New Player FAQ

This page contains answers to a number of commonly asked questions from new players. If your question isn't answered here, you could try asking on the official Breach Wanderers Discord.

NOTE: The questions here were most recently updated in June of 2023, based on Breach Wanderers Version 1.0001 (the Release patch).

## Questions About The Game

### What platforms is Breach Wanderers on?

Breach Wanderers is currently available on Steam, iOS, and Android.

### What are the differences between the Steam and Mobile versions?

Both Steam and Mobile have all of the same content available and update at the same time, but they aren't completely identical.

The Steam version is a one-time purchase with no microtransactions. The Gems currency isn't used, and Gold and Aether is gained significantly faster than the default rate on mobile.

The Mobile version is free to play with microtransactions. Some characters are purchased using Gems, a currency exclusive to the mobile version that can be earned slowly through gameplay or more quicky through spending real world money. The Mobile pack includes a set of four Booster Packs that can be purchased once each and permanently speed up the rate at which resources are gained. Purchasing the first three of these Booster Packs costs approximately the same amount as buying the Steam version and gives a comparable rate of resource gain.

### Are cross-platform saves available?

Yes. The Cloud Save feature (found in the settings menu) allows for uploading your save to the cloud. Cloud saves can be loaded on any device. The Cloud Save feature must be manually used in order to sync progress, there is no automatic uploading or syncing of saves.

When using a mobile save on Steam, the number of Gems owned will not be visible and resources will be gained at the normal PC rate, regardless of any mobile packs purchased. When using a Steam save on mobile, the resource gain rate will be based on which packs (if any) the user has purchased.

### Where are the save files located?

On PC/Steam Save files can be found at:

```
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\LocalLow\Baronnerie Games\Breach Wanderers\SaveFile.cjc

```

On Android save files can be found at:

```
Phone\Android\data\com.BaronnerieGames.Rift\files\SaveFile.cjc

```

**NOTE:** Some Android versions will hide files in the Android\data folder when using the default file manager. If you are unable to find the folder listed above, try installing a third-party file manager app and using that.

### What other features are planned?

Breach Wanderers fully released in June of 2023. As of the writing of this answer (a few weeks after that release), the developer has not announced any plans for specific future content.

## Questions About Difficulties

### How many difficulties/depths are there?

Difficulties in Breach Wanderers are called Depths. There are 4 Depth levels, with each depth being more difficult than the previous one.

### How do I unlock other depths?

Each depth is unlocked by completing the appropriate quest in the Guild Hall:

* Depth 2 is unlocked by completing the Forest Investigation quest
* Depth 3 is unlocked by completing the Fetid Smoke quest
* Depth 4 is unlocked by completing the Outside Influence quest

Even if higher depths are unlocked, level 1 characters are only able to do Depth 1 runs. This can be bypassed if a quest is selected, since quests lock runs to a specific depth.

### When should I move on to depth 2?

Unless you're very new to the roguelike deckbuilder genre, you will likely be ready to move on to Depth 2 as soon as you finish the Forest Investigation quest.

### What's different between depth 1 and depth 2?

The biggest difference is that when playing on depth 2, the run contains a second area after you defeat the end boss in Area 1. This area contains new monsters you'll have to defeat, including new bosses. In addition to the new area, enemies in area 1 will have a bit more health and slightly more challenging moves.

### When should I move on to depth 3?

The jump in difficulty between depth 2 and depth 3 is fairly steep, so even if you are comfortable with depth 2 you may find yourself struggling with depth 3. Depth 3 is balanced around characters at level 7 or higher along with having quite a few Forge upgrades unlocked. If you're struggling to complete Depth 3, you may want to move down to depth 2 until you've gained a few levels on your characters or upgraded your forge a bit more.

With that said, it is possible to beat depth 3 even with a level 2 character, provided you have a bit of luck and a lot of game knowledge. If you're the sort of person who enjoys challenging yourself, you absolutely should try tackling depth 3 as soon as possible. Depth 3 also gives more XP and currency than Depth 2, so losing in the first fight of the third area of a Depth 3 run will provide better rewards than winning a Depth 2 run would.

### What's different between depth 2 and depth 3?

As you might have guessed after playing through depth 1 and 2, depth 3 adds a third area to complete in order to finish the run. This area will once again contain new enemies that are even stronger than the ones you've seen up until now.

You won't have to wait until area 3 to start seeing new enemies though. There are several new enemies in both area 1 and 2, including new bosses. Depth 3 adds the  mid-boss and  end boss in area 1 as well as the  mid-boss and  end boss in area 3. These new enemies are added to the list of possible monsters, and thus won't appear on every Depth 3 run.

