History VideoGame / IntoTheBreach

* GuestStarPartyMember: Some missions have you commanding additional units along with your squad.

* AmbiguousSituation: The origins of the Vek are never revealed, leaving it ambiguous as to whether they're mutated Earth insects, InsectoidAliens, {{Ultraterrestrial}}s, or something else.

* ActionBomb:
** Blast Psions turn all other Vek into Action Bombs, exploding upon death.
** The Self-Destruct weapon kills the user and all Vek adjacent to them.

* AirborneMook: All Hornets and Psions have the ability to fly over terrain, meaning that they're unrestricted by terrain and are also immune to death from being pushed onto a water, lava, A.C.I.D. tile, or chasm.

* AIIsACrapshoot: Pinnacle Robotics is not only fighting the Vek, they're ''also'' fighting robots that have gone haywire all across the island. At least their holographic CEO has it all together.

** In a mission with a Time Pod landing, the player is warned that they should save it as soon as possible before the Vek get to it, but despite that, the Vek will never actually target it or move into the pod's space. It can only be destroyed by the player knocking an enemy into the tile or getting it hit by a weapon.

* AsteroidsMonster: One of the bosses you can face is a Large Goo that splits into smaller Goo monsters as you whittle it down.

* BigRedButton: The [[SelfDestructMechanism Self-Destruct weapon]] is represented in this way.

* BoringButPractical:
** Upgrading a mech's starting weapons often works just as well if not better than getting newer ones, as they are designed to synergize well with each other which gives them an advantage over a new weapon that might seem stronger at first glance.
** The Rift Walkers, the first squad you control, are armed with weapons that deal damage and push enemies around. Compared to other squads, they're straightforward, but in a game with telegraphed attacks and where positioning is essential, they're still a very effective team.
** Abe Isamu doesn't get any flashy abilities like most of the other special pilots, but having a single point of armor is enough to completely ignore most regular Vek attacks. It also includes the self-inflicted or friendly fire damage from certain weapons as well, making him particularly powerful in mechs that use those weapons.
* BondOneLiner: Pilots can comment on Vek kills this way.

* BreakOutTheMuseumPiece: Archive Inc. is all about this trope. Some of their missions have the player protecting "Old Earth" artillery or tanks, while others feature satellite launches and strafing runs by "Old Earth" bombers. The tanks and artillery are vulnerable and slow, but quite powerful. The Strafing runs are incredibly destructive as well.

* TheCameo: [[spoiler: You can recruit a Mantis, a Zoltan, and a Rockman from ''Videogame/FTLFasterThanLight'' as pilots, but you have to [[GuideDangIt find them]] first.]]
* ChainLightning: The Electric Whip (default on the Lightning Mech) deals 2 damage to a target, then deals two damage to units connected to that target.

* CastFromHitpoints: Ramming Engines (default on the Charge Mech), Hydraulic Legs (default on the Leap Mech), Unstable Cannon (default on the Unstable Mech), Vortex Fist, and Burning Mortar all do damage to the user.

* CloseRangeCombatant: Due to Prime-class weapons generally being melee attacks, Prime Mechs are usually in the thick of the action.
* CombatTentacles: The second part of the Volcanic Hive battle has an environmental hazard where tentacles come up from the ground and take the land and whatever else is on top of it.
* ContractualBossImmunity: All Leader Vek have the Massive trait, which makes them immune to being killed off via being pushed into water/A.C.I.D./lava, though it will interrupt their action for the turn. However, they can still be pushed, stunned, insta-killed by falling rocks or even frozen (though freezing them does not count as killing them for the objective).

* CrutchCharacter:
** Ralph Karlsson's special ability earns him extra experience with each kill, so he reaches max level much more quickly. However, this comes at the expense of other skills that remain useful even after max level.
** Isaac Jones' special ability lets you reset one additional time per battle. Because the game features perfect information, you should in theory be able to plan every turn out and never need to reset at all. The only instance when his ability comes in handy then is when the best possible play involves buildings resisting damage, which is the only thing the player can't know beforehand, in which case you get an extra chance.

