BeatSlayer

BeatSlayer is a top-down rhythm roguelite in the bullet-heaven style. You fly a small ship through a swarm of neon shapes while the music plays, and everything on screen moves to that music: enemies spawn on the beat, every drop sends in a new wave, and your weapons fire in time with the track. You steer and dash. Your arsenal does the shooting.

How it plays

• Move with WASD, the arrow keys or a gamepad's left stick. Your weapons aim and fire on their own, each on its own rhythm.
  
• Dash through danger with Space. A dash on the beat recovers faster.
  
• Kills charge your Overdrive, a short burst of extra damage. Call it with E right on the downbeat and it hits harder still, with an extra shockwave.
  
• Each song is one stage. Survive to the last bar and you move on.

Build an arsenal

Upgrades drop during every song, and each one deals you a choice of cards: a new weapon, a level for one you already carry, or a stat. There are 53 weapons and each levels up to 8. Bring two of them to level 7 and they fuse into a single new weapon, mid-song, in a burst of light. There are 1,378 fusions to find.

A three-act run

The campaign is a map of branching routes. Choose a path and you are locked onto it for a while. Along the way: songs, elites, mystery encounters with choices to make, survival and dodge trials, and a boss at the end of every act. Your health, weapons and relics carry from song to song. Clear a stage and pick one of up to three relics, from 25 in all. Some encounters hand out curses instead.

Four ships, four deals

Every ship flies differently and carries its own passive:

• An all-rounder that sends out a pulse every fourth beat, and another whenever you dash on the beat.
  
• A slow, armored juggernaut that plants armor plates and heavy shockwaves when it stands still.
  
• A fragile speedster with three blades orbiting the hull.
  
• A heavy hitter that fires slowly, whose kills explode and set off chain reactions.

Before the first song a boombox with legs offers four starting deals, each a big boost with a real price: double damage for a tenth of your health, a legendary relic for two curses, a borrowed big gun at half health, or an overclocked ship that runs up a debt.

After the campaign

Beat the campaign to unlock Endless: songs back to back, each tougher than the last, with a weekly setlist and a leaderboard of your best runs.

• 29 songs, three acts, a boss for each act
  
• Chill, Normal and Hard
  
• Keyboard and mouse, with gamepad support in play