Swarm — guidebook

Survive a five-minute arena run and defeat the boss. You steer a teal ship through a growing crowd of geometric enemies; firing is automatic. Collect the mint sparks they leave behind to choose upgrades and make the next minute manageable.

Start and move

Press Start run. On a keyboard, focus the arena and move with WASD or the arrow keys. You can move diagonally. On touch screens, press anywhere inside the arena and drag as if using a thumbstick: the direction and distance from your first touch determine movement. Lift your finger to stop.

Shots automatically aim at the nearest enemy. There is no fire button and no ammunition counter. Your most important decisions are where to move, which sparks to collect and which upgrades to take.

Health, enemies and sparks

You start with 100 HP. Enemy contact and hostile shots cause damage; a brief invulnerability window after a hit prevents a whole crowd from damaging you simultaneously. At zero HP the run ends.

Ordinary chasers arrive from the edges. Faster runners can appear after 1:30, and tougher brutes after 3:00. Enemies become more frequent over time. Defeated enemies leave mint XP sparks. Move near sparks to attract them, then collect them to earn XP.

The HUD shows your survival time, HP, level, kills and XP toward the next level. The first level needs 9 XP; subsequent requirements rise by 4. When you level up, the arena and clock stop while you choose an upgrade.

Six upgrades

You receive up to three choices from upgrades that are not yet at their cap. Each upgrade can be chosen five times.

• Power: shot damage gains 25% of its base amount per level.
• Rapid fire: firing rate gains 15% of its base amount per level.
• Footwork: movement speed gains 10% of its base amount per level.
• Vitality: maximum HP rises by 20 and you heal 30 HP, up to the new maximum.
• Magnet: pickup radius increases by 30 arena units per level.
• Multishot: adds one projectile per volley, spreading additional shots around the main direction.

These percentage bonuses add against the base value; they do not compound. For example, Power level 2 gives 50% more damage than the starting shot. Vitality at 50/100 HP produces 80/120 HP.

If a large pickup earns several levels, upgrade choices can follow one another before play resumes. Once every upgrade is maxed, further levels heal 20 HP instead of offering another choice.

Boss, victory and overtime

The boss arrives at 4:30 and has a separate health bar. It chases you and fires aimed projectiles. You must both survive until 5:00 and defeat it. Killing the boss early does not end the survival period.

If it is still alive at 5:00, the timer changes to Overtime. New ordinary enemies stop spawning, but enemies already present remain dangerous. Automatic fire prioritises the boss. The fight continues until you defeat it or lose your remaining HP; there is no overtime time limit.

Pause, restart and focus

Press Pause, or Space with the arena focused, to stop the run. Resume continues from the same point. Switching tabs, the window losing focus or removing the game from the page also pauses active play. Return and explicitly choose Resume. All simulation clocks stop during pause and upgrade selection.

Restart asks before replacing an active run and pauses while you decide. Keeping the run leaves it paused until you resume. After victory or defeat, Restart returns to the ready screen and Start run begins again.

Runs are not saved. Reloading or closing the page ends the current run. Opening the guidebook in another tab preserves the open game but may pause it because focus changed.

A survival playbook

Keep moving toward open space. Wide loops are often safer than tight turns into the crowd, and corners offer fewer escape routes. Watch the edges where new enemies arrive.

Collect XP deliberately. Killing enemies without collecting their sparks leaves your upgrades behind. Magnet helps gather safely; Footwork helps escape; damage, fire rate and projectiles improve clearing power. Vitality can rescue a damaged run. There is no single promised winning build.

When the boss arrives, leave room to sidestep its aimed shots. In overtime, stay alive while automatic fire works on the boss; chasing leftover XP through a dangerous crowd may be unnecessary.

Browser, installation and offline play

This is a single-player game with original canvas art, no accounts and no sound. Reduced-motion mode removes decorative glow; enemy, ship and projectile movement remains necessary for play.

Load the complete standalone game online once. Install uses the browser's Install app or Add to Home Screen action where available. On iPhone/iPad Safari use Share, then Add to Home Screen. Browser play does not require installation. The game and guidebook work offline after the first complete online load. If embedded, the host site controls installation.

The full guidebook opens separately and can be printed or saved as PDF through your browser. Physical-phone performance and installation have not been verified on a device.

Troubleshooting

If movement keys do nothing, focus the arena and check for a pause or upgrade choice. If the game stopped after changing tabs, press Resume. On touch screens, drag from where your finger first landed rather than tapping a destination.

If the timer reached five minutes without victory, check the boss health bar. If offline play stops after clearing browser data, load the game online again.