01 / SHOTGUN
Breaker
Unlimited shells, nine pellets per shot. Excellent at close range. Damage falls off with distance, so keep moving and let enemies enter your effective range.
FIELD NOTES
KNOW YOUR TOOLS.
A little preparation goes a long way. So does a rocket fired from a sensible distance.
KNOW YOUR ENEMY
Commander voice
The commander reacts with short combat quips. Settings has a separate Commander voice slider (0% switches it off), a subtitle toggle and a voice preview. Normal lines are spaced 25–35 seconds apart. Enemy warnings take priority. This is pre-generated AI audio, served with the game.
Sunfall / The Legion
Shield guardians turn slowly and block most frontal bullets. Flank them or use rocket splash. Sun priests wear bright halos and heal nearby wounded allies in visible pulses. Each ally can regain at most 30% of its original health.
The Warden resists damage while its armor is intact. At half health the chest plate breaks and the boss becomes vulnerable. Leave its gold warning circle before the ground slam.
Cistern / The Drowned Brood
Leapers crouch and cry before jumping toward your last position. Sidestep the landing. Bog spitters mark green pools before they become damaging; move out before the warning ends.
The Drowned Regent creates a line of three warning pools near your position. Move across the line, not along it. Walls block area damage, and jumping can clear ground-level pulses.
Furnace / The Forge Host
Volatile hover units have twin glowing thrusters. Their wrecks flash for one second before exploding; use the blast against nearby monsters. Scrap chargers wear heavy armor. Their recovery after a missed charge is the best time to attack.
The Forgemaster overheats after three volleys. Its core expands and it stops attacking for 3.5 seconds, taking increased damage. Watch for the on-screen warning.
Endless / Rotating incursions
Armored Column, From the Depths, Drone Raid, Sun Priest Procession, Leaping Tide and Scrap Stampede repeat with increasingly strong enemies. Every fifth wave ends with the current faction’s boss. Version 0.10 rankings and survival personal bests are separate from earlier encounter versions.
CONTROLS
| INPUT | ACTION |
|---|---|
| WASD / arrows | Move |
| Mouse | Aim |
| Left mouse button | Fire; hold for repeated fire |
| Shift | Sprint |
| Space | Jump |
| 1 / 2 / 3 or mouse wheel | Change weapon |
| Escape | Pause and release the mouse |
THREE GOOD ARGUMENTS
02 / AUTOMATIC
Ripper
Fast, focused fire for ranged enemies and precise follow-up shots. Starts with 240 rounds. Gold pickups restore 100 rounds.
03 / ROCKET LAUNCHER
Hellfire
Explosive area damage for groups and heavy targets. Starts with 18 rockets. Gold pickups restore six. Nearby explosions also hurt you.
KNOW THE CROWD
- Grunts: fast melee attackers. Strafe and avoid being surrounded.
- Ranged enemies: fire visible projectiles. Keep moving sideways and use solid structures to interrupt their shots.
- Heavies: slower, tougher melee attackers. Give yourself room to retreat.
- Bosses: arrive in the final wave with an arena-specific special attack. See the faction guide above for their warnings and weaknesses.
SUPPLIES & SURVIVAL
Green crosses restore 40 health; blue armor vests restore 40 armor; gold ammunition pickups refill the Ripper and Hellfire. Supplies reappear after 20 seconds. Later waves award up to 25 health, 80 rounds and five rockets.
Armor absorbs part of incoming damage until it runs out. Your radar shows hostiles and available supplies. North is at the top; the extraction marker appears after the last enemy falls.
NEW CONTACTS
Frog stalkers are small and fast, and try to flank you. Furnace Cactoro spitters fire three-shot bursts: use cover during the burst and advance during the pause. Yeti chargers stop and show an orange warning ring before rushing in a straight line. Sidestep the charge and attack while they recover.
Frogs award 100 points, Cactoros 150 and Yetis 300, matching their grunt, ranged and heavy categories.
ENDLESS SURVIVAL
Select Endless for Last Bastion, a larger arena with no final wave. Every fifth wave brings a boss; enemy numbers and strength increase. Waves cleared come first on its separate leaderboard, followed by kills and longer survival time. Clear at least one wave, then submit after defeat or use End & Submit Survival Run from Pause. Read the full survival briefing.
CAMPAIGN SCORING
Grunts award 100 points, ranged enemies 150, heavies 300, and the boss 1,500. A completed operation adds a speed bonus: 10 points for each whole second remaining under 20 minutes. Time spent paused does not count toward your gameplay time.
Scores are ranked within each operation. A leaderboard run must finish all three waves and reach extraction. This is casual competition: the server checks run milestones and plausible timings, but cannot prove every action taken inside a browser.
HARDCORE SURVIVAL
Select Standard or Hardcore before deploying. Hardcore keeps the same map and starting loadout, but has ten mixed waves: Sunfall 350 enemies, Cistern 370, Furnace 390. Regular enemy health is 1.8×; bosses have 2.2× health. Damage is 1.6×, movement 1.15× and projectiles 1.25×. Attack cooldowns are 22% shorter; Yeti charge warnings remain readable.
Only 28 monsters can be alive at once. Kill enemies to make room for reinforcements. Between waves you gain up to 15 health, 90 rounds and six rockets. Pickups still respawn after 20 seconds. There is no forced ten-minute wait: clear all waves and extract whenever you can. Roughly ten minutes is the initial tuning target and needs playtesting.
Hardcore awards 1.5× combat points plus the usual completion speed bonus. Its boards and completion marks are separate from Standard. Daily challenges use Standard difficulty.
SOUND & ACCESSIBILITY
Settings includes separate music and sound volumes, mouse sensitivity, low render quality, weapon sway/screen shake, and a funny-sounds toggle. Reduced-motion preferences turn motion effects off by default. Use Test Sound Effects to check browser audio.