Blizar Prime is a planet featured in Rift Apart. It is a regongo-level mining operation, known as the main source of blizon crystals in the galaxy. Two versions of this planet appear in the game; the first in Rivet's alternate dimension where the planet was destroyed and the second in an unknown alternate dimension where the planet is still intact. This unknown dimension is only ever referred to as the "intact dimension" or the "other dimension".[1]
The planet also exists in Ratchet's dimension in the Polaris galaxy with Clank mentioning he had visited it previously.
History[]
Pre-Rift Apart[]
The Emperor seizes Blizar's resources[]
The blizon mined from the planet is integrated into high-energy capacitors for use in various kinds of technology and was once commonly prevalent in computers, starships and war machines. When Emperor Nefarious rose to power however, his Empire seized control of Blizar Prime's mining operations and the rare ore has instead been mostly shipped to the Emperor's research facility on Cordelion for use in it's various dark projects.
Rift Apart[]
Blizar Prime's Destruction[]
When the Dimensionator exploded early into the events of Rift Apart, mass dimensional chaos began erupting across the universes. During this, the main excavation drill on Blizar Prime in Rivet's dimension was activated and a catastrophic incident occurred. Dimensional integrity had affected the drill and the unstable rifts damaged it, causing the machine to become dangerously unstable. The drill's powerful excavation laser then went out of control and half of the entire planet was shattered in a massive explosion. As a result, communication with the miners went silent and their shipments to the Empire were missed. What had befallen the planet was left widely unknown.
Find Phase Quartz[]
Later when Ratchet, Rivet and Clank formed a plan to build a new Dimensionator; Ratchet volunteered to go to planet Savali to acquire the blueprints, while Rivet and Clank headed to Blizar Prime to find Phase Quartz to power the device. Phase Quartz is an incredibly elusive type of blizon and one of the rarest minerals in the universe. It is the only way to power the Dimensionator and to Clank's knowledge Blizar Prime is the only place it can be found. Upon the two approaching the planet in their ship, they are shocked to find the planet shattered to pieces and puzzled as to how this could have happened.
Intact Dimension[]
Rivet uses purple Blizon crystals to shift between the two dimensions.
With the situation looking grim, Clank worries the Phase Quartz would not have survived the planet's destruction. In the ruins however they find a glowing purple blizon crystal. Clank deduces the blizon must have absorbed excess dimensional energy from the rifts and he instructs Rivet to hit it with her hammer. Upon it being struck, the two are shifted into another dimension where Blizar Prime is still intact. Clank discerns they can find intact Phase Quartz here and they should speak to a miner or engineer about using the site's main drill to excavate some. Whilst shifting between Rivet's dimension and the intact one, the two meet a survivor in the ruins who angrily curses her predicament. Rivet informs her that there is another dimension where the planet is still intact and the stranger eagerly asks how she knows this, but figures out that the Lombax had used the Blizon and hastily takes off. The Nefarious Troopers sent by Dr. Nefarious pass by and begin scouring the planet's remains for Rivet and Clank. Soon after, the two start hearing gargled transmissions from the stranger, broadcasting a warning to anyone who will listen. Her messages are unclear so Clank suggests they investigate after they have first secured some Phase Quartz.
The Goons Pursue Rivet[]
The Goons pursue Rivet through the dimensional rifts to the alternate Blizar Prime.
The crumbling barriers between the dimensions had been causing seismic activity throughout the intact Blizar Prime, forcing much of the mining site to undergo lockdowns for safety purposes. Rivet and Clank made their way around the lockdowned areas on their way to the main site. On the way there, more members of the Goons-4-Less emerged from dimensional rifts and had followed Rivet to fulfill their contract. The goons however have trouble differentiating their Lombax target between Rivet and Ratchet, so they attack them both. After defeating the goons' forces, they make their way to the main mining hub and take a lift to the Chief Engineer's Survey Station.
Finding the Chief Engineer's Science Bots[]
Rivet meets the Chief Engineer at her Survey Station in the intact dimension.
