NISKALA: Survivors

NISKALA: Survivors is a single-player action roguelite set during one long night in a forest full of Indonesian ghosts. You move, your weapons attack on their own, and the spirits keep coming in frankly unreasonable numbers.

MEET THE LOCALS

Pocong hop toward you in their burial shrouds. Kuntilanak drift out of the dark. Banaspati burn, Suster Ngesot crawl, and later in the night the big ones turn up, like Buto Ijo. There are 32 kinds of enemies from stories told all over Indonesia, and every one of them would like a word with you.

BUILD SOMETHING RIDICULOUS

Every run starts small: the Pyro walks in with a single Firecracker String. By wave 16 the same Pyro can carry six weapons, Bamboo Rocket and Green Gas Canister included, and the screen is mostly explosions. Choose from 71 weapons and 230 items, merge matching weapons into higher tiers, and chase the combinations that make a build snowball.

FORTY WAYS TO PLAY

Pick from 40 characters, each with a starting weapon and a rule that bends the run around it. Ondel-ondel turns extra health into damage. Gatot Kaca hits harder the more armor he wears. And then there is Gemoy, who starts weaker than everyone else and gains 4% damage for every wave survived, up to 76%. Early on, Gemoy struggles. By the last waves, the ghosts are struggling.

THE NIGHT STALL

Between waves, the Night Stall opens. Spend what you picked up, lock the offers worth keeping, reroll the rest, and decide whether to patch a weakness or double down on what works. Each reroll costs more than the last.

FACE THE LEGENDS

Last until wave 20 and something older than the ghosts comes to end the night. Nyi Roro Kidul, Queen of the Southern Sea, is one of them. Hold your nerve and trust your build.

ONE MORE RUN

Six Curse levels, from Learning to Niskala, raise the stakes when you want a harder night, and clearing the top one lets the night continue in Endless mode. Different characters, weapons and stall offers mean no two nights tend to go the same way.

Pick a character. Walk into the forest. Try to make it to dawn.