ONE WATCHER, HOLDING
You are a vigil: a single point of light at the center of a field, holding against the dead. You don't move, it fires on its own, and never stops. What you do is decidewhat it becomes, then watch that decision play out against everything the dark sends at it.
Your only input is the cursor. Hover it and you have a beacon: it biases your vigil's aim toward whatever you're watching, vacuums up soul gems, and sweeps the echoes the fallen leave behind. It's genuinely helpful and genuinely optional. Put the mouse down and the vigil keeps fighting.
What a run looks like
Waves rise. Every fifth brings a crowned elite; every tenth brings a boss: Bone Gaoler, Ancient Lamenter, The Gravewright, on rotation, and deep enough in, all three at once. Between them, omens take a wave and bend it: the dead run faster, arrive crowned, encircle you in tightening rings.
Each level-up deals you cards. 20 skills, 6 slots: a Grave Nova that collapses inward and drags the shooters back with it; a stormchain that refuses to strike anything near; a brand that opens a hole in the world and eats what falls in. Level one to its cap, spend a charge won from a boss, and it becomes something with a new name and new rules.
35 relics drop along the way. Skills combine in ways I didn't plan and can't always predict.
And between runs
Bank your shards in the Reliquary: 24 permanent upgrades that make the next attempt meaningfully stronger. Earn rites that unseal new relics and forms. Swear vows to make a run harder on purpose, for more. Take today's vigil: one seed, the whole world playing the same run. Every run is deterministic and every one is recorded in the Ledger.
Thanks for playing it.