You spawn in the Lobby. Pink portal: 4D Max, the full fight, round after round. Orange portal: the Duel Pit, 1v1 against a Rival. Gold portal: the Blademaster, 1v1 (good luck). Origins: play the game as it was, frozen snapshots of where it began.
P or Esc pauses. O (or Ctrl+O) hides the panel for a full view of the arena.
You spawn in the Lobby. Cyan portal: Training. Gold portal: Academy drills. Orange portal: Duel Pit.
On a phone: tap to move or attack, swipe for a 1-tile step, long-press a tile to aim, and use the buttons along the bottom.
Training never stops: clear a level and the next one starts tougher. From level 2, a ling flood hits halfway through each level. P pauses.
Training: low-HP drones warp in. Later ones deflect, so swap styles to hit through. Halfway through, a partner joins you.
Shots land on a tile and take longer the farther they fly. Right-click (or Ctrl-click) a tile to lead a moving target, and sidestep incoming reticles to dodge.
Rime Bolt (5 or B) freezes one target; Rime Burst (6 or N) freezes everyone within 1 tile of it. A freeze only lands on a successful hit and lasts a few ticks. Frozen units can't move but can still attack. After a freeze ends there are 2 ticks of immunity, and a freeze breaks if the caster gets 8+ tiles away. The Duel Pit rival casts Rime Bolt too.
Stack your hits. Separate hits that land on one target on the same tick stack, with a STACK callout: your shot plus your partner's, a Cleaver swing plus splash from another, a Burst on a bunch. It depends on distance and timing, so it won't happen every fight. Switching weapons never costs a tick, but the last attack's timer carries over.
Revolver and Flare fire from where you stand; Rapier and Cleaver walk in to attack. Hold Shift and click any tile to attack it from where you stand with any weapon: blades swing at that tile (a whiff if it's empty), shots fly at it and hit the first body on the line. Friendly fire is on, so mind your partner.
Shooters need a clear line: put a pillar between you, or deflect with E. Slashers: Q.
Ling Flood (red portal, beside 4D Max): 4D Max's special version, flood packs with every 4D Max boss, on the 2D map or in 4D. Bigger packs every round, platforms and towers to hold, supplies back after each round. The camera follows you; the mouse wheel zooms.
4D Lab (white portal, left wall): the first 4D fight. You, the Outlaw, against a Swarm ling and a Reaper drone in rounds. Same engine and controls, real bodies: the wind-up fills the tick before a hit and the strike lands on the tick.
3D Arena (green portal): the same training fight in 3D. A/D rotate the camera, W/S tilt, mouse wheel zooms; the 2D map sits in the corner.
Sim Lab (purple portal): a bot plays Training on loop, learns, and runs test batches for you.
Academy: Footwork, Read & React and Peek Shot. Each trains one skill and keeps your best.
Space eats a Medstim. Tap Space twice in one tick for a combo eat. C Quickstim, X Power cell, V Adrenal.
Every run is tracked: accuracy, damage, deflect timing, stims and pillar dodges.