Into the Breach: Rift Walkers

Hello everybody, Geek Generation here. Today, i’ll be reviewing the Rift Walker squad from Into the Breach.

Considerations:
– 3 damage dealing mechs
– 3 crowd control mechs
– Starting damage: 4

Pros:
– Able to reach 4 damage
– All mechs able to damage and cc

Cons:
– No flying mechs, have to worry about getting hemmed in.

Rift Walkers is the first squad you get to use. My initial impression was that the Rift Walkers wasn’t a strong squad. But as i returned to playing the squad to complete the hard mode for the various island numbers, i realized that my perception of the Rift Walkers was coloured by my initial inexperience with the game.

In my opinion, Rift Walkers is a pretty strong squad. All Rift Walkers mech are capable of dealing damage. This means that there is less reliance on Kazaaakpleth allowing you to experiment more with other pilots. All three mechs are capable of crowd control. Though Artillery mech’s attack does not damage on cc.

Because all three mechs are capable of push cc, Force Amp (Vek takes +1 damage from bumps) passive could work well with Rift Walkers.

The main disadvantage of Riftwalkers is that they require alot of reactor cores to work well. The lack of aoe also means spawners like Spiders and Diggers (the ones that surround themselves with rocks) can become very troublesome.

To make full use of Rift Walkers’ pushing ability, use mobility pilots like Henry Kwan and Prospero so that Combat mech and Cannon mech can get to their positions. Camila Vera is also good since the mechs can’t get to a superior position if they can’t move. Archimedes helps the Combat mech to stay in the center positions and not become to far away to hit the next turn.

The first few reactor cores should go to Cannon mech to increase it’s damage letting it kill of small hornets and small crabs. The next few cores should go into +1 move for Combat and Cannon mech if their pilot did not reveal a +1 move. After that, upgrade Artillery’s damage. 3 damage lets you snipe off scorpions and fireflies with it. Buildings immune is a nice to have quality of life, but not an absolute must.

Next upgrade is combat mech’s damage to the sweet 4 damage to kill off Alpha hornets and spawners with a single hit.

As with all other squads, pick up the Grappling Hook if it is available.

Achievements

Watery Grave
Drowning 3 Veks in a battle is easily done with the Break Dam missions.

Ramming Speed
5 tiles away is more than 1/2 the map’s dimensions. The achievement is unlikely to come from regular play. Easier to setup if you have a Grappling Hook.

Island Secure
Achievement that comes with playing the game.

Ok so much for now, Geek Generation out.