The existing enemies you're already familiar with also get much tougher. Several of them gain the ability to gain buffs or apply debuffs they couldn't before, and most will hit harder and more often than they do on lower depths. Don't underestimate these enemies just because they're familiar - Most failed depth 3 runs end before ever reaching the third area.

### What about Depth 4?

Everything about the differences between Depth 2 and Depth 3 is true about the differences between Depth 3 and Depth 4. There's an extra area called the Vortex, and you'll find yourself fighting enemies that are even more dangerous than they were on Depth 3.

Although it is labeled as a Very Hard quest, the Final Confrontation quest is intended to provide an easier introduction to Depth 4. The quest consists of a series of three Depth 4 runs (one against each of the variants of the final boss) and in each run you'll start with the powerful  trinket, which is only available during the quest.

## Questions About Deckbuilding

### Why are my decks marked as invalid?

Once a character hits level 3, you will unlock the ability to edit your card pool. Decks are only valid if they have a full card pool.

When you unlock a new depth, your card pool size will be increased. The default decks only have 20 cards (the initial card pool size), so once you complete a quest that unlocks a new Depth your existing decks will be marked invalid. It is not possible to decrease your card pool size after it has been increased. Even if you decide to play on lower depths, your card pool size will still be determined based on your highest unlocked depth.

You can play a run with a less than full card pool, but if you do so you'll sometimes be offered cards that aren't in your card pool. For example if your card pool contains 12/12 Epics and 30/40 cards total (meaning you've only filled 18 of the 28 non-Epic slots) you'll have an 18 out of 28 chance of being offered a card from your pool and a 10 out of 28 chance of being offered a random generic or character card you have unlocked (similar to how Quickplay card rewards are chosen).

### How do I skip taking a card?

You can't. Unlike in many other deckbuilding roguelikes, it is not possible to skip taking a card in Breach Wanderers. This is a deliberate design choice, and is offset by the control offered to the player by the deckbuilding system. Once you reach level 3 with a character, you'll be able to customize their Card Pool, giving you control over the cards you'll be offered after a fight.

Basically: You do have to take a card, but in exchange you get to choose what cards you'll be offered that you have to take.

### What are Monster Cards? How do they work?

After each fight, two of the cards you are offered will be from your card pool and the third will be a Monster Card from one of the Monsters in the fight. Each monster has two possible cards it can drop, and if there are multiple different monsters in the fight they will often each contribute their cards to the pool of possible choices.

For example, after fighting a  and a , the monster card will be either one of the Thornberry's cards ( and ) or one of the Loreblossom's cards ( or ).

Normal monsters drop Common cards, Elite monsters drop Rare cards, and Boss monsters drop Gold cards. Only the highest rarity monster cards will be available as drops from a given fight (For example in a fight against a  and a , only the Shock Elemental cards will be possible rewards due to being Rare while the Shock Wisp's cards are only Common.

The second level of the Aether Spyglass upgrade from the Forge will allow you to preview all of the possible card drops from a fight in-game before the fight.

### How do I unlock more cards?

When deckbuilding, you have access to both the Generic Cards you have unlocked as well as the Character Cards for the character you're building a deck for. Some Generic Cards are unlocked from the beginning of the game and the others are unlocked through purchasing card packs for 400 Aether each. Each quest also rewards 2 unique Generic cards when completed.

The order in which Generic Cards are unlocked is only semi-random. Generic Cards are divided into Tiers, with all cards from one Tier being unlocked before cards of the next tier are opened. This helps ensure a more predictable progression for players while also helping players find all pieces of a strategy within a few packs of each other. More detail can be found on the Generic Cards page.

Character cards are unlocked at certain levels. Each character has 15 cards. The first 6 are unlocked at level 1, and the remaining cards are unlocked three at a time at levels 2, 5, and 8. Unlike Generic Cards, the unlock order for Character Cards is fixed - Every player will unlock  when Raodan reaches level 2 and won't unlock  until Raodan reaches level 8. The unlock order for each character can be found on their wiki page.

### How can I get more Aether?

Aether is earned naturally through completing runs, but it can be earned much more quickly if the player completes ounties from the Bounty Board in town. Players looking to unlock all the cards as quickly as possible should prioritize unlocking additional slots on the bounty board and rerolling any bounties they don't think they can complete with their current decks.

## Questions About Combat Mechanics

### Why did it look like my max health went down after taking damage?/I can't heal any more. Why isn't my health bar full?

When you're looking at your health bar, you'll see two numbers. The first is your current health, but the second is not your maximum health. Instead, the second number is your maximum **recoverable** health.

