Game modes

Survival, Expedition, co-op, and team PvP: what changes in each way of playing, in v0.9.0.

Survival

The classic mode: you pick a map and clear its 3 phases. Each phase lasts 10 minutes, the phase boss appears at minute 8, and killing it opens the advance portal without waiting for the clock.

When you cross into phase 3, the game announces it with a banner — you've completed the 3 phases — and the run carries on in overtime with no end: the horde never stops growing, and the run only ends with death or abandonment. That's where high scores get made.

Expedition

Expedition chains its 3 phases across 3 different maps, from lower to higher difficulty: phase 1 on Kharvalen Desert or Meadow Forest (chosen at random), phase 2 on Corrupted Desert, and phase 3 on Swamp Marshland.

The run travels with you through each portal: score, gold, level, full build, equipped set, health and mana, the clock, and the difficulty floor all carry over from map to map. It's the mode for the main leaderboard, and it scores on its own boards inside Stats.

Co-op (up to 4 players)

From the Multiplayer menu you set up a lobby for up to 4 players, over Steam (inviting friends or sharing the lobby code) or direct LAN/IP. The host picks the map and how loot is shared — "whoever picks it up" or "split evenly" — and no race can repeat within the lobby.

Going down isn't dying: as long as a teammate is still standing they can revive you by holding the interact key, and you spectate until then. In exchange, difficulty rises +60% per extra living player, and if your connection drops the game tries to reconnect you to the run.

Team PvP (1v1 and 2v2)

The "PvP (teams)" mode pits Team A against Team B in 1v1 or 2v2 duels. Teams must be full and evenly matched, no race repeats within a team, and the lobby is declared Normal or Ranked before starting.

The duel plays out on a live map: during the first 10 minutes the horde keeps spawning, letting you level up and gear your build while you hunt your rival. At minute 10 the horde stops respawning — whatever's still alive stays, but nothing new comes in — and the hunt begins. There's no boss and no phase advance.

The team that wipes out the other wins: the match ends the instant a team has no living members left (a downed player who isn't revived, or a disconnected one, counts as eliminated; if both teams fall at once, it's a draw). The scoreboard tracks kills and assists, and statuses an enemy player inflicts on you expire on their own, with their timer visible.

In Ranked, each format has its own PvP Rating: you start at 2000 and each duel moves it with an Elo based on team averages (±50 between evenly matched rivals). Draws and Normal matches don't touch it, and ranked isn't available in the demo.

Checked against game v0.9.0.