How to play
EGG WARS is a first-person shooter where everyone is an egg, made to look like stop-motion clay, with fingerprints and lumps in the surface and a slightly jerky, hand-animated look. The game drops you straight into a match. It is a free-for-all: you against five bots, and every egg is against every other egg.
Move with W A S D and aim with the mouse; click once on the game to lock the pointer. Click to shoot, Space jumps and R reloads. Swap weapons with 1-3, Q or the mouse wheel, and hold the right mouse button to scope in with the Whisk. Tab shows the scoreboard and M opens the menu. On a phone, the left thumb stick moves, dragging on the right side looks around, and there are FIRE, JUMP, R, SWAP and SCOPE buttons.
A match is won by the first egg to 15 cracks, or by whoever leads when the 2:30 clock runs out; if two eggs have the same number of cracks, the one cracked fewer times ranks higher. Every egg has 100 health, and your shell visibly cracks as you take damage. When you are cracked you come back about two and a half seconds later. After the match you see the results and the XP you earned, and the next match starts.
The arena is a walled clay diorama set on a tabletop, with blocks, ledges and towers laid out the same way in all four corners around a stepped block in the middle.
Tips and strategy
- Go for the yolk. A shot to the top of the egg is a YOLKSHOT and does double damage. With the Whisk, a yolkshot cracks an egg in one hit; a body shot leaves it on 10 health.
- Stand still to aim, move to dodge. Shots spread twice as wide while you are in the air, and the Scrambler and the unscoped Whisk also spread more while you are walking. Strafe between fights, but plant your feet for the shots that matter.
- Break off to heal. If you go five seconds without being hit, your shell mends quickly on its own. Ducking behind a block is often better than trading shots on low health.
- Pick the right gun. The Yolker, a shotgun, wins close fights round corners, but its pellets lose power with distance. The Whisk rewards patience at long range, and its scope cuts its spread even further. Swap to suit where the fight is.
- Use the spawn shield. For a second and a half after you come back you flicker and cannot be hurt. You also come back at the spot furthest from your enemies.
- Watch the scoreboard. Near the end, cracking the leader matters more than padding your own score.
What's in it
Three weapons. The Scrambler is the starting automatic, with 30 shots, 16 damage each and ten shots a second. The Yolker, unlocked at level 2, is a six-shell shotgun that fires eight pellets at once. The Whisk, unlocked at level 4, is a five-shot scoped sniper that hits for 90.
Six shell colours: Farm White, Free Range (level 2), Speckled (level 3), Robin (level 4), Plum (level 6) and Golden (level 8). Three hats: a Party Cone (level 3), a Bowler (level 5) and a Beanie (level 7).
The bots have egg names such as Sir Yolksalot, Eggbert, Shelly and Benedict, and they get better as your level rises until level 10, so the game stays a fair fight. There is a kill feed, streak call-outs (DOUBLE CRACK, OMELETTE!, FRITTATA FRENZY and EGGSTINCTION for 2, 3, 5 and 8 cracks in a row), a slow-motion finish and a results screen.
From the menu you can also host an online room. You get a 4-letter code, and friends who type it in under JOIN play in your match, with your game running the bots and the clock.
Behind the game
Every shot is a straight line traced from the eye out to the gun's range, and the first egg it meets takes the damage. Whether it is a yolkshot depends on how high on the egg the line lands. The shotgun traces all eight pellets at once and adds up the damage, so a point-blank blast to the head is devastating while a long-range one barely scratches.
XP comes from two places. Each crack is worth 100, with 25 more for a yolkshot, and your finishing place adds a bonus: 400 for first, 250 for second, 150 for third and 75 for anywhere else. Each level needs 300 more XP than the last.
The clay look is all done in the shader: a fingerprint pattern, lumpy bumps and a mottled tint on every surface, a slight jitter that updates at 12 frames a second like stop-motion, and cracks drawn onto each egg as it loses health.
Questions
Do I need an account?
No. Your XP, level, wins, unlocks, shell colour and hat are saved in your browser.
How do I unlock the other guns?
Earn XP by playing. The Yolker unlocks at level 2 and the Whisk at level 4.
Can I play on a phone?
Yes. On a touch screen the game shows a thumb stick and buttons for firing, jumping, reloading, swapping and scoping. Turn the phone sideways.
Can I talk to other players online?
No. There is no chat. Online rooms are private and only people with your 4-letter code can join.
Is it violent?
It is a cartoon shooter, but the targets are clay eggs. They crack and break apart; there is no blood.
How do I open the menu?
Press M during a match.