Cryo Fields - A Harsh New Biome Coming in World Expansion IV

Hello Riftbreakers!

Welcome to the Cryo Fields! We have bloodthirsty proto-Kermons, lakes of supercoolant that will destroy any untreated materials, and trouble with power generation. You're gonna love it here!

World Expansion IV is getting closer, and with it comes a brand new biome to explore. Cryo Fields are part of a free update for all The Riftbreaker players and are designed as a new mid-game challenge with a strong focus on survival, expansion, and tough trade-offs. This is not a beginner-friendly location. Cryo Fields are meant to test how well you can adapt your base-building and logistics to extreme conditions.

If you do survive the harsh conditions, you will find great views, plenty of resources and lots of hidden treasures!

What Are the Cryo Fields

Cryo Fields are located in the northern regions of Galatea 37 and are defined by extremely low temperatures, dropping as low as 170 Kelvin. Despite the harsh climate, the biome is rich in palladium, making it an important destination once you reach the mid-game. The extreme cold does not mean the area is lifeless. Local fauna is well adapted to these conditions and will actively defend the territory. Entering the Cryo Fields means dealing with constant pressure from both the environment and its inhabitants.

Look at all these different species coexisting in peace! Something tells us the peace and quiet won't last for long.

Open Terrain and Sparse Resources

Once you find sources of basic materials, just stick with them. They might be the only ones in a pretty big radius.

One of the defining gameplay features of the Cryo Fields is the terrain itself. The biome consists largely of wide, open areas with very few natural choke points. In most regions, you will not be able to rely on terrain to help you defend your base. This makes positioning, wall placement, and turret coverage far more important than usual. Resource deposits in the Cryo Fields are dense but rare. You may find a very rich deposit of Carbonium or Palladium, but it could be the only one in a large radius.

The new Large Storage buildings may help you keep your base small and easy to defend. Each of them can hold up to 20k resources at level 3.

This forces difficult decisions:

• expand aggressively to secure large areas,

• build isolated, self-sufficient mining outposts,

• or accept that some installations may be temporary and rebuilt after enemy waves.

Power Generation Under Extreme Conditions

Cryo Fields is home to some big threats. You will need a lot of power to deal with them.

Energy management plays a much bigger role in the Cryo Fields. Baseline conditions are unfavorable for renewable energy. Sunlight is weak and wind levels are generally low, reducing the effectiveness of solar panels and wind turbines. Geothermal vents are more common and often become a key part of your power strategy, but reaching them usually requires further expansion into dangerous territory.

In this biome, the sky can quite literally fall onto your head.

Weather events add another layer of uncertainty. Blizzards and ice tornadoes, also known as snow devils, can temporarily increase wind levels, creating short windows of increased power generation if you are prepared with enough energy storage. Not all weather events are helpful. In some cases, clouds can solidify and fall as massive chunks of ice, damaging everything in their path. When that happens, the safest option is often to retreat and wait it out.

Supercoolant as Part of the Cryo Fields Ecosystem

Vast supercoolant reserves can allow you to feed coolant to multiple high-end power plants with just a couple of pumps. This will grant you independence from solar and wind power, which are unreliable here.

Cryo Fields are the only biome where natural supercoolant reserves can be found. Previously, supercoolant could only be produced using dedicated refinery buildings that consume large amounts of resources. In the Cryo Fields, it can be extracted directly from naturally occurring lakes and transported to other locations using compressors and decompressors. This provides an alternative way to support advanced power setups, including fusion-based energy infrastructure, and adds another strategic incentive to operate in this biome.

Stay alert! Defending your setup will not be easy in the Cryo Fields biome.

Where and When You Can Play

Cryo Fields are available across multiple game modes:

• Open Campaign - you can start in the Cryo Fields, but it is not recommended unless you are looking for an extra challenge. You can jump to Cryo fields as soon as you feel you’re ready - just like any other biome!

• Story Campaign - the biome becomes available after completing the Palladium Handling technology research.

• Survival Mode - Cryo Fields can be selected as a standard survival location.

The biome is already available for testing on the experimental branch. It is still a work in progress, and balance adjustments are ongoing. Feedback from experimental players will help shape the final version.

In our experience, fire works pretty well against most things here. It might be a good place to start your experiments.

Cryo Fields are one of the major additions in World Expansion IV, alongside the Open Campaign mode. The update will be released for free and is getting closer to launch. If you want to try the Cryo Fields early, the experimental branch is available now. As always, we are looking forward to your feedback.

EXOR Studios