Linkbreaker

Linkbreaker is a turn-based dungeon crawl on a 6 by 6 board. Drag a finger across three or more matching tiles to draw a chain, then let go. The chain resolves, and then every foe left on the board takes its turn.

HOW A MOVE WORKS

Tiles link side to side and diagonally. A longer chain has a bigger effect.

- Swords deal damage. A sword chain can run through foe tiles, and every foe in it is hit.
- Shields add armour. Armour takes blows before your health does, and wears down as it does.
- Potions heal you.
- Coins fill the gold bar. When it is full, the Forge opens and you take one upgrade.
- Each foe shows a countdown. At zero it attacks.

While your finger is on the board, a preview strip shows what the chain will do: the damage, the kills and the damage you will take back. When a run ends, the numbers that ended it were on screen the whole time.

LEVELS, SKILLS AND THE FORGE

Kills give XP. Each level-up offers three cards, drawn from 40 perks and 14 active skills. Skills fill up to four slots and recharge as you make moves. The Forge raises sword power, health, armour and other stats. Every card states its change before you take it, for example Sword power 4 → 5.

ZONES AND BOSSES

The dungeon changes every three depths. Each zone has its own stone and its own boss, which comes twice:

- The Upper Halls, depths 1 to 3: the Warden.
- The Cistern, depths 4 to 6: The Drowned, which heals when it attacks.
- The Ossuary, depths 7 to 9: The Abbot, which raises a Grub each time it attacks.
- The Furnace, depths 10 to 12: Kilnheart, whose attacks go straight past armour.
- The Roots, depths 13 to 15: Rootmother, which halves potion healing while it lives.
- The Abyss, depth 16 and below: all five bosses in turn, and no bottom.

Each zone after the first draws one of ten omens when you enter it. An omen is one rule that holds until the next zone, such as fewer potion tiles, slow foes acting a move sooner, or double gold from bosses. From depth 4, elite foes can carry one of six affixes: Plated, Swift, Festering, Thieving, Hardy or Savage. From depth 7, foe health, attack and numbers rise faster.

PRICE

There are no ads, energy, lives or timers. The Upper Halls are free, with both Warden fights and unlimited runs. One purchase unlocks the rest of the dungeon and all four skill slots, and there is nothing else to buy.

A run takes 5 to 15 minutes and is saved after every move, so you can close the app mid-run and carry on later. The end screen lists score, depth, kills, bosses killed, longest chain and the run's seed.