History Characters / IntoTheBreach

* CasualDangerDialog: Her comments when dodging Vek webbing or smoke occasionally enter into this. She's all business when addressing her men, though.

* CrutchCharacter: Once you get a feel for the game, Isaac's second reset is significantly less useful than other characters' abilities, as you'll be making less mistakes.

* ProtectionMission: In addition to the usual types, R.S.T. has an Earth Mover, which will fill in a large BottomlessPit over the course of a mission, and a Terraformer, which is used to destroy the surviving greenery on R.S.T. as well as killing any surviving Vek.

* CripplingOverspecialization: You really need to be able to line up the Vek with each other. If you can't funnel them together, you're going to have some trouble dealing enough damage to take them down.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: While Vek usually can't be hit by their own attacks, a few units are able to doom themselves in other ways: Beetles and Gastropods can be lured or redirected into charging/grappling into water/A.C.I.D. tiles/chasms/lava which instantly kills them. Blobbers can be pushed near and subsequently blown up by their own explosive blobs. Diggers can be damaged by pushing them into their own rock walls. The Beetle Leader leaves a trail of fire which it can later end up standing on or being pushed into. Bouncers and and Moths are pushed backward while attacking, potentially bumping them into an obstacle or into a pitfall. The Blast Psion that turns all other Vek into {{Action Bomb}}s will often get damaged or killed by an exploding Vek, especially if someone shoves a fragile ally (such as a Leaper or Hornet) into it. Tumblebugs will spawn an Unstable Boulder that explodes all adjacent squares when hit, then attacking it, which blows itself up for minor damage.

* NoOntologicalInertia: Psion boosts disappear the moment the Psion dies. This can turn large numbers of Vek with only 1 HP left into a KeystoneArmy if they're being kept on life support by a Soldier Psion's health boost.

* MeaningfulName: ''Gana'' is a Sanskrit/Pali word meaning, per Wiki/TheOtherWiki, "flock, troop, multitude, number, tribe, series or class." In UsefulNotes/{{Hinduism}}, they are the attendants of Shiva. Their leader is Ganesha -- or, as he is also known, the "remover of obstacles." Very fitting, given Gana's construction background, and current work in... demolition.

Gana was initially a construction robot working at Archive before the Vek attacked. In order to get more manpower on the front lines, Gana was adapted for combat through the addition of combat routines to his databases, with the results clearly showing why he was the only construction robot modified. His mannerisms and thinking processes became an amalgamation of construction and warfare terms, treating mechanical components like soldiers to be disciplined and visa versa. Despite this, he still serves as a potent pilot, doing his best to protect humanity.

* BunnyEarsLawyer: Rants about how a failing mech is disobeying his orders, tells upgraded systems he'll put them in for promotion, and tells the Vek that interfering with his work is illegal. Still a very effective pilot.
* CompanionCube: Gana refers to all machines as if they're fellow soldiers, right down to their base components. He's not overly sentimental about their deaths, but he takes pride in their accomplishments.

* {{Malaproper}}: Gana talks about mech components as if they're flesh-and-blood soldiers: while repairing himself, he tells the remainder of his systems to let that be an example to them, or that the inefficient operations and components have been rounded up and executed, and so on.

After being damaged in an industrial accident, Prospero was repurposed from a recycler robot working at Detritus to a groundskeeper at Archive, its knowledge of chemistry enabling it to maintain natures preserves effectively. When the Vek attacked the region Prospero was in, Archive mobilised forces to the area... only to find Prospero managing its garden, using the corpses of the Vek it eradicated as fertiliser. Prospero now serves as a mech pilot, travelling to each timeline to purge the Vek infestation.

Somewhat unusually for an artificial intelligence, Prospero expresses an affection towards Archive, wishing to protect it each timeline, as well as a dislike of Detritus, with one of its final requests being to not bury it there.

* BunnyEarsLawyer: Like Gana, Prospero has a tendency to mix metaphors into its speech -- in its case, talking about everything in terms of gardening, refering to the deaths of Vek "nourishing the soil" and complaining that time pods ruin the microbiome where they land.

* DeadpanSnarker: Very deadpan, to the point where it could almost pass for non-snark. Except he keeps ''doing'' it.

