So you’ve taken up your Javelin and are planning to end the evil Queen of Keys’ oppressive reign, but maybe you’d like a few tips before you get started on your revolution in Reignbreaker, the new “medievalpunk” action roguelike from Fizbin Studio.
Look no further, rebel! Here is the GSC Beginner’s Guide to Reignbreaker!
If you haven’t picked up Reignbreaker yet, you can check out this month’s issue of the GSC Demo Disc to watch the trailer and try the demo!
Index
- Smash Everything!
- Side Chambers
- NPC Vaults
- The Trenchrats
- Resolve Upgrades & Slots
- Javelins
- Status Effects
- Chaining Finishers
Smash Everything!
Let’s start with something easy: smash everything you can! There is a lot of loot to be collected within the halls of the Bastion, and it’s not like the Queen of Keys is doing anything good with it!
You’ll find chained up coffers and chests that you can destroy to gather Key Money, which you use in shops during a run to purchase temporary buffs or upgrade Perks you have equipped.
You’ll also find a variety of statues that can be smashed to pieces, earning you different rewards based on the type of statue.
- Blue Shield – New Spear
- Yellow Shield – Health and Purple Crytasls
- Pink Stone – Lots of Purple Crystals
You owe it to yourself to find as much loot as you can on each run, so keep your eyes peeled as progress deeper into the Bastion. It will help you with the run you are currently on, netting you more Key Money to spend at shops along the way, and provide more materials and gear to upgrade/adjust your stats and loadout back at camp.
Speaking of searching for loot…
Side Chambers
Each floor of the Queen’s Bastion is pretty straightforward, with chambers connected to each other by metal bridges, with Clef starting at one end and the exit to the next floor at the other. While the floors may be linear, every now and then a side chamber will appear on the map; a room that is just a dead end.
These are Side Chambers, little rooms guarded by traps, that are stuffed with treasure and sometimes a shop you can visit. These are very worthwhile, as they often have one of the statues in amongst the hoard which give you more Javelins and Purple Crystals to permanently improve Clef back at camp.
After you’ve gotten passed the Queen’s nefarious traps and collected your rewards, look for a control panel on the floor or nearby wall to disable those same traps.
NPC Vaults
You’ll see trails of brightly coloured spray paint throughout the Bastion, with arrows and symbols leading you to one of the floor’s Vaults. These indicate that a Vault is tied to one of the game’s NPC Factions that Clef interacts with during her rebellion.
While these are moments to learn more about the world and history of Reignbreaker, as well as Clef and her relationships, they also determine what type of perks you will get from the Vault.
- Green – The Bloodletter – Healing and Resurrection
- Blue – Ardea – Attack and Defence
- Teal – Van Tell – Traps
- Orange – Vandal Leader – Status Effects and Modifications
All Vaults also reward Clef with Key Money and Purple Crystals for completing them.
It won’t take long for you to start recognising which paint path is which type of Vault, and with not every Vault needing to be raided in order to progress, you can plan whether to attempt it or not.
To the right of the entrance to the Bastion is a wall where the four faction logos will be painted once you’ve met them for the first time. You can interact with each one to get a quick summary of who they are and what their perk theme is.
The Trenchrats
You will eventually encounter the last NPC Faction in Reignbreaker on one of your runs, and they happen to be the only friendly one! The Trenchrats, represented by a curious urchin, live deep in the bowels of the Bastion, and offer help during Clef’s runs.
The rest stops you will encounter are set up by them, giving you a chance to regain health and spend your Key Money on temporary buffs.
You also have the opportunity to unlock new Javelins at these rest stops, but you’ll have to be quick about it! If you take too long to reach the rest stop, you may find the locker… locked.
Resolve Upgrades & Slots
In classic roguelike fashion, Reignbreaker allows players to strengthen Clef permanently after each attempt at storming the Bastion. During each run, you’ll collect Purple Crystals that can be used to purchase and improve these permanent Resolve Upgrades back at camp. These range from more health and Heat (the amount you can generate before your Javelin needs to cooldown), doing more damage or unlocking new moves, to finding certain Vaults more often with better Perks.
Clef can only equip to of these Resolve Upgrades at the beginning of the game. To unlock more Upgrades Slots you will have to beat the Queen of keys’ Guardians. These are the bosses you’ll face at the end of each run, and sometimes mid-way through as well! There are a total of 9 Upgrade Slots, with 21 Resolve Upgrades to choose from, meaning there are a lot of ways to prepare Clef for future runs.
Javelins
Like we mentioned earlier, you unlock new Javelins during your runs through the Queen’s Bastion. You can look these over and try them out back at camp, using the training area over the crevasse.
Each Javelin performs differently, and as you progress you’ll find ones with Modifications that alter their performance. Take the time to find one that suits you, and think about what sort of Perks you may want to pick up during your next run.
Status Effects
No doubt you’ll find certain Resolve Upgrades to match with your Javelin and playstyle, so we won’t linger too long on combat. However, there are a couple of things that we think are worth highlighting.
First off is Status Effects. There are four main Status Effects in Reignbreaker: Bleed, Stun, Root, and Coat.
Bleed – Applies a damage-over-time debuff on enemies. Bleeding enemies take damage for 5 seconds. If you apply 10 stacks of Bleed, the stacks are removed, and the target takes a flat 150 damage instantly.
Stun – Stunned enemies can’t move or attack for two seconds.
Root – While similar to Stun, it doesn’t stop enemies from attacking. Only their movement is restricted.
Coat – Coat doesn’t affect enemies directly. Damaging a Coated enemy causes your Combo Level to rise 50% faster. The effect lasts five seconds, after which you must strike the enemy again to reapply it. Increasing your Combo Level boosts Clef’s damage, and triggers any other affects based on her current loadout and Perks.
There are three other Status Effects tied to Javelins:
Rust – Rusted enemies take four damage per second for up to three seconds. It can stack up to four times.
Drain – Drain transfers 1 health to you every two seconds for up to six seconds.
You can see which of the Status Effects you get from your Loadout or from Perks on the right hand side of the UI when highlighting them.
Chaining Finishers
Lastly, chaining together Clef’s finishing move on multiple enemies! Some of the Queen of Keys’ minions can be finished off by Clef once she has empied their health bar, rewarding her with Key Money. Enemies will go into a downed state and eventually die after a short period of time.
What you can do is focus your damage on each enemy, downing them and moving onto the next one until they are all incapacitated. As long as they are close enough, you can interact with the first enemy to begin Clef’s finishing move. During its animation, you have time to highlight another downed enemy, press the interact button again, and Clef will dash over to finish that one off as well. Chain together as many as you can, and watch them fall apart around you all at once!
While there is no clear reward to doing this, other than it looking really cool, it does speed up the process of mopping up your enemies. This could come in clutch on Vaults with a time limit, or shave off a few seconds so you can get that new Javelin at the Trenchrat’s rest stop.
That has been your Beginner’s Guide to Reignbreaker! We hope you found something here to help you on your quest to bring down the Queen of Keys and free the kingdom!
If you have any of your own tips for Reignbreaker you would like to share, or have follow up questions on what has been covered in this article, drop them in the comments below!
