Head back Into The Breach with today’s free Advanced Edition update

Kaiju-stomping multiversal turn-based strategy Into The Breach sees the arrival of its free Advanced Edition update today, with new mechs, monsters and missions. Dev’s Subset Games are also promising more pilots and abilities. Dive into those diverging timelines by watching the update’s trailer below.

So far, I’ve spotted two new pilots: Adam and Kai. Adam has a big burly ginger beard, while Kai’s flexing an awesome blue haircut. Almost every part of Into The Breach will be getting a spruce up with fresh stuff to try. Perhaps the most intriguing part of the Advanced Edition update is the ‘Unfair‘ Difficulty mode, which chucks the tricksy Alpha Vek monsters into the game much earlier and more frequently. “Strategic losses are inevitable,” say Subset. Don’t get too attached to any of your pilots.

Never fear though, because there’s some new squads and mechs to counter the updated enemies and bosses with. First up are the Mist Eaters Squad, who throw down a smokescreen to obscure your units from the enemy and buy time for repairs. A trio of fresh mechs to pilot includes the Thruster, which increases damage the further it travels to attack, the enemy-manipulating Control, and the Smog mech that wields an area-of-effect smoke attack that heals allies too.

We love Into The Breach. It’s still our best strategy game recommendation, just pipping Subset Games other excellent game FTL: Faster Than Light. Matt got so into, erm, Into The Breach that he felt like he’d breached reality. “Yesterday someone at the pub had their chair perched in front of a step, which meant I couldn’t follow the conversation because I was too busy thinking about how he’d tumble if I launched a rock behind him,” he said.

Alex Spencer and Alec (RPS in Peace) both wrote about who they thought was the game’s best mech pilot, time-travel researcher Isaac Jones. Alec also tried to persuade us that all the game’s timeline-hopping makes players into history’s greatest monster.

The Into The Breach: Advanced Edition update is out today, July 19th. You can pick up the base game on Steam, GOG and the Epic Games Store for £11/$15/€15. It’s also on consoles, and Android and iOS for Netflix subscribers.