Every run asks for a new answer

Run structure

How a run works

Each run takes place on one of the five levels and lasts 600 seconds (10 minutes). The level, enemy waves, and chest positions are generated fresh at the start of every run. Your goal is to survive long enough to kill the boss. If you die first, the run ends in defeat and no rewards are paid out.

Once the 10-minute limit is reached the run does not end — it enters Overtime. Hero regeneration, direct healing, and lifesteal stop immediately. After a 10-second grace period, Doom begins dealing increasing pure max-HP damage; if the boss is still alive after 120 seconds of overtime, the hero is killed. Enemy HP and damage also continue escalating every 30 seconds using the selected level's values:

Level generation

A new map every run

The map boundaries, chest positions, and decorative elements are procedurally generated at run start — no two runs look identical. Each level has its own boundary radius that defines the playable arena:

Stepping outside the arena boundary deals 5% of max HP per tick of Darkness damage to the hero, pushing players back toward the centre of the arena. Enemies always spawn 1000 units away from the hero regardless of arena size.

Enemy waves

Escalating waves and pressure

Enemies are spawned in waves defined by a timeline — each wave specifies an active time window, spawn rate, count per tick, and enemy pool. Early waves are simple; by mid-run multiple families overlap and spawn rates climb. See the levels page for each level's boss.

The Pressure system caps regular wave pressure at 350 active and queued enemies. Regular wave spawning is blocked when the cap is reached. Above 70% pressure, new enemies receive scaling bonuses that peak at 100% pressure:

The pressure bar is hidden below 50% and fades in from 50–100%, so it only appears when the screen is getting genuinely dangerous. Summoned enemies and spawn-on-death effects bypass the cap.

Bosses also have burst protection: one resolved hit can remove at most 5% of maximum boss HP. Critical hits and Crushing Blow are included in that cap, while multi-hit abilities apply it independently per hit.

Hero levels & abilities

Level up by selecting abilities

Heroes start each run at level 1 and can reach level 9 within a single run. Every enemy kill drops XP. When enough XP accumulates the game pauses and an ability selection screen opens — pick one ability to add or upgrade. There is no auto-pick; the run stays paused until you choose.

XP required to reach the next level grows exponentially: XP needed = 200 × 1.35^(Next level). Each hero level also increases how much XP future kills reward by +5% per level above 1, partially compensating for the higher threshold. Between runs, Paragon levels are unbounded — there is no cap on long-term growth.

Each hero starts a run with one starter ability. During the run, any of the 21 active abilities and 12 passive upgrades can appear as choices. Each level-up offer tries to include 1 active ability and 1 passive upgrade when those pools have eligible choices, with the third slot filled flexibly from the remaining eligible pool. Active and passive abilities share one learned ability cap of 8, and each can continue leveling up to level 9. Active ability damage scales linearly while projectile count and pierce follow their own step progressions. For hero base stats see the Heroes page.

Ability	Damage type	Description	Starter for
Piercing Arrows	P	Fire arrows that pierce through enemies in a line. Projectile count and pierce depth increase with level.	Woodsworn
Magic Missiles	M	Launch homing missiles that seek nearby enemies. Additional targets gained per level.	Spellblade
Shuriken Toss	P · Po	Throw shurikens in random directions. Pierce count increases with level.	Nightreaver
Hurling Axes	P	Throw spinning axes in fixed directions. Each axe passes through all enemies it hits.	Bonebreaker
Lightning Smite	L	Call down a lightning beam on multiple enemies. Half the damage splashes in a radius around each target.	Lightbearer
Fire Missile	F	Fire projectiles toward nearby enemies. Each missile explodes on impact in a radius.	—
Chain Lightning	L	Launch a bolt that bounces between multiple enemies. Bounce count increases with level.	—
Chain Frost	C	Launch a frost orb that jumps between enemies dealing damage. Bounces increase with level.	—
Arcane Orbs	M	Summon orbs that orbit the hero and deal damage on contact. Orb count increases with level.	—
Frost Nova	C	Unleash a frost ring around the hero that deals damage and slows all enemies hit.	—
Spinning Blades	P · L	Summon blades that orbit the hero and deal damage on contact. Blade count increases with level.	—
Ballista Shot	P · F · L	Fire a powerful bolt that pierces through enemies in a straight line.	—
Death Pulse	Po · M	Emit a death wave in a radius dealing poison and magic damage.	—
Cloak of Darkness	M	Surround the hero with darkness, dealing magic damage every 0.25 s to all nearby enemies. Tick speed is unaffected by Faster Cast Rate.	—
Seeking Missile	F · P	Fire guided missiles that spiral toward random areas — a warning ring marks each impact point. Explosions deal area damage and stun. Missile count increases with level.	—
Mines	F · P	Plant a mine that arms itself, then explodes for heavy damage in a radius around it.	—
Slash	P · C	Slash in front of the hero in wide arcs, damaging and knocking back enemies. Arc count increases with level.	—
Frozen Orb	C · M	Launch frost orbs that drift forward, releasing missiles at nearby enemies and slowing them. Orb count increases with level.	—
Fire Siphon	F · M	Ignite fire spirals that revolve around the hero, burning enemies on touch. Spiral count increases with level.	—
Vortex	L · M	Tear open cracks in the ground that pull enemies in and deal damage while they last. Vortex count increases with level.	—
Chains of the Damned	C · F · L · M	Fling spectral chains across the field, dealing magic and elemental damage to every enemy they sweep across. Chain count increases with level.	—

Passive upgrades do not fire at enemies. They register as in-run stat sources and tune the build underneath your active abilities.

