About Nightfall: Survivors
You are alone in a clearing that keeps filling up. Your attacks aim themselves, so every choice you make is about where to stand and which skill to level next. Level skills across ice, fire, lightning, thorns and arcane wisps, pick up companions along the way, and hold out long enough to meet all three bosses. A run is short. Losing one is normal.
How to play
- Choose a hero and a map, then enter the clearing. Your attacks fire at the nearest enemy on their own.
- Move to dodge, and walk over the souls enemies drop. A full experience bar lets you pick one of three skill upgrades.
- Walk into treasure chests for health and a free upgrade. A new chest appears near you every 30 seconds.
- Dash through danger and use nova to freeze and push back anything close.
- Defeat all three bosses to win. The run ends if your health reaches zero.
Tips
- Save nova for crowds. Nova has a 14-second cooldown. It hits everything within a wide ring for 16 damage, freezes it for 1.5 seconds and knocks it back, which is often enough to walk out of a surround.
- Dash through, not away. A dash makes you untouchable for under half a second. Aim it through a gap or a boss telegraph. Windstep ranks shorten its cooldown from 3.6 seconds.
- Learn the boss clock. The Hollow Knight arrives at 1:00, Mother of Thorns at 2:20 and The Eclipse at 3:40. Each gets an extra attack below half health, so burst them past it.
- Hit shields from behind. The Barkshield brute soaks shots coming at its front until the shield breaks. Freezing it or flanking lets damage through, and area spells ignore the shield.
- Kill healers and bloaters first. Rot menders restore a quarter of every nearby ally's health. Blight bloaters swell for under a second, then burst; killing one before that stops the blast.
Read the full Nightfall: Survivors guide (5 min read)
From the developer
Nightfall: Survivors started on 8 September as a survival arena in the browser, written in JavaScript with three.js for the 3D. Your attacks aim themselves, so every choice is about where to stand and which skill to level next.
The biggest change came on 14 September, when I rebuilt the world and characters from art packs I own. The trees, rocks, chests and gems come from POLYGON Prototype Pack by Synty Studios, the heroes from KayKit Adventurers Character Pack by Kay Lousberg, the monsters and two of the bosses from Monsters Ultimate Pack 09 Cute Series by Meshtint Studio, the swamp map from Low Poly Atmospheric Locations Pack by Palmov Island, and effects from Polygonal's Low-Poly Particle Pack. Baking colour into the models and drawing them in batches per map chunk took a late wave from 1,251 draw calls to 44.
The animation took the most fixing. The Meshtint clip files store their bones in a different rest orientation from the models, so copying the keys straight across made worms stand on end and sink into the ground, and saplings walk on their backs. Retargeting every clip onto its own rig brought the error at baked frames down from as much as 182% of a creature's height to at most 6.5%.
Son Hoang, who made Nightfall: Survivors
Update history
- Every monster now animates on its own rig: saplings no longer walk tipped on their backs, bat wings no longer stand up as spikes, and worms crawl instead of standing on end.
- Five new skills (Ice lance, Blizzard, Ember meteor, Skyfall, Thorn ring), five special enemies, two mini-bosses and enraged boss phases, with sounds for each.
- Heroes and monsters play their attack animations, projectiles are easier to read, and frozen enemies shatter.
- A real loading bar, and menus that fit phones and desktops without scrolling.
- Animated KayKit heroes and Meshtint monsters, particle effects, and a second map, the moonlit swamp.
- The world and heroes rebuilt from Synty and KayKit models; a late wave went from 1,251 draw calls to 44.
- Text now scales with the screen instead of staying at one small size.
- First version: a survival arena with touch controls, skills, companions and bosses, followed the same day by animated 3D combatants and synthesised sound.
Questions
Does Nightfall: Survivors save my progress?
No. Nothing carries between runs: every run starts with your chosen hero at rank one and no upgrades. The end screen shows time survived, enemies defeated, bosses beaten and chests opened for that run only.
Can I play on a phone?
Yes. Drag the on-screen stick to move and tap the NOVA and DASH buttons. Attacks aim automatically, so movement is the only thing you steer.
Is there an ending?
Yes. Defeating all three bosses frees the clearing and ends the run as a win. The mini-bosses do not count towards it. The earliest the final boss appears is 3:40.
Can I pause?
Yes. Press Escape or P, or use the pause button. The game also pauses by itself when you switch tabs or the window loses focus.
