Pilots

'The following is information about pilots in the game Into The Breach.

Pilots control the mechs, gaining experience and valuable skills on the battlefield. Basic AI Pilots are already operating at their peak efficiency and do not gain experience in combat, making it necessary for you to find superior human Pilots, or advanced AI Pilots, to replace the basic AI. Cyborgs are both Pilot and Mech in one.

Unless otherwise specified, pilots are obtained by completing 100% of all objectives on Islands or collecting Time Pods.

Artificial Pilots and CorPilots

 * The Artificial Pilot is the default mech pilot if the pilot is killed. No skills and always active without a pilot in the mech
 * CorPilots work for the Corporations in the current timeline, never have any special skills, and the best available pair of them start every new timeline

Time Travelers

 * Time Travelers are exceptional pilots, each with a special skill, and have jumped timelines more than once
 * Ralph Karlsson is the first known Time Traveler
 * Karlsson can be chosen after achieving a 100% success rate on any Island.
 * All other Time Travelers can be unlocked by:
 * Perfectly completing 100% of all objectives on an island and selecting a Time Traveler over a weapon or bonus grid power
 * By recovering a Time Pod

Secret Pilots

 * After breaking a certain mountain tile or ice tile a "Strange Object" will be found under it. If you take it, a special time pod will fall from the sky. Recover the special time pod or protect it until battle ends to rescue a secret pilot.

Cyborg Pilots

 * Cyborg Pilots become available after unlocking the Secret Squad by completing all Achievements.
 * All Cyborg Pilots have randomly-selected names, a portrait depending on their mech, and the same special skill:
 * Vek : Normal Pilots cannot be equipped. Loses 25 XP when the unit is disabled.

Experience and Skills
Pilots gain experience points (XP) when Veks are destroyed while defending a region. One XP is gained for each Vek health point (HP), so a 2 HP Vek is worth 2 XP.

The Soldier Psion adds 1 HP to each Vek giving an extra XP. A Hornet typically has 2 HP and is worth 2 XP, but with a Soldier Psion present it has 3 HP so the Hornet would be worth 3 XP. When a Soldier Psion is killed, every Vek is reduced by 1 HP. If a Vek that has 1 HP left is destroyed due to the death of a Soldier Psion, then the extra HP is taken away before the Vek dies and no additional XP is gained. If there's a Hornet with 1 HP left and the Soldier Psion is destroyed, the Hornet is reduced from 3 HP to 2 HP, then 1 HP is taken away from the Hornet. The dead Hornet gives 2 XP.

If a Vek is not directly killed by a Pilot, such as when a Vek is killed by an emerging Vek or dies from environmental damage, the XP is split among all the Pilots in the squad. If there isn't enough XP to split among all the pilots, XP is distributed to just part of the squad on a rotating basis.
 * Artificial Pilots do not gain XP.

Human, Advanced AI, and Cyborg Pilots automatically learn a random skill after gaining 25 XP and 50 XP. Pilots stop earning XP after getting a total of 75 XP.
 * +1 Mech Reactor : Piloted Mech reactor increased by 1.
 * +1 Mech Move : Piloted Mech movement is increased by 1.
 * +2 Mech HP : Piloted Mech health is increased by 2.
 * +3 Grid DEF : Grid Defence increased by 3.

A Pilot sent to a new timeline, the Last Traveler, retains their XP and skills from the previous timeline.

Note : Bonus skills are completely random, prior to patch 1.0.17 this could result in Mafan ( max HP = 1 ) having a useless bonus of +2 Mech HP.

Corporate CEOs
While not Pilots, the Corporate CEOs are heavily involved with guiding the Squads against the Vek.

Behind the scenes
Gizmo, Huang, and Kirk were Pilots from pre-release versions of Into the Breach.

There are some special skills that went unused in the game:


 * Cauterize : Fire heals instead of damaging Mech.
 * Frozen Stance : Stopping on any liquid tile freezes it, making it safe to stand on.
 * Retaliation : Deal 1 damage to adjacent enemies after surviving damage.