Undying Flame

Undying Flame is a top-down wave-survival rogue-lite from an independent developer, now released on Steam. Each run centres on a single campfire. Enemies emerge from the darkness in waves, and the player shoots them, gathers the wood they leave behind and uses it to keep the fire burning. There is no conventional health bar; the state of the flame communicates the player’s condition, with a strong fire appearing bright and loud and a failing one shrinking, turning red and going quiet.

Progression within a run is handled through shops that offer three upgrades at a time, drawn from seven upgrade families: Rapid Shot, Multishot, Explosives, Piercing, Turrets, Hearth and Guard. Players can lock a card or reroll the shop, and may commit to three families during the Fire phase, with a random fourth and fifth added on reaching the later Star and Void phases. Every five waves the player picks one of three relics from a pool of 91, and certain pairings unlock 10 named synergies or one of 6 Ignitions. Structures such as Watchtowers, Forges, Shrines and Beacons can be placed to automate collection and defence. Wave types alternate between Swarm, Hunt, Siege and Trial formats, with a Climax event every 25th wave, and enemy pressure adjusts according to whether the player has recently taken damage. As a campaign advances, resources shift from Gold and Wood to Ore and Hydrogen and finally Antimatter, while enemies and visuals change alongside them.

The game includes four modes: Campaign, which covers the full Fire to Star to Void run and offers 14 challenge variants; The Void, a standalone mode in which shooting is replaced by gravity manipulation and a 56-node upgrade tree across four rulesets; Idle, where automation handles combat and enemies scale to upgrade power; and Daily, a shared seed with one attempt per day and an optional leaderboard. Persistent progression spans Ascension levels A0 to A10, six unlockable classes, 12 mantles, 12 fire skins, 30 achievements and archives for relics, synergies, enemies and run history. It features a 36-track soundtrack that reacts to the current phase and wave intensity, with a procedural alternative, and supports keyboard and mouse, controller, Steam Deck and touch input, along with UI scaling, aim assist, reduced effects options, portrait and landscape layouts and 28 languages. There are no microtransactions or adverts.