Gameplay Basics

This page will cover the basic mechanics of Breach Wanderers, including an overview of how each run is structured as well as how the town mechanics fit together.

# Playing A Run

Breach Wanderers is a Deckbuilding Roguelike. Like other Deckbuilding Roguelikes, play in Breach Wanderers is separated into Runs, with each Run consisting of a series of fights and events culminating in a boss fight.

Unlike some other Deckbuilding Roguelikes, the number of areas in a Breach Wanderers run is not fixed. Instead, the Depth determines the number of areas that must be completed in order to successfully complete the run.

The player's health is maintained between fights, and if it ever reaches 0 the player will lose the run and return to town, keeping whatever currency they have earned but requiring them to start from the beginning of the first area again.

Each Area contains a large number of nodes that are connected together with dotted lines. The player starts at one of the nodes at the bottom of the area. After completing a node, they choose one of the nodes it is connected to that is further up the map to move to next. All paths will eventually lead to one of the two Mid-Boss Fights in the center of the area and then to the final Boss of the area at the very top.

After defeating the final Boss for an area, the player will either win the run (if it was the final area for that depth) or move to the bottom of the next area (if it wasn't).

## Depth

When starting a run, players choose a Depth for the run. Level 1 characters do not see the Depth selector and are locked to level 1, but characters at level 2 or higher can attempt any Depth the player has unlocked. Players start with Depth 1 unlocked. Once a quest to unlock the next depth is completed, the next depth and the next quest will be unlocked for all characters.

At present there are three total Depths to unlock.

The number of areas in a run depends on the depth. At Depth 1 the run will consist of only one of the 2 first areas, at Depth 2 the run will include one of the first areas and the second area, and at Depth 3 the run will include one of the first areas, one of the second areas and the third area.

In addition to increasing the number of areas in the run, higher depths increase the difficulty of combat in a number of ways. Monsters will have more health and different move sets that make them more challenging to defeat. In addition, some monsters will appear that weren't present on lower difficulties. For example, the Vessel of Blight mid-boss in Area 1 only appears on Depth 3.

Rush mode and the shrine are also only available on depth 3

## Fights

See also: Combat Basics
There are three kinds of fights in a Breach Wanderers run: Normal Fights, Elite Fights, and Boss Fights. Although the actual gameplay is the same, different types of Fights have a different appearance on the map and different rewards.

Fights can contain anywhere from 1 to 4 monsters. Each fight has an icon on the map that indicates one of the monsters that will be present, although there may also be other monsters. For example, a normal fight represented by a Silga icon might contain two Silgas and a Drake.

The monsters that can appear in a fight is dependent on both the Area and the Depth. Fights in the first row of nodes are typically easier than the fights further into the area, and fights after the Mid-Boss tend to contain more or tougher enemies than fights before it.

After every fight, the player will be given a choice of three cards to pick from (Four if playing Inna at level 7 or higher, or if the fight was a idol and/or weather fight). Two of these cards will come from the Card Pool associated with the player's currently selected deck(if both an idol and weather were active one pool card gets replaced), the third card will be a Monster Card from one of the Monsters in the fight and the fourth will be a idol or weather card. Players *must* take a card after each fight. Unlike in other deckbuilders, it is not possible to skip choosing a card.

### Normal Fights

Normal fights are represented by an undecorated bronze diamond. Normal monsters drop Common rarity cards, although the other two cards offered will be randomly chosen from both Common and Rare cards in the player's Card Pool. The Monster Card is equally likely to be from any of the monsters in the fight, regardless of which monster appeared on the map icon.

### Elite Fights

In addition to rewarding more Coins, Aether, and Item Energy than Normal fights, Elite fights will randomly provide one extra reward from this list:

 Gain 1 extra Rest | 10%

Elite monsters drop Rare rarity cards, although the other two cards offered will be randomly chosen from both Common and Rare cards in the player's Card Pool. The Monster Card offered from an Elite fight will always be from one of the Elite monsters in the fight. If more than one type of Elite monster is present, the Monster Card offered is equally likely to be from any of the Elites present.

### Boss Fights

Each area will require the player to complete exactly two Boss fights. There will be two different Mid-Bosses in the center of the map along with a final Boss as the final node at the top.

