NovaSmash

Nova Smash is a pixel-art home-run contest: build damage on a void sack during a timed rally, then convert that damage into distance once the arena opens up. The Voidsack — a spiked, living weight suspended in a floating containment cage somewhere in the Riftlands.

How a run works

Rally — 25 seconds. The containment barrier holds and the floor spans the full arena. Seven pegs hang mid-cage like pinball bumpers: they reflect the Voidsack and restore its speed on contact, so a good peg run keeps a combo alive while you reposition. Every wall and ceiling bounce feeds the Nova meter.

Smash Time — 12 seconds. The barrier shatters and the outer floor retracts to a narrow central platform. From here, any hit that carries the Voidsack out of the arena becomes the launch. Anything less, and it falls.

Flight. Accumulated damage becomes launch power, setting your top speed for the rest of the run. Climb through three altitude lanes — Low, Mid, High — spending a limited Aether reserve on lift and speed, and route through rune rings, slipstream corridors, and warp gates on the way down. A flight ends when it stalls.

Fighters

Fighter	Power	Speed	Swing
Vanguard	●●●○○	●●●○○	●●●○○
Breaker	●●●●●	●○○○○	●●○○○
Zephyr	●●○○○	●●●●●	●●●●●

Vanguard is the baseline build: two jumps, a standard blade, nothing surprising. Breaker hits harder and knocks the Voidsack further, at the cost of foot speed and a slower swing — one clean connection does most of the work. Zephyr trades power for a third jump and the fastest blade in the cage, built for stacking hits rather than landing one big one.

Items

Seven deployables cycle through the cage over a run, and none of them replace your blade. The Neon Lasso hooks the Voidsack from range and whips it back out along your facing. The Storm Pylon plants itself and juggles the sack automatically whenever it drifts close. The Comet Cannon charges on hold and fires a ranged blast on release.

Two ladders

Rift Run uses your saved profile — upgrades, unlocked items, and XP all apply — on a freshly generated course each time. Daily Smash deals everyone the same course, the same fighter, and the same item pool once per day, drawn from the date. No profile applies and no XP is earned: it's a level field, not a grind.

Ranks

Runs are graded on distance: D, C, B, A, S, SS, SSS, and EX. EX sits at 150 km.

Keyboard, gamepad, and touch are all supported controls.