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Homeworld 3has introduced roguelike elements to the franchise with its new War Games playlist. This activity blends the traditional combat seen in Homeworld’s campaign and mixes it with randomized fleet buffs and objectives. If your team can survive the gauntlet of objectives, you can unlock new Artifacts and fleets for future runs.
War Games is a fresh take on traditional real-time strategy and should definitely be experienced at least once, especially if you’re a fan of PvE modes. This guide will explain how War Games works, how its roguelike Artifacts work, and provide some general tips for beating this mode.
War Games Explained
War Games is a PvE game mode where up to three players must complete mission objectives to earn roguelike modifiers.Unlike traditional Skirmish matches, War Games has no PvP elements and provides various starting fleets to choose from. Successfully completing objectives will accrue XP on your account, which will unlock additional fleet options.
When the match starts, your team will have a few minutes to build up a fleet and accumulate resources before fleet command issues an objective. You must complete this objective to proceed to the next level.The longer you stay in the same level, the harder it’ll become.Speed is highly rewarded here. Once all objectives are complete, you may hyperspace to the next level at any time.
Enemy presence is reduced between levels. The faster you are, the easier your runs will be.
Your goal is simple:complete three consecutive levels.Your entire fleet, resources, and roguelike buffs calledArtifactswill persist between each tileset. Craft your fleet to take advantage of the Artifacts you find to gain an advantage over the Incarnate. Should your fleet be destroyed, the War Games mission will end. Complete matches to earn XP, try out new fleets, and experiment with Artifact choices to create the ultimate build.
Difficulty Modifiers And Fleets
Before starting a War Games match, you’ll need to select a starting fleet.Your starting fleet determines your initial resources, ships, and available ship upgrades.For example, the Strikecraft Fleet can purchase every fighter and their respective upgrades, but it lacks the ability to create most frigates.The first three fleets are Higaran, while the latter three are Incarnate.Both factions behave quite differently, so choose wisely.
Additionally, you may also adjust the difficulty of your War Games match before it starts. By selecting “Game Settings” and “Select Difficulty Modifiers,” you can select the difficulty tier you wish to start at.Each difficulty modifier increases all XP gains by 50% for that run, up to a cap of 500%. Bear in mind thatyou can’t pick and choose which modifiers you want. If you pick T5 difficulty, all modifiers from tiers 1-5 will be active.
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Artifacts
Artifacts are powerful modifiers that you’ll earn throughout the course of a War Games match.You can earn Artifacts by completing objectives and collecting Artifact wreckage on the map. There’s no limit to how many Artifacts you can have active at a time.
Artifact passives will carry over between tilesets, but they donotcarry over between War Games matches. Once the game ends, you’ll need to earn new Artifacts for your next game.
Most of your Artifacts will come from map pickups. Keep an eye out for these industrial strips of metal guarded by Incarnate while in each tileset. There are usually two or three of them per level.
Once you acquire an Artifact, select the Artifact icon on the top-right of your screen to open the Artifact menu. From here,you will be presented with three random Artifact buffs.You must pick one of them—there’s no rerolling. Buffs come in the form of fleet population caps and ship-specific upgrades, most of which have small stat penalties to balance out their extreme benefits.you may stack the same Artifact buff multiple times, increasing its positiveandnegative properties.
Unlocking Artifacts
As with most roguelike games, youwon’t have all Artifacts unlocked by default.You will need to play multiple War Games matches and experiment with builds to unlock every possible option.Artifacts are primarily unlocked through in-game challenges,all of which may be found in the Homeworld Compendium. You can access the compendium from the main menu. Some Artifacts also won’t appear until you equip a certain Artifact boon or increase your account level.
