PLAY ADA'S TRAIL Ada's Trail

THE RIFT

THE RIFT is the fourth venue of the campaign, and it ends when its boss goes down — THE FOUNDER and BRO OMEGA.

The run calls the things here ENTITIES: 17 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

  • SIZE3800 by 2500 world units — about 9 phone screens across.
  • GRAVITY200 — low enough that a jump hangs, and clears things it has no business clearing.
  • 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.
  • CHESTS3 hand-placed containers. Your weapon smashes one like a crate, but the haul is richer and guaranteed.
  • OVERHEADThings drift past above you here — 56 of them, out of focus and sliding faster than the ground does. None of it can be reached, hit or picked up. It is there to tell you which way is up.
  • A WAY OUTUsing the SEVERED HAND while standing here tears open a way to THE BUNKER. Nothing in the game tells you this.

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.
DIFFICULTYMOB LEVELCOMES ATLEAVES ATRELICS FROM
EASY20–2625—34
MEDIUM21–2825—34
HARD24–3129—34
NIGHTMARE48–5350—54

Who is waiting

17 kinds of thing live here, and the run calls them ENTITIES. 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.

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

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 13 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.

DIFFICULTYRELICS
EASYEXCALIBUR, THE TRINITY SHARD, WISHBANE, GORGONSCALE, OATHKEEPER
MEDIUMEXCALIBUR, THE TRINITY SHARD, WISHBANE, GORGONSCALE, OATHKEEPER
HARDEXCALIBUR, THE TRINITY SHARD, WISHBANE, GORGONSCALE, OATHKEEPER
NIGHTMAREGRAVEMAKER, THE LONG REACH
JESUS CHRIST!NIGHTFALL, MAELSTROM, STARFORGE PLATE, THE STILL POINT, THE FIXED STAR, THE FAR SHORE, THE LAST SHIFT, THE HELD NOTE, THE GRAND TOUR

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.

THE MERCHANT

AH. YOU AGAIN. DON'T LOOK SO SURPRISED - EVERY MARKET I RAN FELL THROUGH HERE.

THE MERCHANT

THE VENDING MACHINES. THE MOON. THE DOME. ALL ROADS LEAD HERE. COIN SPENDS ON ALL.

THE MERCHANT

BRING ME RELICS, TRAVELER. TAKE WHAT YOU NEED. WE'RE BOTH FAR FROM HOME.

Who is not fighting you

3 people stand on this map with something other than a fight to offer, and between them 7 errands: PROVISIONS, THE CREW ARE LATE, TWO SHORT, THE GALE, THE BOY IN THE SAILOR SUIT, A PAGE OF SOMEBODY and THE MAN WHO TEARS THE PAGES. 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.

A top-down view of the whole of THE RIFT, 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.

On arriving

THE HERO

THERE'S NO FLOOR IN HERE. NO SKY. NO NORTH. MY BOOTS GRIP SOMETHING ANYWAY.

THE HERO

THE MARS TABLET SAID IT PLAIN: ADA IS THE TRIBUTE, HANDED OVER IN HERE. SHE CAME THROUGH THIS PLACE.

THE HERO

HER BEACON PINGS FROM EVERYWHERE AT ONCE. EVEN THE SIGNAL IS HALLUCINATING.

THE HERO

FIND THE FAR SIDE. CATCH THE COWARD. BRING HER HOME.

What stops him mid-run

The run halts on its own, once each, when he first lays eyes on VOIDLING, THE FIRST VANISHING and THE SCALED ANCESTOR, and when he first kills GRAVITON.

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.