Hyper Light Breakeris pretty fun to play, but boy howdy is it obtuse in some ways. Unlocking new weapons, for example, is rather unintuitive at face value. Unlocking new characters is similar in that respect, in that the game doesn’t explain how to do it at all.
Of course,Hyper Light Drifterhad its level of obtuseness in place, courtesy of its insistence on speaking to the player inits own fantastical language. The weird bit is thatHyper Light Breakersomehow manages to be even more confusing in some ways, all the while using actual English to communicate its gameplay and systems. The character unlocking system, in particular, is deceptively simple, though the game would never betray that information in advance.
How to unlock new Breakers?
The only way to unlock a new character inHyper Light Breakeris to defeat bosses – Crowns – and receive their Abyss Stones. There’s no unique mechanic behind unlocking specific Breakers: as long as you have an Abyss Stone, you may return to the central hub area and choose which of the two alternative characters you wish to unlock. Simple as.
SinceHyper Light Breakerhas only just come out in Early Access, it should come as no surprise that the vast majority of its character roster remains inaccessible at this time. It seems like there will be a total of nine characters available at some point, but you’re able to only unlock two of them now.
Note that each character comes with two unique SyComs, which are stat and skill loadouts they take into a given run. This is the main reason why you’d go out of your way to unlock a new Breaker in the first place, as it’ll define how your entire gameplay loop plays out.
All Early Access characters to unlock in Hyper Light Drifter
Vermillion, the Gunslinger
The default playable character inHyper Light Breakeris Vermillion. Featuring the Gunslinger SyCom as his go-to kit, Vermillion starts out as a ranged character that needs to go out of his way to hunt down powerful Rails (firearms) as the DPS option of choice. Switching over to the unlockable Tank SyCom, however, tweaks Vermillion’s kit into a powerful melee combatant focusing on perfect parries and defensive plays.
Though Lapis had been more prominently featured in pre-release materials thanVermillion, choosing him as the starting Breaker was the right option. Tank seems like the more rookie-friendly SyCom than the Gunslinger, however, so I recommend unlocking it as soon as possible.
Lapis, the Lightweaver
Curiously, Lapis’ default SyCom is a Rail specialist as well. Lightweaver makes your Rails more powerful whenever you pick up Batteries for them (i.e. ammunition), however, which results in substantially different combat tactics compared to those of Vermillion.
I highly recommend investing in Lapis’ alternative Warrior SyCom, however. This increases all of her default stats whenever you find an upgrade, which makes stacking and exploration the way to go for longer-term progression. In our experience, Lapis is absolutely the most powerful Breaker at this time, though that’s bound to change as Heart Machine revamps the game’s balancing. This is an Early Access project, after all.
Goro, the Astrologer
The adorably vicious Goro starts off with the Astrologer SyCom, which allows him to quickly charge up melee skills whenever he’s using his Rail weapons against enemies. The unlockable Sniper SyCom, on the other hand, massively boosts Goro’s critical hits.
What this means, in practice, is that Goro has a substantially higher damage output potential than either Vermillion or Lapis at the cost of being punishingly fragile. Goro is the personification of a glass cannon, you see, and sinceHyper Light Breaker‘s enemies don’t really telegraph their attacks properly, you may find it hard to stay alive.
