Dragon's Hoard (Mission)

*Dragon's Hoard* is a free fan-made single-player mission for Overload by NebulaFang released March 15, 2020. You play as a Williams, an inept pirate and Kodachi pilot, instructed to steal "everything you can carry" from the Dragon's Hoard Biolab and then destroy the lab. The mission is one level long and offers about an hour of gameplay. Dragon's Hoard is notable for high difficulty and technical gameplay puzzles. It features a custom soundtrack and voice acting.

File and installation instructions

## Spoiler Warning

**This article contains major spoilers!**

The Tufail-Locke protocols specify that discovery should proceed naturally, without providing the subject with plot-related information...

## Plot

Dragon's Hoard takes place after the events of Cronus Frontier. An installation called Biohazardous Facility DH-1X, codename Wyvern's Hoard, is an unmarked facility suspected to contain alien technology and mutagenic weapons. The player character Williams is tasked with looting and then destroying the titular installation, the latter objective being something he's said to have forgotten on past missions. Williams ransacks the biolab, destroys an alien reactor near the facility, and escapes the overload through an alien portal.

At the conclusion of the campaign, the Kodachi's black box is eventually recovered in the Andes Mountains, Earth. It reveals that Williams' life signs became anomalous in the wormhole, and after re-emerging the pilot was stated to be "reptile, undiscovered species." The last black box entry records the pilot exiting the vehicle three kilometers above Peru and "gaining altitude" before the Kodachi crashes. Williams' fate is unknown.

## Puzzles

* The reactor force fields and exit portal are triggered by alien switches, and the player must first locate a Lancer.
* Some force fields must be disabled by destroying a switch with creepers fired through an adjacent grate to home on strategically-placed auto-ops.
* Some doors lock when approached and require alternate paths.
* Shooting incorrect switches can trigger traps. This can be somewhat mitigated by paying attention to signage.

## Bugs

* Very rarely, destroying a switch will not disable the force field, soft-locking the puzzle. It is unknown exactly why this happens.

## Trivia

* The mission was constructed as an entry in a contest held by JosheM to build a puzzle-themed level.
* The briefing is somewhat unique in that the text on screen does not match the voiceover, but rather "translates" it from a sort of pirate slang into plain English. This was meant as a humorous effect.
* Though only one level long, the mission contains many upgrade points and super points, meant to represent the treasure Williams is sent in to steal.
* The music track is an original song titled *Branching*. It was written specifically for the level, and a section of the lyrics contains a subtle hint on how to solve one of the puzzles. This was done in an attempt at mischief, since the rules of the puzzle-building contest stated no hints were allowed.
* The mission contains an unused alternate briefing text which, according to NebulaFang, "translates the drunk pirate to an even drunker pirate." The alternate briefing suggests that Williams and perhaps others became dragons. This can be switched with the regular in-game briefing by renaming the file.

## Credits

* Story, level design, music, voiceover: "Ne'b!ula!F'ang!!!!!" aka "VertigoFox"