Play

How surgio works

You start weak and you spend about ten minutes getting strong. This page covers where score comes from, what levels actually give you, and the mistakes that end most early runs.

The loop

Break shapes for score. Spend the score on levels and stat points. Don't die to anyone who has been doing it longer than you. That's the whole game.

There is no timer and no round. You join, you grow, and the run ends when someone kills you.

Shapes are your income. They don't shoot back, and they're worth more the harder they are to break.

ShapeWhat it isWorth farming?
SquareSmall, yellow, everywhere.Early only. They stop mattering fast.
TriangleRed, tougher, worth more.Yes, all game.
PentagonBlue, chunky, slow to break.Yes. This is most of a good run.
Alpha pentagonThe huge one. Takes real damage to drop.Yes, if you can finish it.
CrasherPink, and it chases you. Not a shape, a threat.Only if you win the trade.

Don't ram shapes to kill them. Every shape damages you while you're touching it, and a tough one takes long enough to break that it can grind through most of your health bar at low level. Shoot them instead. Ramming is a build you commit to later, not a shortcut now.

Levels, and what they actually buy

Score raises your level on its own. Levels do two separate things and it helps to keep them apart.

LevelScore neededWhat happens
153,490First class choice. You stop being a Recruit.
3012,205Second class choice. This one defines the run.
4525,000Final class choice, and the level cap.

You get 14 stat points by level 15, 28 by level 30, and 33 at level 45. Notice that last stretch. Levels 30 to 45 cost more than half your remaining score and only give you five more points. You do it for the class, not the stats.

Don't spread your points

Putting a little into everything gives you a tank that does nothing well. Pick the two stats your class is built around, push those, then fill in survivability.

An example. If you're heading for a sniper class, bullet damage and penetration are the whole point. A Vantage that put points into body damage is a worse sniper and still a bad rammer. If you're heading for a rammer it's the other way round, and bullet stats are wasted entirely.

Staying alive long enough for it to matter

Reaching level 45 takes about ten minutes of farming. Almost nobody gets it in one clean run, because you're sharing the arena with people who would rather take your score than earn their own.

Read the field before you commit

A tank sitting still on a cluster of pentagons is farming and probably isn't watching. A tank moving in a straight line is travelling. A tank circling you at a fixed distance has already decided to fight you. That last one is the dangerous one. The tell is that the distance stops changing.

Don't fight while you're behind

Health regenerates, but only after a few seconds without being hit. That makes disengaging a real move with a real payoff. Grinding out a fight at 30% health against someone at 80% just donates your run to them. Break contact, heal, come back.

Stay out of corners

The arena edge isn't cover. Backing into it removes the one direction you need, which is away. Anyone who understands that will push you there on purpose. Keep open ground behind you.

Where to go next

The class tree

All three tiers, what each branch is for, and which ones punish a mistake hardest.

Modes and bosses

Free-for-all against team modes, how bases work, and what each boss does before it kills you.