Passive	What it improves	Run impact
Extra Projectiles	Projectile count	Adds more projectiles to supported active abilities.
Arcane Power	Magic damage	Raises magical ability damage.
Martial Power	Physical damage	Raises physical ability damage.
Lifesteal	Healing from damage	Heals the hero for a portion of damage dealt.
Iron Skin	Armor	Improves physical damage mitigation.
Ward Shell	Magic resistance	Improves magical damage mitigation.
Gold Drop	Gold find	Increases gold earned from drops.
Widened Blasts	Area of effect	Expands supported ability areas.
Magnetic Reach	Pickup radius	Lets the hero collect XP, gold, and drops from farther away.
Fleet Footwork	Movement speed	Improves repositioning and escape potential.
Vital Surge	Max life	Raises the hero's maximum HP.
Quick Casting	Faster Cast Rate	Reduces cooldowns for supported active abilities.

Each hero also has three Disciplines — hero-specific active abilities with their own upgrade trees, replacing the old ultimate. See the Disciplines section below for details.

Drops & loot

What enemies leave behind

Every enemy death rolls independently for each eligible drop type, while XP always drops. The table shows base chances with no Magic Find. For Components, Potions, Hunter's Trophies, Reliquary Keys, Codex Tomes, and discipline Gems, Magic Find subtracts its value from the base denominator but can never improve a drop beyond 1 / 500: Drop chance = 1 ÷ max(500, Base denominator − Magic Find). Magic Find also improves the rarity mix of Components up to 500%. Gold is the other exception: its chance stays fixed, while Gold Find increases the amount dropped.

Gold drops 1–3 gold on Mortal, 5–10 on Broken, and 25–50 on Damned, multiplied by the Gold Find stat: Gold dropped = round(Base gold × (1 + Gold Find ÷ 100)). Hunter's Trophies drop only on Damned difficulty. Their base chance is 1 / 1500 and Magic Find can improve it toward 1 / 500; successful rolls select a common, uncommon, or rare trophy from that enemy's archetype at 70 / 25 / 5 weights. Codex Tomes are also Damned-only: each eligible enemy has a base 1 / 10000 chance to leave one of the five Tome volumes associated with its archetype, improved by Magic Find under the same 1 / 500 floor. Discipline Gems drop from any enemy on any difficulty at a base 1 / 750, improved by Magic Find down to the 1 / 500 floor; a successful roll picks one of the six colours — Ruby, Sapphire, Topaz, Emerald, Amethyst, Diamond — with equal odds, and three of any colour can be cut into one of another. See Disciplines for how gems pace a tree. For full inventory item details, see the Inventory page.

Potions

Consumables and their effects

Potions drop in three tiers — Weak, Normal, and Strong — gated by difficulty. Health potions have 3× selection weight compared to other potion types, making them the most common potion drop. Duration scales with tier (5 / 7.5 / 10 seconds).

Difficulty

Mortal, Broken, and Damned

Three difficulty tiers are available. Completing a level unlocks the next level on the same difficulty and the same level on the next difficulty. Clearing all five Damned levels marks Endless mode as unlocked. Enemy HP and damage use one fixed 15-stage curve, so Broken level 1 is always harder than Mortal level 5 and Damned level 1 is always harder than Broken level 5. Future spawns also receive the in-run hero-level multiplier Enemy multiplier = 1.05^(Hero level − 1).

Broken also uses +200% enemy defense and +10% movement speed; Damned uses +400% defense and +20% movement speed. Mortal rolls no random modifiers, Broken rolls 1, and Damned rolls 3.

Modifiers

Veil modifiers

Before a run, the Veil of Damned shows the active modifier stack. Mortal rolls no random modifiers, Broken rolls 1, and Damned rolls 3. Players can equip up to 3 discovered modifiers; equipped modifiers use owned level, while random modifiers can appear at any configured level for that run only.

Winning on Broken or Damned unlocks locked random modifiers that were active in that run at owned level 1. Unlocking is discovery; upgrades remain a separate progression step.

Score

How your run is rated

At the end of a run a base score is calculated from five components, then multiplied by the active modifier stack, level bonus, and run result:

Final score formula: Final score = int(round(Base score × Score multiplier × Level bonus × Result multiplier)). Victory runs (boss killed) use a 125% result multiplier, while defeat uses 75%. Only Victory runs pay out rewards; defeat ends the run with no reward drops, though gold and XP earned during the run are kept.

Disciplines

Hero Disciplines

Disciplines replace the one-ultimate-per-hero model. Each hero has three Disciplines — hero-specific active abilities, each a root ability plus a small upgrade tree. You equip one at Paragon 0–9, a second at 10–19, and a third from Paragon 20. Equipping is free and can change between runs; the points spent inside a tree stay locked until a respec refunds the tree and its gems.

Every Discipline tree has six passive nodes at five levels each, and each level costs one Discipline point. Nodes fall into three buckets: they buff the Discipline itself (damage, radius, duration, cooldown, extra instances), buff the hero for the ability's window (a temporary stat source across all abilities), or debuff enemies for a duration (resistance break, slow trail, stun, bonus gold).

Discipline gems pace how fast you buy into a tree. Six colours — Ruby, Sapphire, Topaz, Emerald, Amethyst, and Diamond — drop from enemy kills at roughly 1 / 750, improving toward about 1 / 250 with Magic Find, and a cutting recipe converts three gems of any colour into one of another.

See per-hero context and stat curves on the Heroes page.