Rivet asks the Engineer if they can drill for some Phase Quartz but she claims she has been hearing voices coming from the dimensional rifts and has sent her three Science Bots to discover what the disturbance is. The Engineer states she cannot authorize use of the drill until this has been investigated first. Rivet offers to speed up this process and goes to find the Science Bots B.O.B., J.I.M. and S.A.M. herself so they can report their findings. Once all three return to the Survey Station, the Engineer begins decoding the message they picked up from Rivet's dimension and authorizes use of the drill in the meantime. On the way back to the mining hub, a dimensional anomaly identical to the one on Sargasso, appears at the site's Hydraulic Pump and must be repaired before they can continue.
Repairing the Blizar Prime Anomaly[]
A dimensional anomaly appears at the site's Hydraulic Pump.
Clank enters the anomaly and meets Gary again, who again assists Clank with repairing it. Clank asks Gary about the book he always carries with him and he explains it is the most up-to-date collection of knowledge in the universe as catalogued by his father, whom Clank knows as the Plumber. The Plumber is currently taking his first ever vacation and has left Gary in charge. Gary asks how things are going with Rivet and Clank notes the differences between her and Ratchet, namely her wariness of robots which Ratchet never had. Clank realises that he has begun to trust Rivet and that she is starting to trust him too. Clank successfully repairs the anomaly, unclogging the pump's grease tube and restores power.
Stop the Drill[]
Rivet hits the excavated Phase Quartz out of the drill beam and is shifted with it back to her own dimension again.
After getting clearance to use the elevator, the two continue along a grindrail system and reach the drill. Once the drill is activated, the Chief Engineer calls and plays the message fom her counterpart in Rivet's dimension. The message from the stranger implores them to not turn on the drill. The rifts had damaged it and was the cause of her Blizar Prime being destroyed. The Engineer desperately attempts a remote shutdown but is unable to. The drill excavates some Phase Quartz that Rivet knocks out of the beam with her hammer, shifting them back to her dimension where she is attacked by the Nefarious Troopers. She quickly finds more Blizon however and returns to the other dimension to save the planet. The Goons-4-Less continue trying to attack her but Rivet knocks one of their Dropships into the drill and successfully dislodges it's laser before it shatters the planet.
The Phase Quartz is Shattered[]
Rivet retrieves the broken Phase Quartz pieces and tells Clank about the Fixer.
In the chaos, Clank and the Phase Quartz fall into the dislodged laser's trajectory but Rivet chooses to narrowly save Clank while the Phase Quartz is broken to pieces. While the situation looks bad, Rivet picks up the shattered fragments and recalls to Clank stories the Morts had told her about an individual on Torren IV known as the Fixer, who is said to be capable of fixing anything. Rivet, understanding how bad the Morts are at lying, feels their highly spoken tales of The Fixer are worth looking into. Clank takes her word for it and the two head back to Rivet's dimension again and jump in their ship to take off to Torren IV.
Find the Missing Chef (Optional)[]
Whilst on the alternate Blizar Prime, Rivet passes by a group of miners loudly complaining that they have yet to receive any food yet. Rivet traveled past them, off the crossroads of the main mining hub down Honey Road and encountered the mining site's Sous Chef. The Sous Chef called out to her and asked if she was heading in that direction, to have a look around for Chef Tulio. Tulio had left alone to search for ingredients and was supposed to come back an hour ago but had not returned. Rivet agrees to keep an eye out and while traveling further down the road, she soon enough receives a radio transmission from Chef Tulio. Tulio sees Rivet and asks her to make her way up to Crystal Ridge if she wishes to help the chef with creating what she calls the galaxy's next food dish of the century.
Chef Tulio explaining her plan of harvesting the Sirangian Honey to Rivet.
