Risk Vectors: what each one changes
An Alteration is a trade you agree to before the drop pod leaves. Some of them are free money and some of them are a trap.
Take Headhunter and Siege Engines when your build is already online, skip Death Mitosis on Threat 4 and up, and treat Instability as a coin flip you cannot plan around.
A Risk Vector or Alteration is a modifier you accept before the drop pod leaves. Most of them trade something for something, and a few are pure downside that pay in XP.
The names are worth knowing because they change what a run is. A Headhunter run and an Expenite Harvest run are not the same run with a different number on it.
Named Alterations
| Alteration | What it changes | Who should take it |
|---|---|---|
| High Stakes | Better upgrade and equipment RNG, less Expenite from all sources | Builds already online by floor two |
| Siege Engines | Enemies except bosses move at half speed, twice the health | Slow, high-damage builds |
| Headhunter | No Expenite in the caves, but enemies drop it on death | Aggressive teams that clear rooms |
| Death Mitosis | Core Spawn split into two smaller enemies on death | Nobody below Threat 3 |
| Expenite Harvest | An Expenite Quarry with walls covered in ore, but kills drop nothing | Teams that mine fast and fight slow |
| Instability | Rolls a new Alteration for each stage | Teams that like chaos, not planners |
| Drifter Surge | Extra groups of Voidkin during the run | Teams that want more fights |
| Bio-Booster | Adds a second Bio-Booster to the level | Any run where you need a deck |
| Workbench | Adds a second Workbench to the level | Runs where weapon quality matters |
| Artifact | Unlocks Spectercore and Artifact rewards | Runs that already have a solid build |
Descriptions from official patch notes and the official wiki, checked 2026-11-15. All Alterations carry a +20% hazard bonus, including ones with no downside.
Which ones to pick
Take Headhunter when your team clears rooms fast, because it converts the thing you already do into currency. Take Siege Engines when your damage comes from a slow weapon that does not care about movement speed.
Skip Death Mitosis on Threat 4 and above. Splitting every Core Spawn doubles the bodies on a floor that is already spawning more than you can kill, and the extra health on the babies makes it worse.
Treat Instability as a lottery ticket. Rolling a new Alteration per stage means you cannot build around the run, which is fine for a farm and bad for a first Gatekeeper attempt.
Official Ghost Ship Games announcement art.
Real cost of a Risk Vector
Every Alteration adds bodies or removes resources, and both cost time. A run that takes three Alterations for the XP is a run that arrives at the Gatekeeper with fewer upgrades, because the timer does not care how much bonus XP you are owed.