Dawnlamp: 12 upgrades and tips
Hold off a moth swarm with your lamp for five minutes. Controls, moths, upgrades and tips, in that order.
What the game is
A run lasts up to 300 seconds. You stand in the middle with one lamp and hold off moths from every side.
Attacks are automatic: flames go to the nearest moth. Your only job is deciding where to move.
Moths come in larger numbers, faster and tougher as time passes. Health 0 ends the run. Reach 300 seconds and it is a clear.
Score is seconds survived plus kills.
Controls
Phone
Press anywhere and drag to walk that way. One thumb is enough. Let go to stop.
Keyboard
Walk with WASD or the arrow keys. Going diagonally is not faster.
Level up
Tap one of three cards. Time stops while you choose.
The three moths
Gnat
The common one. Health 3, hits for 6. Drops 1 ember.
Dart moth
Mixes in from 15 seconds. Health 2, fragile but fast. Hits for 5.
Great moth
Appears now and then from 40 seconds. Health 24, slow, hits for 14. Drops 5 embers.
Over time
Moth health grows with time and is 2.5 times the start by 300 seconds. At most 300 moths are on screen at once.
When you are hit
You start with 100 health. After one hit you cannot be hit again for half a second.
The 12 upgrades
This list uses the same text as the cards on the level-up screen. An upgrade stacks up to its rank cap. Maxed upgrades drop out of the offers.
Quick Wick Fire rate rises 12 percent of base per rank. Up to rank 4.
Hot Flame Flame damage rises 15 percent of base per rank. Up to rank 4.
Forked Flame One more flame per shot, fanned out. Up to rank 2 (three flames).
Piercing Spark Each flame passes through one more moth per rank. Up to rank 2.
Light Boots You walk 8 percent of base faster per rank. Up to rank 4.
Thick Coat Max health rises by 20 per rank and fills by 20 at once. Up to rank 4.
Pull Ember pickup range grows 25 percent of base per rank. Up to rank 3.
Warm Tea You heal 0.25 health per second per rank. Up to rank 4.
Circling Fireflies One more firefly circles you per rank and burns moths it touches. Up to rank 3.
Dawn Bell A bell rings and deals 7 damage to moths around you. It rings every 9 seconds at rank 1, down to every 6 at rank 4.
Thick Mist Moths that get close slow down 15 percent per rank. Up to rank 3.
Layers Each hit you take is 1 lower per rank (never below 1). Up to rank 3.
Where luck comes in
Luck shows up in two places: where and which moths spawn, and the three upgrades offered at each level.
The three offers are drawn at equal odds from upgrades that are not maxed yet. There is no paid roll and nothing with cash value.
With the same seed both are identical, so a challenge link starts you under the same conditions as your friend.
Tips
Do not stand still
Standing still lasts about a minute. Once moths ring you, hits come fast. Drift slowly toward the thin side of the swarm.
Stay off the walls
Near a wall your exits shrink. Circling wide near the middle lasts longer.
Fire rate and forks first
In bot tests, fire rate and Forked Flame give the biggest single gains. That is an average, not a promise for one run. Boots and fireflies gain less.
Pick up embers
Embers stay where they drop. Pull widens your pickup range and speeds up leveling.
Daily run and challenge links
The daily run uses the date as its seed. One run per day opens under the same conditions, by Korean date.
The challenge button on the result screen copies a link carrying the seed. Whoever opens it gets the same moths and the same offers. Rankings and personal records are not stored on a server.