Mod Spotlight: Rift Exploration Defense Industry revisited

Hello Riftbreakers!

Today, we want to shine a light on a mod we first mentioned back in 2024: Killtech’s Rift Exploration Defense Industry, or REDI. Back then, the mod was just getting started, but it already showed a lot of promise. Two years later, it has gone far beyond what we expected. REDI is now almost a complete overhaul of the game, and making it took an incredible amount of work. We reached out to Killtech for some insights so we could share what it’s like to play REDI now.

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](https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=3598485480) Click the image above to get the mod or install it via the in-game mod browser!

Killtech started working on his mod because he enjoyed The Riftbreaker, but thought the economy did not exactly hold up during a longer campaign. Once your base has power and resource production set up, you barely have to do anything else. Killtech thought that it was meaningful enough for survival, but left him wanting more when it came to our Story Campaign (you can read his explanation on his GitHub page). So, he decided to rebuild the whole game, not just the economy, but also the campaign pacing and combat. He wanted to move away from an “unlockathon,” where you just check off technology items, to a game where you have to constantly manage your resources - a much bigger logistical challenge. Everything in the mod is built around this idea. Let’s start by looking at how REDI changes resource mining, which is where every Riftbreaker campaign begins.

If running kilometers of intersecting pipelines sounds like fun to you, you will have a great time with this mod!

Expanded Economy

In the original version of The Riftbreaker, there are separate factories for Carbonium, Ironium, and rare resources like Cobalt. Killtech combined them into one building: a strip mine that works for all surface resource deposits. The complexity saved here shows up elsewhere. In REDI, solid materials can be found both on the surface and underground, and there’s a new Drill Mine building to extract them. This is where REDI starts to differ from the base game. Killtech also added an Ore Mill to the resource-extraction chain. Ore Mills can boost your factories’ efficiency by up to 125%, but they come with high upkeep costs and require additional piping on higher levels. Level one Ore Mill works without any liquids, levels two and three require one, and level four needs two different pipes. You’d better plan ahead for that! The final bonus amount depends on the factory level: level one gets half, level two gets three-quarters, and only level three gets the full 20%. But there’s a trade-off: level three factories waste some of the resources from the deposit. So, upgrading your extractors is now a real decision: do you want more income now, or do you want your deposit to last longer?

Finding the resources is just the beginning. After building a factory, you have to supply it with support buildings and the liquid resources it needs to run. More advanced factories require a more complex supply network to run properly.

The Ore Mill is just the first example of a new mechanic in REDI’s economy: buildings that boost or enable their neighbors. For instance, the Small Energy Storage doesn’t just store power anymore. It now gives nearby power plants a production boost, but you have to pay a new upkeep cost for cooling. You’ll find similar buildings throughout the tech tree, and each one adds a new challenge when planning your base. You can choose a simple, less efficient setup, or go for a carefully planned design that uses all the options REDI offers. You’ll probably want the second option, since upkeep costs go up a lot as you expand your economy.

This mod changes some things in a BIG way. Also, notice the energy storage in the middle of the wind farm: it serves as a grid stabilizer, boosting your energy production.

For example, Cultivators don’t just give you resources for free anymore. Now, they produce bio-resources that need to be refined into usable materials. To do that, you need a reagent made from plant biomass. At the end of this process, you still get your rare resources, but there are more steps involved. Killtech’s mod adds 18 new resource types, like ammonium, nitric acid, fluorine gas, petroleum, alloys, and reagents. Each one has a role in the bigger picture. The good news is, there’s always more than one way to get them. Some methods are cheaper than others, but you’ll never be stuck - you just might have to pay more to keep your economy running.

With REDI you can finally achieve your dream of becoming a galactic petroleum magnate!

Reworked Combat

The REDI mod also changes how ammo works. Like in the original game, there are five ammo types, but now each one is made separately with its own building chain. All ammo types have three tiers, and each tier depends on the one before it: level-two ammo is made from level-one, and level-three from level-two. In this mod, higher tiers aren’t just straight upgrades. You have to keep your level-one factories running, or your higher tiers will run out of resources, and you’ll run out of firepower. Since high-tier ammo is now produced locally, things get even more complex. You can’t just make ammo at HQ and use it anywhere. If you want to explore a big map, you’ll need to either use weapons that don’t need much ammo or set up a new production chain.

All ammo types now have a separate factory and ammunition is stored locally. This means that if you can't produce explosives in one of your outposts, you won't be able to use any rocket-related items in that area.

Combat has changed a lot, too. All of Mr. Riggs’ weapons have been rebalanced to make fights slower and more thoughtful. For example, a single hammer hit now takes about twice as long as before. You can’t just hold down the mouse button and wipe out enemies - you have to time your attacks carefully. Towers aren’t free to run anymore, either. Energy towers use electricity with every shot, just like in the pre-alpha days. Heavier towers need liquids, and all towers use up resources even when nothing is attacking, so you’ll want to turn them off during quiet times. If that sounds like a hassle, don’t worry - Killtech’s Fire Control Station will watch for targets and turn your defenses on or off automatically. There’s even a second version for long-range towers that activates things like Power Rods and Heavy Artillery earlier, since enemies will come into their range first.

Towers now block each others' line of fire, which means you aren't able to place as many of them as before. You will have to get your hands dirty!

A Fresh Take on the Campaign

The tougher combat goes hand in hand with a new difficulty curve for the campaign. Early attacks are weaker, and the power ramps up more slowly, giving you time to set up your base’s logistics. Attack waves last longer now, too. Enemies come in groups, with breaks in between, but the direction of the attack can change from one group to the next. For example, an attack might start in the north and end with a big push from the south. This adds a lot more variety, so you never know what to expect - even after playing for hundreds of hours.

When there are no more enemies in range, the Fire Control Station will automatically disable all of the towers in its range, saving you upkeep resources.

Our 2.0 release could have easily stopped this project. We changed a huge part of the game and added brand-new mechanics. For a mod that touches almost every content file, that could have been the end, but Killtech kept going. He updated the mod to work with the 2.0 update and the new World Expansion IV, including all the new mechanics, the new biome, and even the Orbital Scanner missions. Killtech also changed how threat level works. In the vanilla game, it specified how many groups of creatures you would encounter and whether they would be the regular, Alpha, or Ultra strain. Now, it also affects how difficult the attack waves are going to be, which is an impressive change. We can’t imagine how much work it took to fix all the conflicts caused by our updates, so big respect for that.

REDI also allows you to construct offshore buildings. Lack of space in the Swamp is no longer a problem.

We strongly recommend giving the mod a try. Killtech says that his mod is intended for those players who like to play the campaign and don't want to hurry through it. Survival makes little sense for the mod, as there is too little time to unlock most of the content it adds, and the added complexity becomes too much under the time pressure and repeated attacks in survival. Also, a word of warning: don’t run any other mods with it. There’s a good chance of file conflicts if you do, and it would mess up all the careful balancing. Also, no one has tested this in co-op mode yet. As far as we know, there aren’t any major issues, so feel free to try it out - we’re sure Killtech would love your feedback.

Thank you, Killtech, for making this mod and sharing your progress along the way.

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](https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=3598485480&snr=2___)

If you want to learn more about REDI, no one explains it better than Killtech himself - he has a full README on his GitHub. You can find REDI on mod.io and Steam Workshop and install it through the game’s mod browser. If you want to talk about REDI, share feedback, or report bugs, Killtech is very active on our Discord: https://www.discord.gg/exorstudios.

See you there! EXOR Studios