About Bowfall
Bowfall is a free ragdoll archer game for the browser with a thirty-level campaign across six worlds. You are a stick-figure archer with a bow; across the field, bot archers arrive one wave at a time and shoot back. Press anywhere and drag away from where you want the arrow to go, as if pulling a bowstring, and let go. Every archer is a physics ragdoll held up by its own muscles, so a hit staggers it, a heavy hit knocks it flat, and the arrows stay stuck wherever they landed.
The campaign starts in Greenfold Meadow and moves through the Ashkar Dunes, where a steady wind bends every arrow, Frostlake, where bots stand on ice floes over black water and frost archers freeze you solid, the Cinder Ashlands, where basalt pillars rise out of lava and a well-placed bomb knocks a bot straight in, Murkwater Marsh, foggy and rain-soaked with stumps as the only dry ground and venom archers in the dark, and Skyhold, floating islands with gusts that change direction and a very long drop. Each world has five levels and ends with its own boss: the Meadow Giant, the Sand Colossus, the Frost King, the Magma Brute, the Bog Hag and the Sky Warden. Levels are rated one to three stars by how much health you finish with.
Headshots do two and a half times the damage. Each shot costs stamina, which comes back over time, and flying apples cross the sky now and then: shoot a red one for health, a green one for stamina, a gold one for both. Jump to hop over incoming arrows. Waves bring scouts, archers, armoured knights whose chest plates deflect ordinary arrows, long-range snipers, brutes, and a giant every fifth wave.
Kills earn skulls, which you spend in the shop between waves or at any time from the pause menu. Nine arrow types: wood, heavy, triple, fire, ice, poison, bomb, electric and ghost, each with its own stamina cost and behaviour, and five upgrades for health, stamina, power, recovery and hide. Skulls and unlocks are saved in your browser, and your best run goes to the public Top 10.
Two can play on one keyboard. Duel is first to three rounds with Player 1 on WASD and Player 2 on the arrow keys; Co-op puts a mouse archer and a keyboard archer side by side against the waves. It is an original TabSpawn game drawn on a canvas with a day-to-night sky, parallax hills, slow motion on kills and synthesised sound.
How to play
- Press anywhere on the field and drag away from your target, like pulling back a bowstring. The dotted line previews the first part of the flight; further means harder.
- Let go to loose the arrow. Aim for the head: headshots deal two and a half times the damage.
- Watch your stamina bar: every shot costs some, and it refills over time. Shoot green or gold apples to top it up, red or gold apples for health.
- Read each world: the wind flag bends arrows in the dunes and in Skyhold, ice floes, stumps and islands sit at different heights, and lava, deep water and the long drop finish anyone knocked in, including you.
- Press Space or the jump button to hop over an incoming arrow. Armoured knights need headshots, bombs, electric or ghost arrows.
- Spend skulls in the shop (B, or from the pause menu) on new arrow types and upgrades. Keys 1 to 9 switch arrows mid-fight.
Controls
| Drag and release | Aim and shoot (solo and co-op player 1) |
|---|---|
| Space | Jump |
| 1 to 9 | Switch arrow type |
| B | Open the shop |
| P / Esc | Pause |
| A D, hold W, S or Left Shift | Player 1 in duel and co-op: aim, draw and release, jump |
| Left Right, hold Up, Down or Right Shift | Player 2: aim, draw and release, jump |
| M | Sound on or off |
Tips
- A high, slow arrow lands on a bot standing on a hill; a flat, hard one is for enemies on level ground. Read the ground before you draw.
- Ice freezes a bot for four seconds and electric stuns everyone standing close. Freeze the sniper, then take the headshot at leisure.
- Bombs hurt you too if the blast is close. Save them for the giant and for knights.