It was time to head into the Cambrian part of the timeline and see what kinds of trouble I could end up in there. Turns out I'd be lucking out on a few drops and even getting some timeline incursions I wanted for further loot. It was not all without some risk involved.
The first point in the next area had what I feel can always be something that ends up getting me to fail one of these. Keep health above a certain percentage. While this one was only a 60% health requirement by the end of the run. A couple of bad hits right before the timer runs out can be all it takes.
I ended up running over to some light towers and getting them to set up. The plan was once the timer was getting close to being extracted. I’d be in the range of one to run past it. It would help soften any targets around it. Leaving quite easy kills for my rather nice current damage outpost that was swirling around me.
They barely put a scratch in me most of the run. Which made me a bit overconfident that I did not need to invest further in defense for a while. That would somewhat end up coming to bite me at some point. For now, however, it was not needed and I ended up making it out with 100% health.
Damage wise it was getting quite rare for anything to come close enough to hit me. So, I decided to be a bit greedy. Despite my efforts, it’s just easy to leave behind crystals on the ground. So, anything that increases my pickup radius is something I always aim for.
I decided to invest two incursions worth of crystals I looted into boosting my focus stats up to level 7. On top of that, I ended up lucking out and picking up in loot two scout system enchantments that further increased my pickup radius.
I even had some amazing relic drops as well. I ended up getting my heavy exoskeleton to level 3 which provided a 90% increase to the two weapons I was holding. This was quite devastating to anything that was not a boss that came close enough to me to be hit by either of those two weapons.
In the next region, I just needed one more mist exploration site out of the domain constructions I'd be unlocking. I ended up getting three. While early game I love getting them for weapons and mods. After that, I started using my free freshest to roll domain constructions if any mist exploration was a possible reward.
For whatever reason if there is a mist exploration it feels like I have a high chance of landing them. Don’t get me wrong early game I love them. There however comes a point when they just don’t feel rewarded enough. It seems quite rare to get a level two or higher gun drop out of them. As a result, I'm not getting enough crystals let alone experience from running them so I tend to favor other combat situations.
There are however exceptions. That is why you always need to take a look at all possible rewards. If there is a really good relic chance I'd be getting it. That would be one reason to not reroll a domain construction. Even if I did not like the other rewards.
Needless to say, after getting three 25 armory points to run I was quite loaded. By the end of this region, I'd have all gun slots not only unlocked but to level 5. Along with all mod slots unlocked and almost all level three as well.
One incursion type I've started to enjoy a lot on this character is destroying nests. These maps tend to just be filled with them. They also always drop crystals when killed. Between the investment into focus that boosts my ability skill and getting some relics that boosted its damage as well. I could just stand between a cluster of nests and burn them down quickly.
After a couple more incursions I ended up getting some further relics to increase the fire damage I was leaving on the ground I was walking on. I decided since there was already a massive amount of fire damage being left on the ground. I might as well have some of my drones deal fire damage over time as well. This was starting to feel a bit like a fire build.
While I could have gone for a flamethrower as well instead of using a laser gun. Playing without seeing lasers shooting all over the place just would not feel natural. So, I decided to not go full-on fire as if I were walking across a lake.
One incursion that I felt could have gone one way or another before I entered into it was a boss kill paired with needing 1k creature kills. It had been a couple of incursion points now since I've had a boss fight.
Usually, I don’t mind getting the giant spiker for a boss. It tends to be one that won’t move around a lot on the map. When I first noticed it, I wished I had gotten any of the two others. As I wanted to be moving around the map a bit trying to rack up a decent number of kills along the way of killing the boss.
If it took me too long to focus on the boss. I felt there might not be enough time left on the clock. I was however quite wrong in my worry. Not even thirty seconds in and I almost had the boss killed.
Once it was done, I quickly mopped up the 1k skills I needed. I ended up having well over a minute and a half left remaining by the time I had the kill count done. After that, I was just running around gaining as much experience as I could.
A little more than halfway through the Cambrian area I now had all weapons to level 5. I was also starting to stack up some level 3 mods as well for when I got those slots unlocked for my final gun. Once I was finished with Cambrian, I'd just have two or so mods remaining at level 2.
In another incursion point I had a collect crystal and kill 20 ranged monsters. I started running around looking for the ranged creatures to kill since I was not concerned with needing to loot 120 crystals with the kill rate and pickup radius I had.
Just a couple more incursion spots and unlocking the remaining mod slots for my last weapons. It was time to face the final incursion for the Cambrian area. I ended up getting double corruption bosses.
The biggest issue with this boss is it can place down some heavy areas of effect damage on the ground. With two of them that could stack quite quickly. That is when I realized while almost getting killed, I lacked enough defense to reduce some of the incoming damage.
They got me down below 40% quite a few times. At least I had some high health regen. This was however far from the real danger. Once I “defeat” a corruption it comes back as two. Soon enough I'd be facing four corruptions at once.
Right before either of the first pair of corruption ended up getting killed. I started to save up my energy for my ability skills. Once they were dead and I'd have four corruption bosses on me I wanted to offload as much damage as quickly as I could on them.
There was quite a lot of dancing around for me to be doing at this point. One wrong move and I'd end up getting killed. Quite a few times I ended up having to dart as far away from the battle as I could just to recover some health. Then I'd make another mad dash back in and offload some further damage onto the bosses.
Things started to lighten up a bit once I got one of them down. I was then able to quickly target the second boss. This just left me with two like it was at the start. They were at this point heavily damaged and a couple more good hits were all it took to get another win.
Final thoughts
I ended up finishing the Cambrian at level 130, with all guns to level five and most mods to level three. I also started to invest in a few attribute points to get up some stats I was lacking after I took down the boss with some crystals I had saved up.
Information
Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Time Treker.
Disclosure: The game was in early access at the time of writing this.
Disclosure. A review copy of the game was received for free.