How to play Hexwing
Hexwing is a one-on-one shooter played in the browser. You fly a wand or a plane at the bottom of the arena; your opponent is at the top. Each of you sees the arena from your own end. A match is 90 seconds, or until one vessel is out of health.
Controls
The pad at the bottom right is a small map of your half of the arena: where your finger is on it is where your vessel goes. Prefer a stick? The Profile tab switches the pad to stick mode, and a flip button puts the pad on the left and the buttons on the right. Dragging on the arena itself also moves you there.
Your vessel follows the pointer at the same top speed as touch, so neither input is faster. Left button fires the selected weapon while held, right button uses the first special (Q on the keyboard fires the second).
WASD or the arrows move, 1–3 fire a weapon (hold to keep firing), Space holds fire on the selected one, Shift or E uses the first special and Q the second, Z / X / C tilt your aim left, centre and right.
Weapons and firing
- Three weapon slots plus two specials. Fill them from your arsenal on the Loadout tab — one loadout for PvP and the Gauntlet alike; every ability there is a projectile with its own damage, volley, speed, size, flight pattern and look.
- Tap a weapon to fire it. There is no fire button: each weapon slot is its own. Hold a slot and it keeps firing; after a second auto-fire switches on and stays on by itself — the slot turns gold — and for your next matches; tap the lit weapon to stop.
- Heavy and siege shells charge while you hold their slot by hand and hit up to half again as hard on release; auto-fire sends them uncharged the moment they are ready.
- Tilt: the line above the buttons leans your aim 30°, 45° or 65° to either side, so you can shoot around corners and past mirror walls.
- The specials are your loadout's last two slots: big moves — a nova, a barrage, a wall, a rain, orbiting shields, a counter-mirror, a gravity well, a time stop, a cloak and more. The first special has three uses a match and the second one use; the slots say which is which as you load them, and each SPECIAL button shows its uses as pips. In the Gauntlet every boss you kill refills both.
The arena
Every match plays in one of 100 arenas. Mirror walls reflect shots (a shot fired straight at one comes straight back at you), blockers stop them, wall strips on the borders bounce them, and hazards strike whoever stands in their zone. Power-up pods drift by: touch one and a wing gun fires alongside your main weapon for a while.
2D or 3D
Offline. Installed as an app (Add to Home Screen, or the install button), Hexwing keeps every file the Gauntlet and the practice bot need, so both play with no connection at all; what a run or a match earned is recorded — relics and skins rolled — the next time the app is online. PvP needs a connection.
Hexwing has two renderers of the same game: a crisp 2D top-down view and a 3D view with a camera behind your vessel. Switch on the Profile tab, on the sign-in screen, or mid-match with the pill in the battle's corner; the fight never stops. A 2D player and a 3D player can duel each other — the simulation is identical, only the drawing differs.
Practice, then people
Practice vs bot fights an AI running the same rules in your browser. Its level goes up every time you beat it and down when it beats you, and with level it reacts faster, sees further, dodges more and brings a stronger loadout. When you are ready, Find a match pairs you with another player, peer to peer.
The Gauntlet: play alone
On the Play tab, The Gauntlet is an endless top-down run for one player — or two: co-op pairs you with anyone in the world or with a friend in a private room, and a downed pilot comes back when the next boss falls. The world scrolls under you and is generated as you fly — buildings you pass over, walls that stop shots and shoulder you aside, turrets on the rooftops, enemies streaming in — and every sector ends in a huge boss that unfolds and folds: open, its parts are out and vulnerable; closed, it is an armoured mass that sweeps and spirals. The Arcane Descent puts you in the wand against magic and medieval monsters through the Ruined Keep, the Cursed Forest, the Drowned Crypt and the Sky Bridge. The Void Run puts you in the plane against flying and space enemies through Neon City, the Orbital Yard, the Asteroid Belt and the Dune Outpost. It gets faster and harder the further you go; each sector is a new area. Die and the run ends, or bank it in the calm after a boss. Relics — abilities with specials found nowhere else — and Gauntlet skins, always glowing or metallic, drop only here. Every boss killed also offers a choice of three boons — protection, firepower or progress — kept for the rest of that run.
Winning unlocks abilities
Beating the bot unlocks two base abilities; beating a player unlocks six. A loss or a draw unlocks nothing. Each unlock prefers an ability you do not own yet, so an arsenal fills in without repeats. In the Forge, two different abilities merge into a new one, three into a triple, and 3 % of merges roll a stronger Prime. Merging spends the units, so you have to win them back — see the abilities.
Skins
Wins also drop vessel skins now and then: generated finishes — painted, metallic, glowing, glass — with their own colours, pattern and emblem, drawn the same way in 2D and 3D. Equip them on the Profile tab.
Hexwing is free, in the browser, no download.
Play Hexwing now