Our biggest screw-ups from Into the Breach

It should be easy. You can see exactly what the vek are going to do next turn, and plan accordingly. But then new vek crawl out of the ground and do things you didn't expect, or your perfect set of moves this turn leaves your mechs in a terrible position for the turn after, or you forget someone is standing in front of the train you're supposed to protect and it collides with them because you're a goddamn dingbat.

There are a lot of ways Into the Breach can go wrong. Here are some of the ways it's happened to us.

Jody Macgregor: I'd unlocked the Rusting Hulks squad. Their abilities are focused on using smoke to hinder the vek, which takes some getting used to, and while I was trying to wrap my head around what electric smoke even is, my buildings took some hits. Before I knew it I was down to two power on one of those maps that gets eaten up by a tidal wave turn by turn. 

So when a bug was about to slap a building while on a tile that would be flooded the same turn, I ignored it to focus on the others. Natural disasters happen before attacks, I'd be fine. What I forgot is that the bug in question could fly, and flying enemies can't drown for the obvious reason that they can fly.

I don't remember what took my final point of power after that, I was so mad at myself for trusting in the ocean to deal with that hovering wasp bastard I stopped paying attention. Maybe that was the real mistake—giving in to tilt when I could have potentially scraped out a victory. Nah, the real mistake was forgetting that things with wings can fly.

Evan Lahti: Everything was going great. As the Steel Judoka, I'd "perfect"ed my first island, earning a second pilot with an amazing ability—a second reset. Surely this would be the extra margin for error I needed to pull off a four-island win.

Nope; my blessing was a curse. I started playing less cautiously, knowing I could make another major mistake. In a manageable two-objective mission, I managed to screw up and spend both resets in the same round. The next move had to be perfect. Luckily, I was sure I'd cracked it: I could maneuver the map's upper enemies to attack each other, then shift the bottom beetle into the path of another, canceling all four enemies. Perfect.

It looked great on the board. I neglected to notice that these actions would nudge a vek not only into the Robotics Lab I was sent to defend, but also one of the NPC tanks. Witness my dark epiphany in the video above.

Samuel Horti: It was my second ever game, and I was flying. My Rift Walkers had breezed through three islands virtually unscathed, and I'd already conquered my first sector on Detritus Disposal. Next up, the Landfill. It was the last turn and the vek had only taken one shot at my power grid—nothing I couldn’t patch up later.

Plotting my final move was a real tester. I stared at it for 15 minutes, moving units around tentatively and canceling moves when I realized they wouldn't work. Eventually, I cracked it. I could get away—just barely—without taking any more damage. 

My artillery mech would fire the last shot, pushing the only remaining Alpha Hornet away from my buildings. I clicked on my mech, ready to move him into position. Nothing happened. He was rooted to the spot. Oh god. Turns out I'd moved him one square earlier in the round when I was fiddling about, and forgot to cancel the move before attacking with my other mechs. I could no longer affect the Alpha Hornet and had to watch, mouth agape, as its attack leveled four skyscrapers. Two thirds of my power grid, gone. My run was as good as over.

Eric Watson: In the penultimate mission on Pinnacle, I had to freeze and defend two renegade sentient robots to earn double Reputation. This proved especially challenging when my ice tank, the one with the freeze attack, got stuck due to webs and ice blocks.

Unable to freeze the renegade robot, I sent my trusty charge mech to stand between the robot's laser and a building it was attacking, knowing I didn't want to damage the robot and lose the Reputation bonus. Unfortunately I forgot that you can't actually block lasers, and I watched in dismay as it fired right through my mech and into the building behind it.

RNGesus actually smiled on me that day. My pitiful 19% Grid Defense activated, the building resisted the damage, I completed the map, and later earned the Defenders achievement. Sometimes even a screw-up can lead to a happy ending.

Now it's your turn to tell us about the mistakes you've made. Readers, how have you goofed and doomed an entire timeline?