You Can Play with All Jans in The Alters, but with an Asterisk Attached

The Alters is a powerful gaming experience, no doubt about it, but it might leave some players wanting more. After all, it’s not like Frostpunk, 11 Bit Studios’ other most famous survival sim, which includes an endless mode for a greater challenge and customization opportunities. And, while there is DLC planned for The Alters next year, there’s currently only the main Jan Dolski campaign to enjoy, leaving many players anxious for more content.

This is where the modding community comes in, ready to offer unique spins on The Alters‘ core gameplay and simulation elements. Currently, most of the game’s mods (many of which come from a particularly ubiquitous creator called Caites), focus primarily on cheat-like tweaks that reduce the severity of certain mechanics and punishments. For instance, players can mod The Alters‘ resource economy to be more abundant, its days to be longer, and its research times to be shorter or nonexistent. But there are also some more radical, transformative mods, which can have a more significant impact on a given run.

The Alters: How Jan Miner Becomes a Crash Course in Player Choice

Jan Miner is one of the most interesting characters in The Alters, and his story is the first real introduction to the game’s choice system.

The Alters’ ‘All-Ters’ Mod Lets Players Acquire Every Jan

How a Mod Bypasses The Alters’ Greatest Restriction

Published by Caites on NexusMods, the appropriately named All-Ters mod lets players surpass the six-Alter limit, opening the door to a gameplay experience that involves a total of ten Alters. In the base game, Alter acquisition is actually quite structured, with Technician and Scientist coming onboard during the first act, leaving the player to choose which additional four they want to welcome aboard in the second. The third act typically doesn’t introduce any new Alters.

This makes The Alters more replayable, certainly, but it also stands in the way of more outlandish or aggressive playstyles. In other words, there’s less freedom as a result of The Alters‘ six-Alter limit, which is what Caites’ mod seeks to rectify. There are certainly some kinks to work out—Caites has reported some internal logic issues when all ten Alters are active at once—but the mod appears to work smoothly otherwise. It even includes a concession for a second Ark Sarcophagus, allowing players to completely finish the game with all ten Alters onboard.

The frictionless execution of this mod, aside from being a testament to Caites’ skill, reveals nuances about The Alters‘ game design. For example, the mod makes it easier to see how each Alter functions as a sort of flexible puzzle piece, able to exist in different in-game contexts without losing plausibility. It would seem, then, that 11 Bit Studios chose to limit players’ Alter population not as a result of technical complications, but for the purpose of better game design.

The All-Ters Mod Is Great, but the Vanilla Game’s Restrictions Serve an Important Purpose

While some players might be disappointed that they can’t collect all versions of Jan during a single playthrough, this limitation actually benefits the game in key ways. There’s the aforementioned replay value, of course, but there are also mechanical reasons for the hard max: The Alters is already a little too easy, and bringing on more Alters would essentially eliminate any semblance of challenge. This is especially true considering the low upkeep costs for each Alter.

That’s not to say that the All-Ters mod isn’t worth downloading, of course. But if it’s someone’s first time playing The Alters, and they are feeling discouraged after hearing about the Alter limit, they should still give the vanilla game a go. This is where the true Alters experience is to be had, after all. During subsequent runs, as players experiment with the game’s various systems and narrative beats, something like the All-Ters mod is a more appropriate addition to the sandbox.