No XP. No levels. Just what you carry and what you build.
Aether Shard Survival is a sibling to Aether Shard — same shattered world, same pixel soul, deliberately opposite rules. The turn-based grid is gone: combat is real-time action, and there is no experience bar anywhere. Every scrap of power comes from gear you find, craft, and maintain — and gear comes from a city you raise from nothing, staffed by people you rescue from the wilds.
Hunt animals to eat. Rest to recover — it's the only way stamina comes back. Keep your blade honed, because steel dulls and death dulls it faster. And when your city grows rich enough to be worth raiding… it will be.
In the prototype now
A living combat arena in Godot 4 — every mechanic below is implemented, playable, and locked in by an automated test.
Real-Time Combat
Light and heavy attacks, a dodge roll with i-frames, knockback, hit-flashes — using the character sheets' long-dormant action frames the turn-based game never touched.
Rest-Only Stamina
Abilities burn stamina and nothing regenerates it but resting — crouched, vulnerable, watching the tree line. Risk management is the whole rhythm of a fight.
Hunger & Hunting
A hunger bar that always ticks down. Boars graze, flee, and charge when wounded; their meat restores hunger and health. Starve and your health follows.
Gear Is Power
Weapon and armor slots are your only stats. Found gear swaps in a step — and your old piece drops where you stand, condition and all.
Dulling, Never Breaking
Blades wear with every swing, armor wears with every hit, death dulls everything — but gear is never destroyed. Hone it at the whetstone and get back out there.
Tomes & Loadouts
Abilities are loot, not level-ups: six tomes in the field — Cleave, War Cry, Leap Slam, Shoulder Bash, Hamstring, Steadfast — and a strict 4-slot loadout you swap in the pause menu. Play it your way.
Controller & Touch
Built for iOS, Android, Steam, and handheld Linux: full gamepad support (d-pad = your four skills) and a multi-touch overlay with a floating stick. Same hero, any screen.
The Overworld Look
The same Wonderdot tileset and UiKit interface as Aether Shard proper — grass, meadows, tree canopy, wood-panel HUD, and a pause menu straight from the mothership.
The Bandit Camp
Four guards around a fire with shared aggro — wake one, wake the camp — holding the arena's best gear. The first micro-raid: go loud, or…
Stealth
Crouch-walk and enemy perception collapses — a sliver behind their backs. Sneak strikes hit double. Slip past the camp, or dismantle it one silent blow at a time.
A Tuning Model
An 800-formula balance workbook drives the numbers: gear curves, enemy stats, building costs — tuned so total power triples every era. The prototype matches it.
The game it becomes
Every system below is fully designed and cross-linked in the project wiki, waiting its turn to be built.
A City From Nothing
19 building tracks — blacksmith to enchanter, inn to town hall — each with era-gated tiers and purchasable modules. Construction takes materials and time; nothing is a menu unlock.
People Are Loot
Professions belong to the city, not a skill bar. Recruits found and rescued in the world run your buildings — and a Master blacksmith is a legendary drop. Building tier × artisan quality = what you can make.
The Mayor Is Your City's Class
Six governance styles, each favoring a pillar — production, defense, trade, construction, lore, people. Plus edicts: togglable policies, every one a trade-off, slots gated by Town Hall tier.
Morale
One city-wide mood — anchor plus shocks, five bands from Grim to Jubilant. A modifier, never a gate, with hard anti-death-spiral rules. Feed your people three ingredient types and watch the town sing.
Raids, Both Directions
Prosperity attracts raids; raiding earns Heat. Defense is telegraphed, kidnaps replace kills (every loss becomes a rescue mission), and rival cities can be looted, crippled — or razed, once, forever.
A World That Opens As You Build
A home valley and four era wedges, each behind a collapsed bridge or buried pass. Opening a zone is a city project — and an open road lets the raiders through, both ways.
Compounding Power
Enchants bound to gear, gems that travel between pieces, stacking food and potion buffs, late-game flasks that survive death. Additive within a layer, multiplied across — never runaway.
Tomes Worth Restoring
Most tomes loot in damaged. The Scribe restores them; a Master scribe fuses fragments into the skill you actually want. Even knowledge passes through the city.
An Honest Economy
The Trading Post never sells above your era — money can't skip exploration. Alchemists transmute down, never up. Every shortcut is guarded so building the city stays the answer.
The class hexagon
Gear owns your stats; class owns your kit. Learned tomes are forever, but only your two schools are equippable — respec at the Chapel, and the fee scales with how far around the ring you jump. Every passive touches a different pillar of the game.
Berserker ⚔
Might + Wildcraft. Two-handed fury that burns hotter as stamina runs low. The pure combat passive.
Warlord ⛨
Might + Bulwark. The quartermaster — gear dulls slower, repairs cost less. Economy as a weapon.
Templar ✦
Bulwark + Devotion. Warden of the Wall: stronger inside your own city during raids. The defender.
Aethermancer ☄
Devotion + Aether. Attuned — enchants run stronger, essences fall more often. The enchanting engine.
Trickster ☾
Aether + Subterfuge. Light-fingered: stealth gadgets cost less, detection climbs slower. The infiltrator.
Ranger ➶
Subterfuge + Wildcraft. The provider — more from every kill, faster on roads, a nose for rare wanderers.
Prototype screenshots
Devlog
The world gets its look — and its hands
- Wonderdot overworld: real grass, ragged meadows, tree canopy with collision — the flat green is gone
- UiKit interface: wood-panel HUD with the game's own bar art, slot skill bar with ability icons, and a full pause menu
- Six abilities, four slots — Leap Slam, Shoulder Bash (stun), Hamstring (slow), Steadfast (guard) join the pool; swap loadouts in the pause menu
- Controller + multi-touch support for iOS, Android, Steam, and handheld Linux; 48 automated checks
Armor, and a balance model to hang it on
- Armor slot: scraps → copper mail → iron mail, dividing incoming damage — wears when hit, mirrors weapon dulling
- Tuning workbook: ~800 live formulas — gear curves, enemy TTK targets, building costs, pacing checks — flattened to ~3× power per era
- The prototype's numbers now come from the model: iron gear re-tuned to the curve
Stealth, and a camp worth sneaking past
- Bandit camp with shared aggro guarding the iron gear — the first micro-raid, loud or quiet
- Sneaking: directional perception, a backstab window behind every guard, double-damage sneak strikes
- Boars startle at a quarter the range when you stalk them — hunting got a skill floor
The survival loop closes
- Combat arena v0: warrior vs bandit AI using the sprite sheets' unused action frames
- Hunger, hunting, meat — and rest as the only stamina regen, exactly as designed
- Skill tomes, the 4-slot loadout, gear-only power, and dulling with whetstone honing
- 43 automated checks lock every mechanic in place
Ten design docs in one sitting
- Progression (no-XP gear grid), all 19 building ladders, raids, world structure, the class hexagon
- The mayor as the city's class, edicts, and a morale system with no death spirals
- Every open question logged where the next session can find it
A concept parked, then unparked
- The idea captured in the vault: an ARPG city builder that finally uses the attack frames
- Hunger, stamina, recruitable artisans, rival walled cities — all there from day one