We could forgive you for feeling a little confused on booting up Nullscape, the weird abstract collection roguelike, especially if you join mid match and have to run around a floating maze while skulls, nukes, and chess pieces try to cancel you life subscription. Fortunately, we’re eager to bring our own expertise to the table and help you do better. This is our complete guide on how to play Nullscape.
Okay, time to explain.
While the maximalist, chromatic aberrated visuals might make everything appear beyond your understanding at first glance, the objective of each round of Nullscape is pretty simple. You need to run around the arena and collect the floating cubes found along the pathways. There’s a counter at the bottom of your screen. Once you’ve filled the counter, the gate in the centre will turn gold and open up. Run to the gate to complete the round. Rinse, repeat. Simple, right? Shame the place is filled with monsters that want to vaporize you. That makes things a tiny bit more complicated.
Once you’ve collected all the gifts and the portal opens, a new set of golden gifts will appear. Collect these to earn currency that you can use to buy Upgrades. (We’ll get to those later.) Be careful, once the exit portal is opening, the map will begin to collapse, with pieces crackling with white energy before disappearing into the void, taking their gold gifts, and maybe a few platers along with them. Don’t dawdle!
Nullscape is, more or less, a roguelike. That means if all the players die, that’s the end of the run. Your aim is to try and make it as far as you can before everyone gets taken out. As the stages progress, you’ll get better Upgrades, but also unlock tougher enemy options, more curses, and environmental hazards like icy floors. The chaos will build further and further, you just need to outlast it as long as possible.
Controls are simple enough.
Check the abilities section for more on the special moves.
When you first join the game, you’ll drop into the main lobby. From here you have the option to hit the dice button at the bottom of the screen to join a random public server, or hit the Server button to open the Server browser. From here you can join whatever takes your fancy, or make your own, which is fine if you just want to try things out without too many other players, or if you want to invite friends. You can make it public, or private with a password. There are three game modes.
At the start of each round, you’re invited to choose an adversary. This is the enemy that the game will add to the arena that round. Some entities are completely harmless, some are highly dangerous, and whatever you pick will keep coming back each round until the run ends, so you need to choose wisely. We go into more detail in our entities guide.
A bell that appears in random spots around the arena. Walking into it will launch you into the air, and do a small amount of damage. (You need to get hit four times to die from Bell.)
A small blue blob in a trilby hat. Essentially the immortal killer snail. Follows you slowly around the arena. Instakill if he touches you. Multiple Marts can fuse together to get bigger.
A weird floating baby head with a skull inside. Dashes towards the player fast, but in a straight line.
A ballistic missile. Locks onto a player and tries to predict where they’ll be to drop an explosion.
A creepy purple guy with a gaping black mouth. Runs after a player, copying their movements exactly. Instakills if it catches up.
A huge Knight chess piece. Slams down on random locations in the arena. A ret target will appear on the floor where Springer is about to drop.
An entity that appears on your screen, looking like a cross between a swaddled baby and a traffic light. When it shows up, you need to stop moving, or it will turn yellow, then red, which signals an instakill.
A fiery beacon with a green wreath around it. Kolona will display a number, then start counting. A player being tracked by Kolona needs to use their ability when it counts the number it displayed at the start.
Resembles something like a knight in purple armor. Voidbreaker will appear suddenly and attack a player with his sword.
Looks like a skull wreathed in flowers. Fires projectiles at the player.
Looks like a large grey clock with chains hanging down on both sides. Collect the musical instruments it spawns to avoid aggression.
A partially skeletal hand with bits of red meat coating its surface. Flesh chases players, but also infects nearby blocks with a debuff-inducing infection.
A grey stickman. Teleports around wildly, appearing in front of you.
A crocodile crossed with heavy artillery, this thing will rush around the arena, trying to cut players off, and spawning laser beams.
A shadowy version of Baby with white horns. It’s similar to Baby, but noticeably faster.
A dark purple skull encircled with flowers, its bottom jaw is split open. A generally faster and tougher version of Guardian.
Turns into one of the above enemies, changing each round.
The game had a number of classes to pick from, which have special moves you can make use of to assist you… (as long as you’re not infested by Flesh, mentioned above.) Most classes are defined completely by the ability them come with, though there are a couple of special exceptions at the bottom.
Use E or R to charge forwards. Using R will create some floor underneath you as you charge.
Use your ability (E or R) to launch forwards in the direction you’re facing. Unlocked automatically.
Hit E to take on a ghostly form. Hit it again teleports you back to your body. Double tap to fling your ghosts out. Bought from the Lobby for 1400 Gold.
Hit E to use a grappling hook and hit it again to unhook. Bought from the Lobby for 1800 Gold.
Hit E to glide. Bought from the Lobby for 2000 Gold.
No particular abilities, E just stops the character running, but gets a general stat buff that increases speed and most upgrades give more benefits. (but some upgrades don’t work.) Unlocked by completing 25 stages on Standard.
No particular abilities. Cannot benefit from upgrades. Earns 25% more money. Unlocked by completing 25 stages on Extreme.
On rounds that end with even numbers you’re invited to choose a Curse. This is a lingering extra danger or debuff that will make things more complicated. There are ways to tackle them though. If you encounter an Altar Of Purification, you can use it to relieve yourself of a Curse. (More on Altars later.) Some curses affect the arena as a whole, while some empower certain enemies. (No, you can’t pick a Curse that applies to an inactive enemy and just never pick them. We wish.) Every 10 levels after Level 15, you’ll get to choose a Greater Curse, which cannot be removed.
Some of the generalized curses include…
Along with the general curses, there are a number of enemy-specific curses. They will show up when that particular enemy is in play, and will make them harder to handle.
These curses represent a major change to gameplay. You also can’t remove them with an Altar Of Purification.
The opposite of Curses, every level ending with a 0, a 3, a 5, or an 8 lets you pick upgrades. These are buffs that will improve your chances… if you choose them wisely. You buy upgrades using your earnings from collecting Gold Gifts. So you can pick up more than one in the upgrade sections.
As you go about your business running around the levels you may encounter Altars. These are strange pedestals that give particular effects
Now you know the basics, more or less. Here are a few tips from our experience.
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