BLACKGATE — Frequently Asked Questions
General & Concept
What is BLACKGATE?
BLACKGATE is an asymmetrical multiplayer survival horror VR experience. It pits a team of Engineers (Prey) against a single evolving Alien (Predator) inside a zero-gravity spaceship built around the mysterious Black Knight satellite along with Cargo, a secondary map based on the ship designer to transport the Black Knight Satellite.
What is the core gameplay twist?
The roles shift completely mid-match. The game begins as a pure horror survival experience for the Engineers. However, once the Engineers repair the ship's systems and progress to the Unlocking the Armory phase, the Engineers gain access to high-tier weaponry to turn the tables and hunt down the Alien.
Match Flow & Lobby
How do players choose their roles in the lobby?
Role preference is selected via player screen once in game:
Alien: Select Red Square it top left of screen, if locked, another player has already chosen this role. (There can only be one!)
Engineer: Standard Role for every player, auto selects during load in.
What happens if a player disconnects mid-game?
Alien leaves: The match ends immediately. Engineers win and receive their earned points; the Alien receives nothing.
Engineer leaves: The match continues. Less mini-games required to reach the armory. If all engineers leave, the match ends early and the alien wins.
Host leaves: The match ends, and the remaining players keep any points earned up to that point.
Engineer Gameplay & Mechanics
How do Engineers move in zero gravity?
Movement is completely physics-based. Players must physically grab objects in the environment to push, pull, and fling themselves using inertia. Engineers are also equipped with suit thrusters for minor adjustments, braking, or combined speed boosts. Getting hit by the Alien triggers an automatic emergency thruster boost to help you escape.
What are the different health states for Engineers?
Engineers progress through distinct life stages based on their remaining health:
Healthy: The standard operating state where everything functions normally.
Injured: You can still interact normally, but you emit audible groans of pain and leave a floating trail of blood.
Incapacitated: You lose the ability to grab items or heal yourself. You can only drift slowly using thrusters to find a healing pod or wait for a teammate's rescue. You bleed, make noise.
Dead: Eliminated permanently from the round. Your body is torn apart, and you shift to a spectator camera to watch the rest of the match.
How does healing work?
Teammate Healing: A healthy teammate can manually tend to an injured companion via healing tether on their left wrist, connected to the back of the injured teammate.
Healing Pods: Stationary medical bays found in designated rooms. Some pods are active immediately, while others require the Medical room to be repaired first.
What weapons do Engineers have?
Stunning Weapon (Taser): Available from the start. Features long range and stalls the alien, but suffers a significant cooldown penalty after landing a tase.
Armory Weapons (Unlocking the Armory Phase): Unlocked by repairing rooms. Includes a variety of weaponry designed to blind, slow, & kill the evolved Alien.
Alien Gameplay & Mechanics
How does the Alien grow and evolve?
The Alien relies entirely on Vital Energy, which functions as both its health pool and its evolution resource. The Alien must constantly feed in order to evolve. To mutate into its massive Final Form, the Alien must aggressively hunt and harvest Vital Energy by attacking living players or consuming floating human body parts scattered around the ship, then return to its Nest to cocoon. Landing eggs on unsuspecting Engineers and waiting is the most rewarding way to play for the unevolved Alien. Stealth is key, until you evolve!
What can the Alien do in the Worm Stage?
Movement: Swift floating speeds and the ability to instantly navigate the ship using Venting Tunnels.
Attacks: Sharp Tongue (quick melee strike) and Egg Plant (attaches a parasite to an engineer's back to passively drain their energy)
Power: Cloak Mode providing active optical camouflage and enhanced movement speed at the cost of continuous energy.
What changes when the Alien reaches its Final Form?
The Alien evolves into a new form, choosing between the Titan and the Squid, both offering unique mechanics and style of play.
Attacks: Arm Swing (heavy, sweeping melee strikes), Ink Smoke (a projectile halo of smoke that blinds, slows, and damages humans), and Destructive Dash (a high-speed charge that smashes through reinforced doors and runs down survivors) and much more. Check out both the Squid and Titan abilities via tutorial!
Passive: Automatically emits a heavy Terror Radius audio cue, physically panicking nearby humans as you draw close.
Rooms & Minigames
How do Engineers progress to the Armory phase?
They must successfully complete a set number of room minigames using engineering tools and objects in each room. Fixing a room triggers a ship-wide audio announcement and unlocks corresponding weapon tiers once the Armory is open. More info on all rooms below!
Energy Room
Find, insert, and weld missing charged batteries into active grids.
Restores ship lighting and functional power doors.
Research Lab
Use a clamp tool to capture floating alien samples and lock them into matching pillars.
Reveals live tracking data regarding the Alien.
Med Room
Weld structural cracks in a fluid cylinder and haul supply bottles to refill it.
Activates stationary Healing Pods across the ship.
Ventilation Room
Locate and rotate specific hand cranks to properly align airflow vectors.
Seals open vents and clears toxic environmental hazards.
Shields Room
A steady-hand wire loop game. Guide a metal ring across live wires without making contact.
Reinforces ship doors and unlocks wearable Armor Vests.
Bridge Room
Use directional panels to guide signal pulses through a holographic maze.
Unlocks enhanced real-time mini-map tracking on player wrists.
Comms. Stations
Align mini comms. satellite to match the red indicator via hand crank control. Four in total.
Unlocks ship wide communication between Engineers (Alien still proximity based)
Engine Room
Attach handles to Engines and align to power up Engines. Three in total.
Unlocks all doors for use across the map (some doors start locked until Engine is complete)
Progression & Ranking
Is there a progression system?
Yes. Completing matches awards "Glory Points" (XP). Leveling up earns you cosmetic Reward Boxes to customize your Engineer suits, player banners, weapon skins, and Alien mutations.
Engineer ranks progress through thematic space agency milestones, climbing from early test-subject titles up to legendary corporate honors.
