Striving for Light

Striving for Light is an action RPG about fighting through dark, changing worlds while building and reshaping an infinite skill tree. You battle enemies, collect loot, craft and upgrade weapons, and unlock characters, skills, weapons and maps. Its world includes a voice-acted story, over 13 environments with distinct enemies and bosses, and a hand-drawn art style accompanied by an approximately 100-minute soundtrack.

Explore changing worlds

Maps are procedurally generated, with layouts, secrets and world events that vary between runs. Events include tower defense, arenas, dungeons, trials and boss fights; you choose which maps to enter and which events to take on. The game also includes challenges, Rifts, a mapping system and Pinnacle Bosses as endgame activities.

Shape your skill tree

Each run gives you a new, randomly generated skill tree that expands as you follow its pathways. You collect skill gems, reconnect pathways, reroll individual skills or the whole tree, and refund or deactivate skills. An additional meta-progression tree carries another layer of skill progression. Combining melee, ranged and pet skills creates a wide range of possible builds.

Fight and gear up

Combat lets you aim and attack, switch between melee and ranged weapons, and use active abilities such as shapeshifting and large area attacks. You manage separate resources for melee and ranged attacks and dodge enemy strikes. Challenging enemies and bosses test your build.

The item system includes more than 77 weapon bases with randomized stats, which you can upgrade to legendary weapons and ascend through crafting. You can also find more than 48 trinkets, including powerful legendary trinkets, and 76 or more unique skill nodes. Crafting echo weapons adds them to the loot pool for other players to find; you can empower an echo, choose its weapon appearance and add a personal inscription.

Characters and modes

You can master nine character classes, each with a unique specialization skill tree. The game supports local co-op and includes Normal, Hardcore and Roguelike modes, alongside five difficulty tiers. Offline play is also available.

Endgame and seasons

Map progression expands indefinitely, and you can add or change map modifiers to raise the challenge and rewards. Endgame activities include Rifts and Pinnacle Boss fights. Seasonal leaderboards cover Hardcore and Softcore runs, Pinnacle Boss rushes and Rifts; runs also earn honour points toward the seasonal rankings. Seasonal challenges offer another way to compete.