NIGHT TIDE

How to play

This is not a game about aiming. All six weapons fire by themselves: blades seek the nearest shade, fire lanterns orbit you, lightning strikes at random, paper cranes curve after their target, an ink wave pulses out from your body, and a bell chime pierces in four directions. Your hands do two things — move, and decide what to take at level-up. The real density of a run is not in your fingers but in your head: which way to circle, when to spend the talisman, whether this level buys damage or area.

Shades pour in from all four edges and the pressure climbs every minute: density rises through ten wave bands, and every shade’s health and damage grow 12% per minute. The first two minutes are almost a walk. By four you are circling. After six, three or four kinds press the edges at once and the screen carries bullets you have to dodge. The lamp holds five measures of oil; a touch costs about one, and empty means the night holds. No revives, no continues — one run is one complete breath inside ten minutes.

Run length

10 minutes (clock caps at 10:00)

Elite shades

one at 3:00 and one at 6:00

Tide Lord

rises at 9:00; killing it wins

Weapons / passives / evolutions

6 / 6 / 6

Combo

2s window, up to ×8

Thunder talisman

20s cooldown, hits all + clears bullets

Lamp oil

5 to start; Everlit Candle raises the cap

Records

best score and longest run, on this device

Controls

What happens inside ten minutes

A run is ten minutes. The clock stops at 10:00 and stays there, but stopping is not finishing — the Tide Lord that rose at 9:00 is still on the field, and only killing it opens the dawn results. The last minute is overtime for the boss, not extra time for farming.

Density follows a ten-band wave table. You start under one shade per second, all slow wisps. Swifts and swarmlings join after two minutes; brutes start tanking the front at four; spitters and spinners arrive at six and the screen carries its first bullets you must dodge. Past eight minutes it is five-plus per second with four kinds pressing the edges together. Once the boss rises, spawning actually drops back to about three per second — the remaining pressure comes from the boss itself.

Every shade’s health and damage scale +12% per minute. The same wisp that cost a quarter measure of oil in minute one costs more than half a measure by minute eight. Standing still works early and stops working later; the value of moving grows with the clock.

• 0:00–2:00: wisps only, low density — bank your first weapon and first passive;
• 3:00: first elite shade, 900 base health, drops six gems;
• 6:00: second elite, nearly twice as tough as the first by then;
• 9:00: the Tide Lord rises, 5200 base health, three bullet phases;
• 10:00: clock caps, spawning stops, the boss fight continues.

Six weapons, six kinds of crowd

Talisman Blades are what you start with: spinning blades thrown at the nearest shade, one per level, five in a fan at max. They always hit something, which is the point; single-hit damage is modest and clearing packs comes from count.

Lantern Orbit fires no projectiles at all. Fire lanterns circle you and burn shades on contact, once per half second per shade. It is the backbone of a face-tank build: the more shades crowd you, the better it pays. Thunder Strike is the opposite — random bolts inside a 300-pixel starting radius, one per level, made for scattered targets.

Paper Cranes curve after their target on their own, so you can circle while your damage finds work. Ink Wave pulses a ring out from your body, hurting everything inside and pushing it 26 pixels outward — the button you press when surrounded. Bell Chime sends piercing waves in four directions, best against shades queued in a line.

• Talisman Blades: 0.85s volley, level = blade count, eight in a ring when evolved;
• Lantern Orbit: constant orbit, 1/1/2/2/3 lanterns by level, six when evolved;
• Thunder Strike: 2.1s volley, level = bolt count, in-range only;
• Paper Cranes: 1.5s volley, 1/1/2/2/3 cranes, homing;
• Ink Wave: 3.4s pulse, radius grows with level, knocks back;
• Bell Chime: 2.6s volley, four piercing directions, eight when evolved.

Three picks per level, six evolution recipes

Experience comes from gems shades drop; walk near and they are pulled in (60-pixel base radius, +25% per level of Lure Jade). The curve is 5, 9, 13, 17… each level costs four more than the last, so levels come fast early and slow late; a full run usually lands somewhere in the teens to twenties.