Boss fights are often significantly tougher than even Elite fights, but they come with significant rewards:

* More Aether/Coins/Item Energy than a Normal or Elite fight
* Both the Monster card reward and the cards pulled from the Card Pool will be Epic rarity
* A chance to Upgrade 1 Card from the deck (2 Cards in Quickplay)
* A chance to Remove 1 Card from the deck (2 Cards in Quickplay)
* The Final Boss for an area will also increase the number of available Rests by 1

## Events

Main article: Events
Some nodes have a question mark instead of a monster icon. These nodes are Events, which will present the player with a brief explanation of a scene they find themselves in and then give a few options of how they want to handle it. Some of these events are unique to specific Areas or quests while others can be found at any point during a run.

Each event has a number of outcomes based on what choices are made, and some choices will have their outcome chosen randomly from among several possibilities (these options are indicated with a dice icon). If the Dice icon have a skull, there's a chance that the outcome for picking that option is a fight. For some events, certain choices will always start a fight.

Due to the wide range of possible outcomes, it's impossible to quickly summarize all of the possible outcomes from visiting an Event node. Events can provide nearly every bonus available in the game, including some Items that aren't in the normal Item pool.

Some events have special Conditional Options that only appear if the player means a certain condition. These options will be colored purple and usually provide a better outcome than the regularly available options. For example, a conditional option may allow the player to receive a unique item or skip having to complete a fight in order to receive a reward.

## Items

Main article: Items
In addition to their deck of cards, the player will also acquire Item Energy over the course of a run. For every 100 Item Energy received, the player will be able to activate their Relic to receive an Item they can equip. Players start each run with no items equipped, but players with at least level 7 Aether Boosters in their Forge will start with enough Item Energy to bring in an item immediately. It is also possible to buy a Market Offering to start with a Trinket.

By default, players will only be presented with one Item to choose from, but by purchasing Arcane Connectivity upgrades in their Forge they can increase this number to up to 3.

## Rests

At any point between nodes, the player can choose to Rest if they have any Rest Supplies remaining. Resting restores 30% of Max Health and increases the player's Recoverable Health cap by the same amount. This is the primary way to recover health beyond the Recoverable Health cap.

By default, players start runs with only 1 Rest Supplies. This can be increased up to 4 by purchasing levels of Lightweight Materials from the Forge. The Market will also sometimes offer the ability to start with an additional Rest Supplies. The final boss of each area provides 1 additional Rest Supplies and Elite fights have a 10% chance of providing Rest Supplies as their bonus reward.

In addition to the 30% of health recovered, players will receive a choice of one additional bonus after each Rest. These options are presented similarly to Events, and like Events there are some Conditional options that will only appear when certain conditions are met. Two regular options will be randomly available after each rest along with up to one Conditional option. Conditional options are not guaranteed to appear during any rest, even if the condition is met.

Rest options:

 Gain a lot of energy for your artifact

1. ↑ X is equal to 40% of the total deck size, rounded up
2. ↑ Y is equal to 12.5% of the total deck size, rounded up

# Building a Deck

There are two halves to building a deck for a Breach Wanderers run: The Starting Deck and the Card Pool. The Starting Deck is the 12 cards the player will start the run with while the Card Pool determines which non-Monster cards will be offered after each battle.

Characters at level 2 or higher can customize their starting deck and characters at level 3 or higher can customize their card pool.

## Starting Deck

The starting deck is at least 12 cards. These cards can be chosen from among all unlocked Common cards that are either Generic Cards or Character Cards for the character the deck is built for.

No more than 2 copies of a single card can be included in the starting deck. This limit only applies to the starting deck itself - Additional copies can still be added if the card is present in the Card Pool.

## Card Pool

The card pool's size is determined based on the highest unlocked Depth. Card pools must contain exactly the same amount of cards as the current size, and once a higher depth is unlocked there is no way to go back to using smaller card pools.

Cards in the card pool can be selected from among Generic Cards and Character Cards for the current character of any rarity. Any number of Common and Rare cards can be added, but there is a cap on the maximum number of Epic cards that can be added.

