Indie Smash Axiom Verge Gets First Free DLC After Almost 6 Years

Axiom Verge, the 2D explorer that took the indie scene by storm back in 2015 has had its first bit of downloadable content is now in Beta for the PC versions of the game, and it’s free! We might be waiting for the follow-up but this new mode seems to be an excuse to jump back in.

The “Randomizer” mode shuffles the weapons you pick up through out the game, but in a really clever way. To explain how it works, we’ll turn to creator, Tom Happ’s post:

If the Randomizer just gave you any old weapon, you might be blocked from progressing any further. So it needs to know to give you a weapon that can handle that function. It doesn’t necessarily need to give you the Kilver per se. There are other weapons in the game that can go through barriers. And it doesn’t even necessarily need to give you the weapon in that same location. There are many places between the beginning of the game and this point where items can be picked up. You might get lucky and get the Kilver as your first weapon (it meets the requirement of being able to shoot, after all), or you may have to explore some of the nooks and crannies of the areas before this point that you might normally only explore later.

Source: http://www.axiomverge.com/blog/announcing-axiom-verges-first-ever-free-content-update-in-open-beta-now

This mode came about due to feedback from speedrunners. As such, three levels of difficulty have been programmed into the randomizer; Beginner, Advanced & Masochist. Beginner functions as the above description, by giving random weapons to progress. Advanced and Masochist modes play off the glitches found by certain speedrunners. It anticipates certain actions to skip through the game and provides weapons accordingly, meaning if you’re a speedrunner – you can still complete the game on a low % run through.

Once the kinks have been worked out, this Randomizer mode will be made available for console versions. Tom Happ also teases that it could be implemented on Axiom Verge 2. We’re just happy to wait for the full game.