Merge Shoot Run!

Mission briefing

MERGE SHOOT RUN is a one-touch runner where your whole squad fires while you steer. You drag left and right to guide a crowd of little shooters down a lane, and they shoot on their own, constantly. Break the towers ahead and the riders on top drop down and run to join you. Steer onto the people scattered along the ground and they fall in behind. Your shooters carry numbers and merge into heavier ones as the crowd grows, so a big crowd is worth far more than the sum of its people. The decision the game is built around is what your firepower is worth spending on. Gates stand in your path with a number on them, and shooting a gate makes that number climb — run through and you collect whatever you charged it to. But every bullet you put into a gate is a bullet that never reached the tower behind it, and a gate you ignore stays in the red and takes people off you instead. There is no right answer, only the one you can afford. Crossing the finish line is not the end of it. The horde comes at you, and every attacker that reaches your crowd kills a shooter and cuts your damage with them, so a run you scraped through can still fall apart at the last. Win and you land in a new world — Lagoon, Sunset, Deep, Jade and on — with your winnings and a clean slate, each one its own build-up rather than one endless ramp. Every run pays whether you win or wipe, that cash buys fire rate and start power, and the first wipe of any run is free.

Field manual

Drag left/right to steer (the only control — they fire on their own) · steer onto people to pick them up · shoot towers to drop their riders · charge gates by shooting them, then drive through · your shooters merge as the crowd grows · hold the line after the finish · first wipe is free.

Launch orders: press Launch mission above and the game loads on this page itself — nothing downloads and no form stands between you and the first move. It is designed for a flexible screen and takes its orders from mouse, keyboard or touch, depending on the mission. It adapts to both upright and wide screens, so phones, tablets and desktops all frame it sensibly. If it offers a fullscreen control, use it — a fight this size deserves the whole screen.

Field notes for action operations

• First run is reconnaissance. Spend it learning where the danger actually spawns from instead of chasing a score — most action games announce their patterns honestly in the opening minute, then repeat them with worse manners.
• Movement is a defensive stat. A moving target at half health outlives a stationary one at full health in nearly every game on this board, so keep relocating between shots, strikes and reloads.
• Learn the exit before the entrance closes. In arena and chase games alike, the players who survive longest are the ones who noticed the second doorway while everyone else was watching the first.

Merge Shoot Run! — questions from the ranks

What does it cost to play Merge Shoot Run!?

Nothing at all. The mission is free from the first order to the last — no sign-up, no download, no paid tier guarding the good levels. The advertising around this page is what keeps the board free.

What sort of mission is Merge Shoot Run!?

Merge Shoot Run! is filed in our Action theatre. Like every operation on this board, it is a browser game — read the briefing above for the publisher's own account of what you are deploying into.

Can I run Merge Shoot Run! on a phone or tablet?

Yes. It plays in the browser on phones and tablets exactly as it does on a computer. It adapts to both upright and wide screens, so phones, tablets and desktops all frame it sensibly.

Do I have to install anything before playing?

No installation of any kind. Merge Shoot Run! is an HTML5 game: press the launch button and it loads on this page, and closing the tab leaves nothing behind.

After-action

Mission complete, or still pinned down? The full Action theatre is one click away — The main hall of the board: 469 operations where something is always moving, exploding, escaping or being chased. If a game has a pulse and a problem, it is probably filed here.