Emoji Horde
Emoji Horde is an arena survival game in which crowds of emoji monsters close in from all directions. You never aim or pull a trigger. Your weapons strike by themselves on a timer, so all of your attention goes into moving, dodging and collecting the gems that defeated monsters leave behind.
Frank Force built it with his LittleJS engine. It works with a keyboard, mouse, gamepad or touch screen, so it plays just as well on a phone as on a classroom Chromebook.
How to play Emoji Horde
Choose a hero and a stage to begin. Each hero starts with a different weapon, such as Smiley with a dagger slash or Wizard with a fireball, and a fifth hero unlocks once you survive ten minutes in a run.
Blue gems fill your experience bar. When it is full, the action pauses and three cards appear, each offering a new weapon, a new passive item or a level for something you already hold. You can carry five weapons and five passives, and each tops out at level five. Coins let you reroll the cards or banish one, and skipping grants a little extra XP.
Mini bosses arrive on a schedule, the first one three minutes in. At the fifteen minute mark the stage boss appears, and beating it wins the stage and opens the next one. If your health runs out first, the run is over.
Controls
| Action | Keyboard | Mouse | Touch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Move | Arrow keys or W A S D | Hold the left button to walk toward the pointer | Drag the stick that appears under your finger |
| Choose an upgrade, reroll, banish or skip | — | Click a button | Tap a button |
| Pause | Esc | Menu icon, top right | Menu icon, top right |
| Restart after losing | R | — | — |
Tips
- Walk in big loops around the arena. Monsters head straight for you, so circling pulls the mob into a long trail that is easy to thin out.
- Check which passive your main weapon needs to evolve before you grab random passives, then bring that weapon to level five.
- Break every crate and barrel you pass. They spill coins and food, and sometimes a clover that grants a short random boost.
- Glowing monsters are worth chasing when safe. They are faster, tougher or hit harder, but they also give extra XP.
- Between runs, visit the shop with your saved coins. Permanent upgrades make the early minutes of each new attempt much calmer.
If you like Emoji Horde, try these
Norman the NecromancerFacing crowds again, but you hurl arcing spells at a village mob and raise fallen foes as skeletons.
Bee KindBlasting swarms of pests continues across seven pixel stages, with a bunny beekeeper protecting a colony.
Questions
Does Emoji Horde save my progress?
Yes. Coins, shop upgrades, unlocked stages and heroes, and your best time are kept in your browser. Weapons and passives start fresh every run.
How do weapons evolve in Emoji Horde?
Get a weapon to level five while also owning its matching passive, then open a chest. Chests come from the timed mini bosses.
How many stages are there?
Five, each with its own enemies and final boss. Winning a stage opens the next one, and a harder curse mode appears after your first win.
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