Airship Syndicate has pulled back the curtain on Wayfinder, a forthcoming multiplayer action RPG that sees intrepid heroes trying to reconnect their fragmented universe. The cooperative multiplayer title, revealed at The Game Awards, is set in the world of Evenor, where players take control of the titular Wayfinders—each possessing distinct abilities and unique stories—to explore dungeon-like Lost Zones and combat a nefarious force known as the Gloom. Wayfinders have a secret weapon: a tool known as the Gloom Dagger, which allows them to tailor their play experience by adjusting mutators and challenges on a mission-by-mission basis.
Game Rant recently spoke with Airship Syndicate, including comic artist, creative director, and CEO Joe "Mad" Madureira, about Wayfinder's first playable characters, customization options, and progression system. Fans of Darksiders and other character action games, looter-shooters, or gamers looking for their next multiplayer fix should keep an eye on Wayfinder, and those interested can currently sign up for a public PC playtest beginning on Tuesday, December 13.
Wayfinder's First Five Characters
Wayfinder will be launching with five characters, each with their own history and motivations for fighting against the Gloom.
"First off, we have Wingrave. He’s the one narrating the piece at The Game Awards. He is basically a paladin—a fallen warrior struggling to regain his memories. All of the Wayfinders are struggling to regain some of their memories, and you will learn more tidbits about them as you play those characters and the game progresses."
Wingrave is essentially a tank character, focused on taking heavy hits and dishing out melee damage. Niss, a former enemy-turned-ally of the Wayfinders, seems to fit the game's assassin niche, wielding shadow magic and blades. Silo is the gunner character portrayed in The Game Award's trailer and Kyros is the battle mage, mixing hard-hitting spells with melee attacks. Finally, Sanja, the barbarian-looking warrior shown in the trailer, is the last surviving member of the Iron Sisters, an Amazon-like order of lady warriors.
Each Wayfinder conforms to one of three 'Archetypes,' which are essentially different classes that give players a broad idea of how a given character will play. There is a great deal of variety within a given archetype, however. Wingrave and Sanja are both "Warmasters," focused on defense and offense respectively, while Silo is a "Tactician" and Kyros is an "Arcanist."
Magical Crafting and Evolving Weaponry
Madureira explained that the primary progression system in Wayfinder revolves around a crafting framework whose fulcrum is the Gloom Dagger, an artifact that can partially control the chaotic forces of the Gloom:
"Wayfinders can manipulate magic to create, or recreate, fallen heroes or weapons—anything that the Gloom has encountered before, by using an item called the Gloom Dagger. Each weapon changes the gameplay significantly, as every weapon has an ability attached to it."
A.J. La Saracina, Airship Syndicate's Marketing and Engagement Director, also stated that any of the games' heroes can use any weapon. Given the customizable abilities in a character's kit paired with armaments that have their own abilities, there is a very broad range of potential builds possible. Tinkering with unique build combinations and deep optionality are two of the main sources of appeal in live service games. Being able to swap a hero's combat style from ranged weaponry, to melee, or something in between is a solid foundation for experimentation.
The Gloom Dagger's most novel feature is how it empowers players to seek out specific crafting components. By adjusting mission mutators before entering Lost Zones, players can affect item drop rates, improving, or in some cases, guaranteeing specific item drops. This not only allows players to customize their approach to certain challenges, but the nature of said challenges as well.
Character Customization in Wayfinder
Madureira stated that it is very important to Airship Syndicate that players feel like they have a connection to their own Wayfinders, and that they feel personally distinct compared to other players' characters of the same type. Apart from weaponry, each Wayfinder will be able to customize their distinct player abilities via skill trees, allowing players to tailor their play style to their specific tastes. And in terms of visual customization, players will be able to personalize their characters with several cosmetic slots called 'styles,' customizable color palettes, and full-body skins called "personas."
The number of available personas and other cosmetics at launch has yet to be announced, but Airship Syndicate is committed to Wayfinder for the long haul, and frequent updates will likely inject fresh content regularly to keep players engaged. Madureira stated that Wayfinder is the biggest game the studio has ever attempted and that he "cannot wait for the floodgates to open" so players can appreciate the sheer amount of content on offer.
Wayfinder has a projected release of 2023 for PC, PS4, and PS5.