How to play

01 — Hold the page

A run on The Village lasts 5 minutes. Ink blots come at Sergeant Graphite from every side, more of them every minute; hold out to the end and the page is held. At no health the run is over.

• You only steer. Every weapon strikes on its own, at its own pace, at the blots in its reach.
• A fallen blot leaves a drop of ink. Walk near it and it flies to you; enough ink and you level up.
• At each level the run holds still and 3 cards come up: a new weapon, the next step of one you carry, or a power. Pick one.
• The hero holds one weapon. Another one takes its place one step higher, and is always of the same age or a later one: from the sword to the pistol, never back. Beside it he carries up to 3 pieces of gear that need no hands (grenades, a drone, lightning) and 4 powers, each up to step 5. A weapon at its last step, carried with the right power, evolves. When there is nothing left to offer, a card gives back 30% of your health.
• A run's weapons, powers and levels start over every run. The gold you pick up stays, to spend at Headquarters on upgrades kept for good; so do your best times and records.

02 — How the swarm comes

• Ink blots come in just past the edge of the screen, all the time, faster as the run goes on; they get tougher and bite harder by the minute.
• Every 30 seconds a wave comes in a body from one side. From the first minute every other wave is one of General Crimson's squads: shieldbearers in front, swordsmen behind them, archers at the back.
• At the third minute Crimson's tank rolls in, its health across the top of the screen. Its shell lands where you stood a moment before: a red ring marks the spot, step out of it. Bring it down for its ink and a crate.
• A blot in reach waits a moment before its first bite (0.45 s), so a blade reaches it first; after a bite you shrug off the next ones for 0.3 s.
• Every 2 minutes a ring of walkers closes round you: cut your way out before it shuts.
• The last 30 seconds come faster still.
• At most 200 foes are on the page at once (a closing ring may bring 40 more); the rest wait their turn. Foes left far behind are brought round in front of you again.

01 — Weapons

Every weapon is the attack of a Stickfront unit, drawn the same way. A run starts with the sword in hand. A card can put another hand weapon in its place one step higher, always of the same age or a later one (the sword's, gunpowder, industry); the hero then carries and is drawn with the new one. Gear needs no hands: grenades, the drone and lightning fight beside the weapon in hand.

02 — Evolutions

A weapon at step 5, carried with the right power, evolves: a level card offers its evolution, which takes its place for the rest of the run. An evolution has no steps of its own and is never swapped away.

03 — Powers

01 — Gold

• General Crimson's soldiers carry their pay: a fallen one may leave a gold coin beside its ink (Crimson swordsman 50% × 2, Crimson shieldbearer 60% × 2, Crimson archer 50% × 2, Crimson rifleman 60% × 3). The blots carry none.
• A crate can hold a pouch of 25 gold, and Crimson's tank leaves 100 round its wreck.
• The page pays for the time you held it: 60 for a held page, its share for a lost one (half the time, half the purse). Gold is kept whether the page is held or lost; only a run you end yourself loses it.

02 — Headquarters

Your first run is the sword's. Once it is over, the bow and the pistol come on the level cards and Headquarters opens on the title screen: gold buys upgrades there that go with Sergeant Graphite into every run. Then after 2 runs the rifle and lightning, after 3 runs the flamethrower join them.

The second page gets you back up with 50% of your health, shrugging off bites for a moment while the blots round you are thrown back.

01 — Who comes

Health and bite at the start of a run; both grow as the run goes on. Armor is taken off every hit. Ink is what each leaves when it falls.

Sergeant Graphite walks 4.4 m a second, starts with 100 health and takes 2 less from every bite. A runner is faster than you: turn and cut it down.

01 — The Village

Wide open country round a village square: cottages, a chapel, a depot, a pond, woods and hills. It is 168 by 168 meters, far bigger than the screen, and closed by a fence: there is always room to run.

Pouch of gold

25 gold, kept for Headquarters whether the page is held or lost.

Supply crate

Walk into it: a dressing, a magnet, power ink, an ink bomb or a pouch of gold. 22 lie on the map at the start; from 50 seconds one comes down near you under a parachute every 70 seconds.

Field dressing

Gives back 30% of your health. Now and then a blot leaves one.

Magnet

Every drop of ink on the map flies to you.

Power ink

Your weapons hit 2 times as hard for 10 seconds.

Ink bomb

Blows away every blot within 10 m of you.

Barrel

Goes off when struck: hurts every blot near it, and you if you stand too close.

Depot

The big blast of the map. Lure the ink to it first.

Mud

Slows anyone wading through it to 55%, blots and you alike.

Hills

On a hill every weapon reaches 20% further.

Trees and houses

Nobody walks through them, and they stop arrows and bullets. A blast fells trees and can bring a house down.

02 — The Forest

A trail up through thick woods past a woodcutters' camp, a river ford, a hunting lodge and an old shrine, to the clearing where the giant blot waits. It opens after 2 runs. A long page, 130 meters across and 300 up, climbed from the bottom along a trail worn into the ground.

• Walk into the clearing at the top, marked by a red ring on the ground and on the small map, and the giant blot comes out. Bring it down and the page is held: your best there is your fastest win.
• The clock gives you 8 minutes. Take the ink and the crates along the way, but when it runs out the giant comes for you wherever you are, and the whole swarm with it, growing faster.
• While the giant stands, only its blots come: no squads, no waves. Step out of its ring when it rises; past half its health it rages.
• If you fall on the way, the page pays its purse's share for the way you climbed.

03 — The Desert

Open sand round an oasis town: a ruined fort, an oil field, mesas and dunes, and General Crimson's camps guarding their strongboxes. It opens after 4 runs. It is 210 by 210 meters and its page is held for 10 minutes; the swarm grows more slowly there, but it grows for longer.

Crimson's camps

5 camps out in the sand, each a strongbox of 40 gold with its guards standing round it. They stand still until you come near or strike one of them; the farther out the camp, the tougher its guards.

Dunes

As the Village's hills: every weapon reaches 20% further from the top of one.

Quicksand

As mud: anyone in it slows to 55%.

The oil field

Barrels round the pumps and a fuel dump: the map's biggest blast, for the crowd you lead there.

01 — On the phone

• Press anywhere and drag: the hero walks that way, faster the further you drag. Let go and he stops. Hold the phone upright; one thumb is enough.
• Tap a card to take it when you level up.
• The small map under the timer shows the whole page: you, the blots round you and the crates still to find.
• The button at the top right pauses; so does the phone's back key.