How to Play Crashendo

Crashendo is a push-your-luck roguelike. A multiplier climbs, you choose when to Lock, and you build a run of Mods that bend the rules.

A Play

1. Choose a stake. Use the slider, the quick buttons or ↑/↓. By default you can stake up to 50% of your bankroll.
2. Launch. The multiplier starts at 1.00x and climbs faster and faster.
3. Lock to cash out your stake × the multiplier, or keep waiting for more.
4. If it crashes before you Lock, the stake is gone.

Every Play has a hidden crash point. Most Plays crash early and a few run very high, and about 2% crash instantly at 1.00x. As the run goes on, “crash pressure” makes shorter Plays more likely. The colours of the graph (Calm, Building, Hot, Extreme, and beyond) show how far you have pushed it.

Sets and targets

A run is 8 Sets. Each Set has a score target and a limited number of Plays:

Score counts your profit (payout minus stake), so tiny 1.01x Locks don’t help much. If you run out of Plays below the target, or your bankroll drops below the $1 minimum stake, the run is over.

Endless mode

Win a run with a Kit and you unlock Endless for that Kit. You play the same 8 Sets, then new ones keep coming, each about 6× harder than the last, with a Finale every four Sets, until you crash out. Clearing Set 8 still counts as a win, and every Endless Set after it pays 12 Records. Your best Endless run for each Kit is shown on the New Run screen.

The shop

After each Play the shop opens. It offers 2 Mods, 1 Trick and 1 Tuning, and you can reroll it for $20 (the price goes up each time).

• Mods are passive and last the whole run. You start with 4 Mod slots (up to 8). Stackable Mods can be owned more than once, and the Upgrade Set reward levels a Mod up to level 3. Selling refunds 50%.
• Mods come in four rarities: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Legendary. Rarer Mods turn up more often later in the run and with more Luck.
• Tricks are one-shot. You have 3 Trick slots; press 1–6 to use them. Some Kits and rewards add more slots.
• Tunings change the rules for the rest of the Set.

Clearing a Set

Hitting the target doesn’t end the Set. You can Bank Set right away (the button in the target panel, or C) for an Early bonus on the next Set: +1 Luck per unused Play for that whole Set, plus a bonus Play if you had 2 or more left. Or Keep Playing toward the stretch goals: Silver at 1.75× the target (+1 reward choice, +1 Luck for the rest of the run, +1 Record) and Gold at 3× the target (+1 reward choice, +1 extra pick, +1 Luck for the rest of the run, +2 Records) and Diamond at 5× the target (+1 reward choice, +1 extra pick, +1 Luck for the rest of the run, +4 Records). When a Set clears you pick from 3 or more Set Rewards, such as an extra Mod slot or a Mod upgrade. Your bankroll then resets to the highest mark you reached (the target, Silver, Gold or Diamond): anything past it doesn’t carry into the next Set, so it pays to push for the next tier rather than pile up cash.

Conditions, Finales and Events

• Set Conditions twist the rules on Sets 3, 5, 6 and 7.
• Sets 4 and 8 are Finales, each with its own rule.
• The first Set of a run has no Events. After that, every Play has a 20% chance of a surprise Flash Event (Random Events), revealed before you stake and lasting just that Play. Each can be good or bad (about 50/50, shifted by Luck), and a bad one pays a Bounty (+1 Luck, +2 Records) once its Play ends.

Luck

Luck is a run stat shown in the top bar. Kits, Mods, Tricks, Tunings, rewards and stretch goals can change it, and it usually grows over a run. Hover it to see your odds of reaching 2x, 10x and 100x.

• Tailwind: each point of Luck makes big multipliers more common. With +10 Luck a Play reaches 10x about 1.7 times as often, and 100x almost 3 times as often. You’ll see TAILWIND when a lucky Play passes 10x, 100x or 1000x. Later Sets push back with a little crash pressure.
• Rarer Mods: each point of Luck makes Uncommon, Rare and Legendary Mods more common in the shop.
• Lucky Breaks: with positive Luck, a Play that would crash below 3x has a 5% chance per point of Luck (up to 75%) to re-roll its crash point. When that saves a Play, you’ll see a Lucky Break.
• Luck also makes instant crashes rarer and good Random Events more likely. Negative Luck does the reverse.

Records, Challenges and unlocks

Every run earns Records, win or lose:

• 5 for playing, plus Records for every Set you clear: 10 for Set 1, 15 for Set 2, and 5 more for each Set after that.
• 60 for winning the run, and 2 for every doubling of your best Lock (2x, 4x, 8x…).
• Extra for stretch goals, for Bounties, and for completing Challenges.

Spend Records in the Library to unlock new Mods, Tricks, Tunings, Kits, Conditions, Finales, soundtracks, and cosmetic line styles and backgrounds (equip those from the Library or Settings). Some things can only be unlocked by completing a Challenge: those have no Record price, and each Challenge is also a Steam Achievement. Anything you have just unlocked is marked NEW in the Library until you open it.

Backstage upgrades

Records also buy permanent Backstage upgrades, found just under New Run on the title screen (it lights up when you can afford one). Each upgrade makes every future run a little stronger, and higher ranks cost more:

Controls

Tips

• Early Sets are forgiving. Use them to find a build, not to chase 50x.
• Mods in the same family often combine well: check the family lists on each Mod page.
• Look at the Random Event before staking on the last Play. A good one is the time to push; a bad one is the time to play safe.
• Once the target is met, a big lead is better spent chasing Silver or Gold than banked: cash above the tier you reach is trimmed when the Set clears.
• Spend spare Records Backstage. Seed Money and Crash Pad make the first Sets far more forgiving.
• Stake Lock and Auto Lock are there to take the busywork out of a strategy you trust.