Soul Dust combines fast-paced third-person action with the endless scaling of a rogue-lite bullet heavens
In the mood to sweat through intense fast based action, or you'd rather roll back and watch your automated perks and upgrades do the heavy lifting, the game adapts to your playstyle Experiment with abilities, find broken combinations, and survive the war.
Never swing. Or never shoot. Or anything in between.
My wife finished a run without pressing attack once. She just controlled the movement and let her build creation do the rest.
I tried the opposite. Bare fists, never pulled the trigger. Let the game plan decide upgrades and surprise me. Both runs worked, both exciting.
Lean back if you want to chill
Your weapon fires on its own. You steer and point. On a pad, World Aim lets you set a direction once and keep firing that way while you move.
Build an engine. Orbiting shards, turrets, chain lightning, homing shots and floating copies of your cast all fight for you.
Momentum Burst. Build the momentum meter by playing well, then watch the sudden destruction happen.
Let the game pick your cards. Turn on Auto-Pick and level-ups never stop the action. Give it a Game Plan, like All-Out Offense, Survival or Puppet Master, and it drafts toward it.
Let them destroy each other. Lead one faction into another and collect that XP from both.
Lean in if you want to sweat
Parry it. A good parry blocks. A perfect deflect sends the shot straight back at whoever fired it. That includes boss slams.
Counter it. Back-to-back counters chain into bigger hits, and a perfect parry gives you a free dash that cuts through everything in its path. All of it upgradable.
Break it. Melee combos fill an enemy's posture meter. Break it and take a huge chunk of health in one hit.
Take the trigger. Turn auto-fire off in the settings and fire every shot yourself, or hold fire to charge a Lance or Resonance shot. Twin-Stick your thing, play that way too.
Get paid for it. Perfect parries, dodges and kill streaks drop extra Soul Dust on the spot.
Skill doesn't unlock power in Soul Dust. It changes what you do with it.
The horde is at war with itself
Six factions share the battlefield and none of them get along: human survivors, mutant packs, walking horrors, a zealot cult, shielded machines and old nature gods. They fight each other on sight, and some can flip enemies to their side mid-fight. When they destroy each other near you, you still get the XP reward. Want more of that? Level-up cards like Turncoat and Divide and Conquer make enemies betray their own side. Cores can pacify a whole faction or change who it hunts. Arena shops sell Cease Fires and War Proclamations.
Build something broken
Over 170 upgrades that stack, level up and adapt to your weapon. Homing on an orbital ring turns into magnetized shards.
Ten cast types: beams, lances, gravity wells, turrets, orbitals, boomerangs and more. Rare cards add a second cast mid-run.
Hero attunements: collect Soul Dust in a run and your hero's signature shot transforms into three specialized ways.
Cores: equip passives with hidden synergies to discover.
Wagers: bet your credits on the next arena. Clear it without a scratch for double or nothing.
Level up on your terms
In most bullet heavens, every level-up stops the fight. In Soul Dust you can bank it as an Ember and keep going.
Embers ripen. Hold one through an arena clear and it only offers Rare cards or better. Hold it longer and a Legendary waits inside.
Open them your way. At a shop or once a fight is over, one at a time or all at once, or let your Game Plan open the lot for you.
Bend the draw. Banish a card you never want to see again, pay to take a card a level higher, or open an Ember face down for a rarer card.
Buy more. Shops sell extra Embers for the credits you win on wagers.
Not ready? Save the rest for later, and any still held pay a little Soul Dust at the end. In co-op each player banks their own.
Bosses hold their ground
Each biome has a unique boss with dangerous skills that patrols its own territory and makes nearby troops stronger. You choose when to pick that fight. Win it and the boss's whole faction is permanently weaker. Attacks are telegraphed, and the biggies can be parried if you choose to try.
A run
About 30 minutes, on a map that's new every time. Read the danger marker outside each arena, clear it, smash the compounds and rifts around it, then cross into the next arena when ready. When you falter, your Soul Dust comes home with you and buys new heroes, casts and permanent upgrades in the Hub.
Bring a friend
A second player can join on the same screen with another controller and play any hero. Each of you gets your own level-up picks, and a downed partner can be revived. Playing alone? Optionally choose an AI partner that syncs up with you and backs you up for support.
Why are the enemies fighting each other?
Timelines are collapsing into one place, and everything in Soul Dust came from one of them. Story bits are there between hectic fights in quiet zones if you want it. It never stops a run.
What Soul Dust isn't
It isn't idle: you always steer and aim, and enemies hit back. It isn't a souls-like either: you never have to parry if you'd rather not.
What's in the game
12 playable heroes, each with their own signature shot and passive
6 enemy factions and 42 enemy types
5 biomes and 4 bosses
Over 170 upgrades, 36 hero attunements and 16 cores
Play solo, with an AI partner, or with a friend in local co-op
Steam achievements and leaderboards
Comfort
Full controller support with matching Xbox, PlayStation and Switch button icons
Remap every control
Button hints that disappear for good once you've learned a move
Turn off screen shake, bloom, vignette and more
Quit mid-run and continue later with your build intact
Multi-language support coming. Need real translators.