* DifficultButAwesome: Silica is the most prominent example among the pilots. His special ability allows a mech to take two actions if it hasn't moved that turn, but requires two units of power, meaning that to really get him rolling you need to play well enough to acquire the cores necessary. However, once you have the needed power, his ability synergizes extremely well with attacks that also grant mobility, such as the charge mech's Ramming Engines or the upgraded version of the combat mech's Titan Fist. Or you can let him use an ability like Smoke Jump, leaping back and forth and nullifying Vek attacks left, right, and center.

* DynamicEntry: The pilot Gana can deploy anywhere on the map and damage adjacent enemies.

* EliteMooks: Each Vek has an alpha version that hits harder and has more health.

* FlunkyBoss: All boss fights have the usual stream of Vek incoming, but the Spider Leader takes it further by being able to spawn 2-3 spider eggs at a go.

* GlassCannon:
** Vek Leapers have the ability to jump over obstacles, web their target, and deal 3 damage, which is enough to one-shot any un-upgraded mech. This comes at the cost of having only 1 hitpoint.
** All Sentient Weapons have immensely powerful attacks, but they only have one hitpoint ([[ContractualBossImmunity except for the Bot Leader]]).
* GreenHillZone: Archive, Inc. is a museum island that recreates Earth as it was before the oceans rose. It's full of forests and grassland, and on your first run it's the first island you visit.

* HealThyself: All Mechs are able to spend a turn regenerating 1 HP, while also removing any debuffs.
* HelmetsAreHardlyHeroic: Notably, each of the unique pilots have a character portrait with no helmet, while your other starting pilots wear them.

* ImmuneToFire: The Flame Behemoths come with Flame Shielding to protect them from the fire that they liberally make use of, and other mechs can acquire it as well, though it's more situational in their case.
* ImprobablePilotingSkills: Each of the time travellers are able to greatly increase the proficiency of their Mechs just by hopping into them, with gains such as starting with a shield, being able to operate through webbing and smoke and having the ability to fly above the ground. The level up bonuses also improve Mech performance in improbable ways, with pilots being able to grant +2 health, +1 tile of movement or +1 reactor core to their Mechs.
* InASingleBound:
** Vek Leapers and Spiders move by jumping, letting them cross obstacles, but leaving them vulnerable to water and pits.
** Hydraulic Legs and Boosters let Mechs jump over obstacles.

* KingMook: Most of the bosses you face are beefed up versions of the normal Vek you face against. They usually deal much more damage, have more health, and often hit many tiles at once.

* LawOfChromaticSuperiority: Regular Vek are tan, Alpha Vek are purple, and Vek Leaders are pink.

* LifeDrain: Viscera Nanobots, a starting weapon on the Nano Mech, heals Mechs whenever they deal a killing blow.
* LightningLash: The Lightning Mech's Electric Whip, whose primary selling point is its Chain Lightning ability.

* MagikarpPower: Certain mechs and weapons:
** The [[KillItWithFire Flame Behemoths]] veer towards this. They start with very limited direct damage capabilities but, when fully upgraded, are a force to be reckoned with. They can set huge swaths of the map on fire, deal significant damage to several Vek at once, and teleport Vek onto fatal hazards from halfway across the map.
** The Secret Squad, made up of [[spoiler:unpiloted Vek-mech hybrids, lack the ability to have time travellers carry over into their runs, require one additional reactor point to equip any weapons other than their starting loadout, and apart from the Techno-Beetle's [[RammingAlwaysWorks Ramming Speed]] attack, are not much more powerful than any other squad. Their starting abilities ramp up quite quickly, however, and in return for not using any pilots, the XP of each Techno-Vek only drops by 25 XP when they're disabled, rather than losing everything, adding another layer of decision-making when it comes to whether or not it's worth sacrificing a mech.]]

