The Alters: Last Variable

About the add-on

Note: This DLC follows the ending where Jan Scientist stays behind on the planet. Average playtime is estimated at 20 hours. The Alters next story focuses on Jan Scientist(s) Jan Scientist can finally pursue his true calling. While other Jans left, he stayed to lead a team of new specialists - assembled by and from himself. Only a scientific crew of perfectly aligned altered Jan Scientists can offer the expertise needed to unravel the Oasis phenomenon. Studying nature's survival here in space is a life-defining opportunity. However, this goal-oriented plan of the Jan Scientists might not be so apparent to Jan Geologist, Biologist, Chemist, or Physicist. Explore new regions and terraform them The Oasis, a lush paradise that shouldn't exist, becomes the mystery you will obsessively try to solve. Terraforming the nine arenas unlocks it, forcing the landscape to yield answers. But with each seemingly right step on a research path, the planet responds with implacable earthquakes and radiation, hinting at secrets best left undiscovered. Expand underground and survive cycles Your biggest hurdle? Years-long planetary cycles of scorching sunrises that force you underground. Setting a functional underground base requires building in varied soils, constructing new components, and researching modules like the Cryosleep Chamber, which buys time to witness your scientific actions' long-term effects. Still, even in cryo-slumber, increasingly vicious cycles wear down your crew’s readiness to work. Develop new tech and set field labs Each planetary cooldown offers a brief window to freely explore a dramatically changed surface. Terraformed landscape opens new building possibilities, spawns bonus-providing pickables, and lets you evolve your research-essential technology by extracting and refining new planetary resources. Specialised structures further let you transform, combine, and amplify what you gather. Field Labs introduce new assignments for alters to continue their work while you cryosleep. But will they change once faced with the vulnerability of ageing?