Everyone who's followed us over the past few months knows we've been working on a key feature for our game: the Safehouse. Some of you might remember it as the "Bunker", which was what we called the earlier version. This feature is essential because we envisioned not only character-based progression but also family-based progression in Persist Online.
So, what's a family? When you register, you select a family name for your account. Under this name, you can create multiple characters, each of whom can be leveled up individually. All characters will be located within your Safehouse - just like a home in real life.
General Information
While our open world is persistent and free of loading screens, the Safehouse works a bit differently. The entrance takes you to a separate instance dedicated entirely to your private Safehouse.
The main entrance is located at the starting point in Junction, with two additional entrances currently available on the map, each belonging to resident factions - and more will be added in the future. All entrances lead to the same Safehouse, which is secure and private to each player, ensuring it’s inaccessible to others.
Currencies needed
You’ll need two different resources in the new Safehouse: Raw Materials and Labor. Cash won’t hold any importance here.
Raw Materials: Obtainable by recycling items found in the world, with junk items as the primary source. Each junk item provides materials based on its composition, and its quality determines how much you’ll receive.
Labor: Labor is a new currency in Persist Online. You’ll start the game with a certain amount of Labor, which you can increase by hunting or fighting. Labor also accumulates while you’re idle or offline, though at a slower rate. Nearly everything in the Safehouse will require Labor.
Other things needed
Characters: Everything you do in the Safehouse requires a character, making that character unavailable for other gameplay.
Time: Each activity in the Safehouse requires an investment of time. For example, crafting a weapon may take several hours to complete.
Rooms
The Safehouse consists of several rooms, each serving unique functions - from storing resources and crafting weapons or utilities like bandages and tools, to cooking buff food. You can also increase the quality of your equipment, identify augmentations, accept missions to trade raw materials and Labor, or train your profession skill trees.
Upgrading the Room’s Tier
You must build most rooms before you can use them. Once built and therefore Tier 1, all rooms tiers - except for the storage - can be upgraded. Upgrading a room’s tier reduces the time required for its room functions, such as crafting a weapon. With unlimited tier upgrades available, you can achieve continuous time reduction.
Room Expansions
Rooms can also be expanded in various ways, allowing you to customize your Safehouse to suit your needs. These expansions offer added benefits, such as the ability to craft higher-quality weapons or to initiate multiple tasks simultaneously, enabling you to craft multiple weapons at the same time - just to name a few. Each room provides individual expansions to perfectly match its specific requirements.
Tasks
The number of tasks indicates how many characters can engage in room functions simultaneously. For instance, if the crafting room for melee weapons can handle two tasks at once, you can assign one character to each task, enabling you to craft two melee weapons at the same time.
Room functions
Room functions are the specific actions you can perform within each room and its available tasks, such as crafting a particular ranged weapon or unlocking the next mod level. Each room function in progress counts as one task being executed.
To initiate a room function, you need raw materials, Labor and a character who, in some cases, must meet a specific skill level. For example, crafting a blue (remarkable) assault rifle requires a character who has invested an advanced tier token in the assault rifle skill tree.
Character Commitment
Upgrading a room’s tier, expanding the room, or executing a task to use a room function all share common requirements: they cost raw materials and Labor and necessitate the involvement of a character for a certain amount of time.
An important aspect when choosing the right character is the character’s level: The character you assign to any of these can provide a significant advantage. Higher-level characters have a chance of recovering some of the raw materials used upon completion. For example, if crafting a weapon costs X raw materials, you may receive a part of those X raw materials back once it’s completed, with the recovery chance determined by the character's level. This chance increases as the character's level rises.
But beware: While a character is engaged in the Safehouse, they’re unavailable for other gameplay until the action is completed, cancelled, or paused.
If you need a character that is currently assigned in the Safehouse, you can either cancel or pause their current action to free them up. Cancelling refunds all resources but resets the required time for the action. Pausing retains the resources and allows you to resume later, though with a slight time penalty. Note that only the same character can continue any paused action.
Outlook
In our upcoming posts, we’ll introduce the various rooms of the Safehouse. So get ready for a wide range of exciting new features! Make sure to check out all upcoming posts, in which we’ll introduce you to the new Character Creator and the Kitchen, all the rooms used for Crafting and Improving Items, as well as the Dispatch Center.
We thank you for your continued patience over the past few months! We are committed to being open and transparent and we will keep you updated on our progress. Feel free to share any feedback you have on our Discord or Steam!
⁓ Your Community Management Team