Breach

Breaches are timed monster-spawning portals. They have about a 8% chance to appear in any map area.

Overview
Breaches will randomly spawn in an area in an inactive state. They're easily identified by the hand-like construct within a purple circle (see image) and purple swirls can be seen within the vicinity. Walking into the hand will activate the breach. Breaches can also be spawned using, but enemies in these breaches do not give experience or drop items.

Active breaches will expand their circle outwards and spawn a mix of breach monsters within the circle; the faster the monsters are killed the faster the circle expands. After a while, the expansion of the breach will slow down until it eventually retracts quickly and closes.

Breaches stay open for a minimum of 30 seconds, increasing to a maximum of 60 based on how quickly breach monsters are killed. Normal monsters killed while in the breach do not increase the active time.

Monsters moving outside of the active radius will despawn after a short delay. During this time, however, it is still possible to attack and be attacked by the monsters before they're removed. It is also possible for monsters inside the breach to hit the character while they are outside it.

Breach monsters have increased item rarity and quantity, but have a reduced chance to spawn beyond monsters and only rare breach monsters are able to drop maps. In addition there is a chance to obtain breach-specific unique items and splinters from these monsters as well as breach-exclusive.

Occasionally, a Breachlord can spawn from a Breach. They will drop a number of Splinters when the breach collapses based on how much damage was dealt to them or the maximum of ten when defeated.

Breaches also contain "Clasped Hands", a breach-specific type of chest. They come in two varieties, "Clasped Hand" or "'s Clasped Hand". These chests can drop additional splinters and can only be opened when the breach expands to them. It is possible to see Breachlord specific Clasped Hands before opening the breach itself as a shimmering transparent object.

There are fives types of breaches each associated with a damage type, which will affect accordingly
 * the type of monsters that will spawn with skills associated with the type
 * the type of splinters that are dropped
 * the type of unique items that can be obtained

Breach frequency
Breaches have a 10% chance to occur in maps by default. There is also a Sextant mod, available at all tiers, that adds a Breach to affected maps, which stacks with the base 10% chance.

Breach items
There are two types of currency and one other item class associated with breaches; each is specific to a breach type for a total of 15 currency items.

Splinters
Splinters are dropped by Breach monsters or Clasped Hands within breaches. 100 Splinters of the same type can be combined into a Breachstone.

There is currently an issue with the currency tab; if you remove a stack of 100 splinters they will not upgrade to a Breachstone. In order to fix it, remove a single splinter and put it back on the stack.

Breachstones
Breachstones are obtained from combining Splinters. They can be put into a map device in order to enter the associated domain of a Breachlord.

The domain of a Breachlord is an unique area that contains one single large expanding breach and the domain's unique boss at the end. The breach is only active for a limited time that can be extended by killing breach monsters. When the boss area is reached the timer will stop; which allows for fighting the boss at any pace or picking up items that were left behind. Letting the timer run out before the breach fully expands will permanently collapse it for that instance.

Blessings
Blessings are occasionally dropped by Breachlords. They can not be obtained outside of the Breachlord's domain, and are not guaranteed to drop.

Blessing can be used to upgrade Breach unique items to a more powerful version of the item.

Strategy
Since the breaches can spawn a very large number of monsters that hit hard is advisable to be cautious when opening breaches; death can come quickly and without warning.

Characters that have high survivability, high mobility, high damage output as well as good area clearing ability are best at effectively clearing breaches.

Strategies (not all may be suitable for your build):
 * Avoid opening breaches near dangerous fights - i.e. clear the area first before opening; fighting a breach and a map boss at the same time, for example, can pose a very large risk of character death
 * When in a party coordinate the opening
 * Consider creating a portal near the breach for emergency escape and/or quick return in the case of death
 * Watch out for the type of breach you are facing; some breaches might pose a larger risk to some characters than others.
 * Try to stay in a corner or room instead of the middle of the breach to avoid having all monsters instantly attack you. Clear monsters carefully area by area
 * Be careful when leaving the breach area; while the monsters disappear outside of the circle, it is still possible for them to hit you for a short period of time
 * If you are faced with breach that you can't handle, consider leaving the area for a while until it times out
 * Simply not opening a breach can also be a good option; use movement skills like or  to bypass the opening area

Version history

 * Reduced the chance for Map Areas to contain Abyss, Ambush, Blight, Breach, Domination, Essence, Heist, Legion, Metamorph and Torment encounters by 20%. The chance to encounter a Zana mission containing any of these mechanics has also been lowered by the same amount.


 * Breaches can now be encountered in 10% of maps by default. A sextant mod has been added which guarantees a Breach in the affected maps but does not override the 10% chance to find a Breach naturally.


 * Introduced to the game as league mechanic.
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