Hyperspawn
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Hyperspawns is a player-assigned name for an alternative way to play Atlantis and the Haunted Seas; it is not an official gamemode.
A Hyperspawn involves bringing in multiple player-controlled ships to increase the maximum size of the enemy spawn. The extra ships, generally but not always, are used to help sink the spawn and defend the main ship that hauls the treasure. Extra ships, often called "supports", only have 1 b-nav and perhaps 1 MAA on board, otherwise filled by Mercenaries.
Hyperspawns require a minimum of 3 player ships in the same zone (elite or spectral, for example). The enemy spawn is based on the size of the player ships as well - for example, 1 WF and 2 sloops will not spawn much more than 1 WF by itself, using multiple WFs is the standard route. While 2-player ships do increase the possible amount of sinks, the maximum enemy size stays the same.
An odd number of ships seems to have a higher increase in the spawn size than even numbers - for example, the enemy spawn from 4->5 ships is larger than the one from 3->4. It can be done in any zone, but generally is done in the highest zone for the best possible loot.
History and origin
Hyperspawns were incredibly hard to do before the introduction of the Mercenary.
During the late 2023- early 2024 war between Don't Open Till Doomsday and Late Night Hoes, there were massive PVP battles inside Haunted Seas against Graveyard runs by both flags - it was at this time that players noticed the amount of enemy ghost frigates spawned increased due to the amount of player ships on the map. Initially,
On Feb 18, 2024 pirate Aquaneer ran the first Haunted Seas Hyperspawn using 3 WFs and the zone-hopper method. On March 15, 2024 pirate Tzz ran the first Atlantis Hyperspawn using 3 WFs and the standard method.
Hyperspawns started as a way to trophy hunt quicker - more enemy spawn size means more big monsters/ships. After some time passed, players realized Hyperspawns could also be highly profitable when ran with a full ship and a large enough enemy spawn.
Method
Standard
All player ships stay in the same zone and shoot the enemy spawn together. No zone hopping, board juggling, etc. This is the most common type of run, making up the extreme majority of Hyperspawns. It can be done in any zone, but is primarily done at the backwall.
Zone hopping spawners
As players were learning how it worked, zone-hopping spawners were used instead of the standard method. The initial goal was also to funnel all kills on the main ship, and this method runs no risk of kills being stolen by supports, as the supports don't shoot. However, the kill rate is considerably lower because only one ship is shooting.
The main ship generally plays on the backwall while the supports play on the sidewall, a few zones above the zone border. Their only purpose is to increase the size of the spawn. Each time new enemies spawn, there is a chance that the player ship being targeted swaps to one of the support ships - at which point they jump over the zone border for a turn to reset the targeted ship to the main one.
In-and-out
The primary relevance for in-and-out is Zone 1 HS hyperspawns, but it can be done in Atlantis as well. The main ship plays in the zone that the support ships spawn in. The support ships enter the map for a few turns, until a spawn is triggered, and then exit again. The main ship sinks off the spawn, and the supports enter, rinse and repeat. Supports can also stay in and shoot, just a low-zone Standard run, but the runner will lose a massive sum of PoE doing so because the loot in low zones is considerably weaker than that of high zones.