Verdant: Tower Escape

The station has been taken by the growth, and you are twenty floors from the roof. Your pruning laser fires on its own, so every decision that matters is a decision about where to be: when to back through a doorway, when to let a crowd bunch up, when to spend a grenade, and what to buy the moment you reach an armory.

Climb the tower. Twenty hand-built floors, from Containment to The Crown, each with its own layout, palette and pressure. Six kinds of growth learn to punish you differently — creepers swarm, stalkers flank and slam, sporelings burst, thornbeasts charge and soak everything you have, bloomers and seeders plant more of the problem while you deal with the first wave. Rooms seal behind you, so each one is a fight you finish before the next begins.

Aim the one thing that isn't automatic. Grenades are yours to place: press the button, then press the spot. Time slows while you choose, so you can still aim with a crowd closing in. Two in the pouch, buy as many as your coins allow.

Spend what you earn. Five guns that genuinely play differently — a rapid needle driver, a five-pellet scatter, a piercing rail, a splashing plasma orb — plus five levels of upgrades each, field medicine when a floor goes badly, and a 30-second boon after every floor you clear. Gems buy permanent perks in the Seed Vault that carry across runs: plating, retaliation spores, a salvage rig, a bigger card hand, and a second wind that catches you once per floor.

Face Heartroot. The thing at the top of the tower fills the room with beams you have to read and dodge — and it gets faster and denser as it dies.

Or skip the climb entirely. Two endless arenas run waves until you fall: the Heartwood Pit, and the Eclipse Foundry, where reactor lanes discharge across the floor and you can lure the growth into them. Your deepest runs are kept on your device.

Dying is part of it. Lose the same floor a few times and the station gives you something back, so a bad run turns into a better one instead of a wall.

Controls: WASD or arrows to move, or drag anywhere on touch. G or the grenade button to aim a grenade, then press where it should land. Q or the weapon button to swap guns. B for the armory, Z for zones, M to mute.

Plays on desktop and mobile, in any modern browser. Your progress saves automatically.

WASD or Arrow keys — move

G or Space — take out a grenade, then click where it should land

Q — swap to your next gun

B — find the armory

Z — choose a zone (tower or arenas)

M — mute

Esc — put the grenade away