MARS

MISSION 3
MACHINES
16 KINDS
THE FOUNDER

MARS is the third venue of the campaign, and it ends when its boss goes down — THE FOUNDER.

The run calls the things here MACHINES: 16 kinds of them, from the rank and file up to whatever is guarding the far end.

Its pressure comes from spawn points rather than an endless stream, so the map can genuinely be cleared and walked rather than farmed from a standstill.

The place

SIZE3600 by 2300 world units — about 9 phone screens across.
GRAVITY520 — a jump here comes back down about when you expect it to.
SUITThe hero arrives in the EVA suit, because outside it he would not last.
BREATHING ROOM1 pocket where nothing spawns and the wandering horde is pushed back out — a genuine rest, not just a quiet corner.
DEAD AREAS4 stretches the ambient horde never spawns into. Authored content still lives there, which is the reward for going off the line.
CHESTS4 hand-placed containers. Your weapon smashes one like a crate, but the haul is richer and guaranteed.
LOCKED1 door that will not open until the right key is in the bag.

What it fields

The mob levels here are authored per rung rather than scaled off your own, so the place is exactly as hard as it was tuned to be. COMES AT is the hero level the rung expects you to arrive at; LEAVES AT is where a single clear is reckoned to put you. RELICS FROM is the level this venue's own named relics start dropping at — below it they never do, which is why they are farmed on a return trip rather than found on the way through.

JESUS is the one rung that scales to the hero rather than to an authored number, so it has no fixed figure to state and is left out.
DIFFICULTY	MOB LEVEL	COMES AT	LEAVES AT	RELICS FROM
EASY	15–21	19	—	34
MEDIUM	16–22	19	—	34
HARD	18–25	22	—	34
NIGHTMARE	46–50	47	—	54

Who is waiting

16 kinds of thing live here, and the run calls them MACHINES. Every one has its own page with its health, its damage and its drops on each rung.

The boss

The fight the level ends on. You meet them waiting at a post.

THE FOUNDER

Named elites

The set-piece fights along the way, each with a name and a reason to be here. You meet them waiting at a post.

The rank and file

What the venue keeps throwing at you between the set pieces. You meet them waiting at a post, streaming out of spawn points, dragged in through a hellgate, on the once-a-run rare roll and on the once-a-run unique roll.

What the place itself does to you

SAND STORMSEvery 9s to 16s a dust gust drifts across. It moves slowly enough to walk clear of, which is the whole defence — caught, you go down prone while it passes over you.

What it pays

Weapons it introduces

The bases this venue brings into the campaign. Each starts dropping once the monster killing for you is at least its level — and each carries its exceptional and elite versions along with it, so the pool keeps paying out here long after you have out-levelled the plain form.

Gear it introduces

The armor, jewellery, trinkets and bags on this venue's own table, gated the same way.

Powers it hands out

The campaign introduces two new powers per venue and every venue keeps what came before, so the vocabulary grows the whole way down. These are the 11 this one can drop.

Relics locked to this place

Named items that belong to this venue and nowhere else: anything standing here can drop them, at odds that climb with what killed you for it. Which relics are on the table depends on the rung you are running.

DIFFICULTY	RELICS
EASY	DUSTBORN, REDWIND, COLOSSUS PLATE, THE RED WALL
MEDIUM	DUSTBORN, REDWIND, COLOSSUS PLATE, THE RED WALL
HARD	DUSTBORN, REDWIND, COLOSSUS PLATE, THE RED WALL
NIGHTMARE	PYRELIGHT, IRONROOT GREAVES, DEEP POCKETS
JESUS CHRIST!	METEORFALL, SUNSPEAR, CROWN OF RUIN, THE PILGRIM STAR, THE BULWARK, THE EMBER HOUR, THE MOTHERLODE

SCRIPTED OPENINGA SMART PISTOL is handed over around 10–22 kills in, so no run starts empty-handed however the odds fall.
SCRIPTED OPENINGA CYBER KATANA is handed over around 55–95 kills in, so no run starts empty-handed however the odds fall.
LEFT LYINGSCRATCHED MESSAGE, TERRARIUM KEYCARD and TRIBUTE SCHEDULE sit where the designer put them, not where the dice do.

The trader

A wandering merchant works this venue too: sell him what you will never wear, buy what you will. He dresses for the place.

HIDE WHAT HE SAYS

THE MERCHANT
A BREATHING CUSTOMER. AT LAST. I RAN THE COLONY COMMISSARY TILL THE AI RAN THE NUMBERS.

THE MERCHANT
IT KEPT THE DOME. I KEPT THE SCALES. SELL ME WHAT THE MACHINES DROP - BUY WHAT HELPS.

Who is not fighting you

3 people stand on this map with something other than a fight to offer, and between them 6 errands: THE GREENHOUSE, PEST CONTROL, THE HOTHOUSE, RECOVERY REQUEST, THE UPLINK and WHAT THE TITHE IS WORTH. Nothing can hurt them, and every one of those errands is taken and finished on a single visit.

The place itself

The whole venue at once, covered — a map is a spoiler in the same way a plot is.

HIDE THE MAP

A top-down view of the whole of MARS, drawn in the game's own pixel art — The place as you actually see it, drawn from the game's own sprites at the game's own coordinates and shrunk to fit — the ground, the walls, the buildings and the landmarks. The scattered rocks and rubble are rolled fresh every run, so treat those as a likeness rather than a plan; everything built stays exactly where it is.

What he says

Spoilers for this mission, covered until you ask for them.

HIDE SPOILERS

On arriving

THE HERO
HE SAID THE MOON WAS GOODCO'S BIG MISTAKE - THE COMPANY PACKED IT ALL INTO CRATES AND RAN. TO MARS.

THE HERO
I KNOW WHAT A GOODCO COLONY LOOKS LIKE - I REBUILT THEIR LANDER ONCE. DOMES. ROBOTS. SECRETS.

THE HERO
SOMEBODY DOWN HERE TRADED MY GIRL AWAY LIKE CARGO. BAD TRADE. FOR THEM.

What stops him mid-run

The run halts on its own, once each, when he first lays eyes on OLYMPUS ENGINE and PHOBOS SHEPHERD, and when he first kills SCOUT ROVER and FEMBOT.

The whole of what happens here — the scenes on the way in, every arrival speech, the last words and the found lore — is this venue's chapter of the story, covered the same way.