* MechanicallyUnusualClass: The more powerful abilities of the AI and [[spoiler:[[SecretCharacter alien]]]] pilots tend to fall into this.
** The AI abilities offset this by having an additional reactor cost to activate them. These abilities including flight, additional movement or attacks each round, and the ability to place the pilot's mech anywhere on the map while also dealing damage.
** The secret characters are quite powerful, but one is unable to repair themselves, and another is a OneHitPointWonder. In return, [[spoiler:Kazaakpleth grants any mech a powerful, free melee attack that replaces the repair action, while Mafan, to make up for having only 1 HP, gains a shield that regenerates at the start of each round and a free reactor point.]]
** Finally, as your reward for unlocking all the squads and completing all the achievements, you can buy the Secret Squad: [[spoiler:three cybernetically tamed Vek. They can't support human pilots, have no unique abilities, and any weapon other than their starting weapon costs them one extra starting point, but the pilots the Mechs come equipped with only lose 25 XP as opposed to everything that pilot had learned. In addition, while their starting weapons are fairly weak, they become much more powerful with just a few upgrades.]]
* PurpleIsPowerful: The purple Alpha Vek are far more powerful than their standard counterparts.

** The Flame Behemoth mech squad starts with Flame Shielding, which renders them completely immune to fire. [[spoiler:Likewise, Rockman pilot Ariadne is immune to fire, the same as her ''FTL'' counterparts.]]

** Camila Vera ignores smoke and shrugs off Vek webbing, and as such cannot be pinned down.

* PaletteSwap:
** Every squad uses a color palette that can be applied to any other Mech.
** Alpha Vek are palette swaps of regular Vek except with their tans and blues replaced with [[PurpleIsPowerful purples]] and greens. Boss Vek replace the purples and greens of Alpha Vek with [[RealMenWearPink pink]] and yellow.
** Each [[StatusBuff Vek Psion]] uses a different color: green for Soldier (extra health), purple for Shell ([[DamageReduction armor]]), red for Blood ([[GradualRegeneration regeneration]]), orange for Blast ([[ActionBomb explosive deaths]]), pink for Psion Abomination (AllYourPowersCombined), and gold for Psion Tyrant ([[HerdHittingAttack 1 damage to every Mech]]).

* SaveBothWorlds: [[spoiler: When you win a game, all surviving mech pilots will open a breach and head to other timelines to save, with the dialogue implying each one is heading to a different timeline, with the implication that this cycle will keep going until the pilots finally die.]]

* SecretCharacter:
** There are three unusual pilots who [[GuideDangIt can't be unlocked by normal means]], hinted at by the presence of the achievement [[spoiler:"Distant Friends", as they're each [[TheCameo a member of a different species]] from ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight''.]] It's entirely possible to stumble onto them by accident, and just as likely to unlock all the other pilots before you unlock even one, although [[spoiler:once you realize you can find their beacons shining through mountains and visible through ice, finding them becomes relatively straightforward. They are, respectively, Kazaakpleth the Mantis, Ariadne the Rockman, and Mafan the Zoltan.]]
** The Secret Squad can be purchased once you've unlocked all other squads and completed all the achievements: [[spoiler:three Vek, a beetle, a hornet, and a scarab, cybernetically augmented and controlled, with no need for pilots, which can be upgraded from basic Vek to the equivalent of the leader Vek you face on each island.]]
* SeparatedAtBirth: Played with in a tragic way: Bethany and Isaac Jones are twins, but in every timeline, one of the twins dies in childbirth, so only Bethany or Isaac survive. The only way for the twins to meet is for one to travel to a timeline in which the other survived.

* ShieldBash: The Aegis Mech wields a Spartan Shield, which it can use to smack enemies and disorient them.

