The Veil Opens: Level 7 and the Lore Wiki Are Here

Descend into the four stages of The Veil, confront its new fusion, latching, fire, beam, and bombing threats, and explore the expanded history of Hot Chocolate in the newly released lore wiki.

LEVEL 7: THE VEIL

The campaign continues beneath Veridian's ruined surface. The Veil is not a place of punishment or a natural inferno; it is an ancient planetary sanctuary gathered around the Veilheart, a living concentration of blue-teal energy hidden below the Orpheon compound. Orpheon built its power-core station near the enormous opening because it detected the energy below, but it never fully understood the world it was exploiting. Now the Noctyri have reached that buried sanctuary, and the descent becomes a race to prevent them from remaking it.

FOUR STAGES OF DESCENT

Broken Descent carries pilots through a massive wound in the dark planetary crust, past falling rock and the shattered remains of Orpheon infrastructure. Rootveil opens into a haunting underground ecosystem where immense roots, quiet green vegetation, and streams of teal energy reveal that the Veil is alive. Burning Vale shows the first large-scale Noctyri assault as red-orange Light fire enters the soil, ignites vegetation, and contaminates portions of the Veil's blue channels. Veilheart brings the conflict to the sanctuary's core, where blue-fire Noctyri channel their power into roots and terrain while the Veilheart visibly resists.

FALLING DEBRIS

The first two stages add a new environmental threat. Pairs of rocks and broken mechanical beams fall through the descent at randomized intervals. Rocks are indestructible obstacles that absorb bullets, missiles, and beams, forcing pilots to maneuver around them. The longer mechanical remnants spin as they fall and can be destroyed, but their reinforced structure can withstand approximately 1,500 points of damage. Once the route reaches Burning Vale, crust and mechanical debris disappear completely so the later battles can remain readable.

SOUL LATCHING AND FUSION

Veridian soul ships can now latch onto the player's hull at close range. Each attached soul adds a stacking movement penalty and temporarily disables equipped Storage gear, while the pilot's Speed stat resists part of the slowdown. The ship always retains a minimum amount of movement, and destroying attached enemies immediately restores the movement and equipment access they were suppressing.

Veil enemies also seek one another after moving roughly one-third of the way into the viewport. Compatible ships visibly converge and fuse instead of teleporting. Fusions range from x2 through x5, combining their presence into a single faster, tougher, and more damaging target that never splits apart. Elite enemies enter battle already fused at x5.

NOCTYRI FIRE AND STATUS DAMAGE

Stage 3 introduces red-orange Noctyri fire; Stage 4 transforms that same combat family into blue-white fire shaped by the struggle around the Veilheart. Their aimed rounds, homing missiles, charged beams, and specialized attacks use the correct stage energy palette and face their actual direction of travel. Fire attacks can apply a capped damage-over-time effect only after they reach the hull. Shields prevent the effect from taking hold, and healing equipment clears every active Level 7 fire stack while still performing its normal repair.

CHARGED BEAMS AND TARGET BOMBS

Beam attackers expose their aim with a compact charge and targeting telegraph before firing, giving attentive pilots time to move. Bomb specialists mark a predicted location near the player, charge at the launcher, send an indestructible bomb toward the marker, and create an expanding circular danger zone on impact. The blast stops at a controlled maximum radius instead of swallowing the entire arena, and no more than two bomb-specialist ships can be active at once.

NEW BOSSES AND A NEW SOUNDTRACK

Each stage ends with a distinct guardian built on the campaign's established boss systems. The early guardians combine aimed patterns, missiles, soul pressure, and stage-appropriate reinforcements. The later guardians escalate into charged fire beams, homing attacks, target-location bombs, damage-over-time pressure, and stronger final-stage patterns without turning the screen into unreadable visual noise. The complete descent is accompanied by a new stage-specific soundtrack: Fall With Me, Carry Me Home, Light Can Burn, and Heart of the World.

THE LORE WIKI IS OPEN

The newly released Hot Chocolate lore wiki expands the setting beyond mission briefings. It documents the campaign's worlds, warships, crews, factions, characters, enemy forces, and the history that connects Orpheon, Veridian, the Noctyri, the Machine Core, and the Veilheart. Level 7 receives a complete visual and narrative section with dedicated artwork for its environments, enemy forces, guardians, and the sanctuary itself.

Descend through the wound in Veridian. Find the heart beneath the roots. Do not let the Light consume what it cannot understand.

— Hot Chocolate Team