People Can Fly has fully lifted the lid on the first major expansion for its multiplayer looter-shooter Outriders, with Worldslayer bringing a whole new campaign, weapons, endgame to the game on June 30.
Worldslayer pits you and two teammates against the "most deadly Altered ever encountered, Erishkagal" in a new campaign intended for Level 30 players. On top of new story missions throwing you up against Erishkagal, Worldslayer will give you access to a whole new endgame set in the ruins of Tarya Gratar. Though People Can Fly didn't outline this new endgame, it confirmed it will be "entirely different from the Expeditions experience" that we've seen from Outriders so far.
Fortunately, for players who either fell off Outriders or are coming to it fresh with Worldslayer, a level 30 boost will be available to ensure you can get right into the Worldslayer campaign.
Entering the Worldslayer campaign will also give you access to two entirely new character progression systems. The first is known as the PAX Class Tree; as you play through Worldslayer, you'll earn PAX Points that can be used to augment your existing classes and give them access to new abilities. Square Enix likens it to adding a sub-class, helping you specialise even further or fill in some of the gaps in your previous build.
The second is Ascension Levels. This is meant to reward the hardcore players who put hundreds of hours into the game by effectively continuing the levelling process. As you do battle and earn Ascension points, you can put them into five abilities: brutality, endurance, prowess, and 'anomaly' to further tweak your character as you grind for those key weapons and equipment pieces you need.
One of the most significant overhauls is a complete gutting of Outriders' existing difficulty system. Expeditions' Challenge Tiers are being removed, regardless of if you own Worldslayer or not, and will be replaced with "Apocalypse Tiers". These will persist across the base game and any other content, not just expeditions, as a way to better bridge the game between the World Tiers and the endgame. The Apocalypse Tier you're on decides both the loot and amount of XP you can earn, and the difficulty of the enemies you face. People Can Fly has stated that going back to play the original game's missions will feel more like a "New Game+" kind of experience, because of this new scaling difficulty.
While all players will be moved to Apocalypse Tiers, those who don't own Worldslayer will only be able to progress to Tier 15 – equivalent to Challenge Tier 15. For Worldslayer owners, the cap is massively increased to Tier 40, at which point your Gear Level will be able to reach 75, a new high for the game.
Outriders: Worldslayer will launch on June 30, 2022. The base game will be bundled in with the expansion for new players, while existing players will be able to purchase a digital upgrade to Worldslayer instead.