A one-thumb horde survival game with no ads

What is a horde survival game?

In a horde survival game you steer one ship through ever-growing waves while your weapons fire on their own. Your decisions are where to move and what to build: each level-up offers a new weapon or upgrade, and the run grows stronger and stranger until the swarm finally catches you. Runs are short, so the next attempt is always one tap away.

How Ionstorm plays

Touch anywhere and a floating joystick appears under your thumb. Six auto-firing weapons do the shooting, with paired evolutions, passive modules and build-changing Catalysts to draft. Every level offers one of three upgrades, so the run you survive with is the loadout you chose on the fly.

Storm Surges crowd the screen, then the Collapsar and rotating bosses change the pressure. Destroy or outlast a boss to earn a cache and choose a Relic: Nova Bomb clears the screen, Aegis Cell shields your hull, Chain Storm chains lightning through clusters. Between flights your Reactor earns Cores, and the Forge turns them into stronger regular flights.

• Daily Storm: a shared seed, modifier and starting build, one ranked flight a day
• Open League: the same standard loadout for everyone, weekly and all-time boards
• Pro never changes a ranked starting build

Getting more out of every flight

Your only controls are where you move and which of the three upgrades you draft at each level, so most of the skill is in those two choices. The run you survive with is the loadout you built on the way.

• Your relic bar holds three Relics, and tapping a slot fires it. Nova Bomb clears the screen, Aegis Cell shields your hull, Chain Storm chains lightning through clusters and Magnet Surge vacuums every pickup.
• A boss caches a Relic when you destroy it or outlast it, so surviving a boss counts even when you cannot kill it.
• Collect your Reactor Cores before the cap fills, because a full cap stops earning. The Forge turns Cores into stronger regular flights.
• Forge upgrades apply to regular, unranked flights only. Daily Storm and Open League keep the same starting build for everyone.

Your first flights

Start with a regular flight: it is unlimited and free, and it is where your Forge upgrades count. When you want a score that others can be compared against, the ranked Daily Storm is one flight each UTC day, with the same seed and starting build for every pilot.

What is free and what is paid

Unlimited regular flights, the ranked Daily Storm and Open League are free, with no ads, energy systems or forced run limits.

The Ionstorm Full Game Unlock is $4.99 one time. It opens every Forge and Reactor upgrade for regular flights, three saved loadouts, and 2× and 3× play speed. StackForge Play Pass, $2.99 a month or $14.99 a year, unlocks Pro in every StackForge game.