The King in Knightime has assembled 27 knights to fight his battles, but there’s a small problem with where they’re all supposed to sit. His Hexagonal Table only has six sides. Why he won’t commission a heptagon is anyone’s guess, but there’s not much time to worry about the seating arrangements when an army of monsters is heading straight towards you.
Developer angadev7’s low-poly bullet heaven launches today on Steam, bringing 15-minute survival runs, elemental weapons, and a roster of 27 unlockable knights into a medieval battlefield. Each knight starts with their own weapon and passive ability, while upgrades collected during a run let you turn a fairly manageable attack into something capable of dealing with hundreds of enemies.
You’ll need to get there quickly, though. The clock is already ticking, and the monsters aren’t going to wait for you to finish choosing your upgrades.
Every Knight Brings Something Different
There are 27 knights to unlock in Knightime, and choosing between them changes more than the character you’re looking at. Each comes with a starting elemental weapon and passive modifier, giving you a different way to approach the opening minutes of a run. Some might suit getting close to enemies, while others give you more room to deal damage before the horde reaches you.
The weapons themselves are built around six core mechanics, with elemental variants adding different effects. You can swing enormous blades across the battlefield, surround yourself with damaging auras, call down showers of stars, or fire magical orbs that spiral outwards from your character. Those spirals follow a Fibonacci pattern, which is a fairly elaborate bit of mathematics to bring into a fight with a bunch of monsters.
Elements include Lightning, Fire, Earth, Water, Slime, and Holy Light, with different attacks leaving status effects behind as they travel across the battlefield. Finding a weapon that works well with your knight’s passive ability is only the beginning. You’ll also need to decide how to improve it as the enemies get stronger and the number of things chasing you continues to grow.
Seven Cards Can Make Quite a Difference
Levelling up during a run gives you a choice of seven Silver Upgrade Cards, each improving a different part of your character. Damage, maximum health, regeneration, pickup radius, movement speed, projectile count, and cooldown reduction can all be increased, letting you concentrate on the parts of your build that need the most help.
If you’re using a weapon that sends projectiles across the battlefield, adding more of them is a good idea. A damaging aura could benefit from keeping enemies closer for longer, provided you’ve got enough health and regeneration to survive being surrounded. Then there’s cooldown reduction, which becomes useful when you want your attacks happening more often.
The idea is to combine upgrades with your chosen weapon and knight until the different effects start working together. There are 20 enemy types to deal with, so having plenty of damage won’t always solve every problem if you’re struggling to move around the battlefield or survive incoming attacks.
With only 15 minutes available, you’ll need to make those choices while fighting rather than spending half an hour planning the perfect setup.
Four Biomes and a Very Busy Quarter of an Hour
Knightime has four biomes to fight through, taking you from the Meadows into frozen, fog-covered areas and eventually the Void.
Each run is designed to last around 15 minutes, keeping the focus on getting stronger quickly enough to survive the growing horde. There’s no need to set aside an entire evening for one attempt, although unlocking all 27 knights and experimenting with their different weapons could keep you busy for quite a while.
New characters are tied to Steam achievements and survival challenges, giving you reasons to return with different knights and try another approach. The game also supports controllers alongside keyboard controls, with twin-stick movement letting you concentrate on positioning your knight while the attacks deal with whatever is getting too close.
A free demo arrived on Steam at the end of September, giving players an opportunity to try the combat ahead of today’s full release.