Survivor Arena

by w1n

Survivor Arena is a single player top-down survivors-like where you walk, aim with the mouse, and the gun fires itself. Skeletons come in from every edge of a floor that never ends, and the only question a run asks is what you build out of what they drop. How it plays You never stop moving. Kills drop gems, gems fill the level bar, and every level-up offers three cards drawn from fifteen skills and ten passives. Five skill slots, six passive slots, and the hand is dealt from what you already own, so the build closes fast, and what you passed on is gone for the run. The dash is the only thing you press on purpose. The twist is evolution. Carry a skill to level five while holding the passive it wants and the two become a third thing: Durian and Pickup Range make Bramble, Laser and Damage make Solar Lance, Slash and Armor make Full Moon. Mine forks, Duration turns it into Inferno Mine, Projectile Count into Cluster Mine, and if you hold both, the passive you levelled higher decides. Evolutions are handed out by the chest that opens when a round boss dies, so the build lands on a beat instead of a menu. A stage is a chain of rounds three in the Junkyard, six in the Arena each one ending on a boss and each one heavier than the last, and clearing the final round ends the run as a win. Dying is not a wipe: the coin pile comes home either way. Stars are what a clean clear pays. One for the clear, two for clearing without going down, three for doing it without touching a health pack. Coins go to the shop, and the shop never finishes. Damage, Max HP, Attack Speed and XP Gain have no last tier, the cost compounds, so there is always a next one to save toward. Chests drop gear, three copies of a piece merge into the rarity above it, and hero levels open the places to wear it: a necklace at five, a belt at eight, Endless at ten, a fourth card at twenty.