The Kulka

The Kulka is a one-button arcade roguelite in which you flap an orb through enemy-filled spaces while its automatically fired shot mutates into a growing array of attacks. Tap or click to control your vertical movement, dodge enemies and walls, and destroy foes to collect XP gems. When you level up, choose an upgrade that changes your bullet; survive as long as possible, then try to beat your high score locally or on global leaderboards.

Flap and survive

Runs begin with one bullet and a handful of enemies. As you gain levels, your shot can split, ricochet, pierce, home in on targets, explode, or use lightning, lasers and novas. Later, the screen can fill with bouncing, splitting, homing and exploding shots, leaving you to steer through the chaos with a single button.

You can combine upgrades into different builds, such as a bouncing storm, a piercing rail, a shield bubble or a damage-dealing vortex. Example combinations include Faster Shots, Multishot and Faster Bullets for Bullet Spam; Multishot, Area Size and Bigger Projectiles for Wide Wall; Shield and Time Warp for Slow Bubble; and Freeze and Vortex for Frozen Vortex.

Modes and difficulty

Runs are quick, with instant restarts, and the game offers Relax, Easy, Normal and Hardcore difficulty presets. Choose upgrades manually in the classic mode, or use Flow mode, which selects upgrades automatically so you can focus on dodging. Additional modes provide other ways to play.

Progress and competition

Complete in-game objectives to unlock new options. Before each run, use the Ball Bank loadout screen to choose starting weapons, skins and modifiers. Global Steam score tables cover multiple modes and difficulty levels, and the main menu displays top players’ nicknames. The game also includes over 100 Steam achievements and Steam Cloud support for progress.

Visuals and sound

The game uses a synthwave grid, bright orbs and clear hit feedback, including when the screen is crowded. Its sound design features crisp hits, pickup sounds and feedback for upgrades.

Upgrade combinations

• Faster shots, Multishot and Faster Bullets: Bullet Spam.
• Multishot, Area Size and Bigger Projectiles: Wide Wall.
• Multishot and Pierce: Line Killer.
• Multishot and Ricochet: Bouncing Storm.
• Shield and Time Warp: Slow Bubble.
• Shield and Orbital Drone: Safe Core.
• Freeze and Vortex: Frozen Vortex.
• Poison and Vortex: Poison Zone.

The full version also includes additional cosmetic skins and visual variants, including Christmas and New Year themes. These are earned through challenges and objectives and do not affect balance, mechanics or leaderboards.