Cycle I: Hekaton Technologies | Hekaton Sighting, Hekaton Autopsy, Hekaton Life Study | Aeon Trespass: Odyssey (Patreon)

One of the things I appreciate about the technological development in Aeon Trespass: Odyssey (ATO) is the structure of development. There is a set beat to how and when you will gain technologies in a cycle; you can navigate those advances via a tech tree, said tech tree can be laid out in diagram and followed to get to the technologies you want. This style is consistent across all cycles and it makes initial plays of a cycle a thematic exploration, but replays are something that can be focused and optimised.

In the case of each Cycle's main primordials (The Hekaton and Labyrinthauros for Cycle I), we have the “Sighting”, the “Autopsy” and the “Live Study” each of which gives us gear with mechanical and narrative themes that mirror the battle gimmicks for the given Primordial. Equipment/Gear that provides mechanics similar to the boss it came from is not a new thing, it has been around pretty much since Dungeon Crawlers came into being, however gear constructed from parts of the bosses you slay really became a thing with Monster Hunter. ATO continues this trend and I think it was a wise decision to do so, seeing a powerful enemy perform moves primes the players to really enjoy the moments when they get to “do it themselves” and it also helps keep coherence between the boss and its associated gear tight.

The Hekaton gear line is one of two places where ATO first offers this experience (the Labyrinthauros can also offer it, but which one comes first depends on the player choice). I've chosen put the Hekaton ahead of the Labyrinthauros in this series because it is the tutorial monster and therefore players are already aware of some of its tricks, but also I am of the opinion that overall the Hekaton gear offerings have more to offer in Cycle I overall. That does not mean the Labyrinthauros gear is bad, it has some great stuff in there, but I do think that one should advance the Hekaton technology ahead of the Labyrinthauros tech when you have the choice most of the time, but I'll be more specific as to which one I think is strongeras we go through each of the cards, starting with the Hekaton Sighting.

Hekaton Sighting

Requirements: L2 Hekaton Battle, Advanced Trireme Weapons, Forced Kratos Reaction

Both of the two Cycle I sighting cards are a bit of a mixed bag, I tried these out and the truth is that in both cases I think there is one really good gear card that you'll use a lot through the cycle and the rest are situational at best. I'm going to try and bring up the positives for each piece of gear as much as possible, but, it is impossible to design a game where every single element of a game is as powerful as the other options, so not every card can be a winner. As for which of the two options you want to unlock first, it is going to very much depend on the Primordial you prefer fighting, there are really good support cards in both locations.

Impetus Breakers

(Limit: 2) - “Deadstop.”

Cost: 9x Monument, 7x Raw Ambrosia

The Impetus Breakers are the gear card that I will always craft the maximum amount in Cycle I, Knockback is not something specific to just the Hekaton and having access to this support gear card is incredibly useful in many battles. Against the Hekaton in specific, once the boundaries of the battle board fall off into the abyss, these help you keep your titans from going over the edge. This is something you should be trying to do with good positioning, but when you have the Breakers equipped your titan is able to go into positions which other titans would be risking instant death.

Outside of that specific use, they also allow the wielding titans to resist being knocked back into negative terrain like Columns, Ambrosia Pools and similar, which are all things you'll see a fair bit. You have limited support slots on your titans, so they need to really do their job well and it turns out reducing Knockback distance is a job opening that is important and the Breakers fulfil it superbly.

They also remain useful in Cycle II until you get superior options because there are instant death spots and terrain you do not want to get knocked back into during the battles of that cycle, though you will want to keep them unequipped for the fights against The Nietzschean due to the Flammable property that these have and The Nietzschean being literally a hot-headed man-child.

Primordial Lure

(Limit: 1) - “A perfect moment is all it takes”

Primordial Lure: 7x Monument, 4x Calcified Knuckle Bone, 1x Fear Essence

Note: Fear Essence comes from the Temenos battles, so this is a mid cycle gear card on an early cycle technology.

This is the first time we encounter a gear card with a limit to its number of uses in addition to it being set up as unique. This means at most we have access to manipulating the top Body Part (BP) card to the bottom of the deck twice in a battle. One would want to do this in earlier battles if you are reaching the point where you only need to deal one or two more wounds in order to secure a win, and your offensive capabilities are not enough to make you confident in breaking through a Level III BP card.

The inverse can also be true, if you have a very strong attacking Titan and they are lined up against a BP I you may want to push it to the bottom of the BP deck if you know (through mechanics and what is in the BP discard) that there are other potentially higher level BP cards below it. Of course that is more of a gamble than the previous version because we only know the level of the top card.

