Mechanics & Economy
The Run
Every run is 20 waves in a single 2000×1500 desert arena. A boss arrives on waves 5, 10, 15 and 20. Between waves you choose a Harvest level-up and visit the shop to build your loadout. Win by clearing wave 20; lose if Johnny hits 0 HP.
Waves & Phases
Difficulty climbs in three phases. Enemy health scales sharply across the run — roughly 1× at wave 1, ~4.4× by wave 10, and ~10.8× by wave 20.
Setup · Waves 1–5
Forgiving. Health and damage barely scale while you establish a build.
Squeeze · Waves 6–13
Health spikes and damage starts punishing sloppy positioning.
Chaos · Waves 14–20
Enemy count and speed take over — the screen fills up fast.
Difficulty
Five difficulty levels scale every enemy stat and your end-of-run rewards. Reach wave 10 on a difficulty to unlock the next.
| Difficulty | Enemy Stats | Rewards |
|---|---|---|
| Normal | ×1.00 | ×1.0 |
| Hard | ×1.05 | ×1.2 |
| Very Hard | ×1.10 | ×1.4 |
| Nightmare | ×1.15 | ×1.6 |
| Impossible | ×1.20 | ×2.0 |
Currencies & Rewards
Gold
Dropped by enemies as coins. Spent in the shop and on rerolls. Resets to zero at the start of every run.
Gold Bars
Earned at the end of a run and kept forever. Spent on permanent upgrades and unlocking loadouts.
Run reward formula
Gold Bars = (wave × 5 + 50 if won) × difficulty reward multiplier.
Example: a wave 20 win on Normal earns (20 × 5 + 50) × 1.0 = 150 Gold Bars; on Impossible, 300.
The Shop
The Saloon opens between waves and offers four rarity-rolled cards from one pool of weapons, drones, rovers and items. Rerolls start at 10 Gold and climb by 5 each time. You can hold 6 weapons and 6 items, plus one drone and one rover.
Rarity unlocks by wave
| Wave | Rarity |
|---|---|
| 1–3 | Common |
| 4–6 | Common, Uncommon |
| 7–10 | + Rare |
| 11–15 | + Epic |
| 16–20 | + Legendary |
Combat Stats
- Armor: flat damage reduction — a hit always deals at least 1 damage (final = max(1, damage − armor)).
- Dodge: chance to avoid a hit entirely, hard-capped at 50%.
- Invincibility: 0.5s of i-frames after taking a hit, with a red flash.
- Base Johnny: 100 Max HP and 300 movement speed, with 6 weapon slots, 1 drone slot and 1 rover slot.