Once you finish Outriders’ campaign, the Expeditions portion of People Can Fly’s looter shooter presents itself. This is Outriders’ endgame - what will keep people playing for months on end. The video below explains how Expeditions work. There are 15 unique missions here, each housing high-end loot. Layered on top is the Challenge Tier system, which affects the difficulty of the enemies you face and the loot level. Additionally, the faster you complete an Expedition, the higher the chance you have of nabbing high quality items (the percentage chance of a legendary drop increases, for example). This means Expeditions are, essentially, damage-dealing speed runs. So, running around doing as much damage as possible as quickly as possible is the name of the game. Here, the Devastator struggles. And this is why some are kicking Devastators out of co-op when they find themselves matched up with one. The Devastator is ostensibly the Outriders tank, although it can be specced to do damage. The problem is, the Devastator’s damage output cannot compete with that of the other classes (Technomancer, Pyromancer, and Trickster). And the way the Expeditions work makes damage output pretty much the most important measure of success. I’ve seen examples of Devastator mains complaining about getting kicked out of endgame co-op - and their resultant struggle to farm for better gear. I’m a Devastator main myself, and the class certainly struggles on the damage front. But no-one knew how the endgame “meta” would play out when picking a main just a week ago. And now, just seven days later, Devastators are finding the going tough. The situation has sparked an interesting debate about the rights and wrongs of booting players out of co-op activities. Should those who simply want the best chance of gaining the best loot be blamed for not wanting to play with Devastators, given the clear damage difference? Or should they play with Devastators if Outriders’ matchmaking thrusts them together, knowing the run could be negatively impacted? It seems early to talk about Outriders balance changes given the slew of technical problems the game faced - and continues to face. But I imagine the developers at People Can Fly will be keeping a close eye on how Expeditions play out.
