DEADSHIFT

DEADSHIFT is a 2D hack-and-slash shooter about mowing down hordes of infected with guns, mercenaries and combat frames. There are no stage-clear screens: you move between the town and the hunting grounds, build up with the gear you loot, and push into more dangerous regions.

Hordes

• Infected keep pouring back in as fast as you kill them. The faster you clear, the higher your hunting heat climbs, bringing tougher and larger packs.
• 77 kinds of infected and 15 bosses. On BLACK difficulty and above with an active specimen risk score of 160+, killing a boss-room boss can open a rift portal, where one of 10 stronger true bosses waits.
• Elites and mutated infected are mixed into the packs, with 16 mutations (8 prefixes, 8 suffixes).
• Auto-hunt is supported. Set which skills to use and when to stop, and your character fights through the hunting ground on its own.

Professions

At level 10 you pick one of three professions. You can switch at any time for credits, and every profession keeps its own level and skill tree when you do. Each tree has 66+ skills, with keystone picks at levels 15, 30, 50 and 75 and a choice of 1 of 3 final skills at level 100.

• Gunslinger — gun specialist. Each weapon set holds 3 guns instead of 2. Builds split between making every shot count and filling the screen with fire.
• Contractor — mercenary commander. Field up to 5 mercenaries, or pour every contract into a single elite.
• Operator — combat frame pilot. Assemble a frame from 17 leg, body and weapon parts within your power budget and bring it along. Humanoid parts let the frame wear your own gear.

Mercenaries and imprints

• Collect the cards infected drop to contract that infected as a mercenary. 76 kinds including bosses, in 9 grades from F to SSS.
• Mercenaries level up, and each one has its own skill tree to build.
• Spend 100 of the same card to draw an imprint. The 74 imprints are permanent upgrades that apply to your character, mercenaries and frames alike.
• Imprints come in 8 families. Equip 2 of the same family for a secondary effect, or 3 for a unique effect — imprint resonance.
• Slot a true boss’s silver imprint and a Mini-Me of that boss follows you around, casting its signature skill.

Loot

• 11 weapon classes, and armor in four slots: head, body, feet and bag. Rarities run normal, rare, set, legendary and special, and armor crafted from true boss materials comes in prototype, one grade above special.
• Gear rolls random extra options, each rated 1–5 stars. Reroll the ones you don’t want, and move a legendary or special unique effect onto another piece.
• Upgrades go up to +25. At +25 you can raise the item level by 15 and upgrade again from +0.
• 42 set effects are attached to the armor of your choice with set cores. 35 element cores build around burn, poison, chill, shock and bleed.
• Pierce, ricochet, burst, multishot, fork, return, scatter, explosion — 8 projectile traits that stack from weapons, weapon skills and imprints.

Growth without a cap

• There is no level cap.
• Rebirth — available from level 81. Each rebirth adds 1 stat point per level. Gear, profession levels and skill trees carry over, and there’s no limit on rebirths.
• World difficulty — 5 tiers from GREEN to WHITE, unlocked by killing bosses. Higher tiers give up to 2x XP and up to +100% credits, and legendary (RED and up) and special (BLACK and up) gear starts to drop.
• Specimens — switch on any of the 50 specimens you’ve collected to make the infected stronger; the more risk you take on, the bigger the rewards.
• Medals — each kind of true boss you kill for the first time adds a stat to your medal, and repeat kills level it up. Medals carry over through rebirth.
• 63 achievements, each granting permanent stats as you complete them.