As you may be aware we've been working for quite a while almost entirely on the Beneath mode which has been little more than an ineffective menu button in the game for some time. Development has taken a long time as it's much larger than other parts of the game. Since we're now approaching the final stages of Beneath's development, we're going to start publishing these preview posts with some details on what you can expect in Beneath as well as development updates. There's a lot we don't want to spoil about later areas, character classes and enemies which is why we've been avoiding showing too much, but we'll show what we can over the coming weeks.

What is Beneath?

Beneath is what's usually referred to as a rogue-lite. It takes place in a number of different settings that are each made up of procedurally generated levels that will be different every time you play. Each of these areas will feature different varieties of enemies, weapons and power-ups. Typically you'll die before reaching an ending in Beneath, but each time you play you'll be gaining Energy that you can spend on permanent upgrades that will improve your chances on subsequent runs. There are multiple endings to Beneath with one ultimate ending that will require you to have completed all others on previous runs. One of the great things Beneath brings to Paint the Town Red is a lot more variety in the gameplay than what's available right now. Most of this will be available for use in the Level Editor and the remaining Arena challenges will feature lots of content from Beneath (which is why there haven't been more challenges yet). The Endless Arena mode will also feature enemies, weapons and powers from Beneath and will be released in an update after Beneath is available. We'll cover more of the Beneath content in greater detail in upcoming Beneath Preview posts, but below is some brief details on some of what to expect.

New Enemies

The most important aspect of Beneath is the array of new, distinct enemies. While there will be human enemies in certain areas of Beneath, the majority will be entirely new and have very different attacks and behaviors. Right now we have over a dozen enemy types which are all very different from one another, but in finding the right difficulty balance we might find we need to add more. The goal is to create complementary enemy types such that when they appear in different combinations will present unique, interesting and fun challenges for the player. Some enemies, like the Crystal Crab, use powerful ranged attacks. Others might avoid the players, building up a powerful attack and then charge and strike the player from close range.
The Bore Worm will hide and move underground where it can not be damaged before erupting before the player and unleashing powerful attacks. You'll need to find strategies for dealing with these enemies to progress through Beneath.

New Powers

In current Paint the Town Red scenarios besides weapons and punches you have a kick attack and 3 powers: Shockwave, Berserk and Smite. In Beneath each run you will pick from one of 6 classes that each have their own set of powers, an alternative to the kick attack and different base amounts of speed, health, and attack damage. The Brawler class will feel fairly familiar, with the same Kick attack you're used to and a focus on melee combat with powers like Stone Skin which makes you able to withstand attacks while taking minimal damage. Other classes will feel completely different like the Warlock which is far less effective at melee combat, but will shoot fireballs instead of kicking and has potent powers like Chaos which will turn enemies against each other for a time. Since different combinations of enemies can complement each other in dynamic ways, we wanted to give the players the same opportunity in Multiplayer. When playing Beneath cooperatively with friends, you'll find all new possibilities when you are using different character classes. Powers that might be fairly simple alone like the Brawler's Slow Time or the Spectre's Speed can be much more powerful when used together. Alone the Guardian's Restoration power allows a player to move and fight in an area while being healed, but when playing co-op it can be much more influential by restoring health to your whole party, saving friends who are near death.

New Weapons

Every new scenario in Paint the Town Red has introduced new weapons and the Beneath mode is no different. Many of the existing weapons will be available in Beneath along with around 30 new weapons. Part of the progression system in Beneath is unlocking the ability for some of the powerful weapons to appear in subsequent runs. Some of these will be fun upgraded versions of weapons you've seen before like a Baseball Bat with Nails or a Flaming Gladius.
Other weapons are completely new like the Crossbow which have their own upgraded versions like the Triple Crossbow.
We're working as fast as we can to get Beneath finished and ultimately Paint the Town Red to 1.0 and out of Early Access. With the amount of time we've put into Beneath so far though, it's important we don't rush things now and release it before it's as good as it can be. There's much about Beneath we don't want to spoil which has been one reason we haven't shown too much until now, but primarily with the huge amount of new content we've been working on there hasn't been much in a state of completion that's worth showing. Even now though almost all individual elements are finished to 90%, but it's the last 10% where things become visually complete and good enough to show. Spending over a year on such a huge feature during Early Access is not ideal for you or us and while we had a number of updates in 2017, we regret not being able to have more substantial game updates during that time. We have been working very long hours on Beneath throughout and look forward to getting this mode into the build and your hands. We'll continue to post Beneath information and progress updates in these Beneath Preview posts on Steam so watch and follow the game to get notified as they are released.