Characters

There are two playable characters in 30XX, Nina and Ace. Characters can be switched in the hub by going to their respective character capsule and interacting with it. Additionally, there are multiple non-playable characters which can be interacted with for story purposes in HQ, or during a run to offer challenges and blessings.

Nina
Nina is the game's protagonist, wielding her modular N-Buster to attack at range and utilising high-damage Powers to tear through beefier enemies with ease.

Nina's reworked N-Buster can now have weapon modifiers attached, which allows her to fuse multiple Primary Weapons into one. Any extra weapon acquired from Contemplation Shrines will alter how the N-Buster acts, either adding additional projectiles or altering how the existing projectiles function.

For Powers, Nina now has access to Power Fusion, allowing her to give one Power the traits of a different one. This can completely alter how each Power behaves, giving Nina a lot more options in battle.

Nina only gets 2 energy per enemy kill, but she can rely on health pickups to additionally recover energy. Nina recieves 20 Energy for small health drops, and 40 Energy for large health drops.

Ace
Ace is the game's deuteragonist, specializing in melee combat with a variety of weapons as well as having input-command Techniques which can be weaved together. Each technique has their own individual cooldown, so properly weaving attacks and different techniques together is the key to minimizing down time.

Ace can now carry every Primary Weapon he obtains at once, but only one can be equipped at a time. Ace's starting Technique, Unleash Blade, changes form depending on which Primary Weapon Ace currently has equipped - usually in the form of a ranged projectile.

For Techniques, Ace can equip and use all 9 Techniques at once, without worrying about swapping what Techniques are equipped. The inputs UP + POWER or DOWN + POWER, or LEFT/RIGHT + POWER, where "POWER" refers to one of the three power buttons, is how Ace accesses a specific technique.

Ace's Energy Bar regenerates whenever an enemy is killed nearby, at the rate of 5 Energy per enemy defeated. When fighting a boss, hitting the boss with the final swing of a weapon's combo will regenerate 5 Energy instead. Also, Ace gains 10 energy from small health pickups, or 20 from large ones. This allows Ace to reliably use Techniques without worrying too much about running out of Energy on future targets.

Stat Mechanics
Each character starts with 8 Maximum Health, 80 Maximum Energy (Nina) or 40 Maximum Energy (Ace), and +0 Attack Strength, Power Strength, Run Speed and Jump Height. In terms of stats, +0 of both Strength stats is equivalent to 10 base damage, before multipliers. Each point of Strength above 0 adds 1 base damage, while each point below 0 subtracts 0.5 base damage. Both Strength stats have a lower cap of -18 (equivalent to 1 base damage), but no upper limit.

All level pieces outside of Maker Mode are designed to be completable with all optional extras without any Run Speed or Jump Height upgrades. Each point of Run Speed or Jump Height increases their respective base stat, but has diminishing returns after +8 (half effect), +16 (quarter effect) and +32 (tenth effect). The gains do not diminish any further beyond +32. Run Speed has a lower cap of -5, and Jump Height has a lower cap of -1.

For cases in which stat modifiers would lower a stat below its lower limit, the stat is lowered to its lower limit, and the excess decrease, though it has no effect, continues to be tracked. Subsequent stat increases must neutralize the accumulated excess decrease before they can raise the stat above its lower limit again.

Alexia
Alexia is a non-playable character who is only found in HQ. She primarily provides hints to the player to advance the story of 30XX.

Dally
Dally is a non-playable character who is found both at HQ, and at the start of the run once the Dally's Blessing Memory Index entry is unlocked. When found at the start of the run, she provides the player with a choice of three randomly picked items, ranging from augs and nuts to Powers, Remnants and even Prototypes. When found in HQ, you can pet her.

Delta
Delta is a non-playable character who serves as the rival to Nina and Ace. He appears randomly throughout the run to offer a challenge condition to the player in exchange for a reward. When encountered at level start, the challenge lasts for the whole level and the reward is given upon successfully completing the level. When encountered later in the level, you have the option to accept a challenge from him, which opens a teleporter leading to a miniboss fight against Delta himself with the conditions lasting for that fight. In this case, the reward is granted upon defeating Delta. Delta can also appear in HQ, and has some dialogue when spoken to.

Smuggler
The Smuggler is a non-playable character who appears in HQ once the Smuggler's Beacon Memory Index entry is unlocked. When spoken to, they will offer the player various items to bring into their next run in exchange for Memoria. When Overclocked, items that have not yet been purchased from the Smuggler may be rerolled for 20 Memoria (or 10 at a higher rank Overclock).