Version 1.19.0 Released

The Fractured Paths are repeatable roguelite-style expeditions built around branching routes, temporary builds, mutations, elite encounters and powerful Rift bosses.

Instead of adding another isolated minigame, this mode combines many existing Knights of Crystalis systems into a single replayable adventure loop.

Enter the Crystal Rifts

The Fractured Paths unlock after reaching 576 campaign objectives / completing Chapters I–VI.

The mode can be accessed directly through the existing Adventures section.

Each expedition generates a branching route made up of different room types such as:

• Battles
• Elite Encounters
• Events
• Merchants
• Rest Sites
• Secret Rooms
• Boss Encounters

At every step, you decide which path to take.

Some routes may be safer.

Others may offer stronger temporary rewards.

And some may hide information until you commit to them.

Five Rift Depths

Rift Expeditions currently support five progression tiers:

Depth 1
Depth 5
Depth 10
Depth 15
Depth 20

Higher depths introduce more dangerous encounters, stronger modifiers and greater risks.

Completing deeper expeditions unlocks additional long-term progress and prestige rewards.

Three Rift Themes

Runs can take place across three different Rift environments, each with its own atmosphere and encounter identity.

Combined with procedural routing, room selection and mutations, this allows expeditions to vary substantially even when revisiting the same depth.

36 Room Templates

The routing system contains 36 different room templates.

A run might begin with a standard fight before splitting into:

Elite Battle
or
Unknown Event

Later, you may have to choose between healing at a Rest Site, spending resources at a Merchant or entering a Secret Room with unknown consequences.

The goal is to make route planning part of the challenge rather than simply moving through a fixed sequence of fights.

Temporary Rift Relics

During an expedition, you can collect special Rift Relics.

These exist only for the current run and can dramatically alter your temporary build.

There are currently 20 Rift Relics, including effects such as:

• increased elemental damage
• Critical Hit interactions
• escalating Attack bonuses
• stronger healing
• route information
• emergency survival effects
• risk/reward modifiers

Examples include:

Ashen Crown
A powerful offensive relic with defensive tradeoffs.

Mirror Fang
Improves Critical Hit interactions.

Bloodstone Pact
Builds offensive momentum as the expedition continues.

Wayfarer's Lantern
Helps reveal uncertain routes.

Last Ember
Provides an emergency survival effect.

Black Sun Shard
A high-risk Rift artifact intended for aggressive builds.

These Relics are intentionally temporary.

The normal game's permanent equipment balance remains separate.

Rift Mutations

Every expedition can also be affected by Rift Mutations.

There are currently 12 different mutations.

Mutations can alter factors such as:

• enemy HP
• speed
• skill effectiveness
• damage
• healing
• reward potential
• encounter difficulty

This means the same party can behave very differently depending on the conditions of the current Rift.

A build that performs extremely well in one expedition may struggle under another mutation combination.

Persistent Party Health

Unlike normal isolated battles, your party's condition matters throughout the expedition.

Damage can carry forward between Rift encounters.

Rest Sites and healing decisions therefore become strategically important, especially at higher depths.

Your party is captured when the expedition begins, allowing the run to maintain a consistent group even across save/reload situations.

Rift Echoes

During a run, you can earn a temporary expedition currency called:

Rift Echoes

Echoes can be used during the current expedition for certain choices, merchants and temporary advantages.

When the run ends, unused Echoes disappear.

This keeps each expedition's economy self-contained.

Permanent Rift Shards

Successful expeditions can award permanent:

Rift Shards

Rift Shards persist between runs and can be invested into the new Rift Archive.

Unlike temporary Relics, these upgrades provide controlled long-term progression.

Rift Archive

The Archive currently contains 5 permanent upgrades.

They are deliberately moderate.

The goal is to provide a feeling of progression without turning Rift Expeditions into an endless permanent-stat escalation system.

Long-term Rift progression tracks:

• completed depths
• Rift Shards
• Boss victories
• discovered Rift Relics
• expedition history
• Archive upgrades

Five Rift Bosses

Five dedicated bosses wait inside the Fractured Paths.

These encounters reuse the existing Knights of Crystalis combat framework while combining it with Rift-specific conditions and modifiers.

Higher-depth bosses are intended to test not only your normal party build, but also the temporary build you assembled during the expedition.

Completing Depth 20 for the first time also awards a special unique reward.

New Achievements

The Crystalis Chronicle has been expanded with 12 new Rift Achievements.

They cover milestones such as:

• starting Rift Expeditions
• clearing different Depths
• collecting Rift Shards
• discovering Rift Relics
• defeating Rift bosses
• progressing through the Rift Archive
• completing high-level expeditions

The total Achievement catalog now contains 410 definitions.

News & Player's Guide

The Fractured Paths are fully integrated into the game's supporting systems.

Version 1.19.0 includes:

• a new News Board entry
• four new Player's Guide sections
• Rift progression explanations
• Relic and Mutation explanations
• Rift Archive documentation
• updated release diagnostics