Everything you need to know about couch co-op twin stick shooter Circuit Breakers

Hello everyone! I’m Chris Cleveland from Excalibur Games, and the producer on Circuit Breakers – a fast-paced bullet hell which is inspired by games like Smash TV and Cave Story.

Circuit Breakers will be launching next week, Tuesday 25th July, and features four player local co-op on PlayStation 4. But you can also play online with friends via PlayStation 4’s Share Play feature.

Please do join me as I take a deep dive into some of Circuit Breakers’ more obscure features – the sort only a producer could know…

The updates and changes to the PS4 version

While Circuit Breakers has been available on PC for some time, we have been polishing the game further in preparation of its PS4 release. This includes some visual improvements and adjustments to the core game mechanics.

Some of the biggest changes include a revamped shield system and an overhaul to the weapon levelling mechanic. Being frugal with your Energium and using shields at the most opportune time will make your robotic rampage much more efficient.

Upgrading your gun

Destroying robots causes them to drop crystals called Energium, which level up your gun, making it drastically more powerful. Your weapon starts a little weak at level zero, but by level three it’ll be a powerful anti-mechanical menace.

However, your gun can also level down. Every shot you fire uses up the Energium you have collected, meaning that you should fire as sparingly as possible

The core balance change to this system was reducing the amount of Energium a single shot uses up.

This has made some of the more difficult characters like Tay (Laser) and Samson (Rocket Launcher), who predominantly used up more Energium per shot in the PC version, on par with the others in regards to maintaining a levelled-up weapon.

Using your shield

While Holding the L2 button, your shield will stay active at the cost of Energium. While the shield is up, you are completely invincible to any enemy attacks and you can move while doing so. If a large cluster of enemies has you cornered, hold the shield up and run through them to escape.

Using the shield drains Energium, so be mindful that you don’t run out of power while you’re caught up in a robot mosh pit. In the console versions of Circuit Breakers, you will be unable to fire your gun while shielded – something you could do in the PC version. However, to counteract this, the amount of Energium that the shield uses has been significantly reduced.

Tay, one of the most difficult characters to play as, uses a laser which requires enemies to stand in a line to make her gun as effective as possible. Using a shield, you can round up and lure enemies to set up some impressive shots.

Tapping the L2 button to flash the shield up allows for a few uses. The first is a force bump, which pushes nearby enemies away, to give you a bit of breathing room.

Flashing up the shield at the right time also allows you to deflect incoming projectiles, returning the damage to enemies.

How the challenges scales for four player co-op

The entire game can be played by yourself, but Circuit Breakers will scale the difficulty based on the number of players present. Maybe you’ll have a room with a hundred robots while playing alone, but face four hundred-plus robots in a room if you’re playing with friends.

Players can drop in and out at any time, with the game adapting on the fly.

Share Play

Unfortunately, we were unable to implement ingrained online multiplayer with Circuit Breakers.
But using PlayStation 4’s Share Play feature, you’re able to play online with a friend by going ahead as if you were playing in the same room.

It’s an awesome PlayStation 4 feature and can be used not only for Circuit Breakers, but also for many other games. Even if you don’t own the game, but someone else does, they can host it – with you either taking over their game or joining in with local co-op. Watch the video below for a quick 60 second guide to setting up Share Play for Circuit Breakers.

Modify the game to play how you want

Circuit Breakers’ Core system allows you to experiment with modifiers which increase and decrease the game’s difficulty in various creative ways. You start with zero Cores but unlock them while playing, by completing challenges.

Some of these Cores increase enemy health, cause them to spawn less Energium and increase the chances of elite combatants spawning. Other Cores can provide you with more health, make the floor slippery and automatically maintain your weapon at max power.

The other stuff that I haven’t mentioned!

Thank you to those of you who have stuck with this pretty lengthy blog post! There are several other elements of the game that I’ve not touched upon, such as the challenge board, the score attack mode with online leaderboards, the stats screen, and even the logbook of bios for each enemy type and playable character.

Let me know if you have any questions in the comments section, as I’ll be checking in regularly!

Circuit Breakers releases on PSN on Tuesday 25th July, with a launch week discount.

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