Upon reaching Chef Tulio, she formally introduces herself to Rivet, describing herself as a great artiste that needs to suffer to create beauty. She tells Rivet that if she is to make her greatest dish yet, she needs to extract Sirganian Honey from the Fendersax wasp hive below them using her VAC-U-SUK machine. Doing this however requires her full attention and Rivet must protect the machine from the local wildlife; including Lava puffoids, Fendersax wasps and Toxic crabs. The aroma of the honey being brought to the surface will cause creatures in the area to try and break the VAC-U-SUK to get at it, as well as some of the Goons-4-Less. Tulio sets up fire traps on either side of the VAC-U-SUK for Rivet to use in defending the machine. She used this method of defense as she states she could not abide by the stench of pesticides and thought to go back to her culinary roots in barbecue.
While Rivet defends the VAC-U-SUK, Chef Tulio finds inspiration for a number of new dishes, including; a sirangian honey-glazed puffoid for the main course, a zurpified magma mead to drink and an upside-down Snagglebeast honey mousse for dessert. After the honey has all been harvested, Tulio reflects on the suffering that had brought her new ideas to light, although Rivet questions what suffering as the chef had not done anything to warrant this, with the Lombax performing by far the brunt of the work. Tulio ignores this however but rewards Rivet with a Spybot for her assistance.
Ending Credits[]
The Fixer pulls Blizar Prime back together.
In the ending credits sequence of Rift Apart, the aftermaths of both versions of Blizar Prime are expounded on. In Rivet's dimension, the Mysterious Stranger is seen along with her own Science Bots in the debris of Blizar Prime, while the Fixer uses his special restoration abilities to pull the pieces of the shattered planet back together. He also begins repairing the destroyed mining equipment, including the excavation drill.
The Blizar chefs serve the miners their meals.
Later in the credits, Chef Tulio and the Sous Chef are seen on the intact dimension's Blizar Prime, serving the Chief Engineer and the rest of the miners their Sirangian Honey smorgasbord that Rivet had helped create earlier. The main excavation drill here is also shown to have been left lopsided after Rivet knocked a Goon Dropship into it's side to dislodge it's beam and save the planet.
Geography[]
Overview[]
Blizar Prime level map (Rivet's dimension).
Blizar Prime level map (Intact dimension).
Blizar Prime is a rather small world neighbouring a number of unnamed and much larger planets. It is quite inhospitable with the planet almost entirely covered in craggy rock formations and towering spires. Much of the lower surfaces of the planet are also filled with large bodies of molten lava. The landscapes also appear to be extremely barren with plantlife being rather uncommon. It appears to be a rather primordial planet in the earliest stages of it's natural development. As a result, there does not seem to be any native sapient life on the planet with local creatures consisting of; Thwogs seen flying in flocks through the skies, Toxic crabs in the lava caves, Fendersax wasps nesting inside caverns and Lava puffoids swimming in the liquid hot magma pits. The planet is rich with elusive minerals including Raritanium, but it's primary resource are rare blizon crystals. The large mining operation on the planet is managed by an unknown race known only as the Blizar Miners. The miners are rather safety conscious and are all equipped with full body, reinforced hazmat suits that are akin to spacesuits and each fitted with built-in jetpacks. To excavate minerals from the planet's extremely dense crust and deeper, the heavy mining equipment at the site is quite large in scope and strength.
Locations[]
- Just on the edge of the mining site is a guest Landing Pad for the use of visiting spacecraft.
- The path by the Landing Pad leads to a Welcome Center to greet new arriving visitors. In the case a safety lockdown is engaged, the center will become sealed and disallow visitors from entering the mining site.
- On the other side of the Welcome Center is the Worker Transport. It is a large mobile platform used to ferry miners over dangerous lava pits between other areas and the central Mining Hub.
- The Mining Hub at the centre of the site is where all extracted minerals are taken to be processed before being shipped off of the planet. It is also a nexus point that connects all other areas of the mining site together.
- The large Hydraulic Pump just next to the Mining Hub is used to provide power to much of the machinery at the mining site. To keep the hydraulic motor lubricated and funtional, large amounts of some sort of grease are circulated through various tubes. If the main grease tube becomes blocked, machinery such as elevators will be rendered inactive.
- At the top of the elevator at the Mining Hub is Drill Receiving. All raw minerals excavated from the main drill are transported along a large rail system and delivered here, where they are then moved down to the hub for processing.
