How to play

Controls

On a gamepad, the D-pad and left stick navigate every menu, A confirms, B goes back and Start pauses. In a run, A fires the special attack, but the gamepad can't move your Pokémon yet: use the keyboard or touch to move.

On phones you can install the game as a fullscreen app: open the browser menu and choose "Add to Home Screen".

The run

Pick one of 27 starters, Kanto to Paldea. Each one has its own stats, starting move, learnset and special attack (see the Pokédex).

Walk around and dodge: your moves fire on their own as their cooldowns come back. Survive 15 minutes of ever bigger hordes. At the end Mewtwo shows up, and beating it wins the run.

If your HP hits zero the run is over (unless you are holding a Revive). The Poké Dollars you picked up go to your wallet.

Regular enemies get tougher every minute (bosses don't): at 5:00, 2.2x HP and 1.35x damage; at 10:00, 3.9x HP and 1.7x damage; at 15:00, 6.35x HP and 2.05x damage.

Timeline

Levels and moves

Fainted Pokémon drop Exp. Candies. Walk near them to collect them (the Dowsing Machine widens the reach).

On every level up, pick 1 of 3 offers: a new move from your Pokémon's learnset, a move upgrade, a new held item or another item level. You can hold up to 6 moves and 6 items. Moves go up to Lv 8.

Type items (Charcoal, Mystic Water…) only show up if your Pokémon learns moves of that type. When there is nothing left to offer, you get an Oran Berry (+40 HP).

Reroll (draw new offers) and Skip (pass on a level up without picking anything, handy when no offer fits) are charges bought in the Poké Mart.

Your Pokémon evolves at Lv 12 and Lv 28, just like on the handhelds. Each evolution adds HP and stats, and the final one powers up the special attack.

Held items

Move evolutions

Just like in Vampire Survivors: max out a move and hold its paired item. On your next level up (or the next Poké Ball), the evolution shows up as an offer and replaces the move in the same slot.

One item can evolve more than one move: Charcoal works for both Ember and Fire Spin, for example.

No evolution yet: Mach Punch, Flash Cannon, Spirit Shackle, Water Shuriken, Crunch, Pyro Ball, Psyshock, Earthquake, Drum Beating, Disarming Voice, Torch Song, Leaf Blade, Razor Shell.

Special attack

Besides the automatic moves, every Pokémon has a manual special attack: press Space, the A / ✕ gamepad button or the round button on screen. It charges for a moment (you move slower) and then fires in the direction you are walking.

The special depends on your starter's type. Its cooldown shrinks with the Cooldown stat, down to 4s. At the final evolution it becomes the stronger version, with more damage and area.

Types and status

Damage uses the real type chart, softened so no build is ever useless: super effective deals 1.5x, doubly super effective 2x, not very effective 0.75x, and immunities become 0.5x. Yellow numbers with "!" mean super effective.

Some moves inflict status conditions. Chance and power grow with upgrades and items.

King's Rock raises the status chance, Toxic Orb raises burn and poison damage, and Light Clay makes statuses last longer.

Bosses

Bosses arrive at fixed times. Legendaries make an entrance with a screen flash, their cry and a banner. All of them get an HP bar at the top and their own attacks: marked circles on the ground show where a hit will land, so step out of them.

Bosses don't get tougher over time, and each one drops a Poké Ball and a shower of Poké Dollars.

Time	Boss	HP	Attacks
2:30	Onix	1,100	3 marked strikes on the ground near you every 4.5s (14 damage)
5:00	Snorlax	2,800	Area slam around itself every 5s (22 damage)
7:00	Articuno	5,200	Ring of 12 projectiles every 3.2s (18 damage)
9:30	Zapdos	8,000	4 marked strikes on the ground near you every 2.6s (24 damage)
12:00	Moltres	11,500	Leaves a trail that burns for 3.2s (14 damage) Ring of 8 projectiles every 5.5s (20 damage)
15:00 (10%)	Mew	9,000	Ring of 8 projectiles every 2.4s (22 damage)
15:00	Mewtwo	22,000	Ring of 16 projectiles every 3s (26 damage) 5 marked strikes on the ground near you every 5.5s (30 damage)

Shinies

Every regular wild Pokémon has a 1 in 450 chance to spawn shiny. It becomes an elite with 8x HP and 10x EXP, and always drops a Poké Ball and Poké Dollars. Bosses and legendaries are never shiny.

Your starter has a 1 in 64 chance to be shiny, and stays shiny through every evolution of that run.

A Poké Ball (from bosses and shinies) grants a random upgrade on the spot, or a move evolution if one is ready.

★ See every shiny in the Pokédex

Map items

Item sources show up around the map. Any move breaks them, and each one drops an item. Stronger items get more common late in the run.

Regular enemies also drop an Oran Berry (1.2% chance) or an item (0.4%).

Poké Mart and Poké Dollars

Fainted enemies sometimes drop Poké Dollars: a coin, a stack or a bag (₽10, ₽50 and ₽250). Tougher ones drop them more often, and bosses and shinies always pay out.

A bonus comes at the end of the run: ₽30 per minute survived, ₽1 per 4 fainted foes and ₽1,000 for winning. Quitting from the pause menu keeps the coins but forfeits the bonus.

Spend it all in the Poké Mart (button at the top right of the starter select) on permanent upgrades. The Refund button gives back everything you spent, so you can try other builds. Progress is saved only in this browser.

Settings and music

Settings live in the title screen menu and in the pause menu, which is just Resume · Settings · Quit. Changes apply right away and are saved in this browser.

The soundtrack is original chiptune, composed in code and synthesized live in the browser with no audio files: a village theme in the menus, a march during the run and a boss theme while a boss is alive.