The run

A run is forty waves in four areas of ten. Each area has its own theme and its own lift; when the tenth wave of an area falls, the lift on the far side opens and you ride it down to the next. Nothing carries between runs except your callsign and your record: every gun, card, upgrade and credit is for this descent only.

Three waves are arenas with a boss: the Foreman on wave 12, the Guardian on wave 24, the Incubator on wave 36. Wave 40 is the Overseer, which hovers, charges on a telegraph and punishes standing still. Its core is the weak point. Beating it ends the run at the top of the record.

Kills pay credits and the payout grows with the wave. Enemies drop ammo and medkits. Every fifth wave a salvage cache turns up in one wing of the floor, never the wing it was in last time; stand in its ring for five seconds while the floor is still on you and it pays out. Step out and the timer bleeds back.

Between waves the clock stops and the intermission opens. That is where a run is actually built, and it has its own chapter below.

Controls

Dash is on a cooldown and can be shortened with upgrades. Parry needs the round within 4.5 metres and the timing right; a parried mortar shell still detonates where it bursts. Sprinting and jumping cost nothing but accuracy.

Between waves

Rewards

Four cards in two columns. Take one from the standard column (your own stats and abilities) and one from the weapon column (cards for the classes you carry), or skip both if nothing suits. The cards you see are dealt at random from what is still open to you; a card you already own at its maximum will not come back. On boss waves the same screen offers a weapon and, sometimes, an ability to swap in.

Armory

• Weapons. What you carry, with ammo to buy and an expanded reserve for the guns that run dry.
• Survival. Your ability's tiers, the dash's tiers, and field kit such as medkits.
• Sinks. Where a deep bank goes late in a run: reroll the reward offer, open a bonus pick, plate your shield, condition your health. Each purchase costs more than the last and nothing here is needed to win.
• Build. Every stat you have and where it came from, gun by gun.

Second Wind sits above the deploy button until you buy it: a once per run revive that puts you back on your feet where you fell. When you are done, deploy, and the next wave begins.

Weapons and cards

You carry three guns and start with one of six sidearms: M1911, Derringer, VZ .61, Dual Glock 18, Mare's Leg or P226, none of them locked. Every gun belongs to a role, and each role has a price built into its numbers so they feel different rather than trade blows on a spreadsheet:

Role	Guns	The deal
Precision	EBR-14, Kar-98, Longbolt M40, M82 .50, Recurve SL, Warden .44	One target at a time, at range. Hits 10% harder and headshots 10% harder; a miss makes your next shot inside a second land 20% softer.
Bullet hose	AR-5.56, AK-762, M266, V-45, TX-9, VZ .61, Dual Glock 18, FAMAS	Sustained fire. Hits 4% harder, reloads 10% slower, starts falling off 15% closer and kicks 10% more.
Close	Breaker 12, SPAS-12, Coach Gun, Derringer, Mare's Leg, Thumper 40	Burst up close. Hits 6% harder and falls off 10% sooner.
Specialist	Flare Gun, Harpoon Gun, HELIX, Coil Gun, Arc Welder, Throwing Knives	A mechanic first. Viable on its own before any card.
Sidearm	M1911, P226, Desert Eagle	Never runs dry, and swaps in 20% faster.

Rarity

Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary. Each tier scales the gun's numbers along its own profile. Epic switches on the gun's identity clause, a permanent perk. Legendary is a step change: the gun's unique comes built in and goes further than it does anywhere else, and stat growth is capped at 12% so the identity is the point, not the numbers. Rarity comes from drops, from the fence, and from Unit 4's forge, which now goes all the way to Legendary.

Cards

Every gun has three cards of its own: one changes the numbers, one changes how it behaves, one leans into the role. A card is a part that fits the gun, one at a time. Every gun you roll arrives with one of its cards already fitted. Unit 4's stands sell the others into a hold for that gun; the crafting table fits or swaps them for free with the gun in hand. The armory page lists all eighty-seven, gun by gun.

Uniques

Every gun has a unique, and you earn it by using the gun. Forty mastery points in a run makes you proficient and switches the unique on: a kill is one point, a headshot kill two. A hundred and twenty kills on the gun makes you mastered and switches its Epic clause on at any rarity. The loadout card shows the track. Legendary builds both in from the start.

Gifts and flaws

Guns from the fence and guns worked at the crafting table carry two gifts and one flaw: a small bonus, a small bonus, a small cost, never on the same stat. There are fifteen gifts and ten flaws, and every one rolls a grade: standard, fine at one and a half times the effect, or master at double, with the tag saying which. The table lets you choose them for a price at any rarity; a Rare or lower gun comes off the table Epic.

The people on the floor

Three stations open on store rounds and stay until you ride the lift. Walk up and press F.

Abilities and field kit

You carry one ability on E, chosen at the start and swappable on boss waves. Each has five tiers bought in the armory.

Ability	What it does
Shockwave	A radial blast that damages and shoves everything around you.
Overdrive	A short burst of fire rate, reload speed and movement.
Decoy	Drops a decoy that pulls enemies off you.
Gravity Well	Drops a well that drags enemies together and slows them.
Flashbang	Stuns everything around you. Stunned enemies cannot attack and Bulwark shields drop.
Aegis Field	Passive. After a spell without taking damage your shield rebuilds to half of its maximum.
Sentry	A turret that fires a copy of whatever you are holding. Fragile: place it where it lives.
Emergency Stim	A heal plus a short burst of speed and resistance.

Your shield is a flat layer over your health: medkits overfill into it and Aegis rebuilds it, and plating from the sinks makes it bigger. Health itself regenerates slowly after six seconds without a hit, up to a floor, never all the way. Medkits drop from enemies and can be bought in the armory. Second Wind is the once per run revive. Taking a hit matters: damage taken and your low-health time are in the run report at the end.

What is down here

Enemy	How to read it
Basic	Walks at you and swings. A readable lead before the blow lands.
Runner	Fast and thin. Turns corners well. Shoot first.
Gunner	Holds range and fires in bursts. The rounds can be parried.
Sniper	Sets up, aims, fires. The set-up is the window.
Support	Keeps the others alive. Worth the detour.
Bulwark	Armoured from the front. The visor is the tell and the weak point; a Flashbang drops the shield.
Mega	A walking boss on the regular waves. Contract waves bring one on purpose.
Bosses	The Foreman, the Guardian, the Incubator with its vats and surges, and the Overseer at the end.

Co-op and PVP

Two-player co-op. Host a room or browse open rooms from the title screen; a callsign is required. The host calls the waves and the lift, the joiner picks their own condition and sidearm, both of you fight the same enemies, and enemies go for whichever of you is nearer. Credits, cards and vendors are each player's own. A downed player is revived by the partner standing in the ring on them for five seconds, and comes up immune for two. If the host is down the joiner can call the lift. The armory opens for both on the host's countdown.

PVP. Tick it when hosting. The host picks the map, the move speed, the bloom rule, an optional clock and the guns both players fight with. No enemies, medkits at set points, respawn on the far side of the map from your opponent, first to fifteen. Your opponent's name tag only shows when you have a clear line to them. Four arenas are built for it: the Proving Ground, the Catwalks, the Crossfire and the Homestead.

Callsign and records

A callsign is claimed once on a device and carries your record: best wave, best run, the leaderboard entry. You are given a recovery code when you claim it; enter it on another device to take the record over. Nothing else persists between runs, on purpose.