Every level-up pauses the game and offers three picks: a new weapon, a weapon level, a passive level, or — when the recipe is met — an evolution. Picks are drawn at random, but the pool only contains what you can still take: an evolution enters the pool only once its weapon is at level 5 and its paired passive is at least level 1.

Evolutions are the core of a build. Weapon at 5 plus its passive at 1 or more, and the next level-up can offer it. Evolved means double damage and a new shape: eight blades in a ring, six lanterns on a wide orbit, eight bolts, six cranes, double-radius ink, eight-way chime. The six recipes are fixed; memorise them and you can plan a whole run.

• Talisman Blades + Cinnabar Seal → Sword Storm;
• Lantern Orbit + Wide Chime → Wildfire Ring;
• Thunder Strike + Fast Hourglass → Storm Prison;
• Paper Cranes + Swift Boots → Crane Swarm;
• Ink Wave + Lure Jade → Ink Deluge;
• Bell Chime + Everlit Candle → Dawn Toll.

Combo is the score, not decoration

Each kill adds one to your combo; kill again within two seconds and it chains, drop the window and it resets, capped at ×8. Score is not a plain sum: every shade’s base value is multiplied by your current combo. A wisp is 10, a swift 15, a brute 40, an elite 500, the Tide Lord 5000 — the same brute is 40 at ×1 and 320 at ×8.

So chasing score is simple to state: do not break the chain. Circling tight so your weapons keep reaching shades holds the multiplier better than running off for gems; take the elite and boss payouts while the combo is high. Gems can wait a moment. A broken combo cannot.

The results screen reports your best combo. It and your best score live only in this browser; another device or cleared site data starts from zero.

The talisman: a screen clear every twenty seconds

Space (or the round button on mobile) casts the thunder talisman: a bolt lands on every shade on the field for 120 base damage, scaled by Cinnabar Seal, and every enemy bullet is cleared at the same time. Twenty-second cooldown, counted down on the HUD.

It has two jobs. One is rescue: surrounded, screen full of bullets, spend it and the field resets. The other is execution: elites and the boss are thick, and that global hit stacked on your weapon damage is the fastest single beat of pressure you have. Both jobs compete for the same twenty seconds, so what a run actually trains is when not to spend it.

The talisman does not clear your own shots, restore oil, or add combo. It does damage and clears enemy bullets, nothing else. Do not ask it to be anything more.

Five measures of oil

Health here is lamp oil, five measures to start. A shade touching you costs a quarter of its damage (at least one measure); an enemy bullet costs a quarter of its own. Empty oil ends the run. Each hit grants 0.9 seconds of invulnerability, so being surrounded does not drain you instantly — but standing still still kills you.

Everlit Candle adds one measure of cap and heals one per level, the only way to raise the cap; the “Lamp Oil” level-up pick heals two. Spitters stop at 180 pixels and spit at you, spinners fire an eight-way ring every 3.2 seconds, elites a three-way fan every 1.6 — those three are where most oil goes, and dodging bullets is worth more than dodging bodies.

The Tide Lord has three phases. Above two-thirds health it fires twelve-way rings; in the middle it switches to a five-way fan aimed at you; in the last third, sixteen-way rings plus one aimed shot. The rhythms differ; in the last phase, survive first and damage second.

Questions

How do I play on a phone?

Hold and drag on the canvas to move; weapons fire automatically. The round button at the lower right is the talisman. Pause and mute sit on the toolbar outside the canvas.

Why is the run not over at 10:00?

The clock caps at 10:00 and spawning stops, but the Tide Lord that rose at 9:00 is still alive. Kill it for the dawn results; run out of oil first and the night holds.

Why can I never roll an evolution?

An evolution enters the pick pool only when its weapon is level 5 and its paired passive is at least level 1. Check the recipe first, then wait for the next three picks.

Why does my combo keep breaking?

The window is two seconds. Circle tight so weapons keep reaching shades instead of running off for gems; gems can wait, a broken combo resets to zero.

Can the talisman save me?

It rescues: it clears every enemy bullet and strikes the whole field. It does not restore oil, and inside its 20-second cooldown you still have only five measures.

Do records sync?

No. Best score and longest run are written to this browser’s local storage only. No account, no server.