Screenshots
Watch trailer on Steam ↗Shadow Rush
Andrew Teo · Published by Andrew Teo
Last updated 28 Sept 2026
Slay hordes of Shadow Demons in this Action RPG with roguelike elements. Fast-paced combat, quick runs, build experimentation, and re-rolling characters. Spells are collectable, equip-able 'Shards' that trigger when you attack. CAN YOU BEAT THE SPEED OF DARKNESS?
Action, RPG · 2027 · More free games
About this game
Shadow Rush is an isometric hack-and-slash RPG with a unique combat system.
Controls are simple: WASD to move, left click to attack and right click to dash.
BUT, every time you attack OR dash, you cycle through 4 phases:
Depending on the phase, every time you attack or dash you will trigger special abilities based on your set-up.
Note the I, II, III, IV besides the equipment slots on the inventory
The goal of the combat is to have a happy medium where you don't have to juggle multiple hotkeys like in an MMO, but it still requires active input and not nearly hands-off like in a Vampire Survivors-like
Look the game is called Shadow Rush not Shadow Tread Carefully
Don't worry about trying to dodge every hit. Health pickups are plenty. Just be aggressive and focus on killing enemies as fast as you can.
In fact if you take too long, a gigantic wave of darkness will swallow up the entire arena
After clearing an arena, you can choose a bonus and move on to the next
Choose 6 characters
Special abilities come in the form of collectable items known as 'Shards', which can be easily equipped, de-equipped and swapped between characters
Create the perfect game breaking-build by customizing your characters' Shard Deck
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
- OS *: Windows 7
- Processor: 64-bit CPU with SSE2 support
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: nVidia GTX 750ti
- DirectX: Version 9.0
- Storage: 200 MB available space
Supported Languages
Latest news
AnnouncementsOfficial
Change to Stats
Hey all, I made quite a big change to the stats in the latest version. Basically I removed the VIT stat which increases HP.Now the player will automatically increase their HP by 100 every time they level up. You can still spend your stat points on Attack, Rush and Magic, every time you level up, which increases the corresponding damage type.Read full article on Community Announcements (atatgames.steam)Patch NotesOfficial
NEW SUB-BOSSES UPDATE, DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP AND PLANNED RELEASE
Hello! I hope you had fun during the Steam Next Fest. I have been busy working to bring you the next big update: Sub-Bosses!At the end of each stage, in addition to the main boss (The Outer Darkness), there will be a different sub-boss depending on the stage. Here is a sneak peek at the sub-boss for The Back Streets, the Illusionist:Unlike the Outer Darkness, killing the sub-boss is optional, you can simply let the wall of darkness kill it. But when you DO kill it, it will drop a rare green shard with special random bonuses. This should make repeated runs of an already cleared stage feel more worthwhile.Besides that, I balanced the damage output of the skill 'Blast Nova' and made it so that it nullifies enemy projectiles. I also fixed a bug where you can sell shards back to the merchants for more money than you bought them for. It's funny - people cry when the game is too difficult and such, but when an advantageous exploit like this exists, suddenly everyone's all quiet 👀 Hope you enjoyed it while it lasted, ya clever little sneaks!Finally, I am ready to share with you guys a development timeline. Here is what's left that needs to be done:Implement Sub-BossesPost-Game ProgressionMore Testing (Will open up playtest invites for the full game around end September, need public playtesting in order not to lose objectivity)TranslationAchievementsSteam Workshop integration/supportDevelopment is going smoothly but lately I have been feeling tired and a little burnt out... But nonetheless, I have managed to narrow my estimate to finish the game comfortably by 16 April 2027. I just gotta keep my head down and keep working. And after that, I will move on to work on the next game. See ya!Read full article on Community Announcements (atatgames.steam)Patch NotesOfficial
Balance changes
Some balance changes intended not necessarily to make the game easier, but make the difficulty ramp-up feel smoother:Reduced damage of Orb, Phantom and Mage enemies, but increased their HPReduced prices of Shard Trader by 500 gold, reduced prices of Shard Smuggler by 1000 goldPoison now does flat damage-over-time as opposed to percentage of HP. Burn still takes off a percentage of total HP, but it has been greatly reduced in effectivenessWill be making more adjustments as more feedback comes in. Thanks for playing!Read full article on Community Announcements (atatgames.steam)AnnouncementsOfficial
Steam Demo is released!
In preparation for the upcoming Steam Next Fest, the steam demo for Shadow Rush has been released! Do check it out if you can! If all goes well, the save files for the steam demo version should carry over to the full version.Read full article on Community Announcements (atatgames.steam)AnnouncementsOfficial
Shadow Rush’s First Stream in the Wild: Takeaways and Design Changes
Was pretty stoked to find a stream of the game out in the wild, as I have not reached out to any streamers yet. It's 2 hours worth of footage and he tries out all 6 characters, so it is a pretty good overview of the game in action.While the Steam demo is not yet released, you can play an identical web browser version here: https://ghostlore.itch.io/shadowrushThe playthrough was super valuable as it allowed me to see what kind of issues players might face with the game. My main takeaway is that unlucky streaks feel pretty bad. Should Shadow Rush solve for bad RNG?Shadow Rush randomly awards items known as Power Shards every time the player levels up. Equipped Power Shards trigger special powers depending on the player's Attack Phase. There are 40 base powers and 160 Power Shards total: Each base power has 4 Power Shard variants, i,ii,iii, and iv, that correspond to the player's Attack Phase.From levels 1 - 25, each class randomly draws Power Shards from a specific pool of:6x4=24 Power Shards that represent a class's 6 'signature skills', exclusive to each class until level 25, that convey thematically what that class is 'about'.1x4=4 of X-strike, a general-purpose Power Shard that does magic damage.3x4=12 more non class-specific Power Shards with restorative abilities that recover health/mana and cure poison.After level 25, all classes draw from a common pool that contains all Power Shards with no class restrictions.The Problem:As seen in the playthrough, Solely Singleton started with the Gunslinger, a character designed with a 'buff-stacking' design philosophy in mind. As he leveled up, out of the Gunslinger's 6 signature skills, he got:HP StealExpose WeaknessHP StealExpose WeaknessLeading him to conclude that perhaps these were the only skills in the game, and the rest were still in development.After that, he began cycling through the different characters, to try and see if there was more to the game. For his trouble, he got:Health Potion (One of the non-class-spe...Read full article on Community Announcements (atatgames.steam)
