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 while held, right button uses the special.
WASD or the arrows move, Space fires, Shift or E uses the special, 1–3 pick a weapon, Z / X / C tilt your aim left, centre and right.
Weapons and firing
- Three weapon slots plus a special. Fill them from your arsenal on the Loadout tab; every ability there is a projectile with its own damage, volley, speed, size, flight pattern and look.
- Hold FIRE to shoot the selected weapon. Hold it for a second and auto-fire switches on and stays on for your next matches; tap FIRE to stop.
- Heavy and siege shells charge while you hold FIRE 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 pad leans your aim up to 30° each way in three steps, so you can shoot around corners and past mirror walls.
- The special is your loadout's fourth slot: a big once-per-round move — a nova, a barrage, a wall, a rain, orbiting shields, a counter-mirror, a gravity well, a time stop, a cloak and more. You get three uses a round.
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
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.
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