About Sword Champion
One health pool is what makes it a gauntlet
Six hearts, five stages, and only two heals - at the start of stage three and stage five, worth two hearts each.
That is what turns five short games into one long one. Winning stage two with one heart left is a materially worse position than winning it with four, and the run remembers. A player who plays the duel carelessly because it is early has already lost the arena.
It also means the stages cannot be practised in isolation from inside the game, which is precisely why the other twenty-nine games exist.
Every stage has a clock, and time left is score
Stage limits run from 30 seconds for the reaction test to 60 for the champion. Finishing early converts every remaining second into 60 points.
That is a substantial number - clearing the duel in 25 seconds of a 45-second limit is worth 1,200 points on top of the 1,200 for clearing it at all. It means pressing forward is a genuine option rather than always being the reckless one.
The exception is stage four, the arena, where the clock running out is the win condition rather than a failure. Surviving is the objective there, so there is nothing to rush.
What each stage is actually testing
The Duel is Sword Duel Arena compressed: one opponent, six health, and a punish window you have to find. The Eye is Blade Reflex: twelve targets, each appearing at a random moment, each costing a heart if missed.
The Line is Castle Blade Defense in miniature: twenty chargers, none of which may cross a marked line, with a 1,500-point bonus if none do. The Arena is Blade Survivor: forty-five seconds in an open field.
The Champion is all four together - waves and a duelling boss in the same arena, with sixty seconds to finish it.
How to play
- Press Start. Each stage announces itself and what it wants.
- Stage 1, the Duel: beat one opponent. Stage 2, the Eye: strike twelve targets as they appear.
- Stage 3, the Line: stop twenty chargers before they cross the marked line.
- Stage 4, the Arena: survive forty-five seconds in an open field.
- Stage 5, the Champion: everything at once, in sixty seconds.
- Health carries across all five and is restored twice, two points each time.
Controls
| Where | What to do |
|---|---|
| Move | WASD or arrow keys - vertical movement in stages 4 and 5 |
| Aim | Mouse position in the top-down stages |
| Light attack | Space, J, or click |
| Heavy attack | K |
| Guard / parry | Hold Shift |
| Dodge | Z |
| Touch | Guard, Dodge and Attack buttons; drag to aim |
Scoring
These are the point values this game awards, before the combo multiplier is applied where it uses one. Hit quality changes the figure: a strike at the centre of the correct moment is worth substantially more than one at the edge of it.
Tips
- Play the early stages carefully. Health carries and there are only two heals.
- Time left is worth 60 points a second, so finishing early is genuinely worth risk.
- Stage four is a survival timer - there is nothing to rush there.
- The Line pays 1,500 if nothing gets through. That is worth more than clearing it fast.
- In the Eye, do not anticipate. A wasted swing costs a target and the target costs a heart.
- The Champion stage is waves and a boss together. Deal with the waves first.
Common mistakes
- Trading hits in stage one because it is early and feels low-stakes.
- Rushing stage four, where the clock running out is the win condition.
- Letting chargers through in stage three to save time, which forfeits a 1,500-point bonus.
- Arriving at the Champion with two hearts because the earlier stages were played fast.
Features
- Five stages sampling every discipline on the site
- A single health pool carried across all of them, restored only twice
- A per-stage clock, with remaining time converted into score
- A duel, a reaction test, a defensive hold, an arena survival and a combined finale
- Stage pips showing the whole run's progress at a glance
- A distinct win condition per stage rather than one repeated objective
