Outriders Worldslayer: Apocalypse Tiers And Gear Explained

"Outriders: Worldslayer" is the latest expansion to Square Enix's troubled live-service looter shooter, releasing just over a year after the game's original rocky launch. Mixed opinions on the story notwithstanding, the general consensus has been that the already unique and addicting combat has only been polished to perfection: Critics are heaping praise on how the changes in "Worldslayer" have addressed many of the original shortcomings and cranked up the satisfaction and replayability of the game by several degrees.

One of the major updates to the gameplay have been the addition of Apocalypse Tiers and Gear. Despite what you might have heard, this new Tier system is not replacing the standard World Tiers so much as re-working their endgame extensions, the Challenge Tiers. Previously, players would be able to level through 15 extra Challenge Tiers upon completing the 30 available World Tiers — with the "Worldslayer" expansion, players will be moving right on to Apocalypse Tiers instead. 

This isn't just a one-to-one renaming, either, as there are significant tweaks to the system, not to mention new Apocalypse gear that only drops from these endgame tiers. Here's how it all works.

The good news is that Challenge Tier progression carries over to Apocalypse Tiers: Players who've already grinded out all 15 endgame tiers will find that their progress has been converted to Apocalypse Tier 15. Even better news is that with the purchase of the "Worldslayer" expansion, they'll be able to loot and shoot their way up to Tier 40 for some incredible bonuses and loot chances.

The unique thing about Apocalypse Gear is that they have three mod slots as opposed to the previous maximum of two. The catch, however, is that this third slot is pre-set to a random mod determined on drop. As noted by Dantics on Youtube, you could farm multiple versions of the same weapon or gear piece with a range of perfect or sub-optimal mods locked in.

Thankfully, you can roll a tier 3 mod in this slot, and the chance of doing so only increases with each Apocalypse Tier. It won't be too tedious to grind out the tiers, either, as Apocalypse progression can be applied to any content available in the game (per Laserbolt on Youtube). You could replay the entirety of the base "Outriders" campaign on an Apocalypse Tier if you wanted to. With the replayability this feature adds — as well as the versatility and viability of different builds and customizations — the combat in "Outriders" looks and feels better than ever.