* ExpospeakGag: Occasionally, when the situation overlaps with his very specific areas of botantical/ecological expertise, such as when a Vek is [[SuperDrowningSkills dropped into water]]:

* GrewBeyondTheirProgramming: Nobody told Prospero to fight the Vek -- it simply expanded its existing programming (protecting and nurturing its garden in Archive) to defending said garden from the attacking Vek. And then turned out to be ''very'' good at it.

Before the Vek arrived, Chen was a high level manager at Detritus. When they showed up, he joined the pilot program out of a sense of responsibility, rather than out of glory or excitement. Chen's managerial background makes him one of the most professional and focused time travellers available.

* OfficerAndAGentleman: Conducts himself as both at all times. Even before he was a soldier, he was a loyal, diligent upper manager with Detritus.

->''"The Vek are conduction unauthorized mining in this archipelago. I am here to stop their efforts."''

Silica is the result of R.S.T. and Pinnacle collaboration to create an artificial intelligence specialising in terrain architecture. He was the first being in his original timeline to detect the Vek emerging, and was eventually tasked to study their hives. After he was almost destroyed by a Vek counterattack, Silica was modified to use terrain-based combat against the bugs, eventually jumping timelines to help other versions of the islands to defeat the Vek.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Silica's special ability requires you to put the majority of your cores into a single Mech, between powering his ability and powering his weapons, each of which is a core you can't use on another Mech. How worthwhile this is ultimately comes down to the RNG for that particular run.

* ExpospeakGag: He misinterprets the obvious in overly technical ways.

* MeaningfulName: Silica, otherwise known as sand (or at least a common component thereof). He's a terraforming AI.

The Zoltan are a species of wise, tactful, energy beings. Mafan is a member of the species who picked up a beacon from Earth and travelled there. It believes that the temporal loop caused by the war against the Vek to be a method of enlightenment, reliving and reflecting on the same events over and over again.

* ForceField: He can extend a force field around his mech, granting him a free shield at the start of each round.
* MechanicallyUnusualClass: Having only 1 HP, but gaining a free shield at the start of each round, means you have to play Mafan quite differently from any other character -- he can take any amount of damage, but only once per turn, which means you need to be on guard for any potential chain reactions.
* NoSell: Gains a free shield at the start of each turn. Since shields negate any amount of damage, this can make him remarkably durable, despite his lack of HP. He's also immune to fire and freezing while the shield is up, making him very strong in the Ice Mech (which normally freezes itself with its weapon).
* OneHitPointWonder: Reduces the HP of any mech he pilots to 1, regardless of what it was before.

An ex-disposal unit worker, Morgan is a scientist eager to study the Vek by observing them in combat and collecting samples of their corpses. He wears a gas mask over his face for unknown reasons, though he occasionally makes reference to an accident involving A.C.I.D.

* BadassBookworm: He's the most scientifically-minded of the pilots and seems more interested in studying the Vek than destroying them.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: While a competent scientist, he has some very odd quirks, such as riding the Detritus conveyor belts after-hours for fun.
* CoolMask: Is never seen out of his gas mask.
* KillStreak: His ability encourages this, as he deals 1 extra damage if he killed a Vek on the previous attack.
* NoodleIncident: He hates deep water to the point he expresses some sympathy to the Vek that you drown. Where this dislike comes from is not elaborated.

* CoolTrain: An old diesel locomotive. Well, Dewey thinks it's cool, alright? And he calls it [[ICallItVera Horace]].
** Played much straighter with the armored variant added in the Advanced Edition, which can easily tank hits from Vek, and smashes anything in its path instead of crumpling from a single impact.

* GenericDoomsdayVillain: Why are they here? What do they want? ...Who cares? More pressingly -- how do we kill them with minimal casualties?

* FlawlessVictory: Her pilot skill encourages you to go for these, at least when it comes specifically to Kai. She's permanently boosted when she's at the max health, but as soon as she gets even a single scratch the boost is gone and she is saddled with a movement penalty. Better not to put her into mechs with self-damaging weapons.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: While Vek usually can't be hit by their own attacks, a few units are able to doom themselves in other ways: Beetles and Gastropods can be lured or redirected into charging/grappling into water/A.C.I.D. tiles/chasms/lava which instantly kills them. Blobbers can be pushed near and subsequently blown up by their own explosive blobs. Diggers can be damaged by pushing them into their own rock walls. The Beetle Leader leaves a trail of fire which it can later end up standing on or being pushed into. Bouncers and and Moths are pushed backward while attacking, potentially bumping them into an obstacle or into a pitfall. The Blast Psion that turns all other Vek into {{Action Bomb}}s will often get damaged or killed by an exploding Vek, especially if someone shoves a fragile ally (such as a Leaper or Hornet) into it. Both

* OneHitKill: Goos attack by moving into an adjacent tile, instantly squishing and destroying anything in it.

