Many games use the concept of a hub city: an eye-of-the-storm location that players can retreat to between expeditions into a broader, more dangerous world. In the upcoming roguelike Hyper Light Breaker, that hub city is known as the Cursed Outpost. Hyper Light Breaker players can return to the Cursed Outpost at the end of their runs, upgrading their equipment and taking in the world and lore around them.

Ahead of Hyper Light Breaker's Early Access release, Game Rant spoke to senior designer Ben Strickland about the Cursed Outpost and how it provides a source of familiarity in the chaotic world of Hyper Light Drifter’s sequel.

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The Hub City of Hyper Light Breaker

Hub cities provide important downtime between runs in roguelikes, among other genres. They provide a place for players to upgrade, restock, and prepare for their next adventure. The concept alone is nothing new, but the Cursed Outpost is more important than that in Hyper Light Breaker lore. It represents the calm of a very chaotic storm, a constant in a changing world, and that carries a lot of weight given Hyper Light Breaker's cycles and runs. As Strickland explained,

The Cursed Outpost is the one part of the game that isn't constantly changing – it’s a fixed point in a world that is always reshaping itself. Sure, there are things to unlock and critters who want to sell you things, but it's a calm, vibe-y place to return to after the chaos of a run.

Players will get their own apartment in the Cursed Outpost when Early Access drops on January 14. From there, players can embark on missions and partake in runs through a cycle's world, composed of 3 of 4 available biomes at the Early Access launch. But just because the Cursed Outpost isn’t constantly changing like the rest of Hyper Light Breaker’s world, that doesn’t exactly make it a static environment.

While the Outpost starts as a simple settlement, the hub city gets customized as players progress through the game. The town will grow gradually directly as a result of the player’s actions. That can contribute to the environment where the player can buy upgrades and gear for their future runs, which in turn can bring more growth to the city.

In addition to the shops at the Rainbow Market, the Cursed Outpost features the Best Hotel. It is a run-down and dilapidated hotel that serves as the main headquarters for Breakers, the people who, like the player, venture into the Overgrowth and ‘break the land,’ somewhat like Australian Bushwackers or the Hunters of Monster Hunter. This role as a base of operations is another critical service a hub city provides. Returning to hub cities is like returning to a place of respite, and that respite gives them a chance to regroup in a familiar and comfortable environment. S

Little is known about why the Cursed Outpost is so named, but being that it's the one place of consistency in a constantly changing world, it does appear to be a unique location perhaps related to the Abyss King. Throughout Early Access, players may be able to begin unraveling that mystery.