What are Entropy Horizon Missions?
While not exactly the most creative name, Entropy Horizons would be types of missions rarely found on certain planets or moons. These missions center around chaotic phenomena, possibly otherworldly, that are tricky but rewarding to deal with.
In Entropy Waves, there are two unique mechanics to look out for, the Scourge Howitzer gifts and Otherworld Chickens.
The Scourge Howitzer
If somehow a newbie runs into these missions early, they may be amazed to obtain this weapon when it will inevitably drop. However, they will notice the weapon’s main gimmick quickly… the Scourge Howitzer decreases in strength as firepower increases. Starting from a spray of lasers and piercing energy at Level 0, the weapon will get weaker and weaker as you get stronger, with projectiles getting smaller and less frequent. At level 10, only small energy bolts will be shot, and at level 20+, the weapon will only shoot pathetic bubbles that deal minimal damage. A dangerous weapon to upgrade unless there’s another weapon in sight, these missions amplify its weakness by making its gifts drop very often, and sometimes in a whole line to make collecting them inevitable.
These missions may let you gain power early, but as soon as you reach max power they become another danger source. Balance-wise, Level 20 SH shouldn’t be much weaker than a max level Moron Railgun.
Otherwordly Chickens
Weird glowing chickens tinted in purple, once every few waves you see their bodies poke out from the sides. Then they’ll burst for a second into the fray, and not a moment later they’ll flee back to the side and disappear. They will usually appear opposite of the side you’re on. If you catch them (they have pretty high HP), you’ll get a small burst of Keys, 2-3 at minimum difficulty. While they seem to be there for free rewards, I think the temptation to break usual movement routines for bursting down these chickens, on top of the threat of running into projectiles or SH gifts, adds decent risk into these missions.
Entropy Horizon boss
Originally, I was going to go for a Mecha-Chicken boss, but then I got some inspiration from another space game.
The Quasar Slots boss is a large, odd, slot machine that simply floats around, letting you shoot it freely. Every few seconds, the machine will roll itself, and get a combination of 3 random symbols.
Slot Symbols:
- Egg: The machine will spawn an egg with a random chicken inside for every Egg Slot rolled. If 3 Eggs are rolled, spawn 8 Eggs with random chickens. Higher difficulties = Higher chance of miniboss chickens (Chickenauts, Slob Chickens)
- Lightning: The machine will shoot a burst of 3 energy bolts per Lightning Slot. If 3 Lightnings are rolled, spray energy bolts in all directions three times, similar to the Mother-Hen Ship’s attacks.
- Asteroid: The machine will cause a small wave of Asteroids to fall per Asteroid Slot. If 3 Asteroids are rolled, rain an extended wave of Asteroids like Magnetic Manipulator’s.
- Coin: The machine will drop coins per Coin Slot rolled. If 3 Coins are rolled, give a Weapon gift and a lot of Coins.
- Wormhole: Their slots do nothing on their own. If 3 Wormholes are rolled, summon a Big Chicken and multiple Terminator Chickens.
- Seven: Does nothing on its own. If 3 Sevens are rolled, the boss self-destructs immediately.
While it wouldn’t be too hard to beat down on its own, especially for those unlucky enough to have Scourge Howitzer active, things can get chaotic if you let things last. (Honestly, what the slots do is up to the dev’s decisions, these are just examples.)