Arena Survival

Arena Survival is a roguelite arena shooter in the bullet-heaven mould: your weapons fire on their own, so the only thing you control is where you stand. Every decision is about movement and about which card you take next.

A run is a clock. The bar across the top counts towards the final boss and marks what is coming on it: an elite about half a minute before each boss, then the boss itself. The first boss arrives at 1:20 and another every ninety seconds, five in all, and the fifth is always the Warden at 7:20. Each boss locks a ring around you for the fight and plays its own pattern. Ram charges in straight lines, Brood fires rings of darts with a gap in them and lays eggs that hatch, Pyre sets the ground erupting, Maw drags you towards it, and the Warden throws every one of those at you in three phases. Leave the Warden standing past 8:30 and it enrages.

Enemies drop gems, gems level you up, and each level offers a card with three choices. You carry at most four weapons and four passives, and the slots under the clock show what you hold and how far each piece has climbed. When a card shows nothing you want, Reroll draws a new hand, Skip passes it for two cores, and Banish removes an item from the rest of the run. Cards show damage per second before and after a pick when it changes, so comparing a fourth level of Blaster against a first level of Mines is arithmetic rather than a guess.

Evolutions come from chests. Elites drop a small chest and bosses drop big ones holding three or five items. Bring a weapon to level 8, carry its paired passive, and the next chest turns it into its evolved form: Blaster with Split becomes Scatter Cannon, Orbit with Armor becomes Saw Storm, Nova with Reach becomes Quasar, and so on for all twelve weapons. A chest with no evolution to give still levels up the things you already own. Light sources scattered around the arena break for cores, rations that heal, a lodestone that pulls in every gem, or a flare that wipes the screen.

There are four stages, and each one changes a rule rather than just a number. Neon Plaza is the open training ground. Ember Wastes is scattered with lava pools that burn everything standing in them, you included, so the play is to drag a crowd across the lava instead of fighting it head on. Frost Pillars fills the arena with ice columns that stop enemy shots and stun any charger that rams one. Void Rift opens gravity wells that pull enemies and gems into a single knot. Each stage awards up to three stars: one for the first boss, two for the third, three for beating the Warden. One star opens the next stage.

Optional supply tasks give each arena another reason to move: hold a signal ring in Neon Plaza, defeat eight enemies inside a marked ring in Ember Wastes, break three crystals in Frost Pillars, or collect three signal sparks in Void Rift. There are up to three short windows per run. Completing one leaves a single-item supply chest; missing it has no penalty, and the task gives way to a boss fight.

The arsenal grows to twelve weapons and fourteen passives as you play. Survive 4:30 to unlock bouncing Ricochet rounds, defeat eight bosses in total for explosive Ember Pods, open fifteen chests for temporary Sentry towers, earn two Frost Pillars stars for slowing Cold Wake zones, and clear Ember Wastes for Wingmate companions. Each unlock also adds its paired passive and evolution recipe. The field guide lists these goals and records the enemies and bosses you have encountered, with tips for avoiding their attacks.

Between runs the cores you earned buy permanent power-ups: more damage, armor, health, recovery, cooldown, area, speed, magnet, growth, greed, plus extra rerolls, skips and banishes. Prices rise with every purchase, so the order you buy in is a choice, and Refund gives everything back if you want to try a different plan. Playing also unlocks things by itself. Reaching level 10, opening chests, beating bosses, surviving three minutes or evolving a weapon each add a new hero, weapon or passive to the pool. There are seven heroes, each starting with a different weapon and a small bonus of their own, and the Collection screen shows everything you have found and what the next unlock asks for.

Clearing a stage opens Heat, five steps of tougher, faster enemies, extra elites, bosses that switch phase sooner and weaker healing, paying up to twice the cores. A cleared run adds a 50 percent bonus on top. Movement is WASD or the arrow keys, or a gamepad; on a phone you put your thumb anywhere and drag, and a stick appears under it. There is no aiming and no fire button, it runs in the browser on phone and desktop alike, and a full run fits into ten minutes.

Move with WASD, the arrow keys or a gamepad stick or D-pad; on touch, put your thumb anywhere and drag the stick that appears. Your weapons fire on their own, so the whole game is positioning. Collect gems to level up and pick a card with 1 to 4 on a keyboard, or press R to reroll, X to skip and B to banish. A weapon at level 8 plus its paired passive evolves from the next chest. A run ends when you go down or when you bring down the Warden, and the cores you earned buy permanent power-ups.