However, the honest truth is I don't find this gear card to be particularly strong, because we only know the back of the card and the punishment for hitting higher level BPs is not backbreaking (unlike the Hekaton's AI cards). As such this support gear tends to be third or fourth in priority for what I want on a titan. Because we have only a few slots to dedicate to support gear (2 most of the time) options like this which have limited charges and limited windows in which they do something are not very competitive when compared to the broad usefulness that the Breakers offer.

As a hypothetical consideration, if this card targeted AI cards instead of BP cards (or both decks) it would have been an incredible gear card because being able to push an AI card to the bottom of the deck can be a game changer, especially given that we get information not just about the level of the AI card on top, but also if it is the signature level III AI card. That does put forward a situational case where you can use BP wounding to trigger a shuffle and therefore push the undesirable AI card potentially lower in the deck (this is a strategy that is worth getting good at btw, sometimes there's a Level I AI card on top of the deck and you know there are Level III or signature AI cards elsewhere, one shouldn't attack and let the weak AI resolve instead).

So ultimately it is the gear card slot limitation that holds this card back, if we had more slots or even better a gear grid in ATO this would absolutely be up for discussion, but as it stands we want access to Reflex almost always, meaning that most titans have at best 1 support slot left and this isn't competing with more focused options. Slot limits are a problem we're going to run into a lot further down the line, they make a lot of gear cards hard to justify.

Analyticos Module

(Limit 2) - “It's over 9000...”

Cost: 5x Armament, 3x Muscle Cluster

This gear card is not just a fun reference to the Dragonball Z meme, it's also a reasonable option for supporting titans to utilise. Having access to a repeatable way of placing Break/Opening tokens is quite useful. However, the Argo Ability Arrow Barrage is (at lower danger) a superior option due to it not taking up a Titan slot, having three activations and providing 2 opening tokens always. So this otherwise solid helm is unfortunately squeezed by a competitor that is better in most situations.

That doesn't mean this card is useless however, having one copy of this on a titan can help break through BP III locations that may otherwise be unassailable, so there are places where you might want to use this. It is simply that the Arrow Barrage is doing the same thing that makes it easy to skip on using this as the Argo often has it covered more than enough to help keep titan momentum and tempo moving towards victory.

What it does is good, but slots once again push this to the margins, however one of these in addition to arrow barrage can put in some good work.

Safety Rope

(Limit: 2) - “Even the deepest chasm can be crossed”

Cost: 10x Trireme, 7x Raw Ambrosia

Lifeline: When you are about to die from falling into a chasm space, displace instead. Alternatively, when you are about to die from falling from a boundless board edge, stop adjacent to it. This ability can be used even if knocked down or otherwise prohibited from using active abilities.

Single shot cards can have a lot of difficulty in justifying their experience, in this case all that the Safety Harness does is save its wearer exactly once during a battle against a boundless foe like the higher level Hekatons or during battles against foes with chasm tiles.

I'm not someone who likes cards such as this, if you are in a place where this card saves you, then you already screwed up massively with your positioning. However, I can see players who are not as experienced in positional play (learn Blood Bowl if you want to get really good at positioning) or who have not yet learnt it is important and how to utilise good positional placement benefiting from this as a training tool.

The issue is once again slots, the Impetus Breakers are a superior choice due to providing the same effect a lot of the time while also being repeatable and applicable to a broader range of situations.

If the Safety Rope was something that attached to the Titan's card rather than a separate support gear option I think one would be able to justify constructing and using these. As it stands I think these are at best training-wheel tools and at worst a waste of resources.

Hekaton Autopsy

Requirements: Hekaton Level 3 Battle, Specialized Trireme Weapons, Fate Sink

This is the stage where there is no contest between the two Primordial Autopsies, we have the Earthshaker Titan printed here on the Hekarmory and that is one of the best titans in the entire first three cycles right there waiting for us. As such I firmly advocate that you push to hit all the prerequisites (Hekaton LVL 3 Battle, Specialised Trireme Weapons, Fate Sink) so you are ready to build this technology as soon as you possibly can, with the only reason to delay being if you do not have Hekaton cores and are not able to battle the Hekaton before the next Production Technology release.

Earthshaker Titan

Cost: 1x Dreamwalker Titan, 1x Hekaton Core

I've written about this Titan in the Cycle I titan review and I can't see my position on it ever changing, the Earthshaker is one of the best titans out there due to being completely unique. It can run a two-handed weapon and a one-handed weapon or three one-handed weapons. All of this is incredible and add that onto the flexibility to run three support items (going down to the normal two hands) means this Titan is something you want as soon as possible. It is way better than its counterpart the Mazerunner who really needs specific set ups to work well.

Knuckle Shield

(Limit: 2) - “How you really feel.”