Recoverable health represents how far you can heal within a battle. Your maximum recoverable health starts equal to your maximum health, but it goes down if you're missing more than your recoverable amount worth of health.

The default recoverable amount is 15, so for example if you had 100/100 health and no shield and you were hit for 10, your current health would drop to 90. That means you're missing 10 health, which is less than 15 so your recoverable amount doesn't decrease and you'll be at 90/100.

If you take another hit for 10 damage without healing, now you're at 80 current health. That means you would be missing 20 health, which is more than 15, so your recoverable health decreases accordingly. Your health is now shown as 80/95.

You can increase your recoverable amount in a few ways:

* Resting. Using a Rest to restore health will restore both your current health and your recoverable threshold by 30% of your max health. For example, if you were at 30/45 health and had a max of 100, resting would bump you to 60/85.
* Some cards like  will allow you to increase your recoverable cap in addition to healing.
* The Regenerative Harness in the Forge will restore 1 current and recoverable health after each battle for each rank. For example if you have Regenerative Harness rank 2 and end a fight with 80/80 health, you'd immediately get bumped to 82/82.
* The  trinket functions similarly to the Regenerative Harness buff from Forge. While you have it, you'll restore 5 current and recoverable health after each battle.

## Questions About Strategy

### How do I beat ?

As with most fights, there are two primary thing you need to do in order to defeat Emerald Dragon: Survive its attacks and deal enough damage to kill it.

#### Surviving Emerald Dragon's Attacks

Emerald Dragon deals damage entirely through regular attacks, but these attacks become much more dangerous if you become .

* The strongest strategy against Emerald Dragon is evasion. If you can pick up  from the  fight in area 1 and then upgrade it, it will give you a pretty big edge in the fight by letting you dodge incoming hits.
* If you can gain  and apply  to the dragon, you'll find yourself taking a lot less damage (although if you get  you'll still be taking a lot of damage)
* Emerald Dragon has a permanent stack of . This means that every time you hit it, it will apply 2  to you. Pay attention to your Shock meter and try to avoid playing cards like  that hit a lot of times but don't do much damage.
* If you have  when your  bar fills up, you'll just lose a stack of Purity instead of becoming Shocked. This can help prevent you from having to take big hits.

#### Killing Emerald Dragon

Emerald Dragon has a pretty good amount of health and the ability to stack , which can make killing it a bit of a challenge. Fortunately, there are some steps you can take to make things easier:

* Although Shocked can't be , the card  will let you  Emerald Dragon's  and  stacks. The card  transforms into  after playing, and that will also help you solve the problem.
* You can also use  to Dispel the Emerald Dragon's Plated, but keep in mind that the dragon's , Plated and  stacks will all reduce your ability to output Arcane. Unless you have Powerful stacks of your own or , you may struggle to apply enough Arcane to trigger Detonations.
* Multi-hit cards tend to be fairly weak against Emerald Dragon due to both the Shock Barrier punishing them and the Plated reducing their effectiveness. Instead, single big hits like  will help more.
* Stacking buffs of your own can help you defeat the dragon. Cards like  and  will increase the amount of damage you deal, and the increases from  and  will apply before the damage reduction provided by Plated.
* Any sources of  damage will ignore the dragon's Plated entirely. This means that  and  based strategies will be able to avoid getting locked out of dealing damage. The flipside of this is that such strategies tend to be slower, so you'll need to make sure you have enough defense to survive taking the fight out longer.

#### Managing Shock Spasms

One unique aspect of the Emerald Dragon fight is the  it will fill your deck with. These cards will be removed from your deck after playing, but if left unplayed can clutter up your future draws.

* If you have some card draw of your own, that can help you work through your deck more quickly and will help prevent having turns where your hand is filled with Shock Spasms.
* When possible, you do want to be playing Shock Spasms. If you don't ever play them, you'll quickly find yourself spending lots of turns with a hand half full of useless Shock Spasms. Only drawing 2-3 'real' cards a turn will demolish your ability to both output damage and manage your own defense.

### How do I beat Whiteflame Golem?

The  is the final boss of the Brightest Flame quest, and it can be fairly difficult to defeat if you don't prepare for it. The easiest way to defeat it is to use Mirley, since her easy access to Evasion allows you to easily avoid the massive damage the Golem can deal. You will still need enough shields to deal with the  and  damage the Golem will deal, but the fight is much more manageable when you don't have to deal with the raw damage.

In particular an Increasing Stab deck offers an effective way to easily defeat the Golem, as seen in this Youtube video.