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The Volcanic Hive is the location of the final mission of a timeline in Into the Breach.

Description[ | ]

The Volcanic Hive is initially hidden and only becomes accessible after the second island is complete. The final mission, The Last Stand, takes place on this island and is divided into two phases that must be survived to save a timeline. The psion that spawns on this island is the Psion Tyrant.

Except for Vek Leaders in a 3 or 4 island Unfair difficulty playthrough, no Advanced Edition Vek can spawn on this island, even if Advanced Enemies are on. Only the following Vek and their Alphas can spawn in the final mission[1]:

It's possible in Unfair difficulty for one boss variant of the above enemies (if they have one) to be present in the final mission, during a 3 or 4 island playthrough. This can include Vek leaders that were added as part of the Advanced Edition, if the option for these enemies was enabled for that timeline.[2]

Surface[ | ]

The first part occurs on the surface of the Volcanic Hive. The map varies, but always starts with no grid buildings and one Super Volcano. On hard difficulty, a Vek leader will be present; two will be present on Unfair 3 and 4 island playthroughs. The possible bosses in the surface include[1]:

Note that the above restriction only applies to the first boss in the attack turn order; the second boss can be a variant of any standard enemy listed above.[2]

CEO Kern of the R.S.T. Corporation deploys Power Pylons after deployment, but before the battle begins. Power Pylons provide Grid Power and are tactically equivalent to Civilian Buildings, except that damaging them does not deduct from your score.

The Super Volcano in the upper corner functions as the source of this map’s unique environmental hazards. It alternates between a Lava Flow, which converts some surface tiles to lava tiles — and Volcanic Projectiles, which inflict Kill damage on impact and also set that tile on fire. Lava Flow and Volcanic Projectiles will never target tiles occupied by Power Pylons.

After 5 turns, seismic activity strikes, creating a huge crater which sends all mechs underground, beginning the second phase.

Volcanic Hive - Surface

Underground[ | ]

The second part of The Last Stand occurs underground, in heart of the Volcanic Hive. The map is composed of mountains in the form of stalagmites, ground and lava tiles with no grid buildings. 4-5 Vek are initially present, including a Vek leader which is always present on any difficulty. On Unfair, two leaders spawn during a 3 or 4 island playthrough. The possible bosses in the underground include[1]:

Note that the above restriction only applies to the first boss in the attack turn order; the second boss can be a variant of any standard enemy listed above.[2]

Unlike other battles, your squad, as well as a Renfield Bomb, is automatically deployed in a fixed 2x2 square formation spanning tiles D5 to E6.

  • Gana's Preemptive Strike ability will continue to do 1 damage to adjacent Vek.
  • Occasionally, an initially-present Vek will be located within the 2x2 formation, alongside your mechs. The falling Renfield Bomb will still be deployed to that location, inflicting Kill damage on that particularly unfortunate specimen and awarding the usual shared experience points to all Pilots.
  • If that enemy happens to have a cap on spawning, such as a Blobber, it will contribute to the cap and can prevent it from appearing

This second phase deployment is counted as a separate second mission for the purposes of restoring both limited-use items/weapons and disabled mechs.

  • Pilots which were killed in the previous phase will remain dead and be replaced with A.I. pilots, unless they were fortunate enough to have the Invulnerable Skill.

The Renfield Bomb represents your only primary objective and must be protected for 5 turns until it arms itself, destroying the Volcanic Hive and completing your current campaign successfully.

  • Unlike the prototype versions found on R.S.T. Island, this Bomb has 4 health and does not explode if its health is reduced to zero.
  • It is also apparently ready in mass-production quantities because if the unit supplied to your squad is destroyed, a replacement will be deployed mid-turn, and a penalty of 2 turns is added to the victory turn timer.
    • This replacement can be deployed to any ground or lava tile with the following considerations:
      • Excluding ones that your own Mechs occupy.
      • Excluding tiles marked for environmental destruction.
      • Inflicts Kill damage on any Vek that it happens to land on.
      • If a lava tile is chosen it will also be converted into a ground tile.

Finally, additional Power Pylons are deployed by CEO Kern and must continue to be protected as a normal secondary objective.

The environmental effect is called Caverns, and alternates between Falling Rocks and Tentacles — both of which inflict Kill damage on units, can alter map tiles, and have two possible areas of influence: specific tiles and wide-area. As in Phase One, no variant of the Caverns effect are permitted to directly attack either Power Pylon tiles or the tile occupied by the Renfield Bomb (at the time the attack is telegraphed — it is still possible to move the Renfield bomb into harm’s way).

Falling Rocks convert lava tiles back to normally-functioning ground tiles, including allowing Vek spawns. The small-scale variant will randomly choose between three and four tiles scattered across the map and its wide-area effect will partially blanket a 3x3-tile grid. Neither variant will affect the extreme outer perimeter of tiles, so once those are changed to lava they will effectively remain so permanently.

Tentacles convert tiles to lava. Its wide-area effect cuts a jagged one-tile-wide swatch across the entire map. Over time, this can create isolated islands of ground tiles that non-flying Vek have difficulty traversing and can even become completely trapped on. The small-scale version of this attack could be better characterized as ‘targeted’, as it will always aim for the precise three tiles that your mechs occupy (even if they happen to be disabled) and in contrast to the Falling Rocks effect can extend to the very outer perimeter.

With this in hand, then, we can finally identify the overall repeating pattern for the Caverns effect: Falling Rocks Random, Tentacles Aimed, Falling Rocks Area, Tentacle Area

The battle can only be won if the Renfield Bomb survives the last turn. Vek do not come out of spawn points if the bomb survived the Vek attack phase during the final turn. This means that the bomb will not be destroyed if it is blocking a Vek spawn with 1 health.

Volcanic-hive-2

Strategy[ | ]

Use the environment to your advantage. There are a lot of hazards that will insta-kill any unit standing there, so take advantage of repositioning enemy Vek on to those hazards.

On the second turn of the underground phase, tentacles will target your mechs, killing any unit there. So on the first turn of the underground phase, think about the positioning of your mechs, and if possible place them where the tentacle targets will be most useful: usually on top of a Vek spawn point that will then be eliminated by turning it into lava, in front of a pylon to block melee attackers, in a convenient bottleneck to block enemy movement, or just out of the way.

As always, losing your power grid will immediately lose the game. If it comes down to it, prioritize protecting your last power grid point over the Renfield Bomb, as the bomb will be replaced.

Trivia[ | ]

  • The Super Volcano in phase one cannot be destroyed with normal weapons damage, but will seperate into three mountains if one of its tiles is converted into lava by the Flood Drill.
  • By intentionally targeting Renfield Bombs for destruction via either attacks or environmental hazards, it is possible to extend the second phase of battle for as long as the player wishes.
    • If the turns are increased beyond 99, the upper-right counter will display ‘99+’ — turns otherwise continue to both accrue and decrement as normal.

References[ | ]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Final Mission data, note that this data was compiled before the Advanced Edition
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 screenshots of Unfair difficulty Volcanic Hive, shows a Beetle and Crab leader in 2nd phase of battle
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