Beltrunner

Beltrunner is a roguelite space shooter for solo play or co-op with up to eight players. You steer your ship through an asteroid belt while its weapons fire automatically, choosing weapons and upgrades as you level up. Each sector is an 8–10 minute fight: asteroids multiply, enemy ships arrive and space events add new dangers. At the end of each sector, you face a bullet-hell boss whose attacks change and grow more dangerous as its health falls.

Fly through the sectors

A run takes you through seven sectors. After the third, Hostile Space, the map splits into two paths, each ending in a harder sector. The belt, enemies, events and loot vary from run to run. Each level-up offers three upgrade cards; rarer cards appear less often, and you can reroll cards or banish ones you do not want.

During a run, you collect Scrap. Between runs, you spend it in the hangar on permanent ship upgrades, including a stronger hull and guns, more luck, more weapon slots and a one-time escape pod. You can also unlock 11 ships, from the starting Skiff to the Sovereign flagship, and each plays differently.

Choose your weapons

You choose which weapons fire; they operate automatically. You start with four weapon slots and four attachment slots, and can have up to seven of each by buying both levels of Expanded Bays in the hangar and flying a ship with an extra slot. Each weapon card fills a slot, leaving fewer choices later as your build grows more dangerous.

There are 30 weapons, from the Pulse Blaster to the legendary Singularity Core and Solar Annihilator. Each of the 21 base weapons has a matching attachment. Maxing out a weapon while holding its matching attachment lets the next chest combine them into an evolved weapon in the same slot. Evolutions cannot evolve again. Weapons reach level 8 in the sectors, level 10 in The Void and level 12 in Event Horizon; attachments reach level 6 or 7, with bonuses applied per level.

Three additional weapons do not appear on cards: the Ram Prow, Aegis Array and Harpoon Tether. They come built into the ships that carry them and level up like other weapons.

Face the bosses

Each sector ends with a giant boss. The five bosses are Kernabos the Locust, Pulsar Heart, the Broodmother, the Leviathan and Ouroboros. The last two sectors bring back the Leviathan and Ouroboros with much more health. Each boss has several phases and becomes faster and more dangerous as it breaks apart; you dodge rings, spirals and beams while attacking. In The Void, bosses return at full power every seven minutes and grow stronger each time they come back.

Survive space events

Eighteen events can occur during a run, including hazards and enemy encounters. Space hazards include black holes that pull everything in; rotating pulsar beams; moving plasma walls; explosive meteor showers; linked wormholes that cost hull and explode at their exits; derelict freighters to salvage; comets that leave Scrap; supply drops to protect; binary stars that explode when they meet; and gamma-ray beams that charge before firing.

Other hazards include toxic nebula clouds hiding loot, solar wind that pushes the sector and carries loot away, shrapnel from rocks you break during a Kessler Cascade, ion clouds that slow weapons, and a Rogue Planet that blocks shots and crushes anything in its path. The Rogue Planet is the game’s only solid cover. Enemy events bring pirate groups that drop a chest when defeated, an Elite Marauder carrying loot that must be destroyed before it escapes, and a huge Dreadnought warship with visible beam attacks and a large reward.

Play with friends

Co-op supports up to eight players, joining through a Steam lobby. Each player chooses their own upgrade cards, so ships on a team develop differently. One player might hold a line with a Rail Driver, another attack from the side with Tesla Arcs, and a third fire missiles from a distance. Builds that are risky or one-sided in solo play can work well together. Asteroids and enemies become tougher with each additional player.

A destroyed ship returns after 20 seconds if a teammate is still flying, and defeating a boss brings the whole team back. You can see teammates’ names, ships and last known positions. The run ends only when every ship is destroyed.

Play endless modes

Clearing Hostile Space unlocks The Void and Event Horizon, which you can play in either order. Both modes have high-score boards.

In The Void, there is no timer: survive as long as possible as asteroids and elite enemies become more numerous. Every seven minutes, a random boss from the five sector bosses arrives, growing stronger with each return. Defeating a boss earns loot and continues the run; reaching zero hull ends it. The game records your best survival time and top scores, with milestones at 10, 20, 30 and 60 minutes.

Event Horizon is a wave arena inside a ring you cannot leave. The run ends when your ship is destroyed, and the wave reached records how long you lasted while your score reflects how well you flew. Leave the ring and a three-second timer starts, refilling slowly when you return. If it expires, one of two ghosts circling outside the ring ends the run. If a wave lasts too long, the ring shrinks to bring the remaining enemies closer.

Enemy groups enter through breaches that appear in the ring a second before they arrive. Hold your ship in an open breach for one second to seal it, preventing half of the enemies that have not yet entered from arriving. From wave 10, some enemies appear behind you without a breach. Every fifth wave brings a boss alongside a full wave of enemies; from wave 3, waves also include hazards, announced in a countdown. Deep Freeze is exclusive to this mode: turrets send out freezing rings until destroyed.

Legendary weapons are not in Event Horizon’s card deck. Instead, you borrow one every four waves; each new weapon replaces the previous one and arrives at a higher level. Clear a wave without taking hull damage to increase your score multiplier, up to x3; a hit resets it. Enemies killed near the ring can drop loot outside it, and retrieving it costs time on your timer. After each wave, you choose two upgrades, weapons can reach level 12, and you earn double Scrap.

A daily run uses the same arena for everyone for one day and has its own leaderboard. You can replay it, but only your first attempt counts. Event Horizon also supports co-op, with achievements for reaching waves 5, 10, 20 and 45, as well as challenges such as clearing 15 waves without breaking the score chain.

Legendary weapons

There are nine legendary weapons, the rarest cards in the game. A common card is 40 times more likely to appear. Luck upgrades in the hangar and jackpots during a run can improve your chances. Legendaries recharge much more slowly than other weapons, reach only level 6 and do not evolve.

• Singularity Core: creates a black hole that pulls enemies together, then explodes.
• Solar Annihilator: sweeps a huge, slow-turning beam across a full circle around you, reaching across the screen.
• Chrono Stasis: freezes the sector while you can still move.
• Starfall Protocol: calls down 16 meteors across the sector, each marked just before impact.
• Neutron Comet: sends a comet across the sector, leaving a burning trail that keeps damaging enemies after it passes.
• Blink Barrage: teleports between six enemies and explodes at each target, leaving you in a new position.
• Quasar Beacon: freezes the sector in rings of light, then shatters the frozen enemies, which take more than double damage.
• Fission Protocol: marks every target so that anything killed while marked explodes, potentially starting a chain reaction.
• Dreadnought Broadside: summons a ghost warship that fires five volleys of 12 shells.

Evolved weapons

Each of the 21 base weapons has a matching attachment and an evolution. The evolved weapon replaces its base weapon in the same slot.

• Nova Lance: a piercing shot aimed at the nearest enemy that crosses the screen.
• Meteor Storm: continuous bursts of shrapnel in every direction.
• Solar Lance: a wide burning beam that melts its target.
• Ring of Ruin: a thick double ring of shards that cuts through everything it touches.
• Singularity Mines: mines that collapse into a huge, crushing explosion.
• Hydra Barrage: a screen-filling swarm of homing missiles.
• Pulsar Burst: a huge shockwave that pushes enemies away and sets them on fire.
• Twin Comets: two long-range shards that spiral out and return.
• Plasma Wake: a stream of piercing bolts behind your ship.
• Storm Cage: continuous lightning that fills the area with arcs.
• Absolute Zero: a cone of ice that freezes enemies solid.
• Swarm Protocol: five drones that attack the nearest enemies together.
• Annihilator Rail: a shot that crosses the screen and wipes out everything in its path.
• Event Horizon: a huge gravity well that swallows the battlefield.
• Inferno Lance: a large column of fire that keeps burning anything it hits.
• Relativistic Driver: shots that pass through everything and hit harder the faster you fly.
• Executioner: nearly continuous fire that instantly kills badly damaged enemies.
• Debris Storm: pulls Scrap from across the sector and fires each piece back at enemies.
• Sawblade Storm: saw blades that bounce until nothing is left to hit.
• Cluster Barrage: groups of three shells that burst into walls of piercing shrapnel.
• Overwatch Grid: a network of powerful turrets that never stop firing.

Event Horizon waves

• Stay inside the ring: leaving starts a three-second timer that refills slowly when you return. If it runs out, one of the two ghosts outside the ring ends the run. If a wave lasts too long, the ring shrinks around the remaining enemies.
• Seal breaches: enemy groups enter through openings that appear in the ring a second before they arrive. Hold position in an open breach for one second to seal it and prevent half of the enemies still waiting from entering. From wave 10, some enemies arrive behind you without a breach.
• Face bosses and hazards: every fifth wave includes a boss and a full wave of enemies. From wave 3, hazards also appear, identified by the countdown before each wave. Deep Freeze turrets send out freezing rings until destroyed.
• Borrow legendary weapons: every four waves, borrow a legendary weapon. The next one replaces it and arrives at a higher level; legendaries do not appear in the card deck.
• Build your score: clear a wave without taking hull damage to raise your multiplier, up to x3. Any hit resets it.
• Choose whether to chase loot: enemies killed near the ring can drop loot outside it. Retrieving it costs time on your timer.
• Upgrade between waves: choose two upgrades after each wave. Weapons can reach level 12 here, and Scrap earnings are doubled.