XENO // BREACH beginner's guide: your first run

For a first run of XENO // BREACH, pick the Vanguard, play the Bootcamp deck once, and learn three habits. Dash through attacks, spend the 25 seconds between waves on turrets and vents, and don't take the rift to Deck 2 until you've banked a few upgrades. Here's how each piece works.

Play the Bootcamp first

The title screen has a Bootcamp Tutorial Deck. It takes you through six steps, one mechanic each: the thruster dash, reflecting acid with a melee swing, building a turret, welding a vent, ranking up a skill tree, and Suit Overdrive. You can skip any step. Finishing gives you 3 Xeno Cores to spend in the Xeno Vault.

Picking an operative

Picking an operative also picks your weapon class. Each operative carries a gun, a melee weapon and a sidearm. On the select screen you can swap the gun for another one from the same class.

Operative	Class	Why pick them
Vanguard	Shotgun Scatter	+1 max armor. Your dash blasts xenos near you.
Devastator	Heavy Ordnance	Rocket pod and Grav-Hammer. +35% melee damage, and kills sometimes explode.
Recon Ghost	Ballistic Assault	+18% speed, +30% gun damage, faster dash recharge.
Tech-Engineer	Ballistic Assault	A free Auto-Sentry at the start. Turrets cost 25% less.
Bio-Medic	Ballistic Assault	+1 max armor, one automatic revive, an extra heart after each wave.
Pyro-Breacher	Laser & Charge	+1 max armor. Hits can set xenos alight. Finishers can heal you.
Psi-Adept	Laser & Charge	+25% damage, +12% speed, much faster dash recharge, one revive.

For a first run: the Vanguard. A shotgun forgives bad aim at close range. The extra armor heart buys you mistakes, and the dash blast clears space when you're cornered. If you'd rather have a safety net, take the Bio-Medic.

Controls

Action	Desktop	Phone
Move	WASD or arrow keys	Drag on the left side; the stick appears under your thumb
Aim and fire	Mouse, click (hold to charge)	Drag the FIRE stick to aim; hold it still to auto-aim at the nearest xeno
Thruster dash	Space	DODGE
Swap melee / gun	Q	SWAP
Swap between guns	X	Tap the second-gun chip
Weld, buy, open	E	USE (it changes to WELD, BUY or OPEN)
Build a turret	T	The turret button, which shows its cost
Overdrive and sonar	C	The ⚡ chip, top left
Tactical Command	B or Tab	The ⚡ button, top right
Next wave early	N	START during prep
Suit lamp	F	Stays on
Items	1 to 8
Pause	Esc or P	Pause button

Tactical Command is where you spend skill points, pick and build turrets, use the armory, and manage decks and squad size.

Deck 1: Docking Bay 7

You start with 500 points, one skill point, a full Overdrive bar and 12 Hull Plates. A Mono-Lance lies by the door on Deck 1. Hold to charge it, then let go to lunge through a line of xenos.

Wave 1 starts right away. The rooms are already occupied: Xeno Drones, Acid Spitters, Bile Bursters, Breached Security and a Swarm Broodmother. Reinforcements come in on top. The HUD counter tells you how many are left.

What to do, in order:

1. Spend your skill point in your own class's tree (⚡ / B). Its bonuses apply to the gun you're holding.
2. Fight near your start until the first wave is down. Kills pay 90 points, finishers 130, elites 250.
3. In the prep phase, build and weld. You have 25 seconds.
4. Open sectors as you go. Each deck has five. The locked gates open for free at waves 2, 3, 5 and 7, or you can pay 400, 650, 950 and 1,250 points to open them early.
5. Survive wave 3, the first boss wave. Every third wave brings a boss, and killing one pays 1,000 points, a skill point, two Xeno Cores and a Max Ammo pickup.
6. Decide on the rift. Once wave 3 is clear, you can move to Deck 2. Your wave count, points, trees and squad come with you, and so does the difficulty.

Turrets

Press T to build the selected defense 20 pixels in front of you, facing where you aim. Cycle the type with ⟳ or in Tactical Command.

Defense	Points
Laser Barricade (slows and sears)	200
Sonic Holo-Beacon (lures, then detonates)	300
Auto-Sentry Turret	350
Cryo-Stasis Emitter	350
Munitions Dispenser (refills ammo)	350
Mono-Blade Grinder	400
Plasma Incinerator	450
Plasma Mine Pad	450
Arc-Coil Pylon (chain lightning)	600

The Auto-Sentry shoots anything within 150 pixels, about nine tiles, every 0.3 seconds. Put it where corridors meet, not in open rooms. Turrets can wear out and jam. The first rank of the Ordnance & Sentry tree stops that, and each rank also makes defenses 12% cheaper and tougher. Defenses repair 45% of their damage every time you clear a wave.

Hull vents

Vents are how the hive gets into rooms. Stand within two tiles of a breached vent and press E, or tap WELD. It seals completely and pays 25 points. Each weld uses one Hull Plate. You get 6 more plates per wave cleared, and kills sometimes drop them. Xenos can smash a welded vent open again, so weld the ones near you during every prep phase. Suit Overdrive also welds every vent within a few tiles of you.

Not dying

• Dash through hits, not away from them. The dash makes you invulnerable for 0.3 seconds and recharges in 0.75. If a blow lands in the first 0.18 seconds, that's a perfect dodge: time slows, the dash recharges at once, and your next hit, shot or swing, does double damage and breaks poise.
• Swing at acid. A melee swing sends Acid Spitter projectiles back at the nearest xeno in front of you.
• Leave spore clouds. A dash won't protect you from breathing them. Walk out.
• Shoot Bile Bursters from range. They burst into acid when they die.
• Break heavy enemies. Big ones can't be knocked down, but hits wear down their poise until they stagger.
• Chain kills. Three quick kills start Bloodrush: you move 15% faster and attack faster. At six, a heart comes back.
• Save Overdrive for trouble. It refills on its own in under 30 seconds, faster with kills. Press C and it damages, chills and knocks back everything within about eight tiles. It also gives you 8 seconds of extra damage, fire rate and speed.
• Heal between waves. Clearing a wave gives a heart back. A Med-Stim Pack (key 1) gives back one heart anywhere.

When you die, the run ends, but your Xeno Cores stay. Spend them in the Xeno Vault before you deploy again. A starting armor heart is the best first buy. The weapon class guide helps you pick a second operative once the Vanguard clicks.

Ready? Play XENO // BREACH free. The first deck costs nothing.