* RequiredSecondaryPowers: Averted. Centipedes are not immune to the A.C.I.D. vomit they spew out, Beetle Leaders are not immune to their trails of fire, and Mosquitoes are not immune to the smoke they spawn.

** Advanced Edition adds Arachnid Psions that [[MookMaker cause dead Vek to leave Spiderling eggs behind]], Smoldering Psions that make other Vek immune to fire (and ignite the ground beneath them when they die), and Raging Psions that grant all other Vek a damage boost.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: While Vek usually can't be hit by their own attacks, a few units are able to doom themselves in other ways: Beetles and Alpha Beetles can be lured or redirected into charging into water/A.C.I.D. tiles/chasms/lava which instantly kills them, Blobbers can be pushed near and subsequently blown up by their own explosive blobs, Diggers can be damaged by pushing them into their own rock walls, the Beetle Leader leaves a trail of fire which it can later end up standing on or being pushed into, while the Blast Psion that turns all other Vek into {{Action Bomb}}s will often get damaged or killed by an exploding Vek, especially if someone shoves a fragile ally (such as a Leaper or Hornet) into it.

* DegradedBoss: During the Final Battle, one Leader Vek always appears in the second phase of the mission, with another appearing in the first phase on Hard. Both are optional targets and will be [[OneHitKill One-Hit Killed]] by the various hazards.

!!!In General

The Mantis are a race of space-faring warlike mantids, taking great pleasure in hunting down alien prey. Even among the vicious Mantis race, however, Kazaaakpleth is feared for his willingness to hunt his own kind. While he claims it's just for the bounty money, and for the greater good, he secretly covets the experience of killing his own kind. After a fight that ended poorly, he fled towards Earth, detecting a beacon from the corporate islands. When he landed, he found himself in paradise: a world teeming with hostile insects, alongside the tools to let him slaughter them. He's happy to help humanity deal with their Vek problem, though he would take the opportunity to leave Earth if he could.

* MadeOfIron: Made of living rock, actually, but the result's the same. She grants +3 HP to any mech she pilots, on top of any piloting or mech reactor boosts. This means she can max out at 10 HP with the right mech (11 with the Networked Armor passive) , in a game where most units start with 2 or 3 HP.

* SiliconBasedLife: Rockmen, being primarily made up of stone.

* PowerGlows: Has a unique green shield bubble, as opposed to the transparent blue shield of most other characters.

->''"Vek is engaged in unauthorized diving operations."''

* GuideDangIt: To unlock them, you must [[spoiler:find one of their beacons, usually buried underneath a mountain or visibly glowing under a patch of ice. The following turn, an escape pod will fall -- just like a time pod, you much protect that pod until the end of the level. And if you uncover the beacon but don't pick it up, it doesn't count.]]

* GuideDangIt: To unlock them, you must [[spoiler:find one of their beacons, usually buried underneath a mountain or visibly glowing under a patch of ice. The following turn, an escape pod will fall -- just like a time pod, you much protect that pod until the end of the level. And if you uncover the beacon but don't pick it up, or pick it up just before ending the level so that the pod doesn't have time to fall, it doesn't count.]]

** Basic Hornets have 2 HP and deal 1 damage, but have a move speed of 5 and can fly over terrain.
** Basic Leapers combine this with GlassCannon. They have only [[OneHitPointWonder 1 HP]], but their hop is basically the equivalent of the Flying trait while they're moving, allowing them to ignore blocking terrain or units. They also hit for 3 damage in a game where no mech's base HP is higher than 3.

* GlassCannon: Leapers combine this with FragileSpeedster. The basic variants have only 1 HP but deal a huge 3 damage. Their Alpha variants deal a massive 5 damage, but their 3 HP is low compared to all other Alpha variant standards. Both variants have a large movement of 4 and can leap over terrain to reach targets.
* HiveMind: Implied by the Psions, floating telepathic creatures which provide passive bonuses to all Vek other than themselves.

