Meet the Acheron, The Fearsome New Enemy of DLC 4: Corrupted Horizons

Developed in secret by humans of unknown allegiance, the Acheron is an artificially-created Pandoran, the enemy species featured in Phoenix Point. Whether it was engineered to help humanity win the war against the Pandorans or to amass great power for its creators is unclear at the start... but now that it has escaped, there’s a new threat to the world that must be dealt with!

The Acheron is positioned as a larger support unit in the game that strategically buffs enemy units while hindering and hampering Phoenix operatives. It has an array of abilities that range from leaping across the map, firing off pepper clouds to reduce the accuracy of attackers, or allowing it to hang back and heal friendly Pandorans, call for reinforcements, or worse, resurrect dead ones to fight for its cause!

Introduced as part of Corrupted Horizons, the Acheron becomes a new enemy available both in DLC 4 specific missions and regular missions the player will engage enemies within. Players will need to have enabled DLC 4 though in order to make the Acheron available in-game.

As the game progresses, the Acheron will also evolve gaining more strength and dangerous powers. These evolutions boast different visual styles and abilities, and it’s crucial for players to know how to counter each of their strategies.

Its most devastating contribution though is its innate ability to spread Corruption, a new game mechanic that affects the infected soldier’s will to fight. The only way to stop this new plague is to capture and research one of these strange creatures and complete the DLC 4 story arc, but even then, the threat of the Acheron itself will still be present.

Phoenix Point: Corrupted Horizons will be available on October 1st for PC, and included within the Xbox and PlayStation release of Phoenix Point: Behemoth Edition on that same day.

For more, here are some insights from our development team on the Acheron and what you can expect!

• What was the inspiration behind the Acheron as a unit?

  • The Acheron was a creature from Snapshot's archives that was inspired by the War of the Worlds' "harvesters." Originally, it was supposed to be a protector of the citadel but has since evolved into its own unit.

• How does the Acheron fit into the larger Phoenix Point storyline?

  • The Acheron (along with the [REDACTED]) is one of those things that appear in the chaos after the Pandorans appear. While the big factions (Phoenix, New Jericho, Synedrion, and the Disciples of Anu) aim to restore the world and save humanity in their own way, there are a lot of smaller factions with other motives. The Pure and the creators of the Acheron are examples of such factions, and the Acheron is an example of what happens when things go wrong.

• How do you see the Acheron changing up the tactical game?

  • “Call reinforcements, because there can never be enough Pandorans on a mission.”

  • “Resurrect Corpses. Not only does it add more enemies, similarly to Call Reinforcements, but it also has an element of continuity - what units die in the mission and where exactly is now a valid concern.”

• Wait, what’s this REDACTED above???

  • Stay tuned as we share more info about DLC 4 in the lead-up to its release!