* ShockAndAwe:
** The Blitzkrieg squad harnesses the power of lightning to damage multiple enemies at once.
** The Rusting Hulks squad electrify smoke clouds so that they deal damage to enemies inside the clouds.

* SpiderTank: Ranged Mechs, as well as the Pulse and Gravity Mechs, are all 4-legged walkers.

* SuperDrowningSkills: Most land-based Vek are killed instantly if they get pushed into water. The only ones that won't drown are the leaders/bosses, but even they will have their attacks canceled if moved into water.
* TankGoodness: Some of your building-sized Brute Mechs are just giant tanks, with equally giant cannons to go with it. Some missions also give you smaller tanks that you can use in addition to your forces and you can even unlock the ability to launch mini tanks as support units off of some mechs.

* UndergroundMonkey: Alpha Vek are regular Vek, but with extra damage and health.

* UtilityPartyMember: Science-Class Mechs predominantly fill this role. Their weapons are unable to damage enemies, but they usually compensate with adeptness in another area, such as flight, or a passive effect that aids the squad's strategy.

* ChekhovsGun: In the Tidal Waves mission briefing, Dewey will mention that a volcanic island offshore is causing the flooding. That volcanic island is the Vek hive.

* BugWar: It's you against the bug-like Vek.
* ButtMonkey: The Hook Mech can only kill enemies in the uncommon situation where it can pull an enemy into a hazard and isn't better off doing something else, so its pilot is very unlikely to earn promotions in a playthrough. Which by itself just makes it a standard support unit. What makes it a ButtMonkey is the fact that its main job is to pull enemies into position to create a nice long chain for the Lightning Mech to zap. In doing so the Hook Mech has to itself become part of the chain and take damage, which is only partially mitigated by its armor. Thus, the Hook pilot is relegated to the unenviable role of moving things around for the Lightning pilot, getting bullied by the Lightning pilot, and watching as the Lightning pilot gets all the credit, all the glory, and all the promotions for killing the Vek.

* ChainLightning: The Electric Whip (default on the Lightning Mech) deals 2 damage to a target, and every unit adjacent to that target.
* CantTakeAnythingWithYou: After beating or losing against the Vek, you can only take one pilot to the next timeline.

* CriticalExistenceFailure: The Soldier Psion Vek grants all other Vek an extra hit point. When it is killed, they all lose a hit point. If one of the other Vek has only one HP left when the Soldier Psion is killed, they will suddenly die without anyone touching them.

* DegradedBoss: During the Final Battle, one Leader Vek appears in the second phase of the mission. If you're on hard, another Leader Vek appears in the first phase.

* DroneDeployer: There are a series of weapons that deploy smaller tanks that can apply status effects or push enemies, give shields to allies, and more.
* DynamicDifficulty: You can play the islands in any order, and they get progressively more difficult as you go. This only changes the Vek though, and the complex weather effects of the islands other than Archive Inc. are still present regardless of what order they're played in.

* EarlyGameHell: The Secret Squad have one of the toughest starts of any squad, having only one Mech at 3 health rather than two, no weapons that deal more than one damage, or hit more than one target, and [[spoiler: the inability to use any pilots you carried over from a previous timeline.]]

* EasyModeMockery:
** Playing on Easy cuts your score in half. Additionally, one achievement can only be unlocked by completing a run on Hard.
** Beacons to recruit a secret pilot almost never appear on Easy and are still rare on Normal, but pop up quite frequently on Hard.
* EliteMooks: There are alpha versions of enemies that hit harder and can sometimes hit more spaces.
* EnergyWeapon: The Laser Mech, naturally, equipped with the map-crossing Burst Beam by default.

* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: Your runs are justified as being the various timelines the ace pilots go through. Carrying over a pilot into the next run and acquiring new pilots during them are justified by being the result of them jumping into a new timeline.
* GameplayAndStorySegregation: Frozen Vek don't count as being killed. However, this means that having frozen Vek on the map will trigger Vek fleeing lines on a victory, despite the Vek being unable to flee.
* GeoEffects: Plenty. You can shoot dams to create rivers, desert maps contain sand tiles that can generate smoke which hampers your mechs, and various terrain events like sinkholes and volcanic activity that you need to dodge if you want to keep your mechs.
* GenreDeconstruction: To {{Mecha}} and {{Kaiju}}, especially on collateral damages. The main objectives of the game involve trying to avoid damage to buildings (residential blocks and power plants), not only for a sense of morality but also to make sure to have electricity running as any damages to buildings will reduce the grid infrastructure that runs your Mechs.

* GreenHillZone: Archive, Inc. has a museum island that recreates Earth as it was before the oceans rose. It's full of forests and grassland, and on your first run it's the first island you visit.
* GrewBeyondTheirProgramming: One of the pilots, Prospero, was a former gardening robot who now takes pride in harvesting Vek. The other robot pilots do not qualify for this, because they were either explicitly re-programmed for combat capability (Gana and Silica) or advanced enough to not have limited programming (Archimedes).

* HealThyself: All Mechs are able to spend an turn regenerating 1 HP, while also removing any debuffs.

* HesDeadJim: When a mech is disabled, the CEO or surviving pilots typically react like that mech's pilot is instantly dead. Not always the case -- Medical Supplies and having the mech be repaired before the mission is over will save the pilot's life.

* AnIcePerson: The Frozen Titans squad uses cryo weapons to freeze the enemies in their tracks.

* InTheFutureHumansWillBeOneRace: Implied. Several of the human ace pilots are ethnically ambiguous, and while the randomized generic pilots' faces are [[HelmetsAreHardlyHeroic hidden behind their helmets]], the latter often have {{Multiethnic Name}}s, suggesting that humanity's remnants have become culturally blended.
* ItsAWonderfulFailure: Losing the game immediately makes a massive number of Vek spawn from the ground, a Corporate CEO or pilot realizing that the end of the world is imminent and that there's nothing more that can be done, and your surviving pilots (if any) fleeing the mechs while lamenting over their loss. And since the time travel rules of this universe work on many multiple timelines, that one is completely done for. Hope that you don't fail next time!

* LanguageBarrier: The secret characters, [[spoiler:being aliens]], each speak a different language. Other pilots ''will'' comment on this, mostly in disbelief, if you send one of them back in time after completing a run. [[spoiler:Presumably they left the UniversalTranslator back in ''FTL''. The Secret Squad, meanwhile, don't speak at all, since mech hybrids or no, they're still Vek.]]

* LifeDrain: Viscera Nanobots, a starting weapon on the Nano Mech, heal Mechs whenever they deal a killing blow.
* LightningLash: The Lightning Mech's Electric Whip, whose primary selling point is it's Chain Lightning ability.

** The secret characters are quite powerful, but in two cases, unable to repair themselves, one of them being a OneHitPointWonder. In return, [[spoiler:Kazaakpleth grants any mech a powerful, free melee attack which cannot be upgraded, while Mafan, to make up for having only 1 HP, gains a shield that regenerates at the start of each round and a free reactor point.]]
** Finally, as your reward for unlocking all the squads and completing all the achievements, you can buy the Secret Squad: [[spoiler:three cybernetically tamed Vek. They can't support pilots, have no unique abilities, and any weapon other than their starting weapon costs them one extra starting point, but they do still gain experience ,upon being disabled, they only lose 25 XP as opposed to everything that pilot had learned. In addition, while their starting weapons are fairly weak, they become much more powerful with just a few upgrades.]]

* MechVsBeast: Using mechs to fight the titanic Vek aliens.
* MultiethnicName: Common for the randomly generated generic pilots. There's also ace pilot Henry Kwan, although his ethnic background is not discussed; it's fairly common even today for Chinese citizens to choose English names, not to mention later-generation immigrant families.