Each card in the card pool must be unique. Unlike the starting deck, it is not possible to add the same card to the card pool multiple times since cards aren't removed from the pool when taken as a reward.

After each fight, the non-Monster cards chosen will be randomly selected from among cards in the pool. After a Normal or Elite fight, there is an equal chance to get any of the non-Epic cards in the pool, regardless of whether the card is Common or Rare.

After a Boss fight, each Epic has a 1-in-X chance to be chosen, where X is the number of Epic slots for the current depth. If there are fewer Epics in the card pool than the number of Epic slots, it is possible to be offered a random Common or Rare card instead. For example, if a Depth 3 card pool only has 7 Epic cards, there is a 2-in-9 chance that an Epic card reward will be replaced with a random common or uncommon. If all Epic slots are filled, boss fights will always offer only Epic cards as choices.

Each card offered in a single choice will be different, although the same card may be offered multiple times in a row, including from using a Reroll token. There is no limit to the number of times a single card will be offered in a given run, nor is there a guarantee that any single card will appear in a run.

The total card pool size and number of Epic rarity slots at a given depth is as follows:

 3 | 30 | 9

# Quickplay

Characters at level 3 or higher can be used to start a Quickplay run. Quickplay runs mostly work the same way as normal runs, but with these changes:

* The player will always start with the character's default Starting Deck
* At the start of each run, before seeing the map, the player receives two card drafts and two removals
* The Card Pool will consist of all currently unlocked Generic Cards and Character Cards for the selected character
* After each Boss Fight the player will receive two Upgrades, one Removal, and one Reroll Token instead of one Upgrade and one Removal. (Elite and Event rewards are unchanged)

# Currencies

## Coins

Coins are used to purchase things from the different locations in Town. Upgrades in the Forge cost Coins to upgrade. The Quest Board and Market have a number of slots that can be unlocked with Coins and Coins can also be spent to purchase offerings from the Market once one or more slots are unlocked. Unlocking new Characters also costs Coins.

In addition to the coins earned from playing runs, players can also earn coins by completing Quests once they have unlocked all the Generic Cards.

The only repeatable way to spend Coins is purchasing Offerings from the Market. All other Coin purchases are permanent unlocks.

## Aether

Aether is used to purchase additional packs of Generic Cards to add to the player's card collection. In addition to the Aether earned from playing runs, players will earn a small amount of bonus Aether from leveling up characters. Until the player has unlocked all the Generic Cards, Quests will reward the player with Aether.

Card backs can also be purchased with either Aether or Coins depending on the player's preference. Aside from that, currently there are no further uses for Aether, although having extra Aether will allow them to immediately purchase packs to unlock new cards when they are added in future game updates.

## Character XP

Character XP is needed in order to advance characters to the next level. Each character starts at level 1 when unlocked and has their own XP pool. XP is earned during runs, with more XP being earned on higher Depths. Successfully completing a run will provide a bonus to the total XP earned based on the Depth of the run.

### Character Levels

Each character receives the same kinds of unlocks at each level. For details on which passives and cards are unlocked at each milestone, see that character's page.

## Gems

Gems are a mobile edition exclusive currency(they also don't appear on mobile if the game was bought through a one time purchase, which has been replaced by a free to play model).It unlocks card backs, skins and the heroes Nayema, Paladin and Shah'Ru. If the game was downloaded before version 0.7040 Paladin and Shah'Ru can be unlocked with gold.

Gems are earned slowly by playing the game or by purchasing them.

# Town

In between runs, the player returns to Town, where they can spend their coins and aether on various bonuses to help with future runs.

## Forge

Main article: Forge
The Forge offers a number of permanent upgrades that provide various boosts to the player during a run. Once purchased, Forge upgrades will provide their benefit to all future runs at no additional cost.

## Market

Main article: Market
The Market allows the player to purchase boosts that will affect the next run. Boosts purchased from the Market only last for one run and must be re-purchased in the player wants to have them again in the next run.

## Quest Board

Main article: Quest Board
The Quest Board offers optional objectives that can be completed to earn extra Aether or Coins (depending on whether the player has unlocked all Generic Cards yet.

## Guild Hall

Main article: Guild Hall
The Guild Hall allows the player to accept quests that unlock new cards,depths,items and characters