- At the heart of the blizon mining operation stands the site's enormous excavation Drill. It is an incredibly powerful and colossal piece of heavy machinery, held in place by three huge support struts dug into the surrounding mountains. It's function is the strenuous task of extracting minerals from deep in the planet, one of the most notable of which being Phase Quartz. The drill's narrow laser is used to cut through the planet's hard crust and uses it's beam to extract ore to the surface. When the drill was damaged by unstable rifts in Rivet's dimension, it's power went wildly out of control and shattered the planet.
- Honey Road is a short pathway surrounded by lava leading just off from the central Mining Hub towards the Wasp Caverns and Crystal Ridge.
- The Wasp Caverns are the location of a large Fendersax wasp hive just underneath Crystal Ridge. In this hive the wasps create their revered and greatly coveted Sirangian honey.
- Crystal Ridge is an elevated peak made up of several giant crystal formations just above the Wasp Caverns.
- Beyond the Mining Hub and accessed with a safety lift is the Old Mining Site. It is the oldest area of the mining operation and where the Chief Engineer's Survey Station can be found. A number of the stations and facilities in this area of the mining operation are defunct and no longer in active use.
- The Survey Station is from where the Chief Engineer oversees all operations at the mining site.
- Close by the Survey Station in the Old Mining Site is a cave containing a Rich Blizon Deposit.
- Also found in the Old Mining Site is an inoperative Research Facility used for studying blizon.
- In another section of the Old Mining Site is the Abandoned Site. The area is comprised of numerous defunct drill platforms.
Behind the scenes[]
Apart from Chef Tulio, the only other Blizar miner with a mentioned name is an individual named Elaine. She is revealed to be one of the few miners on the planet who knows how to fix the finely tuned drill bit.
Blizar miners at Zordoom Prison.
A number of Blizar miners are shown incarcerated at Zordoom Prison for unknown reasons. They are eventually freed from their cells by Rivet along with all the other inmates at the prison. It's possible these miners were survivors of Blizar Prime's destruction and were captured by some of the Nefarious Troopers sent to the ruins to intercept Rivet and Clank. It's also possible they were imprisoned before the planet's destruction for nebulous offenses against the Nefarious Empire like many innocent prisoners had been.
When a dimensionally displaced Nefarious Juggernaut emerges from a rift in the Survey Station in the intact dimension, the Chief Engineer reacts with aghast shock and has no idea what it is. This seems to suggest that the Nefarious Empire and it's troopers do not exist in this alternate dimension.
An alternate counterpart to Ms. Zurkon is shown to exist in the unknown dimension on the intact Blizar Prime. She appears to be identical to her counterpart in Rivet's dimension in every discernible way and runs her own weapons vendor aswell.
Insomniac orb at the Mining Hub.
Insomniac orb just before the lift.
Inside each level of Rift Apart are hidden easter eggs in the form of a dark orb with the logo of Insomniac Games marked on them. Some major locations also have more than one. The logo was intended to be a sky blue color the same as the official Insomniac Games' logo, but due to a graphical glitch it appears as a mix of blues and purples. They are not related in anyway to game progression or trophies and are simply placed in out of view locations for players to happen upon as pieces of the level environment. When they are hit by a weapon, a burst of confetti will emit from them and they will freely roll around the area. If the player refreshes the area, they will be reset again. One of these orbs can be found on the intact dimension's Blizar Prime at the Mining Hub on top of a large piece of mining equipment. A second orb can also be found not far away, in a storage area just above the safety lift that goes to the survey station.
Tributes[]
Throughout Rift Apart, collectibles named CraiggerBears can be found as tribute to developer Craig Goodman, with one in each major location and nine in total. Collecting one earns the Bronze trophy "It's So Fluffy!" and all nine earns the Gold trophy "UnBEARably Awesome". The one at Blizar Prime is found in the intact dimension's Welcome Center, just before the exit in a pile of scrap and next to the purple blizon crystal.
Development art[]
Citations[]
- ↑ Rift Apart, Mission: "Return to the Other Dimension"