DUSK VANGUARD — Free 2D Elemental Beat ’em Up

Four elemental fighters, six enemy roles plus bosses, five chapters and three distinct difficulty levels. Story, default Vanguard and Relentless cap living enemies at 3/4/5. Defeat one to admit one reserve; clear the full wave to advance. Higher tiers add faster attacks and scarcer recovery. Every fighter has a ranged skill. Desktop arrows and D/F/G/S; landscape touch play uses a right joystick and four left action buttons. Best score and chapters stay on this device.

Platforms & play modes

desktop, tablet, mobile. Single-player survival. No human multiplayer.

Controls

Landscape on desktop, tablet and phone. Arrow keys move across the arena; D attacks or picks up a nearby staff, F jumps, G guards and S fires your character’s elemental ranged skill. All four fighters have a projectile: Sol ember shot, Rin frost blade, Aya triple gale, Volt lightning bolt. The large left Skill button does the same on touch, costing 20 MP with a 0.85-second cooldown; MP regenerates at 9 per second. Touch uses a right joystick whose origin is the first touch position, 12% dead zone and full steering after a short drag. Hold the outer ring 450ms to run at 1.3x; Shift runs at 1.5x on desktop. Four left action buttons support simultaneous fingers and sliding between them. Hold Attack to chain three hits, move at reduced speed during normal/air attacks, and buffer short attack/jump inputs. Nearby melee targeting assists facing and lane alignment; steering direction still takes priority. Guard + direction + Attack casts the same wave, Guard + Up + Attack uses a rising strike (28 MP), Guard + direction + Jump dashes (28 MP), within an 0.8-second combo window. Front guard spends stamina and can break; jump/run attacks knock opponents down. Needed HP/MP bottles auto-collect nearby; HP heals 60/45/30 by tier and MP restores 55. Attack collects a 12-use staff. Three tiers, default Vanguard. Story/Vanguard/Relentless use enemy damage 0.65/1.05/1.4, HP 0.85/1.3/1.65, and at most 1/2/3 simultaneous attackers. Higher tiers add enemies, faster decisions/casts and projectile sidesteps; later chapters and waves speed up attacks. Player hit/wake protection remains 0.85/0.9 seconds. Kills heal 8/2/0 HP, wave clears 25/10/4% HP and chapter changes 35/20/10% HP; MP recovery remains 8 per kill, 30 per wave and 40 per chapter. Five chapters have three waves each and a boss; defeat enemies then follow GO right. Retry restarts the current chapter. Esc/P pauses, M or Sound explicitly enables sound; every load starts silent. The complete sound icon follows actual audio state, including rapid toggles. Rotation, blur, background, Info and menus pause/clear controls. Touch suppresses menus, selection, drag, scrolling and zoom. Best score and unlocked chapters stay in dusk-vanguard-record; language and sound-on preferences are not stored. Solo only, no local/online multiplayer or editor. Six regular enemy roles: raider, caster, brute, skirmisher, duelist and warden, plus bosses. Opening waves total 5/7/9 enemies by tier; later chapters add up to two more and second waves one more. Only 3/4/5 living enemies can be on the field, including bosses and incoming reserves. Every defeat admits one queued enemy from the farther edge, with a 0.65-second non-attacking entry warning. Knockdowns do not admit reserves. Multi-kills fill only the freed slots. The HUD counts all remaining enemies, including reserves. A wave heals/unlocks GO only after both living enemies and the queue are empty; defeat every reserve before the next wave/chapter. Skirmishers flank and keep range, duelists dash in, and wardens front-guard; their equipment and colors distinguish them.

Free to play. No downloads or sign-up. Sound starts off; enable it manually.