Cost: 8x Trireme, 17x Monument, 7x Calcified Knuckle Bone

There are a quite a few interesting shields as you get further into Cycle I and the Knuckle Shield is absolutely one of them. While this shield isn't as defensively orientated as others, I have had success using this one on a support titan. The passive Red Power Dice for defense is the glue that helps keep this all together, because for normal blocking this one is twice as expensive as other options. The passive reduction of Knockbacks by 1 is also a really solid element that helps a great deal with tight positioning.

However, it is the BP Suppress ability in combination with a solid (1/+0/BR) attack profile that is most interesting. Suppress works as follows:

Suppress: Shuffle the discard pile denoted by the subtype into the appropriate deck.

BP Suppress: Shuffle the BP discard pile into the BP deck.

AI Suppress: Shuffle the AI discard pile into the AI deck.

This gives us the option to push all of the failed BPs back into the deck, meaning we can try again at getting critical wounds against Level III BPs or put a bunch of weaker BPs back into the deck because we rolled poorly against them a while ago. Quite often BPs once you fail to wound them will sit in the discard for most if not all of the battle, so there is a lot of utility, protection and value bound up in this card in ways that are not obvious. I think that one can justify crafting one of these for use by a “sword” and board flex/support titan and it will pay off very well.

Hekaton Panoply Armor

(Limit: 2) - “Weighted with stone slabs, lifted by the Centimanes' legacy.”

7x Armament, 9x Muscle Cluster, 5x Calcified Knuckle Bone

This armor is great in all the ways I enjoy. Not only does it give us a beefy three red power dice for protection, but we also reduce knockbacks by 2 (stacking with other options like the Knuckle Shield and Breakers) and have access to a fourth red dice by spending 1 fate. Plus 10% of the time we get Rocksteady via the Crit Evade result. A crit evade is when the white evasion dice rolls a natural 10 and Rocksteady lets us entirely ignore knockback. Knockback is also permanently turned on at 9+ Danger.

As such the Hekaton Panolpy is doing everything I want from a front line tanking armor piece and it is phenomenal against every single Cycle I Primordial. It is one of the best armors we have available in Cycle I and if I'm resource rich I'll probably craft both sets, one for the main tank and one for the flex/off-tank. Its main competitor is the Trireme Armor, but I don't think those two armors cannot exist in the same titan team.

Hekaton Live Study

Requirements: Hekaton Level 4 Battle, Pursuer Protocol, Hekaton Autopsy, Smelted Gear

Our last Hekaton Technology card is the Centimanes Workshop, this is again a technology I would construct ahead of the Labyrinthauros version if I have to choose because there are some incredible weapons in this place. The resource numbers may seem quite high but they are not due to how higher level Primordials produce extra resources with a times multiplier.

Which ones I really enjoy we'll get too during the individual breakdown, but if you've played with these weapons I think you'll already know what they are.

Pillarmace

(Limit: 2) - “These columns were consecrated in the name of the Olympians.”

Cost: 11x Monument, 24x Raw Ambrosia, 11x Muscle Cluster

The Pillarmace is our big swing two-handed weapon for a set up titan. Apart from the 4 attack dice, this weapon also offers us a lot of tokens including Break 1, a guaranteed Break 1 on a full miss and with a full hit we get Diversion. A full hit is all dice hitting, a full miss is all dice missing and Diversion works as follows:

Diversion: During the second ability window, place a diversion token in the kratos pool. An attacking titan may use a diversion token from the pool to ignore fail responses until the end of their attack.

Diversion tokens are great, they allow an attacking titan to spend the diversion token in order to ignore fail responses until the end of their attack. However, we've got a 4 dice weapon here, so full hits and full misses are hard to achieve, which means we now have a set up weapon that wants setting up from another titan and that's just too much set up for my taste and playstyle.

If this had been more restrained, with a lower number of attack dice and better power dice I think there might have been something here because full hits and misses would occur more often. As it stands this weapon really exists to satisfy the needs of players who like to chuck lots of dice. That's a valid play style, but it isn't super efficient or effective here. As such this weapon is a pass for me unless someone I'm playing with adores it, but even then I'm going to try and steer them to the next weapon instead.

Hekatomb

(Limit: 2) - “Watch your fingers.”

Cost: 28x Armament, 38x Raw Ambrosia

Now this is what a red power dice high speed weapon should look like. It still has that Break 1, but instead of the extra dice and diversion we get +3 accuracy, Carving 1 and Deadly. This weapon is twice as likely to score criticals (which are amazing), it can passively generate extra resources (which is amazing) and it still keeps the same +1 break that the Pillarmace has at 5+ Danger. Really there's no contest between these two weapons. They're essentially giving the same rush of high dice rolls, but the Hekatomb requires little accuracy assistance and can therefore let its set up titan concentrate on break tokens for the bigger, juicier BP cards instead.

