Shockwave guide

Goal

Knock the other players out of a destructible arena until you are the last one standing.

How to play

• Two to four players fight in real time, on desktop only - the controls need a keyboard.
• Build a loadout in the lobby: a class, a weapon and two abilities.
• Attacks build a damage percentage rather than draining health, and the higher your percentage the further each hit launches you.
• Getting launched past the edge of the arena costs a stock. You respawn with three seconds of invincibility.
• Run out of stocks and you are out; the last player with stocks wins. Stocks default to three, and the lobby can set one, two, three or five.

Controls

• A and D move, W or Space jumps, and S fast-falls. Holding W while airborne flies, which spends Ki.
• J, K or a click attacks, and holding one of them charges a heavy attack.
• Q and E fire your two loadout abilities, which also spend Ki. Ki refills while you are on the ground.
• Shift digs through terrain, and F transforms once the meter is full.

Transforming

The transformation meter fills from damage you deal and damage you take, so a losing exchange is not wasted. Transforming lasts ten seconds and gives you half again the damage and a quarter more speed, which makes it a comeback tool rather than a reward for being ahead.

The arena

• Terrain is destructible and regrows slowly, so a tunnel or a hole is temporary cover rather than a permanent change.
• Maps are Arena, Sky Islands, Caverns and Pillars.
• Hazards - lava, falling rocks and a shrinking zone - can be switched off in the lobby.
• Going thirty seconds without an input eliminates you outright.
• If the host set a time limit and the match is tied when it expires, sudden death settles it - either a one-stock overtime or a rapidly shrinking arena.