Desolate Rift

**Desolate Rift** is an extreme-threat sector on Serpulo. It serves as the penultimate main challenge to players as the hardest mandatory survival sector. Enemy waves have long delays but are extremely difficult to defeat, requiring excellent macromanagement skills. Unlocking Desolate Rift requires capturing Impact 0078 and researching the Thermal Generator, Thorium Reactor , and Core: Nucleus.

## Strategies

Desolate Rift is a very challenging map due to the dense waves; the biggest mistake you can make here is underestimating how dense they can be. Not only that, you will almost certainly want to take down the two nearby enemy bases, as recapturing with added waves on top is an even more grueling process.

Power will not be an issue here with large thermal spots, where you can spam Thermal Generator. Remember to have researched the Overdrive Projector from Impact 0078 as it will increase the given power.

The wave progression of Desolate Rift is in cycles of 6, with each wave intensifying in number as each cycle passes.

* The first wave of the cycle consists of Crawlers. This wave is not a worry as you can counter it with cheap blocks such as Junctions.
* The second wave of the cycle consists of many Flares and a small pack of Zenith. Place a layer of Scatter and Cyclone with Metaglass ammo and phase it out for stronger Plastanium or Surge Alloy later on - You will need these Cyclones for the reign.
* The third wave consists of Atrax. Lancers should be enough to finish them off given a narrow choke point, but make sure not to have any flammable materials nearby.
* The fourth wave consists of many Quasar. Make Plastanium Walls.
* The fifth wave is the most dangerous, consisting of increasing numbers of Scepters. Construct Poly and Mega to help your walls tank its damage as your Lancers finish it off. When you have Surge Alloy Cyclones, they become less of an issue. Do remember that Surge is expensive and that existing Lancers could be replaced with Segment as well as Blast Compound Swarmers. The Reign spawns on this wave of the third cycle, after 17 waves from starting the sector (On the display it will show as Wave 18 once the wave starts).
* The sixth wave consists of many Spiroct, but your defences from the Scepter should be more than enough for them. Consider using this time to make units for defense, Arkyid is a recommended choice.

The Reign must be neutralised as quickly as possible before it breaches. Its bullets pierce through Plastanium Walls and require lots of Segments to nullify. Construct multiple layers of walls if you cannot get many Segments running. High-damage combos such as Surge Alloy with water or Blast Swarmer with Cryofluid Tsunami should be enough to kill the Reign along with the rest of the wave. Supply your turrets with Cryofluid and overdrive them if possible. If either ammo is hard to produce on-site, make sure they are being launched into your core and assign some Flares to deliver the ammo for you.

## Trivia

* The description for Desolate Rift in version 5 previously read: "*An extremely dangerous zone. Plentiful resources, but little space. High risk of destruction. Leave as soon as possible. Do not be fooled by the long spacing between enemy attacks".* This is in line with the mechanic of launching and leaving from a map and adding the stored resources to the global item pool for research.