Gatekeeper Eclipse is an isometricroguelikeshooter where you mow down hordes of increasingly difficult enemies and try to complete your goals before you’re buried in enemies, projectiles, or both.
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As with its other roguelike brethren, it doesn’t give you much in the way of a how-to. Other than a rundown of your character’s abilities in the mode select and some lore, you’re left to figure it all out for yourself. If you want to outlast your opponents as long as possible, or even just learn about some of the game’s systems, here are some things you should know before starting Gatekeeper Eclipse.
7Play On A Controller
Though the game works fine on a mouse and keyboard, it feels a lot better to use a gamepad. Gatekeeper Eclipse is a twin-stick shooter, and it’s simply easier to do all the precise moving and general aiming with twin sticks.
Using the WASD keys to do all that moving and dodging feels hard on the wrist, even if you get more precise aiming from using a mouse, a level of precision you don’t really even need.
6There Are Two Modes
There are currently two modes in the game: Aurora and To The Nowhere. The latter has you facing down a set number of enemies who are trying to destroy a gate, with a Catharsis Obelisk that periodically gives you power-ups. There are four levels and every time you fail to guard a gate, the remaining enemies will be added to the last area, in which you have to defend the Heart of Timefrom waves of enemiesand a boss.
Aurora, on the other hand, is four levels that loop and gets more difficult with timea la Risk of Rain, and gives you a boss to fight every four stages. You eliminate enemies to gain coins that you may use to buy power-ups from Obelisks around the map. To clear a level, you have to activate three totems and stay near them until they’re powered up, as the area within the totem gets increasingly hostile.
5Character Differences
The game hastwo playable characters: Hybrid and Nidum. Hybrid is available from the get-go, while Nidum is unlocked by successfully defending the Heart of Time in To The Nowhere.
Hybrid is a gunner-type with a skillset emphasizing attacking at a distance and keeping that distance, while Nidum is a high-risk, high-reward assassin-berserker that focuses on keeping enemies close for maximum damage. The former gets a second chance upon death once per run, while the latter deals more damage the less health they have.
4You’ve Got To Remember Some Math Concepts
You might notice that every upgrade shows its type of growth– linear, logarithmic, and exponential– indicating how it gains power every time you pick it up.
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This is fairly important information that you should factor into your decision-making. Few games give you this information, and fewer still strip it down to bare mathematical concepts, so it’s understandable if they don’t make sense right away to you.
Linear growth means that the ability gets steadily more powerful every time you invest in it at a constant rate. Logarithmic growth means that you get a big boost in effectiveness early on, but you get diminishing returns as you invest in it. Exponential growth is the opposite, giving you small gains early on but getting wildly more powerful as you add to it.
3Stat Priorities (Should) Vary By Game Mode
The goals in Aurora and To The Nowhere are very different, so you should manage your stats and upgrades differently depending on what mode you choose. In To The Nowhere, you’re in a defensive position where you are protecting a goal from being destroyed and you get a steady, if intermittent, boost in power. So enemies don’t overrun you and destroy what you’re protecting, you should focus on offensive power so you can mow them down faster than they appear.
On the other hand, in Aurorayouare the target and you have to travel on a fairly sized map to pick up your power-ups and activate the totems needed to clear the level. With that in mind, you’ll want to invest more in defensive and speed upgrades so that you can travel between goals quickly and survive the onslaught of enemies.
Of course, you shouldn’t neglect your offensive capabilities, either, since you still need to mow down all those enemies.
2There’s Friendly Fire
…for enemies, at least. It’s hard to notice with all the commotion going on, but enemies can actually hit each other, and do so relatively often. This is especially true in Aurora, where the defenses that totems fire off also affect enemies, and the tight squeeze within the area of the totem means it will happen often.
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While they’re not damaged nearly as heavily as you are, every little bit of damage helps. Just remember to dodge enemy attacks while you lay into them, and you’re golden.
1You Have An Ultimate Move
Though the game doesn’t strictly mention it, you have an ultimate move. It’s mapped to RB/R1/R on the controller, and F on the keyboard by default. While they’re strong abilities for both characters, with crowd clearing potential, they’re neither particularly flashy or on long cooldowns.
The only reason this distinction matters is because of one upgrade: the Charged Core. This upgrade gives you additional charges on your ultimate ability, allowing you to use them multiple times before they go on cooldown.
