CP Noire Campaign & Ranks

Different time, same enemy - Info drop #5

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Number five already, we’re making good progress here!

In this story, we are going to go over the Campaign mode in Cosmic Paradox: Noire as well as explain how the ranking system works and ties in with the overall progression.

For those of you who read our first info drop, you might remember the three distinct locations that were mentioned in that post and showcased in the Reveal Trailer. In case you need a reminder, or if you missed that story, the three locations were: Verranus, Gasyr and UCB 765

We already described how significant each of these are to the story and setting of Cosmic Paradox: Noire. Now, you will learn during which stage they will appear.

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Contact - The first battle and the beginning of the war. This stage, set over the beautiful planet of Verranus, is where it all began. You will play as Lieutenant Daniel Kind, a Psy-ops pilot and a distinguished member of the Vex Elite. In terms of difficulty, we wanted to take a gradual approach with each stage, so it made sense that we make the first one a little easier. Now, it might not seem like that to some of you at the very beginning, but once you go back and replay the first stage after having mastered some of the later ones, you will likely agree with us that the overall difficulty for Contact is Easy.

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Guardians - A year and eight months have passed since Verranus, and the Vex Accord has gained the upper hand in the ongoing war. General Stone’s plan was to lure the Oronix into the Selerion solar system. He succeeded. Known for its treacherous asteroid fields, this system proved challenging for even the most skilled Oronix forces. The planet Gasyr, where the second stage takes place, was where the Vex Accord truly turned the tide of this conflict and shifted their strategy from defense to offense. We wanted to convey this through gameplay by cranking the difficulty up to Medium.

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Retreat - Three full years after the war had started, the Battle of UCB 765 would mark its end. General Stone has personally appointed Lieutenant Kind as team leader due to his exceptional performance. Kind was ultimately placed in charge of this entire operation. They called it, Void Seeker. The Oronix Empire had lost the war. In a desperate attempt to ensure their survival, they began to flee through the rifts that surrounded UCB 765. All remaining Oronix forces gathered here to ensure that their most important assets and personnel could escape. You should expect a Hard battle, worthy of its importance.

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Valor and prestige - Ranking system explained

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Okay, so, now that you know more about the Campaign, let’s go over how its ranking system will work. After you successfully complete a Campaign stage, you will be transferred to the Mission Summary screen. Here, you will be provided with an overview of your performance. This includes number of destroyed enemies, credits earned and, most importantly for this example, total score achieved. Based on your score, you will receive an appropriate rank. Ranks will range from one to three stars.

To unlock the next stage, you will have to earn at least one star on the previous stage.

It is possible not to receive any stars should you fail to meet the minimum score requirement or if you fail to survive until the level is complete. So, the general rule of thumb is: survive until the end while destroying as many ships as possible. However, there is one very important addition to this. Point deduction.

Every time that you take damage, the amount of score you lose will double.

This will start from -100, then the second hit would deduct 200 points, the third 400 etc.. Keep this in mind, sometimes simply destroying every enemy ship will not be enough, you will have to be careful not to take too much damage. Before we wrap up this story segment, we would like to give you a rank overview of the first stage, Contact. In total, you will be able to earn 84,000 points in that level. To earn at least one star, you will have to score 42,000 points. 60,000 points will earn you two stars, while 75,000 will reward you with the maximum rank of three stars.

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So, what about the rewards for higher ranks?

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While this brings us to an end of this info drop, there are indeed rewards for higher ranks. Earning two stars on a level will unlock its Survival mode variant, which will actually be the topic for our next story. Earning three stars means that you have truly mastered a level and will be rewarded with a trophy or achievement based on your platform.

Well, that is all for now. Catch you in the next one. Take care!