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Axiom Verge getting "Randomizer Mode" update for free

A new, challenging way to play
by rawmeatcowboy
14 January 2021
GN Version 5.0

While Thomas Happ is hard at work on Axiom Verge 2, he's actually been working on a surprise patch for the original Axiom Verge as well. A free update is coming to the Switch version of the game sometime in the near future, and it adds in a new Randomizer Mode. Happ explains what the mode has to offer below.

Essentially, the Randomizer Mode randomizes (thus the name) the items you get as you progress through the game, but in a very sophisticated way. The Randomizer is smart enough to know that in certain areas you need weapons with certain characteristics to progress.

There are different categories of progression logic that you can choose for the system to use from the Randomizer Mode menu.

“Beginner” progression mode is really a bit of a misnomer. The Randomizer itself is for people who have beaten the game, ideally multiple times, and have explored the map very thoroughly. Beginner mode assumes that you will be playing through the game in much the same way that anyone would progress through it. For what it’s worth, this is the mode I play.

“Advanced” mode assumes that you’ll play through the game the way a speedrunner familiar with exploiting certain glitches may go through it. There are ways to skip the entire grapple hook area, for example, if you know how. Because the system knows what you expect to be able to get at which areas, it can make sure to accommodate this route.

“Masochist” mode is similar to Advanced mode, except that it assumes you’ll be doing a low % speedrun. As of right now, there are exactly 4 people in the world able to play this mode. If you don’t know that you’re one of them, you’re probably not. This progression mode is included primarily because the aforementioned people who developed this mode include those masochists in question.

Happ is also working on a few other ideas that'll be involved in the patch when it launches. You can read the full blog post about this patch and how it came to be here.