SWARM

There is no attack button. You move, your weapons fire themselves, and every level-up asks you to pick one of three upgrades. The only decisions in the game are where to stand and what to build — which turns out to be plenty.

Controls

• WASD or arrow keys — move
• Arrow keys (or 1 2 3) — pick an upgrade on level-up
• Enter / Space — confirm, start, continue
• P — pause, T — cycle theme, C — toggle CRT effects, M — mute

The same keys drive The Arsenal on the title screen.

Builds

Five weapons that stack: Bolt (homing multi-shot), Aura (burns everything near you), Orbiters (shards circling you), Nova (expanding shockwaves), and Scythe (a fan of blades). Five at once, maximum, eight levels each — so every run is a choice about what not to take.

Six passives back them up: Vigor, Power, Haste, Swift, Magnet, Regen.

Max a weapon while holding the right passive and it evolves into a named super-weapon — STORM, INFERNO, MAELSTROM, CATACLYSM, REAPER.

Pressure

A boss arrives every ninety seconds: a telegraphed entrance, a health bar, and a fountain of XP when it dies. Five of them, scaling as you go — GOREHULK, THE MAW, BONE TYRANT, VOID HERALD, and THE END.

Every run banks Essence whether you win or lose, spent in The Arsenal on permanent upgrades. One HTML file, no dependencies, no assets.