Wave Battler Beginner's Guide: How to Survive Your First Runs

Wave Battler is a free browser game about wave survival. You fly a small craft through an arena while enemies pour in from every side. In Deep Drift it is a little brass sub on a sunlit seabed. In Neon Grid it is a sharp fighter in deep space. The two worlds play the same way; only the looks and the names change. You can start a run right now at wavebattler.com/play.

How a wave survival run works

You never aim. Your gun turns and fires on its own at enemies in range. Your job is to move, to dash through danger, and to use your one ability when it is ready. Everything else comes from the cards you buy between waves.

1. 1

   Fight the wave

   Enemies arrive in pulses: about half the wave at once, then the rest as the field thins out. Clear them all to end the wave.

2. 2

   Collect the coins

   When the last enemy falls, the coins on the floor fly to you.

3. 3

   Pick a marker

   Two markers appear. One is the shop. The other is a skip portal that passes on the shop for a small gift of coins and health.

4. 4

   Shop, then go again

   The shop sells card levels for coins. When you are done, start the next wave.

5. 5

   Every fifth wave is a boss

   Waves 5, 10, 15 and so on are one boss, alone. Beat it and you pick a Rare card (or the Legendary on wave 20).

Now and then a cleared wave turns into a bonus round: 20 seconds with its own health bar. It cannot touch the health you are carrying, but if the bonus bar runs out you lose every coin the round paid you.

Campaign, Endless and the five difficulties

Campaign is 40 waves with a boss every fifth wave, and wave 40 is always the finale, THE COLOSSUS (THE SINGULARITY in Neon Grid). Endless has no finish line. It also brings a boss every five waves, and past wave 10 it grows much faster than the campaign does. It is built to end you sooner or later.

Controls on keyboard, controller and phone

Any controller with the standard layout works: Xbox, PlayStation or Switch Pro. On a phone, hold it sideways. Held upright, the game asks you to turn it. In the shop, R (or X / □ on a pad) refreshes the cards. More detail lives on the how to play page.

Your first runs, step by step

1. Keep moving. Standing still is how you get hit. From wave 5 the shooters start leading their aim, so change direction instead of running in one straight line.
2. Dash through, not away. Nothing can hit you mid-dash. Dash right through a line of shots or a charging boss.
3. Stack a few cards. The shop's first slot is often a card you already own. Levels add up, and six cards evolve at level 3.
4. Read the floor. Lines, lanes and circles show where an attack will land. When a boss wears a gold OPEN ring, it takes 50% more damage. Hit it then.
5. Shop or portal. Early on, the shop is usually worth it. The portal is for when nothing in the shop fits your build.

First-time tips that save runs

• Perfect waves pay. Clear a wave without being touched and you heal a little. At full health that heal becomes coins instead.
• Untouched boss, extra life. Clear a boss wave without a scratch to earn an extra life. You can hold two.
• Grab power-ups. Drops include Overdrive, Shield, Nova and Mend. A power-up that grows fists when you come close is a Mimic.
• Check your build. Tab (or d-pad up) shows every card and stat you own, and the game waits while you look.
• Read the elite tags. A VOLATILE elite explodes when it dies, inside a dashed ring. Step out of the ring first.
• Your run is saved at every shop. Close the tab and pick Continue later.

What carries over between runs

Cards, Rares, Legendaries and the Devil's contracts all reset when a run ends. What stays is your skill tree and the Points ◆ that pay for it.

• One point for every five waves you reach, and 3 more for a full campaign clear.
• 3 points for every account level (levels come from XP, up to level 30).
• 3 points the first time you beat each boss on each difficulty.
• 1 point the first time you kill each kind of enemy, and each kind of elite.
• More talent slots as you level: 3 to start, one more at levels 5, 12, 20 and 30, and one for a Brutal campaign clear.

Tree nodes, feats, your best waves and scores, and your skins all stay. Resetting the tree is free and gives every point back. Signed in on wavebattler.com, your progress syncs to your account. A run you have not finished stays on the device you played it on. For what to spend points on, see the builds guide.