It’s finally here! Well most of it at least. After several delays, Breachway, the sci-fi deckbuilding roguelite, has finally made its way to Early Access. This means there is quite a bit of content for players to dig into. It also means there is more content to come. Breachway has had a couple of demos out already. For those who did not get a chance to play one of the demos, I’ll give you a quick rundown of the game. We will also go over what content is in Early Access and what the developer’s plans are going forward.
In this preview, I will be going over the following.
Gameplay
Breachway is a deckbuilding roguelite, which means it has a lot of the same elements as other games in the genre. You collect cards during your journey to improve your deck. At the end of the run, meta progression is usually present, which will affect future runs. Sure, we know this by now. However, let’s talk about some of the things that Breachway does differently.
Ships
There are currently four ships to select from when starting your run. Three of these are locked until you progress far enough with the previous ship. Similar to the ship unlocks in FTL: Faster Than Light. Each ship has a unique starting crew and systems layout.
Crew
The numerous crew members have distinct abilities that you can take advantage of in combat. Some abilities will even have effects during certain events while traveling on the map. Each crew also has different alliances with the various factions in the game. Additional crew members can also be added to the ship during your journey via escape pods or other events. 
Systems
The different systems on your ship consist of things like weapons, shields, and research bays. Depending on the ship, more systems can be added. These systems are what determine the cards in your deck. As you gain more cards, they will be associated with the specific systems that you already have. There is, however, a limit to how many cards each system can have in the deck.
Breachway also requires each system to be managed by a crew member. This means you can’t just max out your system slots at the beginning of the game. Well, you can. However, without a crew member to man those systems, you won’t be pulling any cards from them.
Resources
Aside from your ship’s systems, you will also need to manage the generator output. You see, unlike most deckbuilders that just have a single action counter, Breachway has three. Power from the generator has to be routed to your resources in order to use them in combat. These are Ordinance, Energy, and Mass. The power from the generator can be reallocated to different resources in and out of combat. 
Deck
As previously mentioned, the cards in your deck will be based on which systems you have and if you have a crew member managing them. Each card can use one or more types of resources. For example, a basic laser pulse might only use Ordinance. Whereas a more advanced repeater pulse would require Ordinance and Mass. In general, weapons use mostly Ordinance, and shields use mostly Energy. Mass is typically used on specialty cards such as repairs.
Like many deckbuilding games, you want to try to have a balance between offensive and defensive cards. But in this game, you also have to make sure you have a balance between your resources to be able to play those cards when they do come up from the deck. Part of that is actively moving the power from the generator to the resources that you need more of.
Combat
We have talked about a few of the elements of combat already. Things such as using resources to play cards from your hand and managing your generator to allocate power to those resources. There are a few other unique components in combat that we have not talked about yet though.
One of those is what happens to the cards when you play them. Unlike other games in the genre, Breachway doesn’t use a standard discard pile. Instead, cards have a cooldown. How does this differ from a discard pile? Well, let me put it this way. If all your cards have a three-turn cooldown and you spend them all on the first and second turns, then you won’t have any cards to play on your third turn. Sure, this isn’t that likely. Especially as you build up your deck while you get further in the game, that doesn’t mean you can’t run into a similar situation where you used all your defensive cards in the first or second turn and now have none for two or three turns.
Properly managing your cards and their cooldowns can make a big difference in battle. Managing your crew can also have a big effect as well. Each crew member has a unique ability that they can use in combat. These abilities provide advantages such as increasing the damage of the next attack or even providing additional resources when needed. Each ability uses Morale points and has a cooldown as well. Morale points are built up by traveling to nodes. Which means you can collect them pretty quickly. So, don’t be afraid to use them, especially in an elite or boss battle.
Map
Speaking of nodes, let’s talk about the map a little bit. As a staple in the genre, Breachway has a spider web-looking map. However, they put their own twist on this element too. On the map, there are two different types of pathways. There are the main paths and the secondary paths. The main paths are free to travel on, but only go in one direction.
On the other hand, the secondary paths can be moved across in any direction at the cost of fuel. Sometimes there are events that can only be accessed by secondary paths. They are also nice to use if you need to go backward on a main path for whatever reason. If you run out, you can always buy more at a station. Fuel isn’t cheap, though.
Having these two different path types adds a little bit of strategy to the map. Most of the nodes are unknown until you are adjacent to them. There are ones that might already be marked due to an event or if they are a space station. The nodes marked from an event are usually worth checking out if you can get there.
Factions
Another important element on the map to keep track of is your different standings with the various factions. Currently, there are 4 different factions in the game. Depending on the ship and crew that you are flying with, some factions will be in good standing, and others will not. This can affect the events at various nodes. For example, arriving at a space station that belongs to a rival faction means they will deny you from docking. Conversely, visiting a node of a faction you are allied with could result in them assisting you in your next combat.
Space Stations
Lastly, I wanted to talk a little bit about the space stations in Breachway. You have a few different options when you visit a station. The first is to go into the hangar, where you can purchase new systems, subsystems, or even repairs. You can also sell systems. Then, there is the option to modify your deck by adding or removing cards, which can be very helpful with deck management.
There is an option to send your crew to the bar for a little break. This will boost their morale points gained per node for a few turns. Finally, there is an option to buy additional fuel for your ship. It’s not cheap, but you might need it if there is a specific node you are trying to get to before you leave the map.
Conclusion
As you can see, Breachway already has quite a bit of content. On top of that, they are bringing a lot of interesting new twists to the genre. They aren’t done yet, though. The developers are very active on their Discord Channel, fixing bugs and listening to the player’s feedback. They also recently announced what to look forward to during the Early Access period.
Their main focus going forward will be on content. This means adding an additional sector to explore, more equipment, more events, and more enemies. There is also a full crewmember leveling system that they are still working on that will be added to the game. Hopefully, this will mean additional bonuses and boosted abilities for your favorite crew. Lastly, the developers mentioned wanting to expand on the universe of Breachway as well. This means more narrative and more drive for those successful runs.
With planned small updates every few weeks and larger content updated every couple months, it sounds like the developers are not slowing down anytime soon. If you are interested in checking the game out, then feel free to visit their Steam page or join the discussion on their Discord.
Developers at Edgeflow Studio provided a preview key.
