Void Cascade Guide

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Void Cascade As A Fissure ​

DE has kindly doubled the drop chance of Reactant in Cascade fissures, which mostly deals with the issues found on release. The guidelines below will remain, just in case people find themselves in teams where things are not going smoothly, so they have an idea of what to do to solve it.

Tactic ​

4 Exolizers complete a round, and therefore crack a relic, but 4 Exolizers complete very quickly. The speed of Cascade's rounds, paired with the mission objective encouraging players to split up between attack/defence, means that players may find they haven't collected 10 Reactant in time and don't manage to crack many relics.

There are two approaches to a Cascade fissure:

  • Option 1: Play the mission "normally", with little focus on Reactant, and simply treat any cracked relics as a bonus.
  • Option 2: Engage in a higher level of teamwork and Exolizer manipulation, to maximise the frequency of cracked relics.

Option 2 ​

Ultimately, a Cascade fissure is about balancing the meter to create room for Reactant drops, rather than rushing through Exolizers as quickly as possible. The things that need to be considered are laid out below:

  • Your Dedicated Attacker & Defender should remain Thrax killers, but your Flexible Attacker & Defender need to take responsibility for trash killing and be equipped/prepared for high KPM. This is because trash killing takes a much higher priority, and must be quick and effective to maximise Reactant drops within curated time limits.
  • The Dedicated Attacker should be the main person keeping track of the number of Exolizers in a round, and the only person purging Exolizers. This is to make sure players don't accidentally simultaneously purge more Exolizers than intended. (If a currently defended Exolizer gets re-possessed then of course re-purge it)
  • As a general guideline, the 4th Exolizer of a round mustn't be purged until the team has collected at least 5 Reactant. Delaying the purge gives time for trash killing to take place, for Reactant to drop, and for Defenders to catch up with Attackers so the team is together in one room as much as possible.
  • Once everybody has 10 Reactant, leave enemies alone and/or CC them ready for the next round. This lets a crowd of corrupted enemies gather, which can then be immediately dispatched for a high number of Reactant drops as the next round begins.
  • The risk of delayed purging is reduced and meter management is assisted by killing trash enemies within the golden circles of purged Exolizers. This means that grouping/pulling abilities are more important and may influence loadout decisions. This also means absolutely no corridor warrior behaviour.
  • Once everybody has 10 Reactant, it helps if Attackers move themselves to the next room ASAP and "hold" trash spawns ready for the next round. It's easier for Defenders to grab Reactant that's dropped ahead of them, than for Attackers to back-track for Reactant that's dropped behind them.
  • Defenders need to stay aware of the Exolizers and extra Thrax spawns, so they can leave ASAP to catch up with Attackers. It's always safe to leave the last Exolizer once ⅛ of the white diamond remains, but experienced players will know when it's safe to leave sooner.

Role Responsibility ​

These guidelines mean that the mission plays very similarly to "normal" Cascade, it just has greater emphasis on role responsibility:

  • The Dedicated Attacker stays focused on keeping track of the number of Exolizers in a round, on the team's Reactant, when to purge or to delay, and killing Thrax.
  • The Flexible Attacker follows the Dedicated Attacker, but focuses on trash killing in the attack room to start generating Reactant drops while the Dedicated Attacker is purging Exolizers and killing Thrax.
  • The Flexible Defender focuses on trash killing to generate Reactant drops, and drawing enemies into Exolizer circles if needed, knowing that the Dedicated Defender will deal with any Thrax that spawn.
  • The Dedicated Defender will assist with trash killing whenever needed, but is free to focus on killing Thrax and securing Exolizers, knowing they can pick up Reactant generated by the Flex players.

Randomness ​

There are some random aspects to the mission that are out of players' control, and these are things you simply have to allow for and play around:

  • The Exolizer spawn rooms, and the corridors. A 4-4-4 tileset is perfect for a Cascade fissure, as each round and relic crack will take place within one room, and the team will find it easier to stick together. However, this tileset is very unlikely to occur. The distance between the A, B, and C rooms can be short thanks to good corridor luck, but sometimes there's a long run between them with bad corridor luck. Some corridor and room combinations absolutely fuck with enemy pathing so you can't get kills to get your Reactant within the time limit. You might just get a bad map and have a bad run.

  • The rate at which enemies get corrupted, and how much Reactant drops. Sometimes, the enemies are just slow to get corrupted, or Reactant just doesn't drop. You can do everything right and still get screwed over. It happens.