same amount). A few other, extremely rare, items exist that provide multiple benefits at once.

Rings: Rings are an additional slot to equip items buffed by the random loot system. They use the same prefixes and suffixes as weapons and armor, and thus their effects can be wildly varied. They follow the same tier system, and a few Artifact-grade rings are probably out there somewhere.

Conclusion

Hopefully that all made sense, and illustrates how equipment works in Unto the Breach. Of course, any questions, by all means, ask away!