** Fireflies, meanwhile, shoot in a straight line, which makes them fairly easy to block or push out of position, but they start with 3 health, which is enough that most mechs can't take them out in a single round in the early game; the Alpha Firefly also deals enough damage to one-shot any starting mech just for funsies. The Firefly Leader, meanwhile, attacks in two directions at once for significant damage.

* PaletteSwap: Alpha Vek are [[PurpleIsPowerful purple]]; Vek Leaders are [[PsychoPink pink]]; and the Volatile Vek found in some missions is a yellow Scorpion. A.C.I.D variants are green, and each flavor of Psion's nodules are a different color.

* RequiredSecondaryPowers: Averted. Centipedes are not immune to the A.C.I.D. vomit they spew out, and Beetle Leaders are not immune to their trails of fire.

* ZergRush: Zigzagged on higher difficulties. While Vek wil. still stumble into mines, they're smart enough to avoid placing themselves in clusters or lines if they can avoid it. Ranged units will stay near the bottom of the map when they can help it, with melee units blocking chokepoints even if it means not attacking. They're still unable to prevent themselves from attacking each other if moved out of position, but the positions they do take up will make that more difficult than it might otherwise be.

* 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.

* ACommanderIsYou: Another Generalist Faction to cap things off. All three units can both damage and push enemies, and Techno-Hornet and Techno-Scarab can be upgraded to hit multiple squares for heavy damage. They don't have quite as much staying power as the Rift Walkers, but deal more damage when upgraded.
%%** Can quickly whittle down enemies through combined attacks, and deal heavy damage to multiple squares when upgraded completely.

* ACommanderIsYou: A Technical Faction, offering little in the way of an overarching gameplan and more a series of versatile weapons that require synergy to come together outside their specific niches. For instance, Bombling Mechs Walking Bombs deal low damage and can cause a lot of collateral harm on tighter maps, but they are also instrumental in allowing Pierce Mech to apply its cannon on open maps and allows you to tailor Exchange Mech’s teleports to go where you want them.

* ACommanderIsYou: A Technical/Gimmick Faction, that relies on precise positioning to spawn arachnoids as frequently as possible to make up for the squad's otherwise poor damage output.

* MagikarpPower: The Heat Sinkers’ weapons become extremely powerful once fully upgraded, covering huge areas in fire and hitting multiple targets with boosted AoE. The problem is getting to that point first with the squads lackluster base range and damage values.

'''Mechs:''' [[HumongousMecha Pitcher Mech]] (Prime), [[SpiderTank Triptych Mech]] (Brute), [[HoverTank Drill]] [[DrillTank Mech]] (Science)

* ContractualBossImmunity: All grounded Leaders have the "Massive" ability, which prevents them from drowning in water or A.C.I.D. tiles... though not from [[DisneyVillainDeath falling into bottomless pits]].

* FragileSpeedster: Flying mechs have much greater maneuverability even when they don't have higher speed, but only out of all of them, Drill Mech has more than 2 starting HP.

* JackOfAllStats: Prime Mechs are generally designed to perform best at close range -- the more targets the better. They have a good mix of damage, durability, movement, and light control abilities.
** Straight-ahead projectile weapons can cross the whole map, only stopping when they hit something, but they actually work just as well up close.

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

** More specifically, Science-Class mechs. They are focused more on manipulating the positioning of units, such as shoving vek away from buildings or breaking your other mechs free from webbing, or providing passive effects and debuffs on vek.

* UtilityPartyMember: Science-Class Mechs 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.

* ContractualBossImmunity: All grounded Leaders have the "Massive" ability, which prevents them from drowning in water or A.C.I.D. tiles.

* FragileSpeedster: Flying mechs have much greater maneuverability even when they don't have higher speed, but none of them has more than 2 starting HP.

* ACommanderIsYou: A toolbox faction, offering little in the way of an overarching gameplan and more a series of versatile weapons that require synergy to come together outside their specific niches. For instance, Bombling Mechs Walking Bombs deal low damage and can cause a lot of collateral harm on tighter maps, but they are also instrumental in allowing Pierce Mech to apply its cannon on open maps and allows you to tailor Exchange Mech’s teleports to go where you want them.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/archive.jpg]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/20180302222529_1.jpg]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pinnacle.jpg]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/detritus.png]]