[lightoflife3]

The best way I can classify mission mechanics is by their impact on mission progression and their relatedness to aleph:


• The first system mainly divides mission mechanics by their impact on mission progression
• Progressive Mission Mechanics: Necessary to progress through the mission e.g. at the start of 'The Mouse and the Snake' raiders have to pull all the levers down in order to enter to the next stage of the mission
• Linear mission progression mechanics: mission objectives can only be accomplished by a single means e.g. in ‘A Weapon From The Past,’ raiders need aleph to progress through all stages
• Non-linear mission progression mechanics: can be accomplished by more than one means. For example, in 'The Beast's Lair,' players can choose between shooting at some of General Marmalade's Eyes or using the pig to shoot at his primary weak spot, and in 'Mind Over Matter,' when the fifth council is invulnerable, raiders can choose between either overloading the antenna and pulling the levers at the moment the Fifth Council walks in front of the electrocution or by defeating designated target enemies. Based on the mission or mission stage, antagonists can win matches through other means besides killing raiders e.g. in the final stage of ‘No Reservations,’ the antagonist can win by preventing aleph refuels to the engine until it runs out
• Non-Progressive Mission Mechanics: don’t progress the mission further, but based on the mission or mission stage and whether you're playing as a raider or an antagonist can either obstruct or help players progress through objectives e.g. turrets on ‘A Low Blow’


• The second system divides mechanics by their relatedness to aleph
• Aleph-based mechanics
• Aleph: how far it can be thrown, how fast it explodes, where it spawns, how much of an impact it has on characters, etc.
• Aleph Storages: what can contain aleph, but also where it can be extracted from e.g. elites, wardog looters, etc.
• Aleph-based Systems: can be fueled with aleph e.g. elite abilities, engines, roots (Double Agent), antennas (Mind Over Matter), the pig (The Beast's Lair), extractors (Short Fuse), etc.
• Non-Aleph mechanics include anything that doesn't require aleph to function or exist: turrets, canisters and artillery tanks (Short Fuse), barriers (A low Blow), flowers (Double Agent, first stage), terminals, etc.

*In some cases aleph can be either necessary or unnecessary to progress through missions based on the mission and it's stages e.g. in the first stage of 'Enemy Within,' aleph randomly spawns around the map, though it has no direct impact on the objective at that stage; In the next stage it can be used to overload the creature, which gives it additional importance to obtaining in the first stage of the mission