The game needs JavaScript. The rest of this page does not.

Neon Survival

Your ship fires by itself at whatever comes closest, so the only question is where you stand. A run is three stages, each one a stretch of glowing shapes walking in from every edge and then a boss at the end of it - a minute a stage on Calm, and nearly three on Wild. Beat the third one and you win.

Free
No ads
No account
No download
Works offline
Single player

How do you play?

Drag to move - Touch the arena and drag, or push WASD or the arrow keys. Your ship follows; it never turns to face anything on its own.
It shoots itself - Every 620 milliseconds or so your ship fires at the nearest shape inside a 240-unit radius. There is no fire button anywhere in this game.
Dodge the crowd - Glowing shapes walk straight at you from every edge. Getting hit costs a heart; standing in the open can cost several at once.
Grab the gems - A popped shape leaves a gem behind. Get close and it drifts to you on its own, pulled in from a short range around your ship.
Pick an upgrade - Enough gems raise your power level. The clock stops, three cards appear, and you choose one before anything moves again.

About this game

Nobody aims in this one. Your ship shoots on its own, always at the nearest thing in range, and every drag or key press only moves your feet. That sounds like it should feel passive. It does not.

The arena is 420 by 560 units, small enough that nothing ever really escapes you. You start with 3 hearts. Whatever shape finally reaches your ship costs one heart and is destroyed doing it, so five shapes arriving together still only take the one heart, not five. After a hit you get 900 milliseconds where nothing can touch you again, just long enough to get out of the crowd rather than back into it.

Three kinds of shape come at you. A triangle is small and fast, and dies in one hit. A circle is slower and takes two. A diamond is bigger and slower than both, and needs five hits before it pops, so pulling it into open space matters more than fighting it wherever it caught you. Every one of them leaves a gem behind, and a gem is the only thing you ever chase on purpose.

Calm, Normal and Wild change the crowd and the length, never your ship. A stage is a minute on Calm, a minute and forty on Normal and two minutes forty on Wild, so a whole run is three minutes of swarm against eight. Shapes start walking in every 1150 milliseconds on Calm and every 660 on Wild, and that gap keeps shrinking as the clock runs, though it never drops below 320 milliseconds on Calm or 150 on Wild. Normal and Wild also send shapes that shoot back, and each one stops and glows before it throws, which is the moment to be somewhere else. Nothing about your own ship changes between the three, which is why the record is kept separately for each one.

Collecting enough gems raises your power level. The clock stops, and you pick one of three cards: an upgrade from a set of ten, a level for a weapon you carry, or a weapon you do not. Take a weapon all the way to level five with the right upgrade maxed and it evolves into something else entirely. Each stage ends with a boss, and beating the third one wins the run.

What does it teach?

Reading a crowd instead of a target

There is nothing to aim, so the whole skill is deciding which direction is emptiest right now, and that changes every second.

Choosing under pressure

Three upgrade cards, a stopped clock, and a decision that shapes the rest of the run. There is no undo once the clock starts again.

Working with a cap

Every upgrade tops out, from two extra hearts to six speed boosts, so a run always has to become more than one thing.

Losing calmly

A run that ends after ninety seconds and one that ends after two and a half minutes are the same shape of ending, and neither is a mistake to fix before trying again.

Tips

Don't stand in a corner

Shapes arrive from every edge at once, so a corner traps you against two walls instead of none. The middle third of the arena gives you the most room to slide away.

Save the diamond for last

A diamond takes five hits and moves the slowest of the three, so it is rarely the shape that kills you. It is the triangle behind it that does, while your shots are busy on something bigger.

Take the extra heart early on Wild

Wild's crowd tightens down to a shape every 165 milliseconds, and a single mistake there is closer to the end than the same mistake on Calm.

The reach upgrade pays for itself

A wider gem pull means fewer trips back for what a diamond dropped, and fewer trips is less time standing in one place while the crowd works out where you are.

What age is it for?

6 to 8

Calm, where a shape you can pop takes more than a second, and the crowd never asks for more than one direction at a time.

9 to 11

Normal, where the circle and the diamond both show up before the run is half over and choosing an upgrade actually starts to matter.

12 and up

Wild from the start. Eight minutes of swarm, a shape every 660 milliseconds tightening to 150, and shapes that shoot back - the point where the game stops being about noticing and starts being about deciding fast.

Grown-ups

Wild, and the record kept per level means there is no pretending a Calm run and a Wild run measure the same thing.

Accessibility

Steer by dragging anywhere on the arena, with the arrow keys, WASD, or the on-screen arrow pad, and all four are fully equivalent. Your ship fires on its own, so nothing ever needs aiming or a fire button. A pause button stays on screen at all times. The three enemy shapes differ by size and outline as well as colour, and the whole game can be played through in silence.

Playing together

Pass it at the first hit

Hand the ship over the moment a heart is lost, not the moment the run ends. Nobody gets a whole run to themselves, and everybody gets a turn near the interesting part.

One steers, one watches the clock

One person moves the ship, the other calls out how long until the next boss. It changes what feels urgent.

Race the level, not the record

Play the same level twice in a row and compare who survived longer, rather than chasing whatever number is already on the screen.

Guess the upgrade together

Before the cards appear, agree out loud on which weapon you are levelling and which upgrade it needs. You will not always agree, and that is the fun part.

Common questions

Is Neon Survival free?

Yes. No account, no ads, and nothing to buy. It works offline too, once the page has loaded once.

How do I control the ship?

Drag anywhere on the arena, use the arrow keys or WASD, or tap the on-screen arrow pad. Tapping the same arrow twice stops you.

Do I ever aim or shoot?

No. Your ship fires on its own at the nearest shape within range. Everything you do only moves your ship.

How long is a run?

Three minutes exactly. Reach the end and the run is a win, whichever level you were playing.

What happens when a shape reaches me?

You lose one heart and the shape is destroyed doing it, so a whole crowd arriving together still only costs one heart. Then you get 900 milliseconds where nothing can touch you again.

What's the difference between Calm, Normal and Wild?

Only the crowd. The circle and diamond show up sooner and shapes arrive faster on the harder levels, but your own ship is identical on all three.

How is the record measured?

In shapes popped, kept separately for Calm, Normal and Wild, because a crowded Wild run and a gentle Calm run are not the same achievement.

What do the upgrades do?

Seven of them: faster shots, stronger shots, an extra bolt, quicker feet, longer gem reach, an extra heart, and shots that pass through a shape instead of stopping. Each one is capped so a run can never be all of one thing.

More games

Put this game on your site

Copy the code and paste it into your page. The line under the frame is the part that counts: a link inside the frame stays on ellaz.fun, and only the one you paste is yours.

Play Neon Survival and more free games at ellaz.fun

<iframe src="https://ellaz.fun/embed/survivors/?lang=en" width="100%" height="940" style="border:0;border-radius:12px" allow="fullscreen" title="Neon Survival - ellaz.fun"></iframe>
<p>Play <a href="https://ellaz.fun/games/survivors/">Neon Survival</a> and more free games at <a href="https://ellaz.fun/">ellaz.fun</a></p>