Minus Elevation: Two Genres, One Gem

Minus Elevation is a ROBLOX roguelike horror game created by luckily_dragon, released on the 26th of October, 2021. In the game, you and up to 49 others descend down the floors of a facility through an elevator, completing objectives on each floor while avoiding the entities that roam the facility.

The Mechanics:

There are two main things that you should keep track of while playing Minus Elevation. The first is your stamina bar, which allows you to sprint, and can be regenerated naturally or with items. The second is your battery, which is needed to use certain items that you can choose to bring in before a round starts. Battery, unlike stamina, does not regenerate naturally, but can be replenished with certain floor upgrades, which are upgrades you can choose after completing each floor. Overdrive stamina/battery is given only via items and floor upgrades, is used up before your regular stamina/battery, and maxes out based on your maximum stamina/battery. You can also get various buffs or debuffs from items and entities, which can affect almost every element of gameplay.

Items:

The main way to stay alive in Minus Elevation is by using items. Consumable items, which only have one use and either replenish stamina or give you a buff or debuff, can be found throughout a run. However, what you really want are ability items, which can be bought in the lobby using money that you earn at the end of a game. You can equip three ability items at a time, and each has a powerful effect that can usually be used at the cost of battery. 

Upgrades:

Along with items, floor upgrades are very helpful in keeping you and your team alive. Floor upgrades can be chosen from a random selection of 3 after clearing each floor, and do a variety of things. Some give additional maximum stamina/battery, some replenish battery and stamina when players do certain things, and some change the next floor. Certain upgrades have tiers, and will appear multiple times, their effects becoming stronger the more they are chosen.

Entities:

Entities are the main threat that you’ll encounter in Minus Elevation. Entities are hostile creatures that spawn on various layers of the facility, killing you on contact. Every floor contains between 2 and 6 entities, depending on how many players are alive, and the deeper into the facility you go, the more dangerous these entities become. Each entity has a unique mechanic that you need to understand in order to avoid it. Certain entities only spawn very rarely, some only spawn on, or past a certain floor, and others are only able to spawn once certain requirements have been met. Each entity has four stats: Danger, Rarity, Sight and Speed. Danger can be anywhere between 0 and 5, Rarity can be between 1 and 7, Sight can be between 1 and 5, and Speed can be between 1 and 4. Picking up data scattered around a floor will give you info on the entities currently on that floor, and reaching 100% data on an entity will allow you to see its stats, as well as its lore, in the bestiary.

Floors:

As you descend, you’ll encounter many different floors. To beat a floor, you usually need to press a certain number of buttons, which can be found in random spots around the floor, and then return to the elevator. Some floors are seasonal, or event-only, and will only spawn at certain times of the year or during certain events. There are also certain floors that can only spawn when chosen by the players, these being the boss floors, which spawn their own unique entities and can be encountered with the ‘Boss Raid’ floor upgrade, and the scrap shop, which allows players to trade scrap found across the facility for consumable items and can be encountered with the ‘Scrap Shop’ floor upgrade.

Conclusion:

Overall, Minus Elevation is a great horror game, and if you don’t mind the steep learning curve, I recommend that you try it out. If you do decide to try it out, you can find the game here.

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