How to play & controls Starlight Survivor
Starlight Survivor is a five-minute survival roguelite on an open field with no walls. You start with 160 HP and a single Magic Bolt. Each level-up offers three cards from six weapons and six abilities, and a level 5 weapon paired with its partner ability can evolve, turning Magic Bolt into Meteor Shower or Orbit Blades into Blade Storm.
The monsters do more than walk at you. Bats and giants paint a red lane before they charge, skeletons keep their distance and fire orange shots, golems mark a circle before they slam, and ghosts aim for where you are heading. The night also follows a fixed timetable of packs, bat swarms and four giants.
Scores are not taken on trust. The browser sends only your movement changes and card picks, and the server replays all five minutes with the same rules file to set the score. Tonight's Night is seeded from the UTC date, so everyone faces the same night, and its board resets at midnight UTC.
Goal
Attacks are automatic. Move to dodge the night monsters and survive 5 minutes until dawn to win.
How it works
- Pick Tonight's Night or Practice. The run starts as soon as you move.
- Your weapons fire on their own. Just keep moving so monsters can't touch you.
- Collect star shards from defeated monsters to level up, then pick one of three weapons or abilities.
- Giants appear at 2:30, 4:00 and 4:45. Defeat one for an extra level-up.
- Reach 5:00 for dawn (a win); run out of HP and you fall. Play again or share from the results.
Modes
Tonight's Night
One date-seeded night for everyone, ranked. The board keeps one best score per account, and a guest can save a finished run by picking a nickname and a 6-digit PIN.
Practice
A new random night each time, never ranked. The "Practice this night" button on the results screen replays the night you just finished, with the same seed and rules, without a record.
Challenge
Opens from a leaderboard entry or a shared result link. You play that record's night with its score shown as your target; it counts for the ranking only if the record is from today's board under the current rules.
Controls
| Action | Mouse & keyboard | Touch | Gamepad |
|---|---|---|---|
| Move | WASD or arrow keys | Press anywhere and drag; a 40 px ring appears there, and its edge is full speed | Left stick or D-pad |
| Pick a level-up card | Keys 1, 2, 3 or click | Tap a card (optional setting: preview, then confirm) | D-pad to a card, then A/× |
| Auto-pick once all eight slots are full | Tick the box in the level-up window | Tick the box in the level-up window | D-pad to the box, then A/× |
| Pause / resume | Esc | ⏸ button at the top right | START |
| Play again from results | R or Enter | Play again button | D-pad to the button, then A/× |
Tips
- Sidestep red charge lanes and danger circles. Dodge orange skeleton shots and ghosts cutting off your escape.
- 4 weapon and 4 ability slots, up to level 5. Giants at 1:30, 3:00, 4:15 and 4:45.
- Score = kills + seconds×2 + level×5, plus 300 for reaching dawn.
- You have 4 weapon and 4 ability slots; each goes up to level 5.
- Tonight's Night gives everyone the same monsters and choices for the ranking. Practice is a new night each time and is not ranked.
- The game pauses automatically when you switch tabs or leave the window.
- Stick/D-pad: move; START: pause; upgrades: D-pad and A/×.
Strategy tips
Read the tells
Bats paint a red lane 0.7 seconds before a 5-unit charge; giants wind up for 1.1 seconds and fire eight shots in a ring as they charge. A skeleton's dashed line locks on the spot where you stood when it began aiming, so one sidestep clears it. A golem's circle lands 1.2 seconds after it appears and is cancelled if the golem dies first.
Turn to shake ghosts
Ghosts steer for a point 1.1 seconds ahead along your current heading, offset 1.4 units to one side. Running straight feeds that prediction; a sharp turn sends them past you.
You outrun every walker
Your base speed of 3.2 beats bats (2.9), ghosts (2.4), skeletons (1.8), giants (1.5) and slimes (1.4). Fleeing does not thin the crowd: anything more than 22 units away is moved to 14 units from you. After any hit, nothing can hurt you for 0.8 seconds.
Know the timetable
Packs close in at 0:45, 1:30, 2:15, 3:00, 3:45 and 4:30; swarms come at 1:10, 2:35 and 3:50; giants at 2:00, 3:00, 4:15 and 4:45. Enemy health grows 40% per minute, so the first giant has 1,080 HP and the last 1,740. A swarm of 12 to 17 bats reaches the spot where you stood about 2.3 seconds after it appears; find the two-bat gap.
Keep floor rewards for later
Every 90th kill drops one, alternating Starlight Soup (+30 HP) and a Star Magnet, soup first. They never expire and the Magnet ability does not pull them, so take the Star Magnet when the floor is covered in shards and the soup when you are hurt. Only six fit on the floor; further drops are skipped.
Have an evolution ready by 2:00
Partners: Magic Bolt and Wisdom, Orbit Blades and Haste, Thorn Aura and Vigor, Lightning and Might, Frost Nova and Magnet, Boomerang and Swift Feet. One level of the partner is enough. A giant's chest evolves the first ready weapon in that order and gives a plain level-up only when none is ready.
Ability quirks
Haste cuts every cooldown by 8% per level except Orbit Blades, whose re-hit time is fixed at 0.37 seconds (0.23 evolved), even though Haste is their partner. Boomerangs fly the way you last moved, turn back after 0.6 seconds and pierce everything. Each Vigor level adds 20 max HP and 0.2 HP/s of regeneration.
The score and the last cards
A second alive is worth two kills. When fewer than three upgrades remain, the spare cards are Starlight Soup (+40 HP) and Star Pouch (+50 points); auto-pick always takes the soup, even at full HP.
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