** The Stabilizers upgrade will also allow mechs to completely ignore the damage from surfacing Vek.

* ObviouslyNotFine: The Flame Behemoths have an achievement to have 5 enemy Vek on fire at once. As a nod to the trope, the achievement is even called "This is fine".
* OneHitPointWonder:
** Most grid buildings and non-spawning Vek, as well as the various drone tanks assigned to you as special objectives, or which can be obtained as special weapons.
** Spiderlings, rogue robots, explosive blobs, boulders, and the last dregs of the goo boss as well.
** [[spoiler:Mafan the Zoltan]], one of the {{Secret Character}}s, reduces the HP of any mech they're piloting to 1, which cannot be increased in any way, but [[spoiler:also gains a reusable shield at the start of each round, which lets them ignore environmental effects like being set on fire or A.C.I.D. -- plus they start with a free reactor point.]]

* PlayingWithFire: The Flame Behemoth squad uses flame weapons to burn their enemies to ashes.

* RobotWar: Zig-Zagged. Pinnacle Robotics levels have you fighting both Vek and berserk A.I. weapons. However, it's implied that the island is mostly inhabited by non-hostile A.I., and the enemy robots are just as likely to target the Vek as they are your units.

* SaveBothWorlds: UpToEleven. [[spoiler: When you win a game, all surviving mech pilots will open a breach and head to other timelines to save, with the dialogue implying each one is heading to a different timeline, with the implication that this cycle will keep going until the pilots finally die.]]

* SecretCharacter: Three hidden pilots, and a secret squad:
** Three unusually powerful characters who [[GuideDangIt can't be unlocked by normal means]], hinted at by the presence of the achievement [[spoiler:"Distant Friends", as they're each [[TheCameo a member of a different species]] from ''VideoGame/{{FTL}}''.]] It's entirely possible to stumble onto them by accident, and just as likely to unlock all the other pilots before you unlock even one, although [[spoiler:once you realize you can find their beacons shining through mountains and visible through ice, finding them becomes relatively straightforward. They are, respectively, Kazaakpleth the Mantis, Ariadne the Rockman, and Mafan the Zoltan.]]

* SingleUseShield: Both energy shields and freezing work this way - one hit, regardless of power, will harmlessly dissipate the shield/shatter the ice and free the unit within, respectively.

* SuicideAttack: The Self Destruct weapon instantly disables the mech using it, as well as [[OneHitKill instantly gibbing any nearby vek.]]This synergizes nicely with Viscera Nanobots, as the heal applies AFTER the self damage, turning a mech into a near invincible one hit kill monster.

* TimeTravel: The ace pilots are constantly jumping to new timelines and try to save each one.
* {{Ultraterrestrials}}: Possibly. [[WordOfGod Chris Avellone]] notes that neither Ralph nor the AI characters ever refer to the Vek as alien, and they’re known to possess timeline information the other characters don’t have.
* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: The Volcanic Hive is the final level of a run, and can be accessed anytime after two islands have been saved.

* UtilityPartyMember: Science Class Mechs predominantly fill this role. Their weapons are unable to damage enemies, but they usually compensate with adeptness in another area, such as flight, or a passive effect that aids the squad's strategy.

* AcePilot: Each starting pilot (called "Time Travelers") comes with a unique special ability and you can recruit additional special pilots through recovering Time Pods or having a perfect run on an island. Once you unlock a time traveller, you can choose them instead as a starting pilot. All pilots will level up to upgrade the mech they pilot with extra power, movement or health. Both Normal and Time Traveling pilots can gain two of these skills, meaning time travelers will end up with three abilities to a regular pilots two.

* CantTakeAnythingWithYou: After beating the Vek, you can only take one pilot to the next timeline.

* CloseRangeCombatant: Prime Mechs are usually in the thick of the action.

