Playtest by the Numbers

First things first: thank you. To everyone who jumped into our second playtest — you showed up in numbers we genuinely didn't expect, and every run, every clip, every bug report and scrap of feedback matters more to a small team like ours than we can properly put into words. So, from the bottom of our hearts — thank you. 🙏

We added analytics at the very last moment before the playtest went live, which means for the first time we can actually pull back the curtain and share some numbers. And some of them genuinely surprised us. Here's how it went:

The big picture

• 6,000+ players jumped into the build

• 32,000 total runs attempted

• 2,000 runs reached the boss fight — with 600 actually taking him down

What you reached for most

• Most-used special: Flame Cannon — a staggering 73,000 uses Steam post image

• Most-used advanced move: Rapid Strikes — 82,000 uses Steam post image

• Most-selected autocast: Lightning Chain — picked 22,000 times Steam post image

Interesting takeaway there: the most-used advanced moves and autocasts also tend to be the ones that are easiest to understand and most readily available. Which tracks with something feedback made loud and clear — we've still got work to do explaining how a lot of our mechanics actually function. Plenty of depth is in there; we just need to surface it better.

Your most frequent killers

These are the enemies that sent you back to the start screen most often — wear the scars with pride:

• Brute — 3,000 kills Steam post image

• Dual Fang — 2,700 Steam post image

• Guard Swordsman — 2,600 Steam post image

And our favorite stat of all — the Crow challenge

At some point during the playtest we quietly slipped in an optional gauntlet: an arena with 2–3 Crow enemies, meant as a proper test of skill. We figured people might poke at it and move on.

Instead, you swarmed it. Players kept bumping into it, getting wrecked, and immediately going back for another try. The final tally: 11,000 attempts and 721 successes. That hunger to just keep trying told us something valuable — that kind of optional, high-difficulty challenge really works, but it probably wants to be gated behind progression, a random event, or something narrative rather than just dropped in. Lesson happily learned. Steam post image

You made some incredible content, too

Watching people stream the game was honestly one of the best parts of the whole thing. A bunch of genuinely fun runs went up — big shoutout to creators like Beelz55, CaRtOoNz, and Gohjoe. Some folks even took on the tougher self-imposed stuff — the Crow challenge, no-upgrade runs and more — like MajorPlayerz and OldBeatEmUpsGuy. Seeing the game in your hands, played in ways we didn't always anticipate, is exactly why we do this.

Where we go from here

We're not going to pretend it's all polished — there's still a lot to build, a fair few bugs to squash, and a bunch of mechanics that need to explain themselves far better than they currently do. All of that is now front and center on our list, shaped directly by what we saw you struggle with and enjoy.

And the best part? We're doing it all again in about a month. The next playtest is already on the horizon, with a build that takes everything we just learned and runs with it. If you took part this time — we'd love to have you back. If you missed it — now's the perfect moment to get ready.

Wishlist the game, keep an eye on our page, and join our Discord so you don't miss the moment sign-ups open.

See you in the arena. 🤛

— The team