Rebound Hammer

(Limit: 2) - “Use your head.”

Cost: 26x Trireme, 28x Monument, 12x Calcified Knuckle Bone

Our second big hitter is the option for the sophisticated player who likes to do “BIG BONK!” This (1/+0/BBR) weapon is just an absolutely satisfying and potent weapon to use for breaking high BP cards. We have an Auto-break 1 for a guaranteed Break token during the power roll. We get a power reroll for any one of our die (great because black dice are a bit less consistent than red ones), we can pushback the primordial if the situation turns up that they're adjacent to some punishing terrain and we also have a meaningful Full Miss ability because we've got one dice. That means this weapon even if it isn't cracking knuckles or smashing shins can still contribute to supporting the next attack.

Cumbersome is the penalty we pay for all of this power, but I've honestly really found it an acceptable price. If we are next to a Primordial and the Tank titan ensures it doesn't move away we can bonk on repeat. Also if you're playing against the Labyrinthauros, you can bounce it between two pairs of titans by taking advantage of its forced charge each turn and that means you'll be able to bash it all the way to its gooey centre. I adore this weapon against the bull in particular and love running two there, but unless I have really good unique weapon options I'll always take at least one of this out to the field because it has performed so well with the Hekaton using it alongside a shield as a hard hitting off-tank/set up.

Gigan (Limit: 1) – Stones to cut stones, what beautiful symmetry.”

10x Monument, 29x Raw Abrosia, 33x Muscle Cluster, 1x Hekaton Core, 1x Shieldblade

Our last weapon is one that I really, really want to like. The Gigan is intended to be the “signature weapon” for the Earthshaker due to the Logicbreaker and Game Changer Titans being hard to gain access to in Cycle I. However, the simple truth is that the Earthshaker is at its best in Cycle I running a two-handed + shield combo and I only deviate from that if I have access to a card that can be gained from the Alpha Temenos fights.

This weapon looks cool, but in practice it hasn't really held up too well. There are so many brakes holding back this weapon with its weak accuracy, three-handed nature, Cumbersome and reduced movement. If the Mazerunner could wield a three-hand weapon then maybe the position would be better, but as it stands you're trading in an entire back up Earthshaker Titan to make this thing along with a Shield Blade and it doesn't really outperform the Rebound Hammer in battle. Like the Pillarmace being muscled out by the Hekatomb, the Gigan is muscled out by the Rebound Hammer.

It's a shame, but for the price (resources, slots and titans) you pay here I would want something significantly better. It can be upgraded so final judgement will be reserved until we get to the Temenos Sighting technology card in the next ATO article.

Preferred Crafting Choices and Numbers

I am trying to form a habit of writing out the gear cards and the numbers I would “optimally” craft them in given a world where everything pans out in a kind of average fashion (assuming the right resource drops come out). The cards I consider to be worth crafting whenever possible are:

2x Impetus Breakers

0-1x Analyticos Module

1x Knuckle Shield

1-2x Hekaton Panoply Armor

1-2x Hekatomb

1-2x Rebound Hammer (Second hammer is a luxury option for Labyrinthauros).

Of course, unique gear drops can very much impact the numbers here, but I think this selection here is the baseline Hekaton gear cards I'd be aiming to craft as long as other options are not available.

Final Thoughts

The Hekaton selection is a solid selection for Cycle I, it's covering the knockback offense that the Cycle I Primordials like to employ and there are also some excellent offensive weapons for the end portion of Cycle I's battles. Some of these also distinguished themselves by holding the line in the very early portion of Cycle II as well, not well enough for me to consider any as “must ascend” options at this time, but there is potential there if other routes do not pay out.

The Hekaton is an iconic part of Greek Mythology and I am very pleased with how engaging both its battles and its gear cards are. There is nothing here I consider to be not worth reaching print in the first place, but the Pillarmace, Safety Harness and Gigan come close. The biggest disappointment for me is the Primordial Lure, which is very enticing with its unusual controlling design, but it just can't really justify a slot when titans only have 2 support slots available and the only one with a third slot is the Earthshaker, who has other things to do with his extra arms.

In respect to what I have left to go through with Cycle I, I'm going to cover the Labyrinthauros + Temenos crafting technologies together, then cover the various Secret Gear cards. After that I'll look at the Structural Technologies, Cover the battles against the Hermesian Pursuer and Alpha Temenos. Then the capstones will be putting together a guide for how I prefer to navigate Cycle I with perhaps a visual guide in support and after that it will be closing out the cycle out with a Review of the Entire First Cycle as a whole, so about somewhere between 8 to 10 more pieces on Cycle I.

I hope I can do it justice.