GUIDE to the GALAXY

A hitchhiker's guide to Racoon Logic's planethopping, co-op trolling, Metroidvania mission REVENGE OF THE SAVAGE PLANET

- By Phil Iwaniuk

Quasadron IX

A free-runner's nirvana chasms...

Welcome, travelers. Sorry to hear about that whole being made redundant and dumped out in the furthest reaches of space thing. But look on the bright side—your former employer Kindred Aerospace probably isn’t even as good as the ‘Fourth best space exploration company’ status it likes to brag about. And now you're free of its corporate clutches, you've got some time on your hands for a heck of a gap year.

It's the perfect opportunity to enjoy the picturesque tundra, distinctive floating rock formation and plentiful fatal drops of Quasadron IX. After exploring its many floating islands, where they can find a vantage point to get some Instagram snaps of the planet's famous pink gaseous rings up in the sky, most tourists like to head to the central mesa. Food and drinks establishments are hard to find here, so many travelers are forced to rely on the harvestable crafting materials found on Quasadron IX in order to sustain themselves. It may be lacking a Nando's or public toilets, but with several hours of life-threatening battles against the local wildlife and plant population in order to harvest materials, most visitors can obtain enough to deck out their own capsule with some creature comforts.

“That one's sort of been our favorite," says studio co-founder and creative director Alex Hutchinson. “It has lots of floating islands. It's very sort of cliché sci-fi with lots of vertical movement.” There's hidden depth in all that verticality, too: “All planets have teleporters to the fifth world, [SLAPPI'S Den of Fun]... we treat it almost like legends.”