** The Boulder Mech as part of the Blitzkrieg squad is one of the best mechs in the game despite literally just throwing rocks; rocks have the benefit of being able to block Vek from surfacing, pushing allies and enemies to score environmental kills, and being able to block most attacks in the game, and can be upgraded to do a decent amount of damage as well.

* TheCameo: [[spoiler: You can recruit [[Videogame/FTLFasterThanLight a Mantis, a Zoltan, and a Rockman]] as pilots, but you have to [[GuideDangIt find them]] first.]]

* AllThereInTheManual: There’s a tremendous amount of game lore in character comments you might never see, and Chris Avellone has also shared some tidbits and personal interpretations in interviews - for instance, none of the characters are entirely certain about the mechanics of time travel, and Isaac and Archimedes have different opinions on it.

* StandardStatusEffects: Burn does damage every turn; ice prevents a unit from moving or attacking, but will also nullify one hit, shattering in the process; and A.C.I.D. doubles all damage they take directly from mech weapons or Vek attacks.

* ArmoredCoffins: If a mech without the Medical Supplies passive ability loses all its health, the pilot will be killed.

* AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler:The entire game is fought across an infinite number of timelines. When the game ends, win or lose, the heroes go their separate ways to try and save other timelines, allowing you to carry one pilot over to the next timeline.]]

** You have perfect information in advance which enemies will attack and in what order, making it easy to disrupt their attacks or manipulate them into friendly fire.

** Many achievements are shout-outs in and of themselves. They include "[[VideoGame/MortalKombat Get Over Here]]", "[[Film/BladeRunner Glittering C-Beams]]", "[[VideoGame/MassEffect Hold the Line]]", "[[Film/LethalWeapon I'm getting too old for this...]]", and "[[Webcomic/{{Gunshow}} This is Fine]]".

** The challenge run objectives only require surviving a number of islands (usually three), meaning players who don't survive the final mission still get the achievement.

* ActionBomb: Blast Psions turn all other Vek into Action Bombs, exploding upon death. There is also a mech weapon that allows for this.

* ArmyOfTheAges: You command a squad of time traveling pilots who breach between timelines to stop the alien invasion, over and over.

* BigRedButton: The [[SelfDestructMechanism Self-Destruct weapon}} is represented in this way.

** Abe Isamu. He doesn't get any flashy abilities like most of the other special pilots, but having a single point of armor is enough to completely ignore many attacks. It includes the self-inflicted or friendly fire damage from certain weapons as well, making him particularly powerful in certain squads.
* BondOneLiner: Pilots can comment on Vek kills this way. Examples:

* Vek Leapers have the ability to jump over obstacles, web their target, and deal 3 damage, which is enough to one-shot any un-upgraded mech. This comes at the cost of having only 1 hitpoint.
* All Sentient Weapons have immensely powerful attacks, but they only have one hitpoint ([[ContractualBossImmunity except for the Bot Leader]]).

* HelmetsAreHardlyHeroic: Notably, each "ace" has a character portrait with no helmet, while your other starting pilots wear them.
* HeroInsurance: The gameplay intentionally subverts this as almost the entire goal of the game is to prevent the destruction of various buildings. You often get rewarded for protecting specific buildings and allowing too many buildings to get destroyed will lose the game. You don't even have to kill any of the Vek to win a battle, just last long enough and prevent them from destroying building, meaning it's often worthwhile to let your Mechs soak up hits to keep the buildings from being damaged.
* HesDeadJim: When a mech is disabled, the CEO or surviving pilots typically react like that mech's pilot is instantly dead. Not always the case -- Medical Supplies and Repair Drop will save the pilot's life.

* ItsAWonderfulFailure: Losing the game immediately makes a massive number of Vek spawn from the ground, a Corporate CEO realizing that the end of the world is imminent and that there's nothing more that can be done, and your surviving pilots (if any) fleeing the mechs while lamenting over their loss. And since the time travel rules of this universe work on many multiple timelines, that one is completely done for. Hope that you don't fail next time!
* KillSteal: Averted. Your pilots still receive EXP for enemies killed by environmental effects, friendly fire or NPC allies, meaning you aren't penalised for taking advantage of them instead of killing enemies yourself.

