Developing The Climb

Welcome back to the Weekend Warmup.

Before we get into the fun stuff, I want to address some of the console crashing issues many folks have been seeing. We’ve tracked down the cause, but it’s pretty systemic (related to the amount of content we’ve been adding recently) and not something that can be fixed with an easy one-shot. The team is working on a solution now, and we aim to release a patch in July. Thanks for your patience.

In the meantime, 2XKO’s new PVE mode is live, and y’all have been hitting The Climb hard, giving us great feedback, and domain-expanding your way through randomly-augmented runs.

I sat down with 2XKO’s design director, Brad “Bradido” Merritt, and product lead Alison “Jaredan” Hawkes, to get the scoop on how The Climb came to be.

While 2XKO has had a lightweight PVE mode (Bot Beatdown) since launch, we’ve heard requests for a way to play against bots with more unlocks, progress, or story. The Climb came together in a few months, built on a prototype Survival mode we had lurking in 2XKO’s development backlog. As such, what you see in The Climb today is our first attempt at bringing some of that sauce together, knowing there are still a ton of updates we could make as a next step.

Bradido emphasises that the mode is not intended to replace a standard Arcade mode, but to be a playground for breaking the rules of the game.

“The Climb is about expression,” says Bradido. “We wanted to create a mode where players could explore new builds, discover unexpected combinations, and experience how augments can reshape a champ’s gameplay. Some runs might turn your main into something completely different. Others might double down on the strengths you already love.”

This alone opens up a ton of possibilities for 2XKO’s core gameplay. For high-level players, difficulty tiers challenge you to find new ways around tough bots. For newer players, The Climb is a low-pressure lab to learn matchups, try out new tag synergies, and get to grips with core combat against realistic opponents, without the stress of Ranked Points on the line.

Developing our take on PVE (using the bones of Survival) presented a unique set of design challenges. The ultimate goal was to find a balance between rewarding skill and embracing the chaotic fun of familiar deckbuilder gameplay from Teamfight Tactics, Legends of Runeterra’s Path of Champions, or League of Legends’s ARAM Mayhem.

There were a lot of surprises as we were developing The Climb's features. Elements we thought would be easy ended up being incredibly difficult, while some of our wildest ideas came together faster than expected.

“For example, we wanted an augment where Vi could mash S2 on her Crater Maker Super for a comically long time, doing tons of damage. Seems easy, right?,” Bradido quips. “Due to the way the animation systems work, it was not doable without a significant animation overhaul. Meanwhile, game-changing augments (like Assists coming out of Thresh’s lantern), were done in a few minutes, since the Thresh team had experimented with that ability during development.” Spoiler: it was deemed way too good for 2XKO’s base gameplay, but anything goes in The Climb!

2XKO’s engineers were instrumental in identifying what cool stuff was feasible. They combined their deep knowledge of the game’s systems with a genuine love of fighting games and roguelike deckbuilders to bring some really fun augments to life.

Jaredan, product lead on The Climb, notes that development was truly a group effort with input from across the team. “Our biggest challenge was not coming up with ideas, it was deciding what to save for later,” she explains. “Some of our favorite moments during development came from builds and interactions that became delightfully chaotic in ways even we didn’t predict, and we can’t wait to see the combinations players uncover.”

(Editor’s note: I saw firsthand how much the Rioters working on PVE wanted to get into The Climb’s first release, and they worked up to the final day of development adding more augments and polish. For those that know the story of TFT’s development, it was kind of like that.)

As the development of The Climb continues, we’re cooking up new node types, tougher enemy encounters, and weirder augment combinations. We’re also looking at how to make the most of champion interactions to add a bit more personality and colour.

“We wanted to get The Climb into players’ hands early so we could learn what resonates most and continue evolving the experience,” says Jaredan. “This initial release is just the first node on our team’s ascent, and we’re excited to see where players take it from here.”

The Climb PVE is live now on PC, PlayStation 5, and XBOX Series X|S.

Local Spotlight

Siouxper Battle Opera (Sioux Falls, SD)

From the organisers: “Siouxper Battle Opera is the local for Sioux Falls, SD! We've been running weeklies on Friday evenings and a monthly tournament on Saturdays near the end of the month for about two years now, playing everything under the sun however we can. While we might be on the smaller side, our players are consistently strong in their respective games, getting strong placements out of pools at several majors. For 2XKO, we've been playing the game since the September 2025 Closed Beta, doing a pop-up bracket for it at our monthly and it's been a consistent game for us ever since. We hope to see you out at Izzi's Gym in Sioux Falls!”

Sign up for Siouxper Battle Opera 17 here.

Reminder: Top-placing 2XKO players will also take home Chipotle Free Entrée cards!

Upcoming Dates

• June 19: Sajam Slam finals
• June 20-24: Supernoon’s Pre-Evo Bootcamp
• June 26-28: Evo 2026 (2XKO Major Event)

Closing Thoughts

The Weekend Warmup stands on the shoulders of This Week in Destiny, so to see it coming to an end is a bummer. Eyes up, Guardians.

The console crashes are also getting me down, and the team has been working hard on identifying and solving the root cause. If you want more context on why it’s taking us a bit to address it, there’s a bit in The Life of a Patch, but I know that’s not really an excuse for it. We’ll make sure to keep you up to date as timing for a fix is locked in.

Looking to more positive horizons, how is it time for Evo again already? The play patterns post-1.2.3 are shaping up pretty interestingly for our next Major. Watching TNS and the Sajam Slam coaches, I feel like Thresh has a lot of broad utility and clear strengths, but Senna seems to be less meta at top tier. I wonder how much of that is unexplored strength? Will we see a Senna team come out of nowhere and sweep through pools? Will bleed ever switch off Ekko/Illaoi? WILL BLITZCRANK WIN A MAJOR? We will all find out together in a couple of weeks.

The Evo 2026 teaser film drops next week and it is probably top three on my favourite all-time 2XKO videos. Can’t wait for y’all to see it. See you then.

—@draggles