Hollowmere
The bell is cracked. The dead do not sleep.
Top-down Souls-like · 2D
Screenshots
Every image here is a capture from the current build. Pick one to see it large.
Locked on to the Hollow ShepherdThe game
About Hollowmere
The Vale of Hollowmere was a pilgrim kingdom built around the Sunken Cathedral, home of a great bell whose toll kept the dead asleep. When the bell cracked, the dead woke hollow, the land rotted in rings outward from the cathedral, and the four Wardens who guarded its seals were twisted into monsters.
You are an Unlit, a hollowed pilgrim who wakes at the edge of the Vale still carrying a spark. Claim a Sigil from each of the four corrupted guardians and the cathedral gate opens, and you can face the one who cracked the bell. The story is told through item descriptions, boss titles and shrine names, never cutscenes.
Hollowmere comes with Hollowmere Online, its 3D online counterpart. Buy either one for $4.99 and you get both.
- 5
- biomes, no loading screens
- 5
- two-phase bosses
- 10
- melee weapons
- 5
- ranged weapons
- 14
- ammo types
- 14
- Lantern Shrines
In depth
How it works
The systems that make Hollowmere what it is.
Every swing is a commitment
Attacks, rolls and flasks all cost stamina or time. Mashing gets you killed. Reading the enemy gets you through. Your dodge roll has invincibility frames, so you roll through an attack, not away from it.
- Lock-on frames you and your target together and aims your shots.
- Backstabs from behind deal extra damage, and daggers and rapiers deal far more.
- Break a boss's poise and you get a critical hit.
- Every enemy and boss attack is telegraphed by a wind-up, a red ground marker or an aim line. If you got hit, you could have seen it coming.
Embers, shrines and death
Embers are the only currency. Enemies and bosses drop them, and you spend them on levels.
Lantern Shrines are checkpoints. Resting heals you, refills your flasks, brings every regular enemy back, saves the game and lets you level up or travel to any shrine you've lit.
When you die, every Ember you carry stays where you fell. Get back there and touch them to take them back. Die again on the way and they're gone.
Build what you find
Four stats start at 10: Vigor (health), Endurance (stamina), Strength and Dexterity. Weapons scale from E to A with the stats they favour. A few of the ten melee weapons:
| Weapon | Damage | Scaling | Special |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rusted Shortsword | 18 | Str D / Dex D | Balanced all-rounder you start with |
| Hunter's Dagger | 11 | Dex B | Backstab ×3.0, builds bleed |
| Pilgrim Spear | 24 | Dex C | Thrust; heavy attack is a lunge |
| Grave Warhammer | 52 | Str A | Heavy slams the ground in a shockwave |
| Duelist Rapier | 16 | Dex A | Thrust pierces through enemies |
| Reaper's Scythe | 30 | Dex B / Str D | Huge sweep, 6% lifesteal, builds frost |
Bows, cannons and fourteen kinds of ammo
Five ranged weapons sit beside your melee weapon: the Hunting Shortbow, the Warden Longbow (hold to charge; a full charge pierces), the Heavy Crossbow, the Hand Cannon (huge knockback, and the recoil pushes you back) and the Bone Blowpipe.
Fourteen ammo types change what each one does: poison, fire, frost and broadhead arrows; silver bolts that pierce every enemy and blast bolts that explode; scatter shot and firebombs for the cannon; venom and paralysis darts for the blowpipe.
Hits build up five status effects: Poison, Burn, Bleed, Frost and Stun. Each region's creatures resist their own element.
Five bosses
Each boss waits in a ringed arena behind a fog wall and changes its moveset at half health.
- The Hollow Shepherd, Keeper of the Last Flock, in Ashfield. The teacher: every attack is read from his body, and his delayed slam punishes anyone who rolls too early.
- Mother Rot in Mirewood.
- The Pale Warden in Frostspire Peaks.
- The Cinder Wyrm in Emberdeep Caverns.
- Saint Orren, the Bell-Keeper, in the Sunken Cathedral.
Learning a fight? Turn boss attack markers to Full in the pause menu to see every red warning zone.
One continent
The Vale is one round continent with no loading screens. Mountain ridges split it into four regions around the sealed cathedral, and each ridge has one gate opened by a boss's Sigil:
- Ashfield Meadows: burnt farmland and falling ash.
- Mirewood: a drowned forest where the bog water poisons you.
- Frostspire Peaks: snowfields and ruined watchtowers.
- Emberdeep Caverns: pitch-dark caves lit only by lava and your own light.
- The Sunken Cathedral: a flooded holy city at the centre.
A one-way shortcut loops Emberdeep back to Ashfield, Souls-style.
Controls
How it plays
Every Solar System game works with a controller. Keyboard and mouse work too.
| Action | Controller | Keyboard |
|---|---|---|
| Move / aim | Left stick / right stick | WASD / mouse |
| Light / heavy attack | RB / RT | Left / right mouse |
| Fire ranged weapon | LB or LT | F |
| Roll / sprint | Tap B / hold B | Space / Shift |
| Lock on | R3 | Q or middle mouse |
| Health / mana flask | X / Y | 1 / 2 |
| Interact | A | E |
| Map | View | M |