For an early access game,Hyper Light Breakerstill includes quite a bit of lore. Like its predecessor,Hyper Light Drifter,its story is delivered without any text or real explanation. Instead, players must discover what happened to the world through lore fragments picked up while exploring the Overgrowth, which reveal the past of the two Crowns, Exus and Dro.
Like inDrifter,Breakerincludes stone monoliths scattered around the map that the player can interact with. They award lore bits, which are delivered in the form of manga-style comic panels that players can view in the Outpost. Using these panels, as well as any context and environmental clues that can be gleaned from the Overgrowth and Outpost itself, players can learn what happened to the people of this world andwho the Abbyss King is.
Where To Find Phantom Fragments
Drifter Players Will Recognize The Stone Tablets
If you have playedHyper Light Drifter,you’ll be familiar with the stone tablets that hide throughout the game. While they don’t give keys to secret areas like they did inDrifter,they do give you three Phantom Fragments every time you interact with one.These Phantom Fragments don’t do anything right away, but after you collect more, they can be used to unlock lore by interacting with a certain vendor.
Only one person has to interact with the monolith in order for the whole group to get the Phantom Fragments when you’replayingHyper Light Breakerco-op, so save some time and have your group split up to search.
These memory monoliths can befound in random places in the Overgrowth, and since maps are procedurally generated each time you do a run, there’s no guarantee that you’re going to find any. They show upnearby to other, smaller structures, and you won’t usually find them sitting in the middle of nowhere on their own. In my experience, they also don’t really spawn in near encounters like gear pickups or Prism minibosses, so you’re better off doing a bit of exploring between picking up gear.
Once yougrab the Phantom Fragments by interacting with the monolith, continue your run as normal. Unlike the gear you pick up, yourPhantom Fragments are under no threat, even if you fail to extract. Either way, you may’t do anything else with them until you return to the Outpost.
How To Unlock Exus And Dro’s Stories
Talk To Pherus Bit To Learn More About The Crowns
Once you extract (or die) and head back to the Outpost,talk to Pherus Bitby the entry teleporter. One of her menus will allow you to use the Phantom Fragments you’ve earned, along with 50 Bright Blood, to reveal a memory of either Exus or Dro.You don’t get to pick which memory you unlock, so you might not be able to see a whole memory on your first run.
Hyper Light Breakeris actually a distantprequel toHyper Light Drifter,set an undetermined amount of time before Heart Machine’s original game.
You need six total Phantom Fragments to unlock each memory, and the memories are five-panel comics that show bits and pieces of each boss’s history. In these panels, players can learn more about how and why the world ofHyper Light Breakercame to be, and why the Breakers are so essential to its survival. While there’s no concrete lore revealed yet,it’s likely that the full release of the game will be quite the puzzle to unravel upon its release, and both Phantom Fragments and the players' powers of deduction will be necessary to understand it all.
Hyper Light Breaker
Hyper Light Breaker is the follow-up to developer Heart Machine’s 2016 isometric action-adventure game, Hyper Light Drifter. In this stand-alone sequel, players will embark on a journey through a land called the Overgrowth, where massive monsters roam the ruined cities reclaimed by time. Either alone or with friends, players will collect new gear and build their character to help them uncover the secrets of this forgotten land.
