Tempest

The **Tempest** is an anomalous vining plant that appeared from the Earth's crust worldwide following World War 3, with much of the growth concentrated in areas of heavy nuclear fallout. The plant exhibits mysterious electrical properties.

Upon its discovery, humanity realized the Tempest's potential as a valuable and potent resource, with a batch being able to output as much energy as a small fusion reactor. It was seen as a solution to the worldwide energy crisis as human civilization was rebuilding.

By 1997, two global powers, the Global Defense Forces and the Tempest Dynasty, had emerged with each holding much of the world's Tempest sites in their territories. The GDF sees themselves as the maintainers of these plants, while the Dynasty views the Tempest as their birthright and opposes the GDF's occupation and exploitation of their Tempest resources. The two wage a global conflict for control of all Tempest deposits; while a third faction, possibly related to the origin of the Tempest plant itself, awaits in the shadows.

## Game effect

Tempest is the main harvestable resource in *Tempest Rising*, consisting of luminescent pods growing on vines. These pods are gathered by specialized harvester vehicles and processed into credits from Tempest refineries. Additional collected Tempest are stored in silos.

Tempest pods require vines in order to grow. However, vines will die off if they are not near other vines with growing pods. If left unharvested pods will mature over time until they reach their maximum size and density, becoming more resource-rich when collected.

Infantry can pass through Tempest fields without harm and do not suffer any negative effects. Conversely, most ground vehicles (excluding harvesters) will build up a Tempest Charge debuff that reduces their speed and attack rate. If they remain in the Tempest for too long, they will build up too much charge that it will "overflow" and damage the vehicle over time.

### Tempest growth

Tempest fields are made up of 2x2 nodes. Fields are either sustained by living flowering pods or a Tempest crater, the latter of which is a continuous spawner of Tempest. Each node of Tempest can go through the below states:

* **Living vines**: A node of Tempest in its infancy. Vines must be adjacent to a pod node or else it will immediately die off. Once there is an adjacent pod node, the vine will regrow after 30 seconds. Living vines that are connected to a Tempest crater (either directly or through other nodes) will grow into the 1st stage after 1 minute has elapsed.
* **1st stage pod**: The first stage in which the Tempest node can be harvested, yielding 200 credits. It will mature into the 2nd stage after 2 minutes. Partially harvesting the pod at this stage will reset the timer, and fully harvesting it will revert the node back to its living vines stage.
* **2nd stage pod**: Yields 400 credits when harvested. It will mature into the 3rd stage after 4 minutes. Partially harvesting the pod at this stage will reset the timer, and harvesting 200 credits will revert the node back to its 1st stage.
* **3rd stage pod**: Yields 800 credits when harvested. At this stage the pod has fully matured and will not grow any more. Harvesting 400 credits from it will downgrade it to the 2nd stage. If less than 400 credits are harvested the pod will not regrow at this stage to replenish its value, so it has to downgrade back to the 2nd stage for it to regrow back to the 3rd stage with its full 800 credits value.

## Gallery

Tempest vine growth on an abandoned house
## References

1. ↑ THQ Nordic (1 March 2023). "Origins of the Tempest". *Twitter*. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
2. ↑ 3D Realms (28 August 2022). "Tempest Rising - Gamescom 2022 First Mission Developer Commentary". *YouTube*. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
3. ↑ Tempest Rising official site. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
4. ↑ 3D Realms (7 April 2023). "Tempest Rising - PVP Showdown". *YouTube*. Retrieving 7 April 2023.
5. ↑ THQ Nordic (27 April 2023). "Tempest Rising - Interview". *Tempest Rising Steam News*. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
6. ↑ Casteel, Brandon (7 April 2023). Tempest's effects on vehicles. *Tempest Rising Discord*. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 RocketCat (14 August 2023). "Tempestology". *Google Docs*. Retrieved 14 August 2023.