It seems like a tough job, being a Void Hunter, but initially it's not as difficult as it looks.  A Void Hunter is a warrior with near-endless potential, starting off just a bit better than "capable" and working their way up to a screen-shaking magical inferno of monster-destroying carnage.  It's the standard Vampire Survivors-style arcade spectacle, but no less satisfying for being a familiar cycle of eternal power-ups both during the action and between rounds.

Soulstone Survivors is, as the Survivors in the title implies, the newest entry in its as-yet-nameless genre.  The basic structure is the same as all of this type of game: you start in the middle of an arena as a small handful of scrub enemies wander their way in, and then pick them off and grab the tasty experience-gems they leave behind.  Get enough gems and you earn a level, with the reward being to choose one upgrade from a selection of three.  All the upgrades are useful in one way or another, but after a few games you get the feel for which ones work best for your play-style, whether that be movement speed, heavy damage, faster skill cooldowns and of course more powerful weaponry to take out the ever-growing horde.  Once the run ends you spend whatever currency may have dropped on permanent upgrades, then start the next round just a little bit stronger than the one before.

While Soulstone Survivors doesn't change the basics of the formula at all, there's more than enough going on with its various systems to set it apart.  The basic gameplay structure is that you choose one of five levels, each an arena with a few walls, trees or other obstacles far enough apart from each other to leave plenty of open room.  Attacks happen automatically when their cooldown is over, some of which you'll need to aim manually and others that auto-target where they'll go, and dashing gets you away from trouble fast.  Each defeated enemy gets added to the kill-counter, and taking out enough of them summons a Lord of the Void.  Defeat all five and you've beaten the level, which opens up new options to do it again, but harder.

Between one run and the next you've got a few options among the various tabs of the game menu.  The initial starting character is soon joined by several others, each with different weapons, stat modifiers and upgrade options.  One character may draw mostly aimed attacks while another is magic-focused, and the Hound Master throws bombs and has a doggy AI companion.  Completing levels with each character earns Prestige, which will have more rewards later but currently only offers access to a second weapon that can be crafted on the Blacksmith tab.  Runes grant special abilities, but need to be earned by completing achievements that require actual effort to attain, and the Skill Tree tab lets you spend the soul gems earned in the level on permanent stat boosts that apply to all characters.

Once you've got a good character and some stat boosts, Soulstone Survivors starts opening up properly.  Initially only the desert area is open, but once you can beat one level it's easy enough to beat them all, at which point the real difficulty curve kicks in.  The curse options throw new wrinkles into each level, such as more suicide-goblins carrying explosive barrels, more and tougher elite enemies, and eventually multi-boss encounters.  Beating the level then offers the chance to quit or go on to the next one, assuming you've unlocked the same difficulty level for it, where the monsters just keep on getting stronger to keep pace with how ludicrously overpowered your hero has become.  The initial areas can feel easy, but once there are good curses in place, the challenge kicks in nicely.

Whether playing a single level or chasing after a string of them, the upgrades pile one on top of the other until the screen is covered in attack effects and damage numbers.  Player upgrades come in the form of larger area of attack, triggering each ability multiple times per activation, stronger power and a dizzying array of enemy debuffs.  Poison, burn and bleed are just the start -- there are upgrades that give a chance to inflict a different kind of debuff when one takes effect -- and of course everything stacks.  Soulstone Survivors also does something interesting with the order of its upgrades, in that weapons show up every few levels and the others will be for effects and abilities.  Even once you've gotten the maximum of six weapons you can still choose a new one, swapping one that might not be performing up to expectations for something you wish had shown up earlier in the run.

While there's a good amount of content to chase after so far, Soulstone Survivors is Early Access and has more on the way.  More runes, weapons and abilities are slated for future updates, and hopefully one will address my only real complaint with the game.  Each level may look different, but the enemy waves all feel the same, starting off with goblins and then the ogres and mages arrive, then later on snakes and spiders.  Play a few levels and you'll know what's next every time, with the core gameplay loop being to experiment with different ways to take out the same waves in the same order ever time.  Less troublesome but could still use a bit of tweaking, spells can get overly-pyrotechnic when buffed beyond reason.  Once you're over level 200 and have applied enough speed and size upgrades, the constant flashing can easily lead to a headache even for people who love a good lightshow.

Still, that's what Early Access is for, to knock the rough edges off and expand the game to its full potential.  When things kick off hard with multiple bosses each with a couple million HP it doesn't matter how many levels you've packed on, it's time to start paying attention if you want to survive.  Each level-up comes with an interesting choice to make and a particularly nice feature is auto-leveling is turned off by default so you can choose when to take the upgrade rather than have it interrupt the action.  The levels stack as well, and it's just incredibly satisfying to see the changes when you cash in ten at once.  The action also has a great flow to it, requiring constant dashing to get out of trouble as the red targets on the arena floor telegraph where the next major attacks will be.  When everything is in place and the skills work together, it's easy to sink into the battle's rhythm, dashing and aiming and running away when necessary, harvesting gems and keeping an eye out for the next level's upgrade.  And then the run is over and it's time to pick up a few upgrades, and then attack Soulstone Survivors' dungeons again on the theory that the next run will go even better.

https://www.anrdoezrs.net/links/3607085/type/dlg/sid/UUhgUeUpU8691/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzzP5qbYrrQ