"Apocalypse: hold the line in Braveheart Basin"

The last creature settles. The lanterns glow across the court, your next piece of gear slips into place, and another wave is waiting. Gather a little food, take a breath, and decide: one more wave, or keep today's progress?

APOCALYPSE takes place in Braveheart Basin, a closed island between Glowcap and Primeval. You begin with a fresh runner. Your usual gator's gear, bag, pet, mount and progress stay at home. What you learn in the arena — reading an attack, saving a potion, choosing when to move — is yours to keep.

What makes a run

Press PLAY → APOCALYPSE → START. Choose Solo or With friends, then choose a male or female gator and a basic skin. Enter the court at level one with basic gear. With friends supports up to 4 runners. Everyone chooses a fresh runner of their own.

The Basin has its own fast earned-calm curve; the main game's level curve is unchanged. A continuous skilled run reaches class choice at level 8 in about 3–4 minutes, about level 30 at 12 minutes, about level 60 at 25 minutes and at least level 100 at 45 minutes. At level 8, choose Knight, Mage, Shooter, Ninja or Monster. That choice stays with this run. Suitable gear replaces itself as your level reaches the next step on the gear ladder, up to the arena's level cap of 130. No shopping or bag sorting interrupts a wave. No run level, gear or supplies leave the Basin.

The regular map names the island, but ferries and fast travel do not take you there. Trying to enter from another world, even through the sky, returns you to the closest town. Enter through the mode page instead.

The rules of the night

• Always night, nine distinct zones. River ruins, autumn trees, frost, desert, ember rock, glowcaps, primeval growth, dragon country and a restored garden surround the lantern court. The mountain ring cannot be climbed or flown over.
• Waves are timed. Each wave lasts 390 seconds. There is no kill quota: calm as many creatures as you can before the lantern break. The Basin keeps a bounded population of 42 creatures per runner, drawn from the zone you are exploring. New arrivals begin out of view, 24–42 metres away, with a visible warning before they can act.
• Supplies matter. Start with 3 mangoes, 1 small health potion and 1 small mana potion. Ordinary creatures have a 3% food chance, 2% health-potion chance and 2% mana-potion chance. Those rolls rise by 0.15 every 25 levels, to at most 1.6 times the opening chance. Elites have a 10% chance of one supply before that level boost. Potions are spent when used and share a 0.9-second cooldown.
• Keep yourself fed. Hunger drains 2 fed seconds per real second. When unfed, health and mana stop regenerating. Food gardens replenish after a completed wave; approach their baskets and use the interact action to gather. The lantern court has no healing well.
• Three chances to hold the line. You have 3 lives. After either of the first two falls, return to the court after 5 seconds with half health and mana, protected for 5 seconds. The third fall ends the run and keeps your score.

How a wave rises

Your level sets the pace. Let L be your level when the wave begins and W its number. A normal creature's level is min(130, L + floor((W − 1) / 20)). The director keeps the population topped up as you move; it never rewards a player by ending early for a small number of calms. Elite share gains 0.05 every 20 levels, up to 0.3 during the ranked climb. Your remaining health, falls and missed days never raise those numbers.

The guardian on the last arrival

A guardian replaces the last ordinary arrival at waves 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. They are Goliath, Thornwood the Elder, Queen Morel, Scarjaw the Tyrant, Great Sun Guardian, Frostmaw, Magmaw, Garden Sentinel and Aurendrake, the Old Warden. Their warning shows what to watch for. Calm helpers, dodge the marked attack, then use the guardian's recovery opening. Every class has a way through; there is no hidden race against a timer. Each calmed guardian gives 1 food and 1 potion.

After 2 recent life losses, the next guardian waits at the wave break until you choose to retry. Read the guardian guide for each warning and a way to answer it.

Holding the line with friends

Friends join a hosted Basin at a cleared wave break, so no one drops into the middle of an attack. The next wave adds 4 normal creatures for each extra runner. Guardian attacks keep their solo damage, while the guardian has more health for the party. Every runner has their own class, supplies, daily tasks and 3 lives.

If a friend falls, a standing runner can get close and use the interact action to help them up. One runner's final fall does not end the others' night. At a wave break, every standing runner chooses CONTINUE or STOP AND KEEP POINTS; the group moves only when everyone agrees. The saved run remembers the party. Co-op has its own score board. A friend who joins late scores only the waves they played, and each person's daily progress belongs to their own account.

A moment between waves

Clear every creature and the wave-break screen opens. The breather lasts 12 seconds. Your health and mana do not refill by waiting. Close the panel to gather food, then reopen the break controls when ready to continue.

CONTINUE begins the next wave only when you choose it. STOP AND KEEP POINTS saves this cleared-wave checkpoint. Choose RESUME SAVED RUN on runner choice to return with the same level, gear, supplies and lives. A fight in progress cannot be saved and replayed for an easier result. After clearing the final ranked guardian, you may continue in endless practice; that extra play does not change the banked ranked score.

Your score

Clear another wave, keep a life in hand, and watch your score grow. The end screen keeps your score even when your last life is lost:

Your score counts up in front of you, then the screen shows what's new: a green ribbon for a best score, your longest night or your most creatures calmed, every badge you earned, and a new title if you reached one. AGAIN starts another run with the same gator (the host's button); BACK TO APOCALYPSE takes you back to the page.

Elites and guardians use their own row, rather than adding the ordinary-creature points again. The run's host counts the fight's events. Changed rules or developer commands make the run ineligible for boards and daily missions: see "Fair play" below.

The boards: everyone who ran, and your friends

Weekly boards keep your best eligible score that week. All-time boards keep your best eligible score across weeks. Solo and With friends have separate boards. Everyone starts the arena fresh, so normal-world level bands do not split these boards.

A new week starts on Monday at midnight, UTC. Global rank compares everyone who posted to that board, not only your friends. Weekly global score rank decides the prize tier; an all-time rank does not award a weekly pack. Rank needs Steam. When a rank has not loaded, the page says it is pending instead of inventing a position.

The daily lantern track

Each completed day lights a lantern. To qualify for a weekly rank prize, finish both missions on all 7 UTC days of that same week, then place in a prize tier. A high score alone does not unlock a pack.

The day changes at midnight UTC, which may be a different time where you live. The page shows today's tasks, their progress and the time left. The run's host counts real actions against trusted online time; changing your device clock does not open a different day or add progress. Without trusted time, daily credit and ranked submission wait for a connected, eligible run.

There is no catch-up day. If either mission was unfinished when its UTC day ended, the track says DAY MISSED · weekly prizes unavailable. That also applies when you first enter partway through a week. Your score still counts for board position, and you can still play for badges, titles and personal bests. Your next chance at a complete prize week starts on Monday.

Stop and keep after a cleared wave saves your daily progress too. Continuing that run does not count the same progress twice.

Badges and titles

On the APOCALYPSE page a badge you've earned shines gold. One you're still chasing is pale, with a ring that fills as you get closer. Choose it to see its rule and your best so far, like "Survive 60 minutes · Best so far 31:40 of 60:00". Elite Hunter and Unbroken count the best of a single run; runs from before the page kept those two numbers show "Not tracked yet", and your next run counts.

Your title grows with your longest night ever: Lantern Bearer at 10 minutes, Night Warden at 30, Dawn Seeker at 60, and Keeper of the Long Night at 120. The page shows your title with a Shown / Hidden switch, and the next one to aim for ("Next title at 60:00: Dawn Seeker").

Weekly prizes

The Weekly Champion frame is a prize worth showing beside your name. When the week closes, a qualifying global score rank and a completed daily track unlock the pack below. Solo and co-op are separate; the same week's complete daily track can qualify you for either board.

A Double XP Potion doubles every bit of XP you earn while it's running, on the gator that drinks it, in the world you drink it in. A Double Drop Charm rolls every creature's loot twice for as long as it lasts. Drinking a second one before the first runs out makes the time last longer, not the doubling stronger — one at a time is already generous. The Weekly Champion frame is yours to keep and show once you've ever placed in the top ten.

Prizes wait 24 hours after the week closes before they're handed out — a fairness check on that week's scores — then they're waiting for you in the prize strip of the APOCALYPSE page, with your rank and the week ("week of 21 Sep"). Press it to collect for the gator on your page (CHANGE picks another first): the coins and items go straight to that gator's own market mailbox, ready to open next time you visit that world.

Fair play

Every number on a run's own board comes from the world's server watching the fight happen — never from a player's word. A few things follow from that, plainly:

• Cheats and rule changes post nothing. A run where a host used dev commands, or changed the world's rules mid-run, is thrown out before it's ever sent to a board.
• An impossible pace is refused. No real fight, at any level, can calm creatures faster than a run could ever need to; a report that fast is rejected outright.
• Impossible scores receive no prize. The same pace check runs again after the weekly waiting period.
• One prize per player, per week, per board. Qualifying on both solo and co-op boards can earn a pack from each; the same board never pays twice.
• What this can't promise: this game has no central server watching every player at once — each world's own copy of the game keeps its own counters. Steam's leaderboard takes any signed-in account's upload as it comes. That's honest, not a weakness hidden from you.

What you can do about it

• Gather before you continue. Check the food gardens during a wave break. Waiting does not refill your pools, and supplies from creatures are rare.
• Leave space to dodge. Stay clear of the mountain wall. A path through the court gives you room to turn and read an arrival.
• Learn your class's first skill. Automatic gear helps, but a well-timed defence, control or escape keeps a life in hand.
• Stop at a cleared wave. Use the saved checkpoint when you need a break. Your next attempt resumes with the supplies you actually kept.

Where next

Choose a fresh runner, enter the lantern court, and aim to clear your first wave. Read the guardian warnings, how to fight well, how levels make you stronger and the other ways to play before your next run.