DREADWAKE

What is Dreadwake?

Dreadwake is a free naval incremental defense game from developer ohagimochi, currently in development and playable in a desktop browser through an HTML5 build, with a Windows edition alongside it. A voyage starts with a modest ship, and the goal is to survive waves of sea creatures and convert each run's spoils into the next refit.

The ship fires automatically, which shifts the decisions elsewhere: which upgrades to buy, which artifacts to equip, and how deep to push. Two currencies split the planning. CASH pays for upgrades inside the current run, while GOLD survives the voyage and goes into permanent refits and research.

Weapons, armor, and the stern cabin each develop on their own track, so the hull reflects where the investment went. A player who pours everything into attack ends up with imposing weapons bolted to a fragile hull. Beneath the surface waits something considerably larger than the creatures met on the way down.

How to play

Combat unfolds in waves, and the ship keeps firing while the player manages the run. Minibosses appear every 10 waves and major bosses every 100, so the rhythm of a session is a steady climb punctuated by set-piece fights. Across 24 seas there are eight boss families, and later regions field stronger variants of the same lineages.

Boss encounters are built around survival first and punishment second. A submerged predator charges up from the depths, and tentacles can close around the ship; getting through means having a build that can absorb the pressure and hit back when the creature opens up.

Progress branches once a sea is cleared. Moving into new water raises the challenge, while revisiting familiar seas claims milestones and improves idle income. Research, automation options, and achievement medals unlock along the way. Once Wave 200 falls, RESTRICT becomes available: a run where all three ship ranks stay fixed at 1, stripping away the usual growth.

Controls

Input is light. The mouse handles the strategic layer: picking upgrades, equipping artifacts, and selecting a sea. The space bar sets sail and then toggles pause and resume. Q triggers Shock Blast, a named ability worth keeping ready for the moment a fight turns. Game speed is adjusted with the minus and plus buttons, though the range available depends on research progress, and fullscreen is recommended for play.

Progress is stored locally on the device. The browser and desktop editions keep separate saves, so moving between them requires the export and import options in Settings.

Idle time follows the same split. Research and any unlocked idle income keep accruing while the game is closed, but battles stop, and offline income is capped at 24 hours for any single absence. Long breaks still pay, just not indefinitely.

Tips for your first run

Treat the three development tracks as separate budgets. Weapons, armor, and the stern cabin grow independently, and a hull stacked only with offense will carry heavy guns on thin plating. Splitting attention early keeps a run alive long enough to reach the boss waves.

CASH is spent inside the run and does not survive it, so there is little reason to hoard it. GOLD is the opposite: it funds permanent refits and research and should be treated as the long-term lever. Dipping back into earlier seas is not a step backwards, since milestones and idle income improve from it.

• Buy upgrades with CASH during a run rather than saving it.
• Invest GOLD in permanent refits and research between voyages.
• Keep Shock Blast ready for the moment a boss becomes vulnerable.
• Expect a miniboss at every tenth wave and a major boss at every hundredth.
• Return to cleared seas to collect milestones and lift idle income.
• Use the speed buttons once research widens the available range.

Content and replayability

The build space is wide for a browser game. There are 34 artifacts to collect and 11 special armaments to develop, and the loadout system rewards mixing harpoons, broadsides, defensive gear, and support effects rather than maxing one category. Artifacts are equipped between fights, so builds can be reworked as new options appear.

Sea progression covers 24 regions guarded by eight boss families. Later regions restate earlier fights with stronger variants, which keeps familiar encounters relevant. Milestone chasing gives cleared water a purpose beyond nostalgia, feeding idle income that keeps working while the game is shut.

Beyond the main ladder, research and automation unlock over time, and achievement medals mark progress toward various goals. RESTRICT sits at the end of the climb as a constraint mode: all three ship ranks locked at 1 after Wave 200 is cleared, testing whether a build holds up without rank growth.

Presentation and performance

The look leans on pixel art, with ship visuals that change as weapons, armor, and the stern cabin are developed separately. A heavily armed, lightly armored hull should read as exactly that on screen. Visual implementation is procedural, and the project credits AI assistance for code, procedural visuals, and text under human direction, while stating that no generative AI service runs during play.

The HTML5 build opens in a desktop browser, and fullscreen is the recommended way to play. A separate Windows edition exists, and the two do not share saves.

Interface text is available in English, Japanese, German, Spanish, French, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, and Brazilian Portuguese, so the reading around upgrades and artifacts is accessible across a broad set of players. The game remains in development, and feedback is actively requested.

Who should play it

This suits players who like watching numbers climb and builds come together. The ship fires on its own, so reflexes are not the bottleneck; the interesting decisions are economic and structural, from CASH spending inside a run to GOLD allocation across voyages. Anyone who enjoys auto battlers, idle progression, and tinkering with loadouts will find the loop familiar.

The naval theme does real work. Harpoons, broadsides, submerged predators, and tentacles around the hull give the upgrade choices a shape, and the boss cadence of every 10 and every 100 waves supplies pacing without demanding constant input.

Players who want direct control of aiming or twitch combat should look elsewhere, since the ship handles its own firing. Those who prefer a finished product should weigh the in-development status. Bug reports are requested with browser or operating system, sea, and wave, which says a lot about how the build is being tuned.