How to Play

A step-by-step guide for new players, from the basic controls to the tricks that earn big scores.

1. Controls

On a phone, type with the on-screen keyboard and use the buttons below the game for special and pause. Tap upgrade cards directly.

2. Typing rules

• All words are lowercase. Capital letters are accepted, so Caps Lock will not ruin your run.
• Normal words: a typo clears the word you were typing and ignores input for 0.2 seconds. Typing carefully is faster than mashing.
• Boss sentences: typing stops at the first wrong letter. Fix it with Backspace and continue.
• Keystrokes: every letter is one keystroke. Damage and score grow with the number of keystrokes in a word.
• Words on screen never share a first letter, so your first keystroke decides which monster you are aiming at.

3. Combos and score

Each correct word raises your combo by one. A typo or getting hit resets it to zero. Your combo multiplies both damage and score.

Your final score is the stage score plus the combo score.

• Stage score: clearing a stage gives its number x 1,000 points, and defeating a boss adds 5,000.
• Combo score: each monster you defeat gives keystrokes x 10 points, times your combo multiplier at that moment. Monsters defeated by a special count too.

To score high you need to go far and keep your combo alive.

4. Special attack

Building combos fills the special gauge at the bottom left. When it is full, press Space. At first the special hits the two nearest monsters, and each Wide Special upgrade adds one more target. Special damage grows with your attack and can be boosted further with Arcane Blast. Against a boss, all of the damage goes to the boss.

Mid-stage, a monster horde of weak monsters with short words rushes in at once. Saving your special for these moments works well.

5. Monster ranks

Monsters come in three ranks: normal, rare and unique. Rare monsters have a blue word border and unique monsters a purple one, and both show a health bar from the start.

• Normal monsters fall in one hit early on, but later they need two hits unless you raise your attack.
• Each stage has at most two rare and one unique monster. They take several hits, and their word changes after each hit.
• Rare and unique monsters drop gear more often.
• Unique monsters such as orcs and golems deal double contact damage, so deal with them first.

6. Boss fights

A boss appears every three or four stages, and the stage number does not tell you when. A long sentence appears at the top of the screen, and you must finish typing it before the time bar runs out to damage the boss.

• While you type, the boss makes a weak attack every five seconds. It does not break your combo.
• If time runs out, the boss lands a strong attack that cannot be dodged and resets your combo.
• Each word in the sentence raises your combo.
• Defeating a boss always drops a piece of gear and moves you to the next region.

7. Upgrades and synergies

After every stage you pick one of three upgrade cards. Upgrades last only for the current run.

Most upgrades belong to one of five families: Fire, Frost, Storm, Mana and Guard. Every upgrade from the same family adds one to that family's synergy, up to 10, with awakening effects at 3, 6 and 10. Cards from a family you are collecting show up more often. Synergy effects are listed in the Codex.

In the English version, Consonant Hunter boosts words that end with a consonant, since English has no Korean final consonants.

8. Gear and potions

Defeated monsters sometimes drop gear or a potion. Type the item name to pick it up before it blinks out. Items still on the ground when a stage ends are collected automatically.

• Armor: +8 defense per tier
• Helm: +5% special charge per tier
• Weapon: +8% attack per tier (bow for Rogue, blade for Warrior, staff for Mage)
• Potion: restores 20 HP

Gear improves from leather to chain, steel and gold, and higher tiers appear in later stages. Your look changes as you equip gear and the stats you gained pop up above your hero. Gear resets when the run ends.

9. Deals

After defeating a boss and choosing an upgrade, the darkness offers you a risky deal. Take one of two deals or walk away. For example, accepting "enemy HP +40% for 2 stages" lets you pick an extra rare-or-better upgrade. Deal rewards are bigger than normal upgrades, and so are the costs.

10. Damage and defense

Monster attacks get stronger every stage. Defense reduces damage taken to damage x 100 / (100 + defense). With 100 defense you take half damage.

11. What signing in adds

• Choose a class: Warrior (max HP +50), Mage (special charge +40%) or Rogue (combo damage +0.2). You can have one character per class, three in total.
• Earn gold and experience after each run. Level ups give stat points for Power (attack), Vitality (HP) and Focus (special charge).
• Buy weapons, armor and trinkets in the shop for permanent bonuses.
• Guests get no class bonus or rewards, but can still enter a name on the game over screen to rank that run.

12. Tips for surviving longer

1. Target the closest monster first. A monster about to reach you matters more than an easy word far away.
2. When a unique monster appears, clear the others and then focus on it.
3. Keep picking attack upgrades. Monster health rises quickly in later stages.
4. Save your special for monster hordes.
5. Type boss sentences accurately rather than quickly. Fixing mistakes costs more time.