* LifeDrain: Viscera Nanobots (default on the Nano Mech) heal Mechs whenever they deal a killing blow.
* LimitedLoadout: Each mech can only hold one pilot and equip two weapons or passives, and their effectiveness is further limited by the mech's reactor power.
* {{Macrogame}}: Once a run concludes in success or failure, you can pick one pilot among the survivors to follow into their next timeline.

** [[spoiler:The Secret Squad, made up of unpiloted Vek-mech hybrids, lack the ability to have time travellers carry over into their runs, require one additional reactor point to equip any weapons other than their starting loadout, and apart from the Techno-Beetle's [[RammingAlwaysWorks Ramming Speed]] attack, are not much more powerful than any other squad. Their starting abilities ramp up quite quickly, however, and in return for not using any pilots, the XP of each Techno-Vek only drops by 25 XP when they're disabled, rather than losing everything, adding another layer of decision-making when it comes to whether or not it's worth sacrificing a mech.]]

* NoEndorHolocaust: SubvertedTrope. After a mission in which a lot of civilian lives are lost, Singh will say: "I've seen the casualty reports and am contacting the surviving families personally." The implication is that there are few enough survivors that it is feasible for him to contact them one by one...

** Shields will negate any incoming damage before shutting down, as will being frozen. The Flame Behemoth mech squad starts with Flame Shielding, which renders them completely immune to fire. [[spoiler:Likewise, Rockman pilot Ariadne is immune to fire, the same as her 'FTL'' counterparts.]] The Stabilizers upgrade will also allow mechs to completely ignore the damage from surfacing Vek.

** Given that [[spoiler:Mafan]] can only ever have 1 HP, this is a requirement for playing them, but [[spoiler:having that free shield at the start of each round actually makes the Zoltan uniquely durable if paired with a weapon that grants him another shield after attacking.]]

* OneHitPointWonder: Most grid buildings and non-spawning Vek, as well as the various drone tanks assigned to you as special objectives, or which can be obtained as special weapons.

** The Rusting Hulks squad electrify smoke clouds so they deal damage to enemies inside the clouds.

It is set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, where the world has been ravaged by catastrophic rises in the sea level. Things go FromBadToWorse when an army of titanic alien bugs known as the Vek suddenly invade the earth. With little hope of stopping the invasion, a group of ace mech pilots are sent into the past in order to stop the Vek invasion when it first began, before things became entirely hopeless. Failure is not an option. Every time the current timeline's fate is decided, at least one of your pilots will escape into another timeline to try again.

** The AI abilities offset this by having an additional reactor cost to activate them. These abilities including flight, additional movement or attacks each round, and the ability to place Gana's mech anywhere on the map while also dealing damage.

* AcePilot: Each starting pilot (called "Time Travelers") comes with a unique special ability and you can recruit additional special pilots through recovering Time Pods or having a perfect run on an island. [[spoiler: Once you unlock each, you can choose them instead as a starting pilot.]] All pilots will level up to upgrade the mech they pilot with extra power, movement or health. Both Normal and Time Traveling pilots can gain two of these skills, meaning time travelers will end up with three abilities to a regular pilots two.

** [[spoiler:The Secret Squad, made up of unpiloted Vek-mech hybrids, have no unique pilot abilities, require one additional reactor point to equip any weapons other than their starting loadout, and apart from the Techno-Beetle's [[RammingAlwaysWorks Ramming Speed]] attack, are not much more powerful than any other squad. Their starting abilities ramp up quite quickly, however, and in return for not using any pilots, the XP of each Techno-Vek only drops by 25 XP when they're disabled, rather than losing everything, adding another layer of decision-making when it comes to whether or not it's worth sacrificing a mech.]]