Deltascention

Deltascention is an action roguelike set in a single elevator shaft arena that flies upward. You fight through waves of enemies, earn XP from kills and choose upgrades to improve your run.

Waves and upgrades

The game has over 50 waves, ending in a final boss. New enemies arrive as the waves progress, and every few waves bring new encounters. Enemies grow more difficult over time: some are fodder, while others can end a run if you do not deal with them quickly.

Each wave also changes the arena to a layout made in the level editor. Killing enemies earns XP, which lets you choose one of three upgrades of varying rarities; a choice may also offer a new weapon. At wave 50, you can fight the final boss or wait and loop through another 50 waves against much stronger enemies to earn new upgrades.

Weapons and arena

You can choose from a large selection of weapons and unique upgrades. Salvaging a weapon grants a special one-time upgrade, but salvaging upgrades reset when you change weapons.

The arena floor uses a 16-by-16 grid of pillars, each five units tall, with a second layer of single-unit-tall cubes. Arena layouts are controlled by .txt files in the game files. You can share layouts by sending the files to friends, who can add them to their game; both the layer 1 and layer 2 files are required.