Sanctum 2 exclusive developer diary: Enemies & bosses!

The first Sanctum turned tower defense on its head with its FPS style gameplay, mixed in with strategic placements of offensive and defensive towers. Now, Sanctum 2 is on the horizon, and fans of the original have a lot to to look forward to. Join us in this exclusive Developer Diary where Coffee Stain Studios discusses the various enemies and bosses players will encounter in the game.

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Naturally, if you’re going to make an FPS – Tower defense hybrid like Sanctum 2, enemies will play a big part in your game. Enemies worked pretty well as a whole in Sanctum 1, but we knew we wanted to make them even more awesome and terrifying in Sanctum 2.

What we kept

We really liked the fact that every enemy had to be dealt with differently in Sanctum 1. Some enemies are best killed with rapid fire weapons, other have so much armor that only the most powerful single-target guns can punch through. We feel that this brings an important element of strategy to the FPS/TD hybrid that is Sanctum 2. Since Sanctum 2 will also be much more customizable than Sanctum 1, you’ll always be thinking of new ways to perfect your loadout of guns, towers and perks so that you can counter just about anything that’s thrown your way.

The enemy in the picture above is a Soaker – they take more damage for each shot they suffer, so they’re best killed with rapid fire weapons

What we changed

Enemies in Sanctum 1 were passive – they ran in an “antline” towards the core and never attacked the player. Enemies in Sanctum 2 however, are much angrier this time around. They will spread out when they can, some enemies will attack the player, while others will scatter and run around the player to try and destroy the core while you’re busy trying not to get your head punched in. Enemies will feel much smarter and much more like actual enemies that have nothing against getting killed themselves as long as their friends reach the core.

An angry walker warrior wants to crush Haigen

BOSSES

We had bosses in Sanctum 1 but we felt they weren’t badass enough. They were bigger and had more HP than normal enemies, but that was it. In Sanctum 2 however, bosses are totally terrifying – the Walker Patriarch for example, can crush both towers and walls with his hands, letting smaller enemies pour right through your maze.

The Walker Patriarch has smashed his way through the player’s defenses and is about to wreak mayhem on the core

Another boss example is the even bigger version of an enemy called Heavy – conveniently named Superheavy by the Core Guardians. It has an extremely thick exoskeleton, but has four weakspots – one behind every knee of its four legs. The Superheavy is not only bigger and tougher than the normal Heavy; it uses a bio-luminescent light to lock-on to a player and shortly afterwards launches a huge organic bomb that can easily blast a squad of four players to pieces if they’re dumb enough to not get out of the way as fast as possible!

A Superheavy charging his lazorz

Bosses only come on certain levels, but when they come, we want players to truly fear them. We hope you’ll think we’ve done a good job, and we hope you’ll fear them just as much as we do!