Gravefever

GRAVEFEVER is a survivors-style action roguelike about a fight you can't win. Monsters come in waves, then floods. You level up, choose your upgrades, unlock your kit piece by piece, and carve a path through five arenas. Eventually, the swarm will take you. The timer at the top of the screen shows your score.

How a run goes

You start in a quiet village with only your basic attack. After ten levels, you gain your first real skill. By level 30, the map's guardian, a bear the size of a house, comes looking for you. Defeating it opens a portal to somewhere worse. A decent run can last over half an hour, but most don't get close.

Three hunters

• Fighter: a bare-knuckle brawler. He punches in an arc, pushes the swarm back, and won't stay dead (his passive is called Death Rattle).
  
• Gunslinger: every sixth shot is a lucky round. He settles arguments with a falling nuke.
  
• Sorcerer: he slows and freezes everything nearby, hides behind a shattering barrier, and brings an ice age to the crowd.

Each hunter has a basic attack, a passive ability, three skills that unlock as you level up, and a final evolution at level 90.

Five arenas, four gatekeepers

The world changes every 30 levels; you'll move from the village to a glowing forest, a desert war camp, a mushroom glade, and a graveyard. You can only advance after defeating the mega-boss guarding the way out. Each one has its own fighting style: a triple rampage charge, a vanish-and-ambush teleport, skullfire mortars, and lingering spore pools. If you dodge their big attacks, they stagger and take double damage. If you face-tank them, well...

Builds that actually branch

Every level-up presents three cards. Core stats stack ten deep, and each skill has two upgrade branches leading to a capstone—choose one of two, and it's permanent. Specialist stats, like Bloodlust and Momentum, become available in the late game. A complete build can turn the endgame into a harvest. The combo counter has no cap; some players have surpassed 5,000.

The grave pays out

Death ends the run, not your progress. A complete death report shows what killed you and what damage you dealt. Gold is banked into the Armory for permanent stat training and a once-per-run second life. Quests reward you for your records. Once you've fought your way to a certain level, Head Start allows future runs to begin at level 10, 30, 60, 90, or 120—skip the warm-up and start at the part that kills you.

Also in the box

• Cursed shrines that triple the spawn rate for 45 seconds—survive it and get rewarded
  
• Random kill events provide double and triple XP windows and damage surges
  
• Watch out for exploding suiciders, spitting casters, and a critter stuffed with gold that runs from you
  
• Map hazards, mega-boss treasure chests, and per-map pickup buffs
  
• A death recap shows exactly whose fault it was (yours)
  
• Keyboard-first controls come with optional mouse aim